In August 1947, the decline of the British Empire on the Indian subcontinent led to the formation of two new sovereign states: India and Pakistan. The event, commonly known as Partition, led to the establishment of Pakistan as an Islamic republic with a majority Muslim population, while India emerged as a secular state with a Hindu majority. The hastily drawn boundary between the two countries, called the Radcliffe Line, resulted in a colossal transfer of people between the two nations. Although estimates vary, it is believed that eight to ten million people were displaced from their homes and villages, with primarily Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs seeking refuge in what they hoped would be the relative safety of the religious majority. This mass movement of people incited numerous acts of violence on both sides, with nearly a million people killed in the migratory effort. The transfer of populations between India and Pakistan is considered the largest peacetime migration in all of human history.
As with a majority of conflicts, women and children during the Partition of India and Pakistan were often the most vulnerable. The specific brutalities inflicted on women were legion, kidnappings among them. Officially, it is estimated that 50,000 Muslim women in India and 33,000 Hindu and Sikh women in Pakistan were abducted. Added to this, many who were abducted were forcibly returned to families who, in some instances, no longer wanted them, considering them impure. In 1949, India legislated the return of these women with the Abducted Persons (Recovery and Restoration) Act. Though the commonly used term for these women is recovered women, I have chosen to refer to them as restored. The distinction may seem trivial, but it is necessary, for I believe that while the recovery of a person is possible, the restoration of a human being to her original state is not.