Hate and Anger: An Emotional History of the 1947 Partition

Abstract

This essay investigates the seminal role of negative emotions, specifically hate and anger, in shaping the events of the Partition of India in 1947. Traditional historiography often privileges high-level political decisions, administrative failure, or communal ideologies as primary drivers. However, this study employs the nascent field of the history of emotions to argue that social and political forces actively cultivated, provoked, and leveraged pre-existing communal differences, escalating them into intense hate and reactive anger within the Muslim and Non-Muslim (Hindu and Sikh) communities. This emotional transformation directly culminated in the widespread, brutal communal violence, ethnic cleansing, and mass migration witnessed during the transfer of power. By analyzing political developments, official accounts, oral history testimonies, and literary representations, this essay establishes hate and anger not merely as byproducts of the Partition, but as foundational, dynamic, and essential components in the catastrophe, whose enduring psychological impact continues to fuel nationalism and hostility in the subcontinent.