"Partition violence in Punjab in 1947" a talk by Prof. Ishtiaq Ahmed at Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg > 3pm on 25th February 2013
Time : 3:00 pm
Entry : Free (Seating on First-Come First-Served basis)
Place : Nehru Memorial Museum & Library (NMML), Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg, New Delhi
Venue Info : Events | About | Map | Nearest Metro Station - 'Race Course(Yellow Line)'
Event Description : Nehru Memorial Museum and Library cordially invites you to the ‘Partition violence in Punjab in 1947’ a talk by Prof. Ishtiaq Ahmed.
Abstract : Had India not been partitioned in 1947 the Punjab would not be partitioned. However, it does not follow that the Punjab had to be partitioned because India was partitioned. Had the three major communities of Hindus (30%), Muslims (53%) and Sikhs (14%) or, their leaders rather, agreed to keep their province united it could have been possible. The Punjab was not only partitioned but it proved to be one of the most vicious episodes in history entailing the deaths of 500,000-800,000 Punjabi Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs. The peak period of such unprecedented violence was August-November 1947. Some 10 million were forced to cross the international border demarcated by the Radcliffe Award. The first case of ethnic cleansing after World War II thus took place in the Punjab. It dwarfed the violence that took place elsewhere in India at that time.
This seminar seeks to shed light on the events that transpired in the Punjab in 1947. Historically, in spite of recurring invasions, the Punjab enjoyed a robust legacy of ‘live and let live’ bequeathed by Sufis, Gorakhpanthis, Bakhtis and Gurus. The British favoured the Punjab in terms of development of agricultural land and recruitment of Punjabis to the British Indian Army. The Punjab Unionist Party, that dominated the province till early 1947, maintained the communal peace on the basis of a shared Punjabiyat till March 1947. All that turned to naught within a matter of weeks and months. How and why? The findings and arguments proffered are based on an exhaustive scrutiny of secret British reports and evidence collected over a period of 12 years through hundreds of interviews conducted in India and Pakistan and with Punjabis in the diaspora.
Speaker : Prof. Ishtiaq Ahmed was born in Lahore on 24 February 1947 and was educated at the St. Anthony’s High School, Forman Christian College (famous as F. C. College) and the University of the Punjab. He received a PhD in political science from Stockholm University for successfully defending his doctoral dissertation entitled, The Concept of an Islamic State: The Ideological Controversy in Pakistan, in 1985. He taught in the Department of Political Science at Stockholm University during 1987-2007. He then took leave to join the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS), National University of Singapore (NUS). He served as Senior Research Fellow and Visiting Research Professor at ISAS and taught at the South Asian Studies Programme at NUS.
He is currently Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Stockholm University and Honorary Senior Fellow at ISAS. His research interests cover as diverse fields as political Islam, ethnicity and nationalism, human and minority rights, and partition studies. He has published several books and articles in academic journals. He also writes a weekly column in the Lahore-based English-language newspaper, Daily Times. Some of his published research includes the following books:
· 2013, Pakistan: The Garrison State, Origins, Evolution, Consequences (1947-2011), Karachi: Oxford University Press.
· 2013, The Pakistan Military in Politics: Origins, Evolution, Consequence (1947-2011), New Delhi: Amaryllis (February 2013). It is the title of the Indian edition of the same book as above on the Garrison State.
· 2012, The Punjab Bloodied, Partitioned and Cleansed: Unravelling the 1947 Tragedy through Secret British Reports and First-Person Account, Karachi: Oxford University Press.
· 2011, The Punjab Bloodied, Partitioned and Cleansed: Unravelling the 1947 Tragedy through Secret British Reports and First Person Accounts, New Delhi: Rupa Publications.
· 2011, The Politics of Religion in South and Southeast Asia (ed.), London: Routledge.
Speaker: Prof. Ishtiaq Ahmed, Stockholm University and Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore
Related Events : Talks | History
Entry : Free (Seating on First-Come First-Served basis)
Place : Nehru Memorial Museum & Library (NMML), Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg, New Delhi
Venue Info : Events | About | Map | Nearest Metro Station - 'Race Course(Yellow Line)'
Event Description : Nehru Memorial Museum and Library cordially invites you to the ‘Partition violence in Punjab in 1947’ a talk by Prof. Ishtiaq Ahmed.
Abstract : Had India not been partitioned in 1947 the Punjab would not be partitioned. However, it does not follow that the Punjab had to be partitioned because India was partitioned. Had the three major communities of Hindus (30%), Muslims (53%) and Sikhs (14%) or, their leaders rather, agreed to keep their province united it could have been possible. The Punjab was not only partitioned but it proved to be one of the most vicious episodes in history entailing the deaths of 500,000-800,000 Punjabi Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs. The peak period of such unprecedented violence was August-November 1947. Some 10 million were forced to cross the international border demarcated by the Radcliffe Award. The first case of ethnic cleansing after World War II thus took place in the Punjab. It dwarfed the violence that took place elsewhere in India at that time.
This seminar seeks to shed light on the events that transpired in the Punjab in 1947. Historically, in spite of recurring invasions, the Punjab enjoyed a robust legacy of ‘live and let live’ bequeathed by Sufis, Gorakhpanthis, Bakhtis and Gurus. The British favoured the Punjab in terms of development of agricultural land and recruitment of Punjabis to the British Indian Army. The Punjab Unionist Party, that dominated the province till early 1947, maintained the communal peace on the basis of a shared Punjabiyat till March 1947. All that turned to naught within a matter of weeks and months. How and why? The findings and arguments proffered are based on an exhaustive scrutiny of secret British reports and evidence collected over a period of 12 years through hundreds of interviews conducted in India and Pakistan and with Punjabis in the diaspora.
Speaker : Prof. Ishtiaq Ahmed was born in Lahore on 24 February 1947 and was educated at the St. Anthony’s High School, Forman Christian College (famous as F. C. College) and the University of the Punjab. He received a PhD in political science from Stockholm University for successfully defending his doctoral dissertation entitled, The Concept of an Islamic State: The Ideological Controversy in Pakistan, in 1985. He taught in the Department of Political Science at Stockholm University during 1987-2007. He then took leave to join the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS), National University of Singapore (NUS). He served as Senior Research Fellow and Visiting Research Professor at ISAS and taught at the South Asian Studies Programme at NUS.
He is currently Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Stockholm University and Honorary Senior Fellow at ISAS. His research interests cover as diverse fields as political Islam, ethnicity and nationalism, human and minority rights, and partition studies. He has published several books and articles in academic journals. He also writes a weekly column in the Lahore-based English-language newspaper, Daily Times. Some of his published research includes the following books:
· 2013, Pakistan: The Garrison State, Origins, Evolution, Consequences (1947-2011), Karachi: Oxford University Press.
· 2013, The Pakistan Military in Politics: Origins, Evolution, Consequence (1947-2011), New Delhi: Amaryllis (February 2013). It is the title of the Indian edition of the same book as above on the Garrison State.
· 2012, The Punjab Bloodied, Partitioned and Cleansed: Unravelling the 1947 Tragedy through Secret British Reports and First-Person Account, Karachi: Oxford University Press.
· 2011, The Punjab Bloodied, Partitioned and Cleansed: Unravelling the 1947 Tragedy through Secret British Reports and First Person Accounts, New Delhi: Rupa Publications.
· 2011, The Politics of Religion in South and Southeast Asia (ed.), London: Routledge.
Speaker: Prof. Ishtiaq Ahmed, Stockholm University and Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore
Related Events : Talks | History
"Partition violence in Punjab in 1947" a talk by Prof. Ishtiaq Ahmed at Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg > 3pm on 25th February 2013
!["Partition violence in Punjab in 1947" a talk by Prof. Ishtiaq Ahmed at Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg > 3pm on 25th February 2013]()
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