Pakistan Map 1947
The original 1947 map of Pakistan — two wings, one Radcliffe Line, and the partition story behind every border. Featuring genuine historical maps.
Last updated: 11 October 2026
1947: Radcliffe Line published
Wings: West & East Pakistan
Weeks to draw the border
East Pakistan → Bangladesh
Inside this guide
In this guide
The original map, the line that made it, and how it changed.
1947
The Original 1947 Map of Pakistan
A country in two pieces — the strangest shape on the 1947 world map.
West Pakistan
Today’s Pakistan — Punjab, Sindh, NWFP (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Balochistan, plus Bahawalpur, Khairpur and the tribal areas. Capital: Karachi.
East Pakistan
Today’s Bangladesh — East Bengal and Sylhet. Separated from West Pakistan by roughly 1,000 miles of Indian territory. Capital: Dhaka.
Pakistan was born with the Muslim-majority areas of British India: western Punjab, Sindh, the NWFP, Balochistan and eastern Bengal. The princely states acceded separately — most to one dominion or the other, with Kashmir becoming the great unfinished dispute. See original Pakistan map vs today, and the map of India before partition for what came before.
The Border
The Radcliffe Line Story
Five weeks, one British lawyer, 88 million lives.
Sir Cyril Radcliffe — a London lawyer who had never visited India — was appointed chairman of the two Boundary Commissions on 3 June 1947 under the Mountbatten Plan. He arrived in Delhi on 8 July and had about five weeks to divide 175,000 square miles of Punjab and Bengal between two new nations. He finished the maps around 9–12 August, destroyed his working papers for secrecy, and the awards were published on 17 August 1947 — after both countries were already independent. Full account: Pakistan map 1947 explained.
Disputes
Border Controversies
The awards nobody fully accepted.
Gurdaspur
Muslim-majority tehsils awarded to India — giving India road access to Kashmir and control of canal headworks Pakistan depended on.
Chittagong Hill Tracts
Awarded to Pakistan despite a non-Muslim majority — the mirror-image grievance on the eastern border.
Lahore
Awarded to Pakistan despite mixed demographics — Radcliffe prioritised contiguous Muslim-majority districts over the city’s composite character.
After 1947
How the Map Changed After 1947
The 1947 map did not survive a quarter-century.
First Kashmir War
The princely state’s accession dispute freezes into the Line of Control.
One Unit
West Pakistan’s provinces merged into a single unit — reversed in 1970.
Bangladesh
16 December — East Pakistan becomes independent Bangladesh.
Today’s map
Four provinces, the federal capital, AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan take modern shape.
The road to that first map began decades earlier — see history of Pakistan 1857–1947 and our great leaders of Pakistan guide.
FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions
Quick answers to the questions people ask most.
What did the Pakistan map look like in 1947?
Who drew the Pakistan-India border?
Why was East Pakistan so far from West Pakistan?
When did East Pakistan become Bangladesh?
What was India like before partition?
Where can I see the original 1947 partition maps?
Explore More History of Pakistan
Partition, the freedom movement and the making of the nation.
Historical facts follow standard sources (British Transfer of Power documents, the Radcliffe Awards). Maps on this page are public-domain or CC BY-SA works via Wikimedia Commons, credited in captions.