A YouTube video… & a man's mission: to reunite partition-separated families

Indian Express

3 days ago

It began with a chance YouTube video. On the other side of the border in Pakistan, a family had made an emotional appeal through a local channel, seeking help to locate the grave of an ancestor in a Punjab village. Watching it from his home in Fatehgarh Sahib, Sudagar Singh instantly recognised the place—he had relatives there.
Guided by instinct, he travelled to Khanpur in Kharar, Mohali, searched the old Hindu cremation ground, and found the grave. Using the contact shared in the video, he informed the family. Days later, they crossed into India to pay their respects.
Not long after, another story from the Partition years found him. A Muslim boy, separated from his family in the chaos of 1947, had been rescued and raised by a Sikh villager, then sent to Pakistan under the official exchange policy. That boy, Mehndi Hasan, is no more, but his son Zafar Iqbal recounted the story: during violent attacks in Sirhind, his grandmother had asked Mehndi to jump into a well with her. She died; he survived, staying in the well for two days before being rescued by Sikhs of Timber Pur and adopted by Gulab Singh, who renamed him Sudama. After four years, he was sent to Pakistan, where he built a successful life. Iqbal always wanted to thank Gulab Singh for saving and raising his father.
These encounters lit a spark in Sudagar Singh. Seven years ago, he began a quiet but relentless mission—to reconnect families torn apart by the Partition. Sometimes it was just a phone call; other times, it meant travelling in person. Since then, he has reunited around 150 families, in some cases within just five to twenty-four hours.
He even located Zafar Iqbal 70 years after Partition and connected him to Gulab Singh through a phone call, where the long-awaited words of gratitude finally crossed the border.
For the past seven years, 57-year-old Sudagar Singh 'Chunni' of Chunni village in Fatehgarh Sahib has devoted his life to this work. He launched a YouTube channel—first under his own name, later renamed Yadaan 1947 Diyan—to share survivor interviews, reunion stories, and accounts of Muslims who stayed back in Punjab after Partition.
What began as personal curiosity grew into a humanitarian mission. Over the years, he has traced relatives for 150 families, identified ancestral villages and homes for around 250 more, and located cemeteries where loved ones were laid to rest. Many have since visited their native places—journeys filled with tears, embraces, and memories pulled back from the shadows.
'Every family I help feels like my own,' he says, his voice steady but his eyes glistening. 'Partition didn't just divide land—it tore apart hearts.'
His own life is rooted in a community where coexistence is not a slogan but a way of life. Chunni village has around 4,300 voters, including 300 Muslims from UP and Bihar. A mosque and gurdwara share the same premises. He once worked as a technician at the Central Government's Semi-Conductor Complex in Mohali for 16 years, until a fire gutted the unit. After voluntary retirement, he worked as an MGNREGA mate.
Now, his daily work brings no salary—only the quiet satisfaction of service. He spends hours at his small internet setup, combing through online records, social media posts, old maps, and oral histories. A lead might come from a half-forgotten name, a pond in a story, or a mosque that was once a gurdwara.
Among his many stories is that of Sardar Ali, separated from his Hindu Punjabi family during migration, who embraced Islam in Pakistan. His family settled in old Sirhind. Seventy-five years later, a heartfelt appeal led to a reunion in just five hours. Another time, he reconnected brothers Muhammad Suleman and Niaz Muhammad after 78 years, their first video call brimming with memories and tears.
He also reunited Bashir Khan, 95, from Bhatian in Ludhiana, with an old friend after 77 years—through just a phone call. In Sirhind, a Muslim girl left behind in 1947 and married into a Sikh family was traced to her nephew in Pakistan within 24 hours. In Himatpura, Moga, he connected family members who spoke for the first time in over 70 years.
'The happiness, excitement, and tears on the faces of these families encourage me to work more in this direction,' he says.
His mission has a spiritual side, too. He visits and documents old Sikh and Muslim religious sites—gurdwaras, mosques, cemeteries—ensuring their stories are not forgotten. 'In my own village, a mosque and gurdwara share the same space,' he says, 'a rare symbol of co-existence.'
For him, the reward is simple yet profound—watching people cross the Radcliffe Line not as strangers, but as family. 'Borders can divide nations,' he says, 'but not the love between brothers and sisters.'