A horrible, brutal round of slaughter that numbered the dead in the hundreds of thousands, the dispossessed in the millions and disaster beyond belief.

Over a million were killed, and ten to twenty million uprooted from their homes during this horrific time, which gave birth to the independent states of India and Pakistan. (Update: corrected, thanks JagDeep) ANOTHER UPDATE: Religious intolerance is one of the great killers of history, and it amazes me how people never seem to learn, instead getting caught up in details of whatever religion is local to the land of their origin, enforcing belief in those details on all others to the point of torture, murder, and extermination on a vast scale. It is impossible to study history without becoming sensible of this recurrent theme, and without becoming aware of how the earth is soaked with blood again and again as the result of ignorance, fanaticism, and hatred.

Agree with Irishgit and Enkidu, just want to add that -- 1. Similar man-made disasters, notably the carnage in 1984 (few thousand Sikhs killed)and the latest major one in Gujarat last year (killing more than 1000 innocents) are still happening in India, which is extremely unfortunate for a country that has a major software-technocratic presence in the world, can place its own satellites in orbit and is trying to establish its secular credentials. 2. Just a minor correction to Enkidu's views, it was the birth of state of Pakistan when the riots happened, for the state of India already existed since time immemorial. Perhaps the intended statement was -- 'independent' India and Pakistan.