The Partition Museum in Amritsar

On the afternoon after our visit to the Golden Temple we went to the newly opened Partition Museum in the old town hall.  It doesn't have any grand artifacts to display, just a historical narrative illustrated with the recollections, photos and possessions of some of those affected.

It's a very moving experience and an uncomfortable one for a Brit, given the British government's role in this tragedy, which may have led to the death of a million souls and the the displacement of millions more.  Having exploited India for all we were worth for a couple of centuries and creating the myth of the "white man's burden" to help us deal with our guilt, we happily dropped that burden like a stone as soon as it was politically and economically necessary to do so.

Not only did we British use a "divide and rule" policy to exacerbate tensions between Hindus and Muslims thus increasing the pressure for a post-colonial partition, but the way we administered the process made things even worse - crashing the timetable at the last minute leading to the drawing up of an ill-considered border between India and Pakistan and cruelly not disclosing the border line until the day of independence, thus creating a chaotic dash to get to the right side of it.

At the end of the trip visitors are invited to write their reflections on a paper leaf and hang it from a tree made of twisted wire.  I wrote a message talking of my sadness for Britain's role in partition and my hope that in the future we can all spend more time looking to what unites rather than divides us, which I spiked onto a piece of barbed wire wrapped around the tree trunk, which seemed appropriate.

And Brits today, especially the English bleat about the unfairness of the European Union and the need for Britain to fall back on its long-established commonwealth relationships.  Blind f***ing idiots.