Partition of India

1
Partition of India
Colonial India
Imperial Entities of India
Dutch India 16051825
Danish India 16201869
French India 17591954
Portuguese India 15101961
Casa da ndia 14341833
Portuguese East India Company 16281633
British India 16131947
East India Company 16121757
Company rule in India 17571857
British Raj 18581947
British rule in Burma 18241942
17651947/48
Partition of India 1947
The Partition of British India was based on the
prevailing religions, broadly as shown in this map
of 1909
The partition of India (Hindi-Urdu: (Devanagari)
(Nastaleeq) )
[1]
was the partition of British India on the basis of
religious demographics. This led to the creation of the sovereign states
of the Dominion of Pakistan (that later split again into the Islamic
Republic of Pakistan and the People's Republic of Bangladesh) and the
Union of India (later Republic of India). Indian Independence Act 1947
had decided 15 August 1947 as the appointed date for the partition.
However Pakistan came into existence a day earlier on 14 August.
The partition of India was set forth in the Indian Independence Act
1947 and resulted in the dissolution of the British Indian Empire and
the end of the British Raj. It resulted in a struggle between the newly
constituted states of India and Pakistan and displaced up to 12.5
million people with estimates of loss of life varying from several
hundred thousand to a million (most estimates of the numbers of people who crossed the boundaries between India
and Pakistan in 1947 range between 10 and 12 million).
[2]
The violent nature of the partition created an atmosphere
of mutual hostility and suspicion between India and Pakistan that plagues their relationship to this day.
Partition of India
2
The partition included the geographical division of the Bengal province into East Bengal, which became part of the
Dominion of Pakistan (from 1956, East Pakistan). West Bengal became part of India, and a similar partition of the
Punjab province became West Punjab (later the Pakistani Punjab and Islamabad Capital Territory) and East Punjab
(later the Indian Punjab, as well as Haryana and Himachal Pradesh). The partition agreement also included the
division of Indian government assets, including the Indian Civil Service, the Indian Army, the Royal Indian Navy,
the Indian railways and the central treasury, and other administrative services.
The two self-governing countries of India and Pakistan legally came into existence at the stroke of midnight on
14-15 August 1947. The ceremonies for the transfer of power were held a day earlier in Karachi, at the time the
capital of the new state of Pakistan, so that the last British Viceroy, Lord Mountbatten of Burma, could attend both
the ceremony in Karachi and the ceremony in Delhi. This is why Pakistan's Independence Day is celebrated on 14
August and India's on 15 August.
Background
Further information: Two-Nation Theory
Late nineteenth and early twentieth century
The All India Muslim League (AIML) had been formed in Dhaka in 1906 by Muslims who were suspicious of the
Hindu-majority Indian National Congress. They complained that Muslim members did not have the same rights as
Hindu members. A number of different scenarios were proposed at various times. Among the first to make the
demand for a separate state was the writer and philosopher Allama Iqbal, who, in his presidential address to the 1930
convention of the Muslim League, proposed a separate nation for Muslims was essential in an otherwise
Hindu-dominated Indian subcontinent. According to Iqbal, such a separation was imminent in a near future,
according to his vision.
The Sindh Assembly passed a resolution making it a separate nation a demand in 1935. Iqbal, Jouhar and others
worked hard to draft a resolution, working with Mohammad Ali Jinnah, who had until then worked for
Hindu-Muslim unity and who now was to lead the movement for this new nation. By 1930, Jinnah had begun to
despair at the fate of minority communities in a united India and had begun to argue that mainstream parties such as
the Congress, of which he was once a member, were insensitive to Muslim interests.
The 1932 Communal Award which seemed to threaten the position of Muslims in Hindu-majority provinces
catalysed the resurgence of the Muslim League, with Jinnah as its leader. However, the League did not do well in the
1937 provincial elections, demonstrating the hold of the conservative and local forces at the time.
1909 Provinces and Princely
states of British India
1909 Prevailing majority
Religions for different districts,
Map of British Indian Empire.
1909 Percentage of Hindus. 1909 Percentage of Muslims.
Partition of India
3
1909 Percentage of Sikhs,
Buddhists, and Jains.
1909 Prevailing (Aryan)
Languages (Northern Region).
1901 Population Density.
19321942
In 1940, Jinnah made a statement at the Lahore conference that seemed to call for a separate Muslim country. This
idea, though, was taken up by Muslims and particularly by Hindus in the next seven years, and became a more
territorial plan. All Muslim political parties including the Khaksar Tehrik and Allama Mashriqi opposed the partition
of India Mashriqi was arrested on 19 March 1940.
Savarkar strongly opposed the partition of India. Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar summaries Savarkar's position, in his
Pakistan or The Partition of India as follows,

Mr. Savarkar... insists that, although there are two nations in India, India shall not be divided into two parts, one for Muslims and the other for
the Hindus; that the two nations shall dwell in one country and shall live under the mantle of one single constitution;... In the struggle for
political power between the two nations the rule of the game which Mr. Savarkar prescribes is to be one man one vote, be the man Hindu or
Muslim. In his scheme a Muslim is to have no advantage which a Hindu does not have. Minority is to be no justification for privilege and
majority is to be no ground for penalty. The State will guarantee the Muslims any defined measure of political power in the form of Muslim
religion and Muslim culture. But the State will not guarantee secured seats in the Legislature or in the Administration and, if such guarantee is
insisted upon by the Muslims, such guaranteed quota is not to exceed their proportion to the general population.
[3]

Most of the Congress leaders were secularists and resolutely opposed the division of India on the lines of religion.
Mohandas Gandhi and Allama Mashriqi believed that Hindus and Muslims could and should live in amity. Gandhi
opposed the partition, saying, "My whole soul rebels against the idea that Hinduism and Islam represent two
antagonistic cultures and doctrines. To assent to such a doctrine is for me a denial of God."
[4]
For years, Gandhi and his adherents struggled to keep Muslims in the Congress Party (a major exit of many Muslim
activists began in the 1930s), and in the process enraged both Hindu Nationalists and Indian Muslim nationalists.
Gandhi was assassinated soon after Partition by Hindu nationalist Nathuram Godse, who believed that Gandhi was
appeasing Muslims at the cost of Hindus.
Politicians and community leaders on both sides whipped up mutual suspicion and fear, culminating in dreadful
events such as the riots during the Muslim League's Direct Action Day of August 1946 in Kolkata (then "Calcutta"),
in which more than 5,000 people were killed and many more injured. As public order broke down all across northern
India and Bengal, the pressure increased to seek a political partition of territories as a way to avoid a full-scale civil
war.
Partition of India
4
19421946
Until 1940, the definition of Pakistan as demanded by the League was so flexible that it could have been interpreted
as a sovereign nation or as a member of a confederated India.
Some historians believe Jinnah intended to use the threat of partition as a bargaining chip in order to gain more
independence for the Muslim dominated provinces in the west from the Hindu-dominated center.
[5]
Other historians claim that Jinnah's real vision was for a Pakistan that extended into Hindu-majority areas of India,
by demanding the inclusion of the East of Punjab and West of Bengal, including Assam, a Hindu-majority region.
Jinnah also fought hard for the annexation of Kashmir, a Muslim majority state with Hindu ruler; and the accession
of Hyderabad and Junagadh, Hindu-majority states with Muslim rulers.
The British colonial administration did not directly rule all of "India". There were several different political
arrangements in existence: Provinces were ruled directly and the Princely States with varying legal arrangements,
like paramountcy.
The British Colonial Administration consisted of Secretary of State for India, the India Office, the Governor-General
of India, and the Indian Civil Service. The British were in favour of keeping the area united. The 1946 Cabinet
Mission was sent to try and reach a compromise between Congress and the Muslim League. A compromise
proposing a decentralized state with much power given to local governments won initial acceptance, but Nehru was
unwilling to accept such a decentralized state and Jinnah soon returned to demanding an independent Pakistan.
[6]
The Indian political parties were the following: All India Muslim League, Communist Party of India,
Majlis-e-Ahrar-ul-Islam, Hindu Mahasabha, Indian National Congress, Khaksar Tehrik, and Unionist Muslim
League (mainly in the Punjab).
Actual partition, 1947
Mountbatten Plan
The actual division of British India between the two new dominions was accomplished according to what has come
to be known as the 3 June Plan or Mountbatten Plan. It was announced at a press conference by Mountbatten on 3
June 1947, when the date of independence was also announced 15 August 1947. The plan's main points were:
Hindus and Muslims in Punjab and Bengal legislative assemblies would meet and vote for partition. If a simple
majority of either group wanted partition, then these provinces would be divided.
Sindh was to take its own decision.
The fate of North West Frontier Province and Sylhet district of Bengal was to be decided by a referendum.
India would be independent by 15 August 1947.
The separate independence of Bengal also ruled out.
A boundary commission to be set up in case of partition.
The Indian political leaders accepted the Plan on 2 June. It did not deal with the question of the princely states, but
on 3 June Mountbatten advised them against remaining independent and urged them to join one of the two new
dominions.
[7]
The Muslim league's demands for a separate state were thus conceded. The Congress' position on unity was also
taken into account while making Pakistan as small as possible. Mountbatten's formula was to divide India and at the
same time retain maximum possible unity.
Within British India, the border between India and Pakistan (the Radcliffe Line) was determined by a British
Government-commissioned report prepared under the chairmanship of a London barrister, Sir Cyril Radcliffe.
Pakistan came into being with two non-contiguous enclaves, East Pakistan (today Bangladesh) and West Pakistan,
separated geographically by India. India was formed out of the majority Hindu regions of British India, and Pakistan
from the majority Muslim areas.
Partition of India
5
Countries of the modern Indian subcontinent
On 18 July 1947, the British Parliament passed the Indian
Independence Act that finalized the arrangements for partition and
abandoned British suzerainty over the princely states, of which there
were several hundred, leaving them free to choose whether to accede to
one of the new dominions. The Government of India Act 1935 was
adapted to provide a legal framework for the new dominions.
Following its creation as a new country in August 1947, Pakistan
applied for membership of the United Nations and was accepted by the
General Assembly on 30 September 1947. The Union of India
continued to have the existing seat as India had been a founding
member of the United Nations since 1945.
[8]
Radcliffe Line
Further information: Radcliffe Line
the Punjab section of the Radcliffe Line
The Punjab the region of the five rivers east of Indus: Jhelum,
Chenab, Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej consists of interfluvial doabs, or
tracts of land lying between two confluent rivers. These are the
Sind-Sagar doab (between Indus and Jhelum), the Jech doab
(Jhelum/Chenab), the Rechna doab (Chenab/Ravi), the Bari doab
(Ravi/Beas), and the Bist doab (Beas/Sutlej) (see map). In early
1947, in the months leading up to the deliberations of the Punjab
Boundary Commission, the main disputed areas appeared to be in
the Bari and Bist doabs, although some areas in the Rechna doab
were claimed by the Congress and Sikhs. In the Bari doab, the
districts of Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Lahore, and Montgomery
(Sahiwal) were all disputed.
[9]
All districts (other than Amritsar, which was 46.5% Muslim) had Muslim majorities; albeit, in Gurdaspur, the
Muslim majority, at 51.1%, was slender. At a smaller area-scale, only three tehsils (sub-units of a district) in the Bari
doab had non-Muslim majorities. These were: Pathankot (in the extreme north of Gurdaspur, which was not in
dispute), and Amritsar and Tarn Taran in Amritsar district. In addition, there were four Muslim-majority tehsils east
of Beas-Sutlej (with two where Muslims outnumbered Hindus and Sikhs together).
[9]
A map of the Punjab region ca. 1947
Before the Boundary Commission began formal hearings, governments
were set up for the East and the West Punjab regions. Their territories
were provisionally divided by "notional division" based on simple
district majorities. In both the Punjab and Bengal, the Boundary
Commission consisted of two Muslim and two non-Muslim judges
with Sir Cyril Radcliffe as a common chairman.
[9]
The mission of the Punjab commission was worded generally as the
following: "To demarcate the boundaries of the two parts of the
Punjab, on the basis of ascertaining the contiguous majority areas of
Muslims and non-Muslims. In doing so, it will take into account other
factors."
[9]
Each side (the Muslims and the Congress/Sikhs) presented its claim through counsel with no liberty to bargain. The
judges too had no mandate to compromise and on all major issues they "divided two and two, leaving Sir Cyril
Radcliffe the invidious task of making the actual decisions."
[9]
Partition of India
6
Massive population exchanges occurred between the two newly formed states in the months immediately following
Partition. Once the lines were established, about 14.5 million people crossed the borders to what they hoped was the
relative safety of religious majority. Based on 1951 Census of displaced persons, 7,226,000 Muslims went to
Pakistan from India while 7,250,000 Sikhs and Hindus moved to India from Pakistan immediately after partition.
About 11.2 million or 78% of the population transfer took place in the west, with Punjab accounting for most of it;
5.3 million Muslims moved from India to West Punjab in Pakistan, potentially 3.8 million Hindus and Sikhs could
have moved from West Pakistan to East Punjab in India but 500,000 had already migrated before the Radcliffe
award was announced; elsewhere in the west 1.2 million moved in each direction to and from Sind.
The newly formed governments were completely unequipped to deal with migrations of such staggering magnitude,
and massive violence and slaughter occurred on both sides of the border. Estimates of the number of deaths range
around roughly 500,000, with low estimates at 200,000 and high estimates at 1,000,000.
[10]
Punjab
The Indian state of East Punjab was created in 1947, when the Partition of India split the former British province of
Punjab between India and Pakistan. The mostly Muslim western part of the province became Pakistan's Punjab
Province; the mostly Sikh and Hindu eastern part became India's East Punjab state. Many Hindus and Sikhs lived in
the west, and many Muslims lived in the east, and the fears of all such minorities were so great that the partition saw
many people displaced and much intercommunal violence.
Lahore and Amritsar were at the centre of the problem, the Boundary Commission was not sure where to place them
to make them part of India or Pakistan. The Commission decided to give Lahore to Pakistan, whilst Amritsar
became part of India. Some areas in west Punjab, including Lahore, Rawalpindi, Multan, and Gujrat, had a large
Sikh and Hindu population, and many of the residents were attacked or killed. On the other side, in East Punjab,
cities such as Amritsar, Ludhiana, Gurdaspur, and Jalandhar had a majority Muslim population, of which thousands
were killed or emigrated.
Bengal
The province of Bengal was divided into the two separate entities of West Bengal belonging to India, and East
Bengal belonging to Pakistan. East Bengal was renamed East Pakistan in 1955, and later became the independent
nation of Bangladesh after the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971.
While the Muslim majority districts of Murshidabad and Malda were given to India, the Hindu majority district of
Khulna and the majority Buddhist, but sparsely populated Chittagong Hill Tracts was given to Pakistan by the award.
Sindh
Hindu Sindhis were expected to stay in Sindh following Partition, as there were good relations between Hindu and
Muslim Sindhis. At the time of Partition there were 1,400,000 Hindu Sindhis, though most were concentrated in
cities such as Hyderabad, Karachi, Shikarpur, and Sukkur. However, because of an uncertain future in a Muslim
country, a sense of better opportunities in India, and most of all a sudden influx of Muslim refugees from Gujarat,
Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajputana (Rajasthan) and other parts of India, many Sindhi Hindus decided to leave for India.
Problems were further aggravated when incidents of violence instigated by Muslim refugees broke out in Karachi
and Hyderabad. According to the census of India 1951, nearly 776,000 Sindhi Hindus moved into India.
[11]
Unlike
the Punjabi Hindus and Sikhs, Sindhi Hindus did not have to witness any massive scale rioting; however, their entire
province had gone to Pakistan thus they felt like a homeless community. Despite this migration, a significant Sindhi
Hindu population still resides in Pakistan's Sindh province where they number at around 2.28 million as per
Pakistan's 1998 census while the Sindhi Hindus in India as per 2001 census of India were at 2.57 million.
Partition of India
7
Perspectives
TIME magazine 27 October 1947 cover Boris
Artzybasheff depicting a self-hurting goddess
Kali as a symbol of the partition of India. The
caption says: "INDIA: Liberty and death."
The Partition was a highly controversial arrangement, and remains a
cause of much tension on the Indian subcontinent today. The British
Viceroy, Lord Mountbatten of Burma has not only been accused of
rushing the process through, but also is alleged to have influenced the
Radcliffe Line in India's favour.
[12][13]
However, the commission took
so long to decide on a final boundary that the two nations were granted
their independence even before there was a defined boundary between
them. Even then, the members were so distraught at their handiwork
(and its results) that they refused compensation for their time on the
commission.
Some critics allege that British haste led to the cruelties of the
Partition.
[14]
Because independence was declared prior to the actual
Partition, it was up to the new governments of India and Pakistan to
keep public order. No large population movements were contemplated;
the plan called for safeguards for minorities on both sides of the new
border. It was a task at which both states failed. There was a complete
breakdown of law and order; many died in riots, massacre, or just from
the hardships of their flight to safety. What ensued was one of the
largest population movements in recorded history. According to
Richard Symonds: At the lowest estimate, half a million people perished and twelve million became homeless.
[15]
However, many argue that the British were forced to expedite the Partition by events on the ground.
[16]
Once in
office, Mountbatten quickly became aware if Britain were to avoid involvement in a civil war, which seemed
increasingly likely, there was no alternative to partition and a hasty exit from India.
[16]
Law and order had broken
down many times before Partition, with much bloodshed on both sides. A massive civil war was looming by the time
Mountbatten became Viceroy. After the Second World War, Britain had limited resources,
[17]
perhaps insufficient to
the task of keeping order. Another viewpoint is that while Mountbatten may have been too hasty he had no real
options left and achieved the best he could under difficult circumstances.
[18]
The historian Lawrence James concurs
that in 1947 Mountbatten was left with no option but to cut and run. The alternative seemed to be involvement in a
potentially bloody civil war from which it would be difficult to get out.
[19]
Conservative elements in England consider the partition of India to be the moment that the British Empire ceased to
be a world power, following Curzon's dictum: "the loss of India would mean that Britain drop straight away to a
third rate power."
[20]
Delhi Punjabi refugees
An estimated 25 million Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs (1947present) crossed the newly drawn borders to reach their
new homelands. These estimates are based on comparisons of censuses from 1941 and 1951 with adjustments for
normal population growth in the areas of migration. In northern India undivided Punjab and North Western
Frontier Province (NWFP) nearly 12 million were forced to move from as early as March 1947 following the
Rawalpindi violence.
Delhi received the largest number of refugees for a single city the population of Delhi grew rapidly in 1947 from
under 1 million (917.939) to a little less than 2 million (1.744.072) between the period 19411951.
[21]
The refugees
were housed in various historical and military locations such as the Purana Qila, Red Fort, and military barracks in
Kingsway (around the present Delhi university). The latter became the site of one of the largest refugee camps in
northern India with more than 35,000 refugees at any given time besides Kurukshetra camp near Panipat.
Partition of India
8
The camp sites were later converted into permanent housing through extensive building projects undertaken by the
Government of India from 1948 onwards. A number of housing colonies in Delhi came up around this period like
Lajpat Nagar, Rajinder Nagar, Nizamuddin East, Punjabi Bagh, Rehgar Pura, Jungpura and Kingsway Camp.
A number of schemes such as the provision of education, employment opportunities, and easy loans to start
businesses were provided for the refugees at the all-India level. The Delhi refugees, however, were able to make use
of these facilities much better than their counterparts elsewhere.
[22]
Refugees settled in India
Many Sikhs and Hindu Punjabis settled in the Indian parts of Punjab and Delhi. Hindus migrating from East Pakistan
(now Bangladesh) settled across Eastern India and Northeastern India, many ending up in close-by states like West
Bengal, Assam, and Tripura. Some migrants were sent to the Andaman islands where Bengali today form the largest
linguistic group.
Photo of a railway station in Punjab. Many
people abandoned their fixed assets and crossed
newly formed borders.
Hindu Sindhis found themselves without a homeland. The
responsibility of rehabilitating them was borne by their government.
Refugee camps were set up for Hindu Sindhis. Many refugees
overcame the trauma of poverty, though the loss of a homeland has had
a deeper and lasting effect on their Sindhi culture. In 1967 the
Government of India recognized Sindhi as a fifteenth official language
of India in two scripts.
In late 2004, the Sindhi diaspora vociferously opposed a Public Interest
Litigation in the Supreme Court of India which asked the Government
of India to delete the word "Sindh" from the Indian National Anthem
(written by Rabindranath Tagore prior to the partition) on the grounds
that it infringed upon the sovereignty of Pakistan.
Partition of India
9
Refugees settled in Pakistan
Indo-East Pakistani, later Indo-Bangladesh
enclaves created by the partition
In the aftermath of partition, a huge population exchange occurred
between the two newly formed states. About 14.5 million people
crossed the borders, including 8,226,000 Muslims came to Pakistan
from India while 7,249,000 Hindus and Sikhs moved to India from
Pakistan. About 5.5 million settled in Punjab Pakistan and around 1.5
million settled in Sindh.
Most of those refugees who settled in Punjab Pakistan came from
Indian Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and
Rajasthan. Most of those refugees who arrived in Sindh came from
northern and central urban centres of India, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar,
Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan via Wahga and Munabao
border, however a limited number of muhajirs also arrived by air and
on ships. People who wished to go to India from all over Sindh awaited
their departure to India by ship at the Swaminarayan temple in Karachi
and were visited by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan.
[23]
Later in 1950s the majority of Urdu speaking refugees who migrated
after the independence were settled in the port city of Karachi in
southern Sindh and in the cities of Hyderabad, Sukkur, Nawabshah and
Mirpurkhas. As well the above many Urdu-speakers settled in the cities
of Punjab mainly in Lahore, Multan, Bahawalpur and Rawalpindi. The
number of migrants in Sindh was placed at over 540,000 of whom
two-third were urban. In case of Karachi, from a population of around
400,000 in 1947, it turned into more than 1.3 million in 1953.
Former President of Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf, was born in the Nahar Vali Haveli in Daryaganj, Delhi,
India. Several previous Pakistani leaders were also born in regions that are in India. Pakistan's first prime minister,
Liaquat Ali Khan was born in Karnal (now in Haryana). The 7-year longest-serving Governor and martial law
administrator of Pakistan's largest province, Balochistan, General Rahimuddin Khan, was born in the predominantly
Pathan city of Kaimganj, which now lies in Uttar Pradesh. General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, who came to power in a
military coup in 1977, was born in Jalandhar, East Punjab. The families of all four men opted for Pakistan at the time
of Partition.
Aftermath
Restoration of women
Both sides promised each other that they would try to restore women abducted during the riots. The Indian
government claimed that 33,000 Hindu and Sikh women were abducted, and the Pakistani government claimed that
50,000 Muslim women were abducted during riots. By 1949, there were governmental claims that 12,000 women
had been recovered in India and 6,000 in Pakistan.
[24]
By 1954 there were 20,728 recovered Muslim women and
9032 Hindu and Sikh women recovered from Pakistan.
[25]
Many of the Muslim women refused to go back to
Pakistan fearing that they would never be accepted by their family; similarly, the families of many Hindu and Sikh
women refused to take back their relatives.
[26]
Partition of India
10
India and Pakistan
Since Partition, with the riots and killings between the two religious communities, India and Pakistan have struggled
to maintain normal relations. One of the biggest debates occurs over the disputed region of Kashmir, over which
there have been three wars, and the reasons for the wars have related only to the confusion over partition. There have
been four Indo-Pakistani wars:
Indo-Pakistani War of 1947: Pakistani backed tribals (and later its army) invaded the princely state of Kashmir
that acceded to India as per the scheme of accession provided in Indian Independence Act 1947. A stalemate
followed since 1949.
Indo-Pakistani War of 1965: Pakistani-backed guerrillas invaded Jammu & Kashmir state of India. India is
generally believed to have had the upper hand when a ceasefire was called. Whereas Pakistan believed its
air-superiority over army and navy against India in the war to be key achievement and future success if war
continued.
[27]
Indo-Pakistani War of 1971: After India announced support for the Bengalis in East Pakistan, Pakistan launched
air strikes against India. India eventually captured 13,000 square kilometres of Pakistan's territory (which it later
returned on the condition that newly-created Bangladesh is recognised by Pakistan). East Pakistan ceased to be a
part of Pakistan and Bangladesh came into existence in its place.
1999 Kargil Conflict: Pakistani army troops invaded high peaks in Kargil sector in Jammu & Kashmir during the
winter when high mountain posts were unoccupied. India recaptured all territory lost.
[28]
India and Pakistan have also engaged in a nuclear arms race.
Treatment of minorities by Pakistan and India
Further information: Hinduism in Pakistanand2006 Lahore temple demolition
Further information: Persecution of Muslims#Communal violence in India
1971 newsreel film about the partition and its
aftermath
Before independence, Hindus and Sikhs had formed 20 per cent of the
population of the areas now forming Pakistan, presently the percentage
has "whittled down to one-and-a half percent".
[29]:66
M. C. Chagla, in a
speech at the UN General Assembly said that, Pakistan solved its
minority problem by the ethnic cleansing of the Hindus, resulting in
"hardly any" Hindu minority population in West Pakistan.
[30]
India
suspected Pakistan of ethnic cleansing when millions of Hindus fled its
province of East Pakistan in 1971.
[31]
Hindus remaining in Pakistan
have been persecuted.
[32][33]
Yasmin Saikia writes that "although a
large number of Muslims migrated to Pakistan in 1947, the bulk of the
Muslim population stayed in their homelands in India".
[34]
According
to Azim A. Khan Sherwani, the Hashimpura massacre case is "a
chilling reminder of the apathy of the (Indian) state towards access to justice for Muslims", he writes that the case
demonstrates that it is not just the Hindutva lobby, but also the Congress-Left and the socialists that are apathetic,
and that Muslim "leaders" are more concerned with their personal ambitions and not with "issues afflicting the
community".
[35]
In Pakistan, Hindus sometimes resent the alleged discrimination and forced conversion to
Islam.
[36][37]
Integration of refugee populations with their new countries did not always go smoothly. Some Urdu speaking
Muslims (Muhajirs)who migrated to Pakistan have complained that they are discriminated against in government
employment. Municipal political conflict in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, often pitted native Sindhis against
immigrants. Sindhi, Bengali, and Punjabi refugees in India also experienced poverty as they largely came empty
handed. However, 50 years after Partition, almost all ex-refugees have managed to rebuild their lives.
Partition of India
11
All of the three nations resulting from the Partition of India have had to deal with endemic civil conflicts. Inside
India, these have been largely due to inter-religious unrest and disruptive far left forces. Civil unrest inside India
includes:
The Sikh separatist movement of the 1980s which has since become almost nonexistent.
[38]
Islamist separatist movement in Jammu & Kashmir resulting in the ethnic cleansing
[39][40][41][42][43][44]
of
Kashmiri Hindus and massacres against Hindus such as the ones in Wandhama and Kaluchak. It has been found
with enough evidence that the Pakistani government and its intermediaries have tacitly backed and armed these
militants
[45][46][47]
The last example of unrest, the terrorism in Kashmir, is related to the ongoing Kashmir conflict and relates to the
both India and Pakistan.
Within Pakistan, unrest is mainly because of ethnicities, with Sindhis, Bengalis, Balochis, all vying for more
representation within Pakistan and in some cases, the creation of an independent state.
In 1971, Bangladesh Liberation War and the subsequent Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 which led to further
partition of Pakistan.
Current religious demographics of India proper and former East and West Pakistan
Despite the huge migrations during and after Partition, India is still home to the third largest Muslim population in
the world (after Indonesia and Pakistan). The current estimates for India (see Demographics of India) are as shown
below. Islamic Pakistan, the former West Pakistan, by contrast, has a much smaller minority population. Its religious
distribution is below (see Demographics of Pakistan). As for Bangladesh, the former East Pakistan, the non-Muslim
share is somewhat larger (see Demographics of Bangladesh):
India (2006 Est. 1,095 million vs. 1951 Census 361 million)
80.5% Hindus (839 million)
13.10% Muslims (143 million)
2.31% Christians (25 million)
2.00% Sikhs (21 million)
1.94% Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and others (20 million)
Pakistan (2005 Est. 162 million vs. 1951 Census 34 million)
98.0% Muslims (159 million)
1.0% Christians (1.62 million)
1.0% Hindus, Sikhs and others (1.62 million)
Bangladesh (2005 Est. 144 million vs. 1951 Census 42 million)
86% Muslims (124 million)
13% Hindus (18 million)
1% Christians, Buddhists and Animists (1.44 million)
Both nations have to a great extent assimilated the refugees.
A refugee train on its way to
Punjab, Pakistan.
Partition of India
12
Artistic depictions of the Partition
The partition of India and the associated bloody riots inspired many creative minds in India and Pakistan to create
literary/cinematic depictions of this event.
[48]
While some creations depicted the massacres during the refugee
migration, others concentrated on the aftermath of the partition in terms of difficulties faced by the refugees in both
side of the border. Even now, more than 60 years after the partition, works of fiction and films are made that relate to
the events of partition.
Literature describing the human cost of independence and partition comprises Khushwant Singh's Train to Pakistan
(1956), several short stories such as Toba Tek Singh (1955) by Saadat Hassan Manto, Urdu poems such as
Subh-e-Azadi (Freedoms Dawn, 1947) by Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Bhisham Sahni's Tamas (1974), Manohar Malgonkar's
A Bend in the Ganges (1965), and Bapsi Sidhwa's Ice-Candy Man (1988), among others.
[49][50]
Salman Rushdie's
novel Midnight's Children (1980), which won the Booker Prize and the Booker of Bookers, weaved its narrative
based on the children born with magical abilities on midnight of 14 August 1947.
[50]
Freedom at Midnight (1975) is
a non-fiction work by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre that chronicled the events surrounding the first
Independence Day celebrations in 1947. There is a paucity of films related to the independence and
partition.
[51][52][53]
Early films relating to the circumstances of the independence, partition and the aftermath include
Nemai Ghosh's Chinnamul (1950),
[51]
Dharmputra (1961),
[54]
Ritwik Ghatak's Meghe Dhaka Tara (1960), Komal
Gandhar (1961), Subarnarekha (1962);
[51][55]
later films include Garm Hava (1973) and Tamas (1987).
[54]
From the
late 1990s onwards, more films on this theme were made, including several mainstream films, such as Earth (1998),
Train to Pakistan (1998) (based on the aforementined book), Hey Ram (2000), Gadar: Ek Prem Katha (2001),
Pinjar (2003), Partition (2007) and Madrasapattinam (2010),.
[54]
The biopics Gandhi (1982), Jinnah (1998) and
Sardar (1993) also feature independence and partition as significant events in their screenplay.
References
[1] William Dwight Whitney (1906) (in English). The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia: Cyclopedia of names (http:/ / books. google. com/
books?id=aYIhAQAAMAAJ& pg=PA505& dq=British+ India+ Official+ Language+ Hindustani+ It+ is+ the+ official+ language+ and+
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[37] Walsh, DEclan (25 March 2012). "In Pakistan, Hindus Say Womans Conversion to Islam Was Coerced" (http:/ / www. nytimes. com/ 2012/
03/ 26/ world/ asia/ pakistani-hindus-say-womans-conversion-to-islam-was-coerced. html?pagewanted=all). New York Times. . Retrieved 6
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[38] Kumar, Ram Narayan, et al., Reduced to Ashes: The Insurgency and Human Rights in Punjab, p. IV.
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Terrorism Portal
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archives/ 007678. php). Windsofchange.net.
[42] The South Asian (http:/ / www. the-south-asian.com/ Nov2001/ Kashmiri_Pandits. htm) Overlooked and ignored Kashmiri Hindus
[43] Panun Kashmir (http:/ / www. panunkashmir.org/ ). Panun Kashmir.
[44] Rediff (http:/ / in.rediff.com/ news/ 2005/ sep/ 21ram.htm) Has the peace process forgotten the Pandits
[45] (http:/ / www. cfr. org/ publication/ 11644/ )
[46] http:/ / www.fas.org/ news/ pakistan/ 1994/ 940622-pak. htm
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com/ books?id=HCQfRFr6iMgC). Amsterdam University Press. pp.2429. ISBN978-90-8964-245-5. . Retrieved 27 July 2012.
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books?id=YWB0GmmoOSMC). In Bhatia, Nandi; Roy, Anjali Gera. Partitioned Lives: Narratives of Home, Displacement, and Resettlement.
Pearson Education India. pp.6669. ISBN978-81-317-1416-4. . Retrieved 27 July 2012.
[52] Dwyer, R. (2010). "Bollywood's India: Hindi Cinema as a Guide to Modern India". Asian Affairs 41 (3): 381398.
doi:10.1080/03068374.2010.508231. (subscription required)
[53] Sarkar, Bhaskar (29 April 2009). Mourning the Nation: Indian Cinema in the Wake of Partition (http:/ / books. google. com/
books?id=wghFNlpM3PIC). Duke University Press. p.121. ISBN978-0-8223-4411-7. . Retrieved 27 July 2012.
[54] Vishwanath, Gita; Malik, Salma (2009). "Revisiting 1947 through Popular Cinema: a Comparative Study of India and Pakistan" (http:/ /
www.careerlauncher. com/ lstcontent/ plansuppliments/ attachments/ 40/ 62/ REVISITING 1947 THROUGH popular cinema. pdf) (PDF).
Economic and Political Weekly XLIV (36): 6169. . Retrieved 27 July 2012.
[55] Raychaudhuri, Anindya (2009). "Resisting the Resistible: Re-writing Myths of Partition in the Works of Ritwik Ghatak". Social Semiotics
19 (4): 469481. doi:10.1080/10350330903361158.(subscription required)
Further reading
Academic studies
Ishtiaq Ahmed, Ahmed, Ishtiaq. 2011. The Punjab Bloodied, Partitioned and Cleansed: Unravelling the 1947
Tragedy through Secret British Reports and First Person Account. New Delhi: RUPA Publications. 808 pages.
ISBN 978-81-291-1862-2
Ansari, Sarah. 2005. Life after Partition: Migration, Community and Strife in Sindh: 19471962. Oxford, UK:
Oxford University Press. 256 pages. ISBN 0-19-597834-X.
Butalia, Urvashi. 1998. The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India. Durham, NC: Duke
University Press. 308 pages. ISBN 0-8223-2494-6
Butler, Lawrence J. 2002. Britain and Empire: Adjusting to a Post-Imperial World. London: I.B.Tauris. 256
pages. ISBN 1-86064-449-X
Chakrabarty; Bidyut. 2004. The Partition of Bengal and Assam: Contour of Freedom (RoutledgeCurzon, 2004)
online edition (http:/ / www. questia. com/ PM. qst?a=o& d=108233199)
Chatterji, Joya. 2002. Bengal Divided: Hindu Communalism and Partition, 19321947. Cambridge and New
York: Cambridge University Press. 323 pages. ISBN 0-521-52328-1.
Chester, Lucy P. 2009. Borders and Conflict in South Asia: The Radcliffe Boundary Commission and the
Partition of Punjab. (http:/ / www. manchesteruniversitypress. co. uk/ catalogue/ book. asp?id=1204410)
Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-7190-7899-6.
Gilmartin, David. 1988. Empire and Islam: Punjab and the Making of Pakistan. Berkeley: University of
California Press. 258 pages. ISBN 0-520-06249-3.
Gossman, Partricia. 1999. Riots and Victims: Violence and the Construction of Communal Identity Among
Bengali Muslims, 19051947. Westview Press. 224 pages. ISBN 0-8133-3625-2
Hansen, Anders Bjrn. 2004. "Partition and Genocide: Manifestation of Violence in Punjab 19371947", India
Research Press. ISBN 978-81-87943-25-9.
Harris, Kenneth. Attlee (1982) pp 35587
Hasan, Mushirul (2001), India's Partition: Process, Strategy and Mobilization, New Delhi: Oxford University
Press, 444 pages, ISBN0-19-563504-3.
Herman, Arthur. Gandhi & Churchill: The Epic Rivalry that Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age (2009)
Ikram, S. M. 1995. Indian Muslims and Partition of India. Delhi: Atlantic. ISBN 81-7156-374-0
Jain, Jasbir (2007), Reading Partition, Living Partition, Rawat Publications, 338 pages, ISBN81-316-0045-9
Jalal, Ayesha (1993), The Sole Spokesman: Jinnah, the Muslim League and the Demand for Pakistan, Cambridge,
UK: Cambridge University Press, 334 pages, ISBN0-521-45850-1
Partition of India
15
Kaur, Ravinder. 2007. "Since 1947: Partition Narratives among Punjabi Migrants of Delhi". Oxford University
Press. ISBN 978-0-19-568377-6.
Khan, Yasmin (2007), The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan, New Haven and London: Yale
University Press, 250 pages, ISBN0-300-12078-8
Khosla, G. D. Stern reckoning : a survey of the events leading up to and following the partition of India New
Delhi: Oxford University Press:358 pages Published: February 1990 ISBN 0-19-562417-3
Lamb, Alastair (1991), Kashmir: A Disputed Legacy, 18461990, Roxford Books, ISBN0-907129-06-4
Metcalf, Barbara; Metcalf, Thomas R. (2006), A Concise History of Modern India (Cambridge Concise
Histories), Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. Pp. xxxiii, 372, ISBN0-521-68225-8
Moon, Penderel. (1999). The British Conquest and Dominion of India (2 vol. 1256pp)
Moore, R.J. (1983). Escape from Empire: The Attlee Government and the Indian Problem, the standard history of
the British position
Nair, Neeti. (2010) Changing Homelands: Hindu Politics and the Partition of India
Page, David, Anita Inder Singh, Penderel Moon, G. D. Khosla, and Mushirul Hasan. 2001. The Partition
Omnibus: Prelude to Partition/the Origins of the Partition of India 1936-1947/Divide and Quit/Stern Reckoning.
Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-565850-7
Pal, Anadish Kumar. 2010. World Guide to the Partition of INDIA. Kindle Edition: Amazon Digital Services. 282
KB. ASIN B0036OSCAC
Pandey, Gyanendra. 2002. Remembering Partition:: Violence, Nationalism and History in India. Cambridge
University Press. 232 pages. ISBN 0-521-00250-8 online edition (http:/ / www. questia. com/ PM. qst?a=o&
d=105038993)
Panigrahi; D.N. 2004. India's Partition: The Story of Imperialism in Retreat London: Routledge. online edition
(http:/ / www. questia. com/ SM. qst?act=adv& contributors=D. N. Panigrahi& dcontributors=D. N. Panigrahi)
Raja, Masood Ashraf. Constructing Pakistan: Foundational Texts and the Rise of Muslim National Identity,
18571947, Oxford 2010, ISBN 978-0-19-547811-2
Raza, Hashim S. 1989. Mountbatten and the partition of India. New Delhi: Atlantic. ISBN 81-7156-059-8
Shaikh, Farzana. 1989. Community and Consensus in Islam: Muslim Representation in Colonial India,
18601947. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 272 pages. ISBN 0-521-36328-4.
Singh, Jaswant. (2011) Jinnah: India, Partition, Independence
Talbot, Ian and Gurharpal Singh (eds). 1999. Region and Partition: Bengal, Punjab and the Partition of the
Subcontinent. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. 420 pages. ISBN 0-19-579051-0.
Talbot, Ian. 2002. Khizr Tiwana: The Punjab Unionist Party and the Partition of India. Oxford and New York:
Oxford University Press. 216 pages. ISBN 0-19-579551-2.
Talbot, Ian. 2006. Divided Cities: Partition and Its Aftermath in Lahore and Amritsar. Oxford and Karachi:
Oxford University Press. 350 pages. ISBN 0-19-547226-8.
Wolpert, Stanley. 2006. Shameful Flight: The Last Years of the British Empire in India. Oxford and New York:
Oxford University Press. 272 pages. ISBN 0-19-515198-4.
Wolpert, Stanley. 1984. Jinnah of Pakistan
Articles
Brass, Paul. 2003. The partition of India and retributive genocide in the Punjab,194647: means, methods, and
purposes (http:/ / faculty. washington. edu/ brass/ Partition. pdf) Washington University
Gilmartin, David. 1998. "Partition, Pakistan, and South Asian History: In Search of a Narrative." The Journal of
Asian Studies, 57(4):10681095.
Jeffrey, Robin. 1974. "The Punjab Boundary Force and the Problem of Order, August 1947" (http:/ / links. jstor.
org/ sici?sici=0026-749X(1974)8:4<491:TPBFAT>2. 0. CO;2-Z) Modern Asian Studies 8(4):491520.
Kaur Ravinder. 2007. "India and Pakistan: Partition Lessons" (http:/ / www. opendemocracy. net/ article/
conflicts/ india_pakistan/ partition). Open Democracy.
Partition of India
16
Kaur, Ravinder. 2006. "The Last Journey: Social Class in the Partition of India". Economic and Political Weekly,
June 2006. www.epw.org.in
Khan, Lal (2003). Partition Can it be undone?. Wellred Publications. p.228. ISBN1-900007-15-0.
Mookerjea-Leonard, Debali. 2005. "Divided Homelands, Hostile Homes: Partition, Women and Homelessness".
Journal of Commonwealth Literature, 40(2):141154.
Mookerjea-Leonard, Debali. 2004. "Quarantined: Women and the Partition". Comparative Studies of South Asia,
Africa and the Middle East, 24(1): 3550.
Morris-Jones. 1983. "Thirty-Six Years Later: The Mixed Legacies of Mountbatten's Transfer of Power".
International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs), 59(4):621628.
Noorani, A. G. (22 Dec. 2001 4 Jan. 2002). "The Partition of India" (http:/ / hindu. com/ fline/ fl1826/
18260810. htm). Frontline (magazine) 18 (26). Retrieved 12 October 2011.
Spate, O. H. K. (1947), "The Partition of the Punjab and of Bengal", The Geographical Journal 110 (4/6):
201218
Spear, Percival. 1958. "Britain's Transfer of Power in India." Pacific Affairs, 31(2):173180.
Talbot, Ian. 1994. "Planning for Pakistan: The Planning Committee of the All-India Muslim League, 194346".
Modern Asian Studies, 28(4):875889.
Visaria, Pravin M. 1969. "Migration Between India and Pakistan, 195161" Demography, 6(3):323334.
Chopra, R. M., "The Punjab And Bengal", Calcutta, 1999.
Primary sources
Mansergh, Nicholas, and Penderel Moon, eds. The Transfer of Power 194247 (12 vol., London: HMSO .
197083) comprehensive collection of British official and private documents
Moon, Penderel. (1998) Divide & Quit
Popularizations
Collins, Larry and Dominique Lapierre: Freedom at Midnight. London: Collins, 1975. ISBN 0-00-638851-5
Zubrzycki, John. (2006) The Last Nizam: An Indian Prince in the Australian Outback. Pan Macmillan, Australia.
ISBN 978-0-330-42321-2.
Memoirs and oral history
Bonney, Richard; Hyde, Colin; Martin, John. "Legacy of Partition, 19472009: Creating New Archives from the
Memories of Leicestershire People," Midland History, (Sept 2011), Vol. 36 Issue 2, pp 215224
Azad, Maulana Abul Kalam: India Wins Freedom, Orient Longman, 1988. ISBN 81-250-0514-5
Mountbatten, Pamela. (2009) India Remembered: A Personal Account of the Mountbattens During the Transfer of
Power
Historical-Fiction
Mohammed, Javed: Walk to Freedom, Rumi Bookstore, 2006. ISBN 978-0-9701261-2-2
((Chopra, R.M., "The Punjab And Bengal", Calcutta, 1999.
Partition of India
17
External links
Bibliographies
Select Research Bibliography on the Partition of India, Compiled by Vinay Lal, Department of History, UCLA;
[[University of California at Los Angeles (http:/ / www. sscnet. ucla. edu/ southasia/ History/ Independent/
partition_bibliography. html)] list]
A select list of Indian Publications on the Partition of India (Punjab & Bengal); [[University of Virginia (http:/ /
www. lib. virginia. edu/ area-studies/ SouthAsia/ Lib/ man08par97. html)] list]
South Asian History: Colonial India (http:/ / www. lib. berkeley. edu/ SSEAL/ SouthAsia/ india_colonial. html)
University of California, Berkeley Collection of documents on colonial India, Independence, and Partition
Indian Nationalism (http:/ / www. fordham. edu/ halsall/ india/ indiasbook. html#Indian Nationalism) Fordham
University archive of relevant public-domain documents
Other links
Clip from 1947 newsreel showing Indian independence ceremony (http:/ / www. harappa. com/ wall/ india. html)
Through My Eyes Website (http:/ / www. throughmyeyes. org. uk/ server/ show/ nav. 22207) Imperial War
Museum Online Exhibition (including images, video and interviews with refugees from the Partition of India)
A People Partitioned (http:/ / www. andrewwhitehead. net/ india-a-people-partitioned. html) Five radio
programmes broadcast on the BBC World Service in 1997 containing the voices of people across South Asia who
lived through Partition.
Article Sources and Contributors
18
Article Sources and Contributors
Partition of India Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=518472813 Contributors: 11achitturi, A3RO, ABF, AMbroodEY, ARYAN818, Abecedare, Achaean, Adnandastagir,
Adrian6335, Ajobin, Aksi great, Al-minar, Alcmaeonid, Alexeifjodor, Alimustafakhan, Aliyah.jmohammed, Alpha 4615, Altetendekrabbe, Amanmadh, Ambar, Anand7chandran, AndarielHalo,
AndrewN, Anshuk, Ansumang, Anupam, Anuragsomani, Anwar saadat, Arjun024, AroundTheGlobe, Arvind Iyengar, Ashok4himself, Astute neophyte, Atomician, Atulsnischal, Auswiger,
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Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors
File:British_Indian_Empire_1909_Imperial_Gazetteer_of_India.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:British_Indian_Empire_1909_Imperial_Gazetteer_of_India.jpg
License: Public Domain Contributors: Edinburgh Geographical Institute; J. G. Bartholomew and Sons.
File:Brit IndianEmpireReligions3.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Brit_IndianEmpireReligions3.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Original uploader was
Fowler&fowler at en.wikipedia
Image:British_Indian_Empire_1909_Imperial_Gazetteer_of_India.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:British_Indian_Empire_1909_Imperial_Gazetteer_of_India.jpg
License: Public Domain Contributors: Edinburgh Geographical Institute; J. G. Bartholomew and Sons.
Image:Brit IndianEmpireReligions3.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Brit_IndianEmpireReligions3.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Original uploader was
Fowler&fowler at en.wikipedia
Image:Hindu percent 1909.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Hindu_percent_1909.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Original uploader was Fowler&fowler at
en.wikipedia
Image:Muslim percent 1909.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Muslim_percent_1909.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Original uploader was
Fowler&fowler at en.wikipedia
Image:Sikhs buddhists jains percent1909.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Sikhs_buddhists_jains_percent1909.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Original
uploader was Fowler&fowler at en.wikipedia
Image:Prevailing languages impgazind1909.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Prevailing_languages_impgazind1909.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors:
Original uploader was Fowler&fowler at en.wikipedia
Image:Population density impgazind1909.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Population_density_impgazind1909.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Original
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Image:Modern india.png Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Modern_india.png License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported Contributors:
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File:RadcliffeLine.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:RadcliffeLine.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: US Army
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MaGioZal
Image:Partion1.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Partion1.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: User:IndianCow
File:Cooch-behar-enclaves-schematisch.png Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Cooch-behar-enclaves-schematisch.png License: Creative Commons
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File:India - Pakistan Refugees.ogv Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:India_-_Pakistan_Refugees.ogv License: Public Domain Contributors: National Archives
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