“I saw the body of a man stabbed to death, a short distance away I saw another body, and then a third… It was very strange and painful for me, because it was the first time I had seen dead bodies lying on the streets.” When Lal Krishna Advani, a 19-year-old young man who had gone for a tour of Karachi city on a motorcycle, saw this scene on the streets of Pakistan’s capital Karachi, he was shocked. This Sindhi youth did not want to create such a picture of Sindh in his mind.
But who can stop history from being made? As history was made on 14 August 1947. When Jinnah’s communal politics was successful in dividing India into two parts, after which the Islamic Republic of Pakistan was formed, whose 78th birth anniversary the country is celebrating today.
‘How cursed is my destiny’
Advani, in his biography ‘My Country, My Life’, expresses his pain in a few words after seeing his birthplace Karachi becoming a part of Pakistan and writes, ‘My destiny is so cursed, I could not even celebrate the happiness of 15th August. Whereas for the last five years, ever since I became a volunteer, I was not dreaming of anything other than the arrival of this day.
That day, most of the Hindu neighborhoods of Karachi remained gloomy and deserted, yes, fireworks were definitely going off at some distance.
It was a strange arrangement of destiny that Advani, a strong advocate of nationalism, had to stay for about 28 days in a Pakistan whose ideology of formation was strongly opposed.
Pakistan was formed on 14 August and Advani left Karachi on 12 September 1947. Taking the title of refugee and the pain of migration, he came to Delhi forever. Author Vinay Sitapati writes in his book Jugalbandi, “He was one of the few refugees who were brought by the British Overseas Airways Corporation’s propeller plane. Advani was deeply hurt by the loss of his home and the disintegration of his family.”
Lal Krishna Advani left Karachi in 1947 but the family of his future wife Kamla Jagtiani remained in Karachi till 1948. That too then the rioters started violence in that area. Kamla Jagtiani has told one of her friends – I remember that we left Karachi in 1948 and that too when we saw a Gurudwara burning in front of our house. Advani married Kamla in 1965.
Hindu children refused to take sweets in school
So what was Advani, born in Karachi in 1927, doing on 14 August 1947? How does Advani, who became an active member of the Sangh in those days, remember that day? The same question was asked to Advani by American journalist Andrew Whitehead in March 1997. While answering this question, Advani openly expresses the sorrow of partition. He had said, “Yes, I was there that day, but there was no enthusiasm in my mind, there was no joy that India had become independent. And I remember many Hindu children also refused to take the sweets given in the school. We Come back, this is not freedom, this is not a happy day.”
Advani writes in My Country-My Life- ‘No, we will not eat these sweets, Hindu children in Karachi schools have clearly said, when children refuse to eat sweets en masse like this, then there is something very wrong. There was an atmosphere of fear, apprehension and uncertainty among the people. That day I went to several Hindu colonies one after the other on my motorcycle, the atmosphere was similar everywhere. There was only one question in everyone’s mind, what will happen now?
Let us tell you that on August 14, Jinnah was in Karachi and while addressing the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan in the present Sindh Assembly Building of Karachi, he was going to announce the formation of Pakistan as a separate country.
Didn’t you go to see Jinnah?
Andrew Whitehead has tried to upset Advani in this regard during his interview. He asked Advani whether you did not go to see Mohammad Ali Jinnah on 14 August?
In response Advani says, “No, no, I did not go anywhere, I did not go to see any program, nowhere. And I think most of the Hindus had the same reaction.” Further Andrew Whitehead asked him whether he had never seen Jinnah. Responding to this, Advani says that he has never seen Jinnah face to face. Whatever has been seen in pictures and posters.
RSS march in Karachi just 9 days ago on 14th August
It is noteworthy that just 9 days ago i.e. on 5th August, Sangh Karyawah of Karachi Metropolitan, Lal Krishna Advani had demonstrated the power of Sangh in this city. It so happened that RSS chief Sanghchalak Golwalkar came to Karachi to take stock of the situation in the newly formed Pakistan.
Actually, this visit of the Sangh chief to Karachi was to console the Hindus who were scared of the fear of partition. Describing this journey, Vinay Sitapati writes in Jugalbandi, “Advani arrived at the railway station to receive Golwalkar; he was among the one lakh nervous Hindus who had gathered to hear the RSS chief; Advani included ten thousand uniformed RSS members.”
Just 9 days before the formation of Pakistan, on 5 August 1947, a grand march of the Sangh took place in its future capital Karachi at 5 pm and it happened peacefully in that toxic environment.
Advani here underlines the difference in the environment of Punjab and Sindh. Punjab was already burning before partition, but till August 15, hatred and animosity in Sindh remained hidden.
According to Advani, it started happening in the beginning of 1947 itself. Things were moving in that direction, and in the month of April, May it became clear that partition was certain. We felt very bad about it, very sad, especially that Sindh should be a part of Pakistan. More than that, India should be divided. Because for most of us this was a concept which we were not able to accept easily.
We did not want to leave Karachi
He told Andrew Whitefield, “Looking back, I would say there was a feeling of uncertainty. Our decision was that we would stay in Karachi because unlike Punjab where riots broke out even before partition, there were no riots in Sindh even after partition. Riots We did not see anything like what happened in Punjab or North-West Frontier Province in January 1948, so when partition was going to happen, there was a feeling of uncertainty as to what was going to happen. “But basically we thought, we will stay here. That was our feeling.”
But Advani changed his thinking about staying in Pakistan after a blast took place in Karachi. Advani tells Whitefield- ‘Perhaps there was a change in the opinion of the entire Hindu population of Sindh when a blast took place in Karachi in September and the RSS was wrongly held responsible for that blast. Let us tell you that Advani had become a member of the Sangh by then. On this incident, Pakistani newspaper Dawn had published a headline – ‘RSS Plot to Blow Up Pakistan Unearthed’ i.e. ‘RSS’s conspiracy to blow up Pakistan exposed’. This incident had decided that Advani was now going to leave his birthplace. A few days after this incident, on 12 September 1947, Advani took a flight from Karachi to Delhi. At that time Advani was not even 20 years old.
Result of Jinnah’s communalism
Jinnah had come to Karachi from Delhi on 7 August 1947 itself. They were welcomed like heroes at the airport. Historian Bipin Chandra in his book ‘India’s freedom struggle’ While exposing the politics of communalism, he writes that From Jinnah’s example it becomes clear that the path of communalism is a steep one. If special efforts are not made to block this path, then man keeps slipping down it.
According to Bipin Chandra ‘Once the basics of communal ideology are accepted, then whatever a person’s desires are, he starts being guided by that ideology. Otherwise, there was no reason why Barrister Jinnah, who returned to India in 1906 and whom Sarojini Naidu had called the ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity, started demanding Pakistan and started speaking in a language which was possible only for fascist communalism.
tragedy of partition
This horror of partition started an endless series of human suffering in India and Pakistan. Remembering this pain, India today celebrates Partition Divas. In this process of partition, about 1.5 crore Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims had to leave their homes and migrate. One crore people became homeless. Hindus and Sikhs had to leave 27 lakh hectares of land in Western Punjab. Muslims had to lose 19 lakh hectares of land in East Punjab. The number of sexual violence and kidnappings was in thousands from both sides. Whereas the death toll was more than 10 lakh.
Even today, after 77 years, when stories of the meeting of people left behind during partition come to light, one gets goosebumps feeling that thrill.