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: Media

South Asian history [1947]

Videos

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

How India Finally Won a 200-year Fight for Independence

In August 1947 British rule ended on the Indian subcontinent.

Video: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

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

What is the history of the India-Pakistan conflict?

At the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, British rule ended in the Indian subcontinent.

Video: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Images

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

partition of India

Indians crowding onto trains during the partition of India into a predominantly Hindu...

Bettmann/Getty Images

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

Lord Mountbatten with Nehru and Jinnah

A discussion on the partition of India involving (from left) Jawaharlal Nehru, vice...

© Keystone-France—Gamma-Keystone/Getty Images

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.

India today

India as it exists in the early 21st century.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

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.

Pakistan today

Pakistan as it exists in the early 21st century. Before the independence of Bangladesh...

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

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.

Bangladesh today

Bangladesh as it exists in the early 21st century. In the first decades after partition,...

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

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.

August 1947

Indian soldiers walking through the debris of a building in the Chowk Bijli Wala...

© AFP/Getty Images

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.

Refugee camp

A family photographed in a refugee camp in Pakistan following the partition.

© Keystone-France—Gamma-Keystone/Getty Images

Interactives

India-Pakistan conflict timeline

India-Pakistan conflict timeline

Banner for India-Pakistan conflict timeline.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

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