Features

A Merseyside teenager will be following the journey her grandparents made 60 years ago following the partition of India and Pakistan.

Seventeen year old, Neha Malhotra, is visiting India and Pakistan, 60 years on from the event that dramatically effected her grandparents lives.

Following independence form Britain in 1947, the Indian subcontinent was partitioned into Hindu-dominated but nominally secular India and the newly created Muslim state of Pakistan.

The act of partition brought about severe rioting and a great move of population, as well as a lasting tension between India and Pakistan.

An Indian soldier looks towards Pakistan

Neha, who lives in Maghull says that despite the life changing events experienced by her grandparents, she knew little of the time before this journey, “It’s going to be a good learning experience for me and the trip itself is a once in a lifetime experience.

"I’m hoping to learn more about partition. Before this project came up I didn’t really know much about it.”

Accompanied by a BBC camera crew Neha will be visiting the areas her grandparents moved through in 1947.

About a million people were left homeless following partition. Neha’s grandparents, who lived in what became Pakistan, had to move to India.

“We’re going to try and visit the exact house that my grandparents lived in before partition and then where they moved to in India as well.”

Neha is hoping to find people who may remember her family or people who lived and worked with them. In particular she will be trying to find out more about a man who helped her grandparents after they lost their home.

“When my grandparents were living in Pakistan they had a Muslim servant and because they quite suddenly had to up and leave the country they left the house to him as he was Muslim and able to stay in the country.

“When they were living in camps, he used to bring them milk and stuff because my grandmother had one little boy with her. So he did provide for them as much as he could.”