Independence and Population Exchange :
Massive population exchange occurred between the two newly-formed states in the months immediately following Partition. Once the lines were established, about 14.5 million crossed the borders to what they hoped was the relative safety of religious majority. Based on 1951 Census of displaced persons, 7,226,000 Muslims went to Pakistan from India while 7,249,000 Hindus and Sikhs moved to India from Pakistan immediately after Partition.
About 11.2 million or 78% of the population transfer took place in the west , with Punjab accounting for most of it, 5.3 million Muslims moved from India to West Punjab in Pakistan, 3.4 million Hindus and Sikhs moved from Pakistan to East Punjab in India. In the west 1.2 million moved in each direction to and from Sind. The newly formed Govts were completely unequipped to deal with migrations of such staggering magnitude , and massive violence and slaughter occurred on both sides of the border. Estimates of the number of deaths range around roughly 500,000 with low estimated at 200,000 and high estimates at 1,000,000.
Before partition the size of the non-muslim minorities in proposed pakistan comprising the whole of the six provinces was as follows :
North-Western Araea-------Muslim--------Non-muslim
Punjab------------------16,217,242--------12,201,571
NWFP-------------------2,788,797-----------249,270
Sind----------------------3,208,325---------1,326,683
Baluchistan-----------------438,930------------62,701
---------------------------------------------------------
------------Total-------22,653,294---------13,840,231
----------------------62.07%-----------------37.93%
