Abstract
The British divided and quit India in 1947. The partition of the subcontinent was accompanied by large-scale massacres which sparked off an unforeseen mass migration. The Punjab was at the epicentre of the disturbances which spread across much of North India. In all an estimated 18 million people were displaced in a chaotic two-way flight of Hindus and Sikhs from Pakistan and Muslims from India. The migrations were over within the space of three months in the Punjab, but were to continue intermittently from Bengal during periods of communal tension throughout the following decades. The total movement of population represented the greatest forced migration of the twentieth century.
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© 2008 Ian Talbot
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Talbot, I. (2008). The 1947 Partition of India. In: Stone, D. (eds) The Historiography of Genocide. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230297784_17
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230297784_17
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