Freedom and Partition: Momentous Events of 14-17 August 1947 in India and Pakistan

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Freedom and Partition offers a reconstruction of four momentous days which shaped the lives of millions of people in the Indian subcontinent: 14-17 August 1947. Based on primary archival material, newspaper reports, oral histories and private papers of leaders, it looks at how the outgoing British officials worked with the leaders of the Congress and the Muslim League to plan the ceremonies that would mark the birth of India and Pakistan. In doing so, this book offers a ringside view of events in New Delhi and Karachi.
Moving away from official ceremonies, Freedom and Partition uses a 'slice of life' approach to see how ordinary people in cities and towns looked at the approaching moment, capturing the sense of trepidation and insecurity felt by minority communities in Bengal, Punjab, Sindh and across much of north India. This volume provides vignettes of Gandhi's peace mission for the safety and security of the minorities in Calcutta and recounts how the euphoria of freedom came to be overshadowed by the Radcliffe Award of 17 August 1947. Finally, it examines how popular meanings and memories of 14-15 August 1947 have changed over the decades, as shown by shifts in narratives which have marked the 25th, 50th and the 75th anniversaries of Independence and Partition.

Tan Tai Yong is President of Singapore University of Social Sciences. He has been a faculty member at the Department of History, National University of Singapore (NUS) since 1992 and served as the President of Yale-NUS College during 2017-22. He is Chairman of the Institute of South Asian Studies (NUS) as well as the National Museum of Singapore and serves on the National Heritage Board, the National Library Board, and was a Nominated Member of Parliament from 2014 to 2015. He has authored and co-authored several books, including Singapore: Seven Hundred Years-A History of Singapore (2019) and The Garrison State: Military, Government and Society in Colonial Punjab (2005).
Gyanesh Kudaisya is Associate Professor in South Asian Studies and Visiting Associate Research Professor at the Institute of South Asian Studies (NUS). He has held visiting research appointments at Asia Research Institute, NUS and Research School of Pacific & Asian Studies of the Australian National University, Canberra, the Institute of Advanced Studies, JNU and the National Institute of Ethnology, Osaka. He has authored A Republic in the Making: India in the 1950s (2017, Hindi edn., 2022) and Region, Nation, Heartland: Uttar Pradesh in India's Body Politic (2005).
Tan and Kudaisya have researched extensively on Independence and Partition in South Asia and have co-authored The Aftermath of Partition in South Asia (2000, 2002) and co-edited three volumes of Partition and Post-Colonial South Asia (2008).

As India and Pakistan prepared to celebrate their respective Diamond Jubilees in mid-August 2022, elaborate plans were announced by governments in both the countries to suitably commemorate the occasion. India marked the anniversary with an initiative known as Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav (AKAM) ('Elixir of Energy of Independence', according to the official website). The Government of India announced in March 2021 that the Mahotsav will be 'dedicated to the people of India who have not only been instrumental in bringing India thus far in its evolutionary journey but also hold within them the power and potential to enable Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of activating India 2.0, fuelled by the spirit of 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' ('self- reliant India'). Ambitious plans were announced for the Mahotsav, which we shall discuss at length below.
In Pakistan, President Arif Alvi kick-started the Diamond Jubilee celebrations in Islamabad in March 2022 with the launch of a logo. Referring to what he called India's 'current hate campaign.