Abstract
The subcontinent, as it emerged on the dawn of the twentieth century, was a
multifarious community of many nations, social identities and religious
proportions. The British had ruled this huge mass for almost a century as the first
tenors of division began to raise their head, threatening to uproot their ‘idyllic
sense of authority’. By now the tussle, later turned into the struggle for
independence, had been reduced to two dominant groups, Hindus and the
Muslims, aiming at deliverance from imperial clutches with their own motives and
maneuvers. With World War II ending on a global horizon, the Indian
subcontinent also began to witness turbulent occurrences that would in the coming
weeks and months alter the course of history for a very large population of the
world. Partition resulted in a massive uprooting of societies on both sides with an
approximated 12 to 14.5 million people crossing the newly demarcated
boundaries.1 The majority of these people came from Punjab, Sind, North-Western
Frontier Province and Bahawalpur from the Pakistani side, East Punjab, Princely
States, Delhi and the United Provinces from the Indian side.2 Bengal was largely
saved from the appalling tragedy mainly because it had a clear division of Muslim
and Hindu areas whereas Punjab had a complex mixing of communities that not
only took time to be sorted out but also appropriated a horrific toll on the
inhabitants.
Rabia Umar Ali . (2020) Hearts Divided: A Social Overview of the Partition of Punjab, 1947, Journal of the Research Society of Pakistan, Volume 57, Issue 1.
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