The Punjab Bloodied, Partitioned and Cleansed: Unravelling the 1947 Tragedy through Secret British Reports and First-Person Accounts 1st Edition

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.

Ishtiaq Ahmed's book "The Punjab Bloodied, Partitioned and Cleansed" is exceptional in many respects. It is the first book on Partition of Punjab where first-person eye-witness accounts of hundreds of events have been painstakingly collected from both sides of the border and from victims as well as victimizers, at times for the same event to reconcile any differences in the two versions. It is remarkable that the author was able to find so many eye-witnesses from both sides of the divide 55 to 60 years after the event, and was able to convince the victimizers to give their accounts. This may well be the first, and last, book to have done so. Although the author, born in Lahore a few months before the Partition, is from Pakistan side of Punjab and currently a Swedish national, the book is thoroughly objective and unbiased. Having studied a vast literature on the subject in preparation for my fiction book " Lost Generations " (2013) on the subject of deracination of Sikh refugees from Rawalpindi and their settlement in Delhi in 1947, I can categorically say no book since Urvashi Butalia's " The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India " exhilarated me as much. As a political scientist, Ishtiaq Ahmed has devoted early on a full chapter on the theory of Ethnic Cleansing. Compared to the first-person accounts which form the bulk of the book, and are its greatest strength, the short chapter on Analysis and Conclusions appears unnecessary and not as well-researched. The figure of casualties on both sides is understated between 500,000 and 750,000, which the author has basically taken from GD Khosla's estimate of 250,000 on each side in his disgraced and nonobjective book "Stern Reckoning", adding to that estimate the figure of up to 250,000 missing Mussulmans from the Sikh state of Patiala as reported by Mian Iftikharuddin, the West Punjab Minister for Refugees and Rehabilitation. GD Khosla's book was a particularly obsequious and anti-Muslim attempt produced at the behest of Indian Government to present Indian point of view, and the author picked the least figure he could get away with, to mitigate the feelings of guilt of Nehru and Mountbatten. All the later historians, both Indian and British, have kept increasing the figures of casualties over the years, some going as far as 2 million or more total deaths. The consensus, if any such thing exists, is a figure of at least one million more towards 1.5 million mark, with more deaths of Muslims in the East compared to non-Muslims in the West. However, that's a subject the historians are likely to keep revisiting in the future. All in all, "The Punjab Bloodied, Partitioned and Cleansed" is one of the most important contribution to the subject of Punjab Partition.Manjit Sachdeva, Author of  Lost Generations  (2013)[...]

This is an Exceptional Book as it names the"Participants who did the Carnage in Lahore." ShahAalmi Fire in June,1947 was seen by many noted writers like Khushwant Singh but he did not name the names. I saw the SMOKE from the 4th floor of our house and read newspapers,but didNot know all the persons names and their ROLES--that killed 100 persons .It details how Fire Brigade was unable to extinguish the Fire.Later,it names the persons who burnt the Famous Gurudwara near Mozang and verifies the witnesses and interviews the Participants.Letter from Governor Mudie to Jinnah on Sept.4th,1947 spells out that SIKHS will be REMOVED in one month. On Sept.2nd,1947 Nehru signed an agreement with Liaquat Ali Khan-So those Prime Ministers signed a paper that proved to BOGUS agreement.Ethnic Cleansing was Churchill's idea to Jinnah in Dec.,1946. Churchill sent his people to ENSURE that PAKISTAN would be 100% Muslims people from Karachi to Kabul--to Prevent the possibility of USSR controlling Oil Flow .Churchill did NOT trust Nehru but He trusted JINNAH to Carry out his PLAN QUICKLY by getting Rid of Hindus and Sikhs in 4 months.If a reader wants great facts--the Stories in this book are all 100% verified. I highly recommend this book.

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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.

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).

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.

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.