Independence and Partition
British rule in India ended at midnight on 14 to 15 August 1947, when the subcontinent was divided into India and Pakistan. Partition triggered one of the largest migrations in history, with up to 20 million people displaced and between several hundred thousand and two million killed in communal violence.
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What happened
After decades of struggle led by the Indian National Congress, figures like Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, and a Second World War that left Britain exhausted, British rule in India came to an end in 1947. The Muslim League under Muhammad Ali Jinnah had demanded a separate homeland, and the last viceroy, Lord Mountbatten, brought the date of independence forward to August.
At midnight on 14 to 15 August, British India was split into two states: a Hindu-majority India and a Muslim-majority Pakistan, itself divided into West and East (today's Bangladesh). Nehru told India's constituent assembly in Delhi that the nation was keeping its 'tryst with destiny'. The new borders, drawn in a few weeks by a British lawyer who had never visited India, were only published two days after independence.
What followed was one of the largest migrations in history. Between 10 and 20 million people crossed the new borders, especially in Punjab and Bengal, and communal violence killed somewhere between several hundred thousand and two million. Refugee trains arrived filled with the dead. The trauma of Partition and the dispute over Kashmir still shape relations between India and Pakistan today.
Around the same time
- The atomic bombings, Hiroshima, Japan, 1945
- The People's Republic is proclaimed, Beijing, China, 1949
- Ghana wins independence, Accra, Ghana, 1957
- The Dust Bowl, Southern Great Plains, USA, 1930 to 1936
Earlier: The atomic bombings, 1945 · Later: The People's Republic is proclaimed, 1949
Further reading
Encyclopedia article: Partition of India (en.wikipedia.org)