Stories Behind the Stories
23rd March is round the corner. There will be a thrilling display by the Armed
Forces, wreaths will be placed on the Quaid’s tomb, Civil wards will be
announced. It commemorates a turning point in the quest for Pakistan. The
national narrative then skips forward seven years to 1947 and the raising of
the Pakistan flag on 14th August.
But 23rd March was so much more than a
proclamation for a separate homeland. Its
enormity can only be understood in the context of that time and the weaving
together of many stories. The events
before and after that date establish its true significance.
Although the
colonization of India began earnestly in the 18th century, it took
another 100 years before it officially became part of the British Empire in
1857. It took another 60 years for the Indians to transform from a subjugated
people to rebels, determined to overthrow the British yoke. It was not a single
rebellion as in 1857, but a series of negotiations, interspersed with actions
of non-cooperation, resignations, protests, public meetings, outspoken
journalism, imprisonments, and back to negotiations. It may sound like the
present political climate, but when one considers the full force of British power, with its
psychological manipulations, its carefully implemented authoritarian grandeur,
its endless laws enacted to create what
was called a steel frame, its divide and rule policy, the courage of a people
to stand up for freedom becomes quite remarkable.
A side story of
23rd March was the gathering on the next day, of 3000 women of the
Women’s Wing of the Muslim league from across India, at the Habibia Hall of
Islamia College Lahore . The president was Begum Muhammad Ali Jauhar, the only
woman in the working committee that finalized the Lahore Resolution, and the
first person to use the term Pakistan Resolution. Women played an important role in the Freedom
movement.
Jinnah had
appealed to the women to spread the message of the League in every home. A
young student, Zari Sarfaraz, helped set up the Frontier Women’s Muslim League in
Mardan and organized the Women’s Muslim League National Guards. Many others
such as Salma Tassaduq Hussain, Jahan Ara Shahnawaz, Lady Abdullah Haroon Shaista
Ikramullah, Fatima Begum and many more, worked tirelessly for freedom. Women burnt imported cloth and chose to wear
Khadi. In 1946, a 14 year old Fatima Sughra, climbed up the Civil Secretariat
in Lahore to pull down the Union Jack and replace it with the green flag of the
Muslim League.
Another important
context for 23rd March 1940, was Britain’s declaration of war with
Germany just six months earlier. Children in Britain were being sent to safer
locations, 400,000 pets were euthanized, and food rationing had begun.
In another six months London would be intensely bombed in what came to be known
as the Blitz. A difficult time at home and dismay at losing India, the source
of much needed finances and Indian troops. Congress would only consider fighting
alongside British forces if freedom was guaranteed after the war.
Within the British administration there was
considerable conflict. The diaries of Major-General Shahid Hamid, personal
secretary to the Commander in Chief of India Sir Claude Auchinleck, from
1946-47, is a fascinating behind the scenes insight. A letter written in 1925 by a British Civil
servant in India to his counterpart in Britain, found its way to the Comrade
offices. It is full of scathing disdain for the viceroys and politicians. Of Morley he
writes “Little did he dream that it was not his vision but ours, and that he
was seeing only that which we wanted him to see”. Civil servants are “a
continuous government, soulless as a machine that has discovered the secret of
perpetual motion.” It did not matter who is King. Civil servants are the “Men on the Spot”. “Segregation
of the communities was our policy”. He boasts of neutralizing Gandhi and Tilak,
but the government was flummoxed by the Ali Brothers and their Khilafat
movement “These ruffians, turned the law-court into a playhouse where a farce
is staged, and yet drew tears as easily as they raised a laugh”. Despite
imprisonment, “these jack in the boxe s are up again the moment the lid is
lifted”. They are“ like their own Hussain
at Kerbala who died with his seventy odd followers pitted against thousands,
but sword in hand”.
The visual story
of the partition itself has become a single story imprinted on our minds
through the photographs of Margaret Bourke White for Life Magazine. They
were taken in Punjab, where 80% of migrations took place. Photographer, Faustin Elmer Chaudhry, documented events from
the Lahore Resolution onwards to the Zia ul Haq Era, giving a much more
coherent story of the making of Pakistan, but remains to be properly acknowledged.
As the film
producer Robert Evans says “There are three sides to every story: Your side, my
side, and the truth. And no one is lying.”
Durriya Kazi
March 14, 2022
Karachi
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