A hat once belonging to Hindu Independence leader Mahatma Gandhi is among Sydney woman Carole Clancy-O'Hehir's most treasured possessions.
"(Gandhi) used to sit and spin on different occasions when he was fasting or whatever, so it was made out of the material that he had spun and he'd given it to Dad as a memento of their friendship, which has survived to this day."
Carole's father, Allan, was a pilot for the Indian National Airways, based in New Delhi.
Brought in as India's British leaders prepared to leave, his passengers included the last Viceroy of India, and India's most famous Independence leader.
Carole, then six years old, has fond memories of meeting Gandhi in New Delhi, even going to his funeral.
"They were quite big driveways on the homes and we'd have to go down and wait outside for the school bus, which used to pick us up. He'd often walk past on his morning walks with his entourage, and pat us on the head, and just say 'good morning girls', and we just thought he was a sweet old man, to us."
When India gained Independence, the departing British rulers drew a line through Punjab province, creating Pakistan.
An estimated 14 million Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus were displaced and around one million were killed.
Carole's father, involved in flying refugees between Pakistan and India, witnessed some of the worst sectarian violence.
"Once he had to get the train back, because New Delhi airport had been closed because of riots and on the train he got back, they stopped the train halfway along the rails and came onboard and just killed, Hindus at that stage were killing the Muslims, but then it happened on both sides equally. And they just killed them all and my father was left untouched. The train got into New Delhi and there wasn't a soul there. He started walking home because there wasn't a car on the street, just bodies everywhere."
The partition divided many formerly harmonious communities.
Balwant Chadha grew up in Jelham, Punjab province, in what became Pakistan.
From a Sikh family, he remembers playing by the Jelham river with Muslim and Hindu friends as a child.
But he says in 1947, when he was six years old, that all changed.
"Muslims started hating, Hindus started hating, Sikhs started fighting so we were all scared, of the killing."
Balwant Chadha remembers terrified neighbours seeking shelter at his family home.
"They all came to our house, because we had a big house. So at night they used to come into our house and we used to lock the doors, and then climb up and go on the roof and on the roof I remember people will carry stones and hot water, so if people come to break the door or something they'd put hot water on them."
Balwant Chadha's family decided to flee the newly-formed Pakistan, taking a heavily overcrowded train east.
His baby sister starved to death on what was an horrific journey.
"I don't know how I survived or how we survived, but a lot of people died on that train, a lot of people and they just threw the people off the train who died, just threw them away. Just threw them out on the tracks. I can still remember so many children crying, mothers crying. Young girls being raped."
As Sikhs and Hindus left Pakistan, Muslim refugees were coming the other way.
Now 87 and living in Melbourne's east, Dr Abdul Khaliq Kazi remembers meeting many of them at the train station in Karachi, offering them food and welcome.
He says, while many in Pakistan were euphoric at becoming independent, others were suffering.
"They were complaining of torture, murder, everybody saying, 'I lost my sister', or 'I don't know where they are because I had to run for my life'."
Dr Kazi says his Muslim family had lived peacefully next door to Hindu neighbours his whole life before partition.
He believes the religious divisions were encouraged by the British in order to rule more easily.
"Divide and rule pays dividends for a short time, and then of course, those people you have divided, you leave them behind, to sort it out."
After coming home to Australia, Clancy-O'Hehir was surprised to find few people were aware of the bloodshed over the partition.
Seventy years later, she believes it's a story that still needs to be told.
"Like all these horrible things in the world, if people know about things, then hopefully it doesn't happen again."
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