India's Republic day is coming up soon this month and it is quite pertinent to recall how the UK government mismanaged the partition of India and Pakistan in August, 1947 as result of drawing the geographical boundaries in haste that left behind a trail of sectarian violence, countless killings, displacement of millions of families across the border and emaciated people with bleak future.
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| 1947 Indian subcontinent as various stagesbrewminate.com |
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| partition of India, map drawn in haste. Cyril Radcliffe en.wikipedia.org |
Cyril Radcliffe, a British lawyer with either any prior experience or knowledge of India's terrains, was tasked with the monumental responsibility of drawing the borders between India and the newly created Pakistan in 1947. His lack of familiarity with the region’s geography, culture, and complex demographics made him an unlikely choice for such a critical and sensitive task. Moreover, Radcliffe was given only five weeks to complete the partition, an incredibly short time for such a significant undertaking.
The partition lines were based on the religious composition of regions, aiming to create Muslim-majority Pakistan and Hindu-majority India. However, this simplistic criterion failed to account for the intricate intermingling of communities, economic ties, and the shared cultural heritage that had defined the subcontinent for centuries.
The process disregarded key local factors, leading to the arbitrary division of villages, farmlands, and infrastructure such as canals and railways. Important cities like Lahore and Calcutta faced uncertain futures until the last moments of the process.
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| 1947 Partition of Indiaimage.slideserve.com |
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| 1947 Partition of India and Pakistan treepik.com |
Radcliffe's late decisions on final preparation of the map when the migration of the people on each side of the subcontinent was on, had created chaos and confusion over the migrating families. The aftermath resulted in widespread displacement, with an estimated 15 million people forced to migrate across the newly drawn borders. This led to catastrophic communal violence, sectarian killings with over a million people killed and countless others left homeless. The hasty nature of the partition, compounded by Radcliffe's limited understanding and the lack of adequate consultation with local leaders or affected populations, further exacerbated the chaos.
The partition of Indian Subcontinent which was poorly organized by the last Viceroy of India Lord Mountbatten was one of the largest forced migrations of the 20th century. Over the next two decades, nearly nine million Hindus and Sikhs moved into India and approximately five million Muslims to a spatially fragmented East and West Pakistan. This movement was accompanied by horrific mass violence which targeted women by way of rape and abduction and left an estimated million dead.
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| Partition of India 1947 rarenewspapers.com |
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| Partition of India 1947 .rarenewspapers.com |
Above images: The New York Times, August 15, 1947 on the partition of the Indian subcontinent. . From Timothy Hughes- rare family newspapers...............
The British continued to control India until 1946 and they justified their subordination of India. Their assumption was that Indians were socially and morally weak and viewed the Indian empire as a set of distinct communities that were in conflict with each other, not realizing it was an interwoven deeply rooted cultural and shared traditions at the time. The British decided to give political representation based on religious identities through separate electorates based primarily on their religion. Thus, Hindus could elect their own Hindu representatives and Muslims could do the same. This over a period of time made the Muslims year for separate land for the Muslims. The two nation theory subtly nurtured by the cunning British led to the partition of India. In the later time, various princely states more than 400 ultimately joined the Indian union.
About partition map drawn in a whiff, Radcliffe himself later admitted that the task was impossible and expressed regret over the suffering caused by the partition. He left India immediately after completing the boundary lines, fearing backlash. His role has been criticized as emblematic of the British government’s hurried and careless approach to decolonization, leaving a legacy of division, bitterness, and unresolved tensions that continue to affect India and Pakistan even today.
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