Fortunately, Pakistan treats me as one of its own, and I have not been told to go back and never return. However, millions of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs who were driven from the homes in 1947 are not so lucky

Each time I step on the soil of Lahore there is a strange, spiritual feeling of touching holy ground. The long absences, sometimes several years, lose meaning, as if time simply paused or stopped while I was away momentarily. But the fact is that it is now more than 31 years when I left Pakistan and set up home in the northern city of Stockholm. Naturally my focus of attention is my family — my wife and children — and Stockholm has been very nice to us and that is where home really is, but Lahore continues to be my first love.

I cannot imagine a more cruel and inhuman situation than to be told that you are now a foreign citizen and cannot come to Lahore. Fortunately, Pakistan treats me as one of its own, and I have not been told to go back and never return. However, millions of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs who were driven from the homes in 1947 are not so lucky.

At the time of the Agra Summit in 2001, an advertisement was put out in Pakistani newspapers to the effect that those who wanted to visit their homes in East Punjab and elsewhere in India should contact a particular company. I am told the response was overwhelming. Thousands and thousands of people wanted to do so, but when that Summit ended in failure the project was abandoned. However, some Indians and Pakistanis have been able to visit their homes on the other sides. Here I give three examples from the Indian side.

I met Moni Chadha, a Sikh who could easily pass off as a northern European, at the India International Centre in March earlier this year. Mr Chadha retired as Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs and Dean Foreign Services Institute. This is what he told me about his visit to the land of his forefathers:

‘In 1983 I led a SAARC delegation to Islamabad. The visit brought me back to the places from where my immediate family had escaped during 1947. Many of my relatives were brutally murdered but I had never forgotten those places where we once lived in peace and amity with our Muslim brethren. Fortunately, the then Pakistani Counsellor in Delhi, Riaz Khokar, helped me get permission to visit my house and school in Rawalpindi as well the ancestral villages in Kullar and Gujjar Khan.

‘A flood of emotions engulfed me when I saw all those places again although I was only a very small boy in 1947. Wherever I went the people went out of the way to help. Their warmth was real and spontaneous. However, the ISI followed me and when I took some pictures they even objected. I then showed them the paper issued by Mr Khokhar permitting me to take photos and they were disappointed.

‘The incongruity between the attitude of the ordinary people and that of the functionaries of the state was most striking. I met an old man who knew my family and even remembered their names. He told me that the marauders who attacked the Sikhs had come from outside.’

On October 20, 2001 I met the famous Indian actors Sunil Dutt and Raj Babbar in Mumbai. I admired them for their great services to the downtrodden as both were public figures and elected members of the Indian Parliament. Dutt Sahib told me:

‘I belong to the clan of Hussaini Brahmins. The Hussaini Brahmins were once concentrated in the Rawalpindi-Jhelum region. Hussaini Brahmins believe that their ancestor Rahab Dutt and his sons fought on the side of Imam Hussain at Kerbala and they were martyred along with the Imam. We remained Hindus but the tragedy of Kerbala was commemorated from generation to generation in our families and even now our clan observes it all over India, although the younger generation is less keen on such traditions.

‘At the time of partition, my family was in our ancestral village, Khurd, in Jhelum district. I happened to be on the Indian side. My mother, younger brother and sister escaped with the help of a very brave Muslim family friend, Yaqub. In 1998 I got a chance to visit Khurd, thanks to the special interest taken in my plea by then-prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

‘Our village folks had been informed about my visit and some of the young men had even seen my movies. The old women addressed me by my nickname ‘Bajjya’ since my real name is Balraj. They wanted to know how my mother, Mangla, was. When I told them that she had died they began to cry. I visited Yaqub’s village, Nawan Kot, to thank him for saving my family members during those terrible days of 1947. He had died and his children also did not live there anymore.

‘I came back thoroughly convinced that good and bad people are to be found in all communities and one should never judge harshly a whole people.’

Raj Babbar gave me the following account:

‘Although I was born in Agra where my family settled after Partition, our original home was in Jalalpur Jattan. I visited Pakistan sometime back to attend a Punjabi conference. The receptions at the airport and in the hotel were memorable. I felt that I was at home among my own people. I expressed a desire to visit my hometown and this was immediately arranged. Some young men from Jalalpur Jattan formed a caravan of motorcycles as we drove into the town.

‘The townspeople received me very warmly. Many elders remembered my family and also the exact house where we lived. I was told that a mosque had been built in the courtyard of our old house and therefore they were not sure if I would like to go there. I said to them, “I would be very pleased to go there if you have no objection. Now I know the secret of my success. If people are praying five times a day in the courtyard of my house then obviously their blessings help me become so successful”. This pleased everybody and we quickly went on to see the old house.

‘Quite frankly, the problem is not people. It is bad politics. We must do everything to remove misunderstandings.’

The author is an associate professor of Political Science at Stockholm University. He is the author of two books. His email address is Ishtiaq.Ahmed@statsvet.su.se

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