The Partition of Punjab in 1947
The end of British rule divided Punjab between India and Pakistan. A boundary award, failing protection and mass flight transformed the province’s towns, villages and families.
East and West Punjab; India and Pakistan
History · A guide to the archive
Partition: events, lives and testimony
Read Punjab’s Partition through historical accounts, literary lives, testimony guidance and recorded acts of solidarity.
How to approach this subject
This selection discusses displacement and violence, including violence against women. Begin with the overview and retain the source notes when following an individual experience. Testimony, a literary work and a contemporary administrative record each require different questions. The archive guide and quotation essay help readers consider access and context before using another person’s remembered experience.
An intentional selection
Begin with these entries
Women and gendered violence during Partition
Women faced sexual violence, abduction and coercion during Partition. Their experiences also expose the power of family, community and state over decisions about belonging and return.
Punjab and the India–Pakistan borderlands
Rescue and solidarity during Partition
Amid Partition’s violence, people protected fellow travellers, cared for wounded strangers and helped families reconnect. These documented acts did not erase the failures and shortages surrounding them.
Punjab on both sides of the new border
Saadat Hasan Manto: stories across Bombay, Lahore and Partition
Manto’s short stories and work in radio and film confronted lives disturbed by desire, violence and the partition of British India.
Punjab, Bombay, Delhi and Lahore
The 1947 Partition Archive: a researcher’s guide
Distinguish public excerpts from research access, read the archive’s current conditions, and preserve an interview’s context and permissions.
South Asian Partition experiences and a globally collected archive