Looking Back, Informing the Future: The 1947 Partition of British India

Podcasts

The Mittal Institute presents a series of podcasts in which distinguished faculty and visiting scholars explore the history, context, and continuing impact of the Partition of India and Pakistan — one of the most violent, defining events of modern history.

The nine episodes below were recorded during the Mittal Institute’s Partition Seminars, featuring a range of Harvard faculty from various disciplines and schools presenting on themes including humanitarian consequences, nationalism, cities and settlements, long-term impacts, and more.

History and Context of the Partition

Sunil Amrith, Renu and Anand Dhawan Professor of History, Yale University

This podcast gives a broad overview of South Asian political history and a history of British colonial rule in South Asia, the place of South Asia within the empire, and specific governance policies and systemic factors that contributed to the Partition.

Historical and Humanitarian Consequences of Migration

Jennifer Leaning, François-Xavier Bagnoud Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Director, FXB Center for Health and Human Rights

This podcast explores the story of the mass migration of Hindus/Sikhs and Muslims from Pakistan and India, respectively, into the other country and the resulting humanitarian crisis.

Gender and the Partition

Catherine Warner, College Fellow in South Asian Studies and History, Harvard University

When Partition is viewed from the lens of gender history, what happens? Is this the same history with women’s voices added and silences interpreted, or does it offer alternate scales and geographies? To what extent did Partition shape the gendering of citizenship in South Asia?

Religion, Ethics, Nationalism and the Partition

Ali Asani, Professor of Indo-Muslim and Islamic Religion and Cultures, Harvard University

Given that Partition is widely considered to have resulted due to religious differences, it is critical to explore the interplay between religion and nationalism in pre-Partition rhetoric, in the post-Partition riots, and in the actual migration process.

The Radcliffe Boundary Commission, Pt. I

Lucy Chester, Associate Professor, University of Colorado, Boulder

Over a period of six weeks in the summer of 1947, Cyril Radcliffe, a British lawyer who had never been to India and had no experience in boundary-making, drew a 2,500-mile-long line that would divide India and Pakistan.

The Radcliffe Boundary Commission, Pt. II

Lucy Chester, Associate Professor, University of Colorado, Boulder

Many of the maps used in this division had been created as tools of colonial control — and the “silences” of such maps, such as the absence of information about the inhabitants of the territory depicted, significantly impacted the Radcliffe Commission’s work.

Witness to Two Partitions, Pt. 1

Martha Chen, Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School; Affiliated Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design; International Coordinator of WIEGO

Chen speaks from a personal perspective as a long-term resident of India and Pakistan who witnessed two partitions: 1947 and 1971. For the 1947 Partition of India, Chen features excerpts from her grandmother’s letters written that year from Rawalpindi to family in the USA.

Witness to Two Partitions, Pt. II

Martha Chen, Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School; Affiliated Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design; International Coordinator of WIEGO

Chen speaks from a personal perspective as a long-term resident of India and Pakistan who witnessed two partitions: 1947 and 1971. For the 1971 Partition of Pakistan, Chen recalls a series of events she witnessed.

70 Years Later

Tarun Khanna, Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor, Harvard Business School; Director, Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute

Asim Khwaja, Sumitomo-FASID Professor of International Finance and Development, Harvard Kennedy School

The current impact of Partition and the new and continuing research and work that is being done on this topic.