Survivor refuses to be burdened by hatred of her neighbours

Shashi Talwar, 74

Shashi Talwar lives in Delhi. On August 15, 1947, she was 4 and living with her family in Peshawar, soon to be part of Pakistan. The violence of Partition created a time of chaos for Hindus in the city, so her family – her parents and two siblings – fled to India.

“My parents told us there was fighting going on somewhere in the city, every night. The mobs attacked Hindu families, but we never thought we’d have to leave.

“Then, one morning, all of a sudden, people attacked our front door. This must have been just after August 15. I was playing in the courtyard, and my mother was cooking breakfast. We left everything and ran out of the rear door. We went to the neighbour’s house to hide.

“All the Hindu families in the area at some point went to an influential Muslim man. He said: ‘I’ll save you, I’ll hide you in our house, if you give me 5 tolas of gold per person.’ [A tola was about 11.6 grammes.] The ladies had a lot of gold on them.

“We were all hidden in a small room. Half the room was full of cow-dung cakes. They pushed us all in there, 30 or 40 people, and locked the door. We were scared that we’d be discovered.

“But if anyone asked, the man just said, promising on the Quran, that his family’s women were inside the room.

“We were there for three or four days. In the meantime, my father managed to book seats on an aeroplane. After us, there was only one more flight out of Peshawar.

“Many of our relatives were butchered. They were trying to cross the border on foot. My cousin, her mother, another aunt and her 25-yearold son were in Mirpur.

“When they attacked the son and killed him in front of his mother, she said: ‘I don’t want to live. Kill me also.’ They killed her. They killed my cousin’s mother.

“Then they attacked my cousin, this young girl, with a hammer. They tried to cut her neck, but somehow she survived. She lay among dead bodies for four days, until a sweeper noticed her.

“Still, I want to tell you, it isn’t as if we hate Muslims because of this. Not at all. Most Muslims are very good people, and there are dark and bright sides to every community.”