The issue of identity
was reviewed in the backdrop of the 1947 partition, especially of Punjab,
and how the displaced people settled into new environments and adopted new
identities.
In his presentation, The 1947 violence and the migration and resettlement
of Muslims from Amritsar, Ian Talbot, from Conventry University, UK, examined
the Muslim community's contribution to pre-partition Amritsar's demography
and economy and its settlement in Lahore.
Though the violence started in March 1947, Talbot said it was not inevitable
in the case of Amritsar as there were few communal riots in the city. Muslims,
who were half of the Amritsar population in 1947, were not a community in
conflict with other communities. They did not expect to be uprooted. According
to Talbot, many migrants in Lahore told him they expected to go back after
the violence had ended.
He said the uncertainty about boundaries added to violence as people fought
for territory even before the official Radcliff award was announced. Talbot
said the inner cities in Amritsar and Lahore suffered immense destruction.
At least 10,000 houses were destroyed in the walled areas of Amritsar.
Talbot said Muslims who left Amritsar settled in Lahore, unlike the Hindus
and Sikhs who left Lahore and did not settle in Amritsar. Muslims had business
links in Lahore, they had relations, and above all a big evacuee property
of Sikhs and Hindus was available for them in Gawalmandi and Nesbit Road.
Unlike Amritsar, which remained backward because of proximity to border,
Talbot said Lahore became a dynamic center of business activity.
Talbot said the comparative study of impact of partition on the people opens
new vistas, taking us beyond the stereotypical portrayals. He said the partition
brings in continuities and discontinuities, adding that when he talked to
migrants on both sides of the border he felt that cultural continuity has
not been destroyed.
Talbot said class and gender played a vital role in experiences of violence
and efforts for settlement, adding that women were the chief sufferers.
He said all communities acted brutally to other communities and at the same
time they had stories of heroic sacrifices to save others at the time of
partition.
Ishtiaq Ahmed, from Stockholm University, Sweden, hoped that the recent
peace moves between India and Pakistan may again bring Punjabis of both
sides to probe chances of greater cultural amity and lessen the hold of
religious identity.
In his presentation, Punjabi identities before and after the 1947 partition
of Punjab, he said when communities are mobilized to political projects,
which are nationalistic, lead to violent conflicts. He said every identity
has political implications, but when it is given religious color, the minorities
become second-class citizens and feel threatened.
He said political entrepreneurs could maneuver identity but only within
the limits of the overall situation and context. In some situations the
religious identity can be overriding and in others the linguistic-cultural.
Ahmed said in Punjab the religious identity dominated politics from 1940
onwards, leading to partitioning of the province through bloody and traumatizing
displacement.
For him, the fallout on the religious basis was that Pakistani Punjab became
the bulwark of conservative Islamic forces and on the Indian side communal
politics polarized during the Punjabi Suba Movement of the 1950s and early
60s and later escalated into the Khalistan insurgency.
Pippa Virdee, from Conventry University, UK, said very little work has been
done on comparing the experiences of refugee labor because of the 1947 partition
of Punjab. Her work, Migration and post-partition resettlement in Lyallpur:
the impact of refugee labor, is a case study, which is part of a wider comparative
work on Ludhiana and Lyallpur. It focuses on the extent to which the migration
of Muslim labor to Lyallpur (Faisalabad) in 1947 played a role in the city's
economic importance as a center of textile manufacture.
Virdee said she used official documentation, supplemented by personal narratives
of migrants from Ludhiana to Lyallpur, to highlight the relationship between
the two cities before and after the partition.
The economy in Lyallpur changed dramatically in the post-1947 period, as
the experience gained previously in Ludhiana by Muslims played a vital role
in the settlement and prosperity of the migrants. The textile workers of
Ludhiana found new opportunities in Lyallpur, as the needs of a new state
saw rapid industrial and construction development in the city. Virdee shared
personal narratives of the people who started from a scratch in Lyallpur,
worked hard, and achieved prosperity.
She said the previous connections helped the refugees in making decisions
about permanent settlement on both sides after the partition. However, she
said the process of resettlement took years. She said the two cities –
Lyallpur and Ludhiana – were sorts of winners out of the partition
because they were able to prosper.
The discussant, Yasmin Saikia, assistant professor at the UNC-Chapel Hill,
USA, said identity constantly changes and there is no stable Punjabiness,
adding it is a construct, mainly that of the religion.
She said communities were destroyed and developed in the aftermath of the
partition. “We are part of the engineering process of making who we
are, and if we make ourselves elevated human beings…we will be one
day a happy community without labels.”
During discussion, the participants questioned why the identity and partition
of Punjab was being discussed today, besides asking about the sources of
the research, especially personal interviews. They also wondered if the
two Punjabs have any chance of becoming one, citing the example of West
and East Germany.
Talbot said it is the last opportunity to recover memories of the people,
now very aged, who lived through the partition. Admitting that one has to
be careful about the methodology, he said some of the old people have vivid
memories about their homes, as they were able to recall minute details correctly.
As identity changes constantly, he said it is vital to adopt historical
approach to it.
Ishtiaq Ahmed said the traumatic events that have uprooted people would
be questioned throughout history. Giving the example of Europe, he said
the two Punjabs could come close, adding that nothing is final in history.
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