Partition: Borders of Blood
7 years, 7 months ago

Partition: Borders of Blood

Al Jazeera  

Seventy years after the partition of India, we examine the troubled legacy of the event that shaped the subcontinent. Follow Al Jazeera’s coverage of the 70 years of India-Pakistan partition It sparked three wars, the birth of Bangladesh, and transformed Kashmir into one of the world’s most militarised zone. As tensions between India and Pakistan persist, 101 East explores partition’s troubled legacy and the continuing hostility between these two nuclear powers. WATCH PART ONE: On August 15, 1947, the partition of the Indian subcontinent created two nation states – India and Pakistan. As tensions between India and Pakistan persist, 101 East explores the partition’s troubled legacy and the unresolved geopolitics between the two nuclear powers.

India Pakistan Partition Troubled Legacy 101 East  troubled  legacy  zoneas  blood  worlds  borders  101  wars  partition  india  east  twopart

History of this topic

Roshan Kishore picks his favourite read of 2024
3 months ago

Roshan Kishore picks his favourite read of 2024

Hindustan Times  

“India’s near east was administratively united and communally partitioned by colonialism. This book explores how India dealt with these realties to build a nation and project power,” Avinash Paliwal writes in his introduction to India’s Near East: A New History. It deploys, on the basis of what must have been a dogged pursuit of both historical documents and actors, not …

Book Review | A Deep Dive into “New History” of India and its Eastern Neighbourhood
4 months ago

Book Review | A Deep Dive into “New History” of India and its Eastern Neighbourhood

The Hindu  

Published : Nov 26, 2024 19:48 IST - 9 MINS READ Sheikh Hasina’s dramatic ouster as Prime Minister of Bangladesh on August 5 this year after weeks of student protests evoked at the time comparisons with Sri Lanka, where Gotabaya Rajapaksa had to flee the country in July 2022 after a public uprising, and with the hasty exit of Ashraf …

A gendered telling of Partition
7 months, 1 week ago

A gendered telling of Partition

Hindustan Times  

Thousands of lives were lost during the Partition of India. Kashmir: Book 3 of the Partition Trilogy by Manreet Sodhi Someshwar ₹499; HarperCollins Sodhi Someshwar’s Partition Trilogy, which includes Lahore: Book 1, Hyderabad: Book 2, and Kashmir: Book 3, not only tells the story of the Partition of India but also informs readers about the drama that unfolded during the …

Warm ties with India and vision beyond Kashmir: What Pakistan needs to battle economic crisis and global isolation
2 years ago

Warm ties with India and vision beyond Kashmir: What Pakistan needs to battle economic crisis and global isolation

Firstpost  

It has been over two years since the Indian and Pakistani Director General Military Operations agreed to a ceasefire along the LoC and surprisingly it has held. More than 8000 members of Pakistan’s armed forces have lost their lives in terrorist incidents since 2000.” He adds, “Islamabad must change its tack if it hopes to prevent a full-blown insurgency and …

India's Partition Story: 75 Years On, Where Do The Neighbouring Nations Stand?
2 years, 5 months ago

India's Partition Story: 75 Years On, Where Do The Neighbouring Nations Stand?

The Quint  

Do citizens of these “new” countries like and trust each other? Answers to these questions become even more important and relevant as the world and South Asia struggle to cope with a series of unprecedented crisis including Covid pandemic in early 2020. In an ambitious exercise, CVoter Foundation collaborated with the Centre for Policy Research to conduct a massive survey …

Partition and the heavy bangle of history
2 years, 6 months ago

Partition and the heavy bangle of history

The Hindu  

The Indian freedom movement is the success story of nationalism in South Asia, and Partition and its memory are part of the unresolved narratives that the movement carried within itself. Marvel’, from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, starring Canadian-Pakistani actress Iman Vellani attempts to introduce the collective tragedy of Partition from a point of triumph and inclusivity. The realist angle Retelling …

5 books and films that tell the story of the trauma of the Partition of India and its aftermath
2 years, 7 months ago

5 books and films that tell the story of the trauma of the Partition of India and its aftermath

Salon  

Editor's note: At midnight on Aug. 14, 1947, India achieved independence from British colonial rule and Pakistan was created as a separate homeland for Muslims. "My Name is Radha: The Essential Manto" Recommended by professor Madhur Anand, University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada Partition in South Asia refers to that horrific year when an arbitrary red line was drawn across a …

India Independence Day: What the partition means to young south Asians like me, 75 years on
2 years, 7 months ago

India Independence Day: What the partition means to young south Asians like me, 75 years on

The Independent  

The best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. From the 1600s, Britain’s East India …

Manish Tewari | 75 years later, it’s time to bury Partition legacy
2 years, 7 months ago

Manish Tewari | 75 years later, it’s time to bury Partition legacy

Deccan Chronicle  

Tomorrow Independent India would be 75 years old. Did the sharp inflection points between the Hindus and Muslims as a consequence of over 70 invasions by Muslim invaders between AD 1000 and AD 1700 finally find expression when a more cunning but religiously different imperialist “the firangi” became India’s overlord especially after the failure of the Mutiny of 1857 or …

India at 75 | A look at important Partition literature: Booker-winning Tomb of Sand, Khushwant Singh’s Train to Pakistan, and others
2 years, 7 months ago

India at 75 | A look at important Partition literature: Booker-winning Tomb of Sand, Khushwant Singh’s Train to Pakistan, and others

The Hindu  

Last month, an event in Agra featuring novelist Geetanjali Shree had to be cancelled after a Hathras resident filed a police complaint against her. Memory in the context of trauma French writer Marcel Proust is generally credited for the concept of ‘involuntary memory’ through his novel Remembrance of Things Past. Published in 1956, less than a decade after Partition, Khushwant …

Infographic: How were India-Pakistan partition borders drawn?
2 years, 7 months ago

Infographic: How were India-Pakistan partition borders drawn?

Al Jazeera  

This animated map shows how the borders of the Indian subcontinent have evolved since the 1947 partition. Seventy-five years ago, Sir Cyril Radcliffe, a British lawyer, was commissioned to draw the borders that would divide British-ruled India into two new, independent nations: Hindu-majority India and mainly Muslim Pakistan. The boundary between the two nations became known as the Radcliffe Line …

Book Review: S.S. Sharma's 'The Great Tragedy of India’s Partition’ helps to understand the circumstances of India’s Partition
3 years, 1 month ago

Book Review: S.S. Sharma's 'The Great Tragedy of India’s Partition’ helps to understand the circumstances of India’s Partition

The Hindu  

P artition, or rather the vivisection of India, as Mahatma Gandhi termed it, is a theme of enduring interest, both to the rapidly diminishing generation that suffered and survived it and to the succeeding generations in the subcontinent. As for the Lahore Resolution, adopted in March 1940 by the Muslim League without mentioning the word “Pakistan”, the author correctly points …

‘Partition is resonating loudly in our present’
3 years, 5 months ago

‘Partition is resonating loudly in our present’

Live Mint  

In Manreet Sodhi Someshwar’s latest novel, Lahore, the first part of a projected trilogy chronicling the human costs of the partition of the subcontinent, there is an electric charge from the very first page. Two friends, Beli Ram and Mehmood, who have grown up together in “Laur”, are caught in the crossfire between a rally by the Muslim League demanding …

Islamism and the Two-Nation Theory: What caused the Partition Horrors
3 years, 7 months ago

Islamism and the Two-Nation Theory: What caused the Partition Horrors

Op India  

The Direction Action Day, and the Partition Riots that followed a year later, marks one of the darkest phases of modern India. The Two-Nation Theory Unlike what the Congress party and Left-oriented ‘historians’ would have us believed, it was first promulgated by Syed Ahmad Khan, the founder of the Aligarh Muslim University, and not Savarkar. He said, “Friends, in India, …

What does fiction tell us about Partition?
3 years, 7 months ago

What does fiction tell us about Partition?

The Hindu  

Parsing Partition is a national pastime. Daisy Rockwell tries to explain why in the Afterword to her translation of Khadija Mastur’s A Promised Land : “Like the Holocaust, or the American Civil War, or the French Revolution or any other epochal conflict that has shredded the fabric of society and caused many deaths, it is both a deep psychic preoccupation …

Interview: Pallavi Raghavan, Author, Animosity at Bay: An Alternative History of the India-Pakistan Relationship
4 years, 2 months ago

Interview: Pallavi Raghavan, Author, Animosity at Bay: An Alternative History of the India-Pakistan Relationship

Hindustan Times  

Often, even as India and Pakistan exchange lists of nuclear installations and hold talks about the Indus Water Treaty, ceasefire violations and retaliatory shelling continue along the Line of Control. We need to remember that the story of “othering” is just one of many different kinds of narratives that can be shaped around the subcontinent’s history. It’s a slower process …

Mapped: How India’s boundaries evolved since 1947
4 years, 7 months ago

Mapped: How India’s boundaries evolved since 1947

Live Mint  

A defence ministry document noting Chinese ‘transgressions’ in eastern Ladakh that was hurriedly disowned last week has reignited the debate on the extent of territory that India may have lost to China. Chinese incursions in the region have revived memories of the bloody 1962 war, and brought the world’s two largest armies face-to-face in a tense stand-off along the Line …

In Pictures: Kashmir marks a year since losing special status
4 years, 7 months ago

In Pictures: Kashmir marks a year since losing special status

Al Jazeera  

Authorities in Indian-administered Kashmir have imposed a security lockdown on the first anniversary of abrogation of Article 370 that granted the Muslim-majority region a measure of autonomy. One year on, the Himalayan region remains tense as tens of thousands of soldiers keep watch on the local population, most of whom object to the government decision that was accompanied by a …

Partition was a historic swindle that India, Pakistan and Bangladesh must see through; steps to undo British wrongdoing necessary
5 years, 3 months ago

Partition was a historic swindle that India, Pakistan and Bangladesh must see through; steps to undo British wrongdoing necessary

Firstpost  

A historical united people’s struggle led by patriotic, modern-minded leaders, like Mustafa Kemal of Turkey or the leaders of Japan after the Meiji Restoration, will be required for bringing about a transformation to lift India from the ranks of underdeveloped to developed countries Mohammed Ali Jinnah’s birth anniversary was on 25 December, and on this occasion, many Pakistanis said that …

Kashmir crisis: Modi’s brutal annexation of state follows the Israel-Palestine script to the letter
5 years, 7 months ago

Kashmir crisis: Modi’s brutal annexation of state follows the Israel-Palestine script to the letter

The Independent  

Last week, we saw British television personality Bear Grylls pal up with Narendra Modi for his latest wildlife adventure, Man vs Wild. The notoriously bellicose Modi – an extremist Hindu nationalist – has stripped Jammu and Kashmir of its autonomous status, pouring tens of thousands of extra Indian troops into the already heavily militarised region. As the crackdown becomes more …

Partition: An event to celebrate, mourn, or forget
5 years, 7 months ago

Partition: An event to celebrate, mourn, or forget

Al Jazeera  

More than 70 years ago today, the Indian subcontinent was divided by its British colonial rulers into two nation-states – India and Pakistan. In the schools that I work in Pakistan, students frequently tell me that they celebrate Pakistan’s independence from not the British Empire but “Hindu India” every August. Mourning a breakup in India As Pakistan celebrates the “making …

How India, Pakistan and Bangladesh were formed
5 years, 7 months ago

How India, Pakistan and Bangladesh were formed

Al Jazeera  

This animated map shows how the borders of the Indian subcontinent have evolved since partition. In August 1947, the British decided to end their 200-year long rule in the Indian subcontinent and to divide it into two separate nations, Muslim-majority Pakistan and Hindu-majority India. In addition to the British-controlled territories, the subcontinent also consisted of many other territories under French, …

India-Pakistan: Face to Face
6 years, 1 month ago

India-Pakistan: Face to Face

Al Jazeera  

India and Pakistan, arch rivals and nuclear neighbours with a history of wars and conflict, are engaged in an arms race. In 1947, the British colonial rulers drew a line of partition, dividing the Indian subcontinent into Muslim-majority Pakistan and Hindu-majority India. The tension between India and Pakistan has escalated sharply once again after a suicide bomber blew himself up …

How a Postcard From India Brought Back Painful Partition Memories
6 years, 4 months ago

How a Postcard From India Brought Back Painful Partition Memories

The Quint  

Khanna’s letter to my great-grandfather is an expression of the regret and grief that many felt at having to leave their homelands unwillingly. Because of the massive exchange of population that took place between India and Pakistan, there are millions of people in each country descended from those who experienced the trauma of partition. Indeed, because of their entwined pasts …

Migrants, refugees... Just look at our history!
7 years, 4 months ago

Migrants, refugees... Just look at our history!

Deccan Chronicle  

The rhythmic, lyrical literature of Rabindranath Tagore’s Gitanjali perhaps reflects the best possible description of Indian history — invasions, infiltration, immigration, migration and streams of “refugees” down the ages. Independent India’s journey began with an unprecedented influx of millions of its uprooted nationals who became “religious refugees” overnight, thanks to Partition. The irony of this, however, is that whereas Hindu …

‘Partition: 1947’ Parts With the Human Plight of Independence
7 years, 7 months ago

‘Partition: 1947’ Parts With the Human Plight of Independence

The Quint  

Lord Mountbatten was brought in to oversee the change of power, which was going to be a messy and tragic affair. The film, dubbed in Hindi and re-christened Partition: 1947, closely follows the workings of the last Viceroy to India and the events leading up to 15 August 1947. Incidentally, the English title, The Viceroy’s House, is more apt for …

The tragedy of Partition of India, 70 years later
7 years, 7 months ago

The tragedy of Partition of India, 70 years later

Live Mint  

In the middle of World War II, with the US pressuring Britain to loosen its colonial grip on India, Winston Churchill issued a bitter prophecy. But, he argued, only British rule kept the subcontinent’s Hindus and Muslims from each other’s throats: “I warn you that if I open the door a crack, there will be the greatest bloodbath in all …

For India's Oldest Citizens, Independence Day Spurs Memories Of A Painful Partition
7 years, 7 months ago

For India's Oldest Citizens, Independence Day Spurs Memories Of A Painful Partition

NPR  

For India's Oldest Citizens, Independence Day Spurs Memories Of A Painful Partition Promila Saigal remembers the men in her family tossing her "like a football" from the rooftop of one family home to the next, in a bid to save her from the frenzy that washed over the Indian subcontinent 70 years ago. Enlarge this image toggle caption Julie McCarthy/NPR …

70 Years Later, India And Pakistan Still Feel Impact Of Partition
7 years, 7 months ago

70 Years Later, India And Pakistan Still Feel Impact Of Partition

NPR  

70 Years Later, India And Pakistan Still Feel Impact Of Partition Seventy years after the partition of India and Pakistan, both countries are still shaped by the turmoil of that time. ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: Seventy years ago this week, Britain granted independence to the Indian subcontinent which was partitioned into two countries - Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan. Well, NPR's …

How the Partition of India happened – and why its effects are still felt today
7 years, 7 months ago

How the Partition of India happened – and why its effects are still felt today

The Independent  

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy “Partition” – the division of …

India at 70: Horror of Partition sealed Nehru’s drive for a secular democracy after Independence
7 years, 7 months ago

India at 70: Horror of Partition sealed Nehru’s drive for a secular democracy after Independence

The Independent  

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. open image in gallery Spectacles: Jawaharal Nehru and Gandhi …

Enduring the effects of partition in Kashmir
7 years, 7 months ago

Enduring the effects of partition in Kashmir

Al Jazeera  

Indian-administered Kashmir – As the 70th anniversary of the partition of Indian subcontinent approaches, for some of the communities torn apart by the aftermath of the historic event, the effects of the trauma still linger. In Indian-administered Kashmir, the predominantly Muslim population harbour strong sentiments against Indian rule and an estimated 70,000 people have been killed in the violence that …

70 years since Partition, Pakistan still hasn’t been able to separate itself from India
7 years, 7 months ago

70 years since Partition, Pakistan still hasn’t been able to separate itself from India

The Independent  

The best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Pakistan came …

Partition 70 years on: The violence that created Pakistan and India
7 years, 7 months ago

Partition 70 years on: The violence that created Pakistan and India

The Independent  

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Speaking to Associated Press, Krishen Khanna, who was 21 …

Remembering Partition: 70 years since India-Pakistan divide
7 years, 7 months ago

Remembering Partition: 70 years since India-Pakistan divide

Associated Press  

It’s been 70 years since India and Pakistan were carved from the former British Empire as independent nations, a process that triggered one of the largest human migrations in history. “There was always something going on, and life in that village was very good.” Chopra’s family moved through refugee camps on both sides of the border, eventually reaching the bustling …

AP Explains: 70 years of India-Pakistan tensions unresolved
7 years, 7 months ago

AP Explains: 70 years of India-Pakistan tensions unresolved

Associated Press  

NEW DELHI — When the British ended two centuries of colonial rule on the Indian subcontinent in August 1947, they left a jigsaw legacy — the vast country of India flanked on either side by a newly created Pakistan split in two parts. Here’s a look at the troubled legacy of Partition: ___ FAMILIES DIVIDED India’s independence leaders had proposed …

70 Years of the Radcliffe Line: Understanding the Story of Indian Partition
7 years, 7 months ago

70 Years of the Radcliffe Line: Understanding the Story of Indian Partition

The Diplomat  

When the British partitioned India and departed the subcontinent 70 years ago, the delineation of the border between the new states of India and Pakistan — the Radcliffe Line — had not yet been released. Nonetheless, Congress insisted that two provinces with slight Muslim majorities, Punjab and Bengal, were themselves partitioned between Hindu/Sikh and Muslim majority areas, in order to …

Partition key battleground in India, Pakistan textbook wars
7 years, 7 months ago

Partition key battleground in India, Pakistan textbook wars

Live Mint  

Islamabad: Pakistani high school student Noman Afzal knows “traitorous” Hindus are to blame for the bloodshed that erupted when British India split into two nations 70 years ago. In a government-approved grade five history textbook used in schools in Pakistan’s Baluchistan province, Hindus are described as “thugs” who “massacred Muslims, confiscated their property, and forced them to leave India”. “They …

From horror to hope: A Mumbai event examines Partition’s legacy
7 years, 7 months ago

From horror to hope: A Mumbai event examines Partition’s legacy

Hindustan Times  

Remembering Partition: Museum Of Memories When: Saturday and Sunday, 11 am-9.30 pm Where: Godrej India Culture Lab, Vikhroli By next weekend, Independence fever will be in the air. “And there should be, but we must remember where that freedom came from, what it cost.” Remembering Partition: Museum of Memories marks the bloody separation of India, Pakistan, and what would eventually …

Why Kashmir Has Been Torn Apart by Decades-Long Strife
8 years, 7 months ago

Why Kashmir Has Been Torn Apart by Decades-Long Strife

The Quint  

In 1947, the kingdom of Jammu and Kashmir was asked to join with either India or Pakistan. However, local armed uprisings that flared in various parts of Kashmir, along with raids from tribal groups from Pakistan forced Singh to seek help from India, which offered military assistance on condition that the kingdom link itself to India. The ruler accepted, but …

State of the Union: Bridge the Partition
8 years, 8 months ago

State of the Union: Bridge the Partition

Deccan Chronicle  

There’s a popular belief that at the people-to-people level all is well between India and Pakistan, and the problem is really between the establishments in the two nations. A ceremony described by the former finance and external affairs minister in the Atal Behari Vajpayee government thus: “We have that ugly ceremony at Wagah, almost vulgar, I don’t know why we …

Partition: A fallout of 1942?
9 years, 7 months ago

Partition: A fallout of 1942?

Deccan Chronicle  

There has been a spate of books in recent weeks on Partition and the birth of Pakistan. Did Nehru and Patel, and perhaps Mahatma Gandhi too, give in because they were too tired after a long struggle for freedom and saw a smaller but more organically united India as more workable than the sum of many parts held together by …

The ghosts of Kashmir’s past
9 years, 8 months ago

The ghosts of Kashmir’s past

Al Jazeera  

The bordering region has been defined by decades of subjugation, violence, and territorial conflict. The people of Kashmir simply cannot afford another war – and so, the recently released and incriminatory Amnesty International report on the subject – aptly entitled “Denied” – cannot be ignored. Subsequent to the commission’s recommendation, the UN Security Council ordered another resolution in April of …

What Pak's crisis tells all Indians: Partition was an excellent idea
10 years, 6 months ago

What Pak's crisis tells all Indians: Partition was an excellent idea

Firstpost  

Contrary to what peace-wallahs think, it is not India’s job to rescue Pakistan from theocratic mess or any other crisis they pass through. In fact, we would have been in every kind of sectarian strife if we had had a united India in 1947 If one were to look at what’s happening across our western borders – where an elected …

The eastern front
11 years, 2 months ago

The eastern front

The Hindu  

STUDIES on the Partition of India have generally focussed on the western front and taken 1947 as an end point in the narrative of that story. Various other facets of the Partition saga have been covered by other historians over the decades, including Urvashi Butalia, whose well-known work The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India uses …

Watch in pics: Life of people along Kashmir Line of Control
11 years, 2 months ago

Watch in pics: Life of people along Kashmir Line of Control

India TV News  

New Delhi: The Kashmir issue has been a festering sore since the partition of India in 1947. Soon after independence, Pakistani tribals invaded Jammu and Kashmir, then a princely state under Maharaja Hari Singh, in 1948.The maharaja fled to India after signing the Instrument of Accession.Pakistani army invaded large parts of original Jammu and Kashmir, and gave away some of …

Was partition worth it?
14 years, 7 months ago

Was partition worth it?

Al Jazeera  

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 …

Partition: conflict for state power
15 years, 2 months ago

Partition: conflict for state power

The Hindu  

History is often dismissively spoken of as about ‘dead yesterdays’; but like Bram Stoker’s ‘Un-Dead Count Dracula,’ it has a wicked habit of returning to the world of the living to haunt it. The Partition has been called variously as a “vivisection,” “an imperialist betrayal,” and “a historical denouement of two-nation theory.” Those found ‘guilty’ have been ‘impeached’, counterfactual histories …

South Asian agenda for Jammu & Kashmir
15 years, 3 months ago

South Asian agenda for Jammu & Kashmir

The Hindu  

The separatists’ bullet that killed the moderate Hurriyat leader, Fazl Haque Qureshi, also wounded Home Minister Chidambaram’s “quiet diplomacy” for settling the Kashmir problem by making the Line of Control between India and Pakistan “just lines on a map,” as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in Srinagar on March 24, 2006. “Should common sense prevail,” I wrote in that piece, …

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