The Partition of India in 1947 was accompanied by almost unimaginable atrocities. There were reports of pregnant women having their babies cut from their bellies, children being tortured to death, and other abominations that I can barely bring myself to think about, let alone commit to the page. Hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, died, and tens of millions were displaced.

But here is an extraordinary thing. In British towns, the children of perpetrators and victims live alongside one another amicably, ready to forget the whole foul business. This rather beautiful fact has always struck me as underappreciated. Britain’s largest ethnic minorities come disproportionately from the worst afflicted regions — Kashmir, Bengal, Gujarat, and, above all, Punjab. Some of them came precisely because their families had been turned into refugees. Yet they did not bring their quarrels with them.