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Partition, 79 years: The Mohalla Gashala boy, who lived to tell the tale
'Haivaan bhi aisa bartaav nahi karte jaisa uss samay insaano ne kia. (Even beasts don't behave the way humans did then),' says Justice Jagdish Chander Verma (retd) sitting on a porch at his Sector-11 residence in Chandigarh.
The now 85-year-old Verma was just seven in the September of 1947 when he and his mother and siblings were evacuated from Mianwali (now in West Punjab, Pakistan) after a mob attacked the otherwise peaceful suburb. From losing his father in October 1942 during a lathicharge on 'Quit India Movement' protesters in Karachi to fleeing his birthplace to reach Ferozepur and surviving the horrifying partition riots, Verma rose on to become a High Court judge.
To survive in an unknown place under difficult circumstances, Verma and his siblings did odd jobs in their childhood. From cutting, selling wood from jungles to working as a proof reader at a press and as a clerk at Punjab Secretariat, Chandigarh, he did it all. For majority years of his service as High Court judge since 1996, he was posted in Rajasthan, and after retirement, he is still serving in Lok Adalat at Chandigarh. After his father's death, the family moved from Sindh's Sukkur (where father was posted) to their hometown Mianwali. 'My grandparents lived there and we had a bungalow in Mohalla Gaushala and around 100 acres. Abhi bhi naksha saamne aata hai (I still get the map of Mianwali in front of my eyes). Whenever I meet someone from Pakistan, I ask if Mohalla Gaushala still exists and they say it does,' says Verma.
Even after India gained Independence, Verma says his family had no plans to leave Mianwali until September that year. 'It was perhaps September 27 or 28 when a mob of at least 10,000 attacked Mianwali and surprisingly there wasn't a single local face. Local Muslims never attacked us, in fact they saved us. It was our family friend Mustafa Khan who did not let rioters enter. Thousands of Sikhs and Hindus were killed by rioters in Mianwali and we were forced to leave. An Army truck evacuated my family but I was left behind. I then jumped into another truck and what I saw still makes me tremble. The truck was full of corpses, one on another. The truck did not stop anywhere before it arrived at a place where a huge pit was dug probably to dispose them,' says Verma. After reuniting with his mother and siblings at a refugee camp, Verma says they took a goods train to reach India, but the journey which should have taken 9-10 hours, took more than five days. 'The train did not move for four days from Lalamusa (now in Pakistan) as rioters were waiting ahead. Rioters would sit on trees with guns and open fire on moving trains. We were instructed to keep our heads down to dodge bullets. At Lahore station, rioters were standing with swords but the train passed in full speed and it only stopped after reaching Attari,' he remembers.
Verma says he cannot forget the moment when he had snatched some chapatis from the hands of a Sikh man at Attari railway station. 'So hungry I was that I snatched the chapatis he was holding. He hugged me and said 'it's for you only.' I can never forget that hug. He then gave me more food for my mother and siblings,' he says.
But harder days lay ahead as the family had to rebuild their lives brick by brick. 'From having five household staff in Mianwali, my mother had to work as a domestic help in Ferozepur.'
In 1955, the family got to know that they were allotted a chunk of land as government aid in Saidopur (now in Haryana's Yamunanagar). 'I cleared class 10 from Hindu AS Senior Secondary School, Sadhaura, and bagged a scholarship but had to leave studies midway due to lack of money. Representatives from DAV College, Ambala, came to our village and told my mother that they would exempt tuition fee and provide free books but we had to pay admission and hostel fee which was not more than Rs 100. But we had no money,' he remembers. 'I opted for Faculty of Arts (FA) and took advantage of the relaxation given to refugees by Panjab University to attempt BA/FA via distance education. I was 17 when I saw an advertisement for the post of clerk in Punjab Secretariat, Chandigarh, and applied. I got the job and my first salary was Rs 100. My mother just cried. I joined evening classes in PU's law department in 1962 and started practicing as an advocate in 1964,' says Verma, who fought hundreds of pro bono cases.
He says till his mother died in 1973, she was hopeful of going back. 'But I don't want to live there even for a day but yes, I do wish to see my home in Mianwali once.
