Partition Survivors and Volunteers Preserve Traumatic Past

He was only three years old when he saw the murder of a man.

Abhay Bhushan, who now lives in Santa Clara, was one of 14.5 million people who were displaced in the violent partition of British India that split the country into Pakistan and India on August 15, 1947. What should have been a cause for celebration—independence from nearly a century of British rule—quickly turned into a nightmare for millions who were forced to migrate across the new border.

Bhushan iterated his story to Cupertino resident Iram Nawaz and Los Altos resident Reena Kapoor, volunteers for the 1947 Partition Archive. The Berkeley non-profit collects oral histories in video and audio format from those who were affected by the Partition.

Guneeta Singh Bhalla, a postdoctoral physics researcher at UC Berkeley, founded the organization after an inspiring visit to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial oral history archives in Japan. To read Kapoor’s volunteer experience, click here. 

The interview sessions are therapeutic for the survivors, said Kapoor. According to her, Bhushan was initially skeptical about the value of his story.

“He was like, ‘You know my family didn’t go through that much trauma. We were fine, so I really don’t really have that much to tell you’—by the end of the interview he was crying. This was a man in his 60s and tears were running down his cheeks.”

Patch was able to contact two survivors for a first-hand interview. To read Saratoga resident Muzaffer Haider’s story and more on the Archive, click . To read Palo Alto resident Vishin Jotwani’s account, click .

Between 500,000 and two million people died in the process due to mob violence and extremists on both sides, although exact numbers are not known.

Nawaz, currently a technical writer at Hewlett-Packard, joined the project after she was introduced to it by an adviser who happened to be mentoring her at the time.

When she lived in Pakistan about 10 years ago, she worked for what was the only feminist press in Pakistan at the time. That was where she would read stories from women who went through the Partition, so when she found the Archive it aligned perfectly with her interests.  

Nawaz also said she relates to the survivors she interviews because her grandmother went through it herself as she was suddenly pulled away from a close-knit community with people from various religious backgrounds. Moreover, she feels that the potential the project has to bring communities back together is immense.

“I’ve come across stories of a lot of regret, that we were the same people, that we were a loving brotherhood, a whole community, just a few months before 1947,” she said.

The Archive has a grassroots feel, with volunteers like Nawaz going out of their way to find survivors.

“When I go to the Indian grocery store, and you see older men, I go and talk to them…I understand we need to do our regular work, but this is such an important part of my life right now that it’s a priority in my head,” she said. “So when I got to buy my masala I make sure I talk to everyone there, too.”