Can Social Media Help Heal the Wounds of Partition?

LAHORE, PAKISTAN — Holding rose petals and garlands in their hands, men and children, all dressed in new clothes, walked nearly half a kilometer from their village to welcome their guest arriving from India.

Back at home, women were busy preparing traditional Punjabi cuisine and kids were being taught how to say “Sat Sri Akal” (a Sikh greeting) when they meet the visitor.

At last, Dhana Singh Dhillon arrived. He rushed toward Majeed Teja, hugged him, and told the rest of the crowd: “Oh Daroga Walyo! Aay [Majeed] mera peo aa, aay mera taya, aay mera khoon aa asal…” (Oh residents of Darogawala! He [Majeed] is my father, he is my grand uncle, he is my blood.)

Majeed, on the other hand, was all in tears.

Dhana Singh, the son of Majeed Teja’s childhood chum Sadhu Singh, started his journey from Bhaini Mehraj in Sangrur (a district of Indian Punjab, 200 kilometers east of Lahore) to Darogawala in Jhang (a district 200 km west of Lahore, Pakistani Punjab) to meet his father’s friend 72 years after the Indo-Pak partition.

Majeed’s clan lived in Badbar, some 3 km away from Bhaini, and enjoyed friendly relations with Sikhs of that area. Both villages were in the same state, Nabha, before 1947. During the partition, when Sikhs and Muslims from both sides of Punjab started killing each other, Majeed’s family took shelter under Sadhu’s father Bachitar Singh, then a Numberdar (villager elder) of Bhaini.

After few days, Majeed’s family was told that they could not live in Badbar; they had to move to a new country, Pakistan. But even as his family decided to depart from their ancestral village, Majeed did not have the courage to leave his pal Sadhu. He stayed.

“We were [absolutely] sure then that we will soon return to our village,” says Majeed.

It took the family’s elders five years to finally realize that Punjab was now irrevocably divided between Pakistan and India. Majeed’s uncle went back to Bhaini to bring him to their new home in Darogawala, Jhang (the real name of the village in revenue records is Ram Krishan).

“I can never forget how my uncle was weeping when he saw their abandoned field and houses in Badbar,” Majeed recalls. “I also remember how my second father [Bachitar Singh] was crying like a kid when I left him.”

Bachitar died only a few years after the partition, but Sadhu still lives and has great knowledge about the Teja and Dhaliwal (subcastes of the Jat ethnic group) families settled in Badbar.

Now Sadhu has sent his son Dhana to Pakistan to bring Majeed back to India after 72 years. He fears he may not live longer and wishes to hug and talk to his childhood friend before dying – a feeling equally shared by Majeed.