The Punjab Disturbances of 1946-47: Revisited

In 1947, on the eve of Partition of India, a large scale killing, lootings of innocent citizens across the border took place which claimed lives of millions of people. According to an estimate almost more than two million people were killed, and almost another fifteen million, in addition, were forced to migrate from their homes. Much has been written about the communal violence in India, but in most of the literature, the British is blamed for igniting and encouraging disturbance for their imperial designs. In fact, despite British stern actions to address the law and order in India in the dying days of the Raj, the British Government failed to prevent the massacres, especially brutal and widespread in the Punjab, and in the rest of the country in general. The British was blamed for mishandling the communal matters which to some extent were true, but after the lapse of 67 years of partition of India, one can make an objective study of the Punjab disturbances that broke out in 1947....