INTERFACULTY INITIATIVES THE 1947 PARTITION OF BRITISH INDIA: THE DEMOGRAPHIC AND HUMANITARIAN CONSEQUENCES The Partition of British India represents the largest recorded migration in human history. Despite abundant historical and political scholarship on Partition, and despite a growing literature of personal reflection and fiction, very little had been done, even after almost 70 years, to search the extensive archival records of British India and the three countries (Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan) that evolved from Partition to determine what actually happened to the millions who chose to or were forced to relocate within that very short period of time.
FACULTY DIRECTOR: Jennifer Leaning; FXB Center, HSPH CAMBRIDGE TEAM: Zohal Atif, EdM Candidate, HGSE Swati Gupta, EdM Candidate, HGSE Zeeshaan Zafar Hashmi, LLM Candidate, HLS Muhammad Sarib Hussain, Harvard College ‘15 INDIA TEAM: Mihir Bhatt, All India Disaster Mitigation Institute Uma Chakravarti, Project Director, Delhi India Researchers Mandvi Dogra, Haryana Rimple Mehta, Kolkata Jhuma Sen, Kolkata Navsharan Singh, Delhi Srikant Singh, Delhi Uma Chakravarti, second from right, conducting field research at the IndiaBangladesh border
PAKISTAN PARTNERS: Dr. Shahram Azhar, Habib University, Karachi Dr. Yaqoob Bangash, Information Technology University, Lahore Dr. Furrukh Khan, Lahore University of Management Sciences, Lahore Sana Mahmood, Agha Khan University, Karachi The ambition of the Partition Project is to develop a rich and empirically grounded understanding of Partition using the extensive archival records of British India. The project aims to explore these questions: How many people chose to or were forced to move? Where did they depart from and where did they relocate? How many people died and where? How many people suffered and where? What efforts were made by government and civil society to mobilize relief and mitigate these severe consequences? The project aims to focus not on the violence surrounding Partition, but on the relief efforts and rehabilitation of refugees by local organizations, in part to help prevent such future refugee crises. The research team based in Cambridge has been working to develop a narrative of the project using resources at Harvard’s Widener Library. In the region, research teams based in Pakistan and India have been partnering with local universities to help widen the scope of the research through document retrieval.
NEXT STEPS Moving forward, the project hopes to expand its academic scope to other issues including business and the impact on cities in a divided country. Research will also offer a comparative perspective to other regions of the world affected by mass migrations.
Year in Review 2015 - 2016
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