The Radcliffe Line

... was drawn up in 1947 to separate India from Pakistan (East and West). In the words of Wikipedia, it was "the boundary demarcation line between the Indian and Pakistani portions of the Punjab and Bengal provinces of British India.") Today its two portions separate India from Pakistan and Bangladesh.

It was named after Cyril John Radcliffe (later Viscount Radcliffe), the Welsh–born lawyer and civil servant who was appointed to chair the two committees that drew the respective borders. He had never been further east than Paris and was given five weeks to complete the job.

© Haydn Thompson 2021