Indian independence came with a hefty price: a bloody partition in which a million people were killed, and many were displaced from their homes.
This August 14 not only marks 75 years since the partition of a great country India into 3 parts, but now is also observed as Partition Horrors Remembrance Day.
Up to two million people lost their lives in the most horrific of manners. The darkened landscape bore silent witness to trains laden with the dead, decapitated bodies, limbs strewn along the sides of roads, and wanton rape and pillaging. There was nothing that could have prepared the approximately 14 million refugees for this nightmare.
The 1947 Partition of the Indian subcontinent into the independent nations of Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan was accompanied by one of the largest mass migrations in human history and violence on a scale that had seldom been seen before.
Believing they would return "home," many families left their valuables behind before they packed up their essential belongings and began the trek to India or West or East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). Many never made it.
1. August 7, 1947
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On August 7, 1947, one of 30 special trains carrying new Pakistan government personnel to Karachi prepares to depart from Old Delhi Station. In honor of the departure, Muslim League National Guards stand at attention.
2. Violence erupted across Delhi
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The bodies of people who died in communal rioting in Delhi being removed from the streets. In the wake of partition, violence erupted across Delhi - the worst hit areas were Sadar Bazar, Sabzi Mandi, Paharganj and Karol Bagh.
3. Conference in New Delhi
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The conference in New Delhi where the partition plan was disclosed (left to right): Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first pirme minister, Lord Ismay, adviser to Mountbatten, Lord Louis Mountbatten, Viceroy of India, and Muhammad Ali Jinnah, President of the All-India Muslim League.
4. Appeal to end communal violence
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Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru addresses Hindus and Muslims, while pleaing for the end of communal violence. Mahatma Gandhi joined Nehru in the plea.
5. Purana Qila refugee camp
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Muslim refugees entering the Purana Qila refugee camp in Delhi. What was initially a camp for government employees migrating to Pakistan, soon became a refuge for Muslims escaping communal violence in their neighborhoods.
6. Train to Pakistan leaves from Amritsar
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A train crammed with refugees leaves for Pakistan from the border city of Amritsar in 1947. Although these trains traveled on confidential routes with armed guards, they were still attacked.
7. Refugee Camp 1947
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View of a refugee camp, 1947.
8. Kingsway Camp, Delhi
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Kingsway Camp, Delhi’s largest refugee camp, was home to about 300, 000 people at its peak. It was so large that families that were separated on the other side of the border would often find each other once they made it to the camp.
9. Hoisting the Tricolor
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Thousands gathered at Red Fort on the morning of August 16, 1947 to watch Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru hoist the tricolor above the fort’s Lahore Gate. The ceremony was held on August 16 because the new cabinet was sworn in on August 15.
