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Forum Member
Dec 16, 2024
In Geography & Demographics
As I was reading through the 1904 Punjab Gazatteer of the Hoshiarpur District, I came across a section on the barbarous custom of Female infanticide in nineteenth century Punjab.
Link to the study: https://ia800102.us.archive.org/34/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.531229/2015.531229.punjab-district_text.pdf
"Gur khaein, punya katteen, Apney bhaiya ghalleen"
I think the better translation in English is this:
Eat your sugar, do good become virtouous and send your brother instead.
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Forum Member
Dec 15, 2024
In Online Articles & Books
On May 14, 1947, the Viceroy assured Abul Kalam Azad that he would “give complete assurance at least on this one question.” He would see to it that there was no bloodshed and riot. “I am a soldier, not a civilian. Once partition is accepted in principle, I shall issue orders to see that there are no communal disturbances anywhere in the country.” He added that he would adopt the sternest measures to nip the trouble in the bud. “I shall not use even the armed police. I will order the Army to act, and I will use tanks and aeroplanes to suppress anybody who wants to make trouble.”
However, no such thing happened. Millions died. The British troops did not intervene. Even now, a feeling of guilt persists among some British researchers.
Link to article: https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/comment/british-army-could-have-prevented-partition-riots-450971/
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Forum Member
Dec 15, 2024
In Online Articles & Books
A Muslim boy who got separated from his family in 1947 and was adopted by a Sikh family in East Punjab finally gets to meet his brothers in West Punjab.
Link to article: https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/spectrum/lost-found-after-77-years-historian-nonica-datta-and-a-pakistani-youtuber-help-reunite-87-year-old-mahinder-singh-gill-of-ferozepur-with-his-family-in-nankana-sahib/
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Forum Member
Sep 20, 2024
In Photographs
Photo Series
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Forum Member
Aug 16, 2024
In Videos
End of Empire (1985), chapter 2: India, Engine of War
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Forum Member
Aug 14, 2024
In Photographs
Click on the reference post below.
https://www.punjabpartition.com/single-post/witnessing-partition-through-ai
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Forum Member
Aug 01, 2024
In Videos
Prof. Dr. Ishtiaq Ahmed takes up in this third and final episode on the Sikhs and Partition the offer Jinnah made to the Sikhs during 15-16 May 1947 if they supported Pakistan and the partition of India and why did the Sikhs reject it? This is the final controversy on which much confusion and misinformation exists. The controversy is laid to rest in the light of evidence and proof.
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Forum Member
Aug 01, 2024
In Online Articles & Books
In the book "Borders and Boundaries: Women in India's Partition" by Ritu Menon and Kamala Bhasin, the events in Sargodha and other parts of Punjab are painfully documented with the focus on violence against women and children which became the most tragic and shocking aspect of partition. The idea of "conquering women" by abducting and raping them became the central blood sport of the mob. The writers were unprepared to understand the depravity of what fellow human beings can do to each other. In one of the shocking stories, Charanjit Singh Bhatia, a Sikh patriarch killed his own daughters to save them from being raped.
"He had six daughters, all of them very good looking. He was well-to-do and also had very good relations with his Muslim neighbbors. They told him to give his daughters in marriage to their sons - that way, they would all then be related and family's safety assured. they could continue to live in the village wiithour fear. He kept listening to them and nodding, seeming to agree. That evening, he got all his family members together and decapitated each one of them with his talwar, killing 13 people in all. He then lit their pyre, climbed on to the roof of his house and cried out: "Barataan lai ao! Hun lai ao barataan apniyan! Merian theeyan lai jao, taiyaar ne vyah vastey" (Bring on the marriage parties! You can bring your grooms now. Take my daughters away, they are ready for their marriages!) and so saying he killed himself too."
In another account, Durga Rani, narrated the following events:
"In the villlages of Junu, Hindus threw their young daughters in to wells. dug trenches and buried them alive. Some were burnt to death, some were made to touch electric wires to prevent the mob from touching them. We heard of such happenings all the time after August 16. We heard all this.
The mob used to announce that they would take away our daughters. They would force their way into homes and pick up young girls and women. Ten or twenty of them would enter, tie up the menfolk and take the women. We saw many who had been raped and disfigured, their faces and breasts scarred, and then abandoned. They had tooth marks all over them. Many of them were so young - 18, 15, 14 years old - what remained of them now? Their "character" was now spoilt. One had been raped by ten or more men - her father burnt her, refused to take her back. There was one villlage, Makhtampura (sic), where all night they plundered and raped, they dragged away all the young girls who were fleeing in kafilas, No one could do anything - if they did, they would be killed. Mothers telling their daughters they were ruined, bemoaning their fate, saying it would have been better they hadn't been born..."
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Forum Member
Feb 17, 2024
In Photographs
Hindu and Sikh refugees from Pakistan in makeshift camps in eastern Punjab.
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115
Forum Member
Feb 05, 2024
In Photographs
An armoured car of the Wiltshire Regiment leaving City Police headquarters on a peace-keeping patrol after communal riots in Amritsar, Punjab, March 1947.
The first train to be attacked was in Amritsar on 6th of March, 1947, when a Muslim mob stopped a train coming from Pathankot in the suburb of Sharifpura and murdered hapless men, women and children. Similar train attacks were carried out on trains coming from Jullundur and Narowal as well.
On the 5th March, when the attack opened, the Muslims attacked only such Hindu-Sikh areas as were mostly surrounded by heavy Muslim zones, such as Sattowali Gali, Gokal New Abadi in Kila Bhangian, Deviwali Gali, Chhaju Misr's Gali, Islamabad, Hall Bazar etc. All this shows pre-planning.
Battle of Amritsar(https://www.sikhiwiki.org/index.php/The_Battle_for_Amritsar,_1947)
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Forum Member
Jan 27, 2024
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Forum Member
Jan 27, 2024
In Online Articles & Books
Reference article; https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Network-of-Canal-in-Thal-1954-Source-One-of-the-network-canal-which-turned-an-area_fig1_371540584
Excerpts:
This article explains the post partition scenario in East and West of the Pakistani Punjab.This imperative research includes the details of disturbances in Sargodha (a city of Punjab) through primary and secondary sources along with facts and figures. Pattern of settlement has been explained following by the developmental projects in this region.
In September 1947, there was a significant record of assault in the Mianwali locale, the greater part of the Hindu and Sikh populace (being 6000 men, ladies, and kids) were slaughtered and consumed alive. Youngsters were grabbed away from their mom's arms and tossed into the bubbling oil. Many ladies saved their distinction by hopping into wells and hurling themselves entirely into consuming houses. Young ladies of 8 to 10 years old were assaulted within the sight of their folks and afterward put absurdly brutally (Major, 1995).
Monstrosities were on their pinnacle, individuals were tormented both truly and intellectually, the bosoms of ladies were sliced and they were made to walk all exposed in lines of five in the marketplaces of Harnoli, Mianwali. Around 800 young ladies and ladies were stolen and little youngsters were meandering stripped in the wildernesses and were hijacked by the passers-by. Trains had additionally been assaulted in Mianwali and there was a report about the plundering of a whole train on the Khushab-Kundian line someplace close to the Mianwali line. A tough spot was made because of Muslim zeal in Soon Valley of Khushab.
In Mianwali district, trans-border Pathans proved a menace. the local Pathans with their encounters pillaged non-Muslim villages, especially in Police Stations Piplan and Harnoli, Mianwali. Non-Muslims got panicked, at the latter place took up positions and opened indiscriminate firing, injuring two soldiers, despite a Magistrate‟s efforts. Firing was eventually exchanged by the Magistrate‟s party and it continued for 36 hours before the non-Muslims gave up. They suffered heavy causalities.
Very critical situation was averted at Sargodha by the timely arrival of police when Gurkha soldiers entered the local Juma mosque on information that forcible conversions of Hindus were taking place. Muslim mobs looted Hindus houses in Chak Ram Dass, Mehga Jhawarian and Miani in the district. In Miani, they killed 74 non-Muslims including women and children but Police were able to arrest 283 of the attackers and recovered looted property and arms. About 45 non-Muslims moving from Kinderabad to Sargodha were killed en-route. From Mianwali, a gun with 25 cartridges, a 303 bore revolver with 4 rounds, 18 bottles bomb, two acid bottles and sharp-edged weapons were recovered from Hindus, 8 of whom were arrested.6 A sudden attack was appeared by a heavily armed Muslim mob on Mianwali town was checked after a night long battle of police and military. Fifty Hindus and 12 Muslims were killed and 35 Hindus were injured. In Mianwali district, the Hindu and Sikh concentration at Kalabagh was attacked by Muslims, as a result of which 8 Hindus and 2 Muslims got died and 12 Hindus got injured.
A Hindu station Master of Shah Alam, Mianwali district, and his wife were killed and their property were looted. A mob attacked the evacuee‟s camp at Nawan Jandanwala in the same district killing two non-Muslims. Two of the raiders were wounded by the troops, who opened fire. Armed Muslim mobs raiding Darya Khan on two occasions succeeded in killing 84 Hindus but left 24 dead by military and police stationed there. An attempt by a Muslim mob to attack the evacuees‟ camp at Darya Khan was failed by police and military firing. About 600 Muslims intended to attack a military special train at Daud Khel railway station in Mianwali district were dispersed by troops. In Sargodha, a mob of 20 Muslims carrying spears killed three Hindus and three Sikhs on their way from Farooqa to Sillanwali. A dozen armed Muslims killed the Head Postmaster at Sodhi, P.S Nowshera district Khushab along with his wife and two little daughters, they had embraced Islam but wanted evacuation. Some armed local goondas exchanged shots with a police patrol in Nowshera village without casualties.
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Forum Member
Jan 27, 2024
In Geography & Demographics
Much before the calamitous events of Aug-Sept 1947, the north-eastern region of what is now Pakistan saw targeted attacks on Sikh villages.
Born and brought up in Nowshera Cantonment in Peshawar, I was 14 at the time of Partition. An important cantonment of British India, it had the Royal Air Force Centre and the Sikh Regimental Centre. The city was home to a small civilian population and was surrounded by Pakhtun villages. We were taught Urdu and Persian in school and my father conversed with his patients in fluent Pashto. Nowshera was famous for the great battle in 1823 that resulted in a decisive victory for Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s army against the Afghans, with the annexation of Peshawar valley beyond Khyber.
Both my parents belonged to Choha Khalsa in Kahuta tehsil of Rawalpindi district in Pothohar, a plateau in north-eastern Pakistan comprising the districts of Rawalpindi, Attock and Jhelum. Sikh villages and towns were scattered in this region. Muslims formed 80 per cent of the population. The Sikhs were well-off, respected and trusted.
Article reference: https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/comment/the-march-massacre-in-pothohar-443900#google_vignette(https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/comment/the-march-massacre-in-pothohar-443900#google_vignette)
Some of the villages highlighted for reference (map)(https://www.google.com/maps/place/Thoha+Khalsa,+Rawalpindi,+Punjab,+Pakistan/@33.4511148,73.3793337,12z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x38dffd005e5ffe5d:0xbc01ec2ab05f8505!8m2!3d33.5113069!4d73.4327538!16s%2Fm%2F04gh9xl?entry=ttu).
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Forum Member
Jan 06, 2024
In Online Articles & Books
Reference: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/do133-591.jpg(https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/do133-591.jpg)
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Forum Member
Dec 08, 2023
In Geography & Demographics
Photographs of pre-partition havelis of Kalanaur, Rohtak.
https://issuu.com/wokalmag/docs/issue_2_final_editted_1-pages-1-65-merged-pages-1-/s/10987644 (https://issuu.com/wokalmag/docs/issue_2_final_editted_1-pages-1-65-merged-pages-1-/s/10987644)
Kalanaur, Rohtak
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Forum Member
Jul 30, 2023
In Online Articles & Books
A collection of historical books on Punjab has been meticulously digitized and are available here in the Panjab Digital Library (based in Chandigarh, Punjab). There are series of books on the subject of Partition such as growing religious tensions in 1946, the Punjab Boundary Comission reports of 1947, train massacres in West and East Punjab, and personal accounts of the refugees. This library provides a wealth of information for your own research and knowledge.
http://www.panjabdigilib.org/webuser/searches/mainpage.jsp?CategoryID=1&Searched=partition&typebox=1
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36
Forum Member
Jun 26, 2023
In Online Articles & Books
edited by Radhika Mohanram, Anindya Raychaudhuri
Analysis of violence during Partition. A well researched book on the genesis of violence and some of the key events that took place in west and east Punjab. On the killings in Sheikhupura, here's an excerpt.
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Forum Member
Jun 26, 2023
In Online Articles & Books
Niranjan Singh, a Sikh tea merchant, had served a brew to his friend, a Muslim leather worker, for decades. However, the week after he found his shop part of a new country the man came running in one morning with a gang shouting, “Kill him! Kill him!”.
One cut Singh’s leg with his sword; others killed his 90-year-old father and only son. The last thing Singh could recall was his teenage daughter being abducted and carried off on the back of “a man to whom he’d been serving tea for 15 years”.
The tea merchant’s story took place in Lahore 70 years ago in August 1947 as Muslim-majority Pakistan was carved from Hindu-majority India, dividing the region of Punjab in half. Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/murder-migration-and-forced-conversion-in-post-partition-india-b65t8dmt9
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