Sindhi Partition Foundation

Some inspiring Parition Experiences .....

2007-06-07T08:15:00.000-07:00

From SindhiExodus.Net

By Sapna Ramnani - http://www.sindhiexodus.net/sindhi1.html

By Deepak Mirchandani - http://www.sindhiexodus.net/dedic_dmirchandani.htm

By Manzoor Chandio - http://www.sindhiexodus.net/desireneverfulfilled.htm

Very touching...
I was going through the experiences penned by people in the three links above, and I was particularly interested in the account of Manzoor Chandio. It raises a very natural question, that even I have wondered about. Does anyone know of any instance where there was indeed a case of retaliation, by means of force or otherwise by any section of Sindhis during Partition and the ensuing exodus? If not, I'd like to know what that inherent quality is that makes you adopt non-violence no matter what? Almost every other group of people have been guilty of it sometime or another.

Thanks,
Abhishek

Resource Generation for SPF

2007-06-07T08:13:00.000-07:00

Just if you are wondering what SPF stands for ... :-)

Looking for help in the generation of following resources:

1) SPF blog
2) SPF website (using a popular CMS such as Jhoomla)
3) Powerpoint presentation introducing SPF
4) A short audio-visual presentation (this may be done after we have some real interviews done)

Contact me, if u can ... dinipc@gmail.com

Rgds.

Blog
Bhavesh has gracefully accepted to work on this...

More resources
SPF brochure

Dada Jhamatmal Wadhwani is no more

2007-06-07T08:12:00.000-07:00

Dada Jhamatmal Wadhwani had blessed the Sindhi-Partition Foundation project in January 2006. It is a great loss for us....
***************

Jhamatmalji Wadhwani is no more
By Vijaykumar Tejwani

He was neither born great nor greatness was thrust upon him. He achieved heights of greatness by his hard work, far reaching foresight, innate qualities of leadership and uncanny knack of getting work done, and his clear and concise decisions.

He joined the RSS way back in 1939 in Karachi, when the great scholar Shri Chandrashekhar Bhishikar was in charge of Karachi RSS. Shri Bhishikar was personally deputed by Dr. Hedgewarji, the founder and first Sarsanghachalak of RSS.

After doing Matriculation and 2 years of course of Intermediate, Shri Jhamatmalji got Law Degree. Shri Jhamatmalji soon got the post of Income Tax Officer. In those days Income Tax Officers were very few and could be counted on finger tips. Finding himself strangled by Central Government Conduct Rules, due to which he could not take very active part in RSS, he threw away his influential and cushy job and returned to Hyderabad Sindh with a view to devote his energy to the RSS.

For about forty five years, he was President of Vivekanand Education Society, which was started with 256 students in 1962 in a dilapidated building, which now has more than 16000 students, many colleges, schools and technical institutes. He also revived the defunct Sindh Yuvak Sabha and Vishwa Sindhu Sabha and named it as Bharatiya Sindhu Sabha, which has been rendering yeoman service all over the country since 1979.

Shri Jhamatmalji took part in almost all the Satyagrahas launched by the RSS and its allied organisations. He was put behind bars many a time for the same.

He remained practically active till his demise on April 17, 2007, at the age of 86 years. He remained active during his ripe advanced age.

May his near and dear ones and well wishers get sufficient solace to bear such a great loss.

May his soul remain in eternal peace. OM Shanti.

Letter I sent to SindhiExodus.Net Owner

2007-06-07T08:11:00.000-07:00

Dear Sapna,
Namaste.

My name is Dinesh Chanchalani and I live in Atlanta, USA. I was browsing on the internet looking to read experiences of Sindhis that underwent partition in 1947 and stumbled upon your website. Let me, at the outset, commend you on the effort that you took to create the website. More so, the fact that you thought it important to venture into this kind of an effort is itself commendable - not to say rare.

Being a Sindhi myself, I have always been fascinated with the experiences of partition and the resilience of the Sindhi people that went through the experience. I have spent countless hours listening to the wonderful tales and anecdotes of all the travails and the tribulations that our grandparents/parents went through. It is inspiring to be how the commonest of Sindhi has, instead of playing the victim, decided to take life in the most positive spirit and come out triumphs.

It is almost 60 years since the partition and the generation that saw/experienced partition (to possess the nostalgia) is slowly phasing out. It will perhaps be not more than 10 years that we lose all the information we have (through personal lives) of the partition. Our historians have failed to do justice to the country by ignoring this valuable treasure - my research yielded no serious work on the individual experiences of partition. History will repeat for those who forget it.

However, keeping with the true Sindhi spirit, myself and a few close friends/cousins decided to do our bit. We founded the "Sindhi Partition Foundation" - perhaps a paper-tiger at present but not for long. Would you be interested in joining hands with us?

We have a group on Orkut.com - there is some literature that explains what we intend to do. Hope we can have you onboard.

Rgds,
Dinesh Chanchalani.

Book: Sindhi Reflections

2007-06-07T08:08:00.000-07:00

One more book...though I havent read this one.
Written by a writer based in Mumbai.

Book: Sindhi Reflections
Author: Lata Jagtiani

Link to the writer's Blog -
http://lata-jagtiani.sulekha.com/blog/post/2006/12/partition-of-india-and-hindu-sindhi-experiences-my/comments.htm

Link to a review of the book -
http://lata-jagtiani.sulekha.com/blog/post/2006/12/partition-of-india-and-hindu-sindhi-experiences-my/comments.htm

Book: The Sindh Story

2007-06-07T08:07:00.000-07:00

An excellent treatise on the story of Sindh.
"The Sindh Story" by K.R.Malkani of the Bharatiya Sindhu Sabha.

http://www.freesindh.org/sindhstory

Map of Sindh

2007-06-07T08:06:00.000-07:00

It'd be useful to be aware of some geography....

http://www.sindhiexodus.net/perexp3.html

This one is excellent and colorful - http://www.thesindh.com/Sindh/map/Sindhi-Map-English.jpg
http://www.sindhudesh.com/sindhudesh/image_map_sindh2.jpg

Mapquest version - http://www.sindhudesh.com/sindhudesh/image_map_sindh1.gif

Map - districts of Sindh -
http://www.sindhi.org/images/sindh.jpg

Sindh - vis-a-vis India/Pakistan -
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/eb/PakistanSindh.png

Hindus in Pakistan - In pictures (Link repaired)

2007-06-07T08:05:00.002-07:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/07/south_asia_hindus_in_pakistan/html/1.stm

Authorization and Consent Form - Part 2

2007-06-07T08:05:00.001-07:00

I hereby hold harmless and release and forever discharge The Foundation, its officers, employees and agents, either in their individual capacities or by reason of their relationship to The Foundation and its successors, from all claims and demands whatsoever that I or any other persons acting on my behalf or on the behalf of my estate have or may have against The Foundation or any or all of the above-mentioned persons or their successors by reason of the above-mentioned grant of permission.

In this agreement, the terms “photograph” and “record” shall mean motion picture or still photography in any format, as well as videotape, videodisc, audiotape and any other mechanical or electronic means of recording and reproducing images and sound.

Date: ______________________

Time: ______________________

___________________________
Signature (If signed by other than subject, indicate relationship)
__________________________
Printed Name
Address____________________

Witness: ____________________

___________________________

___________________________

Authorization and Consent Form - Part 1

2007-06-07T08:03:00.000-07:00

AUTHORIZATION AND CONSENT FORM

I hereby authorize The Partition Holocaust Foundation (hereafter The Foundation), its employees and agents to interview me, to record my voice and to photograph me in connection with the creation of an archive of testimonies of survivors and witnesses of the partition holocaust that occurred in the year 1947 CE in present day India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

I authorize The Foundation to use, and permit other persons to use, my name, picture, portrait, likeness, or recorded voice or testimony, or any or all of them, for any purpose and in any manner The Foundation may deem appropriate. I agree that my photographs or sound recordings may be used for purposes including, but not limited to, dissemination to members of the public for educational, research, scientific, public relations, and charitable purposes with the long-term goal of making them accessible to the world. I also agree that my photographs, recordings, and all reproductions thereof, including but not limited to plates, negatives and other exposed film connected therewith, are and shall remain the property of The Foundation.

I hereby grant to The Foundation, its successors and assigns and to anyone acting under the authority or permission of The Foundation, the right to make or to reproduce my photograph or recording in any form or manner, to copyright any of the originals or copies where appropriate, and to use them for any lawful broadcast or non-media broadcast purposes.

I have entered into this agreement in order to assist The Foundation in its mission of education, research, scientific, public relations, and charitable purposes and I hereby waive any right to compensation for these uses by reason of the foregoing authorizations.

Steps to conduct the interview

2007-06-07T08:02:00.000-07:00

Start the video camera/audiotape.

Ask for these initial details:
1) Name
2) Age and Occupation
3) Current address
4) Pre-partition address
5) Religion

Start building up the story by asking the following questions:
6) How old were you during partition?
7) State personal account of pre-partition, partition and post-partition trauma.
8) State the accounts of relatives, friends and others you know about.
9) Any photographs/memoirs you would like to share.

If the following questions were not answered during 7) and 8), ask again:
10) What was your family’s occupation?
11) Wealth and property lost in partition
12) Number of family members lost in partition
13) Who engineered the partition and subsequent massacres?

Take 1-2 pictures of partition victim(s) for archives.

Get the contact info of other partition victims' families anywhere in the world.

Introduction to the Sindhi - Partition Foundation

2007-06-07T07:52:00.000-07:00

14 August 1947 saw the birth of the new Islamic Republic of Pakistan. At midnight the next day India won its freedom from colonial rule, ending nearly 350 years of British presence in India. The two countries were founded on the basis of religion, with Pakistan as an Islamic state and India as a secular one.

The partition of India left both India and Pakistan devastated. The Partition Holocaust and its aftermath had claimed 3 million lives in the riots. Half a million women were raped or kidnapped. 30 million refugees poured across the borders to regions completely foreign to them, for though they were Hindu, Sikh or Muslim, their identity had been embedded in the regions where their ancestors were from. Not only was the country divided, but so were the provinces of Punjab and Bengal, divisions which caused catastrophic riots and claimed the lives of Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims alike.

The survivors and witnesses of the Partition Holocaust are slowly diminishing in numbers. Each year their recollections become more important, but each year moves them farther away from the original experience. This gives special urgency to the effort to collect as many testimonies as possible - now.

The Partition Foundation has established an archive of written or audiotaped or videotaped testimonies of the survivors. Each testimony is an open-ended, free-flowing interviewing process, discloses expressive details about the day-to-day experience of the survivors with a force that can hardly be exaggerated.

These personal testimonies are crucial documents for the education of students and community groups in an increasingly media-centered era. Each tape is made under the supervision of a professional and supportive team. Cataloged and cross-referenced, the tapes are an important addition to the oral and written history of the period. The Archive stands as a living memorial to counteract forgetfulness, ignorance and malicious denial.