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The oft-repeated facile assumption that as soon as Britain left, undivided India would have emerged as a great world power is not much more than a dream. The fact is that universal empires are created. They do not just emerge out of a national liberation movement that is riddled with the conflict of historical, ethnic, and religious interests. At the end of their struggle, the Congress gave up on Mother India and Jinnah jettisoned his vision of the constitutional safeguards for Muslims in a united India. Ironically, those two dreams were mutually exclusive to start with. The history of the subcontinent did not end with the partition of British India. In fact it began in its own right with its own political forces after independence brought the long aberration of British rule to an end. What lies ahead is for its inhabitants to ponder over and work for.