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

by Ahmed, Ishtiaq

• ISBN13: 9780199064700
• ISBN10: 0199064709
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-07-22
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This is a chronological account of what happened in 1947 when the Punjab Province of British India was partitioned. The Swedish Research Council awarded a very generous three-year research grant to enable me to carry out the investigation. It is the only comprehensive and complete study of thepartition process in the Punjab, beginning with the election campaign of 1945 and culminating in December 1947.It proceeds at two levels, secret British deliberations and decisions and the ground reality in the Punjab. Most time and effort has been devoted to tracing survivors and eyewitnesses from 1947. In some cases I have collected evidence of the same incident from the two opposing sides after 55-63years. Such a work will never be possible later because the generation on whose testimony it is base will be gone.The partition of the Punjab resulted in the biggest forced migration in history - some 14 million people altogether of which 10 million were from the Punjab. It also resulted in the first major case of ethnic cleansing after the Second World War - on both sides of the divided Punjab unwantedminorities were driven away or killed. Some 500,000 to 800,000 people were killed. It is an unprecedented work and will most certainly become the standard reference on the partition of the Punjab.

Author Biography

Ishtiaq Ahmed was born in Lahore on 24 February 1947. He received a PhD in Political Science from Stockholm University in 1986. He taught at Stockholm University from 1987 to 2007, and was then invited as Senior Research Fellow and Visiting Research Professor by the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore during 2007-2010. He took early retirement and is now Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Stockholm University and Honorary Senior Fellow, Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore. He has published extensively on Pakistani and South Asian politics. His research interests cover as diverse fields as political Islam, ethnicity and nationalism, human and minority rights, and indeed partition studies.

Table of Contents

Preface and acknowledgements
Calendar 1947
Punjab Administration till August 14, 1947
1. Introduction
2. A Theory of Ethnic Cleansing
3. Pre-Colonial and Colonial Punjab
4. Genesis of the Punjab Partition 1900-1944
Part I: The Punjab Bloodied, January 1945-March 31 1947
Introduction to Part I
5. Punjab Elections and Coalition Government
6. Direct Action: January 24 - February 26, 1947
7. The March Riots: Lahore
8. The March Riots: Amritsar and Jullundur
9. The March Riots: Multan
10. The March Riots: Rawalpindi and adjoining rural areas
Part II: The Partition End Game: April 1 - August 14, 1947
Introduction to Part II
11. British Policy on the Partition of the Punjab, April 1 - June 30, 1947
12. The Battle for Lahore and Amritsar: April 1 - June 30, 1947
13. Partition Machinery and Proceedings: July 1 - August 14, 1947
14. The Punjab Disintegrates: July 1 - August 14, 1947
Part III: Ethnic Cleansing: August 15 - December 31, 1947
Introduction to Part III
Exodus from West Punjab
15. Lahore Division
16. Rawalpindi Division
17. Multan Division and Bahawalpur State
Exodus from East Punjab and Princely States
18. Amritsar and three Tahsils of Gurdaspur
19. Jullundur Division
20. Ambala Division
21. Eastern Punjab Princely States
22. Analysis and Conclusions
List of Members of Punjab Legislative Assembly till July 4, 1947
Maps
Bibliography
Index