She wore only black and never tied her hair till her death..after being forced to abandon her home in Sialkot and migrate to India post partition...
The wounds of Partition are generational. The pain of the unhealed wounds is so deep that partition and pre partition life was never discussed in my family while I was growing up in Meerut ,which was my Grandmother’s ( Dadi) hometown . Any questions about my Father’s paternal family would be answered with a bland “ they belonged to Sialkot and came to Meerut/ Delhi post partition” . My grandmother’s eyes would moisten . She would sometimes speak of my grandfather ,who was subedar major in British Army, being posted to Chaman and they wanting to settle there ...but then partition happened!
We grew up with knowing a lot about Meerut and my Dadi’s family roots in Meerut, but strangely nothing about my Father’s ‘Sialkot’ Dada-Dadi. We grew up with a nostalgia about Chaman where my grandmother was Happy and dreamt of settling till partition happened.
Recently Kartarpur corridor was opened and my Aunts( my late father’s sisters), in their late seventies and eighties suddenly opened up about the Sialkot past. This blog is a very very belated attempt to bring out my great grandmother’s voice through silence of Generations and bring forth the great human tragedy of partition..a tragedy which has been normalised and foot noted for my generation and coming ones .
My Father’s Grandfather was Sri Govind Ram Sharma,an army contractor with the British settled in Sialkot . He was an Arya Samaji. My aunt claims a Gate of Aryasamaj in Sialkot had his name inscribed . My Grandfather’s name was Munshi Lal Sharma and my Great Grandmother’s name was Shiv Devi.
Shiv Devi helped her neighbours and was deeply respected as she was always there for them . She also had a fiery temper which was often unleashed on unsuspecting strangers. One anecdote my aunt narrates is of her asking a Baraat to take another route as there was another baraat awaited in her neighbourhood, and the baraat complying with her ..and changing the route!
Partition was imminent and my grandfather, who had left the British army and shifted to meerut in a rented house , advised her to sell her house and come to Meerut too. But Shiv Devi had just repaired her home and was well established. She told everyone..Mishtar Jinnah has promised Hindus will be safe in Pakistan ..why should I leave my home and life I know.
Partition happened and bloodshed followed. There was no population migration planned but Hindus were under attack. My Great grandmom would still claim..Mishtar Jinnah has assured..but she sent her unmarried daughter, who was a beauty to Her Relatives in Dehradun. Then her Muslim neighbours would advise her to cross the border and go to safety, but she resisted , staying all alone in her house,guarding her family gold buried under the mud floor.
One night, mobs went on a rampage in her neighbourhood , killing, raping and looting Hindus. Her Muslim neighbours came into her home via a ladder and told her to come with them . They told her they could not bear to see her being dishonoured and they would take her across the border. My grandmother had no time to take out her buried gold, except one gold bangle, weighing 8 tolas, before she was hustled across the ladder into her Muslim neighbour home and escorted to the border where she crossed over and reached Delhi.
My aunt recollects that Shiv Devi started wearing black to convey her protest and stopped tying her hair. She vowed that she would tie up her hair only after returning to her home. But that was never to be!
One day, when she was living with her daughter in Delhi, she met a neighbour from Sialkot . He was a Muslim and was visiting his relatives. She saw him and bought him home. She wanted to know about her home and properties. The man told her her house had been occupied by several Muslim families and her mud floor had been dug up and her gold looted. The post office was still functioning in in the Property named after Munshi Lal Sharma, her beloved son. After this meeting my Great Grandmother had changed a lot, and stopped discussing Sialkot. Our family had left everything behind in Sialkot , all family savings, land, buildings to start life afresh in a rented house. We had very financially weak childhoods..my grandmother through her tireless housekeeping fed us,clothed us and sent us to the best schools. Yet, the image management of Nehru was so great that my grandmother remained a committed congressi till her last breath We too, though partition was an inevitable price to pay for freedom from British! But now I think, had partition not happened, the family wealth would have been built upon,the family home built with love,tears and sweat would have been there,we may have been born in the family home of Sialkot,and my grandmother would have lived comfortably instead of struggling in near poverty to bring up her children and grandchildren! It is us second generation that is now comfortably settled,but two generations before us suffered and struggled! Time we discuss the horrors of partition and stop normalising it and letting it become a footnote in history!
The wounds of Partition are generational. The pain of the unhealed wounds is so deep that partition and pre partition life was never discussed in my family while I was growing up in Meerut ,which was my Grandmother’s ( Dadi) hometown . Any questions about my Father’s paternal family would be answered with a bland “ they belonged to Sialkot and came to Meerut/ Delhi post partition” . My grandmother’s eyes would moisten . She would sometimes speak of my grandfather ,who was subedar major in British Army, being posted to Chaman and they wanting to settle there ...but then partition happened!
We grew up with knowing a lot about Meerut and my Dadi’s family roots in Meerut, but strangely nothing about my Father’s ‘Sialkot’ Dada-Dadi. We grew up with a nostalgia about Chaman where my grandmother was Happy and dreamt of settling till partition happened.
Recently Kartarpur corridor was opened and my Aunts( my late father’s sisters), in their late seventies and eighties suddenly opened up about the Sialkot past. This blog is a very very belated attempt to bring out my great grandmother’s voice through silence of Generations and bring forth the great human tragedy of partition..a tragedy which has been normalised and foot noted for my generation and coming ones .
My Father’s Grandfather was Sri Govind Ram Sharma,an army contractor with the British settled in Sialkot . He was an Arya Samaji. My aunt claims a Gate of Aryasamaj in Sialkot had his name inscribed . My Grandfather’s name was Munshi Lal Sharma and my Great Grandmother’s name was Shiv Devi.
By all accounts ,my Great Grandmother Shiv Devi was a very strong woman and committed aryasamaji. She built a large home in Sialkot and several other commercial properties. A property under the name of her Son ,munshi Lal Sharma ,housed a post office. She donated to an aryasamaj school which had my grandfather’s name ,Munshi Lal inscribed in The wall . My aunt recalls seeing the gate and the post office as a child during visits to Sialkot.
Shiv Devi Ji was a beautiful woman, and was widowed early. However she managed her properties etc and was deeply respected in her neighbourhood. There was one room with a kaccha floor where the family gold was buried and boxes full of clothes were placed in the room. Once a year ,Shiv Devi, along with a group of women ,would go to Kashmir and bring back an year’s supply of dry fruits and warm clothes. It seems that it was a common practise in areas of Punjab to go to Kashmir and bring dry fruits and warm clothes.Shiv Devi helped her neighbours and was deeply respected as she was always there for them . She also had a fiery temper which was often unleashed on unsuspecting strangers. One anecdote my aunt narrates is of her asking a Baraat to take another route as there was another baraat awaited in her neighbourhood, and the baraat complying with her ..and changing the route!
Partition was imminent and my grandfather, who had left the British army and shifted to meerut in a rented house , advised her to sell her house and come to Meerut too. But Shiv Devi had just repaired her home and was well established. She told everyone..Mishtar Jinnah has promised Hindus will be safe in Pakistan ..why should I leave my home and life I know.
Partition happened and bloodshed followed. There was no population migration planned but Hindus were under attack. My Great grandmom would still claim..Mishtar Jinnah has assured..but she sent her unmarried daughter, who was a beauty to Her Relatives in Dehradun. Then her Muslim neighbours would advise her to cross the border and go to safety, but she resisted , staying all alone in her house,guarding her family gold buried under the mud floor.
One night, mobs went on a rampage in her neighbourhood , killing, raping and looting Hindus. Her Muslim neighbours came into her home via a ladder and told her to come with them . They told her they could not bear to see her being dishonoured and they would take her across the border. My grandmother had no time to take out her buried gold, except one gold bangle, weighing 8 tolas, before she was hustled across the ladder into her Muslim neighbour home and escorted to the border where she crossed over and reached Delhi.
My aunt recollects that Shiv Devi started wearing black to convey her protest and stopped tying her hair. She vowed that she would tie up her hair only after returning to her home. But that was never to be!
One day, when she was living with her daughter in Delhi, she met a neighbour from Sialkot . He was a Muslim and was visiting his relatives. She saw him and bought him home. She wanted to know about her home and properties. The man told her her house had been occupied by several Muslim families and her mud floor had been dug up and her gold looted. The post office was still functioning in in the Property named after Munshi Lal Sharma, her beloved son. After this meeting my Great Grandmother had changed a lot, and stopped discussing Sialkot. Our family had left everything behind in Sialkot , all family savings, land, buildings to start life afresh in a rented house. We had very financially weak childhoods..my grandmother through her tireless housekeeping fed us,clothed us and sent us to the best schools. Yet, the image management of Nehru was so great that my grandmother remained a committed congressi till her last breath We too, though partition was an inevitable price to pay for freedom from British! But now I think, had partition not happened, the family wealth would have been built upon,the family home built with love,tears and sweat would have been there,we may have been born in the family home of Sialkot,and my grandmother would have lived comfortably instead of struggling in near poverty to bring up her children and grandchildren! It is us second generation that is now comfortably settled,but two generations before us suffered and struggled! Time we discuss the horrors of partition and stop normalising it and letting it become a footnote in history!
