Partition The Day India Burned [BBC] [14th Aug 2007]---Brix.avi

In short, the partition of India is far too complex for a dimwitted TV
reviewer to pick to pieces and offer up in bite-sized morsels for you to digest on a Thursday afternoon. Suffice to say, The Day India Burned - Partition (BBC2, Tuesday, 9pm) is a devastating documentary about the 200 years of British rule in India which ended in 1947 with a hasty and shambolic carve-up of the land between India and Pakistan. Sadly for those there at the time, harmony gave way to mob hatred and many lives were lost.

This documentary looks to piece together the reminiscences of eyewitness. The accounts of the huge massacres are particularly chilling. Of course, with such a heavy subject, the mood of the show is grim, powerful, but nevertheless, fascinating. The events that unfolded in the last throes of the Empire are still resonating today, making this show a must-see. Over at the RT, they drily observe that "Lord Mountbatten's daughter describes the opulence of the viceroy's residence, where they found 25 indoor gardeners and one servant whose job it was to carry a seal that bore the British crown, with which he would stamp every single pat of butter. If only they'd taken such care over the big things."

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