The partition riots in Rawalpindi, also known as the Rape of Rawalpindi is the name given to the sectarian violence which occurred between Muslims and Sikhs,

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

s in Rawalpindi (now in

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

) during Feb-March 1947, on the backdrop of ensuing Partition of India. The partition of India was the

partition Partition may refer to: Computing Hardware * Disk partitioning, the division of a hard disk drive * Memory partition, a subdivision of a computer's memory, usually for use by a single job Software * Partition (database), the division of a ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

(at the time of independence of India) on the basis of religious demographics, with Muslim-predominant regions forming

and non-Muslim predominant regions forming Republic of India. The communal killings occurred in a northern district of

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising a ...

, and have been termed as the ''Rape of Rawalpindi''. Several Hindu and Sikh women died by suicide and killed their female children in order to keep their

honour Honour (British English) or honor (American English; see spelling differences) is the idea of a bond between an individual and a society as a quality of a person that is both of social teaching and of personal ethos, that manifests itself as a ...

. In order to save their lives large number of non-Muslims residing in the region had to accept Islam. The event has also been described in a book titled ''"Rape of Rawalpindi"'' by Prabodh Chandra,

Member of the Legislative Assembly A member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected by the voters of a constituency to a legislative assembly. Most often, the term refers to a subnational assembly such as that of a state, province, or territory of a country. ...

. The book describes the happenings and also includes a collection of photographs of the communal incident. The event has been covered in a number of partition of India related historical works.

References

* {{cite web , title=Horrors of Partition, url=http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2904/stories/20120309290407300.htm , date=February 25 – March 9, 2012, volume =29 - Issue 04 , publisher= Frontline

External links

The partition of India and retributive genocide in the Punjab,1946–47: means, methods, and purposes

Washington University Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...

Thematic Chronology of Mass Violence in Pakistan, 1947-2007:1947; March 3
massviolence.org Partition of India 1947 in India Rawalpindi District Sectarian violence History of Punjab Ethnic cleansing in Asia History of Rawalpindi