Partition of india-legend and reality [rare books]

HORMASJI MANECKJI SEERVAI, a scion of the famous Wadia Master Builders, was born in Bombay on 5 December 1906. He was educated in the New High School, Bombay, and joined the Elphinstone College, Bombay, in 1922, graduating in 1926 with a first class in Philosophy. His abiding love for English literature led in 1932 to his being appointed a Lecturer in English at the Elphinstone College, where he had been a Fellow for two years.

Having graduated in law, he started practice on the Original Side of the Bombay High Court in 1932 and joined the Chamber of Sir Jamshedji Kanga, Advocate-General from 1923-1935. Seervai was appointed Advocate-General of Maharashtra in 1957 and was Advocate-General for 17 years.

In 1967, he published Constitutional Law of India, a Critical Commentary (now in its 3rd edn.) which was acclaimed a classic and won for him the award of Padma Vibhushan in 1972, and led to his being elected a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy, the highest academic honour in Britain.

At the invitation of the University of Mexico, he wrote a monograph on Federalism in India. It was translated into Spanish and published in 1976 under the title El Federalismo en la India.

Seervai's interest in civil liberties found expression in his book Emergency, Future Safeguards and the Habeas Corpus Case (1978). He has been the President of the People's Union for Civil Liberties, Bombay Unit, since 1983.