Indian Army officers often accepted these "gifts" which were of no use to those heading to internment and POW camps. The Indian Armed forces allowed them to keep small items of value such as jewelry, mementos, family albums. Cash was of no use to these families either.
I could not help but notice the obvious contradiction in your statement.
Too much emphasis on "gifts", it hardly seems likely as a routine affair to an invading army.
And yet, you contradict by saying the Indian army "ALLOWED" them.
How can something be "ALLOWED" if the "GIFTS" were being given by choice.
One can understand, in an atmosphere of extreme stress and fear, incidents of giving things probably occurred, but to classify those as "GIFTS" or as widely practiced is very far-fetched. Unless the sources are purely Indian.
I can go to the street, put a knife to someone and demand cash, then see a watch and ask would you mind if I take that as well, the person is hardly going to say no, but I cannot claim afterward that it was a "GIFT". because I took the cash by force, but the watch was "GIFTED" to me.
You've presented a sadly strange version of events, something highly unbelievable.
It is likely that a significant section of Indian Army personnel returned with souvenirs which wouldn't be classified strictly as looting because this was gifted away under the circumstances then .
There may have been cars gifted away also but because India manufactured only three types of cars ( Ambassador, Premier and one other ) it would have been difficult to maintain these due to lack of spares.
Again this sounds just ridiculous.
No, People under fear of an invading army do not gift away things, so yes, it was looting.
And, no one, I mean no one gifts their prized possession, such as a car, they would have hoped to get it back later or burned it, rather than hand it over to an invading force.
The only way anything would be given is out of fear, or to bargain some sort of favour, either of those situations is not classified as gifts, but looting.
I am sure a lot of the Nazis would have claimed that the jews gave them stuff as gifts, but, they were still punished at the Nuremberg trials because it's a nonsense excuse.
Perhaps it is time for West Pakistanis to get their Justice. It is our choice if we choose to forgive our Bengali brothers, but I can assure you they will refuse to forgive an invading Indian force.
