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Words and Music Partition Words and Music: Partition

August 1947 - just seventy years ago - and Britain grants independence to India but at the same time splits its dominion to create Pakistan. The actor Sanjeev Bhaskar, whose own family was caught up in the turmoil, joins Ayesha Dharker in a programme that traces the emotional and psychological cost of Partition. There are readings from the work of Intizar Husain, Saadat Hasan Manto, Kushwant Singh, Amrita Pritam and Anita Desai, amongst others, and music that reflects the turbulence - whether it's a rallying cry, a lament, the sound of stunned incredulity or simply strangulated laughter in the face of bureaucratic insanity. Partition deepens religious divisions on the subcontinent. Twelve million people are displaced and are forced to find new homes in the new states. Sickness and starvation claim many on the road; many more die in sectarian violence. Some historians put the death toll as high as two million. It's a huge political earthquake in the life of southern Asia and the aftershock is still being felt today. Producer: Zahid Warley.