Titled “Partition: Surgery without Anaesthesia”, the book, a compilation of 31 individual accounts including from noted writer and columnist Khushwant Singh and artist Satish Gujral, is being released by the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC).
Indians, Pakistanis narrate horrors of partition in new book (from the Times of India)
LAHORE: Prominent Indian and Pakistani personalities who underwent the trauma of partition have penned their personal experiences in a new book that gives an insight into the indelible pain and loss suffered by millions 60 years ago.
Titled “Partition: Surgery without Anaesthesia”, the book, a compilation of 31 individual accounts including from noted writer and columnist Khushwant Singh and artist Satish Gujral, is being released by the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC).
“The book is a compilation of individual experiences of partition. It has been compiled in such a way that the reader would be able to understand the pain and suffering that millions of people went through at the time,” SPARC official Irfan Raza said.
According to the book, over seven million Muslims were forced to migrate from India to Pakistan and an almost equal number crossed the border from the Pakistani side.
Lahore’s population before independence was 1.2 million, including approximately 500,000 Hindus and 100,000 Sikhs. However, after the dust had finally settled following the partition, Lahore was left with just 1,000 Hindus and Sikhs.
In the erstwhile West Pakistan, Hindus and Sikhs accounted for 18.4 per cent of the population, but by the 1951 census this percentage had dipped to 1.6 per cent.
Punjab province showed the most marked decrease in the population of Hindus and Sikhs from 20.5 per cent in 1941 to 0.2 per cent in 1951.
