Gazing at Neighbours

In July 1947, British barrister Cyril Radcliffe was summoned to New Delhi and given five weeks to draw, on the map of the subcontinent, two zigzagged lines that would decide the future of one-fifth of the human race. One line, 553 kilometres long, created the province of West Punjab; the other, adding up to 4,096 kilometres, carved out a province called East Bengal. Both territories joined the newborn nation of Pakistan-an event called the Partition of India, which saw one million people being butchered and another fifteen million uprooted from their homes.