India’s Independence Diaries

1947 is a textbook term for many of us. We have read about the Tryst with Destiny speech, the unfurling of the tricolour at Red Fort and heard horrifying accounts of partition. But how was that momentous year for those who lived through it? On India’s 65th Independence Day, senior citizens share their memories as part of an ongoing series on our blog.

P.K. Sabhlok, 79 years

We don’t have much memories of the day, 15 August 1947, in particular. In July 1947, after the India-Pakistan partition was announced, my father, Lala Gopichand Sabhlok (Bauji), a head clerk at the Agriculture Department in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, was asked to decide whether he wanted to stay back in Pakistan or move to India. Bauji decided to move to India. He was granted a transfer to the Agriculture Department in Ferozpur, Punjab. Before we could move, the dreaded Hindu-Muslim riots broke out. There were mass killings and looting was rampant. We, i.e., Bauji, Beji, myself and my younger brother and sister managed to be on a train to Ferozpur on August 13, 1947. I was all of 14 years. Our train too was stopped and looted. Sikhs were the prime target and were removed from the train. No one knows what happened to them. We were spared as the rioters were unable to distinguish between Hindus and Muslims due to similar physical appearances. We finally reached Ferozpur on 14^th August. However our luggage coming on a goods train never reached us as it had been looted on the way. So I have no memories of 15^th August as our focus was on our immediate needs of shelter and food. For the first eight to ten days we slept on bare floors in the empty verandas of houses and police stations. Slowly and gradually life started again. However we were deprived of education for almost one and half years, as all schools were occupied by refugees. But that was a very small thing in the bigger scheme of things…

Adarsh Sabhlok, 77 years

We were in Multan, Pakistan, when the India-Pakistan partition happened. My father Bal Krishan Chawla, a head clerk with the Agriculture Department, managed to get a transfer to Hansi, India. Eight of us from our nine member family (my elder brother stayed back as he had to appear for his 10^th board exams) boarded the train to India on August 12 or 13, amidst fire and smoke all around us. We were forced to alight from the train halfway to India. Our family was stranded on the platform for the night. With the eldest girl of 12 years and Muslim rioters all around, Biji and Bauji were immensely worried, for understandable reasons. Bauji went up to the Hindu station master and requested him for help. The kind station master obliged and provided us refuge for the night in his house nearby. Bauji stayed back at the platform to take care of our belongings. Biji was thoroughly worried for the safety of both her husband and eldest son. We were lucky to get on a train the next day and reach Hansi. However the passengers on the train that arrived after ours weren’t that lucky. All of them had been massacred. While our luck continued to be favourable as we found a good house when we reached Hansi, it took a really long time for the situation to normalise and we kids being allowed to step out of the house. As for 15th August 1947, we did not register the day at all. We were caught up in partition.

Have an Independence day or partition related memory you’d like to share? It could be your own or a much heard tale from your grandparents. Send it to us at info@parentcareindia.com.