Punjab Partition

The Partition of the Punjab was a territorial issue in every sense of the word. This was played out at all levels - both nationally and at the city level.

The principle on which India and the Punjab were divided was that Muslim-majority areas were separated from the rest of India and given to Pakistan. The demand to partition India was made by the main communal party of the Muslims, the All-India Muslim League. It insisted that Indian Muslims were not a minority (one-fourth of the total population of India) but a separate nation by virtue of their Islamic faith and culture. When the Muslim League demanded the partition of India, the Sikhs of Punjab demanded the same principle to be applied to the Punjab. The Indian National Congress wanted to keep India united but realizing that the Muslim League was insistent on the partition of India, on 8 March 1947 it threw its weight behind the Sikh demand for the partition of the Punjab. Viceroy Mountbatten came to the conclusion that the partition of India had become inevitable. On 3rd June, 1947, the Partition Plan was announced which required the Punjab and Bengal assemblies to vote on whether they wanted to keep their provinces united or partitioned. Both assemblies voted in favour of partitioning their provinces.

From August of 1947 right up to the late 1950s, Amritsar witnessed a massive influx of Hindu and Sikh migrants making their way from the newly formed state of Pakistan.

The city of Amritsar tried desperately to cope with the arriving numbers. In addition to being at the receiving end of Hindus and Sikhs displaced from West Punjab, it had to contend with a number of Muslim refugees from the interior of Indian Punjab looking for safe passage to Pakistan.

The period from March to August of 1947 saw a period of intense unrest and conflict in Amritsar between the Hindu and Sikh communities versus the Muslims. It was during this period that the entire Muslim population of the city was forced to evacuate and leave behind their properties in a city they had once called their own.

A classic case where this was played out was in Chowk Paragdas - barely three hundred meters from the Golden Temple in the heart of the walled city of Amritsar. The incoming Hindu and Sikh refugees from the Rawalpindi massacres had settled down in the areas surrounding Paragdas Chowk after the resident Muslims had evacuated the area following disturbances in the city on the 7th of March. The Paragdas Mosque located at the Chowk had been burnt by the Hindu- Sikh mob during that riot and was situated in the midst of the newly occupied Hindu- Sikh localities, though on its right it still had a vast Muslim dominated stretch ending at the Gilwali Gate. On Friday, April 11th, a congregation of four to five thousand Muslims authorized by the Deputy Commissioner of Police approached the burnt-down mosque under police protection to offer prayers. After offering prayers, riots broke out between the Muslims and the Sikhs in which nineteen persons were killed and more than sixty injured. The riots also saw the burning of Hindu and Sikh houses in several areas including Qila Bhangian, Chowk Lachhmansar, Chowk Chira and Hall Bazaar. The event came to represent the fracture of a heterogeneous community across an entire city- scape.

Paragdas Chowk, a locality which had, prior to the communal tensions of the era, been one with an intermixed religious community saw itself transformed from that to one which was primarily Hindu and Sikh. The basic aim of the riots was to make it impossible for a rival community to continue living in a territory claimed for the majority.

Up until this time, the Hindu and Muslim communities had resided side by side. They found themselves sharing the same katras (roadside inn) in the walled city.

Some katras ended up being dominated by one community over the other in terms of numbers; however this domination seems to be more a by-product of occupation rather than conflicting religious beliefs themselves. Relationships between the Muslim community and non-Muslims were cordial; social interaction was commonplace. They even attended each other’s marriage ceremonies.