partition

The partition of India of 1947 was the division of British India into two independent dominion states, India and Pakistan, enacted by the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The two self-governing countries legally came into existence at midnight on 15 August 1947, and would involve the division of two provinces, Bengal and Punjab, based on Muslim and non-Muslim majorities by district. India would go on to become, as it exists today, the Republic of India; while the former Dominion of Pakistan would later split further, into what is now the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the People's Republic of Bangladesh.
Outlined in the Indian Independence Act 1947, the partition saw the dissolution of the British Raj (i.e. Crown rule in India), as well as the division of the British Indian Army, the Royal Indian Navy, the Indian Civil Service, railways, and the central treasury. There was Opposition to the partition, most famously by Mahatma Gandhi; whereas support for two-nation theory was driven by the All-India Muslim League, led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Additionally the Pashtuns, who were already divided before by the Durand Line, were not given an option to gain independence or join Afghanistan. Others believed that the partition was a deliberate British move to prevent a strong united India.The partition displaced between 10–12 million people along religious lines, thus creating overwhelming refugee crises in the newly-constituted dominions. Large-scale violence would come as result, with estimates of loss of life accompanying or preceding the partition disputed and varying between several hundred thousand and two million. The violent nature of the partition would create an atmosphere of hostility and suspicion between India and Pakistan that plagues their relationship to the present day. Among princely states, the violence was often highly organised with the involvement or complicity of the rulers. It is believed that in the Sikh states (except for Jind and Kapurthala), the Maharajas were complicit in the ethnic cleansing of Muslims, while others, such as those of Patiala, Faridkot, and Bharatpur, were heavily involved in ordering them. The ruler of Bharatpur is said to have witnessed the ethnic cleansing of his population, especially at places such as Deeg. Widespread murder and violence against women occurred due to the partition.
The term partition of India does not cover the secession of Bangladesh from Pakistan in 1971, nor the earlier separations of Burma (now Myanmar) and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) from the administration of British India. The term also does not cover the political integration of princely states into the two new dominions, nor the disputes of annexation or division arising in the princely states of Hyderabad, Junagadh, and Jammu and Kashmir, though violence along religious lines did break out in some such regions at the time of the partition. It does not cover the incorporation of the enclaves of French India into India during the period 1947–1954, nor the annexation of Goa and other districts of Portuguese India by India in 1961. Other contemporaneous political entities in the region in 1947, Sikkim, Bhutan, Nepal, and the Maldives were unaffected by the partition.

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