Did We Fulfill the Dream? An Assessment of the Creation of Pakistan

The study of the Pakistan Movement has always been a passion of mine. Reading about the invigorating events of this movement, along with the struggles, dedication, and sacrifices of its workers and leaders, fills me with a sense of pride and excitement. This year, as August approached, I once again delved into the topic of the Pakistan Movement to refresh my memories. While studying, I came across several new facts and insights, opening up new avenues of reflection.

However, as always, I also encountered numerous distressing stories of the helpless Muslim men, women, children, and the elderly who were subjected to brutal violence by Hindus and Sikhs. Some of these stories were so heart-wrenching that they stuck in my mind. Despite trying repeatedly to shake them off, I couldn’t, and I thought of sharing these events and the resulting questions with my fellow countrymen, hoping it might lighten the burden on my heart.

On June 3, 1947, the announcement of India’s independence and the creation of a separate Muslim state called Pakistan was made. The time set for this transition was midnight on August 14-15, 1947. This significant moment also coincided with the holy night of Laylat al-Qadr, and the next day was the 27th of Ramadan, followed by Eid al-Fitr three days later. For Muslims, this was a blessed moment in every sense – a blessed night, a blessed day, a blessed month, and a blessed year. Muslims all over India, whether they were to be part of the proposed Pakistan or not, were overjoyed. Celebrations were being planned, congratulations were exchanged, and chants of “Allahu Akbar” echoed everywhere. The slogans “Pakistan Zindabad” and “Quaid-e-Azam Zindabad” reverberated across streets, villages, and cities.

But on the other side, the Hindus were consumed by rage. They could not fathom how their vast majority, their powerful religion, their prominent leaders, their large number of Congress-affiliated Muslim scholars, and their overt and covert British support could be defeated by a single frail leader, Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Using his intelligence, honesty, strong character, legal expertise, unwavering stance, and relentless leadership abilities, Jinnah had successfully won Pakistan. For the Hindus, this was equivalent to splitting “Bharat Mata” (Mother India) into two. They mourned, and grief enveloped them. Out of rage and hatred, they unleashed a storm of violence against Muslims, and the atrocities that followed were so horrific that humanity will forever lament them.

As Muslims from areas near the proposed Pakistan, fearing the grave situation, left behind their homes and belongings to migrate to Pakistan, Hindus and Sikhs attacked them with swords, daggers, and spears. Entire cities, towns, villages, and neighborhoods were cleansed of Muslim presence. Men, women, the elderly, and children were slaughtered, while young girls and women were subjected to mass rape before being killed, burned, dismembered, or taken as slaves. More than a million Muslim men, women, children, and elders were killed, while millions were injured or left disabled for life. Nearly 150,000 young Muslim girls and women were kidnapped. Stripped of safety, millions of Muslims from different regions of India, suffering losses, violence, and despair, migrated to Pakistan with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

Now, let’s reflect on a few of the countless tragic incidents that occurred during this period.

One such story is narrated by a victimized Muslim woman herself:

“Following the announcement of Pakistan’s creation, communal riots erupted across northern India. Basic human decency vanished, and neighbors who had lived together for years turned into each other’s enemies. In this situation, my father, after consulting other villagers, decided to migrate to Pakistan. However, even this decision was intolerable to the Hindus and Sikhs. Just as we were about to leave, armed groups from neighboring villages arrived and, within moments, slaughtered all the men. The young girls were raped in front of their mothers. Even today, when I recall those horrific scenes, I cannot believe that human beings could sink to such levels of depravity.

My innocent younger brother stood frozen in fear like the other children. When he saw several of these beasts advancing towards me, ignoring my pleas, he ran in front of me to shield me. That’s when a frail Hindu struck a powerful blow with his axe on my brother’s neck, severing his head, which rolled away. Laughing demonically, the murderer said, ‘If I had known your neck was so weak, I wouldn’t have tainted my axe with your filthy blood. Now I’ll have to cleanse it with Ganges water.’ He then rejoined the group, continuing his savage acts. Despite all this, the earth did not split, and the heavens did not fall.

After killing all the elderly women, the girls were taken to a mansion where they stood in line. One by one, the men took turns showing what it meant to be ‘the best of creation.’ Newcomers stood at the back, waiting for their turn. By some fortune or misfortune, I was among the few who survived. After that, I was passed from one man to another. Finally, a man named Sohan Singh took me into his home and married me. Seven years later, when Sohan Singh passed away, his younger brother Mahinder married me.”

This was just one of the many stories of unimaginable horror faced by Muslims during the partition of India and the creation of Pakistan. The price of Pakistan was paid in blood, suffering, and unspeakable loss.

A Painful Incident from Hoshiarpur:

The night in Hoshiarpur was incredibly long—the second night after the attack on Chowk Sirajan. The number of attackers was increasing. On the first day, fifty young men were martyred: on the second day, sixty. Before evening, a few heart-wrenching incidents occurred that greatly boosted the resolve and spirit of the Muslims. Even the elderly and the youth began joining the battlefield. From the afternoon, hand-to-hand combat was ongoing. A young Muslim fell, with blood spurting out. His house was directly in front of the battlefield, and a small child from the house witnessed the scene. The women were in shock, and the child, crying “Father, Father!” ran out towards the Hindus and Sikhs. The Sikhs caught the child and shouted, “Look at what we will do to this Muslim’s child today.” The Muslims were dumbfounded, unable to comprehend how the child had reached there. The Sikhs tossed the child into the air and impaled him on a spear as he came down. The child’s scream was so piercing that even the heavens seemed to tremble, and the child died there, writhing in agony. (Source: Urdu Digest, 2016)

A young man, who migrated to Pakistan with a convoy, described what he witnessed on the journey in these words:

“Along the way, we encountered a few scattered Muslim women, whom we brought along with us. The Sikhs and Hindus had fully unleashed their cruelty. As we left Hoshiarpur, we found a woman lying wounded. My father lifted her, only to discover that her legs and chest had been mutilated. She was from a well-known family. When my father realised this, he couldn’t hold back his tears. The woman only said, ‘Go on, Uncle, don’t be sad. Despite everything, Pakistan has been made. I’m glad that I could be of some use to the Ummah.”

“As we crossed the canal, we were shaking with emotion. From one side, we heard someone groaning. An elderly doctor, Nasiruddin, approached. He asked, ‘Who is it?’ A woman’s voice replied. He rushed over and found a woman drenched in blood. He gave her water and tried to dress her wounds, but it was of no use. Before dying, the woman said, ‘In the battle of Sham Chaurasi, my father and seven brothers, my uncle and his four sons were all martyred. My three sisters drowned in the canal, fighting to protect their honour. My mother was killed. I hid, but they found me. When they got close, I injured two of them with a knife and sickle. In a fit of rage, they did this to me.’ Before taking her last breath, the woman said, ‘Send my salaam to Pakistan.’”

“The Muslims of Jalandhar made tremendous sacrifices and worked with an unparalleled sense of duty and pain for the cause of Pakistan. Their efforts are a shining chapter in Pakistan’s history. In the Jalandhar camps, there were many heart-wrenching incidents. I remember a woman who was on the verge of death. When she found out that we were heading to Pakistan with a convoy, she called an elder over and said, ‘These are my jewels. All the men in my family have been martyred. Please deliver these jewels to Quaid-e-Azam. Perhaps they can be of use to Pakistan.’” (Source: Urdu Digest, August 2016)

The flood of blood that swept through East Punjab can be somewhat understood from three reports based on the personal observations of Ian Morrison, a correspondent for the London Times, which he sent from Jalandhar and Amritsar to his newspaper in August and September 1947. In his first report, he writes: “The Sikhs are actively engaged in clearing East Punjab of Muslims. Every day, they mercilessly massacre hundreds of people and drive thousands westward at swordpoint. They are setting fire to Muslim villages and homes. This violence and oppression have been organised by the Sikhs’ higher leadership, and this horrific work is being carried out systematically, region by region.”

In his second report, Morrison writes: “After 8 August, Muslim neighbourhoods in Amritsar started burning rapidly, and people began fleeing for safety. By 13 and 14 August, all of Amritsar was engulfed in flames. On 15 August, India’s ‘Independence Day’ was celebrated in a bizarre way in Amritsar. In the afternoon, a mob of Sikhs paraded naked Muslim women through the streets of Amritsar. They were raped, and some were hacked to pieces with kirpans, while others were burnt alive.”

In his third report, he sends a story about a twenty-mile-long convoy of Muslims with these words: “This convoy had more than 20,000 people, most of whom were walking on foot towards Pakistan. Similar convoys were moving westward from the east. Footsore, exhausted, starving, and weary from the journey.” Two months later, he writes, “More than seven million refugees have staggered into Pakistan. They were utterly destitute, with nothing but the clothes on their backs, and even those were often in tatters. These were the victims of misfortune, who had witnessed the slaughter of innocent children, the mutilation of bodies, and the dishonouring of women with their own eyes. At every step along the way, death lay in wait for them. Thousands perished along the way due to hunger and disease or were cut down by bloodthirsty Sikh mobs. Many breathed their last upon reaching the border of Pakistan.”(Source: Khoon-e-Muslim Arzan Hai, by Dr. Saeed Ahmed Malik)

The refugee trains heading towards Pakistan were also repeatedly attacked. Many trains had all their passengers killed, young girls abducted, and their lives reduced to something worse than death. Out of the countless incidents, two are mentioned here. The first is recounted by the assistant railway master at Ganda Singh Wala railway station himself. He says:

“A refugee train was coming from Ferozepur towards Kasur. It stopped at Ganda Singh Wala station. Mr. Majeed Yazdani was on the platform to greet it. When the train halted, he saw that all the carriages were soaked in blood and filled with piles of bodies. This was a common sight at that time. A different scene was unfolding up ahead. As he peered into each carriage, when he reached the last one, the sound of crying and moaning children caught his attention. When he looked inside, he was met with a horrific sight. The carriage was filled with countless children, aged between one and five, writhing in their blood-stained bodies like living corpses. These children had not been slaughtered but had their limbs cut off and were sent towards Pakistan as living corpses. Could there be a greater example of cruelty and barbarity in history?”(Source: Jidojehad-e-Azadi Mein Punjab Ka Kirdar, by Dr. Ghulam Hussain Zulfiqar)

The Second Incident

Another tragic event occurred in November 1947. One evening, a large crowd gathered at Wahga Railway Station in Lahore, eagerly awaiting the arrival of a train carrying refugees from Kalka, traveling via Amritsar to Pakistan. After a long wait, a black spot appeared on the horizon, gradually approaching the waiting crowd. It was the train’s engine. A wave of joy spread through the crowd. They began to inspect the water jars and food trays they had prepared to welcome their migrant brothers and sisters arriving in the homeland.

As the train drew closer, the crowd’s enthusiasm increased. They raised slogans of “Allahu Akbar,” “Nara-e-Risalat,” and “Long Live Pakistan,” but there was no response from the train. The train slowly entered the station and halted at the platform, but no doors opened, nor did any passengers emerge. A sense of dread crept over the people. When they peered through the windows, what they saw made their hair stand on end. Severed necks by kirpans, bullet-ridden chests, dismembered arms, and ripped-open stomachs narrated a grim tale of brutal violence.

The young men divided the train compartments among themselves, and with tear-filled eyes, they respectfully began to unload the bloodied, mutilated bodies, offering their tributes to the martyrs.(Reference: 1947 Ke Mazalim Ki Kahani Khud Mazlomon Ki Zubani by Hakeem Muhammad Tariq Mahmood Chughtai)

 Witness Reports from London’s Daily Mail

In those same days, Mr. Ralph, a special correspondent for London’s Daily Mail, traveled from Karachi to Delhi. In the August 27, 1947, issue of Daily Mail, he wrote:

“My story can only be heard by those with a strong heart. When I traveled from Karachi to Lahore en route to Delhi, I saw no scenes of brutality nor any dead bodies on the way from Karachi to Lahore. However, upon reaching Lahore, the signs of terror and cruelty in East Punjab became evident, as a blood-soaked train had arrived that day. The train consisted of nine carriages, capable of holding about 1,000 passengers. The passengers of this train were mercilessly massacred at Bathinda Junction. Our train departed for Delhi on Sunday morning. After crossing Pakistan’s border, I witnessed scenes even more horrific than those from Lahore’s looted train. Vultures gathered along the railway tracks near every village, dogs were gnawing at human corpses, and flames were still rising from the houses in Ferozepur.

When our train reached Bathinda, I saw a pile of human bodies a little distance from the train. As I watched, two policemen arrived with another cartload of corpses and added them to the pile. Among the pile, a man was still alive, groaning in pain. The policemen saw him, but after unloading their cart, they left the groaning man there.” He continues:

“A fleeing caravan from Ferozepur, while resting at a stop, was suddenly attacked by Sikhs. A

woman was holding a five- or six-month-old baby in her lap. A savage snatched the baby from her arms, tossed it into the air, and then struck it down with his kirpan. The innocent child’s pure blood dripped onto the face of the savage attacker. Waving the baby’s writhing body before the mother, the attacker said, ‘Here is your Pakistan.’ When the mother saw her beloved child impaled on a blade, her heart stopped beating.”

The special correspondent from Daily Mail further recounts:

“The final sight we witnessed at Bathinda Station was the most ghastly and inhuman. As our train departed, we saw four Sikhs brutally assaulting and raping six Muslim girls. Before our eyes, they slaughtered two of the girls.” (Reference: Khoon-e-Muslim Arzan Hai by Dr. Saeed Ahmed Malik)

The Situation in Amritsar

The situation in Amritsar was no different from other places. Everywhere there was chaos, with widespread murder, looting, and arson. On the morning of August 15, at around nine o’clock, about 500 rioters, supported by Hindu and Sikh police and military personnel, attacked Kocha Rangrezan, slaughtering all its Muslim residents. The next day, when the area was inspected with a magistrate, the streets and alleys were littered with bodies. Inside the houses, too, only corpses were found. In a mosque, they discovered numerous bodies—these were the naked bodies of 46 young Muslim girls. Their throats had been slit. Their condition indicated that they had been raped before being slaughtered.

People coming from the villages reported that troops from the princely states of Kapurthala and Patiala would arrive in motor vehicles and forcibly abduct our young women. Some women, trying to save their lives, were heading from Darwaza Mahan Singh to Sharifpura but were abducted by the rioters and soldiers in broad daylight. No one knows what became of those daughters of the Muslim nation.

Massacre in Delhi

By September 3, 1947, riots had also spread to the outskirts of Delhi, and soon Delhi itself was engulfed. The massacre of Muslims had begun in Delhi as well. Streets and neighborhoods were strewn with the bodies of Muslims. On September 5, Muslim children who had gone to appear for their matriculation exams outside the Karol Bagh examination hall were murdered. Everywhere, Muslims were being killed, their belongings looted, and their homes set ablaze. In the Sabzi Mandi area, under the orders of Vallabhbhai Patel, Gurkha soldiers massacred 3,000 Muslims.

An eyewitness reported that by September 9, a pile of at least 10,000 corpses had accumulated between Delhi’s Water Works and Feroz Shah Kotla. These bodies had been brought in trucks. At 7 p.m., petrol was poured on all the bodies, and they were set ablaze. The light from the burning human bodies could be seen from far away.

Between September 4 and 14, between 20,000 to 25,000 Muslims were killed. A Muslim who managed to escape and reach Pakistan shared his experience, saying that at one place, he saw Hindu rioters dancing around a pile. Can we imagine what that pile was? It was a heap of severed breasts of Muslim women. (Reference: Khoon-e-Muslim Arzan Hai by Dr. Saeed Ahmed Malik)

The story of the massacres of 1947 is long and deeply tragic. It is estimated that at least one million Muslims were wiped off the face of the earth. According to the 1941 census, there were 833,000 Muslims living in the princely states of Patiala, Kapurthala, Faridkot, Jind, and Nabha. Most of them were exterminated during August and September 1947. From Patiala alone, 250,000 Muslims disappeared without a trace. In Kapurthala, hardly any Muslims survived, despite them being the majority there. The 1941 census records their population at 213,754.

On 15 September 1947, a caravan of 100,000 Muslim refugees set out from Ardeseh. Such a large number was not easy to eliminate, so attempts were made to kill them with spears, swords, and rifles. Thousands were slaughtered, but still, many survived. Hindu and Sikh soldiers were then sent in trucks to systematically carry out a massacre for an hour and a half. Out of the caravan of 100,000, only a few thousand made it to Pakistan. 96,000 Muslims were killed. Reference: Khoon-e-Muslim Arzaan Hai by Dr. Saeed Ahmed Malik)

Friends, the Pakistan Movement is not just about a few incidents like these. These are just a handful of thousands that are recorded in books. There are countless others that have been told and retold but never made it to the pages of a book or a journal. And then there are thousands more that were taken to the graves by those who were never given the chance to tell their stories.

Reading or hearing these accounts, the first question that comes to mind is: for what purpose did our forefathers make such immense sacrifices of their lives, honour, and possessions? Was it all for the establishment of a secular society? Was it for economic security or development? And if that was the case, was the proposed Pakistan flowing with more rivers of milk and honey compared to India? Were there more economic institutions, lands, factories, and job opportunities here, eagerly waiting for people? Could any slogan other than “Pakistan ka Matlab Kya? La Ilaha Illallah” (What is the meaning of Pakistan? There is no god but Allah) have inspired Indian Muslims to unite so passionately in such numbers?

Could any group of people—especially those living in extreme poverty—give such sacrifices with such fervour for wealth, economy, secularism, or nationalism? No, absolutely not! Such great sacrifices can only be made for the protection and sanctity of one’s homeland and faith. It was surely the high and noble goal of acquiring a separate homeland where they would be in the majority and free from subjugation, where there would be peace and security, and where honour, dignity, and justice would be preserved. A land where they could live their lives and govern their political, social, economic, and administrative affairs in accordance with the principles and guidance of their religion. It was for this elevated purpose that the Muslims of India gave up their lives, their honour, and their wealth in such large numbers, and they did so willingly, without complaint or regret, but with pride.

Now, the question arises: today, when the third generation born after the creation of Pakistan has reached adulthood, have we achieved that purpose? Is this the Pakistan that our forefathers envisioned? Have we created the Pakistan of their dreams, thereby repaying the debt of their sacrifices of life, honour, and wealth that they left upon us? If not, then isn’t this a betrayal of the martyrs’ blood? And will the severed heads, dismembered bodies, the fathers, brothers, and sons, the mothers, sisters, and daughters whose honour was violated, and the innocent children impaled on spears and swords, forgive us for this betrayal?