Unbordered Memories : Sindhi Stories of Partition

Besides his home and shop, there was little that interested Topu. Matters of politics and the nation hardly ever drew his attention. Never mind the nation, Topu remained oblivious even to his village.

At the suggestion of his customers, he began to subscribe to Sansaar Samachaar and Hindu, but never bothered with the contents of these newspapers. So he was not aware of the things that people had been reading and discussing with such passionate involvement every day. The only kind of news that he occasionally allowed to fall on his ears was: ‘City robbed of everything’ or ‘Woman’s arm chopped off for a bangle’ or ‘Daughter of a respectable house elopes with a servant’ or ‘A Muslim haari stabs his wife and children in the same stroke, arrives at the police-station with the bloodied axe’. Sometimes, he would listen to war news but the country’s political news was of no interest to him. He believed that the country would never become independent. The English would never leave India and in any case, an independent India would not change his life. People would still be making and drinking tea during winter and soda-lemon during summer. These thoughts were also not entirely his own, but conclusions he had arrived at willy-nilly, by listening to other people’s arguments on politics. Days rolled by in this manner.

One day, one of his customers while reading the newspaper, said to him, ‘Topanmal, what do you know? Pakistan is being formed. On 14 August, Jinnah mian will take the reins of Pakistan in hand.’

The customer was a Hindu and it was evident that the news had hurt him deeply, almost as if his body had been wounded. But Topanmal was unperturbed by this news. He had never racked his brains regarding the independence of India or the formation of Pakistan. Neither of the two events created any distinct feelings of joy or sadness in him.

August 14 arrived. There were celebrations in Karachi, Hyderabad, Nawabshah and Sukker. In Tharushah also, there were processions led by Syed Aarif Shah and Mukhi Dayaram. Sweets were distributed among children. Drawn by the lights and glitter, Topanmal also participated in such celebrations. The significance of such events continued to escape him. Pakistan dawned upon him the day he asked Suleman Khan, the milkman, to pay eleven annas for the beedis he had taken but not paid for. An impervious Suleman retorted, ‘Vaaniya, stop putting on airs now. It’s Pakistan now, we Muslims are the rulers now. If there is money, we’d pay otherwise …’ The words pierced through Topu’s consciousness. He could hardly hear the remaining part of Suleman’s sentence. And after that, things had changed swiftly. Lawless Muslims of the village had become wilful. Without worrying about law or penalties, they began a systematic harassment of the Hindus. When Hindu women passed through the bazaars, Muslim men made rude remarks about them. At night, the milk-sellers would sit outside Topu’s shop and bad-mouth the Hindus. Topu could not understand why and how things had changed so drastically. Usually Muslims were like doormats to the Hindus, you could trample upon them, and kick them but they did not question you. Now they were raring for a fight with the Hindus, almost provoking them. The Hindus had suddenly lost courage. They quietly swallowed the insults and transferred their anger by pouring expletives on the Congress leaders who had been insensitive to the Hindus of Sindh and accepted Partition.

Topu was bewildered by the sudden transformation in Hindu–Muslim relationships and then one day, he received a letter from his brother-in-law from Nawabshah. He stopped a school-boy passing near his shop and requested him to read the letter. The letter said something to this effect, ‘We will