Dissonance Between Officialese And Ground Realities

Tanwar is concerned throughout not so much with the two geographical Punjabs of East and West, but the two worlds of Punjab made up of different social classes who were to experience partition in vastly different ways. ‘While one was able’, he declares, ‘to foresee the clouds of doom and act swiftly, grabbing prime opportunities on both sides, the other ignorant, superstition-ridden and fatalistic did little more than allow themselves to be pushed around, pawns, by all accounts’ (p. 96). While the author allows that exposure to violence had some levelling characteristics, (p. 473) he is clear that the privileged classes were best able to recoup their material losses and even profit from the social dislocation of Partition. Chapter Seven, ‘Peace Returns to Punjab’ is tellingly subtitled, ‘A Study of Corruption and Greed.’ It skilfully utilizes, newspaper editorials, reports and letters of complaint to lay bare the web of graft and corruption that ran from village patwaris to cabinet ministers concerning the allotment of evacuee property. This sorry state of affairs existed both sides of the Wagah border. ‘Attractive statements supported by huge statistics indicating the dimensions of the resettlement effort were routinely issued, sadly these statements concealed a whole body of corrupt decisions of injustice and unfairness’ (p. 473). The unsparing textual narrative is accompanied by carefully selected contemporary cartoons drawn primarily from Shankar’s Weekly. They reinforce the refugees’ sense of injustice and disillusionment with the administrative and political classes.

The gulf between official pronouncements and ground realities is another feature of the chapter. This theme is linked back to the earlier part of the book. Here the author juxtaposes calls from politicians for minorities to stay in their ancestral homes with the deteriorating local law and order situation. Those who heeded such advice often paid with their lives. At the same time, the politically acute and well connected were shifting family members to safety and were moving investments and business headquarters well before the Boundary Award was made public, in further evidence of the two worlds of Punjab. The volume understands the Punjab’s descent into violence primarily in terms of the administrative chaos (p.292) allowing cycles of retribution to take place. The starting point is taken as the March 1947 Rawalpindi Massacres (p.133). These not only created a Sikh desire for revenge, but were the beginnings of the administrative decline in the Punjab which was accelerated by the hasty British withdrawal from the subcontinent. The Rawalpindi Massacres also ensured that the Punjab itself would have to be partitioned along with the creation of Pakistan. Surprisingly the author does not reflect on whether the Massacres created an awareness in the Sikh community that it could not live in a future Muslim dominated Punjab, or whether it merely reinforced this outlook. This could be said to have been based more widely in the use of a selective use of history of Mughal persecution and martyrdom to forge a neo-Sikh identity from the time of the late nineteenth century Singh Sabha movement onwards. This was propagated not only in tracts and pamphlets, but in the acclaimed novels of Bhai Vir Singh.

The author rightly points out that the Punjab Governor Sir Evan Jenkins sent a number of warnings of impending civil war in Punjab to New Delhi. He does not however fully reflect on the different aims and outlooks of the British administration in Lahore, New Delhi and London at this critical juncture. These may help explain why Jenkins’ missives were ignored and why there was a case for Mountbatten’s moving the date of independence forward to 15 August, rather than it being seen ‘as an error of judgement’ (p.201). The point is well made that the Boundary Commission sittings generated tension (pp.277, 303) and the delay in the Award’s publication was a contributory factor in the violence which accompanied Partition. Much of the violence in Lahore and Amritsar in the weeks leading up to independence was of course occasioned by attempts on the ground to pre-empt the Commission’s findings. It occurred to a background of the polarization of the services which explains the increasing unreliability of the police to maintain order. Bad-discipline was also encouraged by the failure to punish those responsible for the earlier Rawalpindi Massacres. The author alludes to this, but could perhaps make more of it.

Much of the emerging ‘new history’ of Partition is in tune with this volume’s findings. There are similarities, for example, with respect to the differential class as well as gender experience of Partition and its aftermath. Personal testimonies also reveal the understanding referred to on p. 377 that migration was both unexpected and not seen as permanent. The ‘new history’ has similarly pointed to the dissonance between official pronouncements on refugee rehabilitation and individuals’ experience of the corruption and chaos that surrounded allotments. The extent to which violence had elements of organization as well as spontaneity is also a theme of a number of recent and shortly to be published studies. They pick up on the role of the police in organized killings. Raghuvendra Tanwar adds to this understanding, useful material on the fact that the breakdown of communications encouraged the insubordination of officials and policemen (p. 448).

The volume surprisingly makes no bibliographical reference to the work of Urvashi Butalia, Ritu Menon and Kamla Bhasin. Similarly there is no evidence in either the text or bibiliography of engagement with Gyanendra Pandey’s recent work, Remembering Partition. Yet there are a number of occasions in the text where it would have been appropriate to have introduced discussion of how community and official historical discourses utilized the events of Partition for identity and nation-building purposes.

The emerging historiography of the events of Partition and its aftermath is absent from the study. This is surprising given that there is reflection in the opening chapter on some of the major works dealing with the causes of Muslim separatism. A critical reader could argue that in the absence of knowing how this study fits in the wider literature on Partition and what gaps it addresses, the work for all its wealth of material is primarily a useful source book. This would be grossly unfair, given the level of historical judgement and maturity that is displayed throughout. Nevertheless, if a revised edition is ever contemplated, then historiographical issues should be addressed. It might also be helpful to introduce a comparative dimension by discussion of the theoretical literature on ethnic conflict and genocide.

In sum, this is a meticulously researched work. It brings much new material to the subject. Good use is made of previously underutilized private papers such as those of the British DC of Gurgaon, P. Brenden at the time of the disturbances in Mewat. Some of the new material may shock the general reader, much of it is of interest to the specialist. Useful insights are provided, for example into the economic crisis in the aftermath of Partition and the operation of the Black Market. The reader is even introduced to the Mamdot kebab (p.522). The fact that refugees from East Punjab were dubbed bhagoras (those who had deserted p. 504) is a useful antidote to the stereotype that unlike the mohajirs from UP, Punjabi refugees were easily accepted in Pakistan. The volume’s reflection on the two worlds of Punjab is, however, the most important and useful contribution to the subject matter of Partition. For this reason it is deserving of a wide readership.

The publishers are to be commended for the cartoon illustrations that beautifully complement the volume. It is a pity that the text could not have been more carefully proof read. This would have eliminated not only minor typos, but misspellings as of Churchill (p.201), Farzana Shaikh (p.52), Radcliffe (p. 265), Shah Almi (p.304) and Mudie and Begum Shah Nawaz throughout which do not do justice to the author’s erudition.

Ian Talbot has written extensively on Punjab History and the Partition of India. His publications include, Punjab and the Raj (Manohar 1988); Freedom’s Cry (OUP 1996); Region and Partition, Punjab, Bengal and the Division of India (jointly edited with Gurharpal Singh); Khizr Tiwana, the Punjab Unionist Partition and the Partition of India (OUP, 2002); At The Epicentre of Violence; Voices of Punjabi Refugees in Amritsar (jointly edited with D.S. Tatla). He currently holds a Chair in British History at the University of Southampton. He was formerly Director of the Centre for South Asian Studies at Coventry University.