Every generation of Indians and Pakistanis should confront and try to understand the brutal chaos and bloody riots from which their two nations emerged in 1947, because understanding the past is the first step towards comprehending the present. Nisid Hajari’s Midnight’s Furies provides an insight into this bloody history. As the editor of Newsweek International and Newsweek magazine in New York, Hajari has overseen special issues on China, the Iraq war, Iran and an exhaustive investigation of the hunt for Osama bin Laden. His interest in the issues surrounding the Partition stems from his understanding of global issues, and the significance of Pakistan and India in the context of global stability.
The birth of the two nations was marked by massacres, arson, forced conversions, mass abductions and savage sexual violence. It is estimated that more than 15 million people were uprooted and between one and two million died. Around 75,000 women were raped; many of them were also disfigured or dismembered. Hajari notes that: