Painful Memories

Migration started from the State of Jammu and Kashmir during 1947–48 against the backdrop of the partition of British India and its aftermath. According to the Subcontinent’s Partition Agenda, agreed to by all the three concerned parties of the time, namely the Raj, All Indian National Congress and the All India Muslim League, this Muslim-majority State, spreading over 84,471 square miles, should have been made part of Pakistan. Unfortunately, however, the Congress leadership, British Viceroy Lord Louis Mountbatten (1900–1979) and the Hindu Maharaja of the State, Hari Singh (1895 –1961), flouted the Partition Plan as well as majority public opinion of the State, and maneuvered a forced annexation of Jammu and Kashmir with India.

Hari Singh and the Congress leadership knew that the majority of the State’s populace was inclined to link its future with Pakistan; the Maharaja’s own preference, however, was that the State should remain independent or accede to India. Sensing the Maharaja’s intentions, the State’s Muslim majority started organizing resistance forces in the border districts, particularly in Poonch. In order to maintain his stranglehold, the Maharaja initiated systematic tyranny and torture against the resistance movement. His aim was to spread fear and panic, not only to deter people from resisting his forces, but also to compel them into an exodus to Pakistan so that the demographic hurdle of the State’s Muslim majority could be removed altogether.
The Maharaja invited the Rashtriya Sevak Singh (RSS), and the organized Sikh groups of extremists from East Punjab. These circumstances compelled a large number of the local Muslims to migrate to Pakistan. According to the official figures, they currently make up around 1.5 million in Pakistan’s population alone. About 2000 people at that time sacrifices their families and assets in India and Kashmir. They migrated to the nearest border areas and settled themselves in Thoha Khalsa and the surrounding areas.