DNA Explainer: Why did Partition of India happen and the horrors that took place

In the words of Mahatma Gandhi on the eve of Independence Day in August 1947, "From tomorrow, we shall be delivered from the bondage of the British rule. But from midnight today, India will be partitioned too. While, therefore, tomorrow will be a day of rejoicing, it will be a day of sorrow as well. It will throw a heavy burden of responsibility upon us. Let us pray to God that He may give us strength to bear it."

74 years on, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the eve of 75th Independence Day announced that henceforth August 14 will be remembered as Partition Horrors Remembrance Day in memory of people's struggles and sacrifices during that period. He reiterated that the pain of partition can never be forgotten.

In 1947, when India became free from the clutches of 200 years of British rule, it was a time both for rejoicing and sorrow. We had got our independence but had to pay a very heavy price for it. The country had been partitioned into two - India and Pakistan. 

The horrors of Partition in 1947 witnessed the biggest blood-stained human exodus the world had ever seen. At the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, India became a free nation but the country was not to remain the same anymore. It had been divided into two independent domains - India and Pakistan. 

Partition of India

The Partition of India was on religious lines and based on the division of two provinces in the country - Bengal which was the biggest province of India and Punjab. This division was based on Hindu and Muslim populations in the districts. Muslim-majority Punjab is present-day Pakistan and Muslim-majority Bengal is present-day Bangladesh.

Historians have described the 1947 Partition as the 'largest and one of the most violent political migration in human history'. Data suggests that around 15 million people got displaced from their homes during the 'bloody partition', with more than a million people murdered in communal riots that followed the Partition and many became rape survivors.

The Washington Post estimates the number of people killed in those months ranges between 200,000 and 2 million. 

Hindus and Sikhs fled Pakistan in fear for life, a country that would be Muslim-controlled. Muslims from India who wanted to be a part of Pakistan left India to settle there. "When they partitioned, there were probably no two countries on Earth as alike as India and Pakistan," said Nisid Hajari, the author of 'Midnight's Furies: The Deadly Legacy of India's Partition'.

What happened during the partition

Partition led to massive loss of life and livelihoods and was a big hit to education and economies.

Houses and buildings were burned and looted, women were raped and children were killed in front of their family

Trains carrying refugees between the two new nations arrived full of corpses, their passengers had been killed by mobs en route. These were called 'blood trains'.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that 14 million Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims were displaced during the division of India.