In my final year viva, I was asked about the commencing lines of Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities and so I answered, it was the best of times as well as the worst of times.
I was amazed by the question not because I wasn’t prepared but I never thought that, precisely the same question would be asked that I knew.
After answering them, for the very first time at that moment I compared these lines to the line of “The Radcliffe” named after Sir Cyril Radcliffe, who was commissioned to divide the fate and destiny of the people living in British India, between India and Pakistan. So I fumbled over the simplest question asked after that because of my wandering habit but still I survived.
The 1947 Partition was the best of time for new constitutions as separate states were being created. It was the worst of time because many were killed in the name of religion and many were migrating from one place to other, leaving their legacy, heritage, name, properties all behind. It was the age of wisdom, because of the decision to be made. It was the age of foolishness, because people were scattered just for one line drew between. It was epoch of belief for faith in respective state, it was epoch of incredulity for faith in respective state. It was the season of Light; season of hope, It was season of Darkness; season of depression. We had everything before us, we had nothing before us.
Division of India and Pakistan nurtured eternal hatred and enmity. Before Partition, already, there was conflict between Hinduism and Islam but after the Partition, conflict of nation erupted with emblem of religion. With the influence of religion on nations, this enmity became immortal. Majority of poor class suffered due to the hatred of both nations. 1947 partition was not the division between castes, religion but it was division of humanity, after the bloodthirsty and vulnerable partition humanity died.
It all started from the group of merchants who were granted Royal Charter by Queen Elizabeth l on 31 December 1599 to trade. The slogan of East India Company was ‘Trade not Territory’. In August of 1600 British arrived in India, preliminary unpretentious landing. William Hawkins, Captain of the Hector, marched to Agra where he confronted Mughal’s and then he was made a member of Royal Household. Briskly their trading activities grew and the Company’s Officer were involved in local politics and gradually they intervened. On June 1757, General Robert Clive with his 900 Englishmen and 2000 Indian sepoys routed the army of Nawab Siraj ud Daulah of Bengal and his French allies outside Bengali village called Plassey. Clive’s victory opened the gates of northern India. And then ‘Territory, not Trade’ became their principal. Traders became sovereign power, merchant became generals, and British became successor of Mughal Emperors.
And 100 hundred years passed until the passion of freedom erupts in form of Indian Rebellion of 1857 or Mutiny of 1857. Why it is known as mutiny, have you ever thought about it? People fighting for their country, for their freedom became rebel? It’s like you bought something from me and I call you a thief. Let’s write as it is written. So 1857 rebellion was unsuccessful but yet impactful. Many fought against British but majority fought for British. As I had already stated in my last article “Unresolved System” that our enemies were our own people. Both Muslims and Hindus participated in mutiny, whether Sepoy mutiny, mutiny of Rani of Jhansi, Oudh (Awadh) rebellion of Nawab Birjis Qadr, rebellion of Rao Tularam Singh in Haryana or the rebellion of last Mughal Emperor Bahdur Shah Zafar. British force repudiated each and every rebellion that took place, with the assistance of the people of same color. Bahadur Shah Zafar was exiled in Rangoon and his son and grandsons were executed on the spot. And then there was common sepoy Mangal Pandey, who was denounced traitor by British and hanged. “Mangal Pandey: The Rising”, biographical movie directed by Ketan Mehta is based on his rebellion.
Both committed atrocities. In awadh 150,000 Indians were killed, 100,000 of them being civilians. General Neill, notorious for his indiscriminate killing of thousands of civilians suspecting everyone as rebellion. Rebels murder of women and children in Kanpur. After the Kanpur incident Muslims and Hindus were forced by British Army to eat pork and beef. British soldier also committed sexual violence against Indian women as vengeance against rebellion. Rudrangshu Mukherjee in his “Spectre of Violence: The 1857 Kanpur Massacre” cited the brutality of British soldiers, “searing with hot irons, dipping in wells till the victim is suffocated, sequencing the testicles, putting pepper and red chillies in the eye or introducing them into private part of men and women, prevention of sleep, nipping the flesh with pinners”.
Division of India and Pakistan nurtured eternal hatred and enmity. Before Partition, already, there was conflict between Hinduism and Islam but after Partition, conflicts between nations erupted with emblem of religion. With the influence of religion on nations, this enmity became immortal
Now moving to the 20th century massacre of Jallianwala Bagh that took place in 1919, when Reginald Dyer ordered his troops of British Indian Army to shoot unarmed civilians in Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar, killing at least 400, including 41 children and over 1000 were wounded. It was public garden and Dyer blocked entrance and exit gate and his army continued to shoot defenseless civilians until their ammunition was out. Dyer became hero.
After the endeavour of All India Muslim League and Congress, finally British made decision to leave the country but by parting it between India and Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Symptoms of partition breakdown Muslim-Hindu riots in 1946 known as “Direct Day Action” or “Calcutta Killing”.
Hindus were savagely beaten by Muslim mobs, and Muslim by Hindu mobs. “Weak and helpless suffered the most. At one crossroad Muslim coolies lay beaten to death where a Hindu mob had found them, between the poles of their rickshaws. By the time slaughter was over, Calcutta belonged to vultures. In filthy grey packs they scudded across the sky, tumbling down to gorge themselves on the bodies of the city’s 6000 dead (Freedom at Midnight by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre)” The great Calcutta killing triggered bloodshed in Noakhali.
In 1947 Pakistan and India became two separate states. The partition displaced between 10-12 million people.
Let’s leave everything for now. Enough with the chapters of history. During this article, my soul has been shattered; my mind is haunted by precious smile. A smile that’s going to haunt me for the rest of my life. A student, named Namrita Chandani has committed suicide. Suicide or murdered, yet to be proven. But looking at her caricature, her smile, its impractical to believe the theory of suicide. What has happened to the country of Quaid-e-Azam? Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah who said “You are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place or worship in this state of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion, caste or creed-that has nothing to do with the business of state. We are starting in the days where there is no discrimination, no distinction, between one community and another, no discrimination between one caste or creed. We are starting with this fundamental principle: that we are all citizens and equal citizens of on state”. What had transpired to our Pak Watan? There have been 7430 such cases, much higher as most of the cases go unreported. The vandalism of temples in Ghotki, destruction of private property is not the Pakistan that our Quaid dreamt for. Land of Sufis is quite in danger. We have law, rules, regulation but why the hand of commoner is playing the part of justice? Why mobs are destroying everything in the path? Please try to be One nation as Quaid dreamt. Try to be a Pakistani. Stand against injustice, wherever or to whomever it transpired. Stand whether you are Muslim or Hindu, stand together in unison. Already our Pakistan is epithet as terrorist; we are mistreated in foreign countries. So stand for your own people otherwise, sooner or later we will be called terrorist by our own people.
Pakistan and India both are in desolate condition. War between them is not an option for survival. Both countries must wage the war against poverty, injustice, health issues, corruption dwelling in their nation. Let us read the poetry of Jaun Elia “Ab Hamein Inqlaab Chahye Hai.”
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