Religious violence in India borders to ensure their safety in an increasingly lawless and communal environment. With British authority gone, the newly formed governments were completely unequipped to deal with migrations of such staggering magnitude, and massive violence and slaughter occurred on both sides of the border along communal lines. Estimates of the number of deaths range around roughly 500,000, with low estimates at 200,000 and high estimates at one million. Large-scale religious violence and riots have periodically occurred in India since its independence from British colonial rule. The aftermath of the Partition of India in 1947 to create a separate Islamic state of
Political warfare in British colonial India In this way, Britain increased the power of local nobility and made it known to them that their power came from the Queen. "Many of them [princes] owe their very existence to British justice and arms...The situation of these feudatory States, checker boarding all India as they do, is a safeguard. It is like establishing a vast network of friendly fortresses in debatable territory." Also, to appease some of the nobles' concerns in the aftermath of the Indian Mutiny, princes were allowed to adopt heirs rather than have their estates automatically ceded to British control at their death. Direct rule