Abstract
Partition of the Indian subcontinent in August 1947 to create two sovereign states of India and Pakistan was marked by the greatest migration in the twentieth century. Around twenty million people were displaced by Partition, with Hindus and Sikhs migrating to India and Muslims migrating to Pakistan. This article hopes to understand the importance of the Partition violence through previously unused Police First Information Reports (FIRs), that lodged at thana (local police stations) at the time. Police FIRs provide some novel evidence in which the private desire for economic motives presented a major contributory factor in the attacks on unwanted minorities. Crime often reports identity the local constituencies and categories for violence, as well as typologies and occupational basis of perpetrators. Alongside the struggle over territory and the cry for revenge, the article not only highlights different forms of violence but also draws attention to some of the local perpetrators of violence at the neighbourhood level. A focus is on the complicity of the members of law enforcers in coordinating the violence, rather than protecting the communities under attack.
Keyword(s)
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