Born in Lahore a few years after the India-Pakistan partition, Salman Rashid had never been to India. Family elders had been silent about what actually happened when they had to flee westwards.
A long-nurtured wish comes to fruition in 2008 when Rashid, now in his mid-50’s and an established travel writer, obtains a visa to visit India. Carrying an old photograph, he ventures in search of his family home in Jalandhar, Punjab. Here, he meets people who knew his family and eventually finds an eyewitness to piece together the missing parts of his family history, and in turn, heal the wounds.
Rashid’s narrative is painstakingly balanced. On the one hand, we read about hospitality, friendships and the goodness of those who protect others at the risk of their own lives. On the other, there are first-person narratives from people who participated in the violence and now deeply regret their actions. Violence generates more violence—thus, Rashid’s father who actually abhors beef begins to support cow-slaughter.
Memories of an old family friend from Jalandhar who visited the author’s family in Lahore have helped Rashid stay free of prejudice against India. Despite working in the Pakistani army for seven years, he has not been indoctrinated by state propaganda.
His trip to India is like a pilgrimage—he calls India “ancient land” and the land of his ancestors. Travelling in India, he observes daily life with fresh eyes and compares India to Pakistan. He is full of admiration when he meets Indians who revere trees, when he notices that men gawk less at women in India compared to Pakistan, and that people drive on the designated side of the road.Rashid is scathingly critical of Pakistan, and thinks that the country regressed under a dictatorial regime (which he does not name, so neither do I).
A Time of Madness is worth reading for Salman Rashid’s reflections on connections and commonalities between India and Pakistan, and their shared history. Scars of the partition, propaganda about Islamic identity, Pakistani nationalism and what Rashid calls “Arab colonisation” have affected Pakistanis who began to think of their origins as Arab instead of India— Rashid calls this a “mental sickness.”
Rashid also reminds readers that the term “Hindu” once referred to a geographical entity and only later took on a religious connotation.
There have been several books, both fiction and non-fiction, about the partition and there is always room for more. Two million people were uprooted from their homes and a million people lost their lives in the partition of India. Seventy years later, as India-Pakistan and Hindu-Muslim relations continue to be fraught, let us remember history, again, and again.