Seven Days in Summer: Countdown to Partition

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August 1947 - Britain would give up the Indian Empire, partitioning it in into two independent countries, India and Pakistan. The documentary tells the story of the seven days that led up to their independence and the last days of the British Raj. The week in which Britain would give up the Indian Empire was marked by extreme contradictions of wild celebrations and vicious bloodshed. With seven days to go, the British were yet to announce where the border would be drawn. Millions anxiously awaited their fates, unsure in what country they would find themselves. One of the biggest migrations in human history is under way and countless people will lost their lives. The documentary moves through each day of the last week before independence, drawing on oral histories of survivors who were eyewitnesses to that tragedy. The story of a Muslim boy in Punjab heading to what would become Pakistan. The story of a Hindu woman whose husband attempted to kill her to prevent her being raped. The story of a Hindu man saved from a Muslim gang by his own Muslim servant who risked his own life in the process of saving his master. The story of a writer who saw his beloved city of Lahore burn around him and hundreds of thousands lose their lives on the railway network as religious violence increases and spreads with each passing day. This week was marked by extreme contradictions of wild celebrations and vicious bloodshed. The documentary retells, day by day, the unfolding events as seen through the eyes of ordinary people, caught up in an historic summer that would change the world forever.