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Indian Express
3 days ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
Partition, 79 years: ‘I have seen India broken — & remade'
The stench hit him first. In August 1947, twenty-two-year-old Wazir Singh Choudhary stood on the Amritsar platform, clutching a letter summoning him for an Indian Military Academy interview in Delhi. The station master had warned him there were no safe trains. The only one scheduled to leave was carrying the corpses of Muslim refugees massacred the night before, bound for Beas to be consigned to the river. It was a choice between danger and despair. He climbed aboard. It seemed like eternity as the train rattled through the scorched Punjab countryside, past villages in flames, the silence broken only by the creak of the wheels and the muffled sobs of the living who travelled alongside the dead. At Beas, the bodies were unloaded, and Choudhary and a friend found a way onwards to Delhi. With no place to stay, he spent the night in an abandoned first-class railway compartment before walking into the Cantonment the next morning. That grim journey was just one of many turning points in a life shaped by Partition, war, and service. Born on April 20, 1925 (his military records made him two years younger), in Gujranwala, undivided Punjab, Choudhary had been studying engineering in Delhi when riots swept through Punjab. He returned home to find a changed Gujranwala — fear in the streets, mistrust between neighbours, and whispers of worse to come. His family moved to Arbang, a village five kilometres away, to his brother-in-law's home. Sensing the storm, the villagers armed themselves, set up pickets, and organised defences under the guidance of ex-servicemen and the local police. By early August, villages were falling to marauding mobs, their homes reduced to ash. From Arbang's outskirts, they could see the orange glow of burning houses. On the night of August 14, 1947, as India awoke to freedom, Arbang braced for an attack. Fate intervened when a military jeep from the Sikh Regiment, out on routine reconnaissance, passed through. They had not been sent for rescue, but the desperate pleas of the villagers moved them to act. Residents were ferried to a refugee camp in Gujranwala, saving them from certain slaughter. From there, the Choudhary family was moved to Amritsar, housed in homes left empty by Muslims fleeing to Pakistan. It was a bitter reminder of the human cost of the subcontinent's division. Violence still raged. 'Religious hatred was tearing Punjab apart,' Brig Choudhary remembers. 'It was a mass exodus. Every day, more people left. More homes were burned.' His determination to join the Army did not waver. The IMA letter had arrived amid the chaos, and he was willing to risk everything to reach Delhi. That resolve would define his career. Selected for the technical graduate course, he passed out of IMA in December 1949 and was commissioned into the Corps of Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (EME).
Hindustan Times
29-05-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
HC rejects plea to form army Gujjar regiment
The Delhi high court on Wednesday took a dim view of a petition demanding the Centre to have an exclusive army regiment for Gujjars, terming such a move as 'divisive'. With the court declaring its intent to dismiss the petition with costs, the petitioner chose to withdraw the plea. The petition filed by Rohan Basoya referred to the tradition in the army to have units such as the Jat Regiment, Sikh Regiment, and Gorkha Regiment and demanded the Union government create a similar arrangement for the Gujjar community as well. 'It's absolutely divisive,' said a bench of chief justice DK Upadhyay and justice Tushar Rao Gedela finding no reason to entertain the petition. 'Which law vests a right to have such a regiment having people of a particular community? Where is that right? There has to be an infringement of the right.' Finding no response forthcoming, the court warned of dismissing the petition with heavy costs. Basoya chose to withdraw the plea. 'Heard the counsel for the petitioner. After arguing at some length, the counsel for the petitioner says that she has instructions from the petitioner to withdraw the writ. Accordingly, the petition is dismissed as withdrawn,' the order said. In his petition, Basoya, an advocate, asserted that the community despite having a rich martial legacy by way of its participation in various wars including 1857 revolt, Indo-Pak wars of 1947, 1965, 1971, Kargil war (1999) and counter insurgency operations in Jammu and Kashmir, had not been accorded a dedicated regiment, unlike other communities such as Sikhs, Jats, Rajputs, Gorkhas, and Dogras. 'Despite this rich martial legacy, they (Gujjars) have not been accorded a dedicated regiment, unlike other martial communities such as Sikhs, Jats, Rajputs, Gorkhas, and Dogras,' the petition stated. To be sure, all the examples cited by the petitioner refer to regiments that were formed and christened after communities in the 19th century by the British. The petitioner's argument was that ' the exclusion of Gujjars from the regimental system, violates Articles 14 and 16, contradicts Indian army precedents and denies rightful recognition of their military contributions.'
