Notes
Newspaper Report (August, 1947)
“India Partitioned, Millions Displaced and Dying”
*To be read aloud by GM
On February 20, 1947, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom announced that the British Government would grant full self-governance and autonomy to British India. On June 3, the Viceroy of India, Louis “Dickie” Mountbatten, announced a plan that included partitioning India into two separate, autonomous, and self-governing countries: India and Pakistan, with borders being drawn by committees led by British Viscount Cyril Radcliffe. The “Radcliffe” line, as it has come to be known, not only partitioned India into two separate nations, it also partitioned Bengal into East and West Bengal and the Punjab into East and West Punjab.
*By David Douglas Duncan - Fair use
At midnight on August 15, the two self-governing countries of India and Pakistan legally came into existence, resulting in the displacement of between 10–14 million people along religious and ethnic lines. The mass migrations that ensued have caused massive refugee crises in the newly constituted nations, along with large-scale violence, with loss of life estimated to be between several hundred thousand and two million. It is one of the greatest humanitarian crises in the history of the modern world.
*By Photo Division, Government of India - Public Domain