The Light Goes Out, Princely States Integrate...

The Mahatma’s body being carried outside Birla House for people to pay their last respects. "Death for me would be a glorious deliverance rather than that I should be a helpless witness of the destruction of India, Hinduism, Sikhism and Islam," Gandhi says as he goes on a fast on January 11, 1948, against the communal conflagration that engulfs India as millions pour across the Indo-Pak border. He calls off the fast five days later as the violence abates. On January 30, at the end of a prayer meeting at Birla House, New Delhi, Nathuram Godse (below), a Hindu fanatic, guns down the Mahatma. On November 15, 1949, he and co-conspirator, Narain Apte, are hanged at the Ambala jail.

Armoured troops of the Indian Army move into Hyderabad in 1948,as the Nizam refuses to accede to the Indian Union and encourages the razakars,members of the Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen,to terrorise the peasantry. As home minister from August 15, 1947,to December 14,1950,Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (with daughter Mani Ben, left) integrates 563 princely states into 26 administrative units. It is no cakewalk. Some princes agree to accede to India,others want to join Pakistan, yet others plan to form a parallel force of independent rulers.

Maharaja Hari Singh (right) accedes to India on October 27, 1947. The Indian Army mobilises local peace troops in Srinagar (left) as it tries to secure the town against an incursion by Pakistani tribesmen. Fighting breaks out and an undeclared war continues for months. Hari Singh invites Sheikh Abdullah (above) to head an emergency administration in Kashmir in 1947. The following year, the Sheikh takes over as prime minister of Kashmir.