Wounds revealed after long last
MY maternal uncle, Gurbhajan Singh Mann, belonged to Kotshera village in Gujranwala district. When the riots broke out in 1947, Mamaji, then 26, was in Shimla, along with other members of his family, including my grandparents and mother. He returned to his village on July 28 to support the staff and villagers who looked up to the family. At the Lahore railway station, he saw a frenzied mob dragging people out of the trains and killing them.
It was sheer presence of mind of British officers on duty that they got the station vacated and ensured that the train left for Gujranwala immediately with an armed escort. In Gujranwala, curfew had been imposed.
Mamaji thought the circumstances were temporary and once the government changed hands, they would be able to lead normal lives. That was not to be.
On August 24, an irate mob from the adjoining villages descended on his estate and started raising slogans. Mamaji and other people went to the roof and opened fire in the air, sending the trouble-makers back. It was then that Mamaji realised that it would not be safe to stay in Pakistan any longer. He mobilised the local Sikh and Hindu population to leave together for Amritsar. On August 26, a caravan of about 500 persons started for Nankana Sahib. Armed with guns, Mamaji and Risaldar Bishan Singh, an ex-Armyman who also looked after the horses in the estate, moved on horseback. The women and children travelled in bullock carts. The family car, a Chevrolet, was driven by their driver, Harnam Singh, who was accompanied by his wife, Veer Kaur, and two others.
After covering 20 miles, Mamaji and Bishan Singh went to survey the area. They had barely travelled a kilometre when the caravan was ambushed. In the firing and assault that followed, about 200 persons were killed. The car in which Harnam was travelling was fired at and the occupants had to abandon it. As soon as Harnam got out of the vehicle, he received gunshot wounds in the chest and wrist. A horseman accompanying their vehicle asked him to mount and carried him away from danger.
Seeing the commotion around her, Veer Kaur feigned death by lying among the bodies. Two hours after the attack, when everything was quiet, she gathered strength and started to walk towards a nearby village. Seeing so many corpses all around, the hope of finding her husband started to diminish. In the village, she came close to a well and thought of ending her life. But two noble souls from the village saw her and understood her plight. Risking their own lives, they guided her safely to Nankana Sahib.
Mamaji and Bishan Singh continued their journey on their horses through the fields. Every now and then, they would hear gunshots, slogan-raising and shrieks all around. After a short rest, they continued their journey in the evening for Nankana Sahib, which was about 20 km away but while crossing the periphery of village, they were attacked by a mob. Their leader, who was armed with a javelin, aimed at them. Bishan Singh fired from his .12 bore gun and the man dropped to the ground but with a burst of energy, he got up and made another attempt to attack them. Bishan Singh fired the second shot, killing him instantly. The mob immediately dispersed and the two managed to escape in the fading light. He was fortunate to escape to India as the authorities in Pakistan declared a reward on his head as the man who had been killed belonged to a prominent family.
At Nankana Sahib, Mamaji was united with Harnam, who was still in a precarious condition and needed better medical care, and his wife Veer Kaur. They immediately left for Amritsar where there were better medical facilities.
All his life, Mamaji kept the wounds of Partition close to his heart, revealing them to the family decades later.
— The writer is based in Sangrur
