Partition of India

The partition of India was the process by which British dependencies and treaty states in the Indian subcontinent were granted independence in the 1940s. The divisions resulted in the creation of four new independent states—India, Burma (now Myanmar), Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and Pakistan (including modern-day Bangladesh)—and sowed the seeds for later conflicts between India and Pakistan.

Refugees settled in India

Many Sikhs and Hindu Punjabis settled in the Indian part of Punjab. The responsibility of rehabilitating Hindu Sindhis was borne by all the states in Indian Union, but most Sindhis settled in the western states of Gujarat and Maharashtra. Sindhis have contributed greatly towards industrializing India.

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In late 2004 Sindhis vociferously opposed a Public Interest Litigation in the Supreme Court of India which asked government of India to delete word Sindhi from the Indian National Anthem (written before the partition) on the grounds that it infringed upon the sovereignty of Pakistan.

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Former refugees have also played an active role in Indian politics. The current Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, is a Punjabi Sikh. The leader of the opposition BJP, L.K. Advani, is a Gujarati born in Karachi (his family emigrated in 1953). Both were born in what is now known as Pakistan.

Related Topics:
Manmohan Singh - L.K. Advani - Gujarati - Karachi

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These people have now lost their refugee status as such.

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