The Other side of 15th August- The horrors of partition that we must never forget
- In History & Culture
- 04:38 AM, Jun 21, 2019
- S K Deb
Every year, all over the country and abroad, 15th August is celebrated as the Independence Day of India with lots of fanfare and gaiety. At the stroke of the midnight hour of 14th–15th August 1947, what Jawaharlal Nehru had described as the time “when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom,” in reality was the precise moment when millions of our fellow countrymen became ‘foreigners’ without taking even a single step out of their home. Nehru’s “TRYST with destiny” was anything but a private romantic rendezvous that also lacked a modicum of humane intimacy. Rather, it turned out to be an all-time tragic affair in the annals of Indian history - as our ‘Mother India’ lost two of her vital limbs!
A Muslim homeland, Pakistan, was carved out of the Indian Territory - West Pakistan and East Pakistan lying 2,208 km apart from each other. A huge number of Indians by heart and soul, whose ancestral home happened to be located on the wrong side of the border, turned into Pakistanis overnight. That was the crucial juncture of history that witnessed one of the worst man-made human tragedies in the world. The death toll due to the partition broadly estimated to range anything between 2,00,000 and 20,00,000. Many were killed in the communal riots; others died of exhaustion on their way to safety. Several men, women, and especially children lost their lives due to the contagious diseases which swept through the refugee camps, where the displaced people were forced to take shelter. During that period, women were often targeted as symbols of community honor that accounted for about 1,00,000 cases of rape or abduction.
Yet, in a way, the people who got killed during those days were considered to be somewhat lucky because they didn’t have to die the slow and painful near-death that followed the survivors. The tragedies unfolded over the years were much more severe as they were being kicked around like a political football, especially in the eastern part of the country, where they had to seek refuge. Seventy-two years down the line, blood is still oozing out of the deep wounds, inflicted on many refugees and their progeny, which never healed. Scores of them are still struggling for their existence and trying to get a toehold in India. But the hype that was created in the run-up to the 15th August 1947 had choked the voices of the victims so much so that their stifled cry for help could not reach anyone in the corridors of power, even today.
Now, for a moment, let’s think of a hypothetical situation just to comprehend the absurdity of our celebrating the 15th August. Let’s recall the horrifying happening of the fateful night of the 2nd–3rd December in the year 1984 when millions of people became victims of the deadly chemical methyl isocyanate (MIC). It spilled out from Union Carbide India Ltd.’s (UCIL) pesticide factory turning the city of Bhopal, India, into a vast gas chamber killing 3,500 odd people instantly. This incident too gave rise to two tragedies: the one that happened immediately, and the other that unfolded in the years that followed. Thirty-five years on, the Government of India recognized cases of 5,295 human deaths and as many as 5,68,293 people injured.
The day is considered to be the world's worst industrial disaster. Although the company responsible for the disaster was made to pay $470 million as compensation, no one in India ever dreamt of celebrating 3rd December with any sort of fun and frolic. Rather, we remember that inauspicious night to commemorate the tragedy, every year on the 3rd December, by holding different activities like group meetings, seminars, public rallies, exhibition and all across the country. On this somber occasion, people pay homage to the departed souls and pray for the injured victims. Obviously, it’s not an occasion to rejoice. Can we for a moment just imagine rhetorically, what would go through the minds of the victims of the tragedy and their families, had the day been ‘celebrated’ in the country every year with gaiety? It is simply preposterous even to think of holding any cheerful activity on this solemn occasion. Nevertheless, this outlandish idea comes to my mind when every year I see our people jubilantly CELEBRATING the 15th August, the day of the partition of India that had caused the greatest man-made humanitarian disaster of the world!
As the partition took place on the fateful midnight of 14th - 15th August of 1947, unprecedented communal riots had erupted. The huge number of Indians, who were left behind to fend for themselves in the newly created foreign country named Pakistan wanted to be back to their own country. But they were dissuaded to do so by the new rulers in India. When Hindu Mahasabha and other organizations demanded the exchange of population, Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru vehemently opposed it. He even instructed the chief ministers of the bordering states to prevent the refugees from entering India with an iron hand. Nevertheless, in the west, Master Tara Singh, the Sikh political and religious leader with the help of Gurdwara Committees and the Hindu Mahasabha simply ignored Nehru.
They extended all possible co-operation to the refugees and helped their rehabilitation in India. That way, the exchange of population was carried out unofficially and the movement of refugees from West Pakistan to North India was more or less over by 1949. In the eastern part of the country; initially, the refugees on entering West Bengal did not face much resistance from the State Government which rather helped in their rehabilitation to some extent. However, as several displaced persons returned to their country of origin and took refuge in the Indian State of Assam, their reception was quite unfriendly.
The significant years of refugee influx from East Bengal were in 1947 and thereabout, as an immediate effect of the partition; in 1952 when a passport system was introduced; next in 1963-64 disturbance sparked by the loss of Hazrat Bal from the mosque of Srinagar in Kashmir; finally in 1971, following the crackdown carried out by the Pakistan Army to curb the Bengali nationalist movement in erstwhile East Pakistan. In between too, the trickle of refugees from East Pakistan persisted because of the continued persecutions faced by them.
In the beginning, mostly the elite and the well-to-do families migrated from East Pakistan to India. They did not encounter many difficulties in relocating themselves. Then the middles class population comprising generally the traders, professionals, artisans and all migrated and somehow managed their livings. The ‘Dalits’ and the people in the lowest rung on the ladder were the last to arrive. As they were very closely attached to their native lands, its soil and the water bodies for their lives and livelihoods, they tried till last to cling to their native place. These batches of the refugees were the worst suffers in India although they made utmost attempts to adjust themselves in the new territories.
While in Assam, the racial hostilities are still hounding the refugees, in West Bengal they were sent from the temporary camps to far-off places like Andaman Island or Dandakaranya, comprising parts of Odisha, Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharastra, for rehabilitation. The land, the climate, and the environment in those places were totally different and inhospitable for their lives and livings. All these refugees are still struggling to settle themselves properly in India where they are fighting somewhat a losing battle to establish their due rights.
As India CELEBRATES its independence day every year, the millions of the direct victims of the partition mournfully recall their traumatic experiences and wallow in painful nostalgia for their missing past that also engulfs their progenies in the air of surrounded melancholy. A sudden glimpse of the dark underbelly of the heavily symbolic day of independence, naturally re-surfaces in their dejected minds. Yet, even the sensitive people in India seem to be shying away from confronting the absurdity as our political leaders are reticent in engaging with the extraordinary partition violence and reluctant to acknowledge the raw deal meted out to the millions of these victims. The memory of the agonizing past of the forlorn people losing almost everything they had as a result of the painful vivisection of our motherland, 72 years ago, in the gloomy midnight of 14th-15th August could not fade into oblivion as the annual celebration held on 15th August every year acts as a vulgar reminder to them and to their descendants. It’s simply heart-rending!
Why Pakistan celebrates the 14th August every year as its independence day is quite understandable because that was the day in the year of 1947 the holy land, as the name Pakistan literally means, came into being. It was the birth of a new nation chiseled out of the Indian Territory. The leaders who fought for a separate homeland for the Muslims had emerged victorious as the Indian political leaders surrendered to their demands of Pakistan on some questionable considerations. The Pakistani leaders have every reason to rejoice and celebrate the day because on that day they became the ruler of their own country in real sense. The chief architect of Pakistan Muhammad Ali Jinnah became its Governor-General from the very first day of their independence and remained in that post until his death on 11 September 1948. Jinnah did not allow Mountbatten to breathe down his neck in ruling Pakistan that was initially proposed.
In contrast, the 15th August that we celebrate in India represents the day when our country was split. The events surrounding the 15th August 1947 uprooted millions of Indians. Many of them, in their quest for a roof over their head, could not yet gain even a toehold in this country. Of course, on that day the Indian leaders, by virtue of a power-sharing agreement, became the rulers of this country. But British Viceroy Mountbatten was allowed by our ‘leaders’ to remain as the Official Head in the capacity of the Governor-General of India. At that time, India did not have a constitution of its own. So, the British constitution was also followed in the administration. Even the Union Jack was never lowered in India on the ‘Independence Day’, August 15, 1947. “This little known fact is mentioned in a Top Secret and Personal Report (No.17) dated August 16, 1947, of the Rear Admiral Viscount Mountbatten of Burma…” The report is available in India Office London vide reference L/PO/6/123: ff 245-63” as reported in Hindustan Times dated 14 August 2009. [1]
Be that as it may, the denial of the holocaust surrounding the partition should not turn this day of mourning into a day to be pleased about and celebrate. When we continue to celebrate the 15th August every year, the questions need to be answered are: would the nation ever realize what precisely goes through the minds of the victims and their family? What are we teaching our posterity through this ridicule? What impression the world population, in general, would gather about India when the creepy linkage between the calamitous day and the day of our independence celebration eventually sees the light? Indian think tank must address these questions seriously and redress this issue at the earliest.
Meanwhile, the nation must not be afraid to make amends and review its policy towards the displaced people who were rendered homeless as a result of the partition. It must continue to reassess the present status of the refugees in India till each one is suitably rehabilitated. Henceforth, the tragedies surrounding 15th August 1947 need to be duly acknowledged and commemorated every year by holding various activities like group meetings, seminars, exhibition, etc. across the country in which the actual problems of these refugees must be addressed and redressed. Otherwise, Prime Minister Modi’s message “Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas Sabka Vishwas” would remain a distant dream only.
Of course, the 15th of August is an important day of our history. It is a somber occasion to be suitably solemnized sans any flamboyancy. So, the activities hitherto connected to the ‘Independence Day’ might be shifted to a separate ‘National Day’ to be chosen in any other auspicious and memorable day about which every Indian is proud of. The date 31st December may be considered because on that day in the year 1943, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose had hoisted our National Flag for the first time in Port Blair announcing the Islands as the first Indian Territory freed from the British rule. This day or any such important day in the Indian history may be selected through broad consensus as our National Day. Thus, as a mature nation, India should display its true grit and greatness.
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