70 years later, survivors recall the horrors of India-Pakistan partition - washingtonpost

NEW DELHI — The massacres began soon after the British announced partition: neighbors slaughtered neighbors; childhood friends became sworn enemies. 

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the partition of India, an event that triggered one of bloodiest upheavals in human history.

Around 14 million people are thought to have abandoned their homes in the summer and fall of 1947, when colonial British administrators began dismantling the empire in southern Asia. Estimates for the number of people killed in those months range between 200,000 and 2 million.

Hindus and Sikhs fled Pakistan, a country that would be Muslim-controlled. Muslims in modern-day India fled in the opposite direction. 

The legacy of that violent separation has endured, resulting in a bitter rivalry between India and Pakistan. “When they partitioned, there were probably no two countries on earth as alike as India and Pakistan,” said Nisid Hajari, author of “Midnight's Furies: The Deadly Legacy of India's Partition.” “Leaders on both sides wanted the countries to be allies, like the U.S. and Canada are. Their economies were deeply intertwined, their cultures were very similar.”

But after partition was announced, the subcontinent descended quickly into riots and bloodshed. 

Many who lived through those times describe madness taking hold. “Some people say they had temporarily gone crazy,” Hajari said.

Archives on both sides have collected video and oral testimonies of the horrors. A partition museum will open next week in the Indian city of Amritsar, containing items that were brought over from Pakistan by refugees. - Read More

70 years later, survivors recall the horrors of India-Pakistan partition