Pakistan came into existence at midnight on August 14, 1947, one day before Indi

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Pakistan Born: Partition Tears the Subcontinent

Pakistan came into existence at midnight on August 14, 1947, one day before India's independence, carved out of British India's Muslim-majority regions in a partition that created the largest mass migration in human history. Between 10 and 20 million people crossed the new borders in both directions. Hindu and Sikh families fled west Pakistan; Muslim families fled east. Communal violence killed an estimated one to two million people. Trains arrived at stations filled with corpses. The new nation consisted of two geographically separated wings, West and East Pakistan, separated by 1,000 miles of Indian territory. East Pakistan broke away in 1971 to become Bangladesh. The partition's wounds define South Asian geopolitics to this day.

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August 14, 1947

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Pakistan Born: Partition Tears the Subcontinent

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