Partition of Punjab

The [[Radcliffe line|Radcliffe Commission]], tasked with assigning each district to either Pakistan or India, announced its award on 17 August 1947, two days after the transfer of power.{{sfn|Spear|1990|p=238}} It divided the Sikh-dominated regions of the [[Punjab region|Punjab]] in equal proportion between the two dominions.{{sfn|Spear|1990|p=238}} Sikh groups, which had feared the worst, had been preparing to mount a vigorous opposition to the award.{{sfn|Spear|1990|p=238}}

The [[Radcliffe line|Radcliffe Commission]], tasked with assigning each district to either Pakistan or India, announced its award on 17 August 1947, two days after the transfer of power.{{sfn|Spear|1990|p=238}} It divided the Sikh-dominated regions of the [[Punjab region|Punjab]] in equal proportion between the two dominions.{{sfn|Spear|1990|p=238}} Sikh groups, which had feared the worst, had been preparing to mount a vigorous opposition to the award.{{sfn|Spear|1990|p=238}}

To counter the expected violence, the British Raj government had formed a 50,000-strong ''Indian Boundary Force''. When the violence began, the Force proved ineffectual. Most units, which had been recruited locally, had stronger ties to one or other of Punjab's three religious' groups, rendering them unable to maintain neutrality under stress.{{sfn|Spear|1990|p=238}} Within days of the Boundary Commission’s award, large-scale communal violence broke out on both sides of the new border.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Road to Partition 1939–1947|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/the-road-to-partition/|website=Nationalarchives.gov.uk Classroom Resources|publisher=National Archives|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150214075020/http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/the-road-to-partition/ |access-date=2 August 2014|archive-date=14 February 2015 }}</ref> Long columns of refugees began moving east and west in search of safety in the newly formed dominions.{{sfn|Spear|1990|p=238}} Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs engaged in retaliatory attacks as the situation descended into widespread chaos, marked by brutal atrocities; lines of civilians and oxcarts traveling in both directions were attacked and overwhelmed while refugee trains were intercepted, and their occupants killed, regardless of age or gender{{sfn|Spear|1990|p=238}} – the [[1947 Amritsar train massacre]] and the [[1948 Gujrat train massacre]] being amongst the most infamous examples. By September 1947, the arrival of Hindu refugees from West Punjab into Delhi unsettled the established Muslim community and temporarily destabilized the newly formed Indian government.<ref>Spear 1990 - [https://archive.org/details/historyofindiavo00perc/page/238/mode/2up?view=theater 238-239 page of hisotry of india part -2] </ref>{{sfn|Spear|1990|p=238}}

To counter the expected violence, the British Raj government had formed a 50,000-strong ''Indian Boundary Force''. When the violence began, the Force proved ineffectual. Most units, which had been recruited locally, had stronger ties to one or other of Punjab's three religious' groups, rendering them unable to maintain neutrality under stress.{{sfn|Spear|1990|p=238}} Within days of the Boundary Commission’s award, large-scale communal violence broke out on both sides of the new border.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Road to Partition 1939–1947|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/the-road-to-partition/|website=Nationalarchives.gov.uk Classroom Resources|publisher=National Archives|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150214075020/http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/the-road-to-partition/ |access-date=2 August 2014|archive-date=14 February 2015 }}</ref> Long columns of refugees began moving east and west in search of safety in the newly formed dominions.{{sfn|Spear|1990|p=238}} Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs engaged in retaliatory attacks as the situation descended into widespread chaos, marked by brutal atrocities; lines of civilians and oxcarts traveling in both directions were attacked and overwhelmed while refugee trains were intercepted, and their occupants killed, regardless of age or gender{{sfn|Spear|1990|p=238}} – the [[1947 Amritsar train massacre]] and the [[1948 Gujrat train massacre]] being amongst the most infamous examples. By September 1947, the arrival of Hindu refugees from West Punjab into Delhi unsettled the established Muslim community and temporarily destabilized the newly formed Indian government.<ref>Spear 1990 - [https://archive.org/details/historyofindiavo00perc/page/238/mode/2up?view=theater 238-239 page of History of India part -2] </ref>{{sfn|Spear|1990|p=238}}

The violence in the Punjab has been described by some scholars as a 'retributive genocide' between the religions.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://faculty.washington.edu/brass/Partition.pdf|title=The partition of India and retributive genocide in the Punjab, 1946–47: means, methods, and purposes|first=Paul R.|author-link=Paul Brass|date=2003|publisher=Carfax Publishing: Taylor and Francis Group|pages=81–82 (5(1), 71–101)|quote=In the event, largely but not exclusively as a consequence of their efforts, the entire Muslim population of the eastern Punjab districts migrated to West Punjab and the entire Sikh and Hindu populations moved to East Punjab in the midst of widespread intimidation, terror, violence, abduction, rape, and murder.|last=Brass|work=[[Journal of Genocide Research]]|access-date=16 August 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150319072448/http://faculty.washington.edu/brass/Partition.pdf|archive-date=19 March 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref> The Pakistani government claimed that 50,000 Muslim women were abducted and raped by Hindu and Sikh men and similarly the Indian government claimed that Muslims abducted and raped 33,000 Hindu and Sikh women.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P7a-FuiMcTYC&q=50+000+Muslim+women+partition&pg=PA75|title=Violent Belongings: Partition, Gender, and National Culture in Postcolonial India|last=Daiya|first=Kavita|publisher=Temple University Press|year=2011|isbn=978-1-59213-744-2|pages=75|quote=The official estimate of the number of abducted women during Partition was placed at 33,000 non-Muslim (Hindu or Sikh predominantly) women in Pakistan, and 50,000 Muslim women in India.|access-date=24 October 2021|archive-date=16 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230116113610/https://books.google.com/books?id=P7a-FuiMcTYC&q=50+000+Muslim+women+partition&pg=PA75|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tmA0DAAAQBAJ&q=50+000+Muslim+women+partition&pg=PA14|title=Revisiting India's Partition: New Essays on Memory, Culture, and Politics|last1=Singh|first1=Amritjit|last2=Iyer|first2=Nalini|last3=Gairola|first3=Rahul K.|publisher=Lexington Books|year=2016|isbn=978-1-4985-3105-4|pages=14|quote=The horrific statistics that surround women refugees-between 75,000–100,000 Hindu, Muslim and Sikh women who were abducted by men of the other communities, subjected to multiple rapes, mutilations, and, for some, forced marriages and conversions-is matched by the treatment of the abducted women in the hands of the nation-state. In the Constituent Assembly in 1949 it was recorded that of the 50,000 Muslim women abducted in India, 8,000 of then were recovered, and of the 33,000 Hindu and Sikh women abducted, 12,000 were recovered.|access-date=24 October 2021|archive-date=16 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230116113610/https://books.google.com/books?id=tmA0DAAAQBAJ&q=50+000+Muslim+women+partition&pg=PA14|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cm4PBNdaFjYC&q=50+000+Muslim+women+partition&pg=PA131|title=Women and the Politics of Violence|last=Abraham|first=Taisha|publisher=Har-Anand Publications|year=2002|isbn=978-81-241-0847-5|pages=131|quote=In addition thousands of women on both sides of the newly formed borders (estimated range from 29,000 to 50,000 Muslim women and 15,000 to 35,000 Hindu and Sikh women) were abducted, raped, forced to convert, forced into marriage, forced back into what the two States defined as 'their proper homes,' torn apart from their families once during partition by those who abducted them, and again, after partition, by the State which tried to 'recover' and 'rehabilitate' them.|access-date=24 October 2021|archive-date=16 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230116113853/https://books.google.com/books?id=cm4PBNdaFjYC&q=50+000+Muslim+women+partition&pg=PA131|url-status=live}}</ref> The two governments agreed to repatriate abducted women and thousands of Hindu, Sikh and Muslim women were repatriated to their families in the 1950s.

The violence in the Punjab has been described by some scholars as a 'retributive genocide' between the religions.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://faculty.washington.edu/brass/Partition.pdf|title=The partition of India and retributive genocide in the Punjab, 1946–47: means, methods, and purposes|first=Paul R.|author-link=Paul Brass|date=2003|publisher=Carfax Publishing: Taylor and Francis Group|pages=81–82 (5(1), 71–101)|quote=In the event, largely but not exclusively as a consequence of their efforts, the entire Muslim population of the eastern Punjab districts migrated to West Punjab and the entire Sikh and Hindu populations moved to East Punjab in the midst of widespread intimidation, terror, violence, abduction, rape, and murder.|last=Brass|work=[[Journal of Genocide Research]]|access-date=16 August 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150319072448/http://faculty.washington.edu/brass/Partition.pdf|archive-date=19 March 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref> The Pakistani government claimed that 50,000 Muslim women were abducted and raped by Hindu and Sikh men and similarly the Indian government claimed that Muslims abducted and raped 33,000 Hindu and Sikh women.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P7a-FuiMcTYC&q=50+000+Muslim+women+partition&pg=PA75|title=Violent Belongings: Partition, Gender, and National Culture in Postcolonial India|last=Daiya|first=Kavita|publisher=Temple University Press|year=2011|isbn=978-1-59213-744-2|pages=75|quote=The official estimate of the number of abducted women during Partition was placed at 33,000 non-Muslim (Hindu or Sikh predominantly) women in Pakistan, and 50,000 Muslim women in India.|access-date=24 October 2021|archive-date=16 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230116113610/https://books.google.com/books?id=P7a-FuiMcTYC&q=50+000+Muslim+women+partition&pg=PA75|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tmA0DAAAQBAJ&q=50+000+Muslim+women+partition&pg=PA14|title=Revisiting India's Partition: New Essays on Memory, Culture, and Politics|last1=Singh|first1=Amritjit|last2=Iyer|first2=Nalini|last3=Gairola|first3=Rahul K.|publisher=Lexington Books|year=2016|isbn=978-1-4985-3105-4|pages=14|quote=The horrific statistics that surround women refugees-between 75,000–100,000 Hindu, Muslim and Sikh women who were abducted by men of the other communities, subjected to multiple rapes, mutilations, and, for some, forced marriages and conversions-is matched by the treatment of the abducted women in the hands of the nation-state. In the Constituent Assembly in 1949 it was recorded that of the 50,000 Muslim women abducted in India, 8,000 of then were recovered, and of the 33,000 Hindu and Sikh women abducted, 12,000 were recovered.|access-date=24 October 2021|archive-date=16 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230116113610/https://books.google.com/books?id=tmA0DAAAQBAJ&q=50+000+Muslim+women+partition&pg=PA14|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cm4PBNdaFjYC&q=50+000+Muslim+women+partition&pg=PA131|title=Women and the Politics of Violence|last=Abraham|first=Taisha|publisher=Har-Anand Publications|year=2002|isbn=978-81-241-0847-5|pages=131|quote=In addition thousands of women on both sides of the newly formed borders (estimated range from 29,000 to 50,000 Muslim women and 15,000 to 35,000 Hindu and Sikh women) were abducted, raped, forced to convert, forced into marriage, forced back into what the two States defined as 'their proper homes,' torn apart from their families once during partition by those who abducted them, and again, after partition, by the State which tried to 'recover' and 'rehabilitate' them.|access-date=24 October 2021|archive-date=16 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230116113853/https://books.google.com/books?id=cm4PBNdaFjYC&q=50+000+Muslim+women+partition&pg=PA131|url-status=live}}</ref> The two governments agreed to repatriate abducted women and thousands of Hindu, Sikh and Muslim women were repatriated to their families in the 1950s.