Records posted by: EMHAI

Caxton Hall

Caxton Hall is a location in which many momentous events occurred, including the assassination of Sir Michael O'Dwyer, the campaign...

Gandhi

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi born 2nd of October 1869, more commonly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was born in Porbandar, Kanthiawar, India....

Claridge's Hotel

The history of Bangladesh's independence can be traced to the 1947 Partition of British India, and to the history of...

Allama Iqbal

Allama Iqbal is widely considered one of the ideological founding figures of Pakistan and also holds the status of national...

National Liberal Club

The National Liberal Club (NLC) was established by William Gladstone in 1882, to provide club facilities for Liberal Party campaigners. ...

Muhammad Ali Jinnah

Muhammad Ali Jinnah (1876-1948), also revered as Quaid-i-Azam (Great Leader), was a barrister and politician who played a pivotal role...

EMBS was founded in 1988 as a self-help business service for racialised minority groups in Oxford. One of its founders...

Balliol College

In trying to identify some of the earliest Muslim students to matriculate at the University after the enactment of the...

Founded in 1921, City of Oxford Motor Services Limited was an important site of employment in the 1950s and 1960s...

Al Shami

Al Shami restaurant was the site of Oxford's first halal butchers, and was established in the 1960s. Prior to its...

Trinity College

Brothers Wasif Ali and Naseer Ali Mirza became the first racialised minority and Indian students to be enrolled at Trinity...

Somerville College

Somerville College houses archival materials related to the Oxford Majlis, which was a student society modeled after the Cambridge Majlis...

Oxford Union

On 3 December 1964, Malcolm X addressed the Oxford Union when he partook in the 'Queen and Country' debate. He...

Oxford Martin School

The Oxford Martin School was the sity of of the Oxford Indian Institute, which provided training to Indian civil servants....

Site of the first mixed congregational prayer led by a woman (Prof Amina Wadud) in the UK, 18th October 2008....

A major site of employment which attracted Pakistani Muslims from Sheffield and Bradford. According to the newsreel source linked to...

The UK’s first halal farm, located in Cherwell. In 2002, Lutfi Radwan, a lecturer at the University of Oxford, and...

Empire and Partition Trail - Remembering Partition

Posted in:

Heritage Project

Author:

EMHAI

The Empire and Partition heritage trail is based on a collection of essays written by academics and historians to tell the shared history of the British Empire in India and the partition of India in 1947. 

The collection tells the story of this story starting in 1600 when Queen Elizabeth I granted a charter on December 31, 1600, forming the East India Company (EIC). The company traded spices, textiles, and goods in India, gaining influence through territorial and tax control and even a private army. 

Over time, the EIC became a ruling power in parts of India, exploiting India's resources, committing atrocities against Indian civilians and employing a "divide-and-rule" strategy, which created tension between ethnic and religious groups. Following the Indian Uprising of 1857, the British government took control of India from the company, turning it into a British colony. 

By the mid-1900s, the movement for Indian independence grew stronger and was led by figures such as Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Muhammad Ali Jinnah. However, there were significant disagreements about the outcome of Indian independence. Jinnah wanted to secure rights for Muslims and, by 1940, demanded a separate nation for India’s Muslims, whilst Gandhi supported a united India. The British government eventually agreed to grant India its freedom and, later, accepted Jinnah’s demands.

On 15th August 1947, India gained independence, and the country was split into two separate nations: Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority East and West Pakistan. Pakistan gained its independence a day earlier, on 14th August 1947.

Lord Louis Mountbatten- the last Viceroy of India- played a crucial role in overseeing the country's independence. Sir Cyril Radcliffe was appointed to draw a border between India and Pakistan; the contentious boundary is known as the ‘Radcliffe Line’. Later in 1971, East Pakistan declared its Independence from West Pakistan, and Bangladesh was born. The partition of India was hasty, resulting in the largest mass migration in history, communal violence, the tragic loss of lives and the displacement of millions of people.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this content are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions or beliefs of any organisation involved in the Remembering Partition project.


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