India is celebrating this year 75 years of her independence and simultaneously observing 75 years of the partition of the sub-continent ~ a tragedy that created perhaps the worst refugee crisis the world has ever witnessed. Two provinces that were affected worst by the Partition were Bengal and Punjab. The Census figures of the two countries for the year 1951 revealed that about 53 lakhs Muslims moved from the Indian side of Punjab to Pakistan in the years immediately after Partition. Around 12 lakh Muslims migrated from Gujarat, Maharashtra, Hyderabad, and other parts of Northern India to Sindh and about 7 lakh Muslims migrated from West Bengal and Bihar to East Bengal. On the other hand, about 34 lakh Hindus and Sikhs moved from the Pakistan side of Punjab to East Punjab, about 12 lakh Hindus and other non-Muslim communities from Sind to India and about 27 lakh Hindus migrated from East Bengal to India immediately after partition. Of them, 22 lakh migrated to West Bengal and the rest to Assam and Tripura. (Read More)
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