7th Grade Humanities students learned about the history of India – from before British colonization through independence. In addition, they explored the Partition Plan designed by Cyril Radcliffe in 1947. This controversial plan divided the land into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan, setting off one of the greatest forced human migrations in history of nearly 14.5 million people. Muslims in India set off for newly-formed East and West Pakistan, while Hindus in those areas migrated to India. An estimated 2 million people died in the ensuing violence.

Radcliffe had never been to India, and was given outdated maps and inaccurate census data to figure out this partition. It was because he’d never been to the area that he was chosen – Britain wanted someone who they felt was “impartial.” Instead, this meant that he was ignorant to the local culture and customs, and had zero skin in the game. Once he issued his plan, he set sail for home the next day – he never returned to India.

Students read a poem by WH Auden, “Partition”, that discusses Radcliffe’s task and the impact it had. Then, they were asked to write another stanza of the poem from a point of view of their choice: Hindu, Muslim, pro-partition, anti-partition, Radcliffe himself, etc. Check out the original poem, and the new stanzas the students crafted, on the Humanities bulletin board!