Dr. Anandi Mehmood from the University of Central Lancashire, in the presentation Memories of Partition in Potohar presented her on-going research on the impact of mass migration and the dramatic events of 1947 on the lives of refugees as well as non-refugees in the Potohar region. She argues that the conflicts between different religious and ethnic communities were never theological but political. She further discussed the stories of harmony and memories of co-existence in pre-partition era and shared the narratives of people who had experienced sense of loss at the departure of their family members at the time of partition.
She also shared the people's narratives of communal violence that had roots in economic conflicts and class relationships. The stories of violence were not only limited to killing and looting but also referred to forced conversions and forced migration. She mentioned feeling of fear as one memory, which dominates people's narratives. She also gave an insight into the vision of what people believed Pakistan would be and their disillusionment with it today. She concluded by saying that oral histories can help us to understand the impact of global and national events, particularly the crisis among the ruling elites on the lives of people.
Peter Jacob presented Lawrence Saldana's paper on Christian Social Service at Time of Independence , which focused on valuable contributions made by Christians at the time of partition. Saldana stated in his paper that despite being small, the Christian community was well educated and disciplined and held key posts in many government departments as well as in the armed forces. Many Christian political and religious leaders played a significant role in relief activities and attempted to restore peace. The author further explained how Christian nurses provided medical aid to the wounded refugees and imparted training to Muslim girls. There were no Muslim nurses at that time because they were mostly uneducated or were not permitted by their families to practice nursing.
He also narrated some personal accounts whereby Christians secretly took people of other faiths into their homes and protected them, even at grave risk to themselves. The author highlighted the need to carry out a detailed study to document all the valuable contributions made by the Christians at the time of partition and called upon the Government of Pakistan to give due recognition to the loyal services rendered by the Christian community and to include this commendation in the history books for future generations.
Syed Jaffar Ahmed from the Karachi University in Pakistan chaired the session. While discussing Anandi Mehmood's paper, the discussant Peter Jacob felt that the inclusion of the responses of government and political parties in the paper would have helped to understand the situation in a better way. Commenting on Lawrence Saldana's paper, he stated that the author has responded to non-recognition of services rendered by Christian community in our society. He said that such initiatives are required to change the type of history that we are forced to read and believe.
The participants felt that our history not only neglects the contributions made by Christians at the time of partition but also that of Hindus, which has resulted in reinforcement of negative images. One of the participants commented that the majority of the stories being narrated in Anandi Mehmood's paper belong to North, however, equal attention should be given to the voices of South for a comparative analysis. One of the participants commented that partition is generally studied within a political set up, with the Indians referring to it with a sense of loss while it is totally opposite in the context of Pakistan. Anandi Mehmood was of the view that partition is reflected upon with a sense of achievement only in official discourse whereas people still miss the communal harmony.
Reported by Aisha Mukhtar
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