A RADIO play by a Keighley writer will be broadcast next week to mark 70 years since the partition of India and Pakistan.

Partition was written by writer and arts journalist Nick Ahad, and explores the legacy of the division, still felt by communities across the world.

The play will be broadcast on BBC Radio Leeds and a number of other BBC local radio stations at midnight on August 14/15, the exact time when the British partitioned India 70 years ago.

The event, which saw many Muslims migrate to newly created Pakistan, and Hindus and Sikhs migrate to India, was the largest human migration in the past century, and is thought to have led to the deaths of over a million people.

Written from the viewpoint of modern-day couple Saima and Ranjit, a Muslim and a Sikh, the play tells the tale of how, 70 years after it was divided, the history of the Indian sub-continent continues to tear families apart.

After the radio performance, the play will be performed in front of a live audience at the Courtyard Theatre at West Yorkshire Playhouse, on September 8 and 9, in a performance that re-creates the radio performance on stage - with no scenery and actors stood around a microphone.

Mr Ahad, who is mixed race, with English and Bangladeshi parents, told the Telegraph & Argus that partition was an issue that was rarely spoken about, and he hoped the play would shine more light on the issue. He said: “Partition is a difficult event, because in one way it was the fulfilment of independence people had worked so long and hard for, but it led to this incredible loss of life and the biggest movement of people in the last century. There was independence for many, but with terrible consequences.

“I’ve been listening to a lot of witness testimonies when researching the play, and a phrase you hear about again and again is ‘this is something we don’t talk about’.

“Despite this, it still has a huge impact on families, 70 years later.

“It is not something people learn about in school, and in terms of arts there have been a few books or films like Midnight’s Children and Viceroy’s House, but not loads.

“It is such a complicated issue that to get it across in a play you really have to focus on the impact on individuals. It is too big an issue to wrap your head around; this play looks at it from the aspect of a personal story.

“This play was written for a lot of different perspectives. I wanted to write it for people who have a particular view or prior understanding of partition, as well as those who don’t know anything about partition.”