I lived in Pakistan's West Punjab province from 1971 to 1977 as a foreign student from Malaysia. During my stay there, I made several trips via Wagah and on to Amritsar and to other parts of India. Lyallpur, where I lived, had a large Sikh and Hindu population before Partition. The empty and often ruined shells of temples and gurdwaras in the city as well as in nearby villages stand forlorn and a testimony of the haste and bungling by the departing British in bringing about this cruel divide. Whole villages of innocent people fled in a human caravans of about 100,000 on the road from Lyallpur to Lahore. Several who crowded at the railway station in Lyallpur were butchered by mobs. People often pointed out places like canals and mohallas where massacres took place. Their places were taken by Muslim refugees fleeing Jullunder and Amritsar. Exactly the same brutalities were taking place... all under the gloating eyes of the British who often taunted victims with jeers like Nehru and Gandhi will come to their aid.
During my years in Lyallpur, the scars were still there. People often spoke of missing family members, friends. Others wept when they reminisced their Sikh and Hindu friends whom they feared would never meet again. At the city centre, a large former gurudwara stood which was used as a school. I visited it once and a teacher came up and spoke. he was 16 when he left Ludhiana in '47 and stayed on at the school ever since becoming a sports master. He showed me a gnarled mulberry tree at the corner of the grounds which he had planted a quarter of a century ago. He was choked with emotion as he spoke about the unnecessary hardships the Partition caused to innocent Punjabis who paid a bitter price. He finally broke down and wept like a child.
I felt guilty about having stirred long-forgotten memories buried in the deep recesses of this poor man's mind.
Sikha and Hindus played a great part in pre-partition cities like Lahore and Lyallpur but today one never sees a Sikh or Hindu in West Punjab. There are few families in the Swat Valley and Sindh who remained. My classmates, being Punjabi Muslims, showed a lot of curiousity about East Punjab and often declare that Sikhs and Hindus are their kinspeople though very few of them had ever seen a Sikh or Hindu.
I now live in British Columbia, Canada home to about 300,000 Indians mostly Punjabis Sikhs. They are often amused I speak fluent Punjabi and enjoy their music, movies and food.
Even after over 30 years since i left Pakistan, i am haunted by the tragedies and sufferings innocent Punjabis paid in 1947 and for this I can only blame the British and their arrogant mischief in trying to destroying a proud nation.
Received in email by an Un-named author.
During my years in Lyallpur, the scars were still there. People often spoke of missing family members, friends. Others wept when they reminisced their Sikh and Hindu friends whom they feared would never meet again. At the city centre, a large former gurudwara stood which was used as a school. I visited it once and a teacher came up and spoke. he was 16 when he left Ludhiana in '47 and stayed on at the school ever since becoming a sports master. He showed me a gnarled mulberry tree at the corner of the grounds which he had planted a quarter of a century ago. He was choked with emotion as he spoke about the unnecessary hardships the Partition caused to innocent Punjabis who paid a bitter price. He finally broke down and wept like a child.
I felt guilty about having stirred long-forgotten memories buried in the deep recesses of this poor man's mind.
Sikha and Hindus played a great part in pre-partition cities like Lahore and Lyallpur but today one never sees a Sikh or Hindu in West Punjab. There are few families in the Swat Valley and Sindh who remained. My classmates, being Punjabi Muslims, showed a lot of curiousity about East Punjab and often declare that Sikhs and Hindus are their kinspeople though very few of them had ever seen a Sikh or Hindu.
I now live in British Columbia, Canada home to about 300,000 Indians mostly Punjabis Sikhs. They are often amused I speak fluent Punjabi and enjoy their music, movies and food.
Even after over 30 years since i left Pakistan, i am haunted by the tragedies and sufferings innocent Punjabis paid in 1947 and for this I can only blame the British and their arrogant mischief in trying to destroying a proud nation.
Received in email by an Un-named author.
