Farewell to Shimla

I studied in shimla for four years and believe me even with the rampant constructions and the swarm of holidayers it still has its charm...

Feel sad reading about the riots of 47, indeed extremes were committed on both sides of the border and it is unfortunate that simple could turn into such daemons at the behest of a few disturbed sociopathic elements.

Ofcourse the Internet is a vast repository of news items and "previously undiscovered" "confidential" reports on who killed who and what not would be popping in from time to time...i feel at the end of the day its the past....yes i will never understand the pain of loosing family members or being witness to gross violations by swarms of zealots...but then just ranting about the past conflicts will only stoke silenced fires into raging furies...peace

Mountbatten is mainly to blame. He wanted to get back to becoming the First Lord of the Admiralty and rushed Partition forward by one full year. Nehru, Jinnah and most of the others welcomed an early date without understanding the consequences. Gandhi seems to have been the lone dissenting voice.

People were surprised when Partition was announced and very few people knew about where the boundaries of the Radcliffe award were going to be. Everyone vaguely knew that Hindu strong areas would go to India and Muslim strong areas would go to Pakistan so there was a big motive in trying to evict the minorities that bagan such horrible bloodshed.

There were few people who could control the massacres. The British troops were recalled to barracks to be repatriated to Britain and the British Indian armed forces were in a confused turmoil as Hindu and Muslim officers and men going to the other country had no idea where they should report in the new countries. Thus the local cops closely allied to the local towns and villages were only too happy to look the other way.

Murad Ali Baig

Quite a description of the lovely place Shimla, a place where all came with a spirit of joy and happiness and to have a great time. I have not even dreamt about it but have heard a lot from my late Ammi, as it was often that her entire family would visit Shimla in summer time, couple of things she mentioned about shimla's will always be stuck in my mind as I aspire to be able to visit one day.
Whenever she discussed Shimla & it's beautiful scenery and high mountains she mentioned that often one would experience a cloud breezing through the home as you leave doors & windows open, while she also mentioned about the abundance of monkeys that they used to prowl freely and would pick up anything that you would leave sitting outside.
In my opinion you have described Shimla like someone drew a painting of that lovely place all over.
I am not sure if I will ever be able to go and visit all those places my parents mentioned with such pride, including Shimla, Bhopal, Agra, Banaras and Hyderabad which was their final home before migrating to Pakistan.
God only knows if it was right or wrong we all can only go so far in drawing our own conclusions taking into account the current affairs, the loss of family members and splitting of the families.
I dont find myself worthy of blaming one side or the other as to who was right and who was wrong since I was not around to experience firsthand their reasoning and the consequent decisions while I feel that all we have now is the history which is transcribed by several people in several different ways. So what's in an argument about something we know superficially specially holding our side of story none of us are going to win this argument and may only culminate bitter taste.
I feel that we should allow the be gones to be by gones and live happily ever after adding a sparkle to our lives and if we can contribute a little to others lives that could be even more wonderful.
After all we are all humans and we also know that to err is human so what is griping worth specially all these decades later when we are able to fly into all these no fly zones without tickets or visa on the internet ride and can communicate with each other.
Shouldn't we forget the wounds and start getting over them now as this has become and ever bleeding wound for all of us be it someone on the east or west side of the border.
Best wishes to all.

Re: # 1
Dehliwala:

I can assure you that this was not to point out any community for particular violence. Mob has all kinds of people and do not care about any religion.

I have a large number of Sikh friends and respect Guru Nanak for his love and empathy for common people. I have also know Sikhs who faced similar kind of atrocities in Western Punjab by the socalled Muslims.

A good friend Sardul Singh Minhas narrated his experience when his father was killed while migrating from Pakistan to India.

We have to move on while learning from the past.

Re: # 89

Mishra:

I believe it is our collective responsibility to bring out honest and true history of partition from the standpoint of common people.

I have read a number of books written by people who were in high places. We have to look at our common humanity first and keep everything else at second place.

I believe it would be worthwhile effort to create an online repository.

The key to communal harmony is to place ourselves in other people shoes and understand their point of view. In these messages, I have read very strong opinions from both sides.

My reading of true history tells me that both Hindus and Muslims suffered. The research shows that Hindus lost a great amount of property, money and businesses but muslims lost more lives.

This also makes a logical sense. The muslims at the time of partition were lagging behind in education, businesses and money.

Ultimately poor people suffered more regardless of their religion.

Nasim Hassan

IB:

"dost mitter , so who was responsible for the riots? killings?"

The beast within us and religions, which, despite what religious people say, have the potential of awakening that beast.

DM,

Ur point makes sense but Nehru is a bit eccentric. He's an internatioanalist. Even b4 Indian independence he's convening intl conferences on colonialism 4 the liberation of colonies all over the world.

The NWFP referendum preceded his somersault on Kashmir, it looks obvious though I cant make a watertight case. It's my conjecture.

Re: # 374,
dost mitter , so who was responsible for the riots? killings?

I agree with the post about Nehru/Abdullah and Lady Mountbatten's usage to make a pledge on Kashmir.

Re: # 374,
dost mitter , so who was responsible for the riots? killings?

I agree with the post about Nehru/Abdullah and Lady Mountbatten's usage to make a pledge on Kashmir.

VRV:
"The same wud have happened in Kashmir that's why Nehru backtracked."

But didn't Nehru know this when he made that pledge? Indeed, the communal atmosphere was stronger in 1947 than in the 1950s. This is why the Abdullah friendship and Edwina factor that I pointed out in post 374 makes sense.

borivilli#

There are two separate issues here; I do not agree with you on the first but do on the second.

Did Nehru need Abdullah's approval? No, he didn't. Indeed, the accession to India was delayed because of Nehru's insistence that his friend be released and be a party to the accession. He did it over the objection of everyone else in the Indian cabinet and the Dewan of Kashmir at that time, Justice Mehar Chand Mahajan, who incidentally had also served on the Punjab Boundary Commission and whose book I have read.

Why he did so? Partly because of friendship and partly because this way Nehru could claim that the accession was also supported by the largest political party in the valley, though this was not legally required. It was out of his friendship that he also insisted that the Maharaja leave his own state - this was a mean act and did not even strengthen India's moral position vis-a-vis the accession.

Another reason is provided by the recently released diaries of Edwina Mountbatten by her daughter. She claims that Mountbatten used his wife's influence over Nehru to soften his position on Kashmir, implying that without such influence, Nehru would not have made the pledge over Kashmir that he did.

On the second issue of Nehru going back on his promises, I agree with you.

BE,

Referendum is a different game. U know in NWFP, the ppl didnt elect AIML for power even in 1945-6 elections but Congress Group.

However when referendum was announced in 947 ppl voted en masse for Pakistan. The magic is the AIML drummed up the campaign as if it Hinudism Vs Islam.

The same wud have happened in Kashmir that's why Nehru backtracked.

Instead of Muslims (middle class & rich) in our subcontinent preferring live in kaffir countries in the west they must ask for creation of west-like economies and social conditions so that ppl wont ask abt religions but good lives.

I have this question for all Kashmirs wo prefer to live in UK and USA where they are more happier than they are in native Kashmir/India/Pakistan. It's civil, religious, economic rights and social security there.

Not only that Nehru after puting the sheikh in prison rigged the elections repeatedly and got his rubber stamp parliaments to pass all the accession documents, abolish sovereignty and integrate kashmir with India now we know where busharraf learnt his tricks

Nehru was one cunning sob, ofcourse he was assisted in this by quislings like abdullah's own bro in law.

VRV
Yes I saw he is being welcomed with flowers, if he was smart he would have held the referendum then

Dost Mittar i you are strong u need no ones agreement but he wanted moral and international legitamacy so he fooled abdullah, but as soon as abdullah realised so and protested, he put him in a jail and threw away the keys, if that is not hindu cunning than what is?

BE,

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=BGlcCNJSKwI

That's a different Kashmir then.

#352:

"But we must ackowledge nehru was one cunning brahmin, he even fooled abdullah of kashmir into agreeing to the acsesion ."

Sheer nonsense! there was no absolutely no need for Abdullah's signature for accession, which required only the Maharaja's consent. It was Nehru's friendship which made him force the Maharaja to release Abdullah from the prison and insist that Abdullah agree to accession before accepting the Maharaja's request.