Independence Day has always been a deeply political event. Every prime minister has used the opportunity awarded by the large audience for ...
Independence Day has always been a deeply political event. Every prime minister has used the opportunity awarded by the large audience for the August 15 speech from the Red Fort to both tomtom their government’s achievements as well as announce policy.
In much the same vein, on India’s 75th independence day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that August 14 would now be marked as “Partition Horrors Remembrance Day” in memory of the victims of Partition “who were subjected to inhuman circumstances, suffered torturous treatment” and “could not even receive a dignified cremation”.
Mining 1947
There are, of course, few more notable events in the history of modern South Asia than the partition of British India in 1947 into India and Pakistan. The British were keen to leave India after World War II. With no power sharing agreement acceptable to both the Congress and the Muslim League and rising incidents of communal violence, the British decided to partition India on communal lines. Most affected were the provinces of Punjab and Bengal, which were divided up on the basis of communal demography.
Partition and its aftereffects – some of which are continuing till today – resulted in lakhs dead and crores displaced.
However, rather than a commemoration meant to act as a balm to...
