‘At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom.’

India's partition in 1947 is a defining moment of the 20th century – it was a seismic upheaval that saw the biggest empire the world has ever seen come to an end and 400 million Indians liberated from the British Empire. It led to the creation of the two new nation states of India and Pakistan (and, later a third, Bangladesh).

Join historians Yasmin Khan and Alex von Tunzelmann as they look at the politicians and playmakers who shaped this event, the impact it had on ordinary lives (including the death and displacement of millions as they fled their homes as refugees), and the reverberations of Partition that can still be felt in the present day.

This In Conversation event will be followed by a live audience Q&A.

Yasmin Cordery Khan is a historian and author. Her books include The Great Partition and The Raj At War and her debut novel, Edgware Road, was published in 2022. She is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Oxford. @OxfordYasmin

Alex von Tunzelmann is the author of five books, including the internationally bestselling Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire. Her most recent book, Fallen Idols, has been shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize 2022. @Alexvtunzelmann

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(Image credits: Eugenie von Tunzelmann and Fran Monks)