From Santpura to Bakshiwala

In 1947 when the British left India they carved out a portion of it to create Pakistan; the muslims in India wanted a country of their own. The dividing line went through my family's home state Punjab; Punj(five)+ab(water; river). One part of Punjab (with four rivers and well settled villages and cities) went to Pakistan. The other part with one river and sparsly settled land stayed with India. Our ancestral village Santpura came to be on the Pakistani side. Our ancestars had lived there for 150 yrs. Everyone in the village was related, all having descended from one original family. After the division there was ethnic cleansing on both sides. The sikhs and hindus were driven out of the Pakistan side and the muslims were driven out of the Indian side. My family being sikhs were in the wrong corridor. They had to leave everything behind and move to the Indian side to save their lives. All went in different directions and got scattered like leaves in a wind (my grandmother's words). I grew up listening to my family's recreation of the home, fields and the people of Santpura that they left behind. The partition has remained a watershed event in their lives. Some of them never got over the move. Others live with the scars of that time, healed but there all the same.

Our family was awarded land in the village of Bakshiwala in leiu of the land we lost in Santpura. But it was only 1/3rd. of the original land. My grandfather came to the village first and was satisfied, under the circumstances, with what he saw. Bakshiwala was a village owned by the two widows of ------------. They had no children. The widows lived in a haveli (large brick house) surrounded by the fields they owned. The fields were tilled and maintained by group of families who lived in one corner of the village. These families were low-caste chamars, people who prepare leather from dead animals. There was a beautiful, old, one hall mosque in the village. The widows were muslim. During the partition the widows suddenly disappeared one day. They were there at night but gone in the morning. I heard different versions as to what happened to them but no one really knew exactly. When my grandfather arrived at the village the haveli was abandoned and the Indian government was alloting their land to displaced people.

My grandfather settled in the front room of the haveli with good amount of space in front and a long porch behind it. Other people came and settled in other parts of the haveli. My grandfather helped organise this settling and was immediately accepted as an elder. This village was made up of displaced sikhs from all over. They were all strangers to each other, now bound by allottment. The Bedis from our original village were allotted land in other villages. Only one distant relative, chacha Sant Singh came to Bakshiwala. I was born four years after this move.