The decade preceding partition is of momentous importance in the history of freedom movement of the country. It witnessed a rapid development of events which, not only resulted in the withdrawl of the British from India, but also gave birth to Pakistan. Though the partition idea was not a bolt from the blue as its smoulderings could be seen even towards the close of the last century, yet the present work is confined to the period 1937-47, mainly because, the Pakistan movement which was considered only as a chimera in the late thirtees, became a hard reality in 1947.

This paper is a study of the Interim Government in British India, formed during the penultimate viceroyalty of Archibald Wavell, from September 1946 to March 1947. It tries to throw light on major and minor personalities and micro and macro processes at work in this improbable interlude and, thus, probes an overshadowed ministerial and bureaucratic set-up in the lead-up to Partition. This understudied set-up constituted yet another compelling ‘space before Partition’ which would continue to affect the Indian state after Partition.