The New Beginning

a quote from somewhere in my childhood

``truly man is the king of all beasts, for his brutality exceeds theirs.``


mr gill, from somebody who`s family came to india from lahore in 47,.... did an eye for an eye make our world blind?

Dost Mittar:

Thank you for pointing out the invisible and sometimes visible bar. I had not paid much attention to it.

As a gesture of civility, the governments can submit an apology to their masses. But I am not sure the governments represent civility in any form and shape. Just like, I am not sure if the culture puts any emphasis on ``civility``. There is a lot of emphasis on unrelated and petty matters but expecting basic civility from both India and Pakistan is asking for too much.

To your point, if an apology is extended and everyone hears it loud and clear on both ends, then the masses may feel acknowledged for the turmoil they went through - be it emotional, mental, monetary, spiritual, physical, personal or whatever ......... the breakdown goes on and on. And, there may be finally a ``closure`` to this emotional episode.

Hope all is well on your end and you are enjoying the changing colors in your part of the world. It`s a beautiful time of the year. Rest is fine.

Bye Bye.

32 by tehmed

I fully agree with the suggestion for raising a virtual ‘Partition Tragedies Wall’ in the Chowk. I would however suggest that it may better be named as ‘Deeware Giria’ as this barbaric carnage in the name of religion which reached its peak on the eve of partition is still going on though in a low key. I would have suggested a Commission of Truth and Reconciliation on the pattern of the one held in South Africa but I am afraid we have not yet reached that stage. The Partition did not resolve any problem of Hindostan, much less that of religious hatred. In fact so far as Muslims are concerned the very name is becoming a synonym to terrorism which has become an international problem.

The real tragedy on the international scale is the fact that the Muslims failed to adopt themselves to the imperatives of the world turned into a global village. The very fundamentals of their religion needed changes (One may call it Ijtihad) which only a new prophet could bring about to avoid its clash with the global civilization, but the Mulla in his effort to safeguard his monopoly of Islam made this impossible by closing the door to any communication with Allah. Allama Iqbal had foreseen this much earlier when in a couplet he had stated:

Jaanta he jis pih roushan baatane ayyaam he
Mazdikiyat fitna-e-farda naheeN , Islam he

Gen. Musharraf is doing his best to introduce his enlightened moderation especially in the Madrissas but what is actually happening is that even the most modern English Medium schools are being converted into madrissas. I am ignorant about the position in India but the recent events in Gujerat, etc., do not board well. As it is we have yet to wait for the end of this carnage in the name of religion to justify raising of a monument in its memory.

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Re:teshah#29

That was really a blood curdling description. We desis are capable of viciousness that can put the rest of the world to shame. And we lecture others about culture, civilization, spirituality and other such BS.

teshah #29 Thanks for sharing your eye-witness account on what was done to hindus and sikhs by thugs on our side of the border in 1947.

CHOWK STAFF: I have a suggestion. While the idea of a memorial with a wall (as Zehra J suggests) with names of the victims is a good one, you may wish to add a ``Partition Tragedies Wall`` on Chowk where eyewitnesses like Gill and Teshah can relate what they say, and where children of eyewitnesses (like self) may also add what they heard from their parents if the latter are no longer alive. A Chowk Committee could be formed, and tasked with whetting the input (and cross-checking where possible). We would thus have a ``Virtual Wall`` with accounts that are substantiated (i.e. where cross-checking was possible) identified as well as accounts that seem accurate even though substantiation was not possible). The reader could then draw his/her own conclusions. This will then become a permanent record that I am sure will become increasingly appreciated as time passes by and those who witnessed it or heard eyewitness accounts become old and become history themselves. A virtual wall would also be obviously read by far more people than any physical wall. This virtual memorial would thus supplement, not replace, the physical memorial.

I for one would be glad to volunteer some time for this effort to put up a ``Virtual Memorial`` on chowk.

ZahraJ:
Good to see you here after a long time.
If you look at the top of the chowk home page, you will find that some people are trying to do exactly that, namely, to erect a memorial at the wagah border.
I also think that the governments of both India and Pakistan should offer an apology to all their citizens whom they could/did not protect and who were forced to leave their homes and hearths where they had lived for centuries. These measures should go some distance in healing those deep wounds.

Freethinker:

Hello. This is an intense and poignant memoir.

In my opinion, both India and Pakistan need to build a wall on both sides of Wahgah Border where memoirs from muslims, hindus, sikhs and other faiths and other denominations are posted right and left. That way both sides will be able to read about the good and bad experiences faced during the partition. This step will be ten million times better than having the daily flag ceremony on the borders with overweight men who are overdressed to perform a simple ceremony. It`s a waste of time, useless show of uniform, and waste of manpower.

Hope you are doing well.

Regards.

The story on the other side

The partition of India, which was envisaged by the political leaders of India as a measure of resolving the communal problem of India, proved actually like lifting of lid off a pressure cooker. It gave rise to horrible massacres on both sides of the dividing line and instead of resolving the problem rather made it worse. We are however presently concerned only with the human and moral aspect of the communal riots relevant to this process of division.

I was a young boy at the time of partition and being a Muslim was on the safer side of the divide in the city of Campbellpur in West Punjab. One day I learnt that a caravan of Hindu and Sikh refugees which was being taken to India was attacked by the goondas (Sorry, I can’t call them Muslims) on it’s way at some distance from the city and it had been brought back to the Civil Hospital with all the dead and the wounded. I went to the hospital to see what has happened just out of curiosity.

As I reached the hospital I saw a horrible scene. Hundreds of wounded including women and children were lying on the ground, some crying for water but no body attending to them. I saw a truck full of dead bodies. I puled myself up to see it closely. What I saw made me so shocked and sick that I ever felt in my life as though my liver was coming to my mouth. I saw the truck full of dead bodies mostly of the women. These were so fresh that some of them, of beautiful young women, I saw resting by the side of the truck seemed to be quite alive. Quickly I got away and as my legs were trembling I came to rest along a ‘rehra’ standing near by. There I heard a voice calling me by my name. Lo! When I looked towards it I saw a class fellow of mine lying on the ground wounded along with his mother and a young brother. At the same time I saw uncle Birbal, the best friend of my father, running among the wounded and helping them. I saw no body else on the scene to help these helpless, terrified people. I myself, a young boy, got overwhelmed and terrified by the scene retreated to my home as quickly as possible trying to comprehend what I had just seen as a nightmare. My heart weeps whenever I remember this tragic episode and I feel ashamed and guilty why I could not help those who needed my help so badly.

Mohammed

thanks for sharing this…it must be a cathartic experience…

rehan hasan ansari used to work for a delhi based institute that collected and preserved first person accounts of the partition holocaust for future…also there is The Legacy Project you may want to send a copy to them…

there is also an English rendition of a faiz poem in the link

rgds

t

kaurasach

i understand the none leaves happily ... however, i dont understand how we can blame jinnah congress and nehru for mayhem done by specific hands.

is there not a possible systemic issue here? as the true jihadi says, just blaming jinnah and congress will only allow repetition of history, there is always some other jinnah-like politician waiting in the wings. that is the reason i query, not so much for putting blame. for example, it is said that sikhs always got tricked into doing the muscle-work for hindus. is it true? do sikhs think its true? do hindus think its true? urstruely thinks its true.

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Rightly said,this is story of thousands of people who fell victim to the partition in 1947.Lot of people still feel,partition was not required whereas there are many(mainly from Pakistan) who consider it was mandatory but I believe,majority of them belong to the post-partition era and hence,have not witnessed the holocast personally.Apart from the books and stories you mentioned,there is a little known novel by Ramanand Sagar-``Aur Insaan Mar Gaya`` in urdu and``Tamas``by Bhisham Sahni.Manto`s ``Tobha Tek Singh`` is by far the best satire written till date.
I have another view to share in the context of 1947.Punjab was an independent country before the English merged it with India after death of Ranjit Singh.In 1947,it was Punjab(and Bengal)which got divided in the process of giving birth to independent India and the new country Pakistan.Punjabis on both sides are still Punjabis(they may call themselves to be Indian or Pakistani,but in essence,they are only PUNJABIS).I have always found it easier to relate to someone from Lahore or Faislabad rather than someone from Chinnai or Thiruvanantapuram.I wonder if other Punjabis feel the same way.

Gill sahab,

A very intense episode described simply and dispassionately, nice article. My grandfather was in Calcutta at the time of the partition, and had to take a train back to Pakistan. At one time he hid under a pile of dead bodies on the train to save himself from being killed by the marauders, it was an experience that shaped the rest of his life.

On a side note, being from Peshawar I have an interesting anectode. There is a small but substantial Sikh community in Peshawar, and all through the sectarian violence that erupts from time to time in Peshawar, never have I once heard of any violence directed toward the Sikh segment of the population. They, for their part, are also a very peaceful and calm community that lives in total religious and personal freedom in the heartland of the ``Islamic fundamentalist`` region of Pakistan.

Irfan.

Mr. Gill

Thanks for writing this poignant account of your ordeal. I hope it will give encoragment to other members of your generation to document their ordeal as well. People like you are our history and you are our future. The nations who do not remember their past are condemn to repeat it. I am a great proponent of a monument at Wagah border - our Holocaust Meuseum - that will not only document the struggle of our ancestors and the holocaust they suffered at the hands of their Hindu and Sikh who were once their neigbors and co-countrymen for eons, but it will also commemorate the sacrifices made by our mothers, fathers, uncles, sisters and friends in the course of making a dream come true. Nawaz Sharif must be commended to initiate such a project, which unfortunately was sacked by the current renegade military despot probably at the nod of his foreign masters. Shame on this a/hole. But if people like you will keep on writing, our history will become people`s history; it will be engraved on our hearts and minds and then no despot, no foreign agent, and no renegade will be able to erase it ever.

So heartrending but narrated in such simple words without any ill-feeling.
Thank you Mr Gill.

wahi_to, please go to the other board where repeat of mistakes of 47 are being discussed and either (1) dissuade folks from another religious map-making, or (2) figure out how we can be angels similar to those on this board. forget the eurotrash, their per-capita beer consumption is too high.

well i think the phrase ``hum sab janwar hain`` says it all.

i think it is important that these stories be remembered. certainly terrible acts must have been committed by muslims in pakistan. so there is no one who can claim to be holier than thou.

when we have two nuclear power states with such history of hatred then the citizens of those country should realize that any war can lead to devastation. if europe can come over its centuries of wars to become one country then certainly india/pakistan can be reasonable and make an effort to live with each other.

jang,
``have not heard much reports of mass-violence on the eastern borders, perhpas since bangal was partitioned earlier anyways``

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I dont know about the relative numbers of people who died in Bengal v/s Punjab, but I do know that Hindu`s from E.Bengal who moved to India all have similar stories to tell.

My family moved from Mymensing (mom`s family) and from Dhaka (my dad`s family). In my Dad`s family, my grand-parents and some elder uncles/aunts recounted stories of people who were lost, where they hid and how they came across. And of course stories of how much land and gold they had and how big the fish was in their ``pukur`` (pond) :-)

One story I remember vividly, is of a relative who had a lot of furniture that he had collected in his house in Dhaka. Out of spite, he decided to burn it all the night before he was to leave for India. Hearing of this the local goons attacked that very night. He was killed at the doorstep itself as he answered the door and the rest of the family hearing his cries fled through the back door.

There are also stories that a grand-uncle of mine (who died recently) was a ``mastaan`` (bhai to Bombaywalla`s :-) ) in Dhaka and is responsible for inhuman acts himself. He used to recount stories of how many guns and swords he had hidden by lowering them into wells. People joke that he was a Indian goverment certified ``freedom fighter`` because he found himself in jail so often.

i feel good that i cannot relate to this, my mother did come-over from karachi to mumbai using the land-route a couple of months before, and she saw enough even in karachi (most common things were un-explained dead bodies found every morning) so she fled in time with a babe in her arms. it was an easy decision for her since she did not have any family there.

i have not heard much reports of mass-violence on the eastern borders, perhpas since bangal was partitioned earlier anyways.

my rajput panjabi friend (with a sikh wife) puts the violence blame on the sikhs. he says that the sikhs left NWFP and panjab in droves, and killed many of their own women worried that they will be violated, and were completely deranged by the time they crossed over.

Mr. Gill,

I have no words to describe what I felt while reading this. My father also has a similar story, though less gory, as he also came in a qafila from Indian Punjab in `47.

Thank you for sharing it.

Mr Gill..
You share the surname with Sikh and sometimes Christian Gills. Is Gill named after a place or is it a affiliation based upon group or caste or tribe? There is a book by Khosla that puts forth simialr kind of detail on the fate that befell Hindus and Sikhs of West Punjab ,Sindh and NWFP, seems like Baluchistan was also affected but not to the same level as other places.

If for example the Gills are descended from one ancestor why is it not possible to celebrate the common heritage rather create boundaries based upon religion.

Gill Sahib,

Putting aside the rationale for partition, one thing we can all agree upon is that it was executed in the most horrific and callous manner which resulted in a holocaust. The British deliberately let things go out of hand by accelerating the timelines, not planning the process properly and not allocating the proper resources. They encouraged a free for all mentality were each side tried to maximize their so called ``gains``, which was mainly to grab as much as possible from the community which became a minority on their side. They drew arbitrary lines on the map which infuriated both sides and they just did not try to come up with an amicable process of separation.

Why did the Brits allow this to happen when they were in charge? Basically, they wanted to give a parting kick to us desis. They had looted us for 200 years and wanted to continue forever. Thanks to WW2, they could not sustain it anymore but they were frustrated at this major loss of their empire. They wanted to kick our collective rears even as they left the subcontinent, a sort of ``see, this is what you get when you get rid of us`` attitude, to show us how uncivilized and barabaric we were without them to lord over us. Of course, as usual we obliged them as we had for the past 200 years.

It has taken us over 50 years to get over that event. Today you have Punjabis and Bengalis on both sides hugging and kissing each other and giving freebies to visitors from the other side. The same people were killing each other`s kids at that time. It just goes to show that the two sides were perfectly capable of negotiating with each other and working out a decent solution, were it not for the criminal way in which partition was implemented. If anyone should be held responsible for the holocaust, it should be the Brits.

That was a moving story. I was four years junior to you at that time, also stuck on the wrong side of the border. My family too all survived though not without injury. Thank you for sharing these precious memories. Maybe I should also write whatever I remember of that period. A minor point. You say,
``Nobody was thinking of leaving their ancestral homes and hearths in East Punjab and physically moving to the new land.``

I am not so sure. At least some of those who had fervently agitated for the new country must have wanted to go to the promised land once it came into being. I do realise that most of them were in the urdu speaking hinterland and not in Panjab.

Gill Sahib,
thank you for sharing this memory with us.

It will take another generation for the wounds to heal.

I would suggest that all CHOWK readers see Sabiha Sumar`s

movie ``Khamosh Pani`` to get another look at the horrors

of Partition.

Ras

#1 Kaurasach

You have rightly pointed out what fanaticism and bigotry can do. For us, who have shared the same land for eons, it very necessary that this be kept, consciously, foremost in the mind, when looking at India-Pakistan relatiions internationally, and when looking at communal and social issue withon our own countries.

For somebody who was born two decades after partition, the horrors that accompanied it are removed in time and space and impact in a rather cerebral way. I have often been admonished for this to the effect that ``tum peh beetee hotee tou . . .`` or ``jis ghar agg laggdee ay pataa uss nouon hee hounda ay keeh keeh sarr gyaa . . .``

I feel Ustaad Daaman expressed the post-partition ethos very sensitively when he said:

``Laali akhkhyaan dee payee dass dee ay
Roaye tussee vee o, roaye assee vee aan``

Siddiqua Haqnawaa

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Gill Sahib,

I`m surprised at the level of neutrality you demonstrated in your recollection. You actually underwent all that and yet, there was no passion, no hatred, no discussion of motives or guilt...so close to detachment.

Aap sant aadmi hain

Dear Mr. Gill:

More than just a touching account, this is a perceptive look at history and memories.

[I have been living with these suppressed memories for a long time. I have now tried to take them out of my system by writing this piece. I haven’t told this story in any consistent manner to my children although a few things came out now and then. They are also not interested in hearing this narration. I want them to live their life in their own ways without any influence from my traumatic past.]

You said earlier you returned to normal life and expunged the bitterness, so catharsis (written or otherwise) has helped you. But I feel that adult children ought to be told about what you have suppressed because they could pick up the signals. And that would remain a mystery. You assume they are not interested in hearing your narration, but they will hear it through books, the Net, films...a ``real version`` would help them because you have moved on, life has moved on...

I am in no position to advice anyone, but I had always wanted to know. Contemporary social mores and ideologies are a continuum from history. What we see today can be attributed at least in part to what happened yesterday...although in big metros of India the impact was not felt, I personally benefited by learning about incidents. I had anyway realised that prejudices were extreme and manifest, but when my mother (who was very young then) told me recently about some things, I did not suffer for her traumas (too strong a word in this case, but just making a point...); we have to live with new ones.

Strangely, I find her less bitter about now than I am. I will never understand why she does not feel so strongly about the `93 riots or Gujarat as much as I do...

I suppose we all have different demons to deal with.

This is one of the few narratives on the subject which have the Ferozepur - Kasur border exchange as their location.

Thank you, Mr. Gill. You are amongst the few who has put down bluntly some of the untold truths of this population exchange. The parts about the elderly being left behind, the children being buried alive.

Of people leaving their old, their infirm, their womenfolk, their infants, a few members of their families to safeguard property . . . and subsequently inventing tales of heroism to explain their abscence.

Please look at us as, simply, neighbours. As would we.

I would request one thing more from you, Mr. Gill. With your surname, would you visit Sheikhupura and try to analyse what really happened there in 1947? If the massacres were really so terrible, then how come there are so many ``Jat Sikh Muslims`` there today?

Very moving and honest narration Gill sahib. I have a friend here your ``sirnaawiyaN``...every time I see you name reminds me of him and vice versa.

I had few friends in and around JagrawaN or Jagraon...and used to be frequent visitor there many moons ago....Babu Rajab Ali, a punjabi poet, was a also from a small village near there...

do you remember anything about JagraawaN di Roshni mela? It used to be popular back before partition too..may be you been there.

Almost everyone who was alive before 47 have similar heart rendering stories...my father is about the same age as yours, he was in 6th class that year. These stories need to be told, retold and compiled for future generations...certainly some people can use them to propagate hate but most will see thru and feel the tragic and horrible moments in our history.

Gill sahib:
Thank you very much for this poignant narration. It is very important for you as well as others to recount such first hand accounts. Sometimes we do not tall our stories assuming them to be mundane and not worthwhile. Not so!

It is honest an chronicle like this that would enable us to understand ourselves better.

Koh kay hoaN baar-e khatir gUr sada hojaaee-ay
bay takkalluf aye sharar jastaa kyaa hojaaee-ay.

Thanks agian.

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This article is beautiful in the simplicity with which it describes a truly hellish period. History will one day recall the fact that not one man from either side was punished by either government (Indian or Pakistani), and the responsibility (and therefore the blame) for this goes to the leaders on both sides.

I think you should also narrate this before a video. My elder generation (parents, uncles, aunts) had similar horror stories to tell, and I am sorry that I never recorded them. History must never forget the evil that was visited upon innocent people by thugs from both sides, and one day some historian will note the shameful conduct of both governments in allowing the murderers on their side to walk free.

You have also demonstrated great strength of character in not carrying a grudge, and in recognizing that the vast majority of hindus and sikhs were obviously not involved in these murders. This is your final victory over those cowards who attacked those poor grass cutters that day. My family too did not carry any grudges. Indeed my mother`s brother - as he stood at the Lahore train station uncertain of whether or not my mother would even be able to reach Pakistan safely - was offered a knife by a man on the same station telling him to attack the sikh train that was going the opposite way. My uncle of course refused to fall to this level and told the man to have some fear of God if nothing else.

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You write so well with the absence of malice. Reminds me the story of a family friend who parents were killed in front of his eyes when he was eight years old. As he tells it at times he still wakes up screaming in the middle of the night.
Have you considered publishing your stories?

Gill Sahib
Thanks for sharing your personal experience. We should have learned lessons from such a terrible events of partition as a society. Unfortunately, we did not do much except blaming on each other. I wish there were a leader who had tried all those who killed innocent people, raped women, and looted other`s property. But that is a romance, which can only exist in books. I remeber an old woman in our neighborhood, who were so happy when many sikhs were killed by the indian army after the assasination of Indra Gandhi.
Many of us behave like barbarians when there is a security vacum. It brings a classic arguement , whether humans are savages or civilized?
It seems that you love Mirza Ghalib. I see his ````shair```` in your article.

saya mera muj sey misl duur bhagai hai
pass muj aatesh bajan kis kai thehra jaey hai

Regards.

Hi Mohammad,

Really one of the best articles that I have read in Chowk, because of the intensity and passion with which you have written. I could almost feel myself taking the same journey with you while reading the article.

Lots of innocent people got killed during the communal riots. and humans became worse than animals, because animals only kill when they are hungry. Today when most of the sub continents population is below 25 years of age and did not witness the pain and horror of partition, hopefully there is less emotional baggage to go around.

Time only will tell. However we have only ourselves to blame for the mess that we find our countries in, and unless we take responsibility and corrective action, we cannot blame an outsider.

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