Karachi Hindus had little to cheer about - The Hindustan Times

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Fifty years of Independence have not been able to wipe out the memories of
displacement and the ensuing trauma which Bharatiya Janata Party president
L. K. Advani had experienced during the gory Partition of 1947. Burning
bodies and vast stretches of devastation are some of the Memories which are
still fresh in his mind.

Mr Advani was 19 and living in Karachi when Partition was announced.

"Independence for Hindus living in Karachi did not bring any joy or cheer
because they felt that they had been betrayed by the Congress which had
repeatedly assured that no Partition would take place," remembers Mr
Advani. He says Karachi during those days was predominantly a Hindu city
and therefore the bloodshed and rampant massacre in Sind was much less than
that seen in Punjab and NWFP, but the mood was one of despondence and
unhappiness.

While the Hindus living in the other parts were forced to flee, migrations
from Sind started only in September 1947 after the Punjab Government blamed
the RSS - of which Mr Advani was the karyavahak of the Karachi shakha - for
a bomb blast which rocked Karachi in September.

Utterly disgusted and disillusioned, Advani left Karachi on 12th September
to come to Delhi. "Delhi was a new place. All I had with me was the
address of a person living in Sita Ram Bazar. My efforts to reach the place
initially failed because the whole area was under heavy curfew." But Advani
stayed in Delhi only for a couple of days moving on to Rajasthan.

His father meanwhile moved to Varanasi with his grandmother who wanted to
spend the last days of her life there.

Mr Advani feels that it would not have been possible for the two countries
to remain undivided for a long period of time because the people, mainly
Muslims were fed on a diet of communal feelings by none other than Jinnah.
"Partitior is never a solution. Even America chose civil war against
division," he says. Mr Advani blames the Muslim League, the British and
the wrong responses of the Congress party for the Partition.

"The problem is that one cannot shut one's eyes to the facts."

Mr Advani feels that even 50 years after Partition, India has not been able
to change the mindset of the Muslims living in the country. "While Pakistan
was declared a theocratic state and India a secular one, where all
religions are equal; the Muslims still feel that they- are second class
citizens. The leaders have exploited the mindset of the Muslims for votes.
Secularism has become a euphemism for vote banks," he remarks. According to
him the malaise which threatens to destroy the system is that of
corruption. "There has been a steep decline in the ethical standards of the
leaders of the country after Lal Bahadur Shastri," he says.

He says his Swaran Jayanti Rath Yatra was to motivate people into realising
that freedom did not come cheap and that due respect must be paid for all
those who laid down their lives for it and their dreams of a powerful India
must be materialised.

Mr Advani looks towards a change in leadership and a change in the
attitudes of the people of India. "People must be patriotic and
disciplined," for taking India towards success.

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