All wounds don’t look the same. Some are subtle grazes; others are slightly more invasive; and then there are the ones that penetrate, fester, and bleed, almost always leaving a scar.

Does the scar ever fade? Does the ache ever lessen?

A hunt for the answers led me to the survivors of the Partition of 1947. The ‘Radcliffe Line’ pierced through India’s skin that year, running through the provinces of Punjab and Bengal, dividing British India into two independent dominion states, the Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan.

But, alongside the pain, there emerged powerful tales of courage and kindness. As Guneeta Singh Bhalla, founder of The 1947 Partition Archive, says, “It’s generational trauma that can’t be forgotten.” Yet within these stories are moments of hope — neighbours protecting each other, strangers offering refuge, friendships that defied borders.

Through over 10,200 oral histories collected across 14 countries in more than 36 languages, the archive preserves not just the memories of loss but also the enduring spirit of humanity that shone through those turbulent times. And as I listened to these voices from the past, I realised — time may not erase wounds, but it can weave them into legacies of love, empathy, and unity.

‘Partition taught me to forgive’

Amid the chaos and heartbreak of Partition, eight-year-old Shane Ali’s life was marked by loss, danger, and unimaginable change. Yet, from those darkest moments emerged an extraordinary journey — one that would lead him from fear to forgiveness, and from loneliness to a life filled with family, love, and peace.

If Guneeta had to sift through the 100-odd Partition narratives she’s documented over the years and pick a story that’s left her with the strongest aftertaste of hope, she says it would have to be that of her protagonist, Shane Ali.

One particular day is burned into his memory; it was when mobsters attacked his village. Shane remembers their pounding on the door of the hideout where he and his mother, along with the other women and children from the village, were holed up.

When the door did not give in to their demands, they broke the roof. Their agenda was tragically simple: kill the boy children; spare the girls. Shane’s mother, thinking on her feet, made best use of her dupatta (Indian scarf) to disguise her son as a girl.

While the trick fooled the mobsers, that was the last time Shane saw his mother before she was killed.

Later that day,........

© The Better India