Daily Times

I arrived in Amritsar from Chandigarh in the morning of March 4, 2013. Professor Parminder Singh of the Guru Nanak Dev University had kindly come to fetch me. The next two days I spent in his company. Needless to say the hospitality was as warm and generous as you would expect from a theth (traditional) Punjabi household. Since we both had a background in the Left movements of our respective countries, it was time to exchange notes about our different experiences.

In the afternoon, I gave my first lecture to a packed hall with faculty and students at the university. I began by reminding my audience that exactly 66 years earlier, perhaps at about the same time when I had begun speaking to them, the first clashes took place in Amritsar after news arrived that earlier in the day Hindu-Sikh and Muslim students and activists had clashed in Lahore. That the news had arrived so early despite government censorship was that a steady stream of citizens from both cities used to shuttle between them — a 50 kilometre journey that took about an hour — on a daily basis before the partition of the Punjab brought down a curtain with border controls and checkpoints, which had made these twin cities worlds apart in practice. I got the feeling that just as we in Pakistan think that all evil things in 1947 were done by Hindus and Sikhs, in the Indian Punjab it is exactly the same feeling. My lecture ruffled quite a few victimhood feelings and I was greatly helped by some members from the faculty who had similar things to tell. The Question and Answer session was a mix of bewilderment and disbelief that once upon a time nearly as many Muslims lived in Amritsar as Hindus and Sikhs. It was amusing when some of the students said “Sir, tussi te barri soni Punjabi bolde o!” (Sir, you speak such lovely Punjabi!). This innocent remark was indicative of the fact that the younger generation had never met and interacted with fellows from across the border.

The next day I took my time to go around the old central parts of Amritsar: Hall Bazaar, Mahan Singh Gate, Chowk Farid, Kuch Dabgran, Chowk Pragdas, Chowk Moni, Katra Jamail Singh, Hathi Gate and all those narrow streets and alleys through which thousands of traumatised and shocked human beings must have tried to find a way to escape as gangs of marauders armed with knives and swords and spears and even firearms cut them down without mercy or regard. Some of the cruellest incidents took place around the Golden Temple.

From March onwards and until the Radcliffe Award of August 17 was announced, pitched battles raged in Amristar in which the criminal underworld was fully involved on both sides. Hindu, Sikh and Muslim badmash (criminals), known as Pehlwans (wrestlers), went around with their underlings in search of hapless men, women and children from the ‘enemy community’. The battle for Lahore and Amritsar was fought the longest, from March to mid-August 1947. Strangely enough, while the Muslim League had goaded on the Amritsar Muslims to hold on to that city and promised them that it would be awarded to Pakistan, similarly, Congress and Sikh leaders had told the Hindus and Sikhs of Lahore that they should stay put as it would be given to India. When the award placed them in the wrong states, those who were around had to flee in great panic. Between Amritsar and Lahore, the killing fields were soaked by the innocent blood of hundreds of thousands of bleeding humanity. The politicians had no qualms of conscience in making their co-religionists become easy targets.

Amritsar went through another trauma when Mrs Gandhi ordered her troops to oust Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindrawale and his associates from the Golden Temple complex where they had built trenches and were fully armed for a showdown with the Indian state. Needless to say, the Khalistanis were trying to establish a state-within-a-state and that fatal mistake has often times cost a great deal in human life and suffering.

In the afternoon, Parminderji had arranged for me to talk at the Virsa Vihar, a complex of halls and buildings where a great deal of cultural and intellectual activity takes place. This time I was going to talk to political workers from a spectrum of parties. The progressives were definitely in a majority and that encouraged me to say that while the Muslim League was responsible for creating conditions through a highly communal election campaign and for months it was in the Muslim-majority districts of western Punjab that violence took place and Hindus and Sikhs had to flee for safety, the Sikh leaders had a proper plan to oust all Muslims from East Punjab in case the boundary award did not give them Nankana Sahib, Lahore, Gujranwala, Lyallpur and Montgomery — areas where the Muslims were in a majority. That is, however, exactly what happened and Sikh jathas (armed gangs) then hounded the Muslims out of East Punjab by all means. Similarly, all Hindus and Sikhs were expelled from western Punjab. I must say, the audience showed great understanding and during the Question and Answer session the discussion was most stimulating even when the issues were painful and shameful.

After the formal talk, tea and refreshments were served and that gave me an opportunity to meet many intellectuals and writers. We all agreed that only secular humanism, respectful of religion and spirituality, but firm about the equal rights of all human beings could save humankind from war, ethnic cleansing and religious terrorism. Nationalism had to give way to cosmopolitanism and the poor and oppressed had to be given the chance to lead a life of dignity and respect. I was invited to come again. I told them, whenever you want, I will come.

The writer is a visiting professor, LUMS, Pakistan; Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Stockholm University; and Honorary Senior Fellow, Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore. Latest publications: Winner of the Best Non-Fiction Book award at the Karachi Literature Festival: The Punjab Bloodied, Partitioned and Cleansed, Oxford, 2012; and Pakistan: The Garrison State, Origins, Evolution, Consequences (1947-2011), Oxford, 2013. He can be reached at:billumian@gmail.com