Today is India’s Independence Day.
It was on this day back in 1947, that the present-day country of India was born & gained its independence from Great Britain.
Pakistan became independent on the 14th of August.
Prior to this day (also known as “Partition”), it was part of the greater British Indian Empire, encompassing what is now Pakistan, India & Bangladesh (well...technically East Bengal at first then East Pakistan up until 1971).
The partition of India & Pakistan was a traumatic experience for both countries.
In what has been said to have been the largest mass migration of all time (estimates put the number of people to have moved between the borders to be around 10 million to 12 million), the resulting violence saw somewhere between 700,000 to 1 million people killed (these are estimates – no-one knows the true number !!).
The violence created hostility & suspicion between Pakistan & India that persists to this day.
Happy Independence Day
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