India Pakistan Partition
Highlights
- Millions of people were killed during partition
- Children had to leave home with family
- Hindu and Sikh people came to India from Pakistan
Partition of India: Just a day later, on August 15, our country will complete 75 years of independence. This time, Independence Day is being celebrated with great pomp across the country as the nectar festival of freedom. The day of independence in 1947 was very happy for our country because many people had sacrificed their lives for this. But from this day that deep pain is also associated, which cannot be forgotten. After independence, at midnight, our country was divided into two parts. A new country named Pakistan was created on the basis of Islam, which today is forced to live in the shadow of poverty.
It was only after its birth that people on both sides had to leave their homes. Many people living in Pakistan came to India, while many people living in India left for Pakistan. During this, violent riots took place in both the countries, women were raped, children were killed in front of their families. Today we are going to tell you the story of that time. But this story will not be told from the eyes of an elder but from the eyes of children.
children leaving their homes
As reported by CNN, the story begins like this… A little girl suddenly woke up at night. His family had to move from their home in Lahore to India. Lahore had become part of the newly created country of Pakistan. On the way, the girl saw overturned bullock carts on the road, burning villages and mutilated bodies floating in the canal. Like this girl, a boy was also leaving his house. But in the opposite direction. That is, leaving India towards Pakistan. While traveling by truck, he saw vultures on the side of the road eating people’s carcasses. He had a gun in his little hands.
Now after 75 years… his age has become close to 80 years. But those memories of Partition are still fresh in their mind. Actually India was partitioned on the basis of religion. The new country Pakistan was built on the foundation of Muslim religion. After its formation, a large number of Muslims migrated to Pakistan, while Hindus and Sikhs living in the part of this new country came to India. According to scholars, 1.5 crore people left their homes and 5 lakh to 20 lakh people died during the exodus.
5 year old girl went to India from Pakistan
According to the report, Baljit Dhillon Vikram Singh has shared some of his memories during that time. He was 5 years old at the time of partition of India. She had come to Sri Ganganagar in Rajasthan, India from her village near Lahore (now in Pakistan). She currently resides in Los Altos Hills in California, USA. She says, ‘I was born in the Dhillon clan, who are called the Shers of Punjab, the zamindars of many villages.’
He told, ‘Our village Nayanki was outside Lahore, which is now in Pakistan. We had all the facilities, horses to ride, puppies to play, pigeons to fly. All the elders gave a lot of love. We did not know the difference between Muslim, Sikh or Hindu. Then came the dreadful night, when I got up with my two younger brothers and hurriedly got into a jeep with my father, mother, uncle and aunt. Even today at the age of 80, I remember that whole scene.
Around the age of 6 I witnessed horrors, dead people floating in canals, mutilated bodies, overturned lorries, cars, bullock carts and people covered in horrific blood. I saw armed men – soldiers from Pakistan side in white uniform were coming. Keeping rifles at us, my mother courageously jumped out of the jeep and placed her dupatta at her feet, begging for mercy for her young children. There were no markers and no crossings. No one knew where the border has been created.
Villages wrapped in fire appeared
He told, ‘I remember a village surrounded by flames on the way. It was ordered to be burnt by men in white uniforms. We once again ran through the back roads and were trying to stay safe at our maternal grandfather’s house in Tarn Taran Sahib. After a short stay with our Nanak (Nana-Nani) we moved to our new home in Rajasthan, Sri Ganganagar. At least we had a place to go. My mother said that now we are really refugees. We came to a room, a kitchen with a tin roof, no servants, no lush mango trees, no garden. A dust storm had destroyed everything.
We drank water from the same pond from which the animals were drinking. We rode a camel, learned Bagardi (Rajasthani dialect), we studied by lighting kerosene lanterns, dressed in brown clothes at home like villagers. Life was difficult, hot and dusty summers, freezing desert cold in winters. The elders never complained. He brought bricks and mixed cement in it to build the house. He leveled the fields for plowing and planting. Writing these words reminded me of a story related to my grandfather, when he wept at the hands of my mother and took a glass of water, which she filtered with three layers of muslin.
He was crying because my mother’s hands were no longer the same due to overwork. My heroes are my grandfather, mother and father. They made great sacrifices to send us to various colleges and military academies. I got married in 1959 to an engineer who graduated from Stanford. We came to America in 1967. First he came, then I came with my four daughters. I took care of the children. For which I used to take 50 cents an hour, so that I could raise my daughters. I have learned hard work, tenacity and patience from Partition. Today I have everything but I am leading a normal life.
13 year old boy went from India to Pakistan
Hussain Zia was 13 years old at the time of partition of India. He went from Jalandhar in India to Sialkot in Pakistan, which is located in what is today Pakistan. He later joined the Pakistani Navy. He has written many books on Partition. He narrated the whole story of that period and said, ‘We were standing and looking at the roof, we had guns in our hands. My father said, “Even if he kills me first, don’t finish all the cartridges. Make sure you kill him before you die yourself.” I remember those terrible times to this day.
He said, ‘At the time of Partition, I had only a few months left to turn 14 and I was living in Jalandhar. Muslim-majority Jalandhar district, now part of the Indian state of Punjab. I lived in Basti Danishmandan. The place was filled with thousands of Muslim migrants. Many of them were injured and sick. They were getting neither food nor health facilities. During the night, many of them started crying after having a bad dream, then my father and I ran towards the roof with guns. This was done to defend against “jathas” (armed groups of Sikhs) who regularly attacked Muslim settlements at night.
“I belong to a community of Pathans, who had been living in settlements on the outskirts of Jalandhar city for more than 330 years. My father was a judge, he chose to serve in Pakistan after partition. On 27 August, the Government of Pakistan sent two trucks to Basti Danishmandan to evacuate government officials and their families. The road to Lahore was mostly deserted as the mass exodus had not yet begun. But there was evidence of government breakdown, violence and brutality. We saw scattered items, several carcasses, flying vultures and dogs on the side of the road.
Trucks were stopped in Amritsar
Zia said, “Both the trucks were stopped in Amritsar, a Sikh stronghold, about 15 miles from the Pakistan border. Then Sikhs armed with spears, swords and daggers began to gather around the trucks. Once again we were able to drive them away with our guns. As soon as he left Amritsar, someone shouted, “We are in Pakistan!” But there was no check post. Everyone came out and kissed the ground. I remember it was gritty and had a salty taste.
In Lahore we were kept in a room without any furniture in the house of a Hindu family, they had gone to India. My father was assigned to help in a huge refugee camp. Busy cities usually looked deserted, with offices, businesses, shops, schools, hospitals and other institutions closed. (Their owners were mostly Hindus and Sikhs who had migrated to India long ago).
Once I saw my father running to help a man who had fallen on the road. It was then revealed that he was a Hindu who had been stabbed. He was already dead or died in my father’s arms. In his hand was an application seeking police protection. Had he come a few steps ahead, he would have been safe inside the local police station. In early October, we moved to the city of Sialkot in Punjab, Pakistan and lived in a house next to a closed building.
One day I saw someone through a small open window and told my mother. He told me not to tell anyone else. Then he prepared vegetarian food and told me to put it on the windowsill for someone. There was a Hindu elder who was left behind during his family’s stay in India. My mother kept giving him food till arrangements were made to send him to India.
Latest World News