A few years ago, my friend Shweta was making me a beautiful, spicy indian curry and talking to me about her homeland. It was during this conversation that she mentioned the hardships faced by her family (and specifically her father) during the partition of 1947.

I looked at her blankly and queried as to what the partition was exactly.

In the current day, most of us like to believe that we are fairly well in tune with the world’s current events and the political, social and environmental happenings of most outposts of the globe. However, it often requires a little bit of background reading to understand the roots of the conflict and tension that exists today.

So, if you aren’t familiar with the Partition of India and Pakistan, I recommend you read this little article. You will see that around 13 million people shifted between India and Pakistan, and up to 5 million people were killed during the event. It may also provide some background as to why Kashmir is such a deep-rooted conflict and some of the underlying factors that surface in cross-border and internal tensions.

If you are interested, you might also like to see the film “Earth” by Deepa Mehta which is set during the partition.