Partition Horror Remembrance Day, Background and History with Pakistan

Every year since 2022, the country observes 14 August as the 'Partition Horrors Remembrance Day'. The day is observed to remember the suffering and pain experienced by millions of people in this region due to the partition of undivided India in 1947 into two independent countries: India and  Pakistan. 

Partition led to the cross-migration of millions of Hindus and Sikhs from Pakistan to India and Muslims from India to Pakistan. The cross-migration of the population and the ensuing riots led to the death of lakhs of people on both sides of the border.

Background to the Partition Horrors Remembrance Day 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his Independence speech on 15 August 2021, declared 14 August as the “Partition Horrors Remembrance Day”. According to him, this day was to be observed as a reminder to the nation about the suffering the country faced due to partition to resolve to remove the evil of social divisions and disharmony and to strengthen the spirit of social harmony, oneness, and human empowerment.

The first Partition Horrors Remembrance Day was observed on 14 August 2022 in India.

Demand for Pakistan and Partition of India 

The idea that Muslims are a nation as distinct from Hindus in India was articulated by many muslims leaders. 

Sir Muhammad Iqbal articulated the idea of a Muslim nation within India at the All India Muslim League conference in Allahabad in 1930.

Choudhry Rahmat Ali, who was studying at Cambridge University, coined the word ‘PAKISTAN’ as the name of a new homeland for the muslims of the Indian subcontinent.

Lahore resolution 

For the first time, the demand for a separate homeland for the muslims of the Indian subcontinent was made by the All India Muslim League at its session in Lahore on March 23, 1940. This resolution, in effect, made Muhammad Ali Jinnah the sole spokesman of the muslims of the Indian subcontinent.

On 3 June 1947, Viceroy Lord Mountbatten announced the details of the country's partition into India and Pakistan. 

Later, in June 1947, the British set up a boundary commission headed by the British Jurist Cyrill Radcliffe to draw the boundaries of India and Pakistan.

The Radcliffe Commission published a map of the newly independent countries of Pakistan and India on 17 August 1947.

Based on the Mountbatten plan, the British parliament passed the India Independence Bill on 5 July 1947, which became an act with the British monarch's assent on 18 July 1947.

The India Independence Act of 1947 created two independent countries, India and Pakistan, and it came into effect on 15 August 1947.

India celebrates Independence Day on 15 August, while Pakistan observes 14 August as its independence.

Partition Museum in India 

The world’s first museum on partition has been set up in Amritsar, Punjab, and it was opened to the public on 17 August 2017.

The museum has been set up by the  Arts and Cultural Heritage Trust with the help of the Punjab Heritage and Tourism Promotion Board, Government of Punjab.