Train to Pakistan: Hoping for Freedom the Tale of Tanveer Fatima

January 13, 1938 is when my grandmother was born she was nine years old

At the time she had to get on the train that takes place in this story of hers. To really know the story you have to know the background and what was going on. “India was perhaps the most important to Britain of the territories in the empire. It was run in a different way from most other parts of the empire, because it was different from other parts of the empire. One reason why the British were reluctant to leave India was that they feared India would erupt into a civil war between Muslims and Hindus. The country was deeply divided along religious affairs. In 1946-47, as independence grew closer, tensions turned into terrible violence between Muslims and Hindus. In 1947 the British withdrew from the area and it was partitioned into two independent countries - India (mostly Hindu) and Pakistan (mostly Muslim). Around 2 million people fled from their homes to areas of Pakistan or India where they would not be a minority, violence continued for some time after final partition, and there were disputes over territory between the two newly created countries.” The tension between the two religions grew higher and higher.

British influence over India was no more, India was now in control of themselves after this, riots in India between two religions Hindus and Muslims grew even more until the point when Muslims found their own country in 1947 which is now known as Pakistan. Muslims were to leave India in a train called the “Chalnikal Bhag” this train had thousands of Muslims on their way to Pakistan. This train was organized by the founder of Pakistan Mohammad Ali Jinnah and by the help on an Indian Commissioner. This train left “early august ...

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...arrived we stayed in that same position from the time we left the stop until we arrived. They did not kill the driver to deliver a message that there will be no Muslims any more in India. As they arrived villagers found my grandmother her sister and her father.

In conclusion my grandmother Tanveer Fatima was a survivor of that massacre she told after that day, she had traumas for a while hallucinations and sleepless nights, also said she learned to value life a lot more even if she has less, because less is still something as compared to nothing.

Works Cited

Walsh, Ben, ed. "Case 3 background: End of the British Empire in India." National Archives. Simon Harris, 22 Jun 2006. Web. 6 Dec 2013. .

Johnson, Paul. Modern Times. (New York; HarperCollins Publishers, Inc, 1991) pp. 469-74.