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| Partition Museum, Amritsar. |
Unfortunately, life is never easy. Demands snowballs when one party's need is fulfilled. Pretty soon, splinter factions will arise, and the requests never end. Even people who had been uprooted from the hostilities still insists on returning to their past glory days, which by all accounts, may be a figment of their imagination.
Examples of these are aplenty around us.
My recent meetings with close Sindhi friends whose past generation was the victim of such an atrocity showed me how they handled the whole catastrophe. I did not think much of what they were saying then, but my recent visit to the recently opened (August 2017) Partition Museum put everything in perspective.
At the dawn of 15th August 1947, India and Pakistan saw a mass exodus of brothers separated only by religion. The scale of migration was of gargantuan proportions, only seen in war times. 4.7 million Pakistani Hindus migrated to India. Their send-off was anything but courteous, and their welcome was no red carpet. The Hindus were mainly from Sindh district which had been annexed to Pakistan with a single stroke of the pen of a senior lawyer, Cyril Radcliffe, from the UK. The idea of the British was to get the hell out of their colonies as they had become quite a thorn in their flesh. Radcliffe fitted the bill quite neatly as he had never been to India and thus was ignorant of the intricacies, local politics and bondages that the region shared. In record time, seven weeks, he slashed off cultures, bonds and relationships built over centuries. Realising the hardship that he was going to create, Radcliffe left India without even collecting the fees due to him.
Neighbours, who had had cordial brotherly relationships, suddenly transformed into machete-wielding demons who loot and went on killing and raping sprees. Overnight, people lost everything - money, family, homes and dignity. Landowners and merchants became refugees, living on handouts and kindness of others with whatever little commonality and compassion they had. From diwans and zamindars, they became paupers.
The sad tale ended when the community took stock of their situation and started life afresh in other regions. Their diaspora can be seen spread the world over - India, Malaysia, Singapore, UK, US, Europe and the remotest corners of the world.
In every place they lay their hat, they called it home. And every land they sojourned, they had been resourceful and successful. They did not live on the pity of others, brandishing weapons and crying for revenge and justice.
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