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The Partition of India in 1947 was a horrendous human tragedy on a gargantuan scale not seen before or since. The communal violence of serious magnitude was rearing its ugly head and creating havoc in various parts of the country like in Calcutta, Noakhali, Tippera and Bihar at least a year before the departure of the British. Unprecedented communal riots in Rawalpindi, Multan, Lahore, Amritsar and Gurgaon in the undivided Punjab, or Haripur in NWFP caused deep wounds on the collective psyche of both Hindus and Muslims and led to an all-out bloodletting following their departure. What should have been a moment of crowning triumph was marred by unimaginable violence, bloodshed and the largest migration and dislocation in human history.

This book is an outcome of the author’s six years of research and describes this inhuman fratricidal war whose severe aftershocks are felt even to this day. It also attempts to clear many of the misconceptions about this period and covers broadly what happened not only in the Punjab, but also in NWFP, Sind, Baluchistan and, importantly, Bengal, which cumulatively suffered as much, perhaps more, albeit over a long period.