Partition of India, Delhi and communal violence
Introduction
The day of 14th August 1947 was a day of victory
and defeat for India, on one hand India got freedom from the British rule while
partition as a defeat for Indian communal and cultural unity on the other. With
the creation of Pakistan, the struggle which earlier the two countries share
unitedly got divided and the violence which emerged after the partition due to
communal differences led to massacre on such a large scale which many scholars
compare with the Serbs in Bosnia, the Albanians in Serbia and Jews, Gypsies and
others in Nazi Germany as the author Gyanendra Pandey mentions in his book ‘Remembering
Partition’. Delhi being the capital also suffered the violence and many people
came to Delhi to flee the communal tensions; majorly from the Punjab province
of that time, but lakhs of people left the place as well due to riots and most
of them were Muslims, around 3.3 lakh muslims left Delhi at that time and after
1947 violence Delhi lost its place or character as the city of ‘Adab and Ibadat’,
which was once a seat for many empires and culture; and a holy place for muslims due
to presence of many Sufi shrines. Partition not just affected Muslims but also
Hindus and Sikhs, it affected their ties with each other and after a point
people belonging to these communities also started wavering each other which
further weakened social and cultural ties. Delhi at that time was in a
situation of dilemma, as it is the capital, so many people might had fled to
Delhi at that time assuming it to be a safer place which was not the case
because situation was not in control of the government therefore, Jawaharlal
Nehru wrote to Lord Mountbatten who was in Shimla at that time seeking help.
So, here in the essay I will try to depict a picture of that time through some
personal accounts of people.
Delhi as a partition city: -
Delhi had a population of 9.5 lakhs in 1947, and
after partition around 3.3 lakh Muslims left and nearly 5 lakh non-muslim
refugees came to the city. By 1951 partition refugees excluding local Muslim
population accounted for 28.4 % of total population. Around 12,000 refugees
from Alwar state were given shelter in various 16 relief camps of the city, out
of which the highest were at the ground, in front of Jama Masjid. Muslims who
were inhabitants of Delhi themselves left their houses fearing loss of their lives.
They went to places which provided them a sense of collective reliability and
security like the Jama Masjid area, Nizamuddin, Okhla, graveyards and ruined
muslim monuments, houses of muslim ministers, officials etc. for example- a
Muslim Pakistani officer mentions that how the ‘Pak Transfer Office’ at L-block
in Connaught Place became a Refugee camp, which was responsible for providing
transportation to Pakistani government officials and property to Pakistan. When
even those places became unsafe, camps were setup at Purana Qila and Humayun
tomb. By the end of October as Gyanendra Pandey mentions in his book
Remembering Partition, only 1.5 lakh muslims of Delhi out of 5 lakhs remained.
So, people who were residents Delhi even they left their homes fearing
violence. As every incident have many faces, so does the Partition, it also had
two perspectives, one was national celebrated by the government national and
national leaders, the other was of partition victims, “The two faces of Partition
and Independence represented by the ‘ruling’ and the ‘refugee’ classes
respectively reflected in joy or sorrow, celebration or consternation are
commonly encountered in recollections of the time”. (Gyanendra Pandey,
Remembering partition, 2004). For the citizens of India or Pakistan it was
the partition they got at the first place before independence as one bookseller
from Jama Masjid area mentions “Mere hisse mein azaadi aai hi kahan?”
(Remembering Partition, 2004). People got separated from their families and loved
ones, their livelihood was disrupted or destroyed. So, it was the grief which
came to them instead of being independent. Krishna Sobti, a well-known writer,
who passed away a couple of years back, mentions in her account of partition
memories that how her residence became a shelter for partition and riot victims
and on the night of 14th August when she with her family was
celebrating the moment, the refugees were staring vacantly, with no joy, when a
servant brought sweets, they denied taking them and left the verandah. On the
other hand, Justice G.D. Khosla who was judge at Punjab High Court came to
Delhi with her wife to attend official flag hoisting ceremony of independent
India mentions about his joy that how much proud and excited he was at the
moment. He was later appointed as the Custodian of the Evacuee Properties in
Delhi, by the Indian govt. Both the accounts and memoirs are relevant as both
the events encompasses experiences and emotions which left no one untouched,
from the people at the apex to people at the ground because everyone
experienced partition and independence, the only difference was, for the
citizens sense of grief and personal loss weighed in more than independence
which vanished their pleasure of being independent citizens.
When
Justice G.D. Khosla was appointed as Custodian of Evacuee Properties in Delhi,
his task was to rehabilitate refugee people who left their homes and settle
claims as well. When he went to Mahatma Gandhi to seek advice and explained him
about his difficulties, he told Mahatma Gandhi that how muslims at the old fort
camp had no wish to stay in India and would like to visit Pakistan as soon as
possible against which Gandhi argued that when he went there, he heard no one
saying this and after a thirty-minute conversation Justice Khosla mentioned
that now he knew what to do. So, through this we can observe that how much
anxious people were at that time and had lost their trust in the society where
they were living for ages, and how enormous was the task for the government to
re-build trust amongst them. Wounds of partition, communal riots and betrayal
had left people numbed that they were not in a position to even recollect
themselves. But there were also instances of people protecting and supporting
each other, an example of which is mentioned in the book Remembering Partition where
Shahid Ahmad Dehlavi who was an author and associated with Progressive Writers’
Association, wrote in his account that how much his colleagues and neighbours
were sad after knowing about his family’s departure to Pakistan, “When Dehlavi
and his colleagues fled from the Hindu locality of Khari Baoli on 5th
September, his mother refused to leave. Conditions worsened in the following
days, however, and relatives took her forcibly to the nearby muslim area of
Farash Khana. The very next day, Hindu elders of Khari Baoli went to Farash
Khana and pleaded with the old lady to return her home; for her departure
amounted to a slur upon them and upon the whole mohalla. No one would be
allowed to touch even her hair as long as they lived, they declared. ‘Jab
tak hamari jaan mein jaan hai, aap par aanch nahi aa sakti’. Upon this,
Dehlavi’s mother returned to Khari Baoli. She was still living ther along with
her younger brothers and sisters, when he wrote his memoir some time after he
and his immediate family had moved to Pakistan.” (Remembering Partition, chapter
6, pp.147) He mentioned that how much frightening days and nights were during
the months of violence, and how people were silently leaving for camps and
other safer places; when he also left with his family for the Purana Qila
refugee camp people asked him, ‘Babuji bhi chale’ and he left his place
with a heavy heart. People belonging to radical communal groups apart from
indulging into violence used communal tensions as a tool to expand themselves,
consequences of which are hurting our present society as well. Gyanendra Pandey
wrote in his book about examples of people associated with RSS (Rashtriya
Swayam Sevak Sangh) using the violence period to recruit people. He mentions an
account of Ishtiaq Hussain Qureshi who was a faculty at Delhi University around
which several refugee camps were setup for people coming from west Pakistan,
where those RSS affiliates manipulated Hindu-Sikh hatred against the muslims
and gained their sympathy followed by recruiting them to their organisation.
Those radicalized mobs killed people belonging to other community regardless of
their age, an example of which came from the News Chronicle’s report
published on 5th September 1947 where they wrote about the bloody
incident at a high school in Karol Bagh, on that day students were giving their
matriculation examination and suddenly a mob entered the premises and called
boys of one community to stand and butchered them ruthlessly. This violence and
hatred at the end served no purpose to anyone. People just blindly and wildly
killed each other in the name of religion, consequences of which can be seen on
today’s politics as well.
Mahatma Gandhi- a leader who stood against hate: -
Mahatma
Gandhi’s arrival in Delhi was a turning point in the chain of events, his intervention
gave to secular elements a moral strength which got seriously jerked by
violence and shook Nehru’s govt. to its foundations as Tai Yong Tan and Gyanesh
Kudasiya mentions in their book ‘The Aftermath of partition in South Asia’. He
expressed his discontent at many mosques been converted to Hindu temples at
Connaught Place. He appealed people of all the communities to leave their arms
and follow the path of peace. As Shahid Ahmad Dehlavi records, muslims were
reconcealing each other by saying that ‘Delhi will be saved now’ as Mahatma
Gandhi has arrived and its citizens were hoping same miracle, he did at Bengal
to stop violence as people believed. Speeches that he gave during his prayer
meets were aired on radio, he used to personally visit Dargah, Gurudwara,
temples and refugee camps appealing peace and helping the displaced. His aura
was such that no major rioting event was reported in the city after his arrival
as Pandey mentions in his book. When he visited Chandani Chowk, the heart of
Old (muslim) Delhi he got so woeful with the fact that no muslim can be seen on
the roads apart from Sheikh Abdullah who was with him, that he mentioned about
this in his prayer meet that ‘What could be more shameful for us then the fact
that not a single muslim can be found in Chandani Chowk’. He commenced a fast
unto death on 13th January 1948, like he did at Bengal to contain
violence, along with him many other leaders also fasted and its effect was so
‘electric’ as Maulana Abul Kalam Azad notes that “groups which had till
recently opposed Gandhiji came forward and said they would do anything in order
to save Gandhiji’s precious life” (Remembering partition, 2004). People at the
ground level were trying to re-build ties and bringing peace through Peace
keeping committees and personal efforts like M.S. Randhawa, Deputy
Commissioner, in Delhi at that time took a group of Hindu and Sikh leaders to
begin repairs of the shrine of Khawaja Outubddin Bhakhtiyar Chishti near Mehrauli
which was desecrated during the violence as Gandhiji was aggrieved with its
condition after visiting there. The govt. also banned RSS for a brief period.
Thus, Mahatma Gandhi’s efforts brought stability and peace to the city and his
was such a huge setback for whole country that it did what his fast was not
able to do as Gyanendra Pandey writes.
References:
-
1. 1. Pandey,
Gyanendra; “Folding the National into the local: Delhi 1947-1948”; In Remembering
Partition: Violence, Nationalism and History in India; edited by Jan
Breman, GP Hawthorn, Ayesha Jalal, Patricia Jeffrey and Atul Kohli; 121-151;
Cambridge: The Press Syndicate of Cambridge University Press; 2004.
Comments
Post a Comment