The partition caused millions of refugees to pour across

new borders into regions of the two new countries that

were foreign to them. Both countries faced both ruined
lands and economies at the start of their independence.
The ideological differences between the Hindu and
Muslim populations in colonial India led the British to
believe that the two new countries should be divided
along religious lines rather than regional one
From the perspective of an Indian, when I look at the
present political situation in India where the loyalties or
political beliefs of most Indian citizens are clearly divided
between the nationalist BJP and the pseudo-secularist
parties like Congress, etc. it is good that the Indian sub-
continent went through a partition.

Had India not been partitioned, I would assume Congress

and the Hindu Mahasabha would have remained a
political force but the third alternative would have been
the Muslim League or a similar party having strong
Islamic political beliefs. I think this would have divided
the Indian nation further on the lines of religion and I fear
it could have led to a civil war or frequent riots due to
religious differences. Not that we do not see riots
happening now but I believe the frequency would have
been more.
In short while the partition was unfortunate but in my
opinion under current circumstances it has turned out to
be a blessing in disguise
Across the Indian subcontinent, communities that had
coexisted for almost a millennium attacked each other in
a terrifying outbreak of sectarian violence, with Hindus
and Sikhs on one side and Muslims on the othera
mutual genocide as unexpected as it was unprecedented.
In Punjab and Bengalprovinces abutting Indias borders
with West and East Pakistan, respectivelythe carnage
was especially intense, with massacres, arson, forced
conversions, mass abductions, and savage sexual
violence. Some seventy-five thousand women were
raped, and many of them were then disfigured or
dismembered.
While millions of Hindus and Sikhs headed in the opposite
direction. Many hundreds of thousands never made it.
Violence on the streets between Hindus and Muslims
began to escalate. People moved away from, or were
forced out of, mixed neighborhoods and took refuge in
increasingly polarized ghettos. Local and regional political
leaders often heightened tensions
What followed, especially in Punjab, the principal center
of the violence, was one of the great human tragedies
Special refugee trains, filled to bursting when they set
out, suffered repeated ambushes along the way. All too
often, they crossed the border in funereal silence
An event whose consequences were entirely unexpected
and whose meaning was never fully spelled out or
understood by either the politicians who took the decision
or the millions of Muslims, Hindus or Sikhs were who was
to become its victims.
As I argue in my own contribution, Partition represented a
tragic experience for hundreds and thousands of ordinary
South Asian people