India, Aug. 14 -- In the months after Independence, as trains crammed with refugees screeched into Delhi, the city's most iconic landmarks became unlikely shelters.

Humayun's Tomb, Purana Qila, Tughlaqabad Fort, Safdarjung's Tomb - the postcard icons of Mughal grandeur in Delhi - turned into vast refugee camps. Beneath marble domes and along crumbling battlements, tents flapped in the wind, cooking fires smoked, and families huddled under thin blankets through one of the coldest winters in living memory - or at least that's what it felt like to them.

In 1947, these monuments were not backdrops for heritage walks like they are today. They were the frontlines of Delhi's post-Partition upheaval.

"It was a turbulent time," recalled Sohail ...