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Partition Of Lahore - The Greed Perspective

Partition – The Greed Perspective

History of the Lahore has seen hundreds of turns and twists, some of which changed its contour and brought new definitions to it. One such incident was the partition of the subcontinent, leading to the century’s biggest population transfer. Lahore being one of the cities adjacent to the new drawn boundary was drastically affected by the massive migration on both sides. Apart from the issue of refugee inflow, partition brought a radical change in the socio-cultural dynamics of the city. Hindus and Sikhs, who formed a majority of the population of city for years and were socially, spiritually, economically and culturally deep rooted into it , were forced to leave the city. It wasn’t an easy relocation, as it implicated large scale population transfer. Such a change split the compact and firm social fabric of the city. This paper focuses on the departure of Hindus and Sikhs from the city that they once had ruled, and its relationship with the revolutionary change in the economic setup of the city.

I had conducted more then 30 interviews of partition survivors for this course consisting of different tales and experiences. One thing which I found synonymous in all the interviews was that there was religion harmony in pre-partition era and there was social integration among different sects to varying degrees. But when one sees the eruption of violence, gory tales and bloodshed in the post partition time, the question which immediately arises in ones mind is that why this violence erupted. The popular reasoning behind this violence is based on religious phenomenon and formation of identities on the basis of religion.

This paper claims that it wasn’t only the Muslim identity and its distinction from the Hindus and Sikhs, rather it was a hope for an upward social mobility that led to the forced migration or the ethnic cleansing of Hindus and Sikhs from Lahore as supported by the loot and plunder carried out in and after the...