India on Monday observed the ‘Partition Horrors Remembrance Day’ to pay tribute to more thousands of people killed during the Partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, when the end of the British colonial rule also resulted in the creation of two new independent states—India and Pakistan.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi called upon all Indians to “reverentially remember” those whose lives had been “sacrificed” because of Partition and to those families who were displaced during the tragedy.
In 2021, Modi announced that 14 August would be marked as 'Partition Horrors Remembrance Day' to glorify the sacrifices of people who were killed and displaced during the event.
According to Indian government records, between 5,00,000 and a million people were killed during the Partition episode. Official records indicate that nearly 800,000 non-Muslims moved to Pakistan from India while over 700,000 non-Muslims residing in Pakistan were forced to move to India after Partition was announced.
Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar remarked that the “strategic consequences” of the Partition were “far-reaching”. “This painful period of our history holds important lessons for our nation," he said.
India and Pakistan have fought four wars since 1947, with three of them (1948, 1965 and 1999) being triggered because of the Kashmir dispute. Both the countries control parts of Jammu and Kashmir region, one of the most heavily militarized region in the world. New Delhi claims sovereignty over the parts of Kashmir administered by Pakistan, and has urged Islamabad to vacate territories under its "illegal occupation".
India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also posted a video on its social media, seeking to remind people about the “tragic part of our history”.
Partition Driven by ‘Majoritarian’ Fears, Says Pakistan
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s outgoing Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif lauded the ‘two-nation’ theory which led to the partition of the Subcontinent, as he sent out his greetings on the country’s 76th Independence anniversary celebrations.
“The freedom struggle for a separate homeland represented an idea whose time had come; an idea rooted in self-assertion an a hope for a better tomorrow,” Sharif said in his commemorative message. The Pakistani leader said that the “idea of Pakistan” was shaped by the “fear of living under the majoritarian principle advocated by (Indian National) Congress”, which played a key role in India’s independence movement.
Sharif hailed Pakistan’s founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who had championed the idea of a “separate Muslim identity” and justified the idea of a “separate homeland” for Subcontinent’s Muslims.
“He had warned that forcing them to live in a larger country under the principle of majoritarianism was a recipe for disaster,” Sharif recollected.
The Congress party and Muslim League, headed back then by Ali Jinnah, carried out the negotiations, mediated by the British imperialists, which eventually saw the subcontinent being divided on the lines of religion.
The BJP has been critical of former Congress leader and India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru for ceding to the demands of Jinnah and dividing the subcontinent on religious lines.