121-Partition of India

एक दुखी परिवार-121

Reasons for partition

India and Pakistan won independence in August 1947, following a nationalist struggle lasting nearly three decades. 

It set a vital precedent for the negotiated winding up of European empires elsewhere. Unfortunately, it was accompanied by the largest mass migration in human history of some 10 million. 

As many as one million civilians died in the accompanying riots and local-level fighting, particularly in the western region of Punjab which was cut in two by the border.

The agreement to divide colonial India into two separate states - one with a Muslim majority (Pakistan) and the other with a Hindu majority (India) is commonly seen as the outcome of conflict between the nations' elites.

 This explanation, however, renders the mass violence that accompanied partition , difficult to explain.

One explanation for the chaos in which the two nations came into being, is Britain's hurried withdrawal with the realisation , it could ill afford its over-extended empire.

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