After World War II, the British Empire was weaker than it had ever been. Facing financial problems and shortages of manpower, Britain found it increasingly difficult to maintain control of the vast territories under its rule. Nowhere was this more evident than in the single most important area in the empire: India.

A growing independence movement within India saw Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh people begin to demand their own homelands. Sectarian violence was increasing, and British forces were not strong enough to maintain control over the whole country. Facing the very real prospect of a civil war in India, Britain urgently needed a plan for withdrawal.

In early 1947, a new viceroy was appointed and given the task of creating that plan. His proposal was that, rather than a single nation, former British India would be partitioned into two independent nations: India and Pakistan. The British government had hoped to begin withdrawing British troops from India in the summer of 1948, but stunningly, the new viceroy announced that British responsibility in India would end in August 1947, barely six months after his appointment. To some people, this looked less like an orderly withdrawal and more like precipitate flight.

What followed was mass forced migration and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. This is the tragic story of the partition of India.