POLITICS
India and Pakistan mark 70 years of independence
By Ben Mullins
August 14, 2017 - India and Pakistan mark 70 years of independence from British rule. In 1947, Britain, faced with irreconcilable differences over the demand for a separate state for India's Muslims, decided to divide the country. The break-up, agreed to by most of India's political leaders, brought independence but also tragedy, resulting in the exodus of some 15 million people and the deaths of up to two million in internecine bloodshed.