Why India was Partitioned

In summer 1947, two lines were drawn on a map. India and Pakistan. The announcement was broadcast across the British Empire: Independence of India within the next few months; the nation was to be divided. The new border ran through villages and towns, through families and religious sites. In the months following the announcement, the country witnessed one of the largest mass migration in human history, and some of the worst violence of the bloody 20th century. Since 1947, several wars have been fought over this border, and tensions still exist today between these two nuclear-armed neighbours. If Partition was destined to be so disastrous, why did it happen? Who made this decision? And how did it go so wrong?

FILM ARCHIVE
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CREDITS
With thanks to Andrew Whitehead and his interviewees from the project Partition Voices, the testimonies heard in this video. See more about this project: https://www.andrewwhitehead.net/parti...

Thumbnail image: BidTheBit, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/..., via Wikimedia Commons
Map by J. G. Bartholomew, Cartographer to the King, from The Times Survey Atlas and Gazetteer of the World, London, 1922, David Rumsey Collection, https://www.davidrumsey.com/
Cyril Radcliffe and the Boundary Commission, Dr Ghulam Nabi Kazi, via Flickr
Jmacleantaylor, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/..., via Wikimedia Commons
TuckDB Postcards, CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/..., via Wikimedia Commons
Mahatma Gandhi Film By American Academy of Asian Studies
India’s Struggle for Freedom - IX : The Great Salt March by Ministry of Information, Films Division
Norie, Orlando, 1832-1901 (artist), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Dore Chakravarty, CC BY-SA 2.5 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/..., via Wikimedia Commons
Gandhi photo, Photo Division, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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