Context Presentation

By: Jake Schott

For my context research presentation, I will be discussing the Partition of India. The Partition of India occurred in 1947 due to the British rule of India at the time. When Britain colonized India they purposefully created division among the Muslims and Hindus (Reyes 2020). Therefore after 300 years of British rule the people of India wanted Britain to leave. Britain agreed to leave India after WWII because they could not afford the economic burden at the time. However, in an attempt to keep peace in the country it was divided into two nation states Pakistan and India. Pakistan was to be for the Muslims and India was for the Hindus. However, partitioning India created even more division and distain between the two religions. I have listed a few of the most shocking statistics that I found while researching the Partition to give you all a taste of how terrible it was.

• Approximately 15 million people had to uproot their lives and move to a different region of the country (Azhar 2020).
• Between 1-2 million people lost their lives due to religious violence, disease and starvation.
• Mistreatment of women was so intense it drove many women to commit suicide so they could die honorably (Benigno 2020).
• India and Pakistan have fought many wars over rights to different territories and resources.
• The Partition still affects nearly 1.6 billion people.

As you can see the Partition had devasting effects on the people of India and surrounding countries. This could have been avoided if it wasn’t for British colonization and the misguided partition that they created. I would recommend diving deeper into partition as there is much more to discuss than I can write about here. This will help with your understanding of “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine.”

Azhar, Shahram. “Class Analysis of the Experience of Migration during the Partition of India.” South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, vol. 43, no. 3, June 2020, pp. 407–428. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/00856401.2020.1738109.

Benigno, Tina Belinda. “Mother and the Child in the Partition of British India (1947) and the Anti-Sikh Pogrom in and Surrounding Delhi (1984).” Sikh Formations: Religion, Culture, Theory, vol. 16, no. 4, Dec. 2020, pp. 410–422. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/17448727.2020.1741182.

Reyes, Paul. “Aanchal Malhotra: A Human History of Partition.” Virginia Quarterly Review, vol. 96, no. 3, Fall 2020, pp. 20–25. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=146331082&site=ehost-live.

Partition means the action or state of dividing or being divided into parts; especially with reference to a country with separate areas of government.

The Partition of India was something that occurred in 1947. On August 15th, 1947, Pakistan was created; leading to the split of what was then known as “British India” to become two separate countries now known as India and Pakistan. It was split into two countries whose borders were decided upon by the religious groups that were most prominent in the areas. The division of the country led to the displacement of millions of people. Many people fled their homes in fear of violence once they were suddenly in a new country. Many people became homeless overnight, and others had to decide whether they were willing to change their religion to stay where they now were living.

Although the Partition was originally conceived to prevent sectarian violence between the countries people, it instead sparked violence between religions, specifically Hindus and Muslims, and let to an even further division and dislike of each other. The Partition triggered riots, mass casualties, and a huge wave of migration due to people fleeing their countries. Millions of people moved to what they hoped would be a safer place for them and their families to live. It is estimated that between fourteen and sixteen million people were displaced, traveling by foot or train. Estimates of the number of deaths caused by this Partition range between 200,000 and 1,000,000. Not only were people killed in riots, etc., they were also killed by diseases that ravaged through refugee camps. Another crime that was very prominent during this time was the rape and abduction of women; it is estimated that this happened to around 100,00 women.

This violence was due to people having their religious identity and territory ripped away from them. It is also due to the fact that Britain was reluctant to use its troops to maintain law and order, so it was able to continue to be completely out of hand; instead of people putting a stop to it.

Sources:

https://theconversation.com/how-the-partition-of-india-happened-and-why-its-effects-are-still-felt-today-81766

https://www.gradesaver.com/interpreter-of-maladies/study-guide/the-partition-of-india-1947