In 1947, India won her freedom from the British Raj. However, it came at a high price. The Muslim League demanded a new, Islamic country. It wanted no part of the secular state that the Indian National Congress and Mahatma Gandhi were trying to build. Under the circumstances, it was decided that India would be split, forming Pakistan as a new country. However, the Partition resulted in devastating events. People were cast out of their homes and villages, forced into new lands because they were not part of the ruling community. Families were torn apart, and the very definition of the word freedom was put to question. In this book, Hasan collects essays, extracts, memoirs and a short story relating the events that preceded and immediately followed the disastrous Partition of India.