**Understanding the deeply nuanced history behind the Partition is essential to understanding its consequences and, in turn, forming an opinion on whether the separation of the two nations should have taken place.** India was a colony in societal tumult prior to its Independence from the _British Raj_, or British rule, in 1947. Hindu-Muslim tensions were strategically stoked throughout the colony's history; the British implemented the principle of 'divide and conquer' to displace imperial frustrations with religious friction. The country's independence was the culmination of years of freedom struggle, [violent](https://theconversation.com/the-forgotten-violence-that-helped-india-break-free-from-colonial-rule-57904) and [non-violent](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/mahatma-gandhi-changed-political-protest) alike, with Britain's diminished capacity to control the colony in the aftermath of the Second World War. When Britain finally relinquished its hold over India, it left behind dangerous religious antagonism, economic disadvantage, and a haunting pool of blood. The passing of the Government of India Act in 1935, whereby the British delegated provincial control within India while maintaining their rule, was incipient in Muhammad al Jinnah's conception of the Partition. - Jinnah, Pakistan's first prime minister, was a secularist and staunch believer in Hindu-Muslim unity, before the landslide seat victory by the Hindu-dominated Indian National Congress (INC) party presented a threat to Muslim representation in the state. The INC was led by Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister. - _"We are now very apprehensive and can trust nobody."_ - the words of Muhammad ali Jinnah, 20 years after he was quoted in support of religious unity, remarking that the notion of Hindu domination is _"a bogey, put before you by your enemies to frighten you, to scare you away from cooperation and unity, which are essential for the establishment of self-government.”_ - The assignment of seats on the basis of religious identity is one example of the many ways in which the British Raj emphasised religious differences and encouraged identification with a Hindu, Muslim, or Sikh identity. - Muslims rallied behind Jinnah as he called for the establishment of the Muslim state of Pakistan (Urdu for 'pure land'). After violence broke out between Hindus and Muslims across the country, the British were anxious to depart the state to [avoid the responsibility of](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/06/29/the-great-divide-books-dalrymple) "refereeing a civil war". - The [Kolkata Killings of 1946](https://www.jstor.org/stable/4395903) are recalled as one of the most violent and gruesome clashes in human history, with thousands of Hindus and Muslims alike perishing in the mob violence. Britain's hasty withdrawal from the colony was spearheaded by the final Viceroy of India, Lord Mountbatten. - With Britain [_"battered"_](https://www.vox.com/2019/3/22/18277409/british-failed-india-pakistan) from the Second World War and unable to maintain its control over India, Mountbatten accelerated the deadline to withdraw by 10 months. In speculation, this move has also [been described as](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/06/29/the-great-divide-books-dalrymple) an attempt to _"shock the quarrelling parties into realizing that they were hurtling toward a sectarian precipice."_ That date is today hailed as the day of India's Independence: August 15, 1947. - Mountbatten brokered the final deal between Jinnah and Nehru, both of whom were ultimately dissatisfied with the outcome - Jinnah displeased at the 'slice' of India that was proportioned for Pakistan. - The man who drew these final borders, Cyril Radcliffe, was a British lawyer who employed outdated maps and census information. He had never set foot in India himself. - Radcliffe's assignment of land to Pakistan omitted all prominent economic centres - Delhi, Mumbai (Bombay), and Kolkata (Calcutta) - and thus left the newly formed country at an economic disadvantage. Muslims and Hindus were displaced, and fled across the borders to countries newly defined on the basis of religious identity - Muslims crossing over to Pakistan and others travelling to the secular, Hindu-majority India. The demographics of India changed drastically with, for example, Pakistan's [Karachi now housing a negligible proportion of Hindus](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/06/29/the-great-divide-books-dalrymple), when Hindus once constituted 47.6% of the city's population. - The British 'peacefully' departed India with minimal casualties, while the death count of Indians and Pakistanis remains unconfirmed, ranging between [200,000 to 2 million dead](https://books.google.com/books?id=utKmPQAACAAJ). An [estimated 14 million Indians and Pakistanis were displaced](https://www.unhcr.org/3ebf9bab0.pdf). The Partition is a haunting presence in South Asian society and politics even today. Disputes between India and Pakistan and Hindus and Muslims both within and across borders continue to manifest in death and violence. - [Wars and violent tensions](https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Indo-Pakistani_Wars) between India and Pakistan have punctuated the nations' history since Independence. - The Indo-Pakistan dispute over acquisition of Jammu and Kashmir, the sole territory of the Indian subcontinent that was not integrated into either state, remains to be resolved.