Voices from Punjab by Anita Goyal

Author:Anita Goyal
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Troubador Publishing Ltd
Published: 2019-10-30T16:00:00+00:00

Mohini’s grandmother Kanwarani Madanjeet Singh (left), of the royal

Kapurthalla State, and Mohini’s mother, Amrit (married to Patty Kent)

Mohini with her mother and sister

Mohini with HH Dalai Lama (Raj Thakkar of Expressions)

Mohini’s Ramayana dance-drama – a royal premiere with HRH Prince Charles

Eight

Sorority Girl

Kuljit Kaur Sharma

Dressed as a boy at a young age was how Kuljit’s father designed her childhood. He was an advocate for all children to have gender equality. He wanted his daughters to have the same rights and opportunities in civil society and be able to contribute in an equal way without discrimination. He instilled values and beliefs that were ahead of his time to serve his country. Kuljit was part of a sorority of modern, educated women at her university and on British soil she encountered challenges and hardship – eventually losing her identity of being a phenomenal headteacher in Punjab. This is the story of a woman that gave up so much to be in Britain with her loving husband.

Anita Goyal

I was born in 1933. My name is Kuljit Sharma and I am eighty-five years old. There is a place called Barnala in Punjab. When I was born, my father was stationed there as a Tehsildaar (Executive Magistrate of the Tehsil, or administrative division). He was transferred around India a lot; still, my childhood was a happy one.

I was fourteen years old during the Partition of India. Everyone was afraid of everyone else. There were a thousand stories of girls being kidnapped and tortured, so everyone was tense lest it happened to their own. But as far as I am aware, this was the story of some, not most. Those who wanted to go to Pakistan went and lived just as they had in India, and vice versa. But again, that was the story of most; some were not so lucky. Sometimes, trains came into India from Pakistan full of sick, injured and even tortured Hindus who had got in the way of one Muslim or another. When they came on the trains, the Indians took care of them. There was fighting, from both sides. People thought badly of those coming from the other side; they were refugees and constrained to the camps until the Government began to help them. They formed the Rehabilitation Department and facilitated the settlement of the new arrivals. I am proud to share that my father was a rehabilitation officer.

Some of the Indian people were hesitant to go to Pakistan; they knew nothing of that place. My father formed the Consolidation Mehakama, which is a council or court. It arranged safe passage for girls to travel across the newly formed border, the Radcliffe Line. My father used to tell us stories of the people in the camps. A large part of his job was to interview them about themselves. Based on what they told him, they were supported through their rehabilitation. He once told us of some Muslim girls who were afraid to make the journey to Pakistan. My father gathered them up, arranged for a lorry and sent them safely on their way.

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