A story of love in Rawalpindi that became the cause of partition

It seems like a story from an old movie. A love story of a boy and a girl belonging to the elite class of Rawalpindi, in which the girl is a Hindu and the boy is a Muslim.

This is about 1945. The girl’s father is a civil surgeon of the city and the boy’s father is Rawalpindi’s most famous barrister and district president of the Muslim League. Both study together at Gordon College Rawalpindi.

When love sees dharma, it is hatred that takes refuge behind dharma. During this period too, the business of hatred was at its peak, so the girl’s father feared that the stories that had spread from the walls of the college to the streets of the city, discussed in the mosques and temples, were somewhere in practice. Don’t borrow.

He thought that if my daughter marries a Muslim boy, it may not only affect her honor but also her or her daughter’s life and to make matters worse, these Hindu-Muslim riots. can also take the form of because the boy’s father is also not an ordinary man. First mention the boy’s father who he was.

Balraj Sahni, the famous Indian film star of the 60s, belonged to Rawalpindi. His brother Bhisham Sahni was also an eminent writer. His novel ‘Tamas’, which was also filmed, describes the dynamics of Hindu-Muslim conflict.

Bhisham Sahni writes that he met Balraj in Shantinagar, where he was studying, and there he also met Gandhi.

When Gandhi was told that I have come from Rawalpindi, he reminisced about his visit to Rawalpindi and also mentioned the house where he stayed in Company Bagh, now called Liaquat Bagh.

He also asked about John Sahib, a lawyer from Rawalpindi. Surprisingly, Gandhi did not ask a Hindu boy about any Hindus or Sikhs in the city, nor did he ask about Ram Pira Malik, a lawyer, in whose house Gandhi stayed opposite Liaquat Bagh. There was a mention of a Muslim lawyer, Barrister Muhammad Jan.

Since John had also been in the Congress, when Gandhi came to the city, he must have had meetings with Barrister John.

Gandhi came to Rawalpindi in 1924 when the Hindu, Muslim, Sikh riots in Kohat had not only resulted in large-scale deaths, but all the non-Muslims had been forced to leave Kohat and the majority of them came to Rawalpindi in search of refuge. Busi was.

Quaid-e-Azam also once stayed in Rawalpindi at the same barrister John’s house number 216 Macaldala Road. Muhammad Arif Raja, who was barrister John’s secretary, later wrote a book containing his memoirs, ‘History of Rawalpindi and Tehreek-e-Pakistan’.

It is written that the Chief Minister of the Unionist Party, Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan, was very angry with the entry of Quaid-e-Azam into Punjab, so taking his opposition and keeping Quaid-e-Azam in his house was a very heartless act and this work was done by Barrister Muhammad John. Could only do it.

Since the reign of Sir Sikandar Hayat is from 1936 to 1942, history proves that Quaid-i-Azam stayed in Rawalpindi in December 1936 with Sheikh Muhammad Ismail, whose departmental store named Ismail & Sons in Sadar is still preserved in the same condition. has been kept

During the same visit, Barrister Muhammad John, who was a junior fellow at his famous British academic institution, Luckins Inn, had some meetings and had dinner at his house.

Mentioning this meeting, Hafiz Abdul Rashid, an elderly person of the city, writes that when the blue-clad volunteers of the Shaheed Ganj Mosque were released by Quaid-i-Azam, they visited Punjab and painted blue on Justice John’s house in Rawalpindi. Posh activists were called for the meeting, including Maulana Ishaq Mansharvi, Syed Mustafa Shah Khalid Geelani.

Barrister John’s historic mansion on Macdalla Road once consisted of eight canals, but now has several sections occupied by separate owners. Now the name of this road has been changed to Tufail Road which is located in Rawalpindi Cantt.

Malik Sherni Khan who is now quite elderly and living in Belgium. They bought half of it from the John family in 1991, while the other half is still owned by the John family.

Muhammad Jan was born in 1885 to Atta Muhammad Munshi in a prominent family of Lalkarti. After passing your middle examination from Deniz High School, you were sent to England for further education. After matriculating from London, he obtained a barrister’s degree in 1912 from Lucken’s Inn College, where Quaid-e-Azam was also a graduate, and returned to practice law in Rawalpindi.

He was the first Muslim barrister in Rawalpindi, before him only Hindus and Sikhs were barristers, while none of the judges were Muslims.

Barrister John was a good-looking and well-dressed lawyer who used to drive his car to the court every day from the red carpet and changed the car model every other year. Being a Muslim, he used to get most of the Muslim cases.

In the years to come, his advocacy gained momentum. He was also a high-ranking speaker, so when he argued in the court, even the opposing lawyers would be amazed.

He also played an active role in the political movements of that time, including Hijra Movement, Khilafat and Khadr Posh Movement.

There was even a time when he dressed up as Khadar. He was also a part of the Congress, but then he withdrew from politics and concentrated all his attention on advocacy.

The most heartbreaking event in the history of Rawalpindi is the riots of 1926 which later had a significant impact on the partition of India.

In these riots, cases of 302/436 were established against Muslims, then the chairman of the Muslim Defense Committee was Barrister Muhammad Jan. He gave so many arguments that not a single Muslim was punished.

After that, the star of your advocacy shone so brightly that court cases from Gujarat to Peshawar and Sargodha started coming to you.

Between 1938 and 1946, he held the heights of fame in his field and was also the President of Muslim League District Rawalpindi.

At the beginning of 1947, when Pakistan was not yet formed, he was made a judge of the Lahore High Court. There was restoration and resettlement. He died in 1959.

Now coming back to the love story of Justice John’s son Azam John and city civil surgeon Dr. Bandra’s daughter Shobha.

Hussain Ahmad Khan writes in a short book of his memories, ‘Rawalpindi Ki Yadayen’, that ‘when the talk of Shobha and Azam Jan’s love became public, there was a fear that it might become the basis of Hindu-Muslim riots. Dr. Bandra, Shobha’s father, sent his daughter out of Pindi on some pretext.

After some time, Shobha started acting in films. In 1946, Shobha appeared as the heroine in film director Bhubti Mitra’s famous film ‘Safar’.

As Dr. Bandra was an influential man in the city, he stopped the screening of the film in the cinemas of Rawalpindi.

‘We got a chance to watch this film after the creation of Pakistan. Apart from this, the famous song of the same movie is ‘Kehkar Bhi Na Aye Tum, Ab Chhapne Lage Tare. Dil le ke tum hi jete, Dil de ke hum hi hare’ was sung by Muhammad Rafi.

Written by Gopal Singh Nepali, the music of this song was composed by C. Ramachandra which is still popular even after so long.

Shobha was not heard of after the film ‘Safar’, but Azam John, who was a smart young man, joined Pakistan Airlines as a pilot.

Hussain Ahmed Khan did not mention but in the same movie Shobha also sang a song with Kanu Roy which is available on YouTube.

It is said that Azam Khan had several love affairs to forget Shobha’s love. But whether or not Shobha Gordon College Rawalpindi has forgotten this love story is unknown.

The story is not over yet. The story continues, but due to the big names of Justice John and Dr. Bandra, this love story could not find a place on the pages of history, so the film star Shobha is also lost in the rest of history and Justice John’s son Azam John is also missing. Is.

But if this story had been alive, how much could it have broken the walls of hatred across the borders?