75 Years After Partition: India, Pakistan and Bangladesh

This book explores how the 1947 Partition of British India not only divided people and territories but also deepened cultural rifts in postcolonial India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, especially between Hindus and Muslims. The colonial ＂divide and rule＂ strategy, which intensified religious divides, laid the foundation for ongoing tensions. Even as the 75th anniversary of Partition approached in 2022, this cultural segregation remains prevalent. Over the years, mass media such as films, press and television have significantly evolved in India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, playing a pivotal role in manufacturing, disseminating and perpetuating the narrative of cultural differences based on religion. These cultural platforms have gained even more influence with the rise of majoritarian nationalism in both India and Pakistan.

The chapters in this volume analyse how language, cinema, and textbooks contributed to the divide instead of bridging gaps, and why unresolved questions from the Partition continue to affect the region. The chapters cover the communalization of Hindi and Urdu, how textbooks in India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan narrate Partition, the role of mass media in India and Pakistan in presenting Partition, and the portrayal of Partition in films across India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. This book is aimed at students, researchers and scholars interested in postcolonial studies, South Asian history, cultural studies, and media analysis.

The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of India Review.

Amit Ranjan is Research Fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore. His latest book is India and China in Southeast Asia (edited with Diotima Chattoraj and AKM Ahsan Ullah) and The Aftermath of the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971: Enduring Impacts (edited with Taj Hashmi and Mazhar Abbas, Routledge, 2025). His papers, review essays and book reviews have been widely published in several journals, including Asian Affairs, Economic & Political Weekly. Journal of Asian Security and International Affairs, amongst many others.

Farooq Sulehria teaches at Beaconhouse National University (BNU), Lahore. He is the author of Media Imperialism in India and Pakistan (Routledge, 2018) and has co-edited From Terrorism to Television: Dynamics of Media, State, and Society in Pakistan (Routledge, 2020). He has a PhD in Development Studies (SOAS) and an MA in Global Media and Post-national Communication (SOAS). He has published over twenty book chapters and peer-reviewed articles in international journals. He has previously worked as a journalist in Pakistan and Sweden. He also edits, Jeddojehad.com, a multimedia site.