The Telegraph: Indian Independence Day

This August marks 70 years since the Great Partition divided British India into two independent nations: India and Pakistan. The Indian independence movement engaged in non-violent struggle under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi and diplomacy efforts in international forums in the wake of the Second World War, just as the old British and French empires were on the verge of collapse. As Barney Henderson observes for the Telegraph: “Both [the Indian National] Congress and the Muslim League, led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, dominated elections. Further, Clement Attlee, by now Britain's prime minister, was a supporter of independence.” On the eve of August 14, 1947, the plan for the establishment of a Muslim-majority Pakistan and Hindu-majority India was set into motion and one of the largest mass migrations in human history saw “15 million Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs, fearing discrimination, swap countries in an upheaval that cost more than a million lives.” He adds that the prospects for entente look slim, “particularly when it comes to [a Muslim-majority] Kashmir, which both claim in full but rule in parts.” The rise of Hindu nationalism alongside Islamophobia as a global phenomenon in the 21st century has exacerbated tensions within and between the two nations. – YaleGlobal