Daily Times

Ijaz Hussain Khan, a veteran Pakistani cricketer, shares his memories about the city of Jalandhar, sporting activities in British India and his family’s recollection of days leading up to Independence and migration to Pakistan.

Khan says Jalandhar used to be referred to as doaaba because of its location between Sutlej and Beas rivers. The water supplied to the city was extremely sweet, he says.” Jalandhar had a population of less than a lakh comprising both Muslims and Hindus; and life was calm and peaceful,” he says, “There were areas where Hindus and Muslimshad lived side by side over multiple generations. They respected each other.All this changed in 1947 as riots broke out in the city.”

However, he recalls, the neighbourhood where his family was living remained unaffected. “My elders stayed in Jalandhar for some days even after the partition,” he says.

Khan says real troubles started with the arrival of Hindu migrants from areas now included in Pakistan. “There were Hindu families arriving in the city carrying mutilated bodies of their relatives. This raised communal temperatures in the city. Hindu residents sought revenge from Muslims,” he says. It was amid this chaos that Khan’s elders were advised by their Hindu neighbours to leave. “They said the city was no longer safe for Muslims,” he says.

Discussing the sporting scene in Jalandhar, Khan says the city was known for its cricket competitions. Among Muslims in Jalandhar, Pathan families dominated the fields of cricket and hockey. Prominent Indian and later-day Pakistani cricketers Muhammad Nisar,Haroon Khan, and Javaid Burkihad come from Jalandhar, he says.

“Muhammad Nisar rose to become one of the world’s fastest bowlers of his time. Nazir Ali and Wazir Ali were both brothers. Ali brothers, Dr. Jahangir and Jilani Khan represented Jalandhar in the All India Cricket Team in 1936. Six of the 11 players in the All India Cricket Team in 1932 and 1936 were from Jalandhar. Hockey team also had many players from Jalandhar who went on to compete in the Olympics.

“When Pakistan became an independent country, and various sports teams were formed in universities, boys of Jalandhar dominated the scene. Government College’s cricket team consisted of six players from Jalandhar,” Khan says.

Khan recalls that his grandmother’s brother, Muhammad Mehmood Khan, had been among the pioneers of club cricket in Lahore. “He was calledbaba-e-cricket,” he says.

Though there were many clubs in the city, Khan says Crescent club and a club formed by NawabMamdot were the most famous of them all. “MehmoodKhan remained the captain of theMamdot cricket club for 17 years before Partition,” he adds.

Lahore Gymkhana was known for its sporting events. “The clubhad been reserved only for the British. Muslims were not allowed to become a member. Ayub Karamat was the first Muslim to become a member of the Gymkhana,” he says, adding that his uncle also later became a member of the club. In 1932, his uncle went to England with the cricket team and stayed there for the next seven years. “He returned after having completed his PhD studies,” he says.

Khan’s uncle had started playing cricket at Islamia College. “Not many Muslims used to be educated back then. When my uncle went to London with the team, the King of England was very enthusiastic to find out that he was the only graduate degree-holder in the team. He shook hands with him twice,” he says.

Khan says he had learnt from his uncle that he was nine-years-old at the time of partition. “My uncle said that the train on which our family arrived at Lahore had a Hindu driver. He kept the speed of the train very low. It took us three hours to cover a 50-mile distance from Jalandhar to Amritsar,” he says.

Khan says the driver stopped the train at Amritsar. “When Muslim guards asked him to restart the train and resume the journey, he refused citing orders from the station master. Some Muslim guards later managed to get in touch with the station master at Lahore who was a Muslim. They told him about the driver’s refusal to resume the journey,” he says.

The station master in Lahore warned his counterpart in Amritsar that trains carrying Hindu migrants to India would not be allowed to leave Lahore station, if the train stopped at Amritsar was not asked to resume journey. “The strategy worked and the driver resumed journey,” Khan says, “When our train crossed Wagha border, the train at Lahore station was then allowed to resume its journey towards Amristar.”

Khan dispels the notion that communal attacks at partition were one-sided. Hindu, Sikh and Muslim communities all had blood on their hands, he says. “In Lahore, Sikhs were attacked by Muslims. There were so many deaths that Jawaharlal Nehru had to intervene,” he says.

Khan went on to play cricket for Pakistan Railways. Later, he joined the Gymkhana team for a year. He also got selectedfor the Government College and Punjab University teams. Eventually, he became a member of the National Cricket Team.

Published in Daily Times, July 13^th , 2017.