Legacies of Partition for India and Pakistan

Abstract

South Asia’s political and socio-economic landscape has been greatly transformed in the seven decades since India and Pakistan achieved their independence. Nonetheless, many features are only explicable with reference to the legacies of the 1947 Partition. This essay traces these legacies with respect to ethnic and religious nationalism, state construction and the contrasting trajectories with respect to democratic consolidation. It argues that while the recent scholarship has acknowledged the enduring presence of the Partition on the lives of refugees and their descendants, accounts of its ongoing impact on statecraft are less developed. It is only when such legacies are analyzed that a fuller understanding is possible both of domestic developments and of the enduring rivalry between the two states.

Keywords

• migration
• ethnic nationalism
• religious nationalism
• Partition
• violence