This is the story of the dramatic events that led to the partition of Ireland. A story that continues to reverberate to the present day. And dominate the relationship between the islands of Britain and Ireland. ibid.
For Britain, the loudest and most strident demands for self-determination came from very close to home, from a country that it had ruled for centuries: Ireland. Prior to the war, and in response to long-standing demands from Irish nationalists, Britain had been preparing to devolve some powers to a Dublin-based parliament, through so-called home-rule. But home-rule was fiercely resisted by Unionists, particularly in Belfast and large parts of Ulster, where for centuries the population had been impacted by migration from Scotland and England. ibid.
By the end of the nineteenth century Ulster’s distinctiveness was marked by its status as the most industrialised part of Ireland. ibid.
The outbreak of the First World War averted to threat of a violent confrontation between Ulster Unionists and the British government, and home rule was suspended. ibid.
Nine weeks after the Easter rising, on the western front the men of the 36th Division made a very different blood sacrifice. In July, during the first two days of fighting at the battle of the Somme, the Division suffered an appalling five thousand, five hundred casualties. Men fighting for Britain … ‘The battle of the Somme was absolute slaughter particularly for Ulster Unionists.’ ibid.
As Ireland went to the polls in December 1918, voters had a choice between Sinn Fein and the Irish Parliamentary Party, and between two radically different visions of Ireland’s future. ibid.
Both Unionists and Republicans would take advantage of another political force that emerged for the first time in 1918: Women. They had become more politically engaged before the war, and were voting now for the first time. They included the members of the Ulster Women’s Unionist Council. ibid.
‘Sinn Fein took matters into their own hands and formed an independent though illegal parliament in Dublin … the Dail is rapidly backed by force which is rapidly known as the IRA.’ ibid.
Republicans in favour of taking up arms had already done so. On the same day as the Dail sat in Dublin for the first time, two members of the Irish Royal Constabulary were killed in an IRA ambush in County Tipperary. The first shots of the Irish War of Independence had been fired. ibid.
Lisburn: Loyalists went on the rampage in the two, looting and burning Catholic homes and businesses. ibid.
President Enacts Border Restrictions: Conway Campaign Responds To President’s Comments. House of Cards US s5e2: Chapter 54, Fox News banner headline, Netflix 2017
Tiny is the first point of call for cartel mules crossing the border east of Lorado. He’s expecting a new shipment to push up the line … The US/Mexico border is ground zero for narcotics heading north. Drugs Inc s7e21: Chasing the High
Which [drugs] is smuggled into India through the 553 kilometre long international borders shared with Pakistan. Glut, The Untold Story of Punjab, 2010
Britain is about to leave the greatest territory in its empire: India. But with the clock ticking towards independence, neighbours become mortal enemies in a fight for land and power. India 1947: Partition in Colour, Channel 4 2022
Colourised archive and private documents will tell the story of the personal rivalries between the key players at the centre of partition: Nehru, Jinnah and Mountbatten. ibid.
Mountbatten’s wife was having an affair with Nehru. ibid.
In March 1946 the British sent a team to agree terms with the leaders of India’s biggest political parties. ibid. caption
It takes five days for enough British troops to be deployed to quell the violence. ibid.
So essentially the Indians are set free to kill each other. ibid. Historian
The appointment of a new viceroy, a decision that would affect the lives of millions: Lord Louis ‘Dickie’ Mountbatten, Last Viceroy of India. ibid.
1947: Mountbatten leaves Britain to take up his new appointment as Viceroy. ibid.
The Mountbatten’s own unconventional marriage would soon come to have a profound impact on political events. ibid.
I regard Jinnah as a psychopathic case. ibid. Mountbatten
Plan Falcon as it’s known is approved in London; it has not been discussed with any of the Indian leaders. ibid.
He did bully Jinnah into agreeing to the partition plan. ibid. historian
The way that partition is announced sent a shockwave throughout India … 73 days to create two new countries with two different identities. It sounds insane because it is insane. ibid.
India will be divided creating a new nation of Pakistan. But Jinnah, leader of the Muslim league, is left dismayed that his new country will be in two parts separated by a thousand miles. Then Mountbatten makes the extraordinary announcement that partition will take place not in a year but in ten weeks time. India 1947: Partition in Colour II
19 days after Mountbatten’s broadcast, Lahore, capital of the Punjab, is the first city to erupt into violence. ibid.
Trust between Mountbatten and Jinnah hits a new low. ibid.
‘It was a dreadful example of gerrymandering, it was deceitful, it was hugely dangerous.’ ibid. Son of boundary team member
The exact location of the partition boundary lines are finally announced resulting in a huge upsurge in violence. ibid.
It’s now estimated that during Partition between 1 and 3 million people lost their lives. Between 12 and 18 million people were displaced in the largest migration in human history. ibid. captions
This is the Wagah border crossing between India and Pakistan. Every evening the flags of these two great nations are lowered in a hugely popular display of national pride. But just seventy years ago this border didn’t even exist. In 1947, 200 years of British rule came to an abrupt end and this vast sub-continent was divided between an independent India and the new Muslim homeland of Pakistan. My Family, Partition and Me: India 1947, BBC 2017
The first outbreak of Partition violence occurred in the summer of 1946 in Calcutta. Reports of atrocities against Muslims spread throughout Bengal, and in Noakhali district roaming gangs … began a campaign of terror against Muslims. (India & Pakistan) ibid.
Known around the world as the Great Calcutta Killings: they set the pattern for the Partition violence that was to engulf India for the next two years. ibid.
The worst violence of all took place in Punjab. ibid.
This is the north Indian city of Amritsar. And a few miles in that direction is the Pakistani border. But just seventy years ago that border didn’t even exist. My Family, Partition and Me II: India 1947
West Bengal – ten months after they fled, the line of partition divided the state, and their village Mandari became part of the new Muslim homeland of East Pakistan. 1,500 miles to the west, Partition also split my Sikh family’s home of Punjab down the middle. ibid.
Lahore A Blazing Inferno: Life Completely Paralysed. ibid. Amrita Bazar Patrika 23rd June 1947 headline
A bitter and seemingly endless war along the [Iraq/Iran] border. The Edge of War: Saddam & the Ayatollah, 2012
700 kms long it divides Israel from the West Bank. This World, The Balfour Declaration, Jane Corbin reporting, BBC 2017
In 1953 after a brutal war Korea lay divided between the Capitalist South backed by the Western powers and the Communist North under Kim Il-Sung allied to the Soviet Union and China. The two sides were left facing each other across the most heavily armed border in the world. Locked in a tense military stand-off, they began to compete by other means. Storyville: North Korean Kidnap: The Lovers and the Despot, caption, BBC 2017
Korea was partitioned at the 38th Parallel by the Soviet Union and United States at the end of World War II. Secrets of War s4e10: Korea – Stalin’s Secret Air War, History 1998
The 38th Parallel: still a world divided. Hostility and land mines continue to separate the ever watchful North and South Koreans. Secrets of War s8e4: Korea, History 1998
In 1953 after a brutal war Korea lay divided between the Capitalist South backed by the Western powers and the Communist North under Kim Il-Sung allied to the Soviet Union and China. The two sides were left facing each other across the most heavily armed border in the world. Locked in a tense military stand-off, they began to compete by other means. Storyville: North Korean Kidnap: The Lovers and the Despot, caption, BBC 2017
The demilitarised zone divides the Korean peninsula into North and South at the 38th Parallel. The armies of both sides face each other along the border. This stand off has continued since the end of the Korean War in 1953. It’s a precarious balance of power that’s often been threatened. The Kim Dynasty, 2018
North Korea: a highly militarised state dominated by one family for half a century. The product of a conflict reinforced by nuclear threat that still endures today. It began with the Korean War fought between 1950 and 1953. A war that left a deep ideological and physical division between North and South and reverberated across the world. Nearly 70 years on, this unresolved conflict continues to pose a serious threat to America and her allies. The Korean War was one of the bloodiest chapters in the country’s history. A civil war that nearly ignited World War III. It took the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers and millions of Koreans. Korea: The Never Ending War, BBC 2019
The 38th Parallel was simply a line on a map. It followed no physical features … ‘It was a 30-minute decision.’ ibid.