The Rawalpindi riots, which changed the history of partition

One million people were killed in the riots at the time of partition, one and a half million people had to migrate to both sides of the border, and the resulting hatred has gripped the region to this day.

The riots at the time of partition had started with the riots in Calcutta on August 16, 1946, but the riots in Rawalpindi on March 1947 seem to have sealed the bloodshed of the partition. If these riots were not there, experts believe that Pakistan and India would have been neighbors like America and Canada today.

Tara Singh’s statement that started the fire

On March 3, a meeting was held at the Kapurthala House in Old Anarkali in Lahore, in which Hindus and Sikhs gave Tara Singh the responsibility of campaigning against the creation of Pakistan. Addressing a large gathering there, he said that ‘Anti-Pakistan Day’ will be celebrated on March 11. He said that if Hindus and Sikhs get ready for suicide attacks like Japanese and Nazis, Sikhs will re-establish their dominance over Punjab as before.

On March 4, 1947, when the Punjab Assembly was debating whether to join Pakistan or not, Muslim League workers outside the Punjab Assembly were shouting slogans of Pakistan Zindabad. Sikh leader Master Tara Singh came out of the assembly and took out his kirpan and shouted that he will give the graveyard to anyone who asks for Pakistan.

The words that come out of the tongue do not come back, just what happened, the statement of Master Tara Singh ignited a fire in Punjab. It originated from Master Tara Singh’s village Harnal which was located on Mandira Chakwal Road in Rawalpindi district. Muslim protestors set fire to Sikh houses in this village, 59 Sikhs were killed, including Master Tara Singh’s mother.

Indian author Gyanendra Pandey writes in his book Remembering Partition: Violence, Nationalism and History in India that the most terrible riots took place in the village of Chowa Khalsa, a suburb of Rawalpindi, where armed Muslims from Murree and Kashmir gathered in large numbers on the evening of March 6. And ordered the Sikh families to accept Islam if they want their security.

What happened in Chua Khalsa?

Randhir Singh Ji, a Sikh survivor of the Choa Khalsa riots writes that Choa Khalsa was one of the important villages of Potohar where Sikhs and Hindus were living happily but then the fateful month of March began. When the situation worsened with Master Tara Singh’s statements, the Sikhs gathered at the local Gurdwara. Gulab Singh was the richest Sikh leader, whose mansion was also the largest.

He offered that all the Sikhs should take refuge in his mansion until the situation improved, instead of killing them one by one. On which all the Sikhs of the area gathered in the mansion with their hair and valuables. They set up fronts in the mansion, reinforced the wooden doors with iron bars and reinforced the walls of the mansion with iron bars. 36 manuscripts of Guru Granth Sahib were also collected in a big room while water was collected in big drums.

Food items were also stored. The Sikhs were worried about the growing danger, so they started worshiping the Guru Granth Sahib.

On March 8, 1947, when the Sangat was going on, thousands of Muslims surrounded the mansion and started chanting ‘Allahu Akbar’, ‘Muslim League Zindabad’ and ‘Kill the infidels’. They were about six thousand in number and all were armed, some of them even carrying guns. He was giving speeches to teach lessons to the Sikhs by taking the name of Tara Singh. The Sikhs started reciting ‘Wah Guru Wah Guru’ by remembering God.

Muslims went to a nearby school. It is not known what was decided between them that they came out and started setting fire to the houses and shops of the Sikhs. After that they stormed the mansion. The Sikhs started firing as a result of which the attackers were driven back.

The Muslims attacked fiercely from one side of the Haveli where Sardar Partab Singh along with eight and nine Sikhs fought bravely. Meanwhile, a bullet hit Sardar Partab Singh’s leg. The next day the Muslims again gathered outside the mansion. They attacked but did not succeed. Now he sent a negotiating delegation inside the mansion that no harm would be done to the Sikhs if they were disarmed.

But Gulab Singh refused to accept this condition. A battle then broke out which continued for the next two days. On the last day, the Muslims brought gunpowder and said that if the Sikhs did not come out, they would blow up the haveli with gunpowder. The Muslims were holding Quran in their hands and they were saying that just give them gold and money and they will give peace to everyone.

The Sikhs believed and came out after offering a collective prayer. The Sikhs went to the nearby Gurdwara and started reciting the holy name Wah Guru. Meanwhile, about ten thousand Muslims arrived there, accompanied by barbers with razors in their hands. He asked the barbers to cut the hair of the Sikhs. There the children were starving and all were selfless helpers. Meanwhile Gulab Singh’s wife Sardarni Lajonti Kaur came to him and said that she wanted to go home to her well. Sardar Gulab Singh took him to the well where about 90 Sikh women were present, including many young and virgin girls and Gulab Singh’s granddaughters, nieces, nephews and other female relatives.

Meanwhile, Gulab Singh learned that some attackers had rushed to Sangat. They ran from the well to the Gurdwara which was about two hundred paces away. As soon as he reached there, a Muslim leader asked him, ‘What have you decided? You have half an hour. Either accept Islam or get ready to die.’

The Sikhs there decided that they would not leave their dharma under any circumstances. Gulab Singh said, ‘Even a ruler like Aurangzeb could not do this, how can you do it? We will never become Muslims without leaving Sikhism, do whatever you want.’

When Gulab Singh came towards the Gurdwara, some Pathan, Poonch and Mirabad attackers saw that the women were alone at the well, so they reached the well and surrounded them. He told the women that he would take them and convert them to Islam and marry them. On this occasion, Sardarni Lajonti Kaur challenged and said, ‘Don’t step towards any Sikh woman, we will die, but we will not touch you.’

Muslims did not expect this phrase. They moved towards Sardarni. Sardarni, with her five-year-old granddaughter and grandson by her side, shouted ‘Jay Kara’ and ‘Bole Su Nihal Sat Sri Akal’ and jumped into the well.

Following this, all 90 Sikh women jumped into the well. When this news reached the Gurdwara, all the Sikhs rushed to the well. When Gulab Singh reached there, the well was full of women and his granddaughter Harbjan Kaur, daughter-in-law Kartar Kaur and sister-in-law Sardarni Ram Rakhi Kaur could be heard screaming because they were not submerged. Thus 87 Sikh women lost their lives.

They were pulled out of the well. Muslims moved here and there. All Sangat gathered at Gulab Singh’s house. 200 Sikhs were killed in this battle which lasted for six days. The surrounding villages of Dera Khalsa, Kallar, Thamali and Bevel were on fire.

Renowned Indian writer Bhisham Sahni, who was born in Rawalpindi, writes in his book Today’s Past: A Memoir that I stood by the well where Sikh women had committed suicide by jumping to save their honor. The Sikh who was standing next to me was pointing to the bodies in a very affectionate tone and saying, ‘Sir, she is my wife, are you looking at her?’ He was wearing gold bangles in his hands. You take off her bangles, now they are of no use to her, she is dead. I had bought these bangles for her.’

The well was littered with bodies. White lime was poured over them to prevent the smell from spreading. After the lime, it seemed that they were no longer corpses, but statues. A number of Sikhs who were relatives of the dead women and children gathered around the well. A Sikh begins to cry loudly but then falls silent and begins to pray, but does not take his eyes off the well. ‘Sir the woman holding her child in her legs is my wife and that is my son Harnam. Saying this, he starts crying again.

Author Arvashi Batalia interviewed survivors of the Choa Khalsa. A woman told him that ‘Mir Anam is Basant Kaur. My husband’s name was Sant Raja Singh. We left home on March 12 and spent the next day outside. At first we thought that we should come together to show our strength, but then we realized that this strategy would not work. We were surrounded for three or four days and could not go out. One of our men had a gun, we used it and killed two or three Muslim men. My brother-in-law was also killed in the retaliatory firing.

‘We were under fire from all sides. I was accompanied by my Jeth, my elder brother-in-law and his son. He gave me opium to drink with water. My Jeth killed his mother, wife, sister, daughter and uncle. My daughter was also killed. We hid in a front. Then we all gathered together in Sardaran Di Haveli. Everyone there decided that we would like to die but not become Muslims. There everyone was given a portion of opium. A Sikh girl who was very beautiful was picked up by the Muslims, after which the Sikhs decided to kill all the girls.

‘My Jeth, named Harbans Singh, killed his wife, daughter and eight-year-old child. Then came the turn of Meri Nand, his son and daughter. Those who survived these bloody moments reached Jhelum on March 14. We stayed there for a month and then we were transferred to Delhi.’

About two and a half months after the Choa Khalsa riots, the Viceroy of India, Lord Mountbatten, visited the Choa Khalsa on 29 April. About his visit, his press attaché Alan Campbell Johnson writes that ‘We had just got off the plane at Rawalpindi and gone to the Commander’s House when Governor Sir Junks took us to Kahoota. This is where the horrific communal riots took place recently. After driving 25 miles we were dusty and thirsty. Coming to this small town, we saw a terrible scene of destruction. As we moved forward past the rubble of fallen houses, we saw the scene one would see after a war bombardment. The Muslims here had destroyed the Sikhs and the Muslims here seemed happy with their actions but they had forgotten that these local Sikhs and traders were the source of their pastimes.

Sikhs closed the chapter on joining Pakistan

The Choa Khalsa riots proved to be the turning point in history when Maharaja Patiala Yadavendra Singh bluntly replied to Quaid-e-Azam that after the Rawalpindi riots there was no question of Sikhs joining Pakistan.

Renowned historian and Professor of Political Science at Stockholm University Dr. Ishtiaq Ahmed writes in his book The Punjab Bloodied, Partitioned and Cleansed that these were not just riots but a planned military campaign. Several weeks before this tragedy, Syed Akbar Khan ex-MLA, Captain Lal Khan, Maulvi Abdul Rehman and Kala Khan MLA had started encouraging the surrounding Muslims for Jihad. Volunteers were sent to mosques and nearby villages, on the invitation of ex-military officers who were armed with modern weapons, and started a massacre in Kahota, Chowa Khalsa and Nara etc.

The fire of Choa Khalsa engulfed many villages of Rawalpindi, Attock and Jhelum and 128 villages here became the dead of eight to ten thousand Sikhs and Hindus in a single week. When these strapped caravans reached the camps set up in Delhi and Amritsar and narrated their heart-wrenching stories to the people there, riots broke out in those areas as well. So, the treatment that was done to the Sikhs and Hindus was worse than the treatment done to the Muslims there, 10 lakh people died and one and a half million people were forced to migrate. It was this tragedy that Amrita Pritam felt compelled to write

اج آکھاں وارث شاہ نوں، کتھوں قبراں وچوں بول
تے اج کتابِ عشق دا کوئی اگلا ورقہ پَھول

اک روئی سی دھی پنجاب دی، تُوں لکھ لکھ مارے بین
اج لکھاں دھیاں روندیاں، تینوں وارث شاہ نوں کہن

Wake up pain, wake up, watch your own Punjab
اج بیلے لاشاں وچھیاں تے لہو دی بھری چناب

کسے نے پنجاں پانیاں وچ دتا اے زہر
تے اونہاں پانیاں دھرت نوں دتا زہر پلا

دھرتی تے لہو وسیا تے قبراں پیاں چون
Aj preet diyan princesses, vich mazaran ron

اج سبھے قیدی بن گئے، حسن عشق دے چور
Let me say this to my lips, Waris Shah Ik Hor