Teaching about South Asia’s Partition
These resources offer educators examples of how to teach about one of the largest mass migrations in global history — the 1947 Partition of India and Pakistan.
One out of every five people on the planet lives in South Asia, a region comprised of the nations of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. South Asia is also the site of one of the world’s largest mass migrations ever — the “Partition,” which — after 300 years of British economic intervention and later, political domination — formed the new nations of India, with a majority Hindu population (though envisioned to be a secular country), and Pakistan, with a majority Muslim population, in August of 1947. The new nation of Pakistan was divided into East and West Pakistan; East Pakistan later fought for its independence and became the nation of Bangladesh in 1971.
In the lead up to Independence from British colonial rule, which had politicized South Asian religious identities in new ways, vigorous debates were held about whether to divide or “partition” into two countries. Then-British Viceroy of India, Lord Mountbatten, engaged a British judge Cyril Radcliffe to draw the borders of the new countries, though Radcliffe had never been to the region; the new borders were only announced by the departing British days after India and Pakistan’s independence, though as tensions were already on the rise, many began migrating prior to the official announcement.
From 1946 to 1948, an estimated 14 million people (from various backgrounds including Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs) headed in both directions, many forcibly driven out by violent extremist groups on both sides, creating one of the largest mass migrations in recorded human history (on par with the number of Africans forcibly taken to the Western Hemisphere during the Transatlantic Slave Trade from the 16th through 19th centuries). Unspeakable violence engulfed this large human displacement with an estimated 1 to 2 million people killed, and hundreds of thousands of women suffering sexual violence.
Very few educators know or teach about Partition, despite the legacies of this historical event that linger today in the divisions and inter-generational trauma it cemented both on the South Asian subcontinent and within the diaspora; there are an estimated 5.4 million people of South Asian descent that live in the United States.
The following recommended texts and resources seek to rectify this gap in knowledge, presenting nuanced perspectives on this significant world-historical event in age-appropriate ways.
Upper Elementary (Grades 3–5)
Three picture books — that are best geared to the upper elementary level given that they do hint at the conflict and violence that engulfed this period — are the following:
1. Chachaji’s Cup by Uma Krishnaswami, illustrated by Soumya Sitaraman (Educator Guide here). This picture book tells the story of an Indian-American boy and his grand-uncle, whose special teacup is the only item that the elder still has from his childhood home. There is also a page at the end of the book that offers a brief history of the Partition that could be shared with students as well.
2. Mukand and Riaz by Nina Sabnani (animated video of the book here). This picture book tells the story of two boys (Mukand and Riaz) who enjoy playing together and the story is set in 1947. When the news of Partition comes, they must say farewell to one another, and Riaz helps Mukand and his family depart for India safely.
3. The Moon from Dehradun by Shirin Shamsi, illustrated by Tarun Lak, is a picture book about a young girl who has to leave her favorite doll behind during her family’s migration to Pakistan during the Partition.
Middle School (grades 6–8)
The following books — that could be utilized at the middle and/or high school levels — offer deeply engaging narratives of individuals and communities during the Partition period.
1. The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani (Educator Guide here). This book, that won the Newberry Honor in 2019, tells the story of a 12-year old girl Nisha who has a Hindu father and a deceased Muslim mother. Nisha recounts her family’s refugee journey during the Partition through a series of letters to her mother in her diary. A sequel to the book will come out in 2024.
2. A Beautiful Lie by Irfan Master (Educator Guide here). In this young adult novel set in 1947 during the weeks before Partition, 13-year old Bilal, a Muslim boy in India, devises an elaborate plot with his friends to keep the news of the Partition and its related violence from his dying father who would find it heart-breaking.
3. The Partition Project by Saadia Faruqi is a forthcoming (2024) middle grade book about a young girl whose curiosity and budding journalism leads her to explore the Partition of India and Pakistan, causing rifts with family and friends.
High School (Grades 9–12)
There are several ways to engage students at the high school level in discussing South Asia’s Partition. The following activities align with the emphasis in Common Core on the use of primary sources (Reading Standards #5 and #7 for Literacy in History/Social Studies) as well as most state standards for world history that include 20th century decolonization movements and Unit 8 in the AP World History (Modern) curriculum that covers how “colonies in Asia and Africa achieved independence.” Each of these activities could build on one another in the sequence suggested below, or could be utilized individually.
1. Watch a Video and Discuss: In this 6-minute video from TED-Ed, “Why was India split into two countries?,” the basic foundations of Partition are discussed in an accessible way. In this 3-minute video, “Partition of India: One Woman’s Incredible Story,” a woman narrates her story of fleeing with her children during the violence and chaos of the Partition.
2. Engage with the 1947 Partition Archive: The 1947 Partition Archive is a treasure trove of information with nearly 10,000 oral histories of individuals who survived the Partition. An interactive map on their webpage can help students locate stories, explore migration routes, and read summaries of survivors who moved in different directions. This article (and video) in the New York Times about the Archive, as well as the organization’s YouTube channel, can also be useful for students to engage with.
3. Take a Virtual Museum Visit. Take a virtual tour of the Partition Museum in Amritsar, India, exploring online images of collection items, videos, and articles, such as this one from the BBC, about the museum. There is also a Kolkata Partition Museum being developed. Separately, this series of images of Partition from American photographer Margaret Bourke White could also be explored along with the museums’ items.
4. Read and Write Poetry: Poetry can be a way to understand the deeply felt traumas of Partition and their legacies. Students could read a few poems such as “Partition” (on pages 20–24) and “They Asked for a Map” (on pages 66–67) in Fatima Asghar’s book If They Come For Us, and the verses on pages 64–65 about Partition in Gayatri Sethi’s book Unbelonging. Students could then write poems individually or in small groups from the perspective of a Partition refugee, or about any related theme in their own family histories pertaining to exclusion, migration, conflict, or displacement.
Curriculum and Further Resources for Educators
Selected curricula, books and essays listed below offer analyses of the Partition and its legacies:
Curricula
- “Partition in the Classroom: Differentiated Strategies for Teaching India’s Partition” from the University of Texas. Pages 26–37 offer a helpful introduction for high school students on what oral histories are and could be paired with Activity 2 for high schoolers mentioned above.
- “India Partition Teaching Resources” from the Stanford History Education Group
Books
Non-Fiction
- Midnight’s Borders: A People’s History of Modern India by Suchitra Vijayan
- Footprints of Partition by Anam Zakharia
- Partition’s Post-Amnesias: 1947, 1971 and Modern South Asia by Ananya Jahanara Kabir
- Time’s Monster: How History Makes History by Priya Satia
Fiction
- Midnight’s Children (winner of the Booker Prize) by Salman Rushdie (that also has a film adaptation with the same title)
- Cracking India by Bapsi Sidhwa (“1947: Earth” is its 1998 film adaptation)
- Train to Pakistan by Khushwant Singh
The 1947 Partition Archive also has extensive lists of films and books on their website
Essays & Articles
- “The Great Divide” in the New Yorker
- “How the Partition of India Happened” in The Conversation
- “Young Indians and Pakistanis Rewrite their Shared History” in NPR
- “From post-memory to post-amnesia: Remembering and forgetting East Pakistan” in The Daily Star
Bringing South Asia’s Partition into the classroom can begin to raise students’ awareness about this significant historical event; by doing so, we can help students understand the dimensions of global conflict and possibilities for peace in our world today.
A shortened version of this article appears in Edutopia here.
