77-Year-Old Director Narrates Untold And Unheard Stories Of Partition, Evoking Emotions Of Love And Loss

77-year-old photographer, cinematographer and director, Ashok Talwar’s life houses tons of incredible memories of the partition and Independence Years. 

A youth witnessing his father getting slaughtered in front of his own eyes while crossing the border during the Partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. A mother whose love for her two children, one brought up in India and the other in Pakistan, could not be divided. An Indian septuagenarian’s thrill of unknowingly visiting his grandfather’s home in Lahore, Pakistan after more than six decades and realising that was home. Talwar is known for his works on Doordarshan like Maila Anchal, Police File Se, Space City Sigma and more. He looked into his storehouse of memories for us.

Talwar, 77, whose life has been deeply influenced by the memories of India-Pakistan Partition

Father stabbed to death in front of his son during the Partition riots

At the time of India’s Independence, Talwar was 4-year-old and was settled in Delhi with his parents. However, several relations from both his father’s and mother’s ends were on the other side of the border. Talwar believes his perception as a film director has been heavily influenced by the Partition and recalls the experience his paternal aunt, Bua’s family had to go through while crossing the border in 1947.

“My Bua had come earlier to Delhi from Lahore, now in Pakistan, to stay with us during the times of Independence and Partition. My cousin brothers along with my Fufaji were supposed to come a little later. When they were crossing the border to come to India from Pakistan, they were provided shelter during the night by someone whose house was nearby the India-Pakistan border. Those were unimaginable days of riots and horror. The house where my cousins and Fufaji took refuge for the night was surrounded by high compound walls. In the middle of the night, the house owner secretly informed his neighbours that they were staying at his place. A group of people broke in to slaughter my brothers and uncle. While my brothers were young enough to jump over the compound wall, Fufaji was old and he could not manage to escape the wall. He was stabbed to death right in front of his two sons who were in the early twenties then,” says Talwar.

His cousins managed to reach Talwar in Delhi and stayed there with him and his parents. “There were many relatives who crossed the border and came and lived with us in my father’s bungalow in Delhi. That’s why I have always grown up in a big joint family with lots of people around and even today I do not like living alone,” he adds.

Dividing the nation could not kill a mother’s love

Talwar feels lucky to have experienced some magic stories of India’s Independence that have etched a mark on him forever but have remained unknown. During the 1970s, he was farming for a short while in Khasa border, a few kilometers away from the Attari border in Amritsar. There, he befriended a Singh, a Sikh farmer who worked on his farm and lived with his only son. When Talwar enquired about his wife, the farmer revealed that his wife had gone to Pakistan as she is a Pakistani. Talwar was surprised and out of curiosity wanted to know more.

“The story that I heard was something that I have never heard before. While we have made several movies on Partition of India, this story that speaks of the love and commitment of a mother is a truly deserving movie plot. During the partition, several Indian Muslims were crossing the border on foot to go to Pakistan and a lot of bloodsheds took place. Singh’s wife was a young girl then and was crossing the border with her father and brothers when Singh and some others caught and killed them. Singh decided to marry the girl, had a son with her and after a few years, she went to Pakistan,” recaps Talwar.

It was during Talwar’s stay in Khasa that the wife returned all of a sudden after almost 15 years. He adds: “I was overwhelmed to see the woman back to her husband and son after such a long time. She walked across the border just as she had gone earlier. I went for a chai party to her place and wanted to know where she was and why she went off to Pakistan. She told me that she was already married and had a son when she was crossing the border in 1947 and Singh captured and married her. Her first-born is now a citizen of Pakistan and she has never denied being a mother to both his sons. She keeps on crossing borders for the sake of motherhood and tends to both her sons, one in Pakistan and the other in India.”

Talwar took part in a delegation and visited Pakistan a few years back

Partition could not cut off ties of blood and friendship

Talwar, who is a photographer, took part in a delegation called by the photographers of Pakistan and visited Lahore 2006. His grandfather who was a well-known barrister in Lahore had died a few months earlier and the rest of the family had migrated to India during the partition.

Talwar says: “I expressed my desire of visiting my grandfather’s house to one of our hosts, who was a member of the Pakistan Planning Commission. I gave him the address and he wanted to take me there himself as he said he was living on the same road and his house was right next to my grandfather’s. However, he informed me that my grandfather’s house is not there anymore and some government buildings have been raised in the same plot. After our visit, he took me to his place and offered me tea. There, he showed me around the house and also took me to the library of his father who also happened to be an eminent lawyer in Lahore and had recently passed away. It was an old library and something strange happened to me when I stepped in. Difficult to put in words but even at the risk of being overdramatic, it was almost like I was being pulled back in time.”

Talwar’s cherished moments in Lahore, Pakistan during his visit

On returning to India he spoke about it with his elder sister. He was awestruck to find from her that he had carried the wrong address of his grandfather’s house in Lahore and the house and library that he visited was his grandfathers.

“I immediately called back my host who had taken me to his house and then he disclosed that his father was a practicing lawyer in Amritsar. When he and his family crossed over to Pakistan during the partition, they were allotted this bungalow. He said that his father had heard of my grandfather and admired him and it is because of this respect and admiration that his father never changed or renovated the library. The library that I visited was actually my grandfather’s and nearly the same as he had left nearly 60 yrs ago.”

Talwar believes India’s Independence was not just freeing our country from years of Imperialism, but also a collage of untold feelings and emotions.