Family memoir: A writer recalls his great-grandparents’ escape to India from Lahore after Partition

The residents of Lahore woke up that morning to the sound of great bustle and movement along the road. For more than three hours, they watched the organised evacuee party of Hindu and Sikhs on its way to DAV College where the main camp had been set up. Men, women, and children with their few movable earthly belongings, hundreds of donkey carts, bullock carts and camels formed the caravan. A flying military jeep patrol shepherded the procession, which was accompanied by lorry-loads of troops of the Baloch Military, which had joined as they approached the tense areas of Lahore. The route diversion, river crossing, and a sense of panic among the people had slowed them down and they took an extra day to reach Lahore.

The Batra family had now travelled for eleven days on foot to reach this camp. The journey had not been less than a passage through the river of fire. Yet, they considered themselves lucky that they were not among the one million killed. All evacuees were hastily crammed in the DAV College camp where local evacuees were also staying, waiting for their final evacuation.

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