Was partition worth it?

As India and Pakistan celebrate independence, we revisit the partition of the subcontinent. While India’s economy has grown exponentially, it is still struggling with grinding poverty, a slew of internal separatist movements and a growing leftist insurgency. Both nations have also fought three wars – two of them over the disputed region of Kashmir – and are perennially hovering on the brink of another conflict. On Monday’s Riz Khan we ask: How has the partition of India affected the subcontinent and – in retrospect – was it a good idea? Talking about this will be well-known Pakistani journalist and commentator Najam Sethi who received death threats from the Taliban for his outspoken criticism of Islamic extremism, and Ashis Nandy, one of India’s foremost thinkers who witnessed the horrors of the partition as a child and writes extensively about it.