Introduction

At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance.”

–Jawaharlal Nehru, 14th August, 2947

Little did he know then, that the optimism and hope of that night would turn into distress as the harsh reality of handling one of the largest migrations in history and the following communal violence set in. 

The Partition of British India saw the division of a mighty country into the two dominions of India and Pakistan. The dichotomy left in its wake the largest human migration of the twentieth century with the transfer of over twelve million people along religious lines, creating an overwhelming refugee crisis and resulting in large-scale violence, with estimates of number of deaths being between several hundred thousand to two million. The hostility created with the birth of the nations plagues their relationship even today. The Partition was set forth in the Indian Independence Act 1947 and resulted in the dissolution of the British Raj. The two self-governing countries of Pakistan and India legally came into existence at midnight on 15th August, 1947, although the announcement of the border was only made on 17th August, 1947.

Across the Indian subcontinent, communities that had coexisted for almost a millennium attacked each other for their own survival, with Hindus and Sikhs on one side and Muslims on the other- a mutual genocide unprecedented in the country.

The Partition involved the division of two provinces, Bengal and Punjab, based on its religious majority. In the two provinces lying on the borders, the carnage wrecked by displacement and communal violence was especially intense, with massacres, arson, forced conversions, mass abductions and sexual violence. It has been estimated that around 75,000 women were raped. Nisid Hajari, in “Midnight’s Furies,” his fast-paced new narrative history of Partition and its aftermath, writes, “Gangs of killers set whole villages aflame, hacking to death men and children and the aged while carrying off young women to be raped. Some British soldiers and journalists who had witnessed the Nazi death camps claimed Partition’s brutalities were worse: pregnant women had their breasts cut off and babies hacked out of their bellies; infants were found literally roasted on spits.”

The mostly Western part of the Punjab province became part of Pakistan, while the mostly Sikh and Hindu eastern part became part of India (later divided into Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh). Many Hindus and Sikhs lived in the west, and many Muslims lived in the est. The fears of all such minorities were so great that the Partition saw many people displaced and much intercommunal violence. It hence comes as no surprise that millions of people died due to the migration and riots.

The boundary demarcating India and Pakistan came to be known as the Radcliffe Line. This was created 17 miles to the west of Amritsar, in Punjab occupied India. Thus, this bustling commercial centre became a border city overnight. Mass religious emigration ensued, clearing the city’s Muslim population of over 1,84,000 peopled, coupled with the immigration of a huge Hindu-Sikh population within its borders.

Meanwhile, Bengal was divided into West Bengal in India and East Bengal awarded to Pakistan (this later became Bangladesh in 1971 after the Bangladesh Liberation War). The Muslim majority districts of Murshidabad and Malda were given to India, while the Hindu majority district of Khulna and the sparsely populated Chittagong Hill Tracts with a Buddhist majority were given to Pakistan. Thousands of Hindus in East Bengal found themselves being attacked under religious ferment, and this persecution forced hundreds of thousands of Hindus to seek refuge in India. This huge influx of Hindu refugees into Calcutta affected the demographics of the city. Many Muslims left the city and migrated to East Bengal (Pakistan), while their homes and property were occupied by the refuge families.

By 1948, as one of the greatest migrations in history grew to a close, more than fifteen million people had been uprooted, and between one and two million were dead. The division was indeed not only in the land of the country, but could also be seen in the hearts of the people, as they left their friends from other communities with whom they lived peacefully, to survive. People walked kilometres at a stretch looking for hope, while many didn’t even manage to finish the journey. Moreover, the impact of the partition took its toll on the country as well, as cities assumed new roles due to Radcliffe’s decision.

The thesis explores the impact of the Partition on the city of Amritsar in particular, and analyses how it transformed into a negligible border city from a viable cultural and commercial centre with a flourishing trade network.