India event

munity. She has collected the stories of local people who were caught up in partition and her living history interviews are to be archived for posterity at Huddersfield University’s Heritage Quay.

It’s not too late to be part of Drawing the Line, as last-minute rehearsals are taking place from August 7 until August 11, every afternoon from 1pm until 5pm, at the Proper Job studio, Byram Arcade.

If you’re interested in becoming a performer go along to the first Chol members involved in the project to mark the 70th anniversary of the partition of India are, from left, Shazia Bibi, Susan Burns and Sameena Hussain rehearsal.

The partition of India into India and Pakistan happened on August 17, 1947, and followed the independence of the subcontinent from Britain earlier in the month. (It is the subject of Salman Rushdie’s novel Midnight’s Children).

A British lawyer, who had never visited India, drew the line, now known as the Radcliffe Line, that divided the two countries, using old maps and with no knowledge of the land or its people.

The intention was to create a Hindu state in India and a Muslim state in Pakistan, but many communities were divided, resulting in a migration of around 18m people across the border to join their religious majority.

There was a complete breakdown of law and order, which the newly-created governments could not control.

The effects of partition are still being felt today and there is still religious migration across the border and persecution on both sides.