Several major cities of Punjab; Rawalpindi, Sialkot, Ferozepur, Amritsar and Lahore are situated just few kilometers from the border. I often wondered what affects a border this close has on the psychology of people who live near it, how it affects their views about the people on the other side, how it affects their day to day lives as barbed wires separating the once united communities are just a short distance away. Author Jennifer Yusin's term describing the ungraspable logic of this separation as "geography of trauma" can aptly be applied on how Sialkot is split from its twin city of Jammu. Sialkot is about 7 kilometers from the Indian border. On a clear night, one can see the city light
Dr. Rana Muhammad Abrar Ahmad from Punjab University, Lahore along with his colleagues Dr. Robina Shoeb and Dr. Anam Iftikhar have written a remarkable account of the positive stories of people helping each other during the chaos of partition. Hindus and Sikhs helping Muslims as they migrated to West Punjab. We are publishing their paper below. Research paper is also available here http://pu.edu.pk/images/journal/studies/PDF-FILES/Article_10_2018_07_12.pdf Some quotes from their study... "There were people whose humanity was stronger than the brutality of the situation." "During the time of friends turning into foes, there were people whose relations and friendship was immune to the tyranny
The Radcliff line was the boundary drawn by the British to demarcate the Indian and Pakistani portions of the Punjab province. I was curious as to how the line was drawn over populations, villages, districts, canals, railways, the economic infrastructure of one of the most populous province of British India. I was also curious as to the type of maps that were made available to Cyril Radcliff in 1947 as he started to draw the boundaries. What thought if any was given on how these towns or villages were going to be allotted to either side. Agreeing to the theoretical argument of a two-nation theory is one thing, but looking at a map and then drawing a line is completely different and at the sa
