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New Delhi: India’s partition triggered one of the largest migrations in modern history, with millions fleeing violence into ancient tombs and forts that were transformed into sprawling refugee camps.
After India gained independence from Britain in 1947, more than 15 million people were displaced, with Muslims heading for the newly formed Pakistan and Hindus and Sikhs moving in the opposite direction.
At least a million died on the journey, and the rest crowded into fetid camps in cities already on the verge of collapse from violence, looting, and food shortages.
In New Delhi, law and order have almost completely broken down, with tens of thousands of Muslims hiding behind the 16th-century walls of Humayun’s Tomb, awaiting safety in Pakistan.
The tents are set up in the beautiful gardens surrounding the grand mausoleum that inspired the Taj Mahal, and extend around the smaller mausoleums that dot the Mughal-era complex.
As space became cramped, entire families packed in with their belongings on the upper floors of the great courtyard of the massive domed monument.
Historian Yasmin Khan wrote in his book The Great Partition that the royal fountain at Humayun’s Tomb “was so fouled with human dirt that it had to be filled in with sand”.
The influx of refugees continued until they comprised nearly a third of Delhi’s population.
Those who arrived on foot, by train or by horse-drawn carriage slept in the marketplace, under makeshift shacks or sought shelter in the vast tent cities that dotted the capital.
The largest camp was located at the Purnakila Fort, where refugees from all walks of life camped “with their camels, wagons, ponies, shabby taxis and limousines,” eyewitness Richard Simmonds wrote in Khan’s book.
“The Delhi Fort is a landmark of Partition,” said Guneeta Singh Balla, founder and executive director of the 1947 Partition Archives.
“The images of the refugee camps there are still haunting.”
In parts of Punjab province, a desert region dividing India and Pakistan, begging and hunger are widespread due to food shortages, with rations reduced to just one chapati a day.
Amritsar, less than 30 km from the new border, witnessed terrible riots, with areas such as Katra Jaimal Singh and Chowk Bijli Wala virtually destroyed in looting and arson.
Sikhs fleeing persecution sought refuge at Khalsa College, a prestigious and picturesque Victorian-era college built in the late 19th century as a relief camp.
A new museum in Amritsar is helping to document and digitize the history of Partition.
But in Delhi, there are no memorials on these landmarks that housed countless refugees to mark this dark chapter in their lives for hundreds of years.
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