The Forgotten Narrative

The sorrow of the world’s largest migration ever, The Partition

- Kishwar Desai

IT is the world’s largest migration till date— but the tragedy was that for many years it was forgotten by the whole world, and most of all in the country of its origin, India. A recent study has put the figure of those who were forced to migrate during the Partition of India in 1947 at 20 million—but even that may not do justice to the reality.

Despite such a huge displacement—as people walked in kafilas, came in trains, trucks, cars, on horseback, by boat and ship, and a few lucky ones came in planes—it was as though the country was afflicted by complete amnesia and their plight did not even merit a small space in history books. Yes, some did write about it, but it was always mostly about the violence that accompanied the Partition, and not about the refugees that were a result of it.

Basically, the Partition refugees were a unique category of people: they became homeless in their own country, many of them overnight. The memory of their humiliating exodus on both sides of the border is particularly painful as they were not part of the political dialogue and una­ ware that they would be pressurised to leave for either India or Pakistan based on their religion. Many had assumed that they would be allowed to stay in their well­settled homes. But experienc­ ing threats and violence, they left their entire homes and lives behind, without realising they would never be able to return.