70 years ago, Partition came into effect, dividing British India into two new, independent countries: India and Pakistan. At midnight on August 14 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of independent India, gave a famous speech which hailed the country's decades-long, non-violent campaign against British rule: At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance. However, it soon dawned on the leaders of both countries that the hope and optimism of that night would quickly turn to the harsh realities of how to handle one of the largest mass migrations in modern history and the ensuing communal violence. As India and Pakistan celebrate 70 years of independence, we look back at how two nations were formed - and the years of bloodshed that followed. A 'Google Doodle' on August 15 to celebrate Indian independence How did Indian and Pakistani independence come about? The Indian independence movement began in 1857. The early proponents led militant uprisings against British rule, but the leaders of the Indian National Congress, which was founded in 1885, pushed for more rights for Indians in terms of the vast civil service and land ownership. From the 1920s onwards, Mahatma Gandhi was established as the leader of the Indian independence movement. His belief in civil rights and non-violent struggle inspired a generation. Many inspirational activists came to the fore, such as B. R. Ambedkar, who championed greater rights for the lower castes, that had been treated despicably under British colonial rule. In 1942, Congress launched the "Quit India" movement. Britain, leading the fight against Nazism in the Second World War alongside 2.5 million Indian troops, promised to grant India independence after the war. Following the Battle of Britain, Gandhi said he would not push for India's self-rule out of the ashes of a destroyed Britain. Mahatma Gandhi in 1947 Credit: Royston Leonard / mediadrumworld However, by the end of the war and with its empire weakened, Britain was unable to resist the overwhelming demand for independence. Both Congress and the Muslim League, led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, dominated elections. Further, Clement Attlee, by now Britain's prime minister, was a supporter of independence. In a climate of growing communal tensions and pressure from Jinnah, who argued that Muslims should have their own state, the Mountbatten Plan was hastily conceived. It divided British India along broad religious lines. The problem being that there were millions of Muslims living in what would become Hindu-majority India and huge numbers of Hindus and Sikhs living in what would be Muslim-majority Pakistan. Mountbatten and Jinnah Credit: Royston Leonard / mediadrumworld Sir Cyril Radcliffe, who led the Boundary Commission, proposed the Radcliffe Line, which was a "notional division" of the vast country based on simple district majorities. He submitted his plan for both the west and east borders on August 9 1947 - just five days before it came into force. The two countries celebrate on different days because Lord Mountbatten, the viceroy of British India, had to attend the Pakistan celebration on August 14th and then travel to Delhi for India's first independence day on August 15. King George VI remained the head of state of India until the enshrining of the country's constitution in 1950. Likewise, Pakistan remained a Dominion of the Crown until 1956, when its constitution came into force. Indian Independence | The numbers behind Partition Partition leads to mass migration The separation based on border lines created by the British at the end of their colonial rule came into effect at the stroke of midnight on the eve of Aug 14, 1947. In the days, weeks and months following Partition, 15 million Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs, fearing discrimination, swapped countries in an upheaval that cost more than a million lives. During the chaotic transition, train cars full of bodies arrived at railway stations in the twin cities of Lahore and Amritsar in the province of Punjab, which was split roughly down the middle. At least a million died along the journey, the rest pouring into fetid camps erected in cities already pushed to the brink by violence, looting and food shortages. Credit: Royston Leonard / mediadrumworld In New Delhi, where law and order had almost completely broken down, tens of thousands of Muslims sheltered behind the 16th-century walls of Humayan's Tomb waiting for safe passage to Pakistan. Tents were erected in the fine gardens surrounding the spectacular mausoleum - the inspiration for the Taj Mahal - and spilled over to encircle the smaller tombs dotting the Mughal-era complex. As space became scarce whole families huddled together with their life's possessions on the exposed upper levels of the grand courtyard of the enormous domed monument itself. The regal fountains at Humayan's Tomb "became so fouled with human dirt that they had to be filled in with sand", wrote historian Yasmin Khan in her book 'The Great Partition'. Indian and Pakistan: timeline of a testy relationship India marks 70 years of independence in New Delhi 01:33 'People were running around with knives, swords and guns' As India prepared to mark 70 years of independence, families who witnessed the death and destruction during partition recalled the tales of horror. Brothers Santa and Niranjan Singh were lucky to survive the crossing from their village of Bhasin on the Pakistani side of the new border to their current home in Sarangra in India. Santa, then aged 15 or 16, says everyone was baying for blood. People were running around with knives, swords and guns. Up to a dozen people from their village were killed in the madness, Santa told Reuters, saying they carried an injured brother across the border after he was shot through the head. Armed soldiers join Muslim refugees as they crowd one of the very few modern vehicles on the trek to the Muslim state of Pakistan Credit: Bettmann "The bullet went in from one side and went out from the other side of his head," said Santa, reminiscing at a gathering of his extended family. "We carried him all the way and he died after reaching this side." His younger brother, Niranjan, was barely 5 years old but still remembers the sight of houses being burnt and people being massacred, and hearing stories of women and girls being raped. Now the brothers live with their children and grandchildren, tending their lush green farmland located just two miles from the troubled border. India & Pakistan's troubled relationship | The key moments Chaos in Kashmir Shamsul Nisa was 10 when she watched her Muslim father, grandfather and six uncles killed by Hindu mobs in Udhampur, a southern town in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir. "Our homes and our lives were destroyed. We were suddenly turned into beggars," Nisa, 80, told The Associated Press. She had escaped along with her mother and four brothers, and the family settled in Muslim-majority Srinagar, the main city on the Indian-controlled side of the still-divided territory. India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars over control of Kashmir. Today, they each administer part of it, separated by a heavily militarised line of control. A third, smaller portion is controlled by China. In the chaos of those first days, when ancient principalities were pledging to join one of the two nations, Kashmir's final status was by no means certain. The Muslim majority rose up repeatedly against the Hindu Maharaja and his plans to remain independent. Pakistani tribesmen raided in an effort to wrest control; India marched troops into the region with a promise to keep the peace and to hold a referendum. Tens of thousands of Muslims were slaughtered by Hindu mobs in the southern Jammu region, while hundreds of thousands more were driven from their homes to Pakistan or Pakistani-controlled Kashmir. Until Partition, "Kashmir was not divided," Nisa said. "But whosoever could, grabbed and occupied parts of it." Nisa eventually became a teacher, got married and had three daughters and a son. Since the recent death of her husband, she remains with her son. "I can't stay alone" since those violent days in 1947, she said. "My heart palpitates with pain." She still believes Partition was the right move for South Asia - if only Kashmir could decide its own affiliation. "I think it was a right decision, and we also say that Kashmir should be freed (from India)." In this photo taken on August 2, 2017, Indian and Pakistani border guards take part in the nightly ceremony at the India-Pakistan border in Wagah Credit: AFP War, peace and dusk goose-stepping India and Pakistan have fought three wars since 1947, and relations remain tense, particularly when it comes to Kashmir, which both claim in full but rule in parts. Even as the rawness of the carnage that marked partition fades into history, the nuclear-armed neighbours re-enact their hostilities in ritual form in a colourful flag ceremony staged every day as the sun is setting over the Wagah border post that lies midway between Amritsar and Lahore. Thousands of supporters from each country come to witness a parade of patriotism from their border guards who, in a mock confrontation, goose-step up to each other, stomp their feet and shout their lungs out during their daily retreat. Pakistani Wing Commander Bilal (2L) presents sweets to presents sweets to Indian Border Security Force (BSF) Commandant Sudeep (4R) during a ceremony to celebrate Pakistan's Independence Day at the India-Pakistan Wagah border post on August 14, 2017 Credit: AFP Fists occasionally fly between Indian and Pakistani soldiers during the ceremony, but there is worse along the border. Kashmir, divided between the rivals and claimed by both, is on a permanent conflict alert with near daily clashes and shelling across the Line of Control (LoC), the official name of the disputed frontier. A woman relative of 28-year-old Muhammad Haseeb was killed as she worked in a field in the Nakyal sector on the Pakistani side just days before the partition anniversary. "We don't know when we will become the victim of a bullet," he told AFP. Tens of thousands, mainly civilians, have died in Muslim-majority Indian Kashmir in the past 30 years. India says about 40 militants have been killed this year trying to sneak across the border. Nine Indian soldiers have been killed on the LoC. Kashmiri Muslim protesters shout anit Indian slogans during an anti India protest on August 11, 2017 in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian administered Kashmir, India Credit: Getty Today's prospects for entente look slim Cricket is the national game for both countries, but they have not played a five-day Test match against each other in either country since 2007. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi went to Pakistan in 2015. But ties are in deep freeze again since Pakistan detained and sentenced to death Kulbushan Jadhav, a former Indian naval officer it accuses of espionage. For most politicians, observers and activists, India and Pakistan just cannot get over its split. Pakistan has been in new political chaos with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ousted over corruption allegations. But some on both sides blame Modi's hardline stance. "So long as there is a Hindu India that acts like a mirror to a Muslim Pakistan I don't see any chance of a reconciliation," said Mani Shankar Aiyar, an outspoken former Indian minister who as a diplomat was his country's first consul general in the Pakistani city of Lahore. Aiyar says that India and Pakistan need an Anglo-French style "Entente Cordiale" and then to get down to serious talks. Prominent Pakistani political analyst Hasan Askari said both countries have grievances and that relations can barely get any worse. "The present tension between India and Pakistan is unnatural. Therefore I don't expect this to stay as it is for all the time to come," he told AFP. "As no dialogue is taking place, this relationship is really bad," he added. How Pakistan celebrated independence Pakistan on Monday celebrated 70 years of independence from British India with a patriotic display including a giant flag and a show of airpower, as the military's top brass vowed to wipe out terrorists hours before a new bomb attack killed six soldiers, AFP reports. Celebrations began at the stroke of midnight with firework shows in major cities. People cleberate the Independence Day, in Karachi, Pakistan, 14 August 2017 Credit: EPA At the highly symbolic Wagah eastern border crossing with India, army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa raised a massive national flag on a 400 foot (122-metre) pole as crowds chanted patriotic slogans. Following the chest-thumping performance Bajwa said the country was making progress and promised to "go after each and every terrorist in Pakistan". "We have made a few mistakes in the past, but we are on the road to development under the guidance of our constitution," he added. An aerobatic team performs during celebrations to mark the country's Independence Day in Islamabad on August 14, 2017 Credit: AFP Later on Monday a roadside bomb in restive Balochistan province's Harnai district killed six paramilitary soldiers and wounded two others, a spokesman for the troops said. The separatist Baluch Liberation Army claimed responsibility in a telephone call to AFP.
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