Friends Across the Partition

Voice 1:
Hello, I’m Marina Santee.

Voice 2:
And I’m Ruby Jones. Welcome to Spotlight. This programme uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.

Voice 3:
“I am writing you this letter as a human being. I hope that you will not be unhappy because a Hindu is writing to you. We are first human beings, and then religious people.”

Voice 1:
A man called Harkishan Das Baydi wrote these words. He lived in India. He lived during the time when India and Pakistan became independent nations. In today’s programme, we hear how the events of that time affected the lives of millions of Indian and Pakistani families. And we hear more from Harkishan Das Baydi’s letters - how he managed to live through some very dark days.

Voice 2:
From the late eighteenth century, the British government ruled India. India under the British covered the territory that is now India and Pakistan. Britain considered it to be one of its most valuable colonies. But in 1939, the Second World War began in Europe. This proved to be very unsettling for India. Some Indian soldiers fought for Britain in the war. But for many Indians, it was a time of terrible poverty and unemployment. The people’s desire to govern their own country grew. The Indian National Congress, or INC, gave voice to these desires. This organization mostly represented the majority Hindu population. It had long been fighting for Indians to have more control over their country. Its leaders demanded India’s independence.

Voice 1:
In 1945, the war came to an end. And the British government seemed ready to agree to demands for independence. It wanted to concentrate on re-building Britain after the war. So, it accepted the fact that India should be left to rule itself. But this was not as easy as it seemed. India was a divided country. Which group would govern when the British left?

Voice 2:
The majority of the people in India were Hindus. A much smaller percentage of people followed the Sikh religion. And there was also a large number of Indian Muslims. The most likely group to rule was the majority - the Hindus. However, the Muslims worried about living in a country with a Hindu government. They believed that no one would listen to their demands or problems. Their political organization was called the Muslim League. The League wanted the British government to divide India into two countries - one with a Hindu majority, and one with a Muslim majority.

Voice 1:
And so, the dividing of India, or Partition, happened. On the fourteenth of August 1947, the Muslim State of Pakistan was born. And the next day, what is now India became an independent nation with a Hindu majority.

General opinion today is that Britain did the partition very badly. The dividing line cut across two large areas of North India: Punjab and Bengal. The result was that Pakistan had two parts - east and west. They were separated by 1,600 kilometres of Indian land. It meant that people of different religions found themselves on the wrong side of the lines. They had to leave their homes and travel to the right side of the lines depending on their religion.

Voice 2:
We now return to Harkishan Das Baydi. He was one of the people who moved. He was a Hindu. And he lived in the town of Lahore, in North West India. After Partition, Lahore became part of Pakistan. Baydi and his family left the town in a great hurry.