Partition Horrors Remembrance Day: PM Modi pays homage to those who were killed

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday paid homage to all those who lost their lives during partition, and applauded the resilience as well as grit of those who suffered during that tragic period of history.

Prime Minister Modi had announced last year that August 14 will be observed as Partition Horrors Remembrance Day in memory of the struggles and sacrifices of people.

"Today, on Partition Horrors Remembrance Day, I pay homage to all those who lost their lives during Partition, and applaud the resilience as well as grit of all those who suffered during that tragic period of our history," Modi said in a tweet.

Partition of India

The partition of India in 1947 divided British India into two independent dominions: India and Pakistan.

The Dominion of India is today the Republic of India, and the Dominion of Pakistan is the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the People's Republic of Bangladesh.

The partition involved the division of two provinces, Bengal and Punjab, based on district-wide non-Muslim or Muslim majorities.

The partition displaced between 10 and 20 million people along religious lines, creating overwhelming calamity in the newly-constituted dominions.

It is often described as one of the largest refugee crises in history. There was large-scale violence, with estimates of the loss of life accompanying or preceding the partition disputed and varying between several hundred thousand and two million.

The violent nature of the partition created an atmosphere of hostility and suspicion between India and Pakistan that affects their relationship to this day.

(with inputs from PTI)