Drishtikone Newsletter #333: The Real Story of India's Partition

Riots have been common in India. But when do riots become the basis of a Genocide and Exodus? A serious analysis of the history of India's partition and the Kashmiri Pandit genocide.

Drishtikone Newsletter #333: The Real Story of India's Partition
The long walk and the death. (Source: Life pics by Magaret Bourke White)
“Who are you? The answer stretched my soul into the abyss and... back.
I need an abyss, but not a void.” ― Talismanist Giebra, Talismanist: Fragments of the Ancient Fire. Philosophy of Fragmentism Series.

The Kashmir Files

Finally was able to watch "The Kashmir Files" yesterday. I knew that Vivek Agnihotri would have done a very great job with the subject, but what really stayed with me were the nuances that make you think and rethink.

When, for example, the hero goes to meet the terrorist, he strikes a conversation with the guy who is taking him across.  

This one scene showcases so many things that enabled and powered the Kashmiri Pandits' genocide.

  1. The hidden crimes. Crimes happened. People knew.  Yet the public was aware. Conundrum? Yes!  That is the misfortune and the seed of how such crimes can be executed.
  2. The lies that are in currency now about those crimes have no link to the facts of what happened in the past.
  3. The supposed strangers (ergo someone who had no relationship so could have killed in cold blood) who were posited to have committed the crimes actually turned out to be the closest of friends (whom no one suspected!)
  4. Finally, and the most crucial - the armed ruthless outsiders coopting the neighbors and friends to perpetrate genocide and the resultant mass exodus

Every scene of the movie packs hours of deep contemplation by the writer and director.  

You can see how each scene and dialog is pregnant with so many nuances and stories that share an epic in themselves.

A piece of art gets its weight not from what is said.  But from what was not said.  

A work that is shallow will have resulted from the very first set of thoughts that the artist was hit with.

A valuable piece of art carries with it the remnants of thoughts and ideas that were good, but not good enough to make the final cut.  So when you start unpeeling what it finally offers - you see so many deep meanings and nuances.  

For example, there is a fundamental difference between an "Ek do teen, char panch che saat.." song versus say "Humne dekhi hai in aankhon ki mahakti khushboo".  

One leaves you no richer than what you were before.  The other can keep you engrossed for hours and leave you with life lessons without any preaching.  You are forced to pry open your own soul and dive into life as it really is.

The experience of "The Kashmir Files" is like that of "Humne Dekhi hai.." in its sophistication and depth of nuances and meaning.  

Long after you have finished watching, sobbing, and staying silent after the movie, and the rest of it - you will keep working on your own self.  

And your layers of humanity.  

One crime after another.  One battle of courage beyond hope after another.

To figure out who or what a human is.  And could have been.


Genocide and Exodus - the technology

When you look at the time leading up to August 15, 1947. The day India became a "free and independent dominion within the British Commonwealth of Nations" - things happened that have either been hidden or denied.  Worse, the truth was smashed with the hammer of false equivalence right in front of our eyes, even when the facts were shouting something else.  

A pattern that has persisted and perfected since then.

Secularism and False Equivalence

Secularism one noticed was not an aspiration for equality.  But a tool to drive equivalence.  Even if that forced equivalence was false and misleading to begin with.  

In the earliest tradition of "whataboutery", it was a mechanism to balance the scales of the most horrendous crimes of one set of villains by necessarily constructing and positing another set - with the sole purpose of creating an equivalence.

This sophisticated mischief was justified and carried out under the pretext of "Secularism."

The triggers, the plans, the executors of the greatest crimes that humanity has seen were very clear.  Explicit even.  They were never called out.

Instead, a strawman scenario was constructed to provide protection to the main villains.

Just like it happened in Kashmir.

The modus operandi of how the Kashmiri Pandits were targeted and either killed, converted, or driven out had been perfected in the run-up to the partition of India.

Why are we saying this?

The popular narrative for partition has always been the equivalence between Muslim League and the Rashtirya Swayamsevak Sangh (the RSS) and the argument that rioting was "equal and similar" between all the communities as were the killings.  Crimes against both the sides were identical and "balanced".

Was it really so?  And, were certain set of actors actually responsible for making the carnage and genocide that occurred a reality?

The Ten years that created the disaster

The Provincial elections were held in 11 provinces in the winter of 1936-37.  Results were declared in February 1937.  The results showed two things clearly:

  1. Congress was the clear winner.  It was a winner in eight of the 11 provinces
Source

2. Muslim League was the biggest loser.  Even the Muslims did not prefer them.  This can be seen from the percent of their seats won vs Muslim seats in the different provinces.

Central Provinces and Orissa did not have Muslim seats (Source)

Congress had won a massive vote which led to forming government in 8 out of 11 British Indian provinces.  In their mind, the results vindicated their programs and policies.

In this light, Congress did not form any coalition with any other party.  Certainly not with the now routed Muslim League.

In the subsequent months, Congress seemed to provide progressive governance and was able to maintain law and order comfortably.  A scenario that made them confident and laid back.

When the 1946 Provincial elections happened the fortunes had changed.

Source

Congress formed its government in Assam, Bihar, Bombay, Central Provinces, Madras, NWFP, Orissa and United Provinces, while Muslim League formed its government in Bengal and Sindh.  In Punjab a coalition (comprising Congress, Unionist Party and the Akalis) formed the government even though Muslim League was the largest party with 73 seats (Congress had 51).

In less than 10 years, fortunes had radically changed and India was facing a certain partition led by Muslim League.  A party which in 1937 could not even represent Muslims was now ready to form a nation for Muslims!

What went wrong?  

How did Congress leaders fail India so spectacularly?

The seed for the destruction of India was probably in how Gandhi with his bewildering and nonsensical tantrums hurt the decision-making within the Congress cadres.

The Partition of India: Policies and Perspectives 1935-1947 edited by C.H. Philips and Mary Doreen Wainwright (pg 24)

Jinnah, on the other hand, was very clear.  He had to steal the Muslims away from the many Muslim parties/groups and Congress Party.  He found refuge in minority provinces where it was easier to rile up the Muslim youth.

Source: The Partition of India: Policies and Perspectives 1935-1947 edited by C.H. Philips and Mary Doreen Wainwright (pg 27)

Unionist Party opposed the idea of Pakistan very strongly.  It was secular in outlook - led by Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan and also had Sir Chhotu Ram (the father of Bhakra Nangal Dam) as its greatest pillar.  After the death of Sir Sikander Hayat Khan, Khizar Hayat Khan Tiwana became its leader.  In 1945, Sir Chhotu Ram died.  After this Jinnah pushed Khizr Khan to join Muslim League.  He refused.  But others in his party shifted their allegiance.  Sir Feroz Khan Noon joined Muslim League in September 1945.  Shaukat Hayat Khan and Mumtaz Daultana also joined Muslim League.  

In 1946, Muslim League won 90 seats in Punjab Assembly while Unionists had been reduced to only 10!

Jinnah had turned the tide around within 10 years.  How?

बलवई आये सी - The Killer Mobs had come

In 1980s my Nanaji would visit our place and spend months.  

He had seen a lot of history in his youth.  

For example, when the half-burned bodies of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru after they had been hanged were thrown through the broken back wall of the jail by the British into the Ravi river, he (Nanaji) along with his friends was the first ones to reach there.  They retrieved the bodies, created the arthi and accompanied the three great men on their last journey.

He would take his right hand and point to his heart and say - Remember Lala Lajpat Rai's last speech?  Every word is written here (pointing to his heart).

After being lathi-charged during the protests against the Simon Commission, on October 30th, 1928, Lala Lajpat Rai had said - "I declare that the blows struck at me will be the last nails in the coffin of the British rule in India.“

The great Lala Lajpat Rai passed away on November 17th.  My Nanaji had reached his house as well for the last rites.

He would tell me stories - history in first person.  As a real witness.

In February of 1947, he had gone to his mother and urged her and others to move to Amritsar (other side of Ravi) because "Pakistan was now an eventuality".

His mother shouted at him for always being an alarmist. "Gandhiji has said that Pakistan will be made on his dead body," she retorted to her son.

When the violence reached their village in Sheikhupura, a district near Lahore, she was the first one to be stabbed!

So what happened, I had once asked my Nanaji.  Who were the ones who did the violence?

"बलवई आये सी"

बलवई? (a word for killer mobs)  From where?

"Don't know," he replied with not much interest in the question.

This elderly gentleman from a village in Rawalpindi says something similar.

As the hordes of armed mobs descended on the villages the dance of death started.

Once the armed mobs started the plunder, killings, stabbings, and arson - the local Muslims, who were neighbors hitherto joined in as well.  

There was at that point no other choice than running for life to the "other side of Ravi" with what one had.  Nothing more but life.

The question I have often struggled with has been was:

These families of these people (like my Nanaji and this Sikh gentleman) were living in those villages for centuries! They would have known people in the neighboring 20-25 villages if not more.

How come they did not recognize anyone in these armed mobs - the बलवई?

Who the heck were they?

Yes, the communal situation had turned bad - but the neighbors were still not fighting as ruthlessly against their neighbors to throw them or finish their families, as happened in the run up to the genocide accompanying the partition and the resultant exodus.

Until these mobs arrived.

Let us explore this question in more detail now in the backdrop of what really happened on the ground!

Jinnah's Hate and Congress' Brain-dead politics

In the 29th session of the Muslim League at Allahabad (now Prayagraj) from April 3-6th, 1942; slogans like “Quaid-i-Azam Zindabad”, “Muslim League Zindabad” and "Pakistan Zindabad“ were heard as Jinnah arrived at the session.

Poetry on Islam and Pakistan in many regional languages became part of the session.  More importantly, members of the Muslim League National Guards came with swords flashing.

Chairman of the reception committee, Nawab Sir Muhammad Yusuf gave the welcome address.  The topics he covered were:

  1. Muslims’ demand for Pakistan and why League was asking for separate states.
  2. Criticism of Congress for a strong center - which he argued was an attempt to get dominance over minorities
  3. Why Muslims were a separate nation by all definitions of nation
  4. Why Urdu-Hindi were not just different languages but the difference was of two separate nations.

Jinnah spoke and criticized the Cripps Mission and its “fundamental flaws”.  He asked the Muslims:

“I must earnestly appeal to you.  Musalmans, organize yourself to meet all eventualities whatever may happen.  These are obvious truths that I am telling you; and I really don’t think that I should now go on labouring the point because, in my judgment, to pick up the analogy, you are no longer infants, you have reached the age of discretion and can act accordingly.” (Source: Jinnah And Organizational Politics Of All India Muslim League By Shahzad Qaisar Department of History Quaid-i-Azam University, 2019 - original source: “Speeches and Writings of Mr. Jinnah: by Mahomed Ali Jinnah and Jamil-ud-Din Ahmad)

In 1944 Gandhi was released from prison.  While in prison, he had written a letter to Jinnah to find a political settlement.  The Brits withheld it but Jinnah came to know about it via a communique.  Even though some Muslims were moved by Gandhi’s letter, Jinnah was not.  All he had for Gandhi was abuse.  Gandhi went to meet Jinnah on his release.  To no avail.

Jinnah was never interested in any solution or settlement.  His hatred for Hindus was deep and acute.

"The memoirs of Field-Marshal the Viscount Montgomery of Alamein" by Montgomery of Alamein, Bernard Law Montgomery, Viscount, 1887-1976

In 1945, Lord Wavell came and held the Shimla Conference.  Jinnah wanted a complete breakup from the rest of India.

Muslim League kept on the hostilities and hate against the Hindus unabashedly even when the Congress leaders were constantly harping on peace, secularism, and brotherhood.

Their secret weapon was the armed group called the "Muslim League National Guards" or as "Muslim National Guards."  It was an armed group trained for terror activities in the mold of Lashkar-e-Toiba of today.

In those days it became a norm with the British, the local governments, the Congress and certainly the Muslim League to equate Muslim National Guards with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

The much-vilified Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, though was preparing the youth to be physically and spiritually strong, they were in no hurry to pick up arms.  They did not prepare for that, nor did they equip themselves for it.

The RSS, despite how others constructed its image of being militant, was really a “toothless tiger” when it came to real armed battles.  Once the battles with arms started, nothing that was part of its daily regimen stood the test of the battles at hand.  

RSS became the tool that was used by all the forces who wanted to whitewash the Hindu-Sikh genocide in the run up to partition executed by the Muslim League.  RSS became the group of choice to justify Muslim National Guards' actions in terms of plunder, looting, killing, arson, ethnic cleansing.  

It was all a reaction to the RSS, ran the narrative!

But what the heck did RSS really do for Hindus to deserve what happened to them in Bengal and Punjab after the call for the Direct Action Day?

What Barkha Dutt shamelessly shared about the Kashmiri Pandits justifying their genocide on NDTV, had first been tested during the partition.  In 1990s the argument was "control by the Pandits in administration".  And in 1947, it was that because of RSS, Muslims armed themselves.  Why so? That question no one answered!

Despite no equivalence in real sense, this narrative was peddled with regular frequency by everyone.  By Muslim League obviously, to perfect its "victim card", but also by Congress (to eliminate the most obvious political choice for those who would land up in India as victims of the genocide - the Jan Sangh and the RSS).

Who were the Muslim (League) National Guards?

The Muslim League National Guards was the militant arm of the Muslim League which was armed and weaponized.  Its membership was kept secret during its initial years.  It had its own centers and headquarters.

In December of 1946, Sardar Abdul Rab Nishtar pushed the Muslims to join the Muslim League National Guards in large numbers.  This, he claimed, would lay the foundation of the future army of Pakistan.  (Source: "The Punjab Past and Present - Volume 05 Part 1 and 2"; pg 177)

Who was Sardar Abdul Rab Nishtar?

Sardar Abdul Rab Nishtar had participated in the Khilafat Movement, member of the Indian National Congress from 1927 to 1931. Thereafter joined All-India Muslim League, and became a confidante of Pakistan's founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah. After the formation of Pakistan, he was the 1st Minister of Communications (until 1949) and thereafter the Governor of West Punjab until 1951. After Liaquat Ali Khan's assassination, Nishtar was a contender for the post of Pakistan's Prime Minister but faced a lot of resistance because of his radical Islamist ideology.

Muslim National Guards members were being recruited in large numbers and the process of equipping them was in full swing.  Sardar Shaukat Hayat Khan was in charge of enrolling the Muslim National Guard volunteers.

"To maintain discipline in the ranks when the war is on, to train our soldiers in the technique of that war, to provide for its means and material, to ensure its uninterrupted prosecution, to keep co-operation throughout the country and to arrange for meeting the requirements of the families of those who lose their lives are matters which call for immediate planning on an extensive scale." declared Maulana Shabir Ahmad Usmani, the President of All-India Jamiat-ul-Ulema-i-Islam. (Dawn September 21, 1946)

Not only were their cadres and numbers swelling, so were their possessions.

Muslim National Guards - the prep for the violent Partition

They had their own jeeps and lorries which were later used to move the armed cadres quickly from one village to another while sniping and stabbing passersby and carrying the loot.

Petrol was a prized item.  It was not only used as fuel for transport but also for arson. (Source: "Muslim League Attack on Sikhs and Hindus in the Punjab 1947" by Gurbachan Singh Talib (1950) pg 65)

Interestingly the cadres were being trained in stabbing, arson, and killing.  In fact, they were also tested and even given certificates!  Here is a copy of the kind of certificates given out.  Thousands of such certificates were given out at various centers.

Source - A facsimile of a certificate issued by the Muslim National Guards of Jullundhar for training in “military fighting, stabbing etc.” It is dated 3.11.1946

While RSS were busy building “character” and spiritual strength, the Muslim League was busy building its Muslim League National Guards into an extensive and well-trained semi-military organization.

They were not just working in Punjab but also in Bengal.

As the leaders of Congress kept repeating inane promises and statements about how partition would not happen for public consumption, that were patently false and misleading, the Muslim League was preparing for a war.

Everyone knew about it.  Everyone could see it.  But no one called it out.

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Chronology of Events in January 1947

As the year 1947 set in, a very important set of events unfolded with very clear and unambiguous portends.  

Partition through large-scale national violence was being planned and prepared for by Jinnah's Muslim League via its violent and armed cadres - the Muslim League National Guards.

On January 24th, 1947 the Muslim National Guards organization was declared an unlawful association under the Criminal Law Amendment Act by the Punjab Government, along with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)

When the premises of RSS and Muslim National Guards were raided, the RSS submitted to the order and allowed its offices to be searched and locked up.  The Muslim National Guards members pushed back when the police arrived at their Lahore HQ.

Muslim League leaders (members of the Muslim League Working Committee) - Mian Iftikhar-ud-Din, Feroze Khan Noon, Mian Mumtaz Daultana, Sardar Shaukat Hayat Khan, and Khan Iftikhar Hussain Khan of Mamdot - rushed to the offices to stop the search.  They were arrested.  When the premises were opened, the police discovered over 1000 steel helmets, uniforms, and inflammatory literature.

The Muslim League leaders had arranged for Army Helmets from the Military Disposal Department for the National Guards cadres.  The Muslim National Guards wore uniforms and were trained in army drills.

Many arms like daggers and firearms had already been moved to the house of League leaders.  Specifically the Mayor of Lahore - Mian Amir-ud-Din.  

During the riots, the arms were being supplied from Amir-ud-Din's house!

Important question here is that when RSS' premises are allowed to be inspected by the police while Muslim National Guards' were not, and more importantly nothing was found in the former, while the Muslim National Guards offices were full of weapons and hate literature - why were both these organizations - the RSS and the Muslim National Guards - treated on par? Is it not absolutely apparent that the RSS bogey was created to "balance" the crimes of Muslim National Guards? Even when these two organizations had nothing in common or any equality in terms of motives, intent or danger!

January 25th, 1947: Liaquat Ali Khan declared that Muslim National Guards were an integral part of the Muslim League.

This was the signal for the League cadres to start the violence.

January 26th, 1947: To avoid the obvious violence, the Punjab Government withdrew the cases against the Muslim League leaders.

January 28th, 1947: The ban against the RSS and the Muslim League National Guards was revoked.

February 20th, 1947: British Prime Minister Clement Atlee announced in the Parliament that it was the considered opinion of His Majesty's Government to transfer political power to Indian hands by June 1948 at the latest

Throughout December 1946 and January 1947, the Muslim National Guards would take out processions in typical military formations in the streets of Lahore.  Provocative and hate slogans were blared during those processions.

Slogans like  Leyke rahengey Pakistan - Jaise liya tha Hindustan ("We will take Pakistan just as we once took Hindustan"), Khizar kanjar hai hai, and Pakistan zindabad were common.

After the Direct Action Day resolution was passed in Bombay, a provincial committee was formed.  Muslim students, lawyers (as "shock troops"), and women were mobilized "in anticipation of the coming struggle".

February 28th, 1947: Master Tara Singh of the Akali Dal had also started preparing the Sikhs for the eventuality.  Akali Fauj was being readied to fight the Muslim League National Guards.

Stern Reckoning by Gopal Das Khosla (pg 99)

Well as it turned out, this Akali Fauj that Master Tara Singh had promised was just a figment of imagination.  Nothing was done to follow up.  The provocative speeches from Master Tara Singh instead pushed the tempers even higher.  

With no means to save themselves, Hindus and Sikhs were left to become sitting ducks when the Muslim National Guards armies came looking for them in their jeeps and lorries armed with guns, swords, and petrol.

March 2nd, 1947: Due to the pressure and hatred spread by the Muslim National Guards cadres against Sir Khizr Hayat Khan, he resigned as the Punjab premier.  Muslim League could now form its own government in Punjab.

March 4th, 1947: The Non-Muslim students tried to hold a procession in Lahore in front of the Government College to push for a hartal.  Police was called by the Principal Mr. Bukhari and many students were killed in the firing by the police.  Later the students took out another procession which was attacked by the Muslim National Guards.

Rioting broke out in Lahore.  Shops of Hindus in Sua Bazar and Chowk Rang Mahal were set on fire.

Even though the Governor of Punjab took control of the administration, the rioting in Lahore was widespread.

There was a pattern to the attacks.  With the imprint and execution of Muslim National Guards unmistakable!

Riots broke out in Amritsar, Rawalpindi, Multan cities and in the rural areas of Rawalpindi, Multan, Jhelum, and Attock districts.

March 5th, 1947: Rioting had engulfed almost all of Lahore.  Gumti Bazar, Kinari Bazar, Kasera Bazar, and Rang Mahal saw Hindus and Sikhs being stabbed by the Muslim National Guards.  The Muslim cadres started looting shops in Rang Mahal.  As the Hindus resisted, a Muslim sub-inspector came and opened fire on the Hindu victims.  One young man resisted and protested to the Sub-inspector who held him and shot him dead.

In Multan, meanwhile, clashes began on the 5th as well.  The Non-Muslim students took a procession against the killings of the Non-Muslim students in Lahore (on the 4th) but were attacked by the Muslim National Guards with lathis, daggers, hatchets, and spears at Bohar Gate.  Many were injured.  Several shops were put on fire and the Muslim crowds prevented the Fire Brigade from reaching those areas where the fires had been set by the Muslim National Guards.

The unthinkable happened in Shri Krishan Bhagwan Tuberculosis Hospital near Delhi Gate!  Muslim mob entered the hospital and began to butcher the sick patients in their beds.  A compounder tried to stop them and was killed as well. Every sick man, woman, and child was hacked to death and the hospital was put on fire.  

Houses of Non-Muslims were set on fire in Serai Wan Wattan.  Circular Road, the road from Town Hall to Kotla, Tota Khan, Khuni Burj, Sabzi Mandi were looted and destroyed.  

Seth Kalyan Das's palatial house was attacked.  When he came out to reason with the attackers, he was cut into pieces right in front of his door!

Dharmashalas, Temples, and Gurudwaras were looted and destroyed.  Bawa Sant Das Dharmashala, Shivalaya at Serai Wan Wattan, Jain Temple at Delhi Gate, Kultarianwali DHarmashala, Goshala, Jog Maya and Ram Tirath Temples were destroyed.  Devpura and Devta Khu temples were destroyed and the people in them were hacked to death!

March 6th, 1947: A Muslim mob in Sharifpura (a suburb of Amritsar) stopped a train from Batala and killed all the Hindu and Sikh passengers they could.  Pools of blood in many compartments, dead bodies everywhere, even in women's compartment!  A Hindu Magistrate was coming from Lahore and the District collector instructed him to go to the hospital in Amritsar.  He saw there - heads almost severed from bodies, bellies ripped and intestines hanging out, arms and legs chopped off, and horrendous scenes.

March 7th, 1947: Amritsar was on fire.  An inferno.  Hindu and Sikh shops in Hall Bazar, Katra Jaimal Singh had been destroyed.  Mortuary recorded 140 deaths and 275 had been injured.

The situation in Amritsar was worsening.

Stern Reckoning by Gopal Das Khosla (pg 105)

The rioting was finally stopped after a week.

In Rawalpindi, Muslims attacked Sikh and Hindu homes setting them on fire and hacking the residents.  Many Sikhs were forcibly converted to Islam and their hair cut off.  The British Deputy Commissioner did not care and was apathetic.  As the Muslim mobs and reinforcements from nearby villages came in, the Hindu and Sikhs were outnumbered.

March 8th, 1947: the President of the Cantonment Muslim League invited 11 Hindus and Sikhs to form a Peace Committee for re-establishing communal harmony.  It was held at the President's house. As the Hindu and Sikh members assembled, armed Muslims came in - as if in an arrangement with the host - and murdered the 11 non-Muslim members on the spot!  When the Deputy Inspector General of Police Mr. Scott ordered the case to be registered, his orders were not carried out for several days.

March 11th, 1947: The riots subsided in Lahore.  Streets deserted and shops shut.

The massacres and the genocide inflicted by the Muslim National Guards in collaboration with the local populations was mindboggling. So huge that even the figures shared by the British government were known to be inaccurate!

Stern Reckoning by Gopal Das Khosla (pg 105)

Throughout April, the violence was spreading.  On May 10th, in Amritsar 12 Sikhs were returning after cremating a child.  Armed Muslims attacked them, beat them and put petrol over them and burned them.  7 died and 5 remained alive with severe burns.

The Punjab Chief Secretary wrote in his report:

Some of the acts committed (by the Muslims) were shocking in their stark brutality, and an attack on the funeral party of a child in which six Sikhs and one Hindu were killed has added to already over-long list of Muslim atrocities." (Chief Secretary was Akhtar Hussain, an ICS officer) (Source)

The Muslims in Amritsar sent bangles to the Muslim organizations in Lahore, when the former saw no simultaneous violence happening in the latter.

On May 14th, riots and killings started in Lahore.  Fighting happened with residents fighting with bricks and crude petrol bombs against the hordes of armed mobs of Muslim National Guards.  

By May 16th, it seemed the whole city was on fire.

The Muslims in the administrative machinery of the government in Punjab were now openly helping the Muslim mobs against the Hindus.

Source

On June 3rd, 1947 Mountbatten Plan was drawn up for partition and the division was now imminent.

When the exodus started in August, Lahore Railway Station was the main destination for the Sikhs and Hindus.  Between August 12 and 18, it was a "veritable death trap."

Source

The brutality of the Muslim National Guards knew no pause or thought for humanity.  Sheikhupura, from where my own Nanaji left his home, was the scene of great destruction and death.  In fact, Sheikhupura had become a buzzword.  It was used to intimidate the Sikhs and Hindus to hand over their properties and accept Islam.

"If you do not so as you are told, "they said, "we shall enact another Sheikhupura here." (Source)

By mid to late August, the Hindus and Sikhs in East Punjab had started retaliating as well against the Muslims in anger at what the refugees coming from West Punjab narrated.

By then the partition had already been done.

Riots have happened in India from a long time.  Many are brutal and heavily destructive.  

These riots turn into genocide when an outside party enters a certain region and orchestrates as well as controls the armed violence to kill, destroy and involve the locals.  Muslim National Guards of 1947 and LeT, HuM, Hurriyat, and other Jihadis in Kashmir in 1980s and 90s.

Whenever that has happened in India, the Muslim mobs have either wiped out the Hindus (and other communities) or created an exodus so that no other community remains alive in that society.

Whether it was the Punjab and Bengal now in Pakistan or Kashmir of the 1990s, the ruthless force was always well trained, equipped and inhuman.  Muslim National Guards or the Lashkar-e-Toiba/Hizbul Mujahideen.

These hordes of Jihadis enter a region and push/indoctrinate the local community to a point where they are an extension of these armed terrorists.

In "The Kashmir Files", when the Hindu women complain of how Muslim women are throwing food away and denying them the food leading to starvation and hunger amongst the Pandits, one couldn't shake a stark reality facing us.

While every dimension, category, and group of one community was ruthless, steadfast, and committed to the idea of violence, genocide, and wiping out the identity of another; the other community still had hope.  Hope that the aggressor could change.  That the aggressor may cease or feel pity or find humanity.

But none was forthcoming.

Only when the complete population was wiped out, the idea of brother-hood and Kashmiriyat was presented.

The sinister import of such an idea is potent in its insincerity and inhumanity.

While one is steadfast and ruthlessly routing for your complete destruction, hope in your heart for humanity to show up is the greatest crime.

But that has been the one weakness that the aggressors have banked upon to carry out one genocide after another!

Into hypocrisy India awakes

On January 24th, 1947 the Punjab Government had banned both - the Muslim National Guards and the RSS - in a remarkable act of creating false equivalence.  The folly of which was quickly evident in the extremely divergent reactions and reults.

But this hypocrisy and mind-numbing act of political patronage for terrorists did not cease even after the Indian independence in 1947.

On February 4th, 1948, the Chief Commissioner of Ajmer, Rajasthan again banned both - Muslim National Guards and the RSS.

Source: Weekly Gazette of India, 1948-02-21

What the Muslim National Guards were doing in Ajmer in 1948 after all that already happened is in itself a conundrum.  

The false equivalence of RSS with Muslim National Guards, the violent mobs and Jihadis that executed the genocide leading to exodus making partition a viable option, showed one thing.

The confusion of the victims had not subsided.

India will one day see another Jinnah.  Another Muslim Natonal Guards.  Another Congress.  And another RSS.

While the Jinnahs and the Muslim National Guards - the बलवई - will do what they have always done - genocide; the Congress and the RSS will provide different hues of hope sans decisive action or defense and help the former to carry out their objective with complete facility!

Video corner: The Dulat Doctrine on Kashmir

AS Dulat was the RAW Chief at one point.  He and Pakistan's ISI Chief Asad Durrani wrote a joint book titled "The Spy Chronicles".  There he expounded on his idea on Kashmir and Pakistan's relationship.  No one pushed back except Aarti Tikoo.  Here is the statement that she made on June 4th, 2018.  In the backdrop of what we know now, it is an eye-opener.


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