What made the family leave their home? Where did they go?
-from the story Partition
Answers
Answer:
“When my parents left their native land in 1947, they were [of the] illusion that they would come back here after some [time], but it would not be possible. My mother became mad for this reason. She wanted to see her native land but it was not possible. She died due to this,” Gurbachan Kaur says.
Gurbachan Kaur was born in a small village in Gujranwala Tehsil, Punjab, in 1940. She had one elder sister and two younger brothers at the time of Partition. She was born in a farming family. Her father owned thirty-six acres of land along with his two brothers. She had one aunt who was married, and her uncle was in the army. Gurbachan Kaur says that her village was large and many different communities lived there. Her family belonged to the Sandu caste. Her family’s house was in good condition and their economic condition was sound, she remembers. The main crops of that time were wheat, sugarcane, cotton, vegetables and rice. Her family had cows as well. She remembers that her father had friends of diverse backgrounds.
Gurbachan Kaur did not go to school in her childhood, although there was a school in her own village. She says that, in that area, girls education was not favored. In the village there was a gurudwara where the granthi (leader) used to teach girls of the Sikh community.
She remembers that changes in society started happening suddenly in 1947 when she was seven years old. No one in the family was ready to leave their home but the situation was becoming very dangerous. There was violence happening in their neighborhood. She heard that kidnappings were taking place and girls had jumped into wells to avoid abduction. For their safety, her family left the village and went to a camp.
“Our family did not [take] much with them because they thought that they would [come] back after some days,” she says. Her family gave the responsibility of their home to a neighbor. Many families gathered together to travel to the camp. Most of them went by foot including Gurbachan Kaur but the elderly, children, and pregnant women were picked up by military trucks. Her own mother was pregnant when she left her village. They took the train and reached Kurukshetra in India, where a large camp had been set up for refugees. Her family spent six months there.
She recalls the conditions of life in camp. There were two families living in a single tent. There were no reliable arrangements for food and medicine. Her mother gave birth to her brother while in the camp. After spending six months in the camp, her family moved to village Talwandi in Patiala District where they were allotted land and house. They got less land than they had before, but house was a good size for the family.
Gurbachan Kaur was married at the age of eighteen to her husband whose family had also migrated. Her life after Partition was full of struggle, she shares. She has two sons and three daughters. Today, all of her children are married. One of her sons is a farmer and the other is in the police force in Punjab. She is now leading a contented life and living with her sons and their families in village Badeshe, Malerkotla, Punjab.
This interview was conducted by Oral History Apprentice Malkit Singh. The summary above provides a brief glimpse into the full interview. The complete video interview is expected to be public in 2017.
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