Punjab Bloodied Partioned & Cleansed Paperback – 1 May 2016

This is a well researched work, the author spent more than a decade researching. It is impartial and unbiased, just what you expect from a scientist. He has explained the root causes of the partition, going back to the 1930s. The best part of this book is the very extensive oral reports by the witnesses, the victims and even the perpetrators. He had the advantage - not available to Indian researchers - of being able to meet and speak to people in Pakistan. This book is neither verbose nor terse, it is just right in spite of its size. He always cross-checked his findings with others', for instance, the SGPC Reports, Khosla's "Stern Reckoning", Moon's "Divide and Quit", books written by Pakistan's writers. He minced no words in condemning the falsities recorded by anyone. He neither was apologetic for nor glossed over any bitter truths. In one sentence, the author sounds truthful, honest and open-minded. In that light, I developed a huge respect for the author's integrity & character. I have just two disappointments - 1) about the alleged Congress volte face with respect to power sharing with the Muslim League in United Provinces after the 1937 elections. Since it is generally agreed to be a pivotal point in the change of ML attitude that eventually led to the demand for a separate country, I wish the author took pains to gather evidence to prove it either way. He just leaves this extremely important point with a cursory statement like "it seems there was some evidence....." (about Congress going back on its pre-poll agreement to share power with the ML). 2) this book doesn't contain any picture or photo at all except one or two blurry & hard to read maps of United Punjab. Finally, you will find it gripping (metaphorically. Because of its size & weight you can not hold it with your hands alone) and edifying too. Probably, you will want to read it a 2nd time to digest it better.

Well researched book. Engrossing read. Must for those interested in partition history.

I'm still to complete but wanted to write that everyone especially Indian Hindus must read this book so we can get to know what happened and how.

This book is a masterpiece.It's doesn't matter whether you are from indian or Pakistan's punjabIt will connect you to the truth of pre-independence era of punjab and how it got ethinically cleaned.It has anecdotes and interviews of people and real incidentsMust read for every punjabi.

If you want to know every significant detail about the violent partition of India and Pakistan and only want to read one book, this is your ONE STOP BOOK.

The test of fairness in writing history is how an event , about which one has some personal perspective , has been described. He has gives preference to the view that Muslims in Malerkotka were saved because of Muslim Nawab, over the claim by Sikhs that they didnot touch the Muslims of the area as the ancestor of Nawab had protested against execution of Chhote Sahibzade of Guru Gobind Singh Ji, at Sirhind (Ha Da Nara).

I am happy to read this book.

Nice Book!

A very thorough description of what happened during India's partition in 1947. The author meets the highest standards of academia for having sought the truth and described it as such.

Must Read

This is a true labour of love. The author clearly feels about the subject.... Partition of his homeland.... With great passion.Professor Ishtiaq Ahmed's books is meticulously researched and yet written in a clear and simple language that makes it easy to read.Ishtiaq sahib has not just researched and presented the facts as in documents and written material dealing with the subject mater but has gone a lot further in actually looking for the truth, somehow I think there is some difference between a fact and a truth.Some of the facts are thought provoking. For example there has always been a sense of great injustice regarding Gurdaspure awarded to India as it had a Muslim majority. Actually the overall majority of Muslins in the district as just 0.8% (around 80,000 more Muslims then non-Muslims). However this was only possible if Ahmadies were counted as Muslims. If Ahmadies were counted as non-Muslim (as the constitution of Pakistan which was being created) states then Gurdaspure would have a majority of non-Muslims and should have gone to India in any case!The book contains testimony from hundreds of Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs who witnessed the events first hand, often being directly involved in them.The author has travelled extensively, even to far out villages and hamlets to speak to them and record their voice for posterity.So what do we learn from this?Certainly the truth is not pretty. All the communities involved in the ethnic violence that accompanied the creation of Pakistan and resulted in the partition of Punjab (personally I question the notion that India was partitioned for an entity called India never existed and could not be partitioned) acted with great barbarity and unbelievable cruelty. The amount of suffering they can inflict, the sheer numbers, was only dependent on how much opportunity they had.Yet at the same time there are instances of humanity and kindness where some people from all communities protected the other, even at risk to their own lives.Can we learn how to avoid such carnage in the future?Here I will not go into the right or wrong of using religion in politics for that is another discussion.In my opinion there are two important factors in this aspect:One is in the larger scale and this involves the politicians and opinion leaders. It is essential, in situations that are similar to 1947 the politicians act responsibly.They should clearly condemn any atrocity committed against the other community and refrain from inflaming their own people.The second is on the local level, there are several incidents where people hell bent to commit atrocities did not go ahead when confronted with elders and authority figures of their own community. At the same time it is very likely that much of the atrocities were and are committed by young men who are goaded on to do this by the community elders. Like the politicians the community elders have to act with restraint and responsibility.Alas the book does not leave me with much of optimism in humanity as a whole, for clearly the reason behind such holocausts are the division of humans into different groups by religion, colour, language etc.As long as such divisions exist similar calamities will happen.As Ibn Arabi tells us:'Do you want to stop all wars? Then:Throw away your flags.Remove your religious robes.Place all your 'holy books' in the garbage-strip yourself of ideological brainwashing & venom-exorcise your beliefs.Look for evil in yourself - 'I' is the destructive factor.-See your religiosity/nationalism/racialism as destructive identification, and arbitrary fantasy repeated and reinforced by the millions of your tribe, until it looks real, giving a pleasurable adrenalin stimulation...and death... of you, of your children.-See and declare your religious/nationalistic membership as useless and obsolete. An old, but worthless game.-Shed the garb of your 'ism' and your I-dentity of belonging.-You can stop all wars. There is plenty of space and food on this earth for all of us. It is available, in peace, only if you give up your fictitious I-dentity and craving for power.'The problem is chances of this happening are similar to those of a snowflake in hell.To sum up the book is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of Punjab partition and creation of Pakistan.It is also an invaluable piece of work if you want to gain an insight into the human element of such events.

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The print is impossibly small.