Partition: displacement and rehabilitation

The division of British India into two separate nation-states, India and Pakistan, was not a clean surgical cut. It was a process of unimaginable violence, displacement, and human suffering that shaped the political and social fabric of both countries. The core of the problem was that the principle used to draw the border — religious majority — could not be applied neatly to a land where communities had lived interwoven for centuries.

The logic of division: the two-nation theory and its rejection

The Muslim League advanced the two-nation theory, arguing that Hindus and Muslims in India were not one people but two distinct nations. On this basis, it demanded a separate country, Pakistan, for Muslims. The Indian National Congress rejected this theory and the demand for partition outright. However, a combination of political developments in the 1940s — the intense political competition between the Congress and the Muslim League, and the role of the British — ultimately led to the decision to create Pakistan.

The process of partition: four fundamental difficulties

The decision to divide India followed the principle of religious majorities: areas where Muslims were a majority would become Pakistan, and the rest would remain with India. This seemingly simple idea ran into four major problems.

1. Two separate Muslim-majority belts: There was no single contiguous area of Muslim majority. Instead, there were two concentrations — one in the west and one in the east. These were separated by a vast expanse of Indian territory. The only solution was to create a Pakistan consisting of two wings: West Pakistan and East Pakistan (which later became Bangladesh).

2. Reluctant Muslim-majority areas: Not every Muslim-majority area wanted to join Pakistan. The most prominent example was the North Western Frontier Province (NWFP), whose leader, Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan (the 'Frontier Gandhi'), was staunchly opposed to the two-nation theory. Despite his opposition, his voice was ignored, and the NWFP was forced to merge with Pakistan.

3. The problem of Punjab and Bengal: Two of the largest Muslim-majority provinces, Punjab and Bengal, had huge districts where non-Muslims were in the majority. The decision was made to bifurcate these provinces, splitting them along religious lines at the district or even lower level. This decision could not be finalised by the midnight of 14–15 August 1947. As a result, millions of people did not know, on the day of independence, whether they were citizens of India or Pakistan.

4. The minority crisis: This was the most intractable problem. Lakhs of Hindus and Sikhs found themselves in areas that became Pakistan, and an equally large number of Muslims found themselves on the Indian side of Punjab, Bengal, and parts of Delhi. These people suddenly became undesirable aliens in the land where they and their ancestors had lived for centuries. As partition became certain, unprecedented violence erupted against these minority communities.

Consequences of partition: a human catastrophe

The year 1947 witnessed one of the largest, most abrupt, unplanned, and tragic transfers of population in human history.

• Mass migration and violence: An estimated 80 lakh (8 million) people were forced to migrate across the new border. Between 5 to 10 lakh (500,000 to 1 million) people were killed in the related violence. Killings and atrocities were committed by all communities. Cities like Lahore, Amritsar, and Kolkata were divided into 'communal zones', where people of one religion would not dare enter areas dominated by another.

• The refugee experience: Minorities on both sides fled their homes, often at a few hours' notice, and sought shelter in refugee camps. Local administrations and police, which had been their own until days before, were often unhelpful. People travelled by any means possible, often on foot, and were attacked, killed, or raped during the journey. Thousands of women were abducted, forced to convert, and married against their will. In many cases, families killed their own women to preserve 'family honour'. Children were separated from their parents. For lakhs of refugees, freedom meant years of life in a camp.

• Division of everything: The partition was not just a political or territorial division. It was a division of financial assets, government property — tables, chairs, typewriters, paper-clips, books, and even the musical instruments of the police band. Government and railway employees were also 'divided' between the two countries. Above all, it was a violent separation of communities that had lived together as neighbours for generations.

The deeper political question: what kind of nation? …