Station 3- Photographs of Partition

Station 3- Photographs of Partition

Directions: Your job is to describe what you see in each picture, giving at least two details. Some of these images are graphic. I have included them to show the scale of violence and chaos in the months after India's independence. 

Sourcing Information:

Life Magazine

Photographs taken by Margaret Bourke-White in 1947. She called the photograph spread "The Brutal Great Migration"

*You can click on the photos to enlarge them on your screen*

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Picture 1: 

In the days after partition was announced, millions left for their promised new homeland as trains departed from both India and Pakistan. This picture shows a train leaving India for Pakistan.

Picture 2: (make sure you're in the box for picture 2) 

Over 10 million people left their homes and traveled on foot and by train to a different country.

Picture 3

In the months after independence was announced, up to one million people were killed on both sides. This picture shows bodies in the streets after a riot.

Picture 4 Above is a picture of a young refugee. As the chaos got worse, refugee camps were created all over India because displaced people had nowhere to live. Picture 5 There were not enough trains to transport all of the people who wanted to move in between countries. People literally had to sat on the roof of the trains to get on them. What's different about this train picture in comparison to the first one you looked at? Picture 6 The situation was often worse for people that had to walk (often hundreds of miles) to the new place they would be living. Here is a picture of a family who has abandoned their journey because their grandfather is so sick.

Picture 4

Above is a picture of a young refugee. As the chaos got worse, refugee camps were created all over India because displaced people had nowhere to live.

Picture 5

There were not enough trains to transport all of the people who wanted to move in between countries. People literally had to sat on the roof of the trains to get on them.

What's different about this train picture in comparison to the first one you looked at?

Picture 6

The situation was often worse for people that had to walk (often hundreds of miles) to the new place they would be living. Here is a picture of a family who has abandoned their journey because their grandfather is so sick.