Partition of India

The Partition of British India divided the British India into the countries of India and Pakistan (East and West Pakistan) in 1947. That was part of the end of British Raj, British rule in the Indian subcontinent. The prominent reason for partition was the two-nation theory, which was presented by Syed Ahmed Khan and stated that Muslims and Hindus were too different to be in one country. Pakistan became a Muslim-majority country. India became a majority Hindu country and later became a nominally secular country in 1974 when the word "secular" was added to the Preamble of the Indian Constitution.

Millions of people moved across the new Radcliffe Line between the two newly formed states. Once the lines had been established, about 14.5 million people crossed the borders to what they hoped was the safety of their religious majority. The 1951 Pakistani Census showed the number of displaced there at 7,226,600. They were presumably Muslims who had entered Pakistan from India. Similarly, the 1951 Indian Census showed 7,295,870 displaced people, apparently Hindus and Sikhs who had moved to India from Pakistan. Both numbers add up to 14.5 million.

The newly formed governments were unable to deal with the forced migration of such huge numbers. Massive violence occurred on both sides of the new border. Hundreds of thousands died; some estimates are in the millions.

The partition caused a lot of uncertainty in many parts of the new nations, especially in the region of Jammu and Kashmir, parts of which went to both countries, which went to war several times to try to take the whole region.

Further reading

• "If The British Had Never Ruled Our Country, This Would Be India Today". Souvik Ray. India Times. 30 July 2015.