The 1947 partition of India into "independent" Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan out of colonial control was one of the most violent and traumatic events in modern history.
The great event was marred by mass sectarian violence, with an estimated 10 to 15 million people displaced and up to 2 million people killed.
It's a fact, the 1947 left a gory chapter along with the political development that the colonial Britons had left the shore of united India.
A convoy of Sikhs travels to Punjab after the partition of India in August 1947. Photograph: Margaret Bourke-White (The Guardian)
The divided India looked horrible.
Parts of eastern and north-eastern and north-western flanks of the country, made up of Muslim majorities, became Pakistan on 14 August 1947.
The rest of the country, predominantly Hindu, but also with large religious minorities peppered throughout, became India - Bharat or even Hindustan.
Sandwiched between these areas stood the provinces of Bengal (in the east) and Punjab (in the north-west), densely populated agricultural regions where Muslims, Hindus and Punjabi Sikhs had cultivated the land side by side for generations.
"The thought of segregating these two regions was so preposterous that few had ever contemplated it, so no preparations had been made for a population exchange" went an article in 'The Guardian' 2017.
The BBC's archives extensively document the trauma, noting that many survivors and their descendants still carry the heavy psychological and historical baggage of the 1947 events. Historical coverage outlines how militias from various religious factions were formed, violently driving people out of villages to secure control of land.
2002 - Gujarat Mayhem
The burning of a train in an once upon a time little known Godhra township and the riots aftermath it changed the contemporary political games. It also kicked off a larger debate on the nature of modernity and the national identity in India. There followed 'unsentimental' rhetoric and analyses and also a reappraisal of the so-called 'idea of India'.
The BJP's stunning triumph in December 2002 polls was clearly down to one man - Gujarat's chief minister, Narendra Modi. Today, he is Prime Minister of India and he swears by a Hindutva-infected nationalism and has been successfully winning elections both at the national level and in states.
Modi had presided over the worst religious riots in India's recent history.
Hindu mobs enraged by the Muslim burning of 59 Hindu pilgrims on a train in the town of Godhra, went on the rampage - burning and killing more than 2,000 of their Muslim neighbours.
Now comes - 2026 polls in West Bengal: It is a gamechanger because presumably the Hindutva politics will now go full steam -- irrespective of what Muslims will say or do in India or even in countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Holding centres are now coming up. At one such centre; reportedly nine Bangladeshis have been kept.
The 2026 polls in West Bengal was more than electoral battle between the BJP of Modi and the Trinamool Congress. The dynamics of Partition history were at play.
In 1947 and even a few years after than ... it was all about the high politics and the relative responsibilities of Mountbatten, Jinnah, Mahatma Gandhi and Nehru.
These four men and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel have always towered over the story, and ultimately their animosities and the reasons they failed to agree on a constitutional settlement.
These made them the leading actors of an enduring and gripping drama. But today. we have protagonists such as Modi himself, India's Home Minister Amit Shah and West Bengal chief minister Suvendu Adhikari.
Historians in times to come will take a closer view of the ups and downs. But they might become "more interested" in the times to come on the fate of "Bangladeshi infiltrators".
And how would millions again possibly rebuild their lives ?
One part of the story - that is political is much simple. Walking the path of religious polarisation and leveraging underlying anti-incumbency, Modi’s party, that is the BJP, sweeps West Bengal dethroning a party whose rationale about many things are now being questioned.
Life sometimes is in whirl of success and happiness. It's true for a nation too.
In the 24 years and more, there has never been a greater need than today (May 2026) for a balanced and objective interpretation of the politics of Hindutva champions and the principal protagonist Narendra Modi.
As stated above, we will have greater and more forceful spread of the very concept of Hindutva.
Will it go beyond India's political boundary?
But at the same time; the Muslim terrorism and actions and inactions in Islamic Pakistan and another nation called Bangladesh will also be debated.
In 2002, Gujarat had about 9% of Muslim population.
At times; they were suggested that they could "consider" leaving India for Pakistan. This time the people in question are already tagged as Bangladeshi infiltrators. This is the reality.
At times. edits may be written in newspapers calling such a dichotomy as shameful, disturbing, and even fascist.
But these may have takers. It has already worked brilliantly in electoral chess board.
The Hindutva's "populist rightwing tactics" now could be repeated in Kerala !
We may debate soon on what the implications would be for India's political journey as well as for the future of South Asia.
A Sikh family on the road to Punjab in 1947. Photograph: Margaret Bourke-White/The Life Picture Collection/Getty (The Guardian)
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