Independence · a Light

Pakistan was created on a date chosen for convenience

Pakistan became independent on 14 August 1947 and India the following day, because the last viceroy Louis Mountbatten had moved the whole transfer of power forward by about ten months and the two ceremonies had to be held on separate days so he could attend both. The boundary line between the two countries was drawn by Cyril Radcliffe, a British lawyer who had never been to India before, working from maps and census returns in five weeks. It was not published until after independence. The migration that followed was one of the largest in human history, and the border he drew still runs through Punjab and Bengal today.

Karachi and Delhi · 14 August 1947