Borders on the Boil

Whether it is Pakistan, China, Bangladesh or Myanmar, the unfinished business of history haunts the region every day

- Seema Guha

THE sun set on the once powerful British Empire nearly 78 years ago. Yet, the borders hastily drawn by British officers, often conceived to best serve the colonial rulers, continue to haunt South Asia and keep the region in a perpetual state of tension. Contested borders don’t just divide nations—they split histories, cultures, and families and take a heavy toll on ordinary lives. The ghosts of the empire have shaped the destinies of India and Pakistan, as well as India and China, feeding nationalist fires and aggressive military build-ups often resulting in war.

The partition of India in 1947 unleashed an unforeseen communal bloodbath, with neighbours and friends turning against each other. The partition was the handiwork of Lord Cyril Radcliffe, a British lawyer who had never set foot on the subcontinent and knew nothing of its geography, politics, or culture. Ironically, he was chosen precisely because of his ignorance of the region—his lack of prior involvement was seen as a guarantee of neutrality.

Radcliffe was given the near-impossible task of drawing the boundary line between India and Pakistan in just five weeks. The resulting Radcliffe Line partitioned Punjab in the west and Bengal in the east, leading to the birth of the two nations— Pakistan and India—on August 14 and 15, 1947, respectively.

The partition triggered mass displacement, with an estimated 14 million people forced to migrate across the new borders. The communal violence that followed claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. The reverberations of Partition—in terms of trauma, border tensions, and fractured identities—persist till this day.