The Partition of India – Part 1: End of Empire

Conflicted: A History Podcast

Zach Cornwell

Society & Culture, Education, History

4.8 • 610 Ratings

🗓️ 4 July 2022

⏱️ 78 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the summer of 1947, the British Raj relinquished its hold over the Indian subcontinent. In its wake, two new nations were created: India and Pakistan. The hastily-drawn border between the countries slashed through communities and bisected entire provinces, triggering one of the largest forced migrations in human history. In the first episode of a multi-part series, we examine the twilight years of the British in India, as well as the forceful personalities who helped loosen its colonial grip. From Mohandas Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru to the elegant Earl of Mountbatten, we’ll begin assembling the cast that that will be forced to grapple with the looming crisis. Sources: Akbar, M.J. Tinderbox: The Past and Future of Pakistan. 2011. Tharoor, Shashi. Nehru: The Invention of India. 2003. Tharoor, Shashi. Inglorious Empire: What The British Did To India. 2017. Khan, Yasmin. The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan. 2007. Guha, Ramachandra. Gandhi: The Years That Changed The World. 2018. Sarila, Narendra Singh. The Shadow of the Great Game. 2005. Charles Rivers Editors. The Punjab. 2018. Charles Rivers Editors. British India. 2017. Puri, Kavita. Partition Voices: Untold British Stories. 2019. Malhotra, Aanchal. Remnants of Partition: 21 Objects From A Continent Divided. 2017. Von Tunzelmann, Alex. Indian Summer. 2007. Zakaria, Anam. The Footprints of Partition. 2015. Ahmed Akbar. Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity. 1997. Urvashi, Butalia. The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India. 1998. White-Spunner, Barney. Partition. 2017. Lawrence, James. Raj: The Making and Unmaking of British India. 1997. Hamdani, Yasser Latif. Jinnah: A Life. 2020. Fischer, Louis. Gandhi. 1950. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey Harry.
0:00.7	Hello mate.
0:01.5	Got any tips for the football?
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0:30.2	Hello and welcome to Conflicted, the history podcast where we talk about the struggles that shaped us, the tough questions that they pose, and why we should care about any of it.
0:39.9	Conflicted is a member of the Evergreen Podcast Network, and as always, I'm your host, Zach Cornwell.
0:46.0	I suppose it's very on-brand to say that I have extremely mixed emotions about the topic that we are about to explore today.
0:53.4	On the one hand, I am incredibly
0:54.9	excited, and on the other hand, I'm absolutely terrified. See, on my laptop, I have this folder,
1:01.5	and in that folder is a very long list of potential topics for the show for Conflicted.
1:07.0	And today's topic has been languishing on that list for almost the entire time I've been doing this show, which at this point is coming up on about three years.
1:15.2	So for three years, I've been avoiding this thing, which of course begs the question, why have I been avoiding it?
1:22.2	Obviously, we do not shy away from difficult topics on this show.
1:27.3	But in terms of complexity, depth, and sheer scope,
1:30.7	this one is almost unparalleled. It is also very emotionally charged. This topic means something to
1:38.1	people. It's still raw. It still hurts. And yet, paradoxically, almost no one in the Western
1:43.3	hemisphere knows much about it at all.
1:45.8	In today's episode, we are going to be talking about something called the Partition of India.
1:51.6	Partition, of course, means division or separation.
	...

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