A research project preserving the voices of South Asians who lived through the Partition.

Partition refers to the division of British India into two independent nation-states, India and Pakistan, in August 1947.

This monumental event marked the end of British colonial rule and the creation of two separate countries based on religious majorities. While India emerged as a secular state with a Hindu majority, Pakistan was established as a separate nation for Muslims. The province of East Bengal was made part of Pakistan and was referred to as East Pakistan, while West Pakistan was carved from the northwest provinces of the British Indian empire. This deliberate effort by the British government to separate the regions of Pakistan and place them each on the opposite side of India directly contributed to famine in East Pakistan. In March 1971, Bangladesh, formerly known as East Pakistan, declared their independence.

The Partition was accompanied by unprecedented mass migrations, communal violence, and significant upheaval. Millions of people were displaced from their homes, forced to cross new borders, often amid chaos and hostility. This period left deep scars and reshaped the social, cultural, and political landscapes of the region, and more contemporarily, has had lasting formations on the identities of South Asians today.