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Society
Indo American News • Friday, August 20 , 2010
... Hindus in Houston Vow Not to Forget
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Partition Survivors Share Their Stories
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dence and also calls for an immediate and urgent realization by the community in America. The census reveal that between 1981 and 1891 the number of Hindus rose by 21.5% while the number of Muslims rose by 36.67% a difference of over 15%, and between 1991 and 2001 the number of Hindus rose by 18.36% while the number of Muslims rose by 25.9% a difference of over 6%. For the organizers, this data suggests that such an alarming rate of growth is not sustainable and can only lead to a civil war scenario in the next 20 years. For more information on the Hindu Mahasabha of America, Houston Chapter, contact Brahm Mishra at 832-868-5656
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More survivors of the Indian Partition with personal stories to share. Clockwise from top left: Mr. Duha from Calcutta saw violence at his college, St. Xaviers; a recent refugee from Bhutan, now a transplanted to the US; Bhagwan Dev Hingorani from Quetta, Baluchistan left by ship from Karachi; Tirat Kushaldasani from Sindh left by train to settle in Ajmer. Photos: Jawahar Malhotra
By Jawahar Malhotra HOUSTON: The oral history of the events that immediately preceded the Partition of India in August, 1947 and the tumultuous changes that occurred in the lives of the people who were uprooted was recalled by several people at the Hindu Memorial Day conference this past Saturday. Most of them are now in their late 70s and early 80s, but they spoke, sometimes with great emotion, with memories of the upheaval that were still very vivid. The oldest among them, Shakuntla Malhotra, 82, mother of this reporter, recalled how she had left her ancestral home in Lyallpur (now called Faisalabad) as an 18 year-old newlywed. “When we got to Lahore railway station, it was so crowded that my uncle Mohan threw me through a window into a compartment.” The Ranas, a couple who lives here with their children, recalled how she felt when she was able to visit her family’s home in Lahore 63 years later. “The whole mahala (neighborhood) came to see us, offered us tea and when we went in,” said Mrs. Rana, “we discovered that nothing had been moved, it was just the way we had left it.” Most stories of the Partition deal with
the situation in the Punjab, which saw the bloodiest of the conflict. However, among the speakers were three from Sindh and Baluchistan, now part of Pakistan, who related their stories. One, Mr. Arjun, had left Karachi 20 years after the Partition, and said that Baluchistan actually wants to separate from Pakistan and that the locals felt more affiliated with Hindus than the majority Muslims there. Mr. Duha, on the other hand, spoke about the violence he saw as a student at St. Xavier’s College in Calcutta. Bhagwan Dev Hingorani spoke of the day when he was 13 years old and had to flee with his family from Quetta, Baluchistan to Sindh and then Karachi where they boarded a ship bound for India. Tirat Kushaldasani remembered how his neighborhood in Sindh, “about ten times the size of India House” was attacked by a gang, but only one person was killed. The last speaker was a young man who recently immigrated to the US from his native Bhutan, after being denied entry to India and being attacked by people in Assam. He said in flowing and flawless Hindi, that the Bhutanese were forcing Hindus to convert to Buddhism and the Indian government would not allow them safe passage and stay in India.
Indo American News • Friday, august 20 , 2010 • Online Edition: www.indoamerican-news.com