The Making of Exile Quotes

“In the interior of Sindh, life for Hindu women had become more cloistered. It was well after Partition that a number of abductions of Hindu women took place, often by Sindhi Muslims.”
― Nandita Bhavnani, THE MAKING OF EXILE: SINDHI HINDUS AND THE PARTITION OF INDIA

“Dominated by Hindus for two centuries, Karachi became a Muslim and a muhajir city in a matter of months. Sindhis – Hindu and Muslim – were reduced to less than 10 per cent of the city’s population.”
― Nandita Bhavnani, THE MAKING OF EXILE: SINDHI HINDUS AND THE PARTITION OF INDIA

“Sindhi Hindus, being a religious minority living in a highly feudal society, had long harboured anxieties about the possible abduction and conversion of their women, and so ensured that the latter lived restricted lives.”
― Nandita Bhavnani, THE MAKING OF EXILE: SINDHI HINDUS AND THE PARTITION OF INDIA

“No one leaves his ancestral land unless he is obliged to do so.”
― Nandita Bhavnani, THE MAKING OF EXILE: SINDHI HINDUS AND THE PARTITION OF INDIA

“My father met Morarji. It was a stormy meeting. Morarji said angrily, ‘You Sindhi Hindus have no reason to leave your homeland and come as refugees [to] India. We have full assurances [from] Jinnah that the minorities will be well treated in Sindh. There may have been provocations but you should have had the courage to resist these attacks. You must all go back. There is no place for you here.”
― Nandita Bhavnani, THE MAKING OF EXILE: SINDHI HINDUS AND THE PARTITION OF INDIA

“most Hindus and Sikhs did not feel secure enough to return to Pakistan.”
― Nandita Bhavnani, THE MAKING OF EXILE: SINDHI HINDUS AND THE PARTITION OF INDIA

“Gandhi had gone on his last fast in mid-January 1948, with the intention of bringing about a communal rapprochement. He had agreed to break his fast on the condition that all communities – including those who had recently migrated from Pakistan – sign a declaration that they would strive for communal harmony, and also that India pay Rs 55 crores to Pakistan.”
― Nandita Bhavnani, THE MAKING OF EXILE: SINDHI HINDUS AND THE PARTITION OF INDIA

“Cyril John Radcliffe, a British judge, drew up the frontiers of the two new nations ensconced in the safety of his office in Delhi, without even visiting the lands and fields and towns that he had divided. Then he fled the subcontinent after the six meagre weeks allotted to him.”
― Nandita Bhavnani, THE MAKING OF EXILE: SINDHI HINDUS AND THE PARTITION OF INDIA

“Since Sindh had not been partitioned and had, in its entirety, become part of Pakistan, there was no part of India which the Sindhi Hindus could claim as their own.”
― Nandita Bhavnani, THE MAKING OF EXILE: SINDHI HINDUS AND THE PARTITION OF INDIA

“The police and the military continued to patrol the streets, perhaps unwillingly, since many among them were also not free from anti-Hindu sentiment. There are also accounts of policemen doing their duty in a perfunctory manner on 6 January, of conniving in the loot, and even passively abetting the violence.”
― Nandita Bhavnani, THE MAKING OF EXILE: SINDHI HINDUS AND THE PARTITION OF INDIA

“For a few hours, large gangs of muhajirs roamed the city, often accompanied by empty trucks into which were thrown the spoils of the looting: clear proof that the violence was premeditated and organised.”
― Nandita Bhavnani, THE MAKING OF EXILE: SINDHI HINDUS AND THE PARTITION OF INDIA

“a section of muhajirs began to realise that their problems of finding lebensraum in Pakistan could be easily solved if the Hindus of Sindh migrated en masse to India.”
― Nandita Bhavnani, THE MAKING OF EXILE: SINDHI HINDUS AND THE PARTITION OF INDIA

“This section of muhajirs felt that, given the lack of communal aggression among the Sindhi Muslims, and the centuries-old relatively peaceful relationship between Hindus and Muslims in Sindh, Sindhi Hindus would not migrate unless they were given a jolt. Hence it was decided to unleash violence on them, forcing them to leave for India.”
― Nandita Bhavnani, THE MAKING OF EXILE: SINDHI HINDUS AND THE PARTITION OF INDIA

“Indian government was initially reluctant to see refugees from Sindh in the same light, since it was acknowledged that Sindh had not witnessed the same degree of communal violence, and Hindus who had fled from there were perceived as ‘cowards’.”
― Nandita Bhavnani, THE MAKING OF EXILE: SINDHI HINDUS AND THE PARTITION OF INDIA

“Although Gandhi had acknowledged that the situation in Sindh was ‘distressing’, he had rebuked the Sindhi Congress leaders for ‘deserting’ the Hindus in Sindh and had instructed them to return to their home province, where he felt there was great need for them, and that they should ‘die if need be’.10”
― Nandita Bhavnani, THE MAKING OF EXILE: SINDHI HINDUS AND THE PARTITION OF INDIA

“If we stay on here, either we will have to become Muslims or we will be killed.”
― Nandita Bhavnani, THE MAKING OF EXILE: SINDHI HINDUS AND THE PARTITION OF INDIA

“When Partition was announced, Jogendranath Mandal (then a prominent Dalit leader from Bengal and a member of the constituent assembly) had been strongly in favour of the creation of Pakistan, optimistic that Dalits would receive better treatment from Muslims in Pakistan than from caste Hindus in India.16 However, after the creation of Pakistan and the rise of communal passions and discrimination, many Dalits living in Sindh now wanted to return to their home provinces.”
― Nandita Bhavnani, THE MAKING OF EXILE: SINDHI HINDUS AND THE PARTITION OF INDIA

“He recalls that when his mother attempted to sell some of their small household possessions to local Muslims, some of them claimed that they did not need to purchase these things since they would take them for free after the Hindus left.”
― Nandita Bhavnani, THE MAKING OF EXILE: SINDHI HINDUS AND THE PARTITION OF INDIA

“In each and every house, girls were instructed that, if a Muslim were to enter the house, they were to put their fingers in the two holes of the electric socket, switch it on and end their lives. Small packets of poison were also distributed in houses, to be consumed by women in times of trouble.”
― Nandita Bhavnani, THE MAKING OF EXILE: SINDHI HINDUS AND THE PARTITION OF INDIA

“The Radcliffe Award, delineating the borders between India and Pakistan, had been prepared by 13 August 1947. Mountbatten, however, chose to hand over the Radcliffe Award to leaders of both dominions only on 16 August, after Independence. The Radcliffe Award was published only on 17 August. Consequently, the great confusion that prevailed until then, as to where exactly the border lines would be drawn, also added to the sense of anarchy.”
― Nandita Bhavnani, THE MAKING OF EXILE: SINDHI HINDUS AND THE PARTITION OF INDIA

“The Congress maintained its official by-line: that the minorities should not migrate and should carry on as though nothing had changed. This did not sit well with the Sindhi Hindus, who were looking for guidance on how to adjust to the new socio-political reality of Pakistan.”
― Nandita Bhavnani, THE MAKING OF EXILE: SINDHI HINDUS AND THE PARTITION OF INDIA

“Later, in May 1947, Gandhi asserted that ‘Sind Hindus should not be weaklings’ and assured them that they would be given full protection. At the same occasion, Sardar Patel stated emphatically that migration would only weaken the case of the minorities and would ensure the creation of Pakistan.28 Even after Partition was announced a month later, Gandhi continued to question Sindhi Hindu migration, attributing it to misplaced fears.”
― Nandita Bhavnani, THE MAKING OF EXILE: SINDHI HINDUS AND THE PARTITION OF INDIA

“the Hindus of Sindh were still actively discouraged from migrating by the Congress high command.”
― Nandita Bhavnani, THE MAKING OF EXILE: SINDHI HINDUS AND THE PARTITION OF INDIA

“Partition-related communal violence had actually begun long before, beginning with the Muslim League’s call for Direct Action Day on 16 August 1946.4 Starting with the bloodshed in Calcutta and other places in Bengal, this fire had spread to Bihar and UP, and later West Punjab. By mid-1947, the flames had engulfed most of North India, from the NWFP in the west to Bengal in the east.”
― Nandita Bhavnani, THE MAKING OF EXILE: SINDHI HINDUS AND THE PARTITION OF INDIA

“Under Muslim rule, though, Sindhi Hindus were subject to certain restrictions. Generally, they were not allowed to own land, and were forbidden to ride horses; only donkeys and camels were allowed to them, and when a Muslim nobleman passed, they had to dismount and stand by.”
― Nandita Bhavnani, THE MAKING OF EXILE: SINDHI HINDUS AND THE PARTITION OF INDIA