Partition [29min]

"Sunday Best" rebroadcasts Programme 1 of "Sleeping with the Enemy" from From November 2004. In the bloody carnage that accompanied the Partition of India in 1947, women -- Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims -- were the most vulnerable. As the entire region of Punjab fragmented along religious lines, women were abducted in their thousands by the 'enemy' community. Many others endured extreme forms of sexual violence. Scores of women committed suicide or were killed by their own menfolk to stop themselves from falling into enemy hands. During this period, so many women disappeared that the newly formed governments of India and Pakistan were compelled to act. They formed official 'recovery' departments to bring their women back...sometimes with even more tragic consequences. "Sleeping with the Enemy" tells the story of Ranjit Kaur, a Muslim woman who survived a massacre and was then claimed by a Sikh man who married her. She was 10 years old. To prevent such perceived 'dishonour', Bir Bahadur Singh, a Sikh man, relates how he watched his father publicly behead his teenage sister -- along with 25 other female members of their family -- in front of a Muslim mob.