Book review: The Punjab bloodied, cleansed and partitioned Oxford University Press, Pakistan 2012 —by Imran Kureshi

By Dr Ishtiaq Ahmed 

Rupa Press India 2011

“That night seemed never to end. Gunshots could be heard all around. We also heard men and women, even children shrieking in pain and horror” — a Muslim refugee from Ferozepur relating a night of ordeal during partition.

“You ask me today after 58 years how I feel? You tell me, what would you feel if you were in my situation? — I still remember the night when Amarnath volunteered to go to his shop to get the medicine my father needed, but he was killed by fanatics of his own community. His father and mother must have been devastated. [As for me] I lost everything” — a Muslim refugee from Ferozpur relating his ordeal.

“My greatest desire is to visit Multan again before I die.”

Then he broke down and began to cry so I ended the interview — an interview with a Sikh refugee from Multan. 

The above are three short excerpts from the myriads of personal interviews with people who suffered during partition. If ever an historical treatise can qualify to be a memorable epic, the above book does. It makes riveting and mind-boggling reading and once again, the reader is rapt in the dreadful and tragic events of that time. One cannot undo the injustices and horrors that our brethren of the soil faced. One cannot stop the Sikh jattha and Muslim mobs from slaughtering and committing unspeakable atrocities on helpless villagers; impaling babies on spears, holding the bodies up and dancing; slaughtering parents before the eyes of their children; hacking bodies into pieces; parading women naked and then chopping them into bits. One cannot undo what actually happened, but one can call it to account and learn a lesson from it.

That was the greatest tragedy that ever befell India and Pakistan. Probably it is the worst genocide in history, of the greatest number of people killed in the shortest time (estimates mention 600,000 to 800,000 people killed in three months, from August to December 1947, and about 90,000 women abducted). It is amazing how soon we have forgotten it. 

This book is vitally important because no writer compiled any comprehensive account of this tragedy previously. Immediately after the event, India compiled two comprehensive studies: one by Sardar Gurbachan Singh for the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhik Committee (SGPC) Report (published in 1949 and 1991), which apparently is a very biased account. The other is by Justice A G Khosla, commissioned by the government of India (published in 1949 and 1989); the book is called Stern Reckoning, which is said to be quite balanced. There is also Ian Talbot and Thandi’s People on the Move. The Pakistan government only published three short reports in 1948, based on data collected by the CID, on a purported plan by the Sikhs to massacre all Muslims in East Punjab, on Sikh atrocities and later, a collection of first person accounts and reports in 1993 titled Journey to Pakistan. There are a few books by independent authors about what happened in Amritsar, Jalandhar, and other numerous moving anecdotes, and of course, there are references to the tragic time in innumerable books on the subject of partition. Thus, it was about time someone from Pakistan wrote a comprehensive, unbiased and accurate account of that dire chapter in our history. 

The author deals with the subject in a holistic manner, identifying the Punjabi ethos and delving into the cultural, historical and economic roots of communal friction. With meticulous research, and in a very systematic manner, he traces the historical and political events that gradually built up and led to this genocide. He covers the tragedy as comprehensively as possible, presenting the various subjective views of the ones affected and verifying each major incident with eyewitness accounts. Apart from the various factors found in most books on the subject, the author particularly mentions that over one million Sikhs and Muslims, trained in the use of arms and warfare, were de-mobbed and left jobless after WWII, and these people provided a seed bed for violence. He also mentions Sayed Shaheed Barelvi’s movement extolling jihad to elevate the depressed conditions of Muslims.

Actually, the author is a staunch Punjabi, a typical Lahoria by nature. Thus in this book, behind his erudition and academic approach, one can discern a disturbed human being searching for an answer. He cannot understand how Punjabis, who once enjoyed a pluralistic, tolerant and extremely affable society; who followed the teachings of the Gorakhnatak faqirs, Bhagat Kabir, sants, gurus, Bulleh Shah and other Sufi saints; who were known for their good nature and humanistic values, could suddenly start slaughtering and committing unspeakable atrocities on one another. Over the years most of us have either hypocritically consoled ourselves with a ‘blame game’ or conveniently locked up our consciences and disillusionment in our minds, and don’t think about what happened. However, now three generations later, with friendly overtures towards India, suddenly we are overleaping that dire tragedy and reverting to our natural feelings for our brethren across the border. Thus, the beauty of this book is that in an underlying manner, it actually reconciles this important question in its own way. 

It shows how political realisations affected the mass mind; how slogans and religiosity inflamed mobs or terrified people of other religions; how politicians and government officials deliberately promoted conflict and bloodshed. Although in this regard, due credit must be given to some politicians for actively trying to stop the mayhem, like, inter alia, Liaquat Ali Khan, Nehru, Mian Iftikharudin, Dr. Zakir Hussain, the Khaksars and bureaucrats like Saeed Zaman Khan, DC Montgomery (now Sahiwal) and Agha Abdul Hamid, DC Lyallpur ( now Faisalabad). Of course, the main violence started after Master Tara Singh waved his sword outside the assembly building. Violence that in the villages, almost invariably, saw Sikh elders in East Punjab villages trying to protect their fellow Muslims and asking them to stay, and conversely, Muslims in West Punjab asking their fellow Sikhs to stay and offeringd to protect them. It was always outsiders, jatthas and mobs, comprising of usually thousands of assailants, who attacked the villages, caravans or trains of refugees and committed the massacres. These assailants usually comprised of goonda elements, people who had already suffered similar atrocities, others specially trained by the ones with vested interests, police, soldiers of the INA, or the Sikh princely states, the Muslim League National Guard, the RSS, and often, they would be backed by the local administration. Thus, basically, the love among the villagers remained unchanged. 

The real forte of this book is the innumerable personal accounts. They read like a cascade of riveting stories by Manto or Krishen Chander, except they are blandly written without highlighting the dramatic impact. Here you have the whole panoply of extreme villainy, courage and heroism, the strange quirks of human nature and amazing examples of the indomitable will to live, even among children traumatised and parents killed in front of their eyes. The fascinating realisation is that these are all simple village people.

The reviewer is a freelance contributor

The Daily Times: March 21, 2012