Partition Day: One of the Darkest Days of India’s Modern History

As the nation gears up to celebrate Independence Day with all grandeur, we must not forget what remains one of the darkest days India has ever seen – Partition Day. While our unstable and conspiring neighbour marks its own Independence Day on 14th August, India recollects the horrors its innocent citizens had to endure on this day in 1947. Before our Independence in 1945, the Britishers feared the mutiny of its own Indian-origin soldiers by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose – led Azad Hind Fauj, the Quit India movement and its own economic damages and decided to leave India.

However, the British also feared the immense potential of an independent Indian state, assuming that it may grow economically and militarily stronger than England in the future and become a threat to the empire. Hence, they propped up Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the leader of the All-India Muslim League, who was openly calling for India’s division and a separate state for Muslims before handing over India its independence. Mountbatten then announced Britain’s departure from India on 14th August 1947 and announced a separate state for Muslims called Pakistan. The day was hence termed ‘Partition Day’, and Pakistan decided to declare its independence on this day, just before India.

India was divided from the east (cutting the state of Bengal), and the west (cutting the majority of Punjab), and these divided Muslim states were known as West Pakistan and East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). Millions of Indians were dislocated and had to move from their hometowns based on religion with a below-par and scarce railway transport system. The horrors of Partition Day did not stop, as millions of people were killed in the process due to religious riots, starvation, diseases, and other reasons. Two million people were killed on Partition Day, and nearly 20 million people were displaced.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi thus announced 14th of August to be mourned and remembered as the Partition Horrors Remembrance Day. To make sure that this dark day is never forgotten in our history, the spin-chilling tales of Partition Day will be passed on to future generations.

Image source: The Tribune