Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, better known as Mahatma Gandhi, with independence activists during the Dandi March — a non-violent act of civil disobedience on April 6, 1930. Gandhi would become widely known as the man credited with securing India’s independence.
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Updated 1:12 AM ET, Mon August 15, 2022
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, better known as Mahatma Gandhi, with independence activists during the Dandi March — a non-violent act of civil disobedience on April 6, 1930. Gandhi would become widely known as the man credited with securing India’s independence.
PA Images/Reuters
In August 1947, the Indian subcontinent won its independence from the British, and two nations were born.
But the borders of the new countries — Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan — were drawn in haste, prompting one of the largest mass migrations in history and giving rise to some of the worst sectarian violence the subcontinent has ever seen.
The legacy of that violent separation has reverberated ever since, including in several wars the two countries have fought against each other.
Seventy-five years on, the birth of the two nations remains one of the most compelling tales of the 20th century. We look back at the creation of India and Pakistan, and the remarkable moments they have witnessed, from their freedom fighters to their leaders and the many ordinary people whose lives have been shaped by their partition.
Burned shops line a street in Calcutta — now known as Kolkata — after Hindu-Muslim rioting killed more than 4,000 people in August 1946. The Muslim League provincial government had made a call to Muslims for a “Direct Action Day” — ostensibly a day of strikes to support the creation of Pakistan.
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Leader of the All-India Muslim League, Muhammad Ali Jinnah (center), arrives in London on December 3, 1946, with viceroy and governor-general of India Lord Wavell, Liaquat Ali Khan, Sardar Baldev Singh and Frederick William Pethick-Lawrence, for talks with Britain about the autonomy of Muslims in India, which culminated in the creation of the state of Pakistan.
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A nurse holds a crying orphaned child, as she stands beside her wounded sibling, following communal violence in Amritsar, Punjab. The children’s mother was stabbed to death in March 1947 during communal riots in the months leading up to Partition.
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Hundreds of Muslim refugees crowd on top of a train leaving New Delhi for Pakistan in September 1947. Partition led to millions being forced to migrate across the subcontinent. It’s estimated that 500,000 to 2 million people perished in partition.
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The first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, holds a mace of gold on the eve of India’s independence in New Delhi, India, on August 14, 1947.
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Jawaharlal Nehru and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan, during the signing of the agreement between India and Pakistan in New Delhi, 1947. The agreement would safeguard the rights of minorities in both nations.
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Indians celebrate the first independence day on August 15, 1947, in Bombay, now known as Mumbai.
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A civil commission of Pakistanis presents the flag of the nation during a ceremony at Lancaster House in London, on August 15, 1947.
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Hindu and Sikh women arrive in Bombay, now Mumbai, with their children on a British-India liner after leaving from Pakistan on October 9, 1947.
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The funeral for Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is held on January 30, 1948, following his assassination. Gandhi is credited for leading India to independence and inspiring civil rights movements around the world.
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A Pakistani soldier aims his rifle, while a fellow soldier runs for cover during Indian shelling of Pakistani positions in East Pakistan on December 2, 1971. A third war between India and Pakistan in East Pakistan ends with the creation of Bangladesh.
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Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi welcomes Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at Calcutta — now Kolkata — airport in India on February 6, 1972.
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Pakistani President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto with India’s Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on June 28, 1972 in Shimla, the former summer capital of British India, while his daughter Benazir Bhutto (second from the right) and Indian Foreign Minister Swaran Singh look on. Bhutto visited India to meet Gandhi and negotiated a formal peace agreement and the release of 93,000 Pakistani prisoners of war. The two leaders signed the Shimla Agreement, which committed both nations to establish a Line of Control in Kashmir.
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The body of assassinated Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is covered with flowers on a pyre as it is set afire on November 3, 1984, after she was shot by her own security guards.
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Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, Indira Gandhi’s son and Nehru’s grandson, speaks from inside a bullet-proof glass container at the historic Red Fort during Independence Day ceremonies in New Delhi, August 15, 1985.
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Benazir Bhutto is sworn in as Pakistan’s first female Prime Minister in December 1988.
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Hindu activists climb on top of the Babri Masjid, five hours before the mosque was demolished by Hindu fundamentalists in 1992. More than 2,000 people — mostly Muslims — were killed in nationwide rioting following the demolition, some of the worst violence seen in India since independence.
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School children in Mumbai celebrate 50 years of India’s independence on August 9, 1997.
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A man bows before a shrine to Mahatma Gandhi and other independence leaders on August 13, 1997, ahead of India’s 50th independence day celebrations.
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Police fire tear gas during Hindu-Muslim riots in Ahmedabad, Gujarat state, in India on March 3, 2002.
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Mourners pay their respects to the slain former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi in Pakistan on December 30, 2007, following her assassination.
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An Indian soldier takes cover as the Taj Hotel burns during gun battle between Indian military and militants inside in Mumbai, India on November 29, 2008. Ten Pakistani men associated with the terror group Lashkar-e-Tayyiba stormed buildings in Mumbai, killing 164 people.
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India’s first female president Pratibha Patil waves to photographers in New Delhi on July 25, 2012.
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Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai during the awards ceremony at the City Hall in Oslo, Norway, on December 10, 2014. Two years earlier, she was shot in the head by the Pakistani Taliban for her efforts to promote girls’ education in the country.
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Women mourn their relative Mohammed Ali Khan, 15, a student who was killed during an attack by Taliban gunmen on the Army Public School, at his house in Peshawar on December 16, 2014. Taliban gunmen in Pakistan killed 145 children during an attack on a school in the northwestern city of Peshawar.
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People fly kites from roof tops in Delhi as they celebrate Independence Day, India, August 15, 2017.
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Kashmiri Shiite Muslims shout anti-Indian slogans during a demonstration against attempts to revoke Kashmir’s special status, in Srinagar on August 24, 2018. A year later, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi revoked Article 370, which was in place since 1949 and gave the states of Jammu and Kashmir the power to have their own constitution, flag and autonomy over all matters, save for certain policy areas such as a foreign affairs and defense.
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Bhopal gas tragedy survivors and activists from various groups take part in a candlelight vigil to commemorate the 36th anniversary of Bhopal gas disaster on December 2, 2020, calling for justice over the 1984 leak at a US-run chemical plant that killed thousands.
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A woman looks at Indian national flags ahead of the 75th Independence day on August 4, 2022 in Pune, India.
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Students carry an Indian national flag ahead of the country’s 75th independence day celebrations in Ahmedabad, India, August 8, 2022.
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India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on July 24, 2022.
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