Madras (Modern Day Chennai) in Tamil Nadu, India - 1947

This is a story about my grandmother in Pakistan, 1947. This was the time of Indian partition, and India and Pakistan were forcibly divided into two separate countries based on religion by the British empire.

Pakistan became a Muslim state, and India became a predominantly Hindu state. This caused millions of Muslims to migrate to Pakistan and millions of Hindus and Sikhs headed in the opposite direction towards India. Communities that existed for decades had started turnin on each other in horrible outbreaks of violence with Hindus and Sikhs on one side and Muslims on the other. The mass migration partition cased was incredibly violent, causing massacres, arson, and forced religious conversion. Indian partition caused the displacement of 15 million people and the deaths of between 1 to 2 million people.

My grandmother belonged to an affluent family in Pakistan. They were responsible for shipping dried fruit across Pakistan and Iran. They were Sikh and lived in the Punjab region of Pakistan.

Because of their high position, my great-grandmother found out about the partition two days before it happened. This gave them enough time to take whatever that could carry and start the journey to India. They had to leave behind their home and community, and they buried most of their jewelry, thinking they could come back later to get it. That never ended up happening, and they had no idea of the violence that would take place their journey. They spent days going south to India, relying on the kindness of others to find shelter during the night. Some of which were Muslims who did not agree with the violence and how India and Pakistan were divided. They eventually made it to a town called Madras (modern day Chennai) in Tamil Nadu, India.

It took a lot of strength from my grandmother and her family to leave everything behind and move to India, not knowing what was going to come during partition. It was also surprising for me to find out that my family is originally from Pakistan. Even though today we identify as being Indian. The borders of India and Pakistan were drawn without care for the people who lived in those places, separating millions and causing conflict today.