This photograph, which probably dates from 1947, shows refugees boarding a train in Bahawalpur, a former princely state of India which became part of Pakistan in October 1947. Several guards with rifles look on while the crowd of mostly men load the train with goods and baskets, and people cram into and on top of the carriages. This was just one of the many trains that refugees took from Pakistan to India, and vice versa, during Partition. People spent long days on trains such as these, with little to eat or drink and few sanitation facilities, meaning that the journeys were often unbearable. Many people died of disease during these trips, while others encountered communal violence – there were instances of mobs slaughtering all passengers and sending the train back to the country from which the refugees were trying to escape. 

This photograph is included in the papers of Sir Penderel Moon, a civil servant who worked for the Indian Civil Service from 1929 to 1944 and the Government of India from 1948 to 1961. The collection contains correspondence, articles and photographs relating to Moon’s career in India before and after independence. Emilie Clarke and Professor M L Clarke donated the collection to the British Library in 1987 and 1990.

About the India Office Records

Moon’s papers are held within the India Office Records. The India Office Records is a vast collection of archives relating to the administration of the East India Company (1600–1858) and its successor the India Office (1858–1947). The collection includes hundreds of official publications and records, manuscripts, photographs, maps and private papers. These archives document the complex story of British trade with the East, politics, the development of the British Empire and the road to Indian independence.