Chris Harlow

History 391
November 10, 2010
Dr. Deborah L. Hughes

The Great Partition

On June 3, 1947, people throughout India were huddled around radios listening to the
partitioning of the British Indian Empire. Literally millions all over the yet-united India sat
glued to their own or their neighbors radio sets, for the fate of India was to be decided that day.
The British Empire in India was being partitioned into two new nation states, India and Pakistan.
Yasmin Khans book, The Great Partition, provides a detailed account of the events that
occurred during this change. Many people thought this change would bring political and
religious freedom; instead it brought a divide that would later devastate this Indian-sub continent.
As the British began their withdrawal effort, an onset of violence was sweeping
throughout the countryside. Militias were raiding villages, derailing trains and killing its
passengers one by one. At this time, Punjab was going through somewhat of an ethnic cleansing.
Khan states, Violence must sit at the core of any history of Partition. It is the phenomenal
extent of the killing during Partition which distinguishes it as an event. It affected women,
children and the elderly as well as well-armed young men.(p.129) It could have been a scene
from a war movie, complete devastation, bodies laying abruptly along the roadsides. Children
watched as their parents were brutally murdered or burned alive, while women faced the harshest
treatment. Women were brutally raped and branded by marks of freedom, therefore humiliating
those that survived this punishment. Kahn states, Rape was used as a weapon, as a sport and as
a punishment.(p.133)
Around the start of 1949, a ceasefire in Kashmir ended a long anticipated conflict
between the Indian and Pakistani governments. The partition had now come to an end and the
damage had been done. Kahn states, Partition left deep and ragged fault lines. These ran
through individual lives, families and whole regions, pitching Indians and Pakistanis into new
conflicts. (p. 187) The trauma and nightmares felt throughout the Indian subcontinent plagued
families for a multitude of years to come. The unforeseen shame and humiliation engraved in
the minds of the women pondered questions of how recovery was possible. Social workers
stated, None of us had the ability to understand the psychology of these women nor did we
try.(187)
Although, the partition process is looked upon for its horrendous events that occurred, it
was also a compromise of land sharing and the division of people. Kahn states, It
acknowledged the right to self-determination of a large group of Muslims who, albeit in a
contradictory and confused manner, had expressed their strong desire to extricate themselves
from Congresss control. (p.208) In other words, it helped India and Pakistan establish
themselves as nations, therefore adopting flags, anthems, etc. The British government had hoped
that by pulling out of India, the divided India and Pakistan would devour on another. Therefore,
the partition tore India and Pakistan apart; it only strengthened them as nations in the long run.
Kahn states, Partition becomes the end point, or the apex, of a great national struggle and the
moment at which one set of historical stories, about achieving liberation from colonial rule ends,
and another about the building up of these new states start. (p.205)