On Friday, 8/12/2022, It was 75 years ago that India won its freedom after two centuries of British rule. A subcontinent-sized land was sudenly divided into two new nations-Hindu-dominated India and Muslim-dominated Pakistan. That prompted the largest human migration in history, with as many as 18 million Hindus and Muslims swiftly fleeing ancestral lands to move to the hastily drawn "right" states. As many as 3.4 million people were killed or went missing in sectarian violence.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           On the surface, the August 1947 creation of two self governing nations was a victory for those who longed for self-determination. But simmering secular tensions and a severely mismanaged transition turned Britain's historic exit from the colony into a bloodbath. In the North, the Radcliffe Line stopped at Jammu and Kashmir, a princely state that chose to remain independent after Partition. The border is still contested.  Uncertain about where the borders had been drawn-and which country they currently lived in-as many as 18 million people packed up their belongings and set out to reach the "right" country.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           The ensuing confusion and fear was like tinder for longwithstanding Hindu-Muslim tensions. Assailants abducted and raped tens of thousands of women; people butchered members of their own families. Mobs attacked refugees and villagers, set buildings on fire, looted homes and businesses, and committed mass murder. By the time the violence faded around 1950, between one and two million people had died and both nations were forever transformed.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             In 1971, after decades of discord, Bangladesh declared independence. Pakistan launched a military campaign to subdue the population, slaughtering at least 300,000 civilians; Bengali authorities claim the toll was 10 times higher, citing three million killed in a genocide. A bloody, eight-month war was ensued, and Bangladesh officially became an independent, secular democracy in 1972. For many in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, the losses and memories of those bloody, uncertain days are still haunting.