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.

Conflicted is a member of the Evergreen Podcast Network. And as always, I'm your host, Zach

Cornwell. You are listening to Part 3 of a multi-part series on the Part partition of India. Of course, it goes without saying,

if you haven't listened to the first two episodes of this series, go ahead and check those out

before diving into this one. If you'd like to support Conflicted, you can become a patron of the

show at patreon.com slash conflicted history podcast, or you can always just leave a nice review

or a five-star rating on the podcast app of your choice.

Now, I have to say, I am very excited about today's episode.

It's got twists and turns, romance and betrayal, political intrigue and shocking violence, all that good stuff.

And all of the threads that we've established thus far are going to start

to converge in some very interesting and surprising ways. But before we launch into the next

chapter of our story, let's take a few minutes to retrace our steps and remind ourselves of what

happened last time. When we last left off, it was August 1946. All across the subcontinent, India's leaders watched

in disbelief as the crowded city of Calcutta descended into a three-day spasm of sectarian

violence, a communal disaster that is known to history as the Great Calcutta Killings. For 72

awful hours, gangs of Hindu and Muslim militants prowled the streets,

slicing and burning and maiming each other until the British Indian Army was finally able

to restore some order. Ultimately, the deadly riots claimed the lives of 4,000 people.

But the most consequential casualty was the sense of unity and fellowship between India's two main religious communities, Hindus and Muslims.

It was a relationship that had been unraveling for years.

As Mohandis Gandhi had commented sadly just a few months prior, quote,

...