partition of India

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Hundreds of Indian refugees crowd on top of and beside packed trains at a station during the 1947 partition of India and Pakistan.

India-Pakistan conflict timeline

Collage of raised-fist silhouettes over a halftone orange, yellow, and green background, featuring historic newspaper text and faint crowd imagery.

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Lord Ismay, Lord Mountbatten, and Ali Jinnah seated at a conference table during the partition talks in New Delhi.

Political map of India showing state and union territory boundaries, major cities, and neighboring countries. Thicker solid lines indicate international borders, dashed lines show disputed boundaries, and dotted lines mark lines of control in contested regions such as Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh. An inset locator map highlights India's position in the world.

Political map of Pakistan showing provincial boundaries, major cities, and surrounding countries including India, Afghanistan, Iran, China, and Tajikistan. The map highlights international boundaries, disputed borders, and lines of control, with a locator inset indicating Pakistan's position in Asia. Major regions such as Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Azad Kashmir are labeled.

Political map of Bangladesh showing its national boundaries, major cities, and surrounding countries including India, Myanmar, and Nepal. Major Bangladeshi cities such as Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna, and Rajshahi are labeled. An inset locator map in the bottom left highlights Bangladesh's position within South Asia.

Two distressed people sit amid ruins; behind them is a partitioned, color-coded map of India overlaid on destroyed urban buildings.

Two Indian soldiers walk through rubble and debris of destroyed buildings in the Chowk Bijli Wala area of Amritsar during unrest after the Partition of India in August 1947.

A refugee family, including women and children, sits on the ground near bundles and suitcases in a camp in Pakistan after the 1947 partition of India and Pakistan.

partition of India: References & Edit History

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Article Contributors

Primary Contributors

Rebecca M. Kulik
Rebecca M. Kulik contributes articles on the social sciences and humanities to Encyclopaedia Britannica.
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Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors.

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Article History

Type	Description	Contributor	Date
	Invalidated site: Stanford University Libraries - The 1947 Partition Archive - 1947 Partition of India and Pakistan.	Gloria Lotha	Nov 04, 2026
	Add new Web site: CNN World - Faith, fury and fear: The story behind one of historys greatest mass migrations.	Gloria Lotha	Sep 19, 2026
	Added media.	Tamanna Nangia	Aug 10, 2026
	Add new Web site: IndiaNetzone - Partition of India.	Aakanksha Gaur	Feb 13, 2026
	Add new Web site: Imperial War Museums - Partition of India: Why India was divided in 1947.	Emily Rodriguez	Dec 29, 2025
	Add new Web site: BBC - Partition: Why was British India divided 75 years ago?	Aakanksha Gaur	Nov 21, 2025
	Add new Web site: ABC listen - God Forbid - The Partition of India.	Emily Rodriguez	Sep 29, 2025
	Media added.	Meg Matthias	Aug 07, 2025
	Added media.	Tamanna Nangia	Aug 05, 2025
	Add new Web site: Ohio State University - Origins - India-Pakistan Partition.	Grace Young	Jul 09, 2025
	Media added.	Meg Matthias	Jun 02, 2025
	Added cross-reference.	Andrew Pereira	May 22, 2025
	Added metadata.	Tamanna Nangia	May 05, 2025
	Add new Web site: National Army Museum - Independence and Partition, 1947.	Yamini Chauhan	Apr 14, 2025
	Add new Web site: National Endowment for the Humanities - The Story of the 1947 Partition as Told by the People Who Were There.	Aakanksha Gaur	Jan 14, 2025
	Add new Web site: Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care - Catastrophic impact of 1947 partition of India on people�s health.	Yamini Chauhan	Jul 31, 2024
	Add new Web site: Stanford University Libraries - The 1947 Partition Archive - 1947 Partition of India and Pakistan.	Aakanksha Gaur	May 07, 2024
	Add new Web site: Cultural India - Partition of India.	Aakanksha Gaur	Mar 28, 2024
	New article added.	Adam Zeidan Rebecca M. Kulik	Nov 28, 2023