General Features

On the 14 August, 1947 the independent nation of Pakistan was created. The same evening, at the stroke of midnight and therefore on the 15 August, India won its freedom from British colonial rule.

The process that led to the creation of the two states is known as Partition.

Colonial India was divided along religious lines with the predominantly Muslim areas being allocated to the new nation of Pakistan and predominantly Hindu areas allocated to India.

Pakistan was created in two halves: one in the east which later became Bangladesh, and the other at 1,700 kilometres away on the western side of the subcontinent.

There was great excitement and pride in gaining independence, but partition was also accompanied by civil unrest and the largest mass migration in human history of 10 to 14 million people.

As many as one million civilians died in the accompanying riots and local-level fighting, particularly in the western region of Punjab which was cut in two by the border.

Millions of people left their homes and fled as refugees to make their lives in new regions where they had no community roots or history.

They left behind land and possessions. Their identity had been embedded in the areas where their ancestors were from, rather than based on their religion, and communities of different faiths had been living and working alongside each other.

Family experiences

On the 60th anniversary of the Partition, BBC Radio Norfolk has talked to three people whose families were affected in different ways:

Ravi Sharma, from Norwich, was seven years old at the time and his family's home was in Lahore, an area that became part of Pakistan in 1947.

His parents were reluctant to leave their neighbourhood at first, but when tensions increased they fled abruptly along with other Hindu families to India and started a new life in Delhi. He feels lucky that they were on the last train to get through safely.

"Then one day, suddenly, things became very serious... a couple of community workers... were serving the community irrespective of their religion and were very well respected.

"Suddenly they were killed... and that gave a signal to our family that now was the crunch time. That night they decided to leave our home and we took the first available train.

"We managed to take as little as possible because my father realised that it was more important to take the family rather than take any possessions," he added.

Ravi remembers the challenges his family faced with starting building a life from scratch in a new city.

They were the first family to acquire a stone grinder for making masala. It was such a luxury at the time that there were often people queuing up outside waiting their turn to grind spices. He says it made them all appreciate their precious time together. 

"We realised that being closer to family and having family support is extremely important. But we also realised that nobody can be prepared for such a huge disaster, it was ethnic cleansing of no comparison whatsoever."

Balvinder Kular

Balvinder Kular is an electrical engineer and spent many years working at RAF Coltishall. He helps run the Norfolk Sikh Association as well as Norwich International Community Integration group. 

Balvinder's parents' family came from the Punjab area of India and later moved to Kenya along with many other Indian families who left the country after partition.

The Punjab state had the largest Sikh community in India before 1947 and many Sikhs were deeply affected by the division of the Punjab between India and Pakistan.

"It was frightening and terrible because basically families were uprooted... and left businesses, land, houses and everything behind," said Balvinder.

"Children were in school who used to play along with friends, grew up with friends... and then all of a sudden they were just uprooted and had to move away.

"It did cause a lot of ill feeling, atrocities and along with that, a lot of crime took place. It's taken a long time before people have learnt to come to terms with it," he added.

On a recent visit to India, Balvinder watched the flag-raising ceremony on the border of India and Pakistan. It is a daily ceremony at dawn and sunrise and many people gather on both sides of the border to watch.

"It was quite an experience and quite emotional as well, because that used to be all one country and then all of a sudden you can't step over the line.

"It's hard to express in words what you actually see and the feeling around you, the atmosphere around you, it's absolutely vibrant.

"It was great to be there and it was a tremendous feeling. It seemed like I'd never been away."

Dr Shalal Sadullah

Dr Shalal Sadullah is a consultant haematologist at the James Paget Hospital in Gorleston and has lived for many years in Norfolk. His father, from a Muslim family, was working for the Indian Civil Service in Calcutta prior to 1947, but later transferred to Karachi in Pakistan. 

As a liberal and educated family, they considered staying in India as many Muslims did, to continue living alongside their Hindu and Sikh neighbours.

Dr Sadullah remembers his parents explaining years later the decision to leave India for Pakistan came after lots of soul-searching.

"All the normal practicalities did come up about job prospects, where it would be best to bring up children etc, but... although part of the family had migrated to Pakistan, a very large part of the family was still in India. 

"They were looking forward to a new homeland and how they would settle in there, but there was also a fair degree of remorse," he added.

Reflecting on the past

As the 60th anniversary of the Partition of India is commemorated, what do those who lived through this momentous event feel about what happened there, and what the area is still experiencing to this day?

"I'm sure that even the most vehement patriot of Pakistan would have wished that the country had had a slightly more smooth run," said Dr Sadullah.

"I think things in Pakistan still are very unstable... these are times when most people are not overtly optimistic about the future but have a very very guarded view about  how things will proceed from here.

"India and Pakistan together would be such a more potent political force if they were not constantly in battle against each other," he added.

Ravi Sharma feels that the violence that occurred in the aftermath of Partition sprung from the differing beliefs of those involved.

"The whole Partition of India, if there was no religion, could have happened without any massacre," said Ravi.

"It was the religion which created all this problem of ethnic cleansing... I think that people could have stayed and there could have still been two countries."

Balvinder Kular agrees the personal tragedies experienced on such a huge scale should never be repeated. 

"I only wish it had never happened... the positive thing is that you learn from your mistakes and I don't think any country, or any nation should suffer with such a thing. It is sad," he said.