When Quaid E Azam M. Ali Jinnah Visited My Family Pre Partition!

[Meengla]

These events gets etched into memory permanently and do not get erased easily by the time or aggravation of the health.

Absolutely! I am amazed that she often forgets about very recent things but has a fairly sharp memory from many decades ago. Indeed, creation of Pakistan and the turmoil of the events from 1940's through at least late 1940's must have left lasting impressions on many minds.

Oh heck, I don't remember what I did last New Year's Eve but I remember more things from the 1971 Pakistan-India war!

PS. It is a quite a tale of survival of during the Nana side family's self-exile in Rajasthan and taking shelter in my father's family abode in Rajasthan. Also, fascinating story is how my teen-age father quietly sneaked into Pakistan to join those relatives who chose Pakistan over India--but the cost he paid was isolation from his own father, mother and his four brothers who stayed back in India. Borders were open to migration till into few years after the Partition. My father really got a tongue lashing and perhaps, deservedly, more for worrying everyone.

 

[war&peace]

@Indus Falcon's Maternal Grandfathers family was not so lucky. The whole village got wiped out.

So sad many people lost their lives...our ancestors lost all of the property but they don't care at all about that but they lost some of the family members. But as compared to most people..their losses were much less...none of women got dishonoured or harmed in anyway and most of the men survived because they planned the travel in a good way, they knew the paths and had weapons and stayed together and fearlessly fought the rioters.. They helped many others who joined them but they were little sad that AIML leaders did not understand the collusion between the govt and AINC on disarming the people and they fell for the face value.

 

[Signalian]

Thanks for sharing mate.

 

[Hakikat ve Hikmet]

Stories of the Turkish folks doing Hijret from the Balkans or Caucasia are so similar. For them, the present day Turkey is the last Vatan, and they're not exchanging it for anything...

 

[Jungibaaz]

That's quite an honour, and I'm glad to know that your family succeeded. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Airdef95]

My nana was an engineer at that time and used to tell me how he helped people migrate to Pakistan during partition. He recently died at the age of 94. Was very patriotic though.

 

[The Accountant]

Thanks to your family for our services to our country ...

I feel ashamed that after so much sacrifices from our elders i personally unable to return even a portion of it ...

Pakistan wasnt ment to be like this ... it was dreamed to be a homeland for prosperity of muslims and other minorities under the peaceful muslim rules ... i wish i could pay for the debts of my elders ...

My own family is migrated one ... my grand father had to abondoned his whole family ...

I have a strong a belief creation of Pakistan will achieve its objectives ... Allah will make it happen ... INSHALLAH ...

 

[Indus Falcon]

@Indus Falcon's Maternal Grandfathers family was not so lucky. The whole village got wiped out.

https://defence.pk/threads/biharis-and-their-sacrifices-for-pakistan.320809/page-6#post-5838295

 

[Pakistanisage]

Thank you for sharing, @Meengla .

 

[WAJsal]

Brilliant share, @Joe Shearer ,@Arsalan ,@Shah01 ,@saiyan0321 ...
@Side-Winder , this deserves more audience...

 

[Meengla]

Some more info just learned:

The picture of Quaid in OP was taken in front of my mother; Quaid had lunch inside while there was a big Shamiana (Tent) for the general public.

Quaid was invited to give the donation and to ask for his advice about the future course of action: My Nana family lived in a Hindu-majority area of Ahmadabad and the tensions came to a violent point when my uncle (Mamoo)--who's probably around 10 year old then--was tricked by local Hindu partisans and locked into a room to be killed; it took efforts of some loyal servants who intervened in time when the stabbing was beginning.

Quaid told the family something like: "You should get out as soon as possible. India will not be safe for you. Inshallah, Pakistan is coming to existence in the month of Ramazan and you should go there."

So, possibly few months after the Quaid visit, the kids were awakened in hushed voices (my mother distinctly remembers that!) one early morning, taken in three family cars to some 'Dum Dum Airport' in Ahmedabad where the extended family boarded a propeller plane. They were served chicken drumsticks, bananas, and kids given toffees. They were asked to vomit in some bags if needed while on the plane.

The family arrived in Karachi where some other family members had already bought a house for Rs. 50,000 vacated by a Hindu family which was moving to India. Our family's Ahmadabad house was looted and ransacked as soon as the neighbors found out the family had moved out.

By luck or providence, I was even born. But not so lucky are the untold souls who lost their lives during those days. I feel very sorry for those very avoidable tragedies.




Oh, please don't bring the usual Hindu-Muslim violence arguments into this--it was a violent time in the Subcontinent history where things went awful in many places.

 

[Farah Sohail]

Some more info just learned:

The picture of Quaid in OP was taken in front of my mother; Quaid had lunch inside while there was a big Shamiana (Tent) for the general public.

Quaid was invited to give the donation and to ask for his advice about the future course of action: My Nana family lived in a Hindu-majority area of Ahmadabad and the tensions came to a violent point when my uncle (Mamoo)--who's probably around 10 year old then--was tricked by local Hindu partisans and locked into a room to be killed; it took efforts of some loyal servants who intervened in time when the stabbing was beginning.

Quaid told the family something like: "You should get out as soon as possible. India will not be safe for you. Inshallah, Pakistan is coming to existence in the month of Ramazan and you should go there."

So, possibly few months after the Quaid visit, the kids were awakened in hushed voices (my mother distinctly remembers that!) one early morning, taken in three family cars to some 'Dum Dum Airport' in Ahmedabad where the extended family boarded a propeller plane. They were served chicken drumsticks, bananas, and kids given toffees. They were asked to vomit in some bags if needed while on the plane.

The family arrived in Karachi where some other family members had already bought a house for Rs. 50,000 vacated by a Hindu family which was moving to India. Our family's Ahmadabad house was looted and ransacked as soon as the neighbors found out the family had moved out.

By luck or providence, I was even born. But not so lucky are the untold souls who lost their lives during those days. I feel very sorry for those very avoidable tragedies.


Oh, please don't bring the usual Hindu-Muslim violence arguments into this--it was a violent time in the Subcontinent history where things went awful in many places.

Thank you so much for sharing this...

 

[PakSword]

Okay, I will ask my Mama for some more info. Today she called me excitedly asking if I had seen the photo--which was sent to me via WhatsApp only today by my brother in Karachi. I said, yes. She said she remembers it was a huge crowd when Quaid and M.L members visited the family. There were tons of 'degs' (huge, round metal containers) of food. I will ask her more. Maybe there are more pics as well.

She did say that they had to have a chartered plane and fly out secretly from some airport in Ahmedabad; if their plan to escape was known to many people then they would be in danger. She remembers the plane was full of family members and full of suitcases. Prior to escaping Ahmedabad, the huge family tried to run away from the local anti-Muslim partisans and took shelter in my Dad's area of residence: Rajasthan--hundreds of miles away from Ahmadabad.

She's well into her 70's but I think she still has a good memory.

Good to know your roots are from Ahmedabad. My Dada and Dadi also migrated from Ahmedabad and and my Dada and great grandfather were active members of AIML. Unfortunately my grandfather passed away when someone poisoned him due to business rivalry in Pakistan. My father was just 11 years old. My grandmother also died in 70s long before my birth. So there is no one who can share those wonderful accounts with me.

My nani is from Bhopal though. Her family still lives in India and told my mother when they visited us in 80s that one of Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan's parents are their relatives.

But I so much want to know what happened in Ahmedabad, how people struggled etc etc. I can imagine my dada in those accounts at least.

 

[Joe Shearer]

So sad many people lost their lives...our ancestors lost all of the property but they don't care at all about that but they lost some of the family members. But as compared to most people..their losses were much less...none of women got dishonoured or harmed in anyway and most of the men survived because they planned the travel in a good way, they knew the paths and had weapons and stayed together and fearlessly fought the rioters.. They helped many others who joined them but they were little sad that AIML leaders did not understand the collusion between the govt and AINC on disarming the people and they fell for the face value.

A fascinating, sad story, but I do not know where you got that account of the government being in collusion with the Congress. This is the first time I have read about anything like that. Why the British should have collaborated with the Congress after enabling the Muslim League to do what they wanted, and giving them sympathetic treatment in a number of ways, including the plebiscite in NWFP, and the support given to the mutineers in Gilgit by the commandant, is not very clear. It may have seemed so to affected individuals, but it has no historical foundation.

Brilliant share, @Joe Shearer ,@Arsalan ,@Shah01 ,@saiyan0321 ...
@Side-Winder , this deserves more audience...

I agree, it deserves a larger audience.

The portly gentleman next to Mr. Jinnah had the pounds to be Suhrawardy, but what he would be doing there, at such a time, when he was totally engrossed by goings on in Bengal, is not clear. The probability is very low. He was also not so close to Jinnah as to turn up at such a lunch in the west of the country. Not impossible, but improbable.

 

[Salik]

I feel to say 'Escape from Ahmedabad' can be a good movie.

How many movies do we have made on these accounts? Once in a while a movie on freedom struggle is appreciable.

@Meengla sir.