1 Colonial legacies: Partition of India, 1947

Indian decolonisation was not a moment but a process with a long arc. This section considers one aspect of that process – the Partition of India in 1947. The traumatic events of Partition created a legacy which shaped the post-independence relationship between India, Pakistan, and later Bangladesh. For the individuals and families involved, the violence and pain of separation and loss continues to impact their lives.

India was home to different religious groups including Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jews and Christians. Independence posed questions about how minority faith groups, particularly Muslims who constituted the largest minority, might be treated in the context of a Hindu dominated population. There was a history of communal violence between Hindus and Muslims, and the British colonial rulers drew on this division to weaken opposition to imperialism. Partition of Bengal in 1905 was enacted by the British along religious lines.

Figure 2 Crowded trains of refugees arriving at Amritsar, now a border town on Pakistan and India, following the Partition, 1947.

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A photograph of trains arriving at platforms at Amritsar. South Asian people are crowded into the train carriages and are seated on the roof. They also fill up the space on the platform and are standing by the trains.

Figure 2 Crowded trains of refugees arriving at Amritsar, now a border town on Pakistan and India, following the Partition, 1947.

Different kinds of post-colonial nationalism developed imagining different futures for an independent India. These included a federalised system in which provinces where the Muslim population was dominant would play a role in a unified Indian state. They also included Muslim separatism through the establishment of two nation states – India and Pakistan – split along religious lines.

India’s Partition was Britain’s final policy in exiting the colony. Cyril Radcliffe (1899–1977) was appointed to chair the boundary commission and given just five weeks to divide the land, resources, and people into two nations.

The boundaries of India and Pakistan were not announced to the Indian public until after independence was declared, in a vain attempt to prevent further communal violence. The borders left many Muslims in India, and many Hindus in Pakistan. A mass exodus ensued as members of both communities tried to cross the new borders. This movement turned violent, with the police and army’s role in attempting to protect people largely sporadic given the sheer scale of the violence.

The massacres of whole villages led to mass panic, as millions of people decided to move to either India or Pakistan depending on their religion. As they moved, they were highly vulnerable to attack, especially on the roads, on trains and in train stations. For many people who, depending on their religion, found themselves on the ‘wrong’ side of the border, there was a great risk that staying put would result in them being killed. Equally, trying to move across these new borders was fraught with danger, risking rape, torture, and massacre. Law and order broke down for weeks after August 1947 in Punjab and Bengal, as the cycle of violence escalated.

Over one million people died from August 1947 to the year’s end. Historians are divided over interpreting Partition. Some regard the communal violence as inevitable due to long standing tensions between local forces within the subcontinent. Others see Partition as primarily the result of British colonial mistakes.

Partition is a traumatic legacy for many South Asian families. Conflict between India and Pakistan over contested borders which were drawn up during Partition continue today, with three wars having been fought over the disputed Kashmir region.