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72 years after Partition, let’s teach South Asian history

Dotted across London and Britain are people who bore witness to one of the most tumultuous events of the 20th century. They were once subjects of the British Raj and are now British citizens. Yet their first-hand experiences of empire, and its bloody end on the Indian subcontinent, have been largely shrouded in silence for seven decades.

Partition was the division of British India along religious lines into India and Pakistan in 1947. The statistics are staggering. It sparked the largest migration outside of war and famine the world has ever seen: more than 10 million people. Muslims fled to Pakistan, Hindus and Sikhs fled to India. It was accompanied by unimaginable violence as those of the “other” religion were targeted. It’s estimated about a million people died.

Over the past few years I have travelled around the UK interviewing colonial British and British South Asians about that time for my Radio 4 series and book Partition Voices. It has been one of the most moving experiences of my life, hearing elderly people speak of that traumatic period, often saying the words out loud for the very first time.

I was aware of the small window of time to record these testimonies. They tell a nuanced picture — of horrors, but also acts of compassion and humanity. Many from that generation still feel a visceral pull to the land of their birth, even if they have not been there in more than 70 years. Many speak of the Indian subcontinent as a place without borders, division, partition. A time when Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus could be friends, in cities and villages where that is now relegated to history.

And this is a part of British history, our national story. From 1948 until 1962 all Indians and Pakistanis were automatically British citizens. People whose lives were broken by partition came in their thousands to the UK to remake themselves and help rebuild the country after the Second World War. They worked the difficult shifts in the mills, factories and foundries. They fought for equal pay and against vicious racism. Their children and grandchildren were born here and are part of modern Britain.

As a report from the Runnymede Trust pointed out last week, empire and its link to migration is barely known. An honest appraisal of empire (and its end) is not taught widely in schools. For British South Asians, whose identity can be complex, and whose families may only have put down roots here a generation ago, this history matters. More widely, if the centuries-long connection with the Indian subcontinent is not understood, how can you explain why Britain looks the way it does today?

There are well over three million people of South Asian descent in the UK. There are growing calls for a recognition of South Asian history. This month interfaith and grassroots groups are lobbying Parliament and calling for the establishment of an annual South Asian heritage month. It’s about time we mark this history, teach it, and talk openly about what connects us rather than divides us.

Partition Voices: Untold British Stories by Kavita Puri is published by Bloomsbury