‘Can’t Part With the Memories’ Say Migrants of Partition

70 years after India and Pakistan were formed, partition migrants recall their painful journeys across the border.

Stories of partition 

(Photo: AP)

The cleaving of India into two marks one of the most defining moments in the nation’s chequered history. It was at the very “stroke of the midnight hour” on 15 August 1947 that India became free from centuries of British dominance.

But in their maiden flight to freedom, both India and Pakistan lost over 2 million people in the riots that ensued. Even more were displaced as India and Pakistan came to symbolise the land of Hindus and Muslims respectively.

Fearing death and humiliation at the hands of the ‘other’, many Hindus in Pakistan moved to or attempted to move across the border to India, while Muslims in India made a dash for Pakistan. Travelling in packed trains and buses, many were killed on their way, and few made it to their intended destinations. Here are six of them.

Video Editor: Ashutosh Bhardwaj