-
Partition and Our days in Lodhi Road
- Jinnah made “Pakistan” inevitable. He alone had not pitched for it. He only took advantage of the religious passion already ignited by Sir Syed Ahmad and Mohammad Iqbal. Chalapati Rao says, “Jinnah used it with a subtle sense of strategy and single-minded devotion.”
- But then Jinnah went all out and proclaimed a Direct Action Day resulting in communal killings, especially in Calcutta and his followers cried “Mar Ke leinge Pakistan.” For those of us whose families saw the aftermath of Partition, Jaswant Singh’s observations on Patel cannot be tolerated the least.
- They were Government servants and were instructed by the Home Ministry to return home by 6 p.m. Every night Muslims used to march from Nizamuddin, armed with weapons shouting ‘Allah hu Akbar.’ The Hindus in Lodhi Road used to guard their homes and families by turn holding lathis, some of them shouting ‘Harahara Mahadev’ as a retaliation.
- “They were dark days and crowded hours,” to borrow Rao’s enigmatic expression. The Delhi police which was under Patel was the only protection for Hindus. There was large scale shooting of Muslims by the police. The Delhi police used to give instructions to Tamilians to display thier “poonool” (sacred thread) over one of their ears so that they will not be mistaken and shot. Such was the anger of Hindus, where they were members of the police or the public. Nehru was dismayed that the killing of Muslims continued unabated and called Patel. It was only later that the Madras Regiment was summoned and the Delhi riots quelled.
-
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Partition and Our days in Lodhi Road
