The 1947 partition of British India into India and Pakistan triggered one of history's largest forced migrations, with some ten to fifteen million people displaced amid mass violence. Cities such as Delhi, Calcutta, Lahore and Amritsar absorbed enormous refugee populations, spawning new colonies, resettlement townships and informal settlements almost overnight. Partition also severed Punjab from its capital Lahore, prompting the building of a new one at Chandigarh.
It abruptly reshaped North Indian cities through refugee resettlement and set in motion the planning of new post-Partition capitals.
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