Jamila Begum has soft eyes, a soft smile and a pleasant presence. From her appearance, the trials and ordeals of her lifetime remain unfathomable. Ms. Jamila Begum was born in 1936 in Meerut, India. On 27th September, 1947, she left Meerut ona train for Rawalpindi with her brother, an army man, and her mother and sister. Travelling with them were eight army men and two families, as well as four army men for protection. She remembers coming across a lot of refugee camps on her journey and taking more passengers on board.
Soon they reached Amritsar where they were informed that the railway track lines were not suitable; they were only allowed to move in the dark. A colonel on board instructed the train to move very slowly so no one would be able to tell if the train was moving or not. As the train started moving, a bomb placed near the train’s engine exploded. Although no one was hurt,the goods’ carriage attached to the train came off. Following the blast gunshots showered the train. In retaliation, the Muslim army on train fired back. Fearfully, the civilians in the train weresheltered until thefiring ended.
The engine of the train was spoilt but, fortunately, they were close to another railway station. The Colonel asked them for a new engine. At first they refused, but the Colonel persisted. However, he was forced to leave the refugees picked up in transit at the station with the promise that their journey would continue on another train. So, all the re-fugees that the army had picked up along the way were left behind except for a woman and two of her children in Jamila Begum’s compartment. The woman was told by her husband to wait for him at the station in Lahore.
They finally left for Lahore. Upon reaching Pakistan, the people chanted “Pakistan Zindabad! Pakistan Zindabad!” and people started bringing food to them. It was the first train that arrived in Pakistan without dead bodies. The train that arrived after them carried the dead bodies of all the refugees that they had left behind. The woman’s husband, who had told her to stay at the station and wait for him, was among them.
The train stayed in Lahore for a while and then moved towards Rawalpindi where Jamila Begum stayed in a refugee camp for a week. Although they were provided for, it remained difficult living there. Jamila Begum added that although she wastaught how to defend herself prior to partition, by throwing chillies at her oppressor or throwing boiled water at the enemies, nothing could have prepared her for what she had to go through.
Text and pic by CAP
Published in Daily Times, June 29th, 2017.
