CONTENTS: Preface, Introduction, 1. Provincial Heritage: Roots and Branches, 2. Provincial Consolidation, 1928: The Sardar of Bardoli, 3. From Province to Nation: 1928–1934, 4. The Politics of Domination: 1934–1937, 5. The Politics of Discipline: 1936–1938 Cartoons by Shankar, 6. Congress Raj, 1937–1939: Provinces and Princely States, 7. Impasse and Recovery: 1940–1945, 8. The Penultimate Phase, 1946: Elections, Negotiations, Offers and Deadlocks, 9. 1947, Part 1: Negotiation and the Myth of Unity, 10. 1947, Part 2: Cyril and the Catastrophe, Congress and the Constitution, 11. ‘A Strong Steel Frame’: The Inherited Civil Service, 12. British India and ‘Indian’ India: Undoing the Mischief, 13. Muslim Rulers, Hindu Subjects: Junagadh and Hyderabad, 14. Jammu and Kashmir: Not Just Another State, Conclusion, Bibliography, Index.