A million dead, 12m refugees & wars that still rumble on... the terrible price of Britain’s chaotic carving up of India

without a final decision on who should rule the mountain kingdom of Kashmir in northern India. The maharajah, or ruler, was a Hindu. Most of his citizens were Muslims. Both India and Pakistan claimed the princely state.

By the end of October 1947, India and Pakistan were fighting over Kashmir. The conflict remains unresolved. Many Kashmiris would prefer independence.

India and Pakistan have a lot in common. They share a passion for cricket. If you speak Hindi, India’s main language, then you will understand Urdu, Pakistan’s official language. India’s Bollywood movies are big in Pakistan. Pakistani TV soaps are avidly watched in India. But the two nations have never become friends.

There are no direct flights between the two capitals, and India has more trade with Belgium than with Pakistan. The land that was allocated to the new Muslim nation was divided by a thousand miles of Indian territory.

In 1971, with the support of the Indian army, East Pakistan broke away to become the independent nation of Bangladesh. For many in Pakistan, it felt like a second partition.

The intense rivalry with India has destabilised Pakistan’s democracy. The army is by far the most powerful institution. And radical Islam has been able to use the war cry of saving Muslim Kashmir from Hindu India to win recruits and money. Meanwhile, India has developed into a major world power, with a robust – if flawed – democracy and a booming economy. Muslims currently account for one-insix of India’s population, but it is forecast that it will soon be home to more Muslims than any other country.

Britain’s imperial history in South Asia explains the large number of migrants who came here to find work or be educated. There are almost 1.5 million people of Indian descent in Britain and slightly more whose forebears are Pakistani or Bangladeshi.

The tensions between different religious groups that flared up 70 years ago have inevitably had an impact on the outlook of migrants in Britain.

But as British Asians of all communities reflect on the immense tragedy that accompanied independence, they do so more in sadness than in anger.