The untold Partition story
Think Partition, and our minds spontaneously go to those who came in from West Pakistan. It is as if the Bengal exodus is a minor footnote to the epic tragedy of Punjab refugees. Truth is that the numbers fleeing from East and West Pakistan were roughly the same. Even corpse-laden trains feature in Partition narratives from both sides.
There is an aura of heroic admiration for how West Pakistan refugees faced and recovered from horrors of Partition, and that is as it should be. This is also the stuff of several star-studded Bollywood films, the latest Main Vaapas Aaunga . But when it comes to the equal trauma refugees from East Pakistan suffered, that ring of glory and romance is missing. Instead, the screen depicts a destitute, beggarly and helpless mass. That is not as it should be.
Disclaimer
Views expressed above are the author’s own.
