ABOUT PARTITION

The 1947 Partition of India and Pakistan was the largest forced migration in
recorded history.

In August 1947, British India became independent from the colonial empire – and
divided itself into the two states of India and Pakistan. East Pakistan later became
Bangladesh in 1971.

Overnight, tens of millions of people were displaced across religious lines, creating
ripples of mass sectarian violence and an overwhelming refugee crisis. Historians
estimate that at least a million people perished in the process, and many more were
subject to horrors such as massacres, forced conversions and sexual violence,
especially in the Punjab and Bengal.

More than 72 years later, Partition continues to be a lived experience for many people
across the subcontinent. The political relations between India and Pakistan remain
hostile, plagued by the legacy of Partition and the four wars that followed it.