The Begum

by Deepa Agarwal

  This interim government did not, however, address the Muslim demand for a separate homeland. Consequently, Jinnah announced Direct Action Day on 16 August 1946, with the objective of highlighting this issue. Communal riots erupted in Calcutta, following a speech by the chief minister, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy. The violence spread to other regions like Noakhali in Bengal, Bihar, Garhmukteshwar in UP, and Rawalpindi. About 5000 people lost their lives all over the country and 1,00,000 were displaced.

  It was this bloodshed that finally led the Congress leaders to accept the partition of India as a fait accompli. Vallabhbhai Patel was the first to do so. Gandhi had been vehemently opposed to the division of the country, to the extent that he had proclaimed that Partition would take place over his dead body. Now, he too had to accept that failure to come to terms with it would result in more bloodletting, even civil war. The pragmatic Vallabhbhai Patel represented India on the Partition Council, where he oversaw the division of public assets, and selected the Indian council of ministers with Nehru. However, neither he nor any other Indian leader had foreseen the intensity of the violence and the enormous transfer of population that Partition would result in.

  Towards the end of 1946, the Labour Party in Britain decided to withdraw British rule from India. The main issue was: how this would be put into effect.

  By this time, both the Congress and the Muslim League were thoroughly dissatisfied with Lord Wavell’s handling of this extremely critical situation. Gandhi, Nehru and Jinnah all began to accuse him of partisanship. Clement Attlee was compelled to cast about for a new viceroy. He looked for a man who possessed the ability to negotiate with all the concerned groups, essential to facilitate this complicated transition. A man who was a skilled communicator. After much deliberation and discussion, Lord Louis Mountbatten, a cousin of King George VI, was persuaded to take the job. He had been the supreme allied commander of the South East Asia Command during the war and thus had experience in the region.

  On 20 February 1947, Clement Attlee announced in the House of Commons that the British would grant complete independence to India and transfer power no later than 1 June 1948. It is reported that Lord Mountbatten, who had some reservations about accepting this challenging assignment, was the one who insisted on setting a date. Clement was reluctant because the British administrators in India had warned him that this would result in large-scale rioting, but ultimately buckled under.9

  On 22 March 1947, Lord Mountbatten arrived with his charismatic wife, Edwina, as the last viceroy. Edwina was an heiress and a socialite and had been deeply involved in war relief work. She was later credited with contributing to the solution of some of the issues connected with Partition. The couple were already acquainted with Jawaharlal Nehru, and Edwina’s close friendship with the Congress leader later became the subject of much talk.

  The Mountbattens found they had landed in the midst of almost uncontrollable rioting in Delhi. Not only Delhi, but the whole country was aflame—from Calcutta in the east to the North-West Frontier Province. In this highly incendiary atmosphere, Mountbatten had to parley with various Indian leaders to come up with a plan for Independence and Partition of the country so that some semblance of a civilized handover could be maintained. He found himself floundering in the midst of several strong-minded individuals, not ready to budge from the stand they had assumed—from Gandhi and Jinnah to Nehru, Liaquat Ali and Vallabhbhai Patel, not to mention the Sikh leaders like Master Tara Singh and Baldev Singh. Interestingly, Edwina stepped into the tangled situation with greater ease. ‘In the first few days she reached out and befriended Gandhi’s right-hand woman Amrit Kaur, who was to become one of her greatest friends and the new government’s minister for health; Vallabhbhai’s influential daughter, Maniben; Liaquat’s wife, Begum Ra’ana Liaquat Ali Khan, who like Edwina was deeply involved in health and welfare work; the Dalit leader, B.R. Ambedkar; the radical feminist Kamladevi Chattopadhyay; and the poet and politician Sarojini Naidu, who coincidentally had been a childhood friend of her mother.’10 Edwina was reportedly impressed by the influence wielded by women leaders in both the Congress and the Muslim League.

  The following months witnessed hectic parleying over the details of the plan, later termed the Mountbatten Plan. Communal violence had grown to such overwhelming heights that Partition was now a matter of great urgency. The number of players in the game, each arguing for their cause, exacerbated the already contentious situation. Things became so heated that Nehru threatened to resign if Mountbatten did not produce a plan.

  Eventually, in mid-May, the Mountbattens flew to London for further discussions with the British leaders and returned at the end of the month with a new version.

  Finally, on 3 June 1947, Mountbatten called for a meeting of the nationalist leaders—Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel and J.B. Kripalani on behalf of the Congress; Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Liaquat Ali Khan and Abdur Rab Nishtar from the Muslim League; and Baldev Singh for the Sikhs. They were presented with a proposal for the independence and partition of the country and were to give their responses by midnight. According to this plan, the predominantly Hindu and Sikh areas were assigned to India and predominantly Muslim areas to the new nation of Pakistan. The plan included a division of Punjab and Bengal, the Muslim-majority provinces. By the next day, all the leaders had given their acquiescence. Mountbatten immediately fixed the date for transfer of power to 15 August 1947, much ahead of the 1 June 1948 deadline.

  About a month later, the British Parliament passed the Indian Independence Act, on 18 July 1947. The Government of India Act 1935 was modified to provide a legal framework for the new countries.

  While Mountbatten presided over the Partition Council, Jinnah and Liaquat Ali represented the Muslim League, with Abdul Rab Nishtar as the alternate member, and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Rajendra Prasad the Congress, with C. Rajagopalachari as the alternate member. The arrangements for dividing the Indian subcontinent were finalized, and the British surrendered their sovereignty over the 565 princely states. Their rulers were given the option to join one of the new nations, which led to further wrangling. It was Sardar Patel who managed to control this extremely prickly issue with an iron hand, with Mountbatten, along with V.P. Menon, contributing his bit.

  Sir Cyril Radcliffe, a British lawyer, as chairman of the Border Commission, was charged with equitably dividing 1,75,000 square miles (4,50,000 km) of territory with 88 million people. He completed his job by 13 August but the boundary award demarcating the border, or the Radcliffe Line as it was called, was deliberately opened on 17 August to avoid trouble before the Independence Days of both the countries. All the same, Cyril Radcliffe’s hastily drawn borders were to lead to much conflict in the future.

  The immediate effects of the hurried and careless partition of a subcontinent with a population of 390 million were beyond imagination, with incalculable suffering for the displaced and an enormous loss of life and property. The British had wanted an undivided India, but, paradoxically, it was their own policy of divide and rule—by fostering distrust between the two communities—that had led to the formation of Pakistan. Many of the loyal Indian soldiers, who had contributed so immensely to the allied victory, faced a heart-rending bloodbath in their own country, barely a couple of years after the war. The red stain of the British Empire on the map of India was replaced with the red of bloodshed.

  Ra’ana and Liaquat Ali Khan now had their goal in sight—the cherished goal that had preoccupied them through the course of their married life. The journey had been a long and exhausting one, but they had undertaken it with great enthusiasm, weathered many storms and persisted despite the numerous obstacles and setbacks they had experienced. It was but natural that they expected its culmination to bring much joy and relief.

  However, they had not foreseen how agonizing the birth pangs of the new nation would be. The ferocious attacks on innocent people from both the communities, the terrible loss of lives, the horrors of displacement—beloved homes forsaken, fa
milies torn apart, not to mention the atrocities on helpless women and children. No one could have envisioned the ghastly fallout of one nation being split into two.

  Ra’ana had already begun to organize women for relief work after the riots began in northern India. One wonders if she had any premonition of the Herculean task that would await her in Pakistan.

  Jinnah left Delhi for Karachi with Fatima on 7 August in the viceroy’s plane, a silver Dakota. On 11 August he was elected president of the Constituent Assembly. There was a state banquet at Government House in Karachi on 13 August, which was attended by Louis and Edwina Mountbatten. Apparently ‘Dickie’ Mountbatten sat between Ra’ana and Fatima Jinnah, and both teased him because he had agreed for India’s independence to be announced at midnight, in keeping with astrological advice.11

  Mountbatten had lobbied extensively to hold the position of governor-general of both the countries after Independence, but doubting he would be impartial, Jinnah had denied him the pleasure, retaining the position for himself.

  Pakistan celebrated its Independence Day on 14 August 1947 and India on 15 August—two countries born too suddenly, quite unprepared to cope with the travail of their caesarean delivery.

  Jinnah had meticulously wound up his affairs prior to the departure. On 1 August, he sold his palatial house No. 10, Aurangzeb Road, to Ramkrishna Dalmia.12

  Liaquat Ali Khan, on the other hand, decided to donate Gul-i-Ra’ana for the use of the Pakistan government, and it continues to be the residence of the Pakistan High Commissioner. Despite the euphoria brought by the fulfilment of a long-cherished dream, it must have been a wrench to leave the house that had nurtured it. Liaquat had insisted that they take only their personal belongings, all else would be left in the house for the use of the new occupants. When everything had been packed, including the suitcase full of cigarette lighters, Ra’ana gathered up an old carpet. ‘This belonged to my mother,’ she reportedly said. ‘I can’t part with it.’

  She was leaving her natal family behind, but the heady excitement of the prospect before her—building a nation—must have alleviated the pain of parting. Her youngest brother George would join her in Pakistan, convert to Islam and take on the name Jamil Parvez. Her other brothers, Henry and Arthur, would visit too. And she would visit India at least three times again—there would be some happy family reunions.

  But before that there was a period of immense trial. Intuitive and sensitive as she was, one wonders if she had envisaged that the real test still awaited her; that all the preceding effort was simply marking time for this test. Within the space of four years, the precious dream would be sadly dented, beginning with the death of Liaquat Ali’s revered mentor and the father figure of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, in 1948—the man who had shared and nurtured their vision.

  The worst blow would come when Liaquat Ali would himself fall to the assassin’s bullet three years later. Ra’ana had spiritedly faced all the trials the new country had thrown in her path. But the loss of her beloved husband was the greatest tragedy in her life.

  Yet she bore his loss with grace and fortitude and did not lose sight of her responsibilities. The path ahead, in a country still finding its feet, was full of challenges. There were numerous occasions when she was tested to the limit and experienced great disillusionment. But each test led her to greater heights.

  And Ra’ana, being a woman far above the ordinary, bore these travails with grace, poise and dignity. Not only did she prove her true mettle but contributed immensely to guiding Pakistan’s first steps as a country, and shaping its future—particularly that of its women.

  PART TWO

  MADAR-E-PAKISTAN

  Tahmina Aziz Ayub

  1

  August 1947: Arrival of the Liaquats in Pakistan and the Years of Turbulence and Struggle

  When the small aircraft carrying the Liaquat Ali Khans, along with their two sons, touched down in Karachi on the eve of the creation of Pakistan, they were not fully cognizant of the sea change their life was about to undergo.

  During the course of more than a decade prior to Independence, both Liaquat Ali and Begum Ra’ana had begun to work together for the Indian freedom movement. Their home in Delhi had been a major hub of political activities where Muhammad Ali Jinnah had been a frequent visitor. In 1923, Liaquat Ali had become a member of the All India Muslim League and then, three years later, a member of the UP Legislative Council. According to Ziauddin Ahmad, his biographer, ‘His main ideal in political life from which he never swerved . . . was to work for a broad-based freedom for the people of the subcontinent in which the Muslims would have their equal share as a distinct social, cultural and political entity.’1

  In the early years of their marriage—they were married in 1933—when he was made the general secretary of the Muslim League, she worked devotedly alongside him and even learnt to type to be able to provide secretarial support, something which the party could not afford in those days. She undertook the responsibility of organizing other women to take part in political activities. She had done this earlier during World War II when she had trained groups of women volunteers in nursing and basic first-aid services to tend to the sick and wounded. The direction and inspiration for this had come from Jinnah, who had reportedly said to her as early as 1942, ‘Be prepared to train women. Islam does not want women to be shut up and never see fresh air.’2

  Within days of their arrival in Karachi, Liaquat Ali was asked by Jinnah to take over as the prime minister of the new State of Pakistan. Since Ra’ana had already been his full-time political partner during their early struggles, she was fully equipped to step into the shoes of the first lady of the country. They both plunged into the governance of the newly born country which had been wracked by violence and rioting. They had to restore peace and ensure adequate provisions for the refugees who poured in from across the border.

  Fortunately, her friend and former principal of Karamat College, Kay ‘Billy’ Miles, had given up everything and decided to accompany her to Pakistan. She had been Ra’ana’s loyal and steadfast comrade from the very beginning and had even helped her organize and rally women members of the Muslim League in the pre-partition struggle in Delhi.

  Ra’ana described her as a pillar of strength, what with her education, her intellect and her innate ability to get on with people. Together, they mobilized women and created numerous bodies like widow welfare homes, a shelter for abducted women and even a lost and found bureau for women and children. Teams of women were sent to government offices to collect supplies of food and clothes and to make lists of people to ensure speedy distribution of coupons so that the needs of the women and children in refugee camps could be met.

  At this stage of her life, Begum Ra’ana was to receive an enormous amount of inspiration and assistance from one of the leading political personalities of the times, Begum Jahanara Shahnawaz. She had been a leading activist and social worker in the days of united India; had formed the Punjab Provincial Muslim League Women’s Committee (MLWC) in 1935; and was elected as a member of Punjab Legislative Assembly in 1937. In her biography, she has described the role she and Ra’ana played together in organizational activities and relief work in the refugee camps of Punjab.

  She has described in detail Ra’ana’s visit to Lahore on 17 September 1947 to personally assess the situation of the refugees who were arriving in millions from East Punjab. A meeting of the MLWC was held on the occasion where Begum Shahnawaz suggested the setting up of committees to look into the different aspects of the growing crisis. About this she has stated in the book: ‘It was my suggestion that a Women’s Voluntary Service (WVS) along the lines of the British Voluntary Service be organized.’3 According to her, Ra’ana enthusiastically took into account her suggestions and also suggested that Begum Shahnawaz’s talented young daughter Mumtaz Shahnawaz take charge of the coordination of the WVS formation and its activities from Lahore. (Mumtaz was tragically killed in a plane crash in April 1948, at the age of thirty-fi
ve, while on her way to the US to represent Pakistan at the United Nations General Assembly.)

  The MLWC requested Ra’ana to arrange for a suitable headquarters for the WVS. She was able to convince the government of Punjab to hand over a large property that had previously belonged to Rai Bahadur Ram Saran Das on 11 Egerton Road, Lahore. With her help, they were also able to acquire a spacious building, previously Ganga Ram Girls School, on Jail Road, Lahore. This was specifically to house orphan refugee children and women who had been abducted during Partition and later rescued, and were now waiting to reunite with their families in India. ‘Begum Ra’ana and I were working together in the organization of all affairs in the camps. The Pakistan WVS was doing excellent work, and we were told by in-charge officials that often when people died and cholera was suspected, it was the women who lifted the dead bodies for burial when the men refused to do so.’4 According to her accounts, the people of Lahore responded generously whenever an appeal for food supplies was made on the radio. She also describes how Ra’ana would call members of the Punjab cabinet and give them hell, when government supplies fell short.

  Ra’ana’s success in all her later endeavours was partly because of her exposure to many of the ideas she encountered during her professional and academic life well before the time she met and married Liaquat Ali Khan. It was only after she chose to become his life partner that she was able to put to practice all that she had learnt and to become involved in the politics of the subcontinent and of the Indian Muslim League.