Niamat Ali Malak, son of Khair Deen, was born at the village of Lasoi in the princely state of Patiala, now in Punjab, India.
Oral Historian: Muhammad Sarfraz
Camera Person: Muhammad Sarfraz
Summary:
Niamat Ali Malak, son of Khair Deen, was born at the village of Lasoi in the princely state of Patiala, now in Punjab, India. He migrated with his family members in 1947 during the mass migration and finally settled at Chak 361 GB Daudpur, now in the district of Toba Tek Singh in Punjab, Pakistan; he was eighteen years old or older.
While talking about his home, he recalled that it was made pakka (permanent housing made of stone, brick, cement, concrete, or timber, as most of the village streets were bricked and narrow. Most of the homes were covered with a ceiling. Men were to bring bundles of fodder on their heads. They were farmers along with running kolhu (an oil or juice extractor); all machines were fitted inside the home. Animals were kept at separate places. Drinking water was drawn from the wells close to the ruins of a fort there. Women used to fetch water from there and each community was to bring a bucket of their own. Herds of animals were to drink water from the well too, as water was stored in a pond and water lines for each community was set up to take bath there. The herdman was to do that job and he was given money or an amount of grain fixed per family. The water pond was at some distance, he was to run there. The Ropar Canal was flowing near the village. The village was a big one and a zaildar (officer in charge of a revenue and administrative unit of a group of villages) was living there; his name was Mahinder Singh. Kartar Singh, an advocate and the brother of the zaildar, was living in the big homes. Sikhs and Hindus were in the majority and Muslims were mostly from the working class; among them were weavers and carpenters. Gujars (agricultural ethnic community) were also among the working class, but they owned some property there. Some Muslims were farmers on a shared land basis.
Talking about school, he shared that there might have been a primary school close to the bank of the canal. The post office was also there. Many shops were owned by Hindus and were general stores. Wheat, cotton, and corn were the major crops there. Khras (camel or ox-driven mill for grinding wheat, or Persian wheel) and chakkis (hand-mill used to grind wheat) were also there, and water driven mills called ‘ghrat’ were on the bank of the canal. A gurdwara (Sikh place of worship) was outside of the village, and a mosque (Muslim place of worship) for the Muslims was in the village. When the mosque was reconstructed with baked bricks, Hindus and Sikhs took part in the construction in person, helping masons. They were living like brothers and sisters born out of the same womb, but maintained their social distance. The mosque was some distance from where all were living in mixed dwellings. There was Ram Kishan and he was a Jat (a traditionally pastoralist agricultural community).
He had not seen either of grandparents. Two brothers of Khair Deen were elders; one called Abdullah (known as Dulla) died before Partition and one was killed during the troubles of 1947. His aunt, Jeeni, was living at the village of Barnala on Bathinda Railway Line. His maternal grandparents hailed from the village of Rajoana near Jagraon in the district of Ludhiana, now in Punjab, India. Talking about them, he shared that most of the elders of her mother died due to the viral disease called Plague. Only his mother Jemma and two of her cousins survived and she was looked after by one elderly lady among her relatives; she brought them up and got married at their age. One of Jemma’s cousins was living in the Malerkotla district. Jemma was the mother of daughters and they were married and were living with their in-laws at different villages then. There were three brothers and both of his brothers died at Chak 361 GB after Partition due to their natural deaths. His elder brother was father of two sons then; his one son still lives. They all were living in the same house; wells were used for irrigation before canal water started.
He never went inside the gurdwara and did not find the chance to enjoy karah (a type of whole wheat halva offered to visitors to the gurdwara). He said the Guru Granth Sahib (Sikh central holy scripture) was carried on heads, and one man walking behind was waving above it with a brush; all were to walk barefoot. Some Sikhs would stop their work if a death took place in the village.
Talking about games, he said he played kabaddi (a contact sport), pulling rope (tug of war), and wrestling. Darbara was a famous wrestler of the Patiala state. A festival was to take place in his village and wrestlers were the honored guests that came from far away. Muslims would enjoy this too. His younger brother went to Patiala only when his cousin got married there. Elephants were seen in the village. Radio was not in the village, only a gramophone was there. Fever and chickenpox were common diseases. Silver coins were given to him for spending at the festival, as his father became a wealthy person and coins were buried at home in different places. His father was an educated man. He used to tell his children that he would fetch food for his elders in the field due to poverty. He cooked meals at home after the death of his mother. Many soldiers were also living in the village.
Talking about Teeyan (a Punjabi festival of women), he said that married women and girls would enjoy swings at their village.
Talking about Partition, he said the election took place in other places and many men came to live in the state. An announcement was made that Pakistan had been made and people would change their sides. With that, they started to attack each other and both communities did not miss the chance to hurt each other if they found the chance. Many villages took a stand against each other and gave a good fight to each other. Many deserted their homes and most went to Malerkotla state to take refuge. Seeing this Raja (prince) of Patiala threatened, the old Nawab of Malerkotla threatened to attack his state. On this the Nawab of Malerkotla reacted very quickly and fixed guns in the forts in the state. Soon a lady from Patiala state paid a visit to the state of Malerkotla and met with the Nawab, requesting him to ignore the threat of Patiala, as the famous saying goes with the 12 o’clock story (a story about a Sikh invasion of India in the 1700s taking place at midnight).
Niamat Ali says they stayed for three months there in the camp at Malerkotla. Many Sikhs asked many Muslim families to stay there; many stayed and many did not like to stay there, so they left their homes and went to Pakistan from Lasoi. They were in the camp eight days later when they came to know about an attack on their homes by the Sikhs. Only his father stayed at home, saying no one could push him out of his home, but when the area was attacked he joined them in the camp. Niamat Ali’s parents were kept safe by the zaildar. When Kartar Singh came to know this, he came from Patiala and admonished his brother; he replied, he could not control the mobs. So he made an announcement in the village to any Muslim living in their homes; nearly eighty appeared and he made arrangements for them to come to Malerkotla. His parents were among those. He asked forgiveness from Muslims by joining both of his palms together and giving five rupees to each of them; he then went back to the bank of the canal there. They joined him at Malerkotla; they stayed there for three months and were given food by the state.
Later, their caravan moved under tight security of the Military. He said soldiers from Turkey were also among them with tanks and guns. No one dared to touch them until they reached the Pakistan Border at Ganda Singh Wala. They camped at Jagraon and Moga, and within a week, they crossed into Pakistan. They came to Kasur.
The camp was a mile out of the city. They ate bread and many ate a belly-full. Many died there and were buried in mass graves. They walked on foot to Lahore and they came to Walton Camp (a refugee camp). When the train came there, they boarded for Lyallpur (now Faisalabad) and the train stopped for more than a day at Lahore Main Station. During this, his elder brother took his wife and went to Okara to live with his father-in-law who had been living there before Partition. The next day his father gave him money to buy food for them. He went to buy that outside of the railway station and the place was deserted. When he came back with food, the train was gone. He asked a man about the line going to Lyallpur and he started to walk beside the line. When the sun set he was on the Ravi Bridge of Lahore. He saw people gathered at that place; it was a camp too. Trucks were taking people to Lyallpur, as people hired those trucks. He requested a driver and he sat in the truck, but people wanted to push him out of the truck. With the help of God, he came to Lyallpur and went to the camp where he looked for his parents, but no one was seen in the bazaar either.
The train he thought had gone to Lyallpur then went back to Cantonment Station. His parents left the train as their son was out buying food for them, and he was not back at the station then. On the third day a senior citizen saw his gloomy face, and he told him what had happened to him. He pondered for some time and told him that the train went to Jhang via Okara, Khanewal, and Shorkot to Jhang. He went to Jhang camp at Adhiwal camp, and ate food gained from begging people for eighteen days. His parents reached Jhang and he met them there.
Niamat Ali met a well-learned man there at Jhang who had migrated from Ludhiana before his parents met him at the camp. He was a man of God, and he asked him about his parent’s professions. He was a clerk in the land department and he allotted him land at the village of School Khanoana on Chiniot Road in Jhang. The next day his parents were found and they went to that village. They stayed there for six years, and two years later after Partition, the Chenab River flooded the area. They had not seen water of such mass and high level, and were terrified. Wells were destroyed by the flood. They met the same person and told him what happened to them. He asked him to submit an application for an exchange of place, so he put forward the application and eight acres were allotted at Khanoana. Then his father died there.
He became friends with some local people; one of them was Swan, who was given a murabba (equivalent to 25 acres per murabba) of land as Ghori Pal (a scheme where land was granted to influential people who pursued army-related assignments). After Partition that distinction was abolished and he advised him to get allotment of that land. With the help of the same clerk, half of that property was allotted to him and half was given to someone else. So he became the owner of more than twenty-two acres of land. He went to meet his brother living in Okara. His brother-in-law was a supporter of the Indian National Congress Party and was living at Chak 361 GB. He met Niamat Ali’s mother and she agreed to the plan he offered. They left that place and came to live with him in the village he lives in now. He cheated them and all the property was lost, so he became a laborer and did not look back.
Talking about his maternal relatives, he said they decided to stay in the village and Sikhs assured them that they would not be touched. They were living in the village leading their lives as normal when some of their relatives living at the camp in Raikot decided to pull them out. They sought the help of the army after paying them money, and they stormed the village, asking every Muslim to gather at once and pack what they could. They loaded their bullocks with what they could, and the loaded bullocks were to be pulled in a sandy area with the help of both camels and oxen. They made their way with what they took from their homes until they reached Okara. Finally they came to Jhang, but did not stay there long and moved to Chak 66 JB Dhandra near Lyallpur.
Talking about weddings, he said his younger brother got engaged as a child. When once his mother visited her brothers, they were very well off and one of her brothers gave his newly-born girl as Jeema’s daughter-in-law; she was more than happy. When they were living at Chak 361 GB they wrote a letter to them, and they went there and his brother got married. Two years later his wife died and a few months later his child also died. He went again to Chak 66 JB Dhandla and his brother married again. Niamat Ali married late in his life; one of his cousins helped him to marry at Layyah. They cooked sweet rice and more than twenty men boarded a bus and went there; three days later they came home with his wife.
His mother welcomed her daughter-in-law. A few months later, his in-laws came back to the village of Leelan, near Dijkot. He was blessed with a daughter. When his wife went there to meet her parents, his daughter fell from the top of the roof. He was blessed with five daughters and two sons, and now all are leading their own lives. They were sent to school and were not interested in education so they left school. He enjoyed festivals in the area when he was a young man, and he saw movies in the cities he worked.
Talking about the effects of Partition, he said they are a lot better off as they are free to exercise their faith. But still, he missed the way they celebrated Eid back at Lasoi. They were not allowed to sacrifice cows in the state.
He said we have become a leaderless nation. His wife was of good nature. She died many years ago now.
