Thousands gathered at Red Fort on the morning of August 16, 1947 to watch Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru hoist the tricolor above the fort’s Lahore Gate. The ceremony was held on August 16 because the new cabinet was sworn in on August 15. (The Nehru Memorial Library)

On August 7, 1947, one of 30 special trains carrying staff of the new Pakistan government to Karachi prepares to leave the Old Delhi Station. Muslim League National Guards stand to attention in honour of the departure. (Photo by Keystone Features/Getty Images)

The bodies of people who died in communal rioting in Delhi being removed from the streets. In the wake of partition, violence erupted across Delhi - the worst hit areas were Sadar Bazar, Sabzi Mandi, Paharganj and Karol Bagh. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

The conference in New Delhi where the partition plan was disclosed (left to right): Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first pirme minister, Lord Ismay, adviser to Mountbatten, Lord Louis Mountbatten, Viceroy of India, and Muhammad Ali Jinnah, President of the All-India Muslim League. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru addresses Hindus and Muslims, while pleaing for the end of communal violence. Mahatma Gandhi joined Nehru in the plea. (Getty Images)

In September, 1947, Muslims gather as they as they seek protected transport to Pakistan (Photo by Popperfoto/Getty Images)

Muslim refugees entering the Purana Qila refugee camp in Delhi. What was initially a camp for government employees migrating to Pakistan, soon became a refuge for Muslims escaping communal violence in their neighborhoods. (Photo by Popperfoto/Getty Images)

A Muslim League National Guard helps a refugee family fill their water containers before their train to Pakistan leaves Old Delhi station. Special trains took hundreds of Delhi's Muslims who were relocating to Pakistan. (Photo by Keystone Features/Getty Images)

A train crammed with refugees leaves for Pakistan from the border city of Amritsar in 1947. Although these trains traveled on confidential routes with armed guards, they were still attacked. After one such attack, photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White arrived at the Amritsar station to find men from the “militant Akhali sect..sitting cross-legged” on the platform, sword in hand, “patiently waiting for the next train." (Getty Images)

A young boy sits on the walls of Purana Qila in New Delhi. The 16th century fortress turned into one of Delhi’s biggest refugee camps as the capital struggled with a refugee crisis amid spurts of communal rioting. (Photo by Margaret Bourke-White/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

Kingsway Camp, Delhi’s largest refugee camp, was home to about 300, 000 people at its peak. It was so large that families that were separated on the other side of the border would often find each other once they made it to the camp. Kingsway Camp was located where Guru Teg Bahadur or GTB Nagar now stands. (The Nehru Memorial Library)

Inside one of the 200-odd refugee camps set up by the Indian goverment as refugees poured in from both East and West Pakistan. The partition is believed to have displaced close to 15 million people, according to UNHCR ‘s estimates. (The Nehru Memorial Library)

View of a refugee camp, 1947. (The Nehru Memorial Library)

Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru at the Kurukshetra refugee camp in April, 1948. Originally intended for 100, 000 people, the camp soon swelled to thrice that number. In the evenings, the government screened Disney films, which were watched by as many as 15,000 people at a time. (The Nehru Memorial Library)