“There were no issues. We lived happily. We had friends who were Hindus, but then the circumstances changed.”
Born in Delhi, Jamsheed Jahan was six years old at the time of Partition. Though very young at the time, the trauma of Partition remains etched in her memory. Her family had close links with the Muslim leaders of India, often hosting them at their home in Delhi. She recalled an occasion when Quaid-e-Azam was invited to the house to deliver a speech. She sat with the other childrenat his feet as the locals gathered. Everyone listened attentively.*
Jamsheed Jahan remembered that Quaid-e-Azamand other leaders sat on sofas, conversing in English. Standing at the back of the crowd, sherecalled a conversation between their cook and a local sweeper.
The cook asked the sweeper, who was listening with eyes wide open, if he understood anything (since the speech was in English). The sweeper responded that though he remained unable to understand, he was deeply impressed by the man.
The cook then said, “Do you know he says that we will have Pakistan? There, you will have a Kothi (big house) and I will have a Kothi!”
The sweeper responded with wonder and amazement, “You will have a Kothi and I will have a Kothi! I support this man fully!”
The children were excited. Jamsheed Jahan and other young girls once welcomed Lady Mountbatten, waving green flags in hand and chanting,
“le ke rahen ge Pakistan ban ke rahe ga Pakistan”
Little did the children know what was to ensue when Pakistan would finally come into being. Jamsheed Jahan remembersthe distressing experience of leaving her home and staying at the Old Fort in Delhi. When it started raining, more than a foot of water gathered inside the courtyard where everyone was sitting. Little Jamsheed Jahan wanted to go home.
Her mother assured her that it was just a picnic and everyone was out enjoying the rain; however, she was not convinced. She thought that everyone had lost their minds. The family set up a tent using some materials left by the soldiers stationed at the fort during WWII.
Soon after, the family made their way to Pakistan. Jamsheed Jahan recalled how her father handed a pistol to her brother who was only a couple of years older than herself. The father explained to the young boy that in the event that he and the older brother were killed, his mother, sister and aunt faced the grave threat of kidnapping, or worse. The father instructed his son to shoot all three women in such an event. Upon hearing this, the six-year-old Jamsheed Jahan innocently asked her father why her brother should kill her: what was it that she had done? The father responded that death was better than what awaited if she was kidnapped. Fortunately, such an event never occurred.
Text and pic by CAP
