THE MAKING OF EXILE: SINDHI HINDUS AND THE PARTITION OF INDIA

by NANDITA BHAVNANI

  As a result, the absence of violence that prevailed in Sindh was actually a ‘nervous peace‘, to quote Roger Pearce, then a senior official in the Indian Civil Service.15 It was a thin veneer of calm laid over the shifting socio-political dynamics between the Hindus and Muslims of Sindh, both of whom were becoming more hardened in their approach to each other as 14/15 August approached.

  By late June, the Sindh government was reeling under the problem of finding accommodation for the increasing numbers of muhajirs, Muslim refugees from India. It also faced the daunting prospect of setting up from scratch the enormous machinery of the Pakistan government. Consequently, the Sindh government passed ordinances requisitioning immovable property – more specifically any large building occupied by a few persons only – and freezing essential building materials. This move immediately gave birth to a rumour among Hindus that the Sindh government was planning to freeze all private bank accounts, which in turn led to a run on banks in early July by Hindus, who formed the bulk of the business community and middle class. The quantum of capital flight was estimated at Rs 20 to 30 crores,16 a staggering amount at that time, considering that the total revenue receipts budgeted by the Sindh government for 1947-48 was Rs 9.24 crores.17 Although Ghulam Hussain Hidayatullah, the then premier of Sindh, made public statements affirming that his government would not ‘injure the feelings of minorities’, Hindu anxiety was not dispelled.

  Yet, despite this atmosphere of increasing tension and hostility, it should be remembered that at a personal level, most Hindu-Muslim relationships and friendships endured. Several Sindhi Hindus of that era recall that their close Sindhi Muslim friends gave them reassurances, and pressed them to stay on in Sindh, declaring that they would give them any protection they might need.

  However, the Sindhi Hindus’ insecurity was also sharpened by the influx into Sindh of Sindhi Hindus who had settled in Baluchistan and the NWFP; they had migrated due to communal tension and disturbed conditions there. Regular reports of communal violence in other parts of the country continued.

  Consequently, some Sindhi Hindus began to hold meetings, under the auspices of the Congress or of the Hindu Mahasabha, or as a federation of panchayats, sometimes together with other minorities, such as Christians. Apprehensive about their future, they began to explore what steps they could take to protect their interests under Muslim majority rule. They debated whether or not to migrate.

  To Migrate or to Stay

  In 1947, most Sindhi Hindus faced a multi-faceted dilemma: whether to leave or not, whether to leave permanently or temporarily, and if so, when to leave. This was against a backdrop of regular reports in the press and on the radio of mass migrations taking place in other regions of India, thanks to communal violence taking place there.

  However, it was a difficult decision to make. The Sindhi Hindus, an affluent mercantile community, had considerable vested interests in their businesses and immovable properties. Even if they wanted to migrate, it would not be in their best interests to do so in a hurry.

  Immigrations into, and exoduses from, Sindh were not a new concept. Over the centuries, there had been an influx of many different peoples into Sindh: Arghuns and Tarkhans from Central Asia, Baloch from the west, Rajputs and Kutchis from the south-east and Punjabis, Siraikis and Pathans from the north. Over time, however, the bulk of these immigrants had become assimilated into Sindhi society. Some of them retained collective memories or traces of their immigration, sometimes only in name (like Shikarpuri Hindus whose surname was Panjabi), or in language (like the Memons who spoke Kutchi at home or the Baloch who spoke Baluchi or Brahui).

  As a vulnerable minority, Sindhi Hindus also retained a collective memory of past escapes to safety in the east.18 The Sindhi Hindus who fled from Aror to Punjab at the time of Muhammad bin Qasim’s invasion in 711 ad are said to be the Punjabi Aroras of today.19 Similarly, legends exist of Sindhi Hindu migrations to Jaisalmer, Multan and Kutch for safety.20

  But Sindhi Hindus also possessed a long history of living as a small but prosperous minority under Muslim rule for centuries. Before the century of British rule – from 1843 to 1947 – Sindh had had Muslim rulers for 11 centuries, a long period during which Hindus had not just survived but also flourished financially. Now, although the advent of Partition brought new and heightened tensions and insecurity, there was an implicit assumption that while regimes change, populations don’t.

  In many quarters, Partition was seen as a temporary – though glaring – episode of communal ill-will, and the idea of large-scale permanent migrations was not taken seriously by most people at that time. Even G. M. Syed, the Sindhi Muslim political leader, wrote in June 1947, that he considered it ‘inconceivable’ that Sindhi Hindus could be ‘physically exterminated or bodily transferred’ from Sindh, a land to which they had contributed so much.21

  The noted Sindhi writer and Sahitya Akademi awardee, Gobind ‘Malhi’ Khattar, was then a young man of 26, working for the Communist Party in Karachi. In mid-July 1947, Gobind ‘Malhi’ had visited his village, Tharu Shah, for a few days. In his autobiography, Gobind ‘Malhi’ reports what he heard his father telling his uncle:

  Even before the British had started ruling this territory, Hindus had lived in Sindh. Our own ancestors had come from a fort in Rajasthan and had settled down here. Some Sindhi Hindus had migrated from Sindh when they had been oppressed by a few bigoted Muslim rulers. But when circumstances became favourable again, they had returned. Nothing will change: Even now, those who migrate will return quickly.22

  Gobind ‘Malhi’ decided to stay on in Karachi, while his father decided to stay on in Tharu Shah.

  Although many Sindhi Hindus did not feel the need to migrate permanently from their homeland at that stage, the exodus of Hindus and Sikhs from West Punjab, and of Muslims from East Punjab, had begun. Santdas Khushiram Kirpalani was the second Sindhi to join the Indian Civil Service, his brother Hiranand being the first. In 1947, he was the financial commissioner of the canal colonies in West Punjab. His experiences there convinced him that Sindhi Hindus needed to migrate to India, well before Independence. When he tried to convince his various relatives to leave Sindh, he found that they all shrugged off his warnings. One claimed that they had no reason to fear, another that they had received personal assurances of protection from Premier Hidayatullah. They all considered Kirpalani’s fears unfounded.23

  Yet, a few Sindhi Hindus were able to read the writing on the wall. The glaring experience of other provinces, especially Punjab next door, combined with the insecurity and tension proved to be too much for them, and they began to vote with their feet. As mentioned earlier, Hindus living in the countryside had begun to shift to the cities, feeling safer in numbers. A few who were more abreast with the latest political developments, began to leave for India.

  A few people in the Sindh Congress, including Professor Narayandas Malkani and Dr Choithram Gidwani, president of the Sind Provincial Congress Committee, presaged Hindu mass migration, weeks before Partition. They turned their gaze towards Rajasthan: adjacent to Sindh, and underpopulated. Narayandas Malkani was deputed to tour various princely states in this region – Mewar, Jodhpur, Jaipur and Bikaner – as well as Ajmer, and determine how many lakh refugees each state could absorb. The Hindu rulers of these princely states were requested to protect and assist their fellow Hindus from Sindh. Initially, Malkani found that about 10,000 Sindhi Hindu refugees could be accommodated in all these states put together.24

  The Jodhpur State had made provisions to accommodate a number of Sindhi emigrants, particularly those from Baluchistan and NWFP, who had reached Jodhpur by May 1947 and wanted to settle there permanently. Dr Choithram Gidwani had also been in close contact with the Maharaja of Mewar and his government, who were enthusiastic in providing assistance to Sindhi Hindus. According to Vishnu Sharma25 (Dr Choithram Gidwani’s close friend, colleague and biographer), the Mewar State was enthusiastic about helping refugees from Sindh. By late July 1947, the state announced t
hat it had set aside Rs 5,00,000 and a large plot of land for refugee housing; it also intended to provide government jobs to refugees. Refugees were to receive food and construction material at subsidised rates and their children were to be given free education.26

  Dr Choithram Gidwani had also petitioned the Bombay government for accommodation and succour in the event of large-scale permanent Hindu emigration from Sindh. His brother, Shamdas Gidwani, the then leader of the Sind Hindu Mahasabha, had made similar – but separate – petitions to the governments of Bombay and UP as well. In mid-July, prominent Sindhi Hindu businessmen living in Bombay had formed an association known as the Sind Hindu Seva Samiti, aiming to help ‘Sindhi Hindus living in Sindh or elsewhere’.

  Yet, at this stage, the Hindus of Sindh were still actively discouraged from migrating by the Congress high command.

  Role of the Congress

  In the late 1930s, the Congress had fallen out of favour with the Sindhi Hindus over the issue of the separation of Sindh from Bombay. But with the strengthening of the freedom struggle in the 1940s, it had regained its popularity in the province. In both the January 1946 and December 1946 elections, it had swept the provincial polls, in terms of the Hindu vote in Sindh. The Congress in Sindh was spearheaded by the triumvirate of Dr Choithram Gidwani, Jairamdas Doulatram Alimchandani and Ghanshyamdas Jethanand Shivdasani. In 1947, however, the unpopularity of the Congress was re-established over the issue of the Partition of the country.

  As mentioned earlier, in the months leading up to Partition, there had been no widespread public expectation that this critical event would trigger off mass migrations on both sides of the border. The Congress high command had, until then, actively discouraged the migration of minority communities.

  Visiting Rawalpindi after the communal violence of March 1947, J. B. Kripalani, the then Congress president, had no answer to give when asked whether the Hindus should migrate or not. Instead, he fiercely snubbed the person who asked the question. As the noted writer Bhisham Sahni, who attended this meeting, explains: ‘The reason was that no Congress leader was willing to say, “Leave your cities and go away.” At the same time, Kripalani knew that the conditions were bad and that we couldn’t continue to live there.’27

  Later, in May 1947, Gandhi asserted that ‘Sind Hindus should not be weaklings’ and assured them that they would be given full protection. At the same occasion, Sardar Patel stated emphatically that migration would only weaken the case of the minorities and would ensure the creation of Pakistan.28 Even after Partition was announced a month later, Gandhi continued to question Sindhi Hindu migration, attributing it to misplaced fears.29 And later, in July, he articulated his overly optimistic expectations of what life would be like for minorities in Pakistan:

  Will the temples and the gurudwaras in Pakistan be destroyed? My feeling is that they will not be. Will they stop the Hindus from going to the temples? I do not think that this is the meaning of Pakistan. Has not Daulatana Saheb said only today that none but enemies of Islam would say that Hindus and Sikhs could not follow their faith in Pakistan. […] Why then do the Hindus from the Punjab, Sindh and N.W.F.P. want to flee to India? They should be brave.30

  However, the leading Sindhi journalist and Congress worker, Hiranand Karamchand, gives us a contradictory account of Gandhi’s private opinion. In his diary, Karamchand describes a personal conversation with Gandhi:

  He was seated and in a very sombre mood. I told him about the situation in Sindh. […] In a very pained voice, he said: ‘What you have told me, I had already begun to suspect. What I have heard and seen elsewhere as well has caused me great heartache. You don’t see tears in my eyes today but every pore of me is crying. What advice can I give you? All through my life, I have held the same viewpoint regarding fundamental issues. When trouble descends, one must face it like a man, one must fight it bravely. I still have faith in non-violence. The non-violent response will always be the more effective one. But today many have lost faith in this response, which is why I will say, go ahead and use violent means, but do not live as cowards. […] If you want to live with honour, be prepared for either a violent or a non-violent response, or get ready to migrate. I understand Sindhis. I have an old relationship with them. They have many good qualities, but forgive me, I have not seen a fighting spirit in them. That is why I doubt that the Sindhis will be able to respond with strength. Under such circumstances perhaps they will have to migrate from Sindh.31

  This meeting between Gandhi and Karamchand took place as early as 1 April 1947. But the Congress continued to discourage the mass migration of minorities for several months. Soon after the Partition of India was announced on 3 June, the All India Congress Committee convened a meeting in Delhi on 14 June. At this meeting, there was great resistance to the idea of Partition from Hindus and Sikhs in Sindh, Punjab and Bengal, and Muslims in Hindu-majority areas – in short, those who would be minorities once the borders of the new nations were drawn.32 They not only voted against Partition at this meeting but also demanded that their fears be allayed and provisions made for their security; their demands were, however, ignored by the Congress high command. According to Vishnu Sharma, Dr Choithram Gidwani said in his speech: ‘There is neither justice nor any matter of principle that those who have to suffer the most from Partition are not given a voice, and no plans are being drawn up for their safety.’33

  At the regional level, most of the local Sindhi Congress leaders were not keen on agitating for, or organising, mass migration. Vishnu Sharma tells us that Dr Gidwani’s views offended other Congress leaders in Sindh, and consequently, a secret meeting of the Sind Provincial Congress Committee was called in Karachi on 30 June 1947. All 40 members were present. Dr Choithram Gidwani expressed his fears for the security of Hindus in Sindh, and recommended that the Congress should agitate for either protection for minorities or the planned evacuation of Sindhi Hindus by the state. Dr Gidwani, however, was unable to convince the other members, who felt confident about living safely in Sindh. On the contrary, they felt that the subject of planned evacuation would only spread panic among the Hindus.34

  The Congress maintained its official by-line: that the minorities should not migrate and should carry on as though nothing had changed. This did not sit well with the Sindhi Hindus, who were looking for guidance on how to adjust to the new socio-political reality of Pakistan. Many Sindhi Hindus of that generation say that they remember that national-level Congress leaders such as Gandhi and Nehru had earlier claimed that Partition would take place over their dead bodies; they had banked on these assurances and now they felt betrayed.

  By early August 1947, there was a perceived vacuum in the Hindu leadership in Sindh. Some senior Congress leaders were seen to be busy fashioning their futures in independent India; for example, the Free Press Journal was extremely critical of the fact that Jairamdas Doulatram (who had been appointed governor of Bihar) was not committed to staying in Sindh to guide the Hindus there.35 Other senior Congress leaders were accused of failing to win over their people. When J. B. Kripalani toured Sindh in early August 1947, in an attempt to ‘put courage among the Hindus and the Sikhs and induce them not to migrate to India’, his entourage received brickbats.36 And several senior Congress leaders were viewed as being hypocritical about the migration issue; an anonymous Sindhi who was then a 25-year-old man originally from Nawabshah in Central Sindh discusses this in a personal account:

  A few hypocritical Congress followers of Gandhiji declared that they would bravely live as friends of Muslims in Sindh – “Hindu-Muslim, bhai-bhai” etc. Some Sindhi Congressmen supported [Gandhi] and things drifted.

  I was then in Central Government service at Ahmedabad airport, when one day [before] August 1947, I met a Congress relative who had flown from Karachi to Ahmedabad. When I asked him the reason for his visit, he answered, ‘To arrange for a place of residence and business after the Partition.’ I exclaimed, ‘But Congressmen of Sindh have made a public declaration to stay on in Sindh,
after the Partition!’ He replied, ‘We have to be practical; how can we live in Sindh after the Partition?’37

  Many Sindhi Hindus became quite disenchanted with the Congress and the lack of support and practical guidance that they received from that quarter.

  The Rise of the Hindu Right

  M. S. Golwalkar, the sarsanghchalak of the RSS, had been making annual visits to Sindh since 1943. When he visited Karachi in early August 1947, he was greeted by Hindus in their lakhs, according to L. K. Advani, the then RSS city secretary in Karachi.38 The vacuum in Sindhi Hindu leadership was being filled, at least to a certain extent, by the RSS. This process was made easier by the widening gulf between Hindus and Muslims in the years leading up to Partition. Strongly dismissive of Gandhi’s non-violence, the RSS imparted physical training to Sindhi Hindu youth, claiming it was only for self-defence.

  In 1947, Dr Ram Hingorani was a youth of 17 who had joined the RSS two years earlier. He lived in Karachi’s Shikarpur Colony, and although he had joined the D. J. Sind College for a Science degree, he says that he joined the RSS and forgot about his pursuit of academics. He joined the RSS at the age of 15 because of its physical education activities, and not its ideology. This was true for most of the boys in Hingorani’s group; they came to be influenced by the RSS’s ideology only later.

  According to Hingorani (who was later elected as a BMC corporator in Bombay on a Jan Sangh ticket), the leanings of the RSS in Sindh towards violence, or violent forms of self-defence, had begun as early as the first months of 1947, when about 100 boys who were members of the RSS, from Karachi and various parts of Sindh, were sent to an army centre in the princely state of Jodhpur. ‘Maybe Rajpal Puri arranged it,’ says Ram Hingorani. He was one of the teenage boys sent to Jodhpur, where they spent 15 days learning to use rifles and guns. According to Hingorani: