As
I boarded the plane for Stockholm, I felt that my faith in India-Pakistan peace,
friendship and solidarity was not mere wishful thinking. It was possible and we
have to keep on tryingIf there is any place that reminds me of Lahore, it is Delhi. One can hear Lahori Punjabi wherever one goes. I arrived in Delhi on March 6th this year from Stockholm, a day before the festival of Holi. A Pakistani trade delegation was in town. The actor Raj Babbar (his family hails from Jalalpur Jattan in the Pakistani Punjab) and other Indian celebrities were seen playing the perfect host to the Pakistanis. Lt-General (retd) Ali Quli Khan was heading the trade delegation. He spoke very persuasively in favour of India-Pakistan peace.
One day, during the rush hours, I was having lunch alone at the India International Centre at a 4-seat table. I heard a familiar voice ask me if he and his friends could sit at my table. When I turned round it was indeed Justice Nasim Hasan Shah, former chief justice of Pakistan. How could I deny myself such ‘just’ company!
Justice Shah was accompanied by Mrs Vimal Issar, formerly programme producer at the Indian state television, Doordarshan. It turned out that she was another fellow Lahori originally from Kucha Mela Ram inside the walled city, but her family moved to India in 1947. The third person with them was the very dynamic Dr Abhishek Singhvi spokesperson of the Indian National Congress. He had recently visited Lahore. Across the table some people overheard our references to Lahore and one of them, a Sikh gentleman, walked up to our table. He knew Singhvi and began to talk to us about Lahore. His family lived near Faridkot House on Mozang Road. Now Justice Nasim Hasan Shah belongs to Begum Road, I, to Temple Road and Sardarji was originally from Mozang Road, so we three suddenly formed a Mozang trio.
I expressed a desire to meet some people from Lahore who would be willing to narrate their experience about that city to me since I was collecting oral histories on 1947. Last year in April, I interviewed people in Pakistan on the events of 1947. Mrs Issar kindly offered her help and when we met later on March 14th, she recalled her own childhood in Kucha Mela Ram. Her story confirmed that the various communities lived peacefully until March 1947.
I told her that I read in the Pakistan Times of March 8th 1947 that the Hindus and Sikhs of Kucha Mela Ram had issued a statement the previous day in which they appreciated the generosity and goodwill of their Muslim neighbours and thanked them for ensuring that they lived in safety. The signatories to the statement urged Hindus and Sikhs elsewhere to treat Muslims in a like manner. We regretted that the tradition of Kucha Mela Ram could not prevail for long and the forces of evil took over on all sides.
March 31st was my last day in Delhi. I had spent a fortnight in East Punjab and now it was time to return to Stockholm. The plane left late in the night. I wanted to meet as many people as possible who could share with me memories of Lahore, so Mrs Vimal Issar took me along to meet some of them. Our first stop was at the residence of the renowned classical and folk-music singer, Madam Pushpa Hans. It was her mellifluous voice that, before partition, made the song ‘Channa Kethi Guzari’a Raat Wey?’ an eternal cultural dimension of Punjabi heritage. She recalled many fond memories, especially those associated with her house on Fane Road, Mozang.
We were joined a little later by her husband Colonel Hans Raj Chopra. He told us that during his posting in Kohat he and his wife had been presented a beautiful carpet by a young, tall officer, Ishaq. The description of Ishaq made me say spontaneously, ‘Do you mean Major Ishaq? A dark, handsome man who was originally from the Doaba, Jullandhar region, and fought in Burma during the Second World War?’ ‘Yes,’ exclaimed both Pushpa Hans and her husband. Colonel Chopra and Major Ishaq had seen action together in Burma. I could not believe my ears. Suddenly I found myself becoming part of their narrative
We were referring to the late Major Ishaq, leader of the Mazdoor-Kissan Party (Workers and Peasants’ Party). Before leaving for Stockholm in 1973 I had been active in the Mazdoor-Kissan Party and whenever Major Sahib visited Rawalpindi he would stay with me where I taught at Gordon College during 1972-73. Major Ishaq had, along with Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Syed Sajjad Zaheer and others, been tried under the Pindi Conspiracy Case of 1951 and served a sentence. Pushpa Hans and Colonel Chopra had heard that Ishaq joined politics, but they had not remained in contact with him.
The next visit was to the family of the pre-partition Hindu Mahasabha leader of Lahore, Sir Gokal Chand Narang. I wanted to find out if Sir Gokal Chand had written anything about the fateful days of 1947. His daughter, Kamla Sethi, and granddaughter, Uma Vasudev, met me very courteously and I was presented a book written by him on religion with special focus on Hinduism. They promised to trace for me his speeches.
A small diversion from the Lahore connection was a visit to a Hindu family, the Goels, who were very close old friends of the family of Pakistani cricket captain Inzamam-ul-Haq. Mrs Pushpa Goel told me that during the last Pakistani tour of India, Inzamam had expressed a desire to visit his parents’ original home in Hansi, district Hissar, Haryana. This had not been allowed by the Indian government, but Mrs Goel’s son had contacted Inzamam at his hotel and met him. Back home, Inzamam told the story to his parents and his father immediately remembered Puspha Goel and her parents. They had saved their family during the riots. Mrs Goel was invited to visit Multan in 1999 to attend Inzamam’s wedding. She told me she was overwhelmed by the hospitality she received.
As I boarded the plane for Stockholm, I felt that my faith in India-Pakistan peace, friendship and solidarity was not mere wishful thinking. It was possible and we have to keep on trying.
The author is an associate professor of Political Science at Stockholm University. He is the author of two books. His email address is Ishtiaq.Ahmed@statsvet.su.se
