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Sixty years after the partition of India forced her grandparents to flee from Pakistan to India Maghull teenager Neha Malhotra has been tracing their journey between the two countries.

The partition of India and Pakistan in August 1947 led to massive population movements, coupled with violence and slaughter.

Over seven million Muslims crossed from India to Pakistan with a similar number of Hindus and Sikhs making the journey in the opposite direction.

Neha’s grandparents fled from Pakistan to India in the aftermath of the partition, leaving their home and many of their belongings behind.

Sixty years on Neha says the experience is still one her grandmother, Shanti Devi Malhotra, clearly recalls, “When my grandmother talks about the Partition I know that it upsets her.

“She was really upset that she had to leave her home in Pakistan, but at the same time once they’d settled in India I know that their lives were built back up again and they carried on living a very happy life.”

Neha follows her grandparents journey

As part of a BBC film to commemorate Partition, Neha and a TV crew visited the two countries, including her grandparents old home in Pakistan, “It was a really nice experience because now I feel I’m more part of her journey and it is also slightly upsetting to think the house she was living in she only got to spend 13 to 14 days there because so soon after building that house they had to leave.”

Along with Neha’s grandfather Vidya Sagar Malhotra, her grandmother made an arduous journey from Pakistan to India, “Along the way they stayed in some camps and finally passed over the border to India. I know the journey was not easy for her because she had a little baby who was about 15 months old and she was also pregnant with her second child.

“I can’t imagine having to travel so far on foot, especially looking after one little baby and being pregnant, it would have been nearly impossible in this heat. Although I’m carrying out the same journey, 60 years ago it would have been nothing like it is for me now, and I’m finding it hard in the weather. I just can’t imagine how it would have been for her.”

Neha Malhotra

Travelling to Pakistan and India was an experience that opened Neha’s eyes to a part of her family history that she had only heard snatches of, “It’s been a real eye opener to what happened. I’ve heard a lot of the stories but visiting the actual places that these stories took place in just made it more of a reality.

“Now I’m quite proud to go back to my grandmother and say ‘I feel I can really be a part of your history now that I’ve been to the exact places that you once lived in and travelled to and from.’

“To experience and discover my grandmother’s family history on a personal basis, by visiting the houses and the places that she used to visit it’s been so amazing.”

“I know that since my grandmother left Pakistan neither herself, or any of the family have been back there. So I know that it means a lot to her and to the rest of the family that at least one of us has been back there to the house and I’m looking forward to going back and telling everyone how it looks and how it felt for me and what an adventure this trip has been.”