by W.H. Auden
About The Author
Summary and Themes
about the India - Pakistan partition in 1947 angry about partition, directed towards Radcliffe
Cyril Radcliffe was given the hard and impossible task of dividing a country into two. The partition caused largest mass migration in history and caused the death of ____ people.
Text
Unbiased at least he was when he arrived on his mission, Having never set eyes on this land he was called to partition Between two peoples fanatically at odds, With their different diets and incompatible gods. Time, they had briefed him in London, ‘is short. It’s too late For mutual reconciliation or rational debate: The only solution now lies in separation. The Viceroy thinks, as you will see from his letter, That the less you are seen in his company the better, So we’ve arranged to provide you with other accommodation. We can give you four judges, two Moslem and two Hindu, To consult with, but the final decision must rest with you.
Shut up in a lonely mansion, with police night and day Patrolling the gardens to keep assassins away, He got down to work, to the task of settling the fate Of millions. The maps at his disposal were out of date And the Census Returns almost certainly incorrect, But there was no time to check them, no time to inspect Contested areas
The weather was frightfully hot, And a bout of dysentery kept him constantly on the trot, But in seven weeks it was done, the frontiers decided, A continent for better or worse divided. The next day he sailed for England, where he quickly forgot The case, as a good lawyer must. Return he would not, Afraid, as he told his Club, that he might get shot.
condemns colonialism, a system in which people from outside of a given culture make decisions without any understanding
outsider not suited to make decisions makes decisions
he maps at his disposal were out of date And the Census Returns almost certainly incorrect,
For mutual reconciliation or rational debate: The only solution now lies in separation.
never seen the land before, and causes a “A continent for better or worse divided.”
in 7 weeks
Radcliffe Line - the partition line
fifteen million people had been uprooted 1 - 2 million people had died