This article examines the contributions made by commissions of inquiry to transitional justice in the aftermath of violent conflict. Drawing on data from India, where commissions of inquiry are routinely instituted in response to episodes of communal violence, it assesses the contributions made by 26 commissions established between 1980 and the present to addressing human rights abuses. The article demonstrates that although some of India’s commissions of inquiry have made concrete contributions to uncovering the truth about human rights violations, acknowledging the rights of victims, and holding perpetrators to account, they have more often served to obscure the truth and avoid accountability for human rights violations. It argues that hey do this both to uphold the legitimacy of the democratic state and to protect powerful actors implicated in perpetrating, inciting, or failing to prevent human rights violations, using strategies of denial, blame shifting, and inaction.