The end of British colonial rule birthed two sovereign nations—but hastily drawn borders caused simmering tensions to boil over. 75 years later, memories of Partition still haunt survivors.

The article analyses recent public initiatives to memorialise the establishment of India and Pakistan as postcolonial states in terms of violent partitioning rather than as a successful act of independence from British imperialism. The twin focal points of the article are the Partition Museum in Amritsar and the online 1947 Partition Archive.

"In recent years the theme of the long afterlife of the Partition of India has emerged as a major preoccupation in Partition Studies in South Asia. Drawing upon this burgeoning field of scholarship, the present thesis is an attempt to study this long afterlife in a specific geographical context and its specifics. But, more significantly, the thesis is an attempt to suggest that it is the very dynamic of post-Partition displacement and relocation that determines why the afterlife cannot but be long.