I asked my daadi about what happened during Partition a couple years ago...
Apparently my dad & his family were living in New Delhi in 1947. They had heard reports of riots breaking out all over the country that summer, but they initially figured that Delhi, with its Muslim majority population, would be safe from the violence. Initially, only the more politically active Muslims left the city...some of my grandparent's friends advised them to leave for Pakistan early on 'with their izzat and their property, because a time would come when they wouldn't even get a chance to put their shoes on before fleeing' (to translate from the original Urdu). However, since they lived in one of the city's more affluent neighborhoods, which was home to many British officials, they figured that they would be protected. The city remained relatively calm through the summer, with only sporadic violence...however, as tens of thousands of Sikh & Hindu refugees from Pakistan started pouring into Delhi, the situation became increasingly tense.
Things reached a breaking point a few weeks after Partition, when huge anti-Muslim riots broke out throughout the city. Muslims began fleeing the city in droves...Purana Qila, Humayun's Tomb, and Jama Masjid were all converted into massive refugee camps...Purana Qila alone is supposed to have been home to 100,000 refugees awaiting transport to Pakistan. Initially, my grandparents tried to go back to the family home in Srinagar, but with all the rioting in Punjab & Jammu, there was no safe way to get to Kashmir. When their neighborhood was eventually attacked, they grabbed whatever they could and ran to their Parsi neighbor's home, who hid them till they could make arrangements to get out of Delhi. They lost almost everything in the riots...but, thankfully, they got out alive (unlike many of their neighbors). A few days later, they managed to get plane tickets to Karachi...where they stayed till they returned to Srinagar in 1950.
My maternal grandparents were already in Pakistan before the partition.
My paternal grandparents however made the move from Jalandhar to Pakistan during the partition. Since they had heard many stories of people being killed via trains, a whole kaafila of them decided to travel by foot so it took them well over a month to get to Pakistan safely by avoiding major routes that were prone to bloodshed. They obviously left most of their belongings back in India, taking only a few clothes, and some nonperishable food items, and cooking vessels. Stories were told of dead bodies laying about, women floating in wells who had taken their lives after being raped, dead kids, etc. They would not drink water from wells, for fear of it being poisoned and would rather look for streams and such that had flowing water. They often had to do with one meal a day as there was a shortage of food. My daadi told me that one middle age guy from their group had money sewn in, in the inner sole of his shoes, just for safety reasons so that should he get to pakistan, he'd have something to survive on since in those days even 100 rupees was considered quite a sum. Sadly he died right after reaching pakistan. Daadi also told me how great their sikh neighbors were, and how big of a help they were during the partition. Their sikh neighbors gave them cover and brought them information from sikhs coming from pakistan to india, regarding which routes to take and to avoid.
My grandparents were in touch with their sikh neighbors for a quite a few years after the partition, they regulary wrote letters to each other. Obviously overtime, the elders passed away and that silsila also came to an end. My daadi always spoke fondly of the sikhs in her village, that they lived like a family and there were never any religious tensions. They attended each others wedding celebrations, birth celebrations, holidays etc.
Though my grandparents fondly spoke of where they were born and raised, they never spoke of wanting to go back, even to visit, while I thought many times to write down small details of the places so that I may go someday just to see where my roots came from. I think they were quite realistic, and knew that nothing would be the same if they did go back. The people they knew had passed away, and the younger generation wouldn't know and appreciate the bond they once shared, so they just wanted to remember the place as it was, rather than what it had become.
My family came in gradual stages, Dadi, my 2 tayas, my phuppo and my dad were the first to arrive in Lahore. The second group consisted of my 2 uncles and some other women of the family.
My grandfather left last with the remaining family members, about 10 women, some elders and small kids. They travelled from a village near Muzaffarnagar in U.P. and were trying to reach Delhi, this group was attacked and my grandfather was one of the victims.
What I have heard is that he died defending the women and children and they were indeed able to get to safety as my Grandfather and 3 other men in that small caravan fought with and held back a group of attackers who were armed with swords and daggers. All the 3 gentlemen and my grandfather lost their lives.
My Dada's body was never found and as news came later, it was cut into pieces and thrown into a deep well.
My family came in gradual stages, Dadi, my 2 tayas, my phuppo and my dad were the first to arrive in Lahore. The second group consisted of my 2 uncles and some other women of the family.
My grandfather left last with the remaining family members, about 10 women, some elders and small kids. They travelled from a village near Muzaffarnagar in U.P. and were trying to reach Delhi, this group was attacked and my grandfather was one of the victims.
What I have heard is that he died defending the women and children and they were indeed able to get to safety as my Grandfather and 3 other men in that small caravan fought with and held back a group of attackers who were armed with swords and daggers. All the 3 gentlemen and my grandfather lost their lives.
My Dada's body was never found and as news came later, it was cut into pieces and thrown into a deep well.
I just wonder how you must be feeling knowing the fact that your dad was killed in this fashion
Ancestrally most of my family has lived in the northern Punjab area (bordering NWFP). Because of the geographical location I don’t think there was that much rioting and violence compared to the rest of the country; well not within the village at least. However I have heard that in the bigger towns around the area, which had a larger and more mixed population, there were incidents of Muslim violence against the Hindus and Sikhs. Some of the young guys (very very old budday now) from the village used to go and cruise around looking for trouble. Obviously a lot of the hindus and sikhs left in a hurry. Quite a lot of these houses which these people left behind are still around (although occupied) – they have big havelis with two or three storey wooden frames and structures etc, they are beautifully designed. It seems the hindus and Sikhs were probably slightly better off than the general muslim population.
However despite all the violence at that time, I have a partition story that I am proud of. My Nana was an imam and landowner with some influence in the local area. Where other people were busy causing trouble, he was quietly helping people who needed it. Until recently we had letters and other documents exchanged between my grandad and a sikh guy. My granddad had protected the family and eventually helped to arrange for their safe journey. He looked after the family’s property, land etc until they dealt with it, sold it or whatever. He must have looked after it for a while because some of the letters were from the guys sons…years later.
Whatever the ideological basis of partition, I think it was a very bad idea which took a turn for the very worse because of the political bureaucracy involved…No matter how many times your draw and redraw lines of a map, it never takes into account the human cost involved. And that’s the sadness of it all, no matter where it takes place.
GOOD THREAD...but may I recommend the change of name to... SHARE--YOUR ELDERS/PARENTS/RELATIVES 1947 MIGRATION TO PAKISTAN as I reckon there could hardly be Five to TEN at max...on Paklinks...who can actually share "THEIR" own views here....that includes me...born on 14th August-1949 !
What does your family in Lucknow think about india
Do they want to come to Pak
No they are quite happy with their situation.. they never complained about anything.. to them and all the indian muslims i kno.. India is home and pakistan is some foreign land... quite different than what we see in news.. maybe its the area that they live in .. is peaceful..
Interesting thread! I have to write my family's.Since my parents are both from the same extended family, we have tids and bits of both sides intermingled.
GOOD THREAD...but may I recommend the change of name to...SHARE--YOUR ELDERS/PARENTS/RELATIVES 1947 MIGRATION TO PAKISTANas I reckon there could hardly be Five to TEN at max...on Paklinks...who can actually share "THEIR" own views here....that includes me...born on 14th August-1949 !
Khush Rahein...
Point well taken RJ, I was thinking of the same thing. let me do that.
I never asked Dadi about their migration as she is never interested to share her sad part of her life, and when i told about GS, this is what i got from her
My Grandparents were born in india they are from rampur
My grandparents family split even before the partition, my dada's father was a great follower of Jinnah and My Dada's chaha was a follower of Abdul Kalam Azad, in the same family one is aganist a new country and one is favouring a new country,
we have a big haveli and dada's dada was having good relations with Rampur Nawab Raza ali Khan Bahadur
everybody warned my dada, when he was willing to migrate to pakistan, but still he didn't listen to everyone, as rampur is a muslim majority area and there was no riots anywhere
and from the whole mohalla my dada family was the only one who migrated to pakistan
they migrated peacefully well before the bloodshed happened and migrated to Lahore and they got house which was left by a migrated hindus, there was lot of cultural difference and language difference, they were trying to adjust to the new environment
my dada's lahore neighbour's relatives were staying in Gurdaspur and intially due to the major muslim population they thought it will come under pakistan, but when the partition happen it went to india, and they relatives were migrating to pakistan, for their accomadation he forcefully vacated my dada from that house, as he don't know any body there he went to the refuge camp, and due to lack of enough facilities my bua died of typhoid, even manydays they were without food, and later after few months they migrated to Hyderabad and my dada got a job there, and he faced a lot of discrimination at workplace
my dada decided that he cannot stay in pakistan and he could not go back to india, my dada called his father and they went to uganda to my dada's fathers friend business and everything was going fine till idi amin took over uganda and they went to canada as a refugee and where i was born and we moved to usa now
I never asked Dadi about their migration as she is never interested to share her sad part of her life, and when i told about GS, this is what i got from her
My Grandparents were born in india they are from rampur
My grandparents family split even before the partition, my dada's father was a great follower of Jinnah and My Dada's chaha was a follower of Abdul Kalam Azad, in the same family one is aganist a new country and one is favouring a new country,
we have a big haveli and dada's dada was having good relations with Rampur Nawab Raza ali Khan Bahadur
everybody warned my dada, when he was willing to migrate to pakistan, but still he didn't listen to everyone, as rampur is a muslim majority area and there was no riots anywhere
and from the whole mohalla my dada family was the only one who migrated to pakistan
they migrated peacefully well before the bloodshed happened and migrated to Lahore and they got house which was left by a migrated hindus, there was lot of cultural difference and language difference, they were trying to adjust to the new environment
my dada's lahore neighbour's relatives were staying in Gurdaspur and intially due to the major muslim population they thought it will come under pakistan, but when the partition happen it went to india, and they relatives were migrating to pakistan, for their accomadation he forcefully vacated my dada from that house, as he don't know any body there he went to the refuge camp, and due to lack of enough facilities my bua died of typhoid, even manydays they were without food, and later after few months they migrated to Hyderabad and my dada got a job there, and he faced a lot of discrimination at workplace
my dada decided that he cannot stay in pakistan and he could not go back to india, my dada called his father and they went to uganda to my dada's fathers friend business and everything was going fine till idi amin took over uganda and they went to canada as a refugee and where i was born and we moved to usa now
Re: Share your Relative's 1947 Migration to Pakistan Stories
My naani's family didn't exactly migrate in 1947...but they have a pretty dramatic story too.
My naani's father was a prominent figure in the anti-Maharaja movement, and an outspoken advocate for Kashmir's right to self determination, both before and after India took over. His actions naturally brought him in conflict with the Indian government, and their representative in Kashmir, Sheikh Abdullah.
After the first India-Pakistan War ended, Sheikh Abdullah decided to consolidate his power over Kashmir by eliminating all of his political opponents from the state. So, early one morning in January, 1949...several Indian soldiers came to my naani's family home looking for her parents. They were ordered at gunpoint to get in the back of a big truck...the soldiers refused to tell them where they were being taken. They weren't even given the chance to pack a change of clothes. My great grandmother, not knowing what was going to happen, and fearing that she and her husband we're going to be taken into the mountains and executed, made the split second decision to leave her children behind...begging the servants to hide them and take them to a relative's house after the soldiers had left. My naani didn't even know if her parents were alive or dead for a long time afterwards...
It turns out that the soldiers drove through Srinagar that day, stopping at the houses of various Kashmiri political dissidents & freedom activists to pick them up along the way. No one was told what was going to happen to them...they were driven for hours till they reached the LoC. At that point, a Red Cross official informed them that the Indian Government had declared all of them 'Pakistani POWs' and was exchanging them for Indian prisoners. They were literally forced across the border into permanent exile at gun point...never to be allowed to set foot in Kashmir again.
Re: Share your Relative's 1947 Migration to Pakistan Stories
janab-e-ali - did your great grandparents ever get reunite with their kids?
some really sad stories here.
well i'm lucky i dont have any stories to tell i guess. My family are all originally from Azad Kashmir and so the partition didn't effect them.
It's not related, but its a story lol, in the 1960s, a dam was built over about 30 villages i think, including several that my family and other rels had homes in. many of them were given land in the punjab of pakistan and had to up and leave. thats it really lol.
I can relate to that cause my dad moved form jabalpur when he was 14 (in 1947), and till he died in 1995, he fav. topic of discussion was his childhood days in jabalpur,
he told us so many stories about Narbada Naddee and a place on it called Bandar Koodnee, where two cliffs on opposite banks of Narbada were close enough for monkeys to jump form one side of it to the other, hence the place was known as Bandar koodnee (as in Bandar kay koodnay walee jagah)
And I am so much attached to Jabalpur that though I never visited india, I feel like Jabalpur is my second home
Jabalpur.....Nice place, been there...Narmada flows thru there and I am pretty sure he might be talking abt bheraghat area..
Re: Share your Relative's 1947 Migration to Pakistan Stories
janab-e-ali - did your great grandparents ever get reunite with their kids?
Yes and no.
My naani was reunited with them several years later, after she got married and had my mum, when she & my naana moved to Lahore in the 50's. One of my naani's younger sisters also moved to Pakistan after she got married. But the two youngest kids (a sister & a brother) were very young when all this happened...and basically never even got to know their real parents. They were raised by their maamu, and both stayed behind in Occupied Kashmir. The sister was able to visit Pakistan once or twice before her parents passed away...the brother was never able to get clearance from the Indian govt. to visit Pakistan, and never saw his parents again.
Re: Share your Relative's 1947 Migration to Pakistan Stories
To glorify and think that all those killed, murdered, raped some how were martyrs and helped achieve independence for Pakistan is misleading - the truth is that they(Hindus & Muslims) were all the innocent victims of partition. (including my maternal grandparents)
The British 'divide & rule' policy - was strongly enforced after the 1857 mutiny by Hindu & Muslim soldiers, because the British were scared of a united India.
Over the years the British highlighted & encouraged the differences between Hindus & Muslims. Nearing Independence they started driving the fear of Hindu dominance.
The Muslim Rajas, rich landlords & people like Jinnah got carried away with the Mugals past glories and the differences and wanted partition.
However a lot of Muslims saw through the ruse and wanted to stay united - but once the partition came, years of cultivating hate & distrust between the religions paid off for the British, and neighbours of generations killed neighbours, friends killed friend, etc.