Summary

The excerpt from the essay "Blood" by Urvashi Butalia discusses the political Partition of India in 1947. The Partition caused one of the largest human migrations in history, with about twelve million people moving between India and the newly created Pakistan. 

Butalia explains that over twelve million refugees crossed the newly-established western border of India, with Muslims traveling to Pakistan and Hindus and Sikhs moving to India. The Partition had tragic consequences and led to acts of violence and slaughter, as well as malnutrition and contagious diseases, causing the death of around a million people, although the contemporary British statistics first reported a figure of only 200,000 fatalities. Butalia also focuses on the widespread sexual violence, with about 75,000 women being abducted and raped by men who did not share their respective religions. She says that in the aftermath of the Partition, families were divided, homes were destroyed, and villages abandoned. 

Butalia argues that the governments of India and Pakistan were unprepared for the scale of the displacement and the uncertainty the drawing of new borders created. She also says people traveled mostly on foot in...