Post-partition: 75 years after the divide between India and Pakistan

Graduate Institute What Matters Today

In 1947, 300 years after British colonisation began, Cyril John Radcliffe was assigned the task of drawing the borders to define two newly independent nation states: India and Pakistan. On 9 August 1947, he submitted the partition, separating the two nations based upon religious majorities. Put into effect on 17 August 1947 – two days after India became independent of the United Kingdom and three days after Pakistan’s independence – pandemonium broke out as millions soon found themselves on the “wrong side” of the new border, creating a lasting legacy of displacement, division and bloodshed. My guest for this episode of What Matters Today is Gopalan Balachandran, Co-Director of the Albert Hirschman Centre On Democracy and Professor of International History and Politics at the Geneva Graduate Institute.