TO REACH the baked earth of his mustard field each day, Mohammed Safiqual Biswas must pass coils of barbed wire and armed guards and show his identity card at a security check. The problem is not where Mr Biswas has come from, but where he is going to. His fields lie 60 miles east of Calcutta, right in the no man’s land between India and Bangladesh. India plans to fence off this area of West Bengal as part of a little-known £600 million project to erect a steel barrier right along its 2,500-mile border with its much smaller Muslim neighbour. As a result Mr Biswas and his village of 2,000 people will be sealed off from their own country. “We’ll be fenced out of India,” the 30-year-old farmer complains.
Raekha Prasad, The Times, 28 Dec. 2005

Identity Papers of an Indian Citizen, born at Karachi in formerly undivided India

East Pakistan becomes Bangladesh in 1971, but problems with India remain

“I, being a migrant (Muhajir) from India with Urdu as my mother tongue, was not much liked despite my being fluent in Bengali… We had to leave Dacca in a hurry in 1971 [as a result of the secession of Bangladesh]… “ Syed Faiyazuddin Ahmad

Unfinished Mourning: the British Military had their Graves; but the Unknown Numbers of Dead from an Unintended Transfer of Population have no Memorial.

Dad had been buried [at Jansi] but the army moved all the soldiers out of the graves and put them in this big army cemetery in Bombay. Mother was ever so upset about that … but I was pleased because when I went to see the old cemetery [people] were living [there], they had clothes hanging in it and [they were] lighting fires … Mrs. Patricia Aitken

An unfinished Partition? Kashmir

“India and Pakistan engaged in nearly three years of secret, high-level talks that narrowly missed achieving a historic breakthrough in the countries’ decades-old conflict over Kashmir, according to an account [by Steve Coll]. The negotiations, which began in 2004, produced the outlines of an accord that would have allowed a gradual demilitarization of the disputed Himalayan province, a flash point in relations between the rivals since 1947. The effort stalled in 2007, and the prospects for a settlement were further undermined by deadly terrorist attacks on Mumbai in November [2008]”.
Journalist's Account Says Three-Year Kashmir Initiative Failed By Joby Warrick Washington Post, 22 Feb. 2009

December 1947: Armed Pathan tribesmen waiting on road between Peshawar and Rawalpindi for their leader Batcha Gul, of the Mohman tribe, to arrive with trucks and extra ammunition, to lead them into battle in Kashmir

Conserving the past: Mr. and Mrs. Gohil with the newspaper collection of Mrs. Gohil’s father, a copy of which has been donated to the Record Office

Informing Future Generations: local teachers working on Partition learning resource

The Record Office thanks all who have contributed towards this Project

We thank all those who have helped us, particularly our interviewees. Particular thanks to Colin Hyde of the East Midlands Oral History Archive (EMOHA); Historical Adviser: Richard Bonney; Exhibition Designer: David Weight; Image collection of Councillor Shuja Sheikh; and for the majority of photographs from 1946–7: Margaret Bourke-White © Getty Images.

Page Last Updated: 24 July 2009