From Patna to Detroit (A true lifelong migration)

correction: WITH each 6 para apologist meander

Hamzaad,

Please refrain from addressing my posts in the future. Thank you.

Romair,

You are intentionally avoiding my point and I find it less amusing which each 6 paragraph apologist meander. Once again: There is a developing discipline that studies Partition narratives. Our time is more wisely spent studying the research and narratives this discipline is archiving rather than the easy distortions and muttering of male chowkies who as this board continues, could care less about violence against women.

And yet would be the first to wah wah accounts of their destitution here and in the terrible west.

That is all I have to say on the matter.

There are two other novels... that I came across from the early period after partition..

The first one is a ``Heart divided`` by Mumtaz Shahnawaz, a League activist and a feminist.. she would have made a fine writer... unfortunately she died in a plane crash in 1948..

Her only novel was published and can be found through Asr a women`s organisation in Lahore. The other one was shadows of time...

These were excellent writings which have been buried with time.

My mother was eighteen at the time of partition and she sometimes talks about those times. Two incidents that she told me are regarding her father and my fathers chacha. Her father, my maternal grandfather, lived in a small village called Lohar in Amritsar district. During partition he and three other families were protecting muslims. The muslim families were kept hidden during the night and at daytime they would go out sparingly. One morning my grandfather was in the fields when he saw a few men from an adjoinng village called Rajajang. They were loading pistols. My grandfather asked them what they were doing. They said they had information that he and three other families were hiding muslim families. My grandfather challenged them asked them to come along and see if there were any muslims.He told them that if any muslims were found in his house they could kill him, otherwise he would kill them. Since he was a respected person of the area they believed him and left. After some time the army came and took the muslim families to Pakistan. My mother said only one muslim was killed in her village. My grandfather used to say that if they are killing sikhs and hindus in ``paar`` as west punjab was called then, what fault is it of the muslims here.
The other incident is regarding my father`s chacha. One day he brought home two muslim women. My great grandfather told him to let them go but he refused. He said he will keep one and sell the other. When the army came looking for people to take to Pakistan he went into hiding. Their fates were sealed and they were left behind. When the low life decided to sell one of them they requested that he should let them both stay with him. They would not be a burden on him and would support themselves financially. They use to make durries and sell them. Some said they were sisters others said they were sisters-in-law. Later my great grandfather took them to golden temple Amsitsar and they both converted into Sikhism. When I use to meet them when I was young I did not know about their tragedy. though they were my father`s chachis we used to call them chachi too. Now they are no more. It saddens me when i think of them. Who were their parents, brothers, sisters, family etc. what happened to them. they never talked about the past. They started following all the sikh customs like going to gurudwara etc. Since we were living in the city I rarely met them. What I remember was they were very dignified and different from the common village folks. Maybe they came from some town nearby. My father`s chacha was married ealier and his wife had left him. He had a daughter from that marriage. Chachis raised her as their own and married her with style. The older chachi had a son and when he married a sikh girl ,she used to say that now I am a full sikh.
My mother says those were terrible times and there were all sorts of rumors. Men would come shouting that the muslims are coming to kill and everyone would go into hiding. No muslims ever came to her village to kill. The village elders would tell the girls to keep datris with them for protection and told them if worse came to worse they should kill themselves with the datris. Thankfully no such thing happened.

I have no sympathies for this Bihari woman. She is not able to assimilate into any place that she moves to, nor does she show any principles in her life. All she did in her life was procreate. When her husband was committing atrocities in Bangladesh, she was silent and bearing his kids. When her son becomes jihadi to fight in Kashmir against her land of birth, she was silent and doesnt try to stop him. When her other sons leave Pakistan for US and shamefully get married for green cards, she was silent. She leaves Pakistan and goes to US without any regrets. In her last days she wants to go to Saudi Arabia, not India where she was born. That itself shows her confusion in life.

Re: # 49:

I second your thoughts on Pinjar. It was third rate piece of trash. That Amrita Pritam wrote the novel belies the claim that only women can write about women`s suffering. When people ooh and aah about bad writing, I am reminded of the art critics admiring a gorilla`s abstract painting.

The article on the FP and the accompanying gripes by feminists about the missing victimhood of females all through the ordeals of the Partition and beyond, culls kaka`s famous write-up about the way humans divide up the world to choose sides..

In summary, the dichotomies of black-white, haves-havenots, smart-Zeena, godless-Godfearing, male-female, American-nonamerican etc are all models to ponder. However, there are some cases too close to call.

For example, imagine Mohammad Gill or Dost-Mitter or any of the older man, having known a close female relative being lost to the violence accompanying the Partition. Here was a child who went through the ordeal of separation and the news of murder/rape that his mother/sister went through. He is partisan to the claims of his family`s victimhood.

Now then..

..over here, we have accidents of genetic permutation resulting in, for example, a female saminasha, born way after the violence and the scars these surviving kids had borne (kaka is also thinking about her neice born a week ago in England). The anatomical destinies that these females have hazarded, apparently, also bestow them with the claim to a common sisterhood AND COMMON VICTIMHOOD with ALL WOMEN WHO HAVE BEEN VIOLATED AT ALL PLACES AND ALL TIMES.. Among many reason, the relevant one is that of womanhood: the sisters and mothers of Mohammad Gill and Dost Mitter were victims not because of their `Gillness` or `Mitterness` but becaue of their womenness. The protesting feminists claim common victimhood and present their genitalia as the proof. They are saying, either we are survivors or victims and we lay claim to the memory and sorrow of Ms. Gill and Ms. Mitter..

This, of course, should be unacceptable to the Gills and Mitters who have witnessed rapes or went through hell protecting their women, NOT BECAUSE THEY WERE WOMEN but because they belonged to the Gill clan or the Mitter clan.. Their Us against Them was.. themselves versus the attackers. They should point out that the attackers were also abetted and egged on by the women related to the attackers (Manto`s Kaur in `ThanDa Gosht`). These victims BELONGED to the families that lost them and the opportunist feminists are really feeding on misery of these families, albeit from another time and another place..

It would be good if the dichotomies were starker, the causes easier to champion. kaka sees a lot of robbing of victims from one dichotomy-scheme to another. The confusion is understandable and the robbing even more so. It is called loving your side, come hell or high water.

Ana thanks. There is a punjabi writer from lahore...I think now retired professor...Afzal Tauseef. She has written a lot lately about the issue. She was pre-teen in 1947 and her fmaily lived in a village in near Jalandhar calle Simbli. Most of her fmaily members were killed including her sisters, aunts and uncles while escaping Simbli. One of my inlaws relative lives in that place and when I started visiting the place many years ago there used to be a mazaar cum mosque on the outside of the village. I also found out that there used be a sizable Jatt muslims and others in the village before partition. When later I read her ordeal and she mentioned places in the neighbourhood I could connect with it and was really moved by her story. Locals also told me the story of her family who was well known in the area...older generation is almost dead all but people who were pre-teenage back then say we remember the incident but it was people from the other villages who came in to attack. I don`t know much truth in that. First time she came to India abotu 10 years ago she could not visit her home...she returned back from Amritsar...the whole thought of seeing those landmarks and homes was earth shaterring for her...but eventually she did visit her home ..I think twice or more now...interstingly people of that village now take pride in saying this girl from our village is a good writer in pakistan.

I again visited the place last time I visited India...the mazaar is actually rebuilt and painted green with lot of flowery decoration and green shaal on the mazaar. Next to the mazaar they extended the building and made it a gurdwara. There is not a single muslim in the village now and no one to go to mosque but hindu and sikhs in the area believe in that mazaar a lot and visit to Tek maTha every week and burn candles(deeway). Next door is gurdwara with loud speaker on the roof playing kirtan while I passed by it.

Human history is full of contraditions.

`` albeit her first feature film.``

yea thats what i meant, thanks.

#69 khamosh pani was not sabiha`s first venture, albeit her first feature film. Who will cast the first stone is there, and for a place under the heavens, karachi, where peacocks dance, etc.

Amrita Pretam in one of her novellete (gosh the name is escaping me.. Phool somthing..) wrote about partition riots in lahore. Then Qurratul Ain Haider`s magnum opus Aag Ka Darya is there.

Recently, the issue of partition was explored in a punjabi/potohari film Silent Waters by Sabiha Sumar. If it is any consolation, Sabiha is a Pakistani Woman, the film is okay being her first but has some well-done shots of Wah Cantt and Punja Sahib in Hassan Abdal.


ana, got you. thanks for replying.

Saminashah #: ``Why dont women who do work in Partition and gender contribute to chowk? There is a great deal of scholarship out there-but none of it seems to be reviewed or discussed here (Scout`s and the work of other women) work notwithstanding. Why do you think that is?``

I don`t think women have done much work in literature or arts in Pakistan; be it related to Partition or afterwards. Not nearly as much as they have the opportunity of doing. Which is why I cannot agree with you, when you say, ``There is a great deal of scholarship out there.``

Once again, one needs to emphasize that while it would be too much to expect from women in Pakistan, due to social pressures, to excel in sports, business, etc., it is not too much for them to excel in the liberal arts area. In fact, they should be way ahead of Pakistani men, who do not have the luxury of studying liberal arts, since they are expected to take care of the financial side of the family.

Why Pakistani women don`t write, and don`t contribute much (even on this site) is a question you should be able to answer, better than me. This certainly cannot be blamed on the men. Men may stop their women from running in marathons, but they are generally ok with them teaching, writing, etc.

Yet Pakistani women rarely write. Even the educated empowered ones with servants and drivers and ayahs etc. This website should have women completely outnumbering men, both in interactions and in content. Yet it doesn`t...........

Having said that, some of the top journalists and editors (Muslim, Herald, Newsline etc.) in Pakistan are (were) women. But they are a small minority............

Here is my theory: I think most women in Pakistan, who are empowered enough to take leadership positions in Pakistan spend too much time blaming men, and too much time expecting men to change the system for them. Without realizing that men will never do that, and women will have to do it themselves. And they are too comfortable in their lifestyles to participate in things that require extra efforts, outside their day to day routines..........

P.S. Why don`t you write on this site. If you think men cannot portray things from a feminine point of view, why don`t you take the initiative and do it for them..........

So the old bitch moved around a bit before dying. What’s so exceptional about that? It happens to everyone, life`s a journey, and there are stops along the way.

# 55

lethargy.

Re: # 55
Sameenasha, please goto Shamrock Pub near Central Park and drink some Irish Whisky.
Dont waste your crocodile tears for woman lib.

Re: # 62

this is quite beautiful