Conflicted: A History Podcast
Untangling history’s greatest controversies. Every month, we take a hard look at the historical conflicts that raise difficult questions, stoke controversy, and send our moral compasses spinning.
The Partition of India – Part 4: Unholy Rush
As Partition finally becomes reality in August 1947, the new boundary sparks a mass migration in the Punjab and Bengal. Atrocity and ethnic cleansing soon follow. The Sikhs, a long-ignored but well-armed religious minority, mobilize to stake their claim. Edwina Mountbatten and Jawaharlal Nehru plunge into the fray, desperate to assuage a refugee crisis in the city of Delhi.
Sources:
Akbar, M.J. Tinderbox: The Past and Future of Pakistan. 2011.
Tharoor, Shashi. Nehru: The Invention of India. 2003.
Tharoor, Shashi. Inglorious Empire: What The British Did To India. 2017.
Khan, Yasmin. The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan. 2007.
Guha, Ramachandra. Gandhi: The Years That Changed The World. 2018.
Sarila, Narendra Singh. The Shadow of the Great Game. 2005.
Charles Rivers Editors. The Punjab. 2018.
Charles Rivers Editors. British India. 2017.
Puri, Kavita. Partition Voices: Untold British Stories. 2019.
Malhotra, Aanchal. Remnants of Partition: 21 Objects From A Continent Divided. 2017.
Von Tunzelmann, Alex. Indian Summer. 2007.
Zakaria, Anam. The Footprints of Partition. 2015.
Ahmed Akbar. Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity. 1997.
Urvashi, Butalia. The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India. 1998.
White-Spunner, Barney. Partition. 2017.
Lawrence, James. Raj: The Making and Unmaking of British India. 1997.
Hamdani, Yasser Latif. Jinnah: A Life. 2020.
Fischer, Louis. Gandhi. 1950.
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Podcast Episodes
The Partition of India – Part 2: Two Blind Eyes
As the British Raj crumbles, old animosities begin to stir in the subcontinent’s communities. Mohandas Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru face a formidable new adversary in the form of Muhammed Ali Jinnah, who calls for the cre…
The Partition of India – Part 1: End of Empire
In the summer of 1947, the British Raj relinquished its hold over the Indian subcontinent. In its wake, two new nations were created: India and Pakistan. The hastily-drawn border between the countries slashed through com…
Human Error: The Destruction of KAL Flight 007
On September 1st, 1983, a South Korean commercial airliner inexplicably drifted 200 miles off course into restricted Soviet airspace. In response, a Soviet fighter plane intercepted the aircraft, fired two missiles, and…
The Stock Market Crash of 1929 – Part 3: The Music Stops
After weeks of uncertainty and fear, the Great Crash finally arrives on October 24th, 1929. While America’s financial infrastructure burns, Jesse Livermore makes $100 million in a single week. Wall Street’s great cheerle…
History Daily (Special Featured Podcast): “The Start of the Cuban Revolution”
In this special featured episode of History Daily, host Lindsay Graham gives an atmospheric retelling of the events of December 2nd, 1956. On that day, the communist revolutionary Fidel Castro launched the Cuban Revoluti…
The Stock Market Crash of 1929 – Part 2: Age of Illusion
As economic disaster looms in the Fall of ‘29, the American public is blissfully unaware, entranced by stratospheric share prices and the sunny proclamations of Wall Street cheerleaders. Jesse Livermore, the infamous “Bo…
The Stock Market Crash of 1929 – Part 1: To The Moon!
One of the worst financial disasters in history unfolded on Wall Street in late October of 1929. Within a week, 30 billion dollars had disappeared into thin air, leaving the global economy in tatters and heralding the be…
Gore: The Brutal History of Bullfighting
Some revere it as an art form, others revile it as a blood sport, but no matter where you stand, few traditions stir up strong emotions quite like the centuries-old ritual of bullfighting. Born in the villages of rural S…
Ghosts in the Mountains: The Mujahideen Civil War (Part 4)
It’s 1992. The 40th Army is long gone and the Soviet Union has collapsed, but war still rages across Afghanistan. As the Afghan communist regime crumbles, Ahmed Shah Massoud and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar’s forces clash in Kabu…
Ghosts in the Mountains: The Soviet-Afghan War – Part 3
As the CIA wages a covert proxy war against the Soviet 40th Army, the Mujahideen are showered with billions of dollars and cutting-edge weaponry. An old animosity between two prominent Mujahideen commanders – Ahmed Shah…
