The direct impact
In addition to what is captured in the history books, direct testimonies of survivors is what has stayed with me; impact on entire families, not just individuals. The intergenerational trauma that haunts us finds itself creeping on us today; whether through politics, or our everyday lives.
When you read the testimonies, you will see the direct impact. Laj Wanti lost her husband, her uncle and her aunt at Kamoke station, and her son was taken from her in the crowd. Janat Bibi's mother vanished during an attack on their caravan and was never found. Sarla Dutta's father was killed and she was separated from her mother. Most survivors went years without knowing who else was alive.
For women, the violence did not end when they were rescued. Durga Rani remembers families saying of their daughters, "How can we keep them now?" Bapsi Sidhwa tells of a man whose sister went missing at sixteen. When the men prepared to search for her, their mother stopped them, saying the girl had been touched and was no longer her daughter. Sidhwa says it shook her more because it came from a mother. Many women in the recovery camps were never taken back by their families.
Recovery could also tear a family apart a second time. Reshmi Bibi was taken from her children in India and brought back to Pakistan, where the men of the family wanted to kill the baby she gave birth to. Krishna Thapar remembers escorting twenty-one women to Pakistan against their will, and how they asked her why she was destroying their lives.
Beyond silence
Then there was silence. Nadira Khanum says her family never asked her aunt about those years, because they did not want to disturb her. In Fatima Sughra's account, a family never spoke of their daughter's abduction, and she took her own life. The silence was meant to protect them, but it left many women alone with what had happened. The impact was beyond silence.
Please click here to read direct accounts of the testimonies captured in a glimpse here: Read the testimonies
Families rebuilt anyway. My great grandmother led hers to Karachi as a young widow, and others fled with only what they could carry. I think both things belong in this story: what they lost, and what they carried on with.
