The year was 1947. At least 12.5 million frightened people, displaced from their ancestral homes, fled across newly delineated borders, according to their faiths. Amid massive confusion and panic, some 1 million people — perhaps more — are estimated to have died. An untold number of women (by some accounts up to 75,000) were raped, sometimes tortured, disfigured and murdered.
This was of course the partition of India and Pakistan, an event that created two new independent nations, and unleashed an episode of brutal depravity that might be unmatched in recent history, with atrocities committed by Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs alike.
As a boy growing up in West Bengal, India I heard many horror stories from multiple sources, including my father. They gave a vivid illustration to what I would later learn in school: The birth of independent India in modern times caused one of the world’s largest and most painful forced migrations.
About the author
Neil Ghoshneilghosh4
Neil Ghosh is chief executive officer of SOS Children’s Villages USA, board chair of Global Youth Initiative, and former founding president of SNV USA. Neil's experience and expertise span the nonprofit, government, and private sectors.
