Violence against women during the Partition of India

During the partition of India, violence against women occurred extensively. It is estimated that during the partition between 75,000 and 100,000 women were kidnapped and raped. The rape of women by men during this period is well documented, with women sometimes also being complicit in these attacks. In March 1947, systematic violence against women started in Rawalpindi where Sikh women were targeted by Muslim mobs. Violence was also perpetrated on an organized basis, with Pathans taking Hindu and Sikh women from refugee trains while armed Sikhs periodically dragged Muslim women from their refugee column and killing any men who resisted, while the military sepoys guarding the columns did nothing.

It has been estimated that in the Punjab, the number of abducted Muslim women was double the number of abducted Hindu and Sikh women, because of the actions of coordinated Sikh jathas who were aided and armed by Sikh rulers of the 16 semi-autonomous princely states in Punjab which overlapped the expected partition border, and had been preparing to oust the Muslims from East Punjab in case of partition. Lists provided by India contained names of 33,000 Hindu and Sikh women to be repatriated from Pakistan (this did not include women from Kashmir and it was felt that if these were added the figure could have well reached 50,000), while the lists supplied by Pakistan contained 21,000 names of women to be repatriated from India. India and Pakistan later worked to repatriate the abducted women. Muslim women were to be sent to Pakistan and Hindu and Sikh women to India.