CHENNAI: British leaving the country was a remarkable moment for Indians. But, the euphoria was short-lived, they were unaware of what their independence could cost them. Two days after declaring the country free from the British Raj, people gathered in Delhi to celebrate the newly - gained freedom. Just like thousands, Ravee Malhotra, a three-year-old, residing in Lahore hopped on a train with only a handbag containing a few pairs of clothes, to be a part of the celebration. Little did he know that the celebration of 1947 and his time in the newly formed Indian subcontinent would only be for a few hours.
“As far as I have read, Jinnah questioned Lord Mountbatten on what kind of country he was giving to Pakistan. Just like that, without thinking of any implication, Mountbatten said take Lahore. That is when the confusion on partition began and we couldn’t go back,” shared Ravee who came to the then Madras and settled here.
Ravee was nostalgic when he attended a talk by Balbir Punj in the city on Wednesday. Vigil, a public opinion forum, invited Balbir to speak on the ‘Horrors of Partition’ — a first-hand account of the trauma. The event at Meenakshi College for Women saw a gathering of a 60-odd audiences of different age groups. “It is important to hold such talks in the city, because people in the south, especially in Madras, do not know the difficulty people had to go through because they were never a part of the partition,” added Ravee.
Two nations, one people
Balbir Punj took the audience on a time travel by tracing a mind map since the 1857 revolt. “The British, after the revolt, found seven fault lines and made sure that anything like the revolt did not take place,” said Balbir. To show dominance, the British created a divide between Hindu-Muslim, Hindu-Sikhs, Aryans vs rest, tribals vs rest, Dalit vs rest, the local population fighting against the king, and North-South.
With this division, the need for partition grew even more. This was the time when the independence was not very far. In 1888, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan in Meerut said, “Suppose that the English community…. were to leave India…. who then would be the rulers of India? Is it possible that…. the Mohammedans and the Hindus could sit on the throne and remain equal in power?... It is necessary that one of them should conquer the other.”
“There was a determination to fight against the determination to divide the country and as a result, one crore citizens were displaced and two million died during the partition,” said Balbir. Politicians like Avtar Narain Gujral, who “signed the constitution of Pakistan”, stayed back in Pakistan because of the word of Jinnah. Avtar fled the country overnight and settled in India because he saw how Hindus were being slaughtered there.
“Similar was the case of Jogendranath Mandal, a Dalit leader. Dalits were to collaborate with Muslims, both minorities. He found a home in East Pakistan and became a minister of law and labour. Within a year, he came back to India when he found he had no say in the running of the government,” he explains.
Many other leaders like Avtar and Jogendranath wanted a separation, but they either returned or never crossed the border. Sardar Patel in 1948 asked such individuals, “The Muslims who are still in India, all of them helped in the creation of Pakistan… Has their nation changed overnight?”
There were also leaders like Gandhi who were against partition and wanted one free nation. In one of his public addresses in 1909, he said, “The English have taught us that we are not one nation before and it will require centuries before we become one nation… We were one nation before they came to India. One thought inspired us…. It was because we were one nation that they were able to establish one kingdom”.
Balbir also posed some thought-provoking questions, “How much we know our country today is a question mark. Earlier we knew that the British were our enemies, we knew they were exploiting us, we knew we had to fight them for Independence. 77 years later, today, do we know who our enemies are? Unknown, we do not know what they are doing and how we should be fighting them. The common thing then and now is that the Indians are exploited. To fight these enemies, it is important to know the roots of our country.”
Ravee, who echoed the throughts of Balbir, said, “The talk brings the problem and the difficulty we went through during Partition. As Balbir ji said, people who wanted partition stayed back in India. They never went there.”
A translated version of ‘Ve Pandrah Din’ narrates the events between Aug 1-15, 1947. The book — titled ‘Andha 15 Naatkal’ — was translated into Tamil by Raja Bharathwaj and launched at the event by Balbir Punj.