A collection of historical books on Punjab has been meticulously digitized and are available here in the Panjab Digital Library (based in Chandigarh, Punjab). There are series of books on the subject of Partition such as growing religious tensions in 1946, the Punjab Boundary Comission reports of 1947, train massacres in West and East Punjab, and personal accounts of the refugees. This library provides a wealth of information for your own research and knowledge. http://www.panjabdigilib.org/webuser/searches/mainpage.jsp?CategoryID=1&Searched=partition&typebox=1

Niranjan Singh, a Sikh tea merchant, had served a brew to his friend, a Muslim leather worker, for decades. However, the week after he found his shop part of a new country the man came running in one morning with a gang shouting, “Kill him! Kill him!”. One cut Singh’s leg with his sword; others killed his 90-year-old father and only son. The last thing Singh could recall was his teenage daughter being abducted and carried off on the back of “a man to whom he’d been serving tea for 15 years”. The tea merchant’s story took place in Lahore 70 years ago in August 1947 as Muslim-majority Pakistan was carved from Hindu-majority India, dividing the region of Punjab in half. Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/murder-migration-and-forced-conversion-in-post-partition-india-b65t8dmt9

In his report, Justice Mehar Chand Mahajan recommended that the boundary line should be near the Ravi including Lahore in the East Punjab and Justice Teja Singh advocated that the boundary line should be near the Chenab, including parts of the districts of Sheikhupura and Gujranwala, Montgomery and Lyall- pur in the East Punjab. The Hindu-Sikh case rested on the economic conditions as the non-Muslim had played a major part in the development of the Central Punjab. The Bari Doab and more particularly the districts of Gurdaspur, Amritsar and Lahore had been described by historians and settlement officers as the “home land of the Sikhs* who owned more than two-thirds of the ai ea and paid more than two-thirds of the land revenue of this tract.^® This Sikh peasant proprietors’ tract had been developed as a single unit along the Upper Bari Doab Canal which had been dug, it was ingeneously claimed, to resettle the disbanded Sikh soldiers after the Anglo-Sikh Wars. The districts of Lyall- pur and Montgomery had been colonized by the sturdy Sikh Jats of Ambala, Jullundur and Amritsar districts. In a tract known as Shahidi-Bar, comprising a part of the districts of Gujranwala, Sheikhupura and Lyallpur was mostly owned by the Sikh peasants who paid more than twice the land revenue paid by the Muslims.^® Historically, this was the most important tract for the Sikhs as one of their most sacred shrines, Nanakana Sahib, was situated in it. The Hindus and the Sikhs had played a major role in the development of industry, commerce and trade of Lahore the metropolis of the Punjab. More than 75 per cent of commerce, banks and commercial institutions were in the hands of the non- Muslims. The survey of Lahore carried out by the Punjab. Government Board of Economic Enquiry indicated that 80 per cent registered factories in Lahore belonged to the non-Muslims. Of the total capital investment in Lahore, viz. Rs. 6.29 crores, the non-Muslim’s share was Rs. 5.12 crores. Of the 90 bank branches, only 3 belonged to the Muslims. Of the 80 offices of insurance companies, only two belonged to the Muslims. Of the 36th High Schools only four were run by the Muslims.^^ It was argued that about one-third of the Muslim population was not rooted in the soil and was essentially of a floating chara¬ cter, consisting of faqirs, weavers, herdsmen, cobblers, potters, carpenters, oilmen, bards, barbers, blacksmiths, washermen, butchers and w/raj/5. According to the Census Report of 1931, out of the total Muslim population of 14,929,896, this class of persons numbered about 45 per cent and were divided as under :— Faqirs ... 256,533 Jullaha (weavers) . ■ • • • • 512.579 Cobblers ••« ••• 464,218 Kumhars (potters) • • • • • • 423,617 (Chamar converts)... 412,300 Carpenters • • • • • • 346,948 Oilmen • • • • • • 344,927 Bards • • • • • • 244,320 Barbers • • • • • • 196,104 Blacksmiths • • • • • • 241,972 Washermen • • • • • • 162,224 Butchers • • • • • • 127,198 Mirasis • • • • • • 243,330 Herdsmen • • • • • • 421,347^8 In case the line of argument followed by the Hindu and Sikh members was accepted, the main consideration would have been economic factors rather than the population factor. Kirpal Singh "Partition of India" https://archive.org/details/the-partition-of-the-punjab/page/82/mode/2up?view=theater

Narinder Singh Kapoor is well known Punjabi Prose Writer from Patiala, Punjab, India. He talks about the Partition experience and its lasting impact on our lives.

Irfan Habib, Romila Thapar and Harbans Mukhia

In this article "When Emperors turned on Gurus", author Parvez Mahmood writes about the historical injustices suffered by the Sikhs that caused a growing rift between the two communities in Punjab. Excerpt ⓒThe Friday Times: The seeds of animosity between the two communities, Muslim and Sikh, that led to the eruption of such harrowing violence were planted three-and-a-half centuries earlier by an unfortunate episode during the unsuccessful rebellion of Prince Khusrau against his father, the newly enthroned Emperor Jahangir, and nourished by bloody events during the reign of Emperor Aurangzeb and later during the invasions of Ahmed Shah Abdali. As will be observed later in this article, the people of Punjab of all faiths had continued to live in peace with each other during those cataclysmic events in the 17th and 18th centuries and had suffered in equal measures at the hands of Turkic and Afghan invaders.

Malwinderjit Warraich writes about his family's tragic journey from Gujranwala to Indian Punjab. "AMONG the millions caught on the wrong side of the divide was my family from the village of Ladhewala Waraich, close to Gujranwala in Punjab. A science student, I was 17 then. Gujranwala stood every chance of inclusion in Pakistan as the area was predominantly Muslim and was also geographically close to Lahore, the heart of newly-born West Punjab. Even after it was confirmed that Gujranwala would become part of Pakistan, the gloomy prospects of having to emigrate seemed remote to most non-Muslims because of the accepted thinking among Hindus and Sikhs that rulers had changed in the past, but not the ruled." Read full story here: https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/comment/our-journey-to-nowhere-375400

The 1947 Sirhind train massacre was an attack on Ropar ‘s prosperous, wealthy and influential muslim clan Abbasi Shekhaan of Shekhaan Miran locality of Ropar city. It killed 2000 Muslims of this clan and only a dozen people of clan survived. Link: https://en.everybodywiki.com/1947_Sirhind_Train_Massacre