A Tale of Two Cities - The Aftermath of Partition For Lahore and Amritsar 1947-1957

A Tale of Two Cities: The Aftermath of Partition for Lahore and Amritsar 1947-1957
Author(s): Ian Talbot

Source: Modern Asian Studies , Jan., 2007, Vol. 41, No. 1 (Jan., 2007), pp. 151-185
Published by: Cambridge University Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4132347
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Modern Asian Studies 41, 1 (2007) pp. 151-185. ? 2007 Cambridge University Press
doi:10.1017/S0026749X05002337 Printed in the United Kingdom
A Tale of Two Cities: The Aftermath of

Partition for Lahore and Amritsar
194 7- -957
IAN TALBOT
University of Southampton
Introduction
Such modern cities as Breslau and Smyrna have suffered widesp

destruction and demographic transformation in the wake of arm
invasion. The neighbouring Punjabi cities of Lahore and Amrits
shared this experience, at the time of the 1947 division of the In
subcontinent'. Almost 40 per cent ofAmritsar's houses were destroy
or damaged2 and its Muslim population fell from 49 per cent of
population on the eve of partition to just 00.52 per cent in 1951.
thousand houses were damaged in Lahore3 and its Hindu and Si
population who formed over a third of the population departed
India. The Luftwaffe had destroyed some 4185 houses in Coven
in an air raid for ever associated with the concept of concentr
bombing.4 The greater damage in peacetime Lahore and Amrits
was a result of disturbances surrounding the end of British ru
The cities lay at the heart of the region which bore the brunt
' Breslau following its transformation from a German to a Polish city in the w
of the Second World War became known as Wroclow. Smyrna which in Septem
1922 was invaded by Turkish forces became Turkish Izmir, purged of its Greek
Armenian population and influences. A Greek force had earlier occupied the ci
May 1919 and large numbers of innocent Turks had been slaughtered. For the ev
of 1922, See M.H. Dobkin, Smyrna 1922: The Destruction ofa City (Kent, 1988).
2 J.S. Shattock, Appreciation of the East Punjab 16 March 1948 DO 142/3
Refugees East Punjab Public Records Office.
3 M. Baqir, Lahore Past and Present (Lahore, 1952), p. 309.
4 For details of the intense bombing raid of the night of 14/15 November wh
gave birth to the word 'coventrate' see, Tony Mason, 'Looking Back on the Blit
Bill Lancaster and Tony Mason (eds), Life and Labour in a Twentieth Century City:
Experience of Coventry (Coventry n.d.), pp. 321-42.
oo26-749X/o7/$7.50+ $o. 10o
151
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152 IAN TALBOT
the 1947 upheaval.5 Ten mi

around 13 million people wer
largest migration in a century w
millions of people homeless.7
map.) meant that they receiv
were a million in Lahore alone i
housed in camps.8
This article examines the im
their inhabitants during the po
damage was repaired, large num
there was less tension between
cities as Karachi and Calcutta
able to overcome the dislocati
Amritsar. As early as March 19
of Amritsar 'there seems litt
city'.1o
Little has been written about the two cities' life after partition. Their
geographical situation, however, invites a cross-border comparative
analysis which is lacking in the wider literature. Most studies
until recently were about, why partition happened, rather than its
aftermath." Recent work"2 has begun to put a human face on the
5 Bengal also experienced upheaval, but the violence was less intense. Migration
occurred in waves stretching over many years creating rehabilitation problems for
the refugees. For an overview of the differences of the two regions' experiences, see,
I.Talbot and G. Singh (eds), Region and Partition: Bengal, Punjab and the Partition of the
Subcontinent (Karachi, 1999).
6 Memorandum by the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Commonwealth
Relations 2oJanuary 1948 DO 142/439 Refugees East Punjab, Public Records Office.
7 The two World Wars resulted in massive population movements in Europe. There
was further displacement in the Balkan region following the collapse of communism.
The end of European Empire and the problems of ethnic conflict in the new states of
Africa and Asia created further migration.
s Report of Deputy UK High Commisioner Lahore 25 April 1948 DO 142/440
Refugees in West Punjab, Public Records Office.
9 For details see, S. Ansari, Life After Partition: Migration, Community and Strife in Sind
1947-1962 (Karachi, 2oo5); P. Chakrabarty, The Marginal Men: The Refugees and the
Left Political Syndrome in West Bengal (Kalyani, 1990).
"o J.S.H. Shattock, Appreciation of the East Punjab 16 March 1948 DO 142/39
Refugees East Punjab, Public Records Office.
" This so called 'high politics' approach evolved from classical 'great man of
history' and 'divide and rule' analyses (See, Asoka Mehta and Achyat Patwardhan,
The Communal Triangle in India (Allahabad, 1942) to the 'revisionism' of AyeshaJalal
(The Sole Spokesman, Jinnah, the Muslim League and the Demandfor Pakistan (Cambridge,
1985).
"2 U. Butalia, The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India (New Delhi,
1998); R. Menon and K. Bhasin, Borders and Boundaries: Women in India's Partition

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THE AFTERMATH OF PARTITION, 1947-57 153
AFGHANISTAN ' ..WF

40 r
% % Srinagar
fPeshawar
Islamabad ad
SKashmir M-W. International
' Rawalpin~i shmir bo
% K *
Mirp'lr .... Disput
boundary
lhelunri
PAKISTAN . uraor a\ Ore i 8ealv

1 Amritsar Hoshiarpur
Faisalablad Laho l
ullndurSimla
I& Ludhiana`
S-Chandigarh
vi
SMultan wto
. INDIA
Bahawalpur /
Cholistan *" " aalD Delhi

Desert Rajasthan
Figure 1 The Partition Boundary and Lahore and Amri
bald statistics of abductions, deaths and prope

emphasis reflects the reality articulated by Gy
partition for many in North India was equivale
impact to the First World War in Britain, or th
for Japan.'3 Nevertheless, current studies of th
of partition lack a locality focus. The few earlier a
rehabilitation, such as M.S. Randhawa's classic text
centred around its rural dimensions. While the ru
(New Delhi, 1998); J. Bagchi and S. Dasgupta, The Trauma

and Partition in East Bengal (Kolkata, 2003); S.Settar, Indir
Partition. The Human Dimension (New Delhi, 2002).
13 Gyanendra Pandey, 'In Defence of a Fragment. Writi
Riots in India Today.' Economic and Political Weekly Volum
14 M.S. Randhawa, Out of the Ashes: An Account of the Rehab
West Pakistan In Rural Areas OfEast Punjab (Chandigarh, 19

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154 IAN TALBOT
outnumbered their urban count

significantly different.'6 Lahor
colonial Punjab's leading cities
from which to study Indian a
of urban resettlement.
The Riot Damaged Cities of Lahore and Amritsar
Lahore and Amritsar were wracked by violence during the closing

months of British rule. The Punjab Governor Sir EvanJenkins dubbed
it a 'communal war for succession.' It differed from earlier communal
outbreaks in its intentions and hence its intensity. Violence was
motivated by the desire to ruin the economic life of 'rival' communities.
Hundreds of houses, businesses and warehouses were burnt down in
the walled areas of both cities. Fires raged for hours because of the
lack of pumps and the inaccessibility of narrow alleyways overhung by
buildings full of combustible material. A horrified Nehru had likened
the devastation in Amritsar following the initial violence of 5 March
1947 to that of an earthquake.'8 The Congress Report maintained
that even wartime bombing could not have caused greater damage.19
15 This was as much as 3:1 in the Pakistan Punjab, see Appendix B in I. Talbot,
Freedom's Crj. The Popular Dimension in the Pakistan Movement and Partition Experience in
North West India (Karachi, 1996), pp. 212-16. There were 1.3 million urban refugees
in East Punjab out of a total of 3.8 million.
16 Rural refugees were directed to districts that were assigned for them. Here they
were settled en bloc. In The Indian Punjab where there was insufficient evacuee land,
a system of 'graded cuts' was introduced in the allocation of farmland. An owner of a
thousand acres in West Punjab would only receive 170 acres. In the Pakistan Punjab,
it was not a lack of evacuee land, but its occupation by Muslim tenant cultivators
that hindered resettlement. Some of the tensions between local tenants and refugees
were eventually to be played out in protests on the streets of Lahore following the
ejection of tenants by refugee landowners. Tension also arose in both the Punjabs
when there was a final permanent allotment of land. As some non-agriculturalists as
well as those who had exaggerated their claims lost out from the non-verifiable gains
they had earlier made in the temporary allotment of 1947. As late as June 1948, the
Pakistan authorities only had voters' lists from East Punjab with which to check the
eligibility of allottees. See, A.G. Raza, Note of 16 June 1948 DO 142/440 Refugees
in West Punjab, Public Records Office.
'7 Lahore was the provincial capital and a leading educational and banking centre
for the whole of North India. Amritsar was the Punjab's major trade and industrial
centre.
' The Tribune (Lahore), 6 March 1947.

'9 All-India Congress Committee File No. G-1o/1947 Nehru Memor
and Library.

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Order was only restored after the calling out of British troops
imposition of a curfew.'o Large areas of the Hall Bazaar, Kat
Singh and Pashminwala Bazaar were destroyed. Rubble was p
feet high in places.2'
Lahore suffered similar destruction. Fires on the night of Sun
May in the non-Muslim areas of Chuna Mandi, Kucha Kagz
Pipal Vehra, 'taxed the available army and civil resources', th
Chief Secretary reported, 'to their utmost limit'.22 The redu
large parts of the walled city to ashes, prompted Nehru to call
army to be given a free hand in Lahore.23 Just over a month la
21 June, a raging inferno destroyed the Shah Almi area24 of
This was the leading Hindu commercial and residential centr
the walled city. In the words of one Muslim writer, it 'prese
look of a city that had just been subjected to a blitzkrieg'.25
doubts about whether Lahore would be awarded to India or P
many wealthy Hindus began to move out of the city in the wake
conflagration.
The days leading up to independence witnessed a final ro
bloodletting and destruction. The last Muslim pockets of po
were overrun in Amritsar, resulting in, 'alarmingly high' c
in Mountbatten's words.'" A pall of smoke hung over Lah
formerly Hindu dominated commercial area of Anarkali, 'f
a corpse and lay there like a lifeless body'.27 Amritsar had s
more physical damage than any other Punjabi city. Around a half
walled city had been left in ruins. According to the District
and Excise Officer, nearly 1oooo buildings had been burnt d
as a result there had been a 25 per cent loss in property ta
2o The Tribune (Lahore), 6 March 1947.

21 The commercial loss was estimated at 8 crores (crore is ten million) of
this one episode, 5000 houses were destroyed.
22 Punjab FR 2nd Half of May 1947 L/P&J/5/250 India Office Records.
23 Jawaharlal Nehru to SirJ. Colville, 23 May 1947 R/3/1/90 India Office
24 The locality was named after the nearby gate which was one of the wa
famous thirteen entrances. It took its name from the Mughal Emperor S
Bahadur Shah who died in Lahore in 1712. Outside the gate, there was a wat
serai and Shivala (known as Rattan Chand's Temple). These had been const
Diwan Rattan Chand, a court favourite of the Sikh ruler of the Punjab
Ranjit Singh.
25 Mohammad Saeed, Lahore: A Memoir (Lahore, 1989), pp. 234-5.
26 Viceroy's Personal Report 16 August 1947 cited in Government of Pakistan,
Disturbances in the Punjab 1947 (Islamabad, 1995), p. 355.
27 Fikr Taunsvi, 'The Sixth River-A Diary of 1947' in A. Salim (ed), Lahore i947
(Lahore, 200oo3), p. 38.

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156 IAN TALBOT
even more in sales tax.28 The city's ph
suffered. The weeks after partition wer
of electricity and water supply. The ci
for a week in September.29 A year lat
with the water supply leading to ac
1948.30 Like many other north Indian ci
epidemic in the weeks immediately after
brought under control following mass
sweepers exacerbated Amritsar's sanita
had obtained more lucrative employment
played by Muslims as cart drivers an
up campaign eventually started in mid
used to remove the garbage and fire e
the drains.33
Rebuilding the Cities
Little has been written on the rebuilding of Lahore and Amritsar.

Such a study has a fourfold importance. Firstly it offers an opportunity
to move beyond the partisan positions which have dominated
writings on partition with their focus on political disputes and blame
displacement for violence. Secondly, it offers important insights into
early institutional development in partitioned Punjab. Thirdly, it
offers a local grounding to the social history of partition which has
been dominated by generalised first-hand accounts of refugees. Finally
it can contribute to a cross-border comparison of the aftermath of
partition. In fact, numerous similarities emerge when considering the
rebuilding of the riot-torn areas of Lahore and Amritsar. In both cities,
the process was handicapped by the shortage of building materials.
The main problems, however, surrounded the legal acquisition of land
28 Tribune (Simla), io November 1947. Moreover, Muslims had departed owing

arrears in rent and houses that had been destroyed or were vacant represented another
revenue short fall. It was not until the establishment of a District Rent Office in
October 1948 that arrears of rent on evacuee property began to be realised. During
the first month of the Rent Office's operation, nearly Rs 8oooo was collected. See
Tribune (Ambala), 9 November 1948.
29 Tribune (Simla), 4 October 1947.
30 Tribune (Ambala), 6 September 1948.
31 Tribune (Simla), 4 October 1947.
23' Tribune (Simla), 4 November 1947.
33 Tribune (Simla), 1 November 1947.

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and property, much of which was owned by evacuees.34 The

an acute shortage of town planners. Building designs wer
drawn up in many cases by engineers from Public Works De
rather than by architects. The housing shortfall was exa
the demolition of properties to widen roads and create n
areas. The slow rebuilding process meant that many refug
dangerously dilapidated dwellings. Each monsoon, the pr
of reports of building collapses. Finally in both cities, th
process was overseen by the Improvement Trusts tha
established in the wake of the 1922 Punjab Town Improveme
It is to this hidden area in the cities' post-partition instit
that we will now turn.
(i) The Amritsar Improvement Trust
The Amritsar Trust was only established in 1946. Its work had thus
hardly begun when the city descended into violence. Its activities were
suspended in the aftermath of partition. The Trust was only revived
in April 1949. Dr Dina Nath Ahluwalia, a former Chief Minister of
Suket, was appointed as its permanent chairman. Mr D.D. Kailal
was its Town Planner. He had worked for a number of years in
the Engineer's Department at the English new town development
of Hemel Hempstead. Other members included Sir Buta Singh, Seth
Satya Pal Virmani, Padam Chand Bhandari (the Cambridge-educated
Executive Officer of the Amritsar Municipal Committee) and the
Amritsar Deputy Commissioner Sardar Bahadur Narinder Singh.
The three Municipal Committee representatives on the trust were
its President Sardar Dharam Singh, Seth Radha Kishen and Sardar
Mohinder Singh.36 The first meeting was held in the Town Hall on
19 April. It resolved that the Public Works Department should survey
both the damaged areas and the Muslim evacuee property within the
city.37
34 It was only in September 1950 that the East Punjab Government dealt with
the delay arising from the acquisition of evacuee property that had been holding up
Amritsar's development scheme. An ordinance was promulgated that facilitated its
acquisition. Civil and Military Gazette (Lahore), 7 September 1950.
35 The Trusts were empowered to prepare development schemes for any locality
within the municipal limits. These could be undertaken in designated redevelopment
areas or on vacant tracts of land. The Trusts were responsible for water supply,
drainage and sewerage as well as land development and slum improvement.
36 Tribune (Ambala), 9 April 1949.

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158 IAN TALBOT
The Amritsar Improvement Trust's o
by the provisions of the Punjab De
Act. This laid down a notification pe
could be raised. Government sanction
6o day period. It was only then that
usually purchased out of the Trust's f
Government grant and the 2 per cent s
Committee's gross income.38 It was al
valuable plots of evacuee property
Anjuman Islamia Fruit Market in H
developed as new wholesale and retai
which would provide business opportu
retail stalls were proposed for constr
a design approved by the Improveme
granted loans of up to Rs 2ooo to he
and to start their business.
The Improvement Trust built shops, houses and widened roads.
It sold commercial and residential plots through public auctions.
Reservations were made for refugees. Some allotments involved the
drawing of lots. It was only when the construction work was completed
that a development scheme was handed over to the Municipal
Committee which then became responsible for its maintenance. In
November 1949, the Improvement Trust drew up a scheme for the
widening of the Pashamwala Bazar and the opening up of the area
from KatraJaimal Singh right up to the Town Hall near Khoti Ahata.
The aim was to facilitate one-way traffic through the congested Hall
Bazaar area. Stallholders needed to be moved. The Trust acquired 5
acres of land in order to undertake the project. It sought to meet the
costs by either building its own shops and houses or by auctioning the
plots.4' On o20 February 1950, the East Punjab Governor Sir Chandu
38 Tribune (Ambala), 20o February 1950. In order to strengthen the Trust's financial
position, it was suggested that the annual grant be made recurring and that the
amount realised from the East Punjab Urban Immoveable Property Tax and the
Entertainment Tax should be awarded to it.
39 This faced the GT Road on one side and the Hall Gate (renamed Gandhi Gate
on the other.
40 The construction cost was estimated at around Rs looo. This included the
development charges of the installation of roads, drains and electricity. Tribune
(Ambala), 9 February 1950.
4' Tribune (Ambala), 6January 1950.

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Lal Trivedi visited the damaged areas of the city. He saw

the area encompassed by the road development scheme.42
Two residential schemes were also put forward at this
first was for the construction of a harijan colony outside Bh
Gate. The second proposed the construction of 1oo doub
houses for clerks outside the Hathi and Lohgarh Gate
the Durgania Temple and on the open space formerly us
municipal stables.43 In many instances fifteen to twenty ye
between the planning and sanctioning of a scheme and its
over. The earliest schemes in the damaged areas of Katra
and Katra Jamail Singh had been sanctioned under Sectio
Punjab Development of Damaged Areas Act in July and
1951 respectively. They were only handed over to the M
Committee at the end of 1970.44 It had been hoped a
November 1949 that a thousand houses could be construct
Sher Singh for refugees. The scheme was delayed bec
difficulties in acquiring evacuee property.45 The Trust a
the ten acres area of land beyond the wall known as Gw
which had been formerly inhabited by Muslim Gujjars. Th
first developed for low-income housing in the 197os, alth
been sanctioned by the Government as early as 1961.46 Fu
were constructed in the mid-199os, although problems with
supply have led to dissatisfaction with the accommodation.47
Another low-cost housing scheme involved the proposal
double-storied block of 1oo houses for harijan refugees on
nazul (peripheral) land vested in the Municipal Committ
Gilwali Gate. Each house was designed to have two rooms
lo feet), a cooking verandah (8 feet by io) and a common
Common baths and latrines were provided along with a dispe
a reading room. The funding was to come either from a G
grant or a 30 year interest free loan from the Mahat
Memorial fund.48
42 Tribune (Ambala), 20o February 1950.

43 Tribune (Ambala), 21 November 1949.
44 A.K. Malik, 'Appraisal of Development of Urban Areas of Punjab
Amritsar ', Unpublished Thesis, Guru Nanak Dev University n.d, Append
45 Tribune (Ambala), 21 November 1949.
46 Malik, 'Appraisal of Development' op.cit., Appendix III p. 207
47 Navtej K. Purewal, Living on the Margins: Social Access to Shelter in Ur
(Aldershot, 200ooo), pp. 181-2.

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16o IAN TALBOT
Low-cost housing schemes

colony were bedevilled with
inferior workmen and materi
collapsed at Haripura in t
1950. Their refugee occupant
Controllers Office. They we
Bhandari toured the worst
years later, the monsoon rain
fatalities in their wake.50o
In all, during the first decade of independence, the Amritsar
Improvement Trust had notified 20o schemes under the terms of
the Punjab Development of Damaged areas Act. Seventeen of these
had received government sanction. The schemes were evenly divided
between commercial and residential developments. They covered a
total area of 70.92 acres.5' The Improvement Trust members drew
on experiences not only elsewhere in the subcontinent (for example,
Bombay, Delhi52 and Kanpur) but even overseas. Its secretary, Mr
Bhandari, for example, in 1950 visited cities in England, and Germany
that had been badly damaged by wartime bombing.53
(ii) The Lahore Improvement Trust
The Lahore Improvement Trust was created in 1936. Like its

Amritsar counterpart, it became responsible for the city's post-
partition reconstruction. The Trust initially turned its attention to
the redevelopment of the devastated Shah Almi locality. By September
1948 demolition work was in full swing in the area from Shah Almi to
Rang Mahal. The work proceeded with bulldozers and manual labour.
The debris was removed on donkeys. The water that had accumulated
because of the blocked drains was diverted into 4 disused wells.54
49 Civil and Military Gazette (Lahore), 20o September 1950.

50 Four persons were killed in Amritsar when a house collapsed after 5 inches of
rain fell on 1-2 August 1957. There were other house collapses in Katra Sher Singh,
but no fatalities resulted. Hindustan Times (Delhi), 3 August 1957.
51 Calculated from Malik, 'Appraisal of Development', Appendix IV, p. 210.
52 Mr Kaila, the Chief Engineer of the Amritsar Improvement Trust, for example,
went to Delhi to see the Subzi Mandi project so that it could be adopted in the
construction of the new fruit market in the Anjuman Park. Tribune (Ambala), 14
March 1950.
54 Civil and Military Gazette (Lahore), 25 September 1948.

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The 1947 violence provided an opportunity to transform wh

once been a narrow maze of streets into a major thoroughfa
large market with around 2oo shops sprang up in the space fo
occupied by Hindu shops and houses. The sites were offered at
rents. They were made available at auction.55 The Improv
Trust also built and rented the Lahore Wholesale Shoe Market in
the Shah Almi area. On 23 January 1953, Syed Ali Hussain Gard
the Punjab Minister for Development, opened the 36 'fully equi
and commodious rooms and shops'.56 As in Amritsar, iron and rubb
from riot-damaged areas was used in construction elsewhere in the
because of the shortage of bricks and cement. In both cities, refug
formed part of the labour force.
The Lahore Improvement Trust's redevelopment schemes form
significant element in the city's suburban development. They did n
however, solve the acute housing shortage. Even before the destruc
and upheaval of partition, housing had been in short supply. T
Chairman of the Lahore Improvement Trust had estimated in
that between thirty to forty thousand new houses were required.5
Trust's post-independence failure to provide affordable housing, or
engage in large scale repair works,58 at the same time as clear
areas of the walled city contributed to the shortfall. During t
period 1947-50 Lahore's population had risen from 8-12 lakhs.
thousand houses had been gutted in the partition riots. The Lah
Improvement Trust demolished a further 2ooo. It had only man
until 1950 to build a fifth of the total number of houses it had knoc
down.59 One consequence of this was that while some of the w
areas were cleared for development, many houses that were danger
remained standing as there was no alternative accommodation.
During the heavy rains of August 1948, there were a numbe
building collapses in the Wachowali and Shah Almi areas of La
55 The Rang Mahal market development followed the same lines. The purch
were expected to pay a quarter of the value of the bid at the time of the auction
and Military Gazette (Lahore), 17 September 1950.
56 Dawn (Karachi), 28January 1953.
57 Report of the Subcommittee on Houses and Shops to The 18th Meeting o
Pakistan-Punjab Refugees Council Lahore io March 1948.
58 The Lahore Improvement Trust's repair programme was modest. In April 1
it undertook to repair around 300 houses in various parts of the walled city. Civ
Military Gazette (Lahore), 16 April 1948. Members of the Subcommittee on H
and shops had reported that some of the 1130 houses identified by the De
Commissioner as easily repairable were in areas where such work would 'clash
town improvement schemes.'
59 Civil and Military Gazette (Lahore), 5July 1950.

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162 IAN TALBOT
On the night of 15 August, 18 m

died when the haveli they were
two thousand refugees storm
office and vandalised it in a fur
Improvement Trust maintain
area were in imminent danger
two people were killed and ot
collapses in Shah Almi. In one in
from their death-trap, but in t
had returned evading a police
level some of the more dange
and gaping. Walls were cracke
1947-
Refugees were accommodate
and outhouses. Four hundred
displacing non-Muslim refugees
Six years later, little seem
to be evacuated to the Lahor
houses in the monsoon rains.6
of independence was marked b
Corporation razed 121 houses.
298 to get their buildings repai
A seven-member committee
Ahsan Lari had oversight of
Shadbagh housing schemes. T
crores in 1952 created a new a
Gulberg Colony in the southea
Hundreds of bungalow compo
The third phase of the Gulb
completed at the end of 1956.65
the Allotment Committee of th
every applicant to provide an af
been allotted a plot for a reside
6o Civil and Military Gazette (Lahore

6, Civil and Military Gazette (Lahore
62 Civil and Military Gazette (Lahore
63 Dawn (Karachi), 25 Septembe
Corporation survey, 2746 pucca ho
estimated repair cost of Rs 38 lakhs.
64 Dawn (Karachi), 28July 1956.
65 Dawn (Karachi), 6July 1956.

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or had a house or a plot on which a house could be built in the civ
station of Lahore.66 Gulberg was an upper-class residential area.
reflected Lahore's post-independence administrative and commerci
importance. Its accommodation was well out of the reach of poore
refugees.
The Samnabad scheme was started in 1950. It initially covered jus
over 2oo acres.67 The scheme was founded on the south western sid
of the city in the area lying between Miani Sahib and Pakki Thatti. It
covered an area that despite its name (the land ofjasmine) comprise
abandoned brick kilns, wells and ponds. These had become the abod
of waste tips and stray dogs.68 The first phase of houses was allocated
to officials who were still temporarily accommodated. The area wa
only slowly developed throughout the 1950s. Zafar Iqbal recalls tha
only a third of the locality was built up when he settled there in 1959
'Tonga or cart drivers disliked entering Samnabad and never bothered
to cross the roundabout on Poonch Road. Khizra mosque was not
pucca construction'.69 Interviews with other residents reveal that when
the land was originally allotted it was often viewed as an investment t
be sold on, because of the reluctance to live in what was seen as a 'ung
area. Indeed it was only in the 1970s that the locality really becam
built up. The majority of the allottees were local residents. Some
such as the family of Mian MohammadJaffer, were original brick kiln
owners of the locality.70 There were a few Kashmiri Abbasi famili
and some refugees from East Punjab. One visible sign of their presence
was the existence for many years in the locality of the Amritsar Swee
Mart. The price for the most basic 'N' type house comprising thre
rooms with a kitchen and bathroom installed with water and electricit
was according to one resident Rs 5000. More commodious quarter
increased in cost. Even before the considerable rise in land prices
the 1970s, it is clear that accommodation in Samnabad was well ou
of the reach of even lower middle class refugees and locals.
The Shad Bagh71 (Prospering Garden) scheme was a continuation
of the Lahore Improvement Trust's Misri Shah Development Schem

67 Dawn (Karachi), 18June 1952.
68 M. Saeed, Lahore: A Memoir (Lahore, 1989), pp. 250-1.
69 Interview with Zafar Iqbal, Samnabad, 9 April 2003. I am grateful to Ahma
Salim for conducting this and other interviews in Samnabad.
70 Interview with Mian MohammadJaffer, Samnabad 4 March 200oo3.
7' I am extremely grateful to Tahir Mahmood for providing all the information fo
this section.

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164 IAN TALBOT
that had originally been conceived in
comprised 585 plots ranging from 2o
acre) in size.72 The largest number o
the latter size (2250 sq. ft.). At the t
A and D of the seven projected block
known as quarters. Blocks B and C w
were small single storey houses of a 5
on the other blocks with material being
destroyed during the pre-partition viol
Open space plots beyond the quarters of
at 18 and 20o marlas were sold on both cash and instalment terms. The
Lahore Improvement Trust initially required that only single-storey
houses should be built on the open plots. It relented after a series of
disputes with the owners. It eventually constructed some 20o double-
storey houses itself in the G block. The price of a io marlas plot was
Rs. 400 or Rs 50 in advance and Rs 30 as monthly instalments.74
As land values eventually rose, the allotment procedures became less
transparent. Lower middle class purchasers were replaced by those
with political and landed connections.75 The houses were sold for
Rs 5000 cash. They could also be purchased through a Provisional
Transfer Order with a deposit of Rs 8oo and then paid for in monthly
instalments of Rs 40 for a twelve year period.
Local Kashmiris and Arains purchased most of the quarters. They
worked in Lahore's post-independence burgeoning administrative
sector. It was only in blocks A, D that refugees were housed. Block
A had 30 houses known as quarters, while blocks B and C and D had
38 each. Each quarter had one drawing room, two bedrooms, a store
room, a kitchen and a courtyard. There was a grassy yard fronting on
every quarter. Refugees were not granted ownership rights. Whenever
the quarters were sold, they were evicted and asked to settle their
claims against the evacuees' property. Only a few of them could afford
to purchase the quarters. On the settlement of their property claims,
they too left the area for good.76
72 For details see, Map prepared by Lahore Improvement Trust dated 14 August
1944 printed at Mufid-i-Am Press Lahore.
73 The blocks were A, B, C, D, G, X and Z. Interview with Abdul Aziz Butt, Shah
Bagh, Lahore, 16 August 2004.
74 Interview with Amjad Butt, Shad Bagh, Lahore, 16 August 2004.
75 Interviews with Haji Mushtaque and Haji Sharif, Shad Bagh, Lahore, 22 July
2004.
76 Interview with Abdul Aziz Butt, Shad Bagh, Lahore, 16 August 20o4.

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The Improvement Trust rented out some quarters at Rs 22 a month,
as the scheme was unattractive to residents in its early stages.77 Its
proximity to the Ravi meant that it was frequently flooded in the mon-
soon season. There were no electricity, water and sewerage services
connections. A local resident, Abdul Aziz Butt78 launched a welfare
organisation known as the Anjuman Rifah-e-Am79 to pressurise the
Lahore Improvement Trust to end its neglect. R.A.F. Howroyd,so the
British Chairman of the Trust81 visited Golbagh, a central place of
the scheme, where the Anjuman had erected a map before his arrival.
After touring the scheme, he visited its offices which were situated in
a small room of a quarter, Abdul Aziz had purchased on instalments.
The Trust Chairman was so impressed that he allotted a plot for
the Anjuman. Howroyd also suggested that shops should be built on
its front in order to generate funds for welfare work. Soon after this
visit in 1949, roads and services were improved with the installation
of hand pumps. Electricity was provided in the early 1950s. At the
same time an embankment was built to reduce the risk of flooding.82
77 Ibid.
78 Abdul Aziz Butt came from Ghartal village in the Daska tehsil of the Sialkot
district. His father, Dolat Din Butt was a social worker after earlier serving as a
translator for the Afghanistan Govwernment. Abdul Aziz came to Lahore in 1942,
after completing his matric and started a clerical job on the railways. He resigned in
1949 in order to establish the Anjuman Rifah-e-Am.
79 The Anjuman over the years since its establishment has secured the provision
of a number of facilities in the Shad Bagh residential locality. In 1949, a public call
office was provided, followed in 1959 by a post office and much later in 1983 by
a telegraph facility. In 1955 the Anjuman established a library. At its request the
Lahore Corporation in 1961 established a free Primary Girls School. The same year,
the Anjuman founded a Community Welfare Centre and an Islamia Girls Secondary
School whose funds and assets were transferred to the government four years later.
The Anjuman also in 1965 established an Industrial School for Women. Two other
schools with which the Anjuman was involved were the Government Girls College
(1982) and the NationalJunior Model School (1986). From 1981 onwards it provided
grants for poor students. In the health field, theAnjuman established a maternity home
(1971) a free hospital (1980) and the Rifah-e-Am Hospital which has all modern
facilities. Interview with Abdul Aziz Butt, Shad Bagh, Lahore, 16 August 2004.
So Howroyd stayed on in a series of administrative posts in Pakistan for a
number of years after independence. He served as the Deputy Commissioner of
Lyallpur after he moved on from Lahore. He was Municipal Commissioner of
Karachi from the beginning of November 1950 until May 1953. He returned from
furlough in October of that year and resumed the post until 29 January 1954-
See Civil and Military Gazette (Lahore), 26 August 1950 and 28 May 1953 and
http://www.karachicity.gov.pk/mckmc.htm
8, Its secretary at this time was Zafr-ul Hasan.
s2 The floods of 1955 were so high that the waters breached the embankment and
entered the quarters which had 9 feet high boundary walls. Their residents had to

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166 IAN TALBOT
The Ravi's shifting course a

inundations. The policy rem
breaking the banks of the Rav
city from inundation to the so
The Shad Bagh scheme gra
this resulted in haphazard d
the Ayub and Bhutto eras. P
built properties adjoining th
in 1965. Wasan Pura, Tajpu
Hamad Colony and Sidiqyah C
developments now stretched
Bagh.83 Residential localiti
markets including Akbar M
An originally lower middle cla
feel.84 The area became cong
was considerably higher than
land use included industrial and commercial as well as residential
developments.
Two or three hundred small houses for refugees were also
constructed in the northern industrial locality of Misri Shah duri
1952-3.85 Another scheme, adjacent to Shad Bagh in the north of the
city brought forward in 1952, was the construction of the Lahore Grai
market near Badami Bagh. This was designed to relieve congestion
the Akbar Mandi area. At the same time land was acquired around the
Wazir Khan Mosque in the walled city where the Azam Cloth mark
was to be later founded. This area was leased by the Improvemen
trust to the Cloth Market Association of Lahore.86
Many of the Lahore schemes catered for the needs of its emergi
professional and official classes. Those in Amritsar provided housi
for lower class refugees who were an important feature of its pos
partition settlement. Despite their efforts, the cities would hav
suffered the accommodation problems of such cities as Karachi an
Calcutta, if large amounts of evacuee property had not been available.
take refuge on the roofs. The embankment was thereafter increased a further 3 fe
in height. Interview with Abdul Aziz Butt, Shad Bagh, Lahore, 16 August 2004.
83 Interview with Muhammad Aslam Kashmiri, former chief news editor (no
defunct) the Daily Imroze and an old resident of Shad Bagh, Lahore, 23 July 2004.
84 Interview with Mt Nazir, Shad Bagh, Lahore, l7 July 200oo4.
s5 Dawn (Karachi), 23 September 1953.
86 Dawn (Karachi), 18June 1952.

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The relatively less acute housing problem formed one of a number of
factors that eased the integration of refugees in the two Punjab cities.
Refugees and Locals
Partition transformed such cities as Karachi,s7 Delhis8 and Calcutta.89

The Urdu-speaking mohajirs transplanted a North Indian culture in
the sands of Sind. The influx of Punjabi refugees swept away90 the last
remnants of Delhi's classical Urdu culture.9' East Bengali refugees in
Calcutta crowded into illegal squatter colonies and were a factor in its
lawlessness and instability. In all three situations, the impact of the
migrants was so great that they could be deemed to have created cities
whose respective political cultures of ethnicity,92 communalism93and
communism94 were a direct consequence of partition. Recent studies
have started to examine the tensions between partition-refugees and
locals. Sarah Ansari has provided, for example a systematic study of the
situation in Karachi during the period 1947-1962.95 No such detailed
87 See, K.R. Sipe, 'Karachi's Refugee Crisis: The Political, Economic and Social
Consequences of Partition-Related Migration.' Unpublished Ph.D thesis, Duke
University 1976
88 V.N. Datta, 'Punjabi Refugees and the Urban Development of Greater Delhi' in
R.E. Frykenberg (ed), Delhi Through the Ages. Essays in Urban History, Culture and Society
(Delhi, 1986), pp. 442-63.
89 For a brief overview see, Tai Yong Tan and Gyanesh Kudaisya, The Aftermath of
Partition in South Asia (London 2000), pp. 172-5.
90 Delhi had become a symbol of decline, shahr-e-ashub(city of misfortune) following its
sacking by Nadir Shah in 1739. There had nevertheless, been a late revival of Urdu
culture during the rule of Bahadur Shah Zafar (1837-1857). He had patronised such
poets as Ghalib who became one of the greatest exponents of the ghazal (love lyric).
9' 'Every aspect of our lives became Punjabi,' an old resident complained, 'the
food became increasingly Punjabi, or Punjabi Mughlai, our cultural tastes became
Punjabi, even our demeanour and values became Punjabi.' Cited in Dipankar Gupta,
'The Indian Diaspora of 1947: The Political and Ethnic Consequences of the Partition
with Special Reference to Delhi', in K.N. Panikkar (ed), Communalism in India: History,
Politics and Culture (New Delhi, 1991), p. 81.
92 See, Tahir Amin, Ethno-National Movements of Pakistan (Islamabad, 1988).
93 See, C. Jaffrelot, 'The Hindu Nationalist Movement in Delhi: From "Locals"
to Refugees- and Towards Peripheral Groups?' in V. Dupont, E. Tarlo and D. Vidal
(eds), Delhi. Urban Space and Human Destinies (New Delhi, 2ooo), pp. 181-203.
94 For the rise in support for the communists because of the politicisation of
refugees in the squatter colonies of Calcutta see, Prafulla Chakrabarty, The Marginal
Men, The Refugees and the Left Political Syndrome in West Bengal (Kalyani, 1 990o).
95 Ansari, Life After Partition.

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168 IAN TALBOT
examination exists for the P

the concept of 'cultural distan
between Punjabi migrants an
Urdu-speaking refugees and
argument is province rather
examination of the interactio
and Amritsar will close an imp
Cultural explanations for th
dialect, diet and most impor
the West Punjab middle class r
has echoes of mohajir sentime
a British observer noted in 1
inferior to the country which
East Punjabis and the latter r
lost the fair capital city of
partly in consideration of this
making much of the project t
at Chandigarh'.9s
The limits of assimilation b
clearly in that most intimate
from securing employment
marriages in a strange locality
refugee families.99 The uns
control female sexuality and
off daughters. The need to re-
potential marriage partners is
in the resettlement pattern of
Mohan Toofan, a refugee fro
however, how Sialkotis will alw
fellow migrants.'00 Ravinder
96 M. Waseem, 'Partition, Migrat

Pakistani Punjab' in I. Talbot and G.
and the Partition of the Subcontinent
97 The cultural distance was so gre
Pakistan Government felt obliged to
(New Life) to help both communitie
Life After Partition, p. 89.
98 F.R.K. Harrison Report on a To
East Punjab Affairs, Public Records
99 I am grateful to Ravinder Kaur f
roo Liaqat Ali to Ishtiaq Ahmed e-m
asiapeace @yahoogroups.com.

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in Delhi revealed that an 'overwhelming majority' had married
their children and grandchildren within partition migrant families.o0'
Ishtiaq Ahmed has similarly pointed out that Delhi migrants in Lahore
'marrywithin their own group and are reluctant to give their daughters
to Punjabi dhaggas (oafs).`''
A similar pattern is discernible with respect to refugees from
Amritsar settled in Lahore. When they could not practice the preferred
first-cousin marriage pattern, they would marry into families that had
been their former neighbours because they knew them.'03
For families without access to known marriage networks, the last
recourse could be to matrimonial advertisements in newspapers.
Refugee partners were preferred because their pre-partition
background was more readily researched. The following advertisement
from the Hindustan Times is typical of many which appeared even nearly
a decade after partition.
Bride (Matric) for a Sikh B.SC. LLB. Getting Rs 200oo. Family respectable.
People from Shahpur and Bannu district preferred.'04
It was in such localities as Gowal Mandi and Sharifpura that

Lahore and Amritsar appeared most clearly to be refugee cities
Signboards and properties named after their occupants' ancestral
homes were unmistakable. To provide just one example, the Amritsari
businessman Charan Dass has named his shops 'Bhagbanpurian d
Hatti' after his former residential locality in Lahore.o05 Conversely
for a number of years, the Amritsar Rovers Hockey Club competed
successfully in Lahore.106
More important from a cultural perspective in assisting integration
than the possession of a common Punjabi language and values was
the existence especially in Lahore of community and kin networks
101 Ravinder Kaur, 'Narratives of Resettlement: Past, Present and Politics Among
1947 Punjabi Migrants in Delhi' Unpublished 2004 Ph.D Thesis, Roskilde University
Centre, p.74.
o'2 Ishtiaq Ahmed e-mail correspondence 4 January 2003 posted at
[email protected].
103 A.M. Weiss, Walls Within Walls. Life Histories of Working Women in the Old City of
Lahore (Karachi, 2002), p. 66.
104 Hindustan Times (Delhi), 0o March 1957.
105 G. Maini, 'Partition and Locality: The Impact on Amritsar's Industry',
Unpublished Paper presented at 17th European Conference on Modern South Asian
Studies, Heidelberg, 11 September 2002, p. 18.
io6 For details of the office holders elected at its September 1950 AGM see Civil
and Military Gazette (Lahore), 2 October 1950.

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170 IAN TALBOT
that predated partition. The

city, Kashmiris and Arains, a
settled there. Khawaja Zubair w
and wholesale dealer in Amri
contacts in Lahore. The mater
Bhati in Lahore. Inside Mochi Gate all Kashmiris had business and
biraderi ties.107 Mohammad Akhtar who came from an East Pun
family of Arain contractors/transporters similarly replied that the
settled immediately in Lahore because 'we have had business relat
here'.los The predominant resettlement of Amritsari Kashmiri
the former affluent Hindu residential locality of Gowal Mandi
Lahore was rooted not only in official policy, but the fact that relativ
earmarked abandoned properties for their refugee cousins. Urd
speaking migrants from Delhi had to be content with the more mod
surroundings of the Sant Nagar and Krishan Nagar localities.
Refugees: Economic Assets or Competitors?
Lahore far more than Amritsar approximates to the demograp

experience of North India's refugee-dominated cities. The refug
proportion of its population was 43 per cent.'09 This was onl
marginally less than the figure for Karachi (49 per cent)"o0 an
considerably more that that of Delhi (28.4 per cent)."' Delh
population had, however, increased 30 times more than Lahore's
the 1941-51 period."'2 In contrast, Amritsar experienced a 16 p
cent drop in population between the 1941 and 1951 Censuses."3
Tensions between refugees and locals often occurred either
situations of fear of a refugee takeover, as in Karachi, or of ac
competition for resources. The classic case is the tussle for lan
107 Interview with Khawaja Zubair, Lahore, 22 November 2004. I am gratefu

Tahir Mahmood for conducting this interview.
io8 Partition Transcript No i, Mohammad Akhtar, 17 April 1999, Pakistan Gall
organisation.
109 The Census ofPakistan 1951 (Karachi, n.d.) p. 75.
o10 Cited in I.H. Malik, State and Civil Society in Pakistan, Politics ofAuthority, Ideology
andEthnicity (Basingstoke, 1997) P. 200.
1" Datta, 'Punjabi Refugees', p. 443.
"2 Lahore's population increased by 2.6 percent, Delhi's by a staggering 90o per
cent.
13 B.P. Singh, 'Amritsar and Its Population' in Fauja Singh (ed), The City ofA
A Study ofHistorical, Cutural, Social and Economic Aspects (New Delhi, 1978), p

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in the Calcutta squatter colonies. Locals in Lahore compe

refugees for abandoned Hindu and Sikh property. Rehmat Al
as Kaka Randwa) from Chuna Mandi admitted that, 'w
houses of Hindus'."14 The District Magistrate of Lahor
on 28 September 1947 that legal action would be take
squatters. The following day evictions began to take pla
Gowal Mandi area."5 Nearly two months later, 'local
were still being evicted from properties. Mohammad Shar
Managing Director of the Muslim India Insurance Com
among a group of 'respectable' persons named and shamed
report for unauthorised occupation.116 The West Punjab G
countered criticism of house allotment by appointing an
Revising Committee in late November."7 Further disput
however, regarding the allotment of shops."" In an attem
clashes of interests between locals and residents, the for
incorporated into the allotment process.19 Ten per cent of
were allotted to refugees from Jullundur as a result of t
of Shams-ul-Haq who was a member from Jullundur on
Allotment Committee.120 Controversy still continued, howev
the allocation of premises to locals.21' The Working Com
the Lahore City Muslim League on 13 November 194
"4 Interview with Rehmat Ali (alias kaka Randwa), Lahore, 1o Septe
"5 The Pakistan Times (Lahore), 28 September 1947.
,i6 He had occupied 4 bungalows on Mozang Road. The Pakistan Times
November 1947.
117 Its office was located in that of the committee's chairman, N.R. Ky
Remembrancer of West Punjab. Malik Abdul Aziz, Advocate, formerly o
and Chaudhri Muhammad sharif, Bar-at-law of Gujranwala were the oth
The Pakistan Times (Lahore), 28 November 1947.
"" Allotment notices were published in the press and included details
locality, its last owner or tenant and the goods in which it dealt. Ap
example, for such properties inside Lohari gate were required to do so b
on 13-15 November at Ganga Ram Hospital, Wacchowali. The Pakistan Ti
13 November 1947.
1'9 In the Gowal Mandi, locality for example, two allotment comm
established, the standing committee comprised of three locals, whi
committee contained two refugee representatives from Amritsar, one fr
one fom Ferozepore and one fromJullundur.
12o The Pakistan Times (Lahore), 7 October 1947.
121 The orders of the Pakistan-Punjab Refugees Council were that loc
eligible for such allotment if they had suffered losses in the Partition v
they could certify that they had no other means of subsistence in the
See Proceedings of the 7th Meeting of the Allotment Tribunal Lahore
1948.

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172 IAN TALBOT
resolution urging the West Pu

into the 'illegal and unlawful' al
influential residents' of Lahore. In another resolution it called for the
District Magistrate to include one of its representatives on the Shops
Allotment Committee.'22 Importantly by co-opting refugees onto
the Committee, the League prevented politicisation along resident-
refugee lines.
There appear to have been few complaints about the allotment of
residential properties in Amritsar. This was certainly not the case
in other Indian Punjab cities. Credit appears due to the Allotment
Committee of the Municipal Corporation. This was well served by
Sardar Charan Singh, a leading refugee businessman and President
of the Hide Market. Police assistance was provided to help those who
were unable to obtain possession of properties granted to them by
allottment orders.2"3 Greater controversy surrounded the tendering
of the leases of abandoned factories. Indeed when the East Punjab
Minister for Refugees and Rehabilitation, Sardar Ishar Singh Majhail
addressed a press conference in Amritsar on 12 December 1947 he
was forced to admit that members of the Legislative Assembly were
attempting to lay their hands on all the factories and workshops.124
The Government had issued an order just a couple of days earlier that
no Government Servants or their relatives should be allowed to bid in
the auction of looted goods in Amritsar that was estimated to be Rs
28 lakhs in value. 25
Aside from the issue of allotment, can the relatively good relations
between locals and refugees in Lahore and Amritsar be partially
explained in terms of the complimentary or at least non-competitive
roles played by the latter? There appears to be greater evidence
for this factor in Lahore than Amritsar, where refugees either filled
niches in the labour market left by departing Hindus, or started new
industries.
Muslim migrants from Agra and Kanpur replaced skilled workers
in the footware industry. UP refugees from Firozabad were important
in establishing a bangle making industry. More than 500 people came
to be employed by its furnaces. The migration of refugees also gave
'22 The Pakistan Times (Lahore), 15 November 1947.

"2 Tribune (Ambala), 17 October 1948.
24 Tribune (Simla), I3 December 1947.
2"5 Tribune (Simla), io December 1947.

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an impetus to the making of bidis. A 50 per cent protective

types of bidis also supported the industry.126
Anita Weiss has revealed the refugees' role in the devel
Lahore's pharmaceutical industry. It hardly existed befor
Interestingly the Hindu bania owner of one of the handf
factories which operated in Moghulpura from 1932 st
Pakistan until 1970.127 Refugee Sheikh and Arain traders, w
into manufacture from owning chemist shops, set up the firs
Mumtaz Ahmad Sheikh, a migrant from Dalhousie, fo
Lahore Chemical and Pharmaceutical Works by the cana
1953. It was so successful that it moved to a more spacio
on the Ferozepore Road. Two years earlier, Mohammad S
established the Unison Chemical Works on the Multan Road. He
came from an Arain farming family in Sialkot but had run the
Punjab Bus Transport Company before partition. He had move
manufacturing after spending some time as a clearing agent
medical stores in Anarkali.128
The Muslim takeover ofAnarkali Bazar was a striking post-partit
transformation of Lahore. Banias and Khatris'29 had previously ow
virtually all its businesses with the exception of the shoe
Khojas and Gaubas from the East Punjab Muslim trading commu
replaced them. By filling such niches, refugees contributed to the c
growth without arousing local animosity. Some Hindu owners had
unsuccessfully to continue to run their businesses through Muslim
even British agents.130
The muted local-refugee tensions in Amritsar may have
rooted more in the relatively small migrant population than
economic contribution. The predominantly lower class migrants co
not replace skilled Muslim artisans. Labour shortages in the t
industry, where over 50 per cent of the skilled labour force had b
126 Abdul Aziz Anwar, Effects of Partition on Industries in the Border Districts of L
and Sialkot. Pub no. 15 Board of Economic Enquiry Punjab Pakistan (Lahore
p. 100oo.
127 A. Weiss Culture, Class and Development in Pakistan: The Emergence of an Industrial
Bourgeoisie in Punab (Boulder, 1991), p. 59.
128 Ibid., pp. 62-5.
129 Pran Nevile maintains that Brahmins owned only one shop in the whole of
Anarkali, this was Lall Bros. Cloth Merchants. P. Nevile, Lahore: A SentimentalJourney
(New Delhi: Allied Publishers, 1993), P. 14.
130o Deputy High Commissioner Lahore Report 22 November 1947 DO 142/440
Refugees in West Punjab, Public Records Office.

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174 IAN TALBOT
Muslim,'31 compounded the dam

of March-August 1947. There
the skills gap. In August 1949,
that technical training would b
number of local Amritsar indus
to Bombay and Ahmedabad.13
to the new border situation d
Lahore expressed any desire t
There was no shortage of app
both refugees and locals to th
established following the Eco
This differential response to the
focus of the closing section of
impact on the two cities' post-p
The Border and the Develo
With the exception of the wo

little written about the locat
result of partition. They subtitl
Punjab's Pride to border town
consequences of partition arisin
labour, financial expertise in t
the relocation of businesses b
border.' 6 This geographical han
importance. They conclude th
'Having been the heart of und
important city in the whole o
handicap of proximity to the In
'3' K.L. Luthera, Impact of Partition on

Board of Economic Inquiry No. 1 (Lu
132 A complete industrial flight was
Punjab Factories (Control of Dismant
133 Ibid., pp. 37-8.
134 It possessed five advisory comm
Textile Industries, Chemicals, Soap
Printing Presses and Miscellaneous In
'35 Tan and Kudaisya, The Aftermath
136 Ibid.
137 Ibid., p.178.

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Lahore undoubtedly faced serious difficulties in 1947. It

labour force had declined by 73 per cent and its industri
capital by 6o per cent.'138 Further evidence of the dislocatio
starkly from the following figures: only 13 of Lahore's
presses were running in 1947; just 16 of Lahore's former 28
banks were serving customers in August 1948; all of Lah
factories were only partially functioning. Lahore had acc
75/101 Engineering Factories in the undivided Punjab, o
which were operating in 1947. The value of output of the
factories in the Lahore district which had stood at Rs 1
in 1946 had decreased to Rs 288 lakhs in 1947. Facto
been abandoned or damaged in the partition-related viole
included such former large enterprises as the Mela Ram C
and the Mukand Iron and Steel Rolling Mill. Skilled w
migrated in the textile and book binding industries. Efforts
to encourage Hindus and Sikhs to stay on in the banking
was crippled by the loss of expertise arising from migration
By 1950, there were, however, signs of an economic recove
the value of output of the registered factories in the Lah
was still below that of 1946, it had more than doubled sin
The recovery rested on three key aspects. Firstly, the cit
from an influx of skilled labour and entrepreneurial talent d
the Arain, Sheikh and Kashmiri biraderis of East Punjab.
the border location exerted a less negative impact on bo
and government industrial investment. Finally, the city's
administrative importance compensated for its locational
Reference was made earlier to the influx of East Punjab ar
entrepreneurs. It is important to note that Lahore was able t
with such cities as Lyallpur for this refugee labour, not only
its amenities, but as a result of existing biraderi ties. Moreo
non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan could venture deep i
territory to Delhi, Faridabad or even Bombay, East Pun
migrants had less scope. The whole of the Pakistan Pu
border area given Pakistan's lack of strategic depth. Urdu
Karachi was geographically distant, but culturally unatt
Punjabi industrialist refugees and skilled workers. The po
period in Lahore, in contrast with Amritsar, was thus m
'38 Ibid., p.177.

'39 The figure stood at Rs 719 lakhs. Abd al-Aziz Anwar, Effects ofPartition.o
in the Border Districts ofLahore and Sialkot (Lahore, 1953), P- 55-

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176 IAN TALBOT
labour glut rather than shortages. Migra
for example, in the hosiery industry's
had been just 4 factories in the city befo
to the interwar period. They had been
older established Ludhiana producers.
Ludhiana together with the arrival of
only from there, but Amritsar and Jull
expansion.a40
Lahore's industrial and commercial ex
Government assistance along with pr
Punjab Government's immediate conc
of the financial sector and the allotment of evacuee industrial
enterprises. The former was achieved with the creation of the
Bank of Pakistan and the National Bank of Pakistan. The Pakistan
Industrial Finance Corporation and the Refugees Rehabilita
Finance Corporation were also established in 1949. Refugees recei
further financial support from the Cottage Industries Developm
Corporation and the burgeoning number of Co-operative Banks
Societies. The latter were formed around refugee occupation gro
such as weavers and shoe makers as well as localities. There was,
example, a Mohalla Amritsarian Co-operative Society registered
Moghulpura Lahore.'4'
The Soap Industry provides a good example of the impact
government support. Before partition, Lahore was the second m
important centre for this industry in the Punjab although it lag
behind Amritsar. The industry forged ahead after independence,
only because of the removal of its main competitor, but becaus
government assistance in terms of the removal of the Sales Tax,
reduction of duty on imported raw materials, and the encourageme
of the local production of caustic soda.'42 The industry was
investigated by the Pakistan Tariff Commission. By 1952, it h
recommended that eight industries be granted protection.'43
Shahdara, which in 1947 had housed a large refugee camp, was
of Lahore's developing industrial centres. Other important local
140 Anwar, Effects ofPartition, p. 87.

141 Anwar, Effects of Partition., Appendix F p. 175.
14' Anwar, Effects of Partition, p. 94.
143 These were the following industries: Grinding Wheels; Lathes; Paints, Colo
and Varnish; Bidi; Industrial type Power Switch Boards; Electric Fans; Hurric
Lanterns; Motor Car and Cycle Pumps. Ibid., p. 122.

122.173.33.111 on Wed, 19 May 2021 15:51:03 UTC
were along the GT Road and in Moghalpura. Shahdara'44 s

the north bank of the Ravi on the GT Road to Peshawar
15 factories by the mid-1950s. They employed over fiv
workers. Most of the factories were owned by refugees. The
Indian Match Factory which resumed production in Octob
was the largest in Pakistan and was valued at Rs 1oooooo.
there was the Punjab Flour Mill, Punjab Woollen Mills, wh
only one of its type in the country, the Punjab Soap and Sod
Factory, the Punjab Enamel Factory and the Punjab Natio
Company. The latter fulfilled most of the Government's
fans.146 It also manufactured power looms and electric moto
tenths of its work force came from a refugee background.'4
Little has been written about the West Punjab Gove
support for the restoration of normal commercial activ
province. It is clear both from contemporary press repor
records as those of the Pakistan-Punjab Refugees Counc
considerable effort was made in this respect. Industrial d
was seen as central to the national interest as well a
to the plan to absorb Muslim refugees.149 Pakistan's fir
exempted new industrial undertakings from direct taxation
not exceeding 5 per cent.50o On 1 November 1947, the W
Industrial Planning Committee met for the first time to dis
for expansion and the resettlement of industrial labourers.1
earlier, the West Punjab Finance Minister, Mian Mumta
had announced a short-term loan of Rs 6 crores for industrialists who
'had been inconvenienced because of inadequate banking facilities'.''5
Further support for industry was provided by the award of 500
grants of Rs 20 each for refugees desiring to receive training in such
144 Shahdara, or the 'royal pass' was historically important because of the tomb
constructed there in 1628 by NurJehan for her late husband the EmperrorJehangir.
145 The industry was earlier granted protection on the recommendation of the
Tariff Commission FR 11 August 1953 DO 35/5296 Public Records Office.
146 Civil and Military Gazette (Lahore), 17 October 1950.
148 This has been established in October 1947 to deal with the evacuation of non-
Muslims and the reception of Muslim refugees from India. It was assisted in these
Herculean efforts by the Joint Council of Ministers of both the Pakistan and West
Punjab Governments.
149 The Pakistan Times (Lahore), 18 November 1947.
150 L.S.Jehu (ed), The Indian and Pakistan YearBook 1948 (Bombay, 1948), p. 16o.
'51 The Pakistan Times (Lahore), 1 November 1947.
152 The Pakistan Times (Lahore), 21 October 1947.

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178 IAN TALBOT
skills as electrical work, tool-making,
weaving and spinning and carpet wea
of the Pakistan-Punjab Refugees Coun
was agreed to place sums of betwee
disposal of Deputy Commissioners for
businessmen.154 In August 1950, the I
set up 5 sub-committees to deal with
industry, handicrafts for women and th
not just paper entities, as can be illust
afterwards a Pakistan Art Emporium w
of Krishan Nagar. This employed about 2
from Moradabad. The workers manufact
city had become famous.156
More research is required on the
industrial development in Pakistan Pu
earmarked for this task existed only
the remainder. Pakistan's financial posit
birth. The recourse to private donations
e-Azam Fund,157 to assist with refug
this. There has been no quantification
the refugee tax'58 and its disbursem
made of the sterling balances,'59 as d
would have resulted in rampant infla
was a political project of the East Pu
elites as epitomized by such figures a
Nawab of Mamdot also requires furth
uncovered here, however, reveal the rem
process.
153 The Pakistan Times (Lahore), 11 November 1947.

154 Proceedings of the 18th Meeting of the Pakistan-Punjab Refugees Coun
Lahore, 10o March 1948.
155 Civil and Military Gazette (Lahore), 16 August 1950.
'56 Civil and Military Gazette (Lahore), 21 August 1950.
157 This provided funding not only directly to refugees, but paid 18 relief work
from the Christian Committee for the Relief of West Punjab. H.S. Stephenson to
Scott 13 March 1948 DO 142/440 Refugees in West Punjab, Public Records Offi
158 See, Ansari, Life After Partition, p. 79.
159 Ghulam Muhammad the Pakistan Finance Minister led a delegation to Londo
in May 1949 for talks concerning Pakistan's share of the sterling balances. A
agreement was due to run out in June 1949 under whose terms ?3Eg million
been released for current transactions with provision for the transfer of another
million.

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Lahore's ability to overcome these post-partition difficulties h

rested in part on its continuing administrative importance.
not only remained the capital of the Punjab, but for a time, fo
the introduction of the One Unit in 1955, was the capital
Pakistan. Amritsar could have only been saved from decline
been given a similar status. By October 1953, Lahore's es
population was 120000ooooo, it had been 700000 in 1947.160
Amritsar's importance as a wholesale centre for trade in the c
Punjab made it vulnerable to the disruption brought by th
international border. Moreover, its industries were cut off from
their former markets and their sources of raw materials. T
blow dealt by the migration of skilled workers added to th
physical destruction in the wake of partition. Despite its r
importance for the Sikh community, the city rapidly took on th
a peripheral locality. Periodic war scares in the early post-parti
compounded its leading citizens' sense of isolation. The city, wh
once matched colonial Lahore in terms of population, stagnat
Despite the increasing militarization of the border, Amr
population remained prone to rumours and panics. 'Whe
troops marched into Hyderabad', a British observer re
'thousands of Hindus poured out of the city by train and
this exodus is becoming a fairly regular event whenever r
with Pakistan deteriorate'.i62 He went on to report how th
atmosphere led to suspicion even falling on Europeans. Mr S
the manager of the Oriental Carpet Factory at Chheharta
letters opened and was interrogated by the CID because he s
French when at home and on the telephone. The British M
of the Chartered Bank in Amritsar had also apparently com
suspicion of holding pro-Pakistan views.'63
The border tensions momentarily eased when Liaquat and
signed the Minorities Agreement'64 in New Delhi early in Ap
,6o FR 6 October 1953 DO 35/5296 Public Records Office.

,6' Amritsar's population grew more slowly than the rest of India's in th
after partition, Lahore's expanded at twice the rate of Pakistan's during th
1951-71. N.K. Purewal, Living on the Margins: Social Access to Shelter in Urban
(Aldershot, 2000), p. 55.
162 Report by E.G. Willan 17 December 1948 DO 35/3181 East Punjab A
Public Records Office.
163 Ibid.
164 The so-called Liaquat-Nehru Pact safeguarded minority citizenship rights and
provided for the recovery of looted property. There was also agreement that the press
should be prevented from publishing false stories designed to inflame opinion.

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180 IAN TALBOT
The Indian Prime Minister and

the first time on 26 April. Th
gestures including a visit of
the reopening for the first ti
the Amritsar-Lahore rail link
however, tensions generated o
Lahore based newspaper, the
readers, reports culled from t
in neighbouring Amritsar a
1951, it quoted a report in t
fled in the past 2-3 weeks. It
deposits to branches deeper
sales of wheat (some 3000 sac
Punjab Governor Sir Chandu
was interpreted as an attemp
arisen'.i66 The closing of the
now separated the former 'twi
Amritsar's new border locatio
as a market and as a manufact
customers, sources of raw mat
discouraged both state and p
not only failed to attract new
some established businesses r
Bank lamented in May 1949
to Bombay.'67 Poor transpor
undermined Amritsar's wholes
to Pakistan via Bombay and
marginality. This gloomy situa
after his visit to the city in Fe
'Amritsar ever to hope to retu
Amritsar's colonial developme
with Europe via Karachi an
industries relied on raw mat
were located in Pakistan. The c
their chemicals and dyes fr
,65 Tribune (Ambala), 15 May 1950

166 Civil and Military Gazette (Laho
167 Colonel C.J. Tryne Report on
East Punjab Affairs Public Records O
168 F.A. K. Harrison Report on To
East Punjab Affairs, Public Records

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Punjab canal colonies. In 1950, Amritsar's handloom and power

textile production was badly hit by a shortage of cotton yarn.'69 T
industry was, however, even more handicapped by the loss of mar
than raw materials. About three quarters of its products had
consumed in areas which had now become Pakistan.'17 Similar
two thirds of the output of the city's cotton ginning factorie
gone to the West Punjab.'7' Leading pre-partition industries su
leather and soap manufacture were badly hit by the loss of l
in the former case and the Afghanistan market in the latter
The regional pashmina market was also severely curtailed.
traditionally important hosiery industry only made a slow recover
annual production as late as 1962-3 was worth only Rs 1685000ooo.7
then, Ludhiana had overtaken it. Ludhiana's emergence as the m
industrial and economic centre of the Punjab is one of the reg
major post-independence developments'74. Its phenomenal dem
for labour saw it replace Amritsar as the Punjab's leading city b
beginning of the 198os.
Amritsar traders constantly complained to national and
politicians. Their appeals indicated both the severity of their prob
and the extent to which decisions made elsewhere determined the
prospects for recovery. In a submission to Nehru before his departure
for talks with Liaquat in April 1950, traders reiterated that 'the
Amritsar cloth market.. hub of all business activities and main
distributing centre for the whole of Northern India (had) suff
a serious setback' (because of Partition). They pointed out that 'p
to Partition, Western Pakistan was the principal customer of
Amritsar cloth market, but under the new set-up these facilitie
been given to the Bombay market, thereby depriving Amritsar of
due share'. 75
The protests about the troubled textile industry continued during
the following year. The new Director-General of Food and Industry
in East Punjab was upbraided in a meeting on 19 May regarding
169 Civil and Military Gazette (Lahore), 28 August 1950.

170 Luthera, Impact ofPartition on Industries in the Border Districts ofEast Punjab, p. 62.
171 Ibid.
172 V.N. Datta, Amritsar Past and Present (Amritsar 1967), pp. 146-7.
173 Ibid., p.143.
174 See, A.S. Oberai and H.K. Singh, Causes and Consequences of Internal Migration. A
Study in the Indian Punjab (Delhi, 1983).
'75 Tribune (Ambala), 25 April 1950.

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182 IAN TALBOT
the Government's failure to p

it was the turn of the Develo
Industry Department to recei
Manufacturers Association. Its
partition all the Muslim weaver
industry by training a large nu
The weavers remained out of w
The textile manufacturers also
import licences for artificial
building materials.'77
There was a growing reali
disadvantages could only be
administrative importance. The President of the Amritsar
Municipality, Sardar Dharam Singh, moved a unanimous resolution on
7 October 1947 that the city should be the East Punjab capital. Master
Tara Singh and other Akali Dal leaders along with the Amritsar branch
of the Hindu Mahasabha supported the call.178 A year later appeals
were still being made in this respect. Lala Chhabil Das, for example,
the Chairman of the Millowners Association in the industrial suburb
of Verka, submitted a resolution to the East Punjab Government.179
Despite these pleas, Amritsar was never considered a suitable
government location, with the East Punjab Government temporarily
quartering itself at Simla and Jullundur. This was in all probability
not solely the result of the border vulnerability, but a feature of the
clash between the Akali leaders and the Congress over the Punjabi
versus Hindi language issue. This emerged soon after independence,
although the Akalis' Punjabi Subha movement was at its height in the
later 1950s.80so Nehru decided to build a new capital city at Chandigarh
four hours drive from the border to symbolize both his modernist vision
of India and the Punjab's phoenix like recovery from the horrors of
partition.'' Amritsar has never fully recovered from this setback.
176 Civil and Military Gazette (Lahore), 20 May 1951.

177 Civil and Military Gazette (Lahore), 1 July 1951.
178 Tribune (Simla), 7 October 1947 and 17 October 1947.
179 Tribune (Ambala), 28 December 1948.
iso Tensions emerged soon after independence between Hindu communal
organizations and the Akalis. The whole issue of the Akalis' demand for a Punjabi
speaking state is beyond the scope of this chapter. For a historical overview see, Ajit
Singh Sahadi, Punjabi Subha: The Story of the Struggle (Delhi, 1970).
is8 See, V. Prakash, Chandigarh 's Le Corbusier. The Strugglefor Modernity in Postcolonial
India (Seattle, 200oo2,) pp. 7 and 9.

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Conclusion
Historians have said little about the extent of the riot damag
Lahore and Amritsar. Like British cities destroyed by the Luftwaf
rebuilding took many years. In the process the inner cities' p
spaces were transformed. Two- way traffic enters the reconstr
Shah Almi area unhindered from Circular Road. Unlike in other pa
of Lahore's walled city where even rickshaw access is difficult
can drive right up to the Rang Mahal wholesale bazaar. This thr
shopping locality covers part of a former Hindu residential are
a still larger scale, the Azam Cloth market extends over the fo
Hindu and Sikh localities which stretched from Kashmiri Bazaar to
Chunda Mandi.
Sacred space also underwent dramatic change. Large numbers o

mosques, temples and gurdwaras disappeared forever. Nothing cou
more graphically illustrate the change in community composition and
hierarchy for the scattered remnants of once powerful minoritie
Religious buildings unless they were of outstanding historic
significance were either destroyed, became derelict or changed the
use. The three gurdwaras in the Sharifpura locality of Amritsar are al
former mosques. Indeed the Sharifpura gurdwara is still approach
by means of 'Masjid di Galli.' Some refugees'82 sheltered in religiou
buildings, but many lived in the mud huts and tents which also becam
features of the new urban landscapes. Accommodation problems we
nonetheless less acute than in Karachi or Calcutta because of the
abundance of evacuee property. While the inner city areas inhabited by
minorities suffered riot damage, nearby localities such as Sharifpura
in Amritsar and Gowal Mandi, Nisbet Road, Krishan Nagar and Sant
Nagar in Lahore escaped largely unscathed. They remain refugee-
dominated areas.' 83
Despite their relative ineffectiveness, the Lahore and Amritsar
Improvement Trusts are of historical interest because of the insights
they provide into the institutional life of local government amidst
the chaos of partition. Both newly independent dominions drew
182 It was only in May 1951 that Amritsar's Deputy Commissioner, Sardar Bahadur
Narinder Singh directed the police to remove refugee occupants from the city's
damaged mosques. Tribune (Ambala), 8 May 1951.
s83 Most of the inhabitants of Sharifpura are from the Sialkot and Rawalpindi
districts of Pakistan. Nisbet Road and Gowal Mandi in Lahore are dominated by
Kashmiri refugees from Amritsar, while in Krishan Nagar and Sant Nagar there are
many UP Muslims.

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184 IAN TALBOT
on British models of urban regener
unprecedented problems they inherit
were in the circumstances remains a m
The relative lack of economic compe
locals was as important in the former
of 'cultural distance.' Refugees in La
niches for themselves. They undoubte
growing prosperity which also reduce
and locals. Entrepreneurial drive alone
revitalise ruined cities. Government poli
were crucially important. The Pakistan
rehabilitation with the wider task of n
the considerable proportion of refugees
also a sign of the political importance of m
East Punjab and the Islamic status acco
beginnings of a state built on 'order' can
responses to the human crisis of Part
support, together with its administrativ
handicap of proximity to a volatile inter
Refugees wielded less political infl
of rupees were nonetheless spent on a range of urban and
rural rehabilitation schemes. New Delhi provided the East Punjab
government with Rs 2.5 crores alone for a scheme to develop 12
satellite townships.'84 The satellite town development for refugees in
such places as Rajpura, Karnal, Panipat, Rohtak, Sonepat, Ludhiana
and Gurgaon was on an impressive scale. It symbolised, however, the
concentration of resources away from the border districts. Cities like
Ludhiana with its good communications, and pre-existing economic
base benefited from the south-eastwards shift of economic activity. It
progressively eclipsed Amritsar as the hub of urban activity in a still
predominantly agrarian Punjab state. Amritsar increasingly appeared
like a distant outpost, unlike Lahore which remained a continuing
locus of power. Transport problems compounded its peripheral
location in the regional and national economy. When India's Finance
Minister Chintaman Deshmukh visited Amritsar late in August 1950,
a traders' deputation plaintively submitted a memorandum to him.
184 P.N. Tharpar, Rehabilitation Department to the Assistant Secretary to the

Government of India, New Delhi Ministry of Rehabilitation 21 February 1950.
RHB/1(i)/1950 Housing Schemes in East Punjab, NAI. I would like to thank Pippa
Virdee for this reference.

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This recalled how the city before partition was the entrepot of the
whole of Northern India and for trade with Afghanistan, Iran and
Kashmir and how it was hard hit by partition. It was also the first to
bear the brunt of the influx of refugees.'s5 Deshmukh expressed his
sympathy, but nothing was to change. Refugee labour and capital went
elsewhere.'86 With the further handicap of loss of access to traditional
markets and raw materials, the city stagnated.
Amritsar's decline supports the standard view that partition marked
a huge discontinuity in the region's history. This study has also
revealed, however, that there were important continuities. The
migration patterns and subsequent assimilation of refugees from
Amritsar in Lahore was the product of a Kashmiri presence in the
latter city. This even predated the colonial era. Lahore's ability to
compete with such cities as Lyallpur for skilled refugee labour and
entrepreneurial talent was rooted in the biraderi ties between its
inhabitants and Arains and Sheikhs from the East Punjab. The decision
to make Lahore the Pakistan Punjab's administrative capital in itself
revealed continuity with the past that the new border did not disrupt.
Both David Gilmartin'87 and Ayesha Jalal'88 have called for a
'joined up' historiography of partition that links the new study of
the human dimension with the larger national political narrative.
Sarah Ansari has recently revealed how, 'issues concerning refugee
rehabilitation (in Sindh) melded with the centre-province strains that
characterized (Pakistan in) the 1950s'.189 Migrants' re-creation of
'cultural spaces' or 'private universes' in Lahore and Amritsar did
not profoundly influence identity politics as in Karachi. Nevertheless,
the cities provide important sites for understanding the connection
between community, locality and the state during the decade which
followed partition. In particular, official responses to their refugee
problems illuminate the broader processes of state construction.
185 Tribune (Ambala), 26 August 1950.

186 There were of course exceptions not only amongst industrialists, but leading
former figures of Lahore's professions. Rai Sahib L. Ganga Ram Wadhwa, for example
a SessionsJudge who was a popular resident of Model Town before partition, settled in
Kuch Dakoutan Killa Bhanglan in Amritsar until his death on 18 May 1951. Tribune
(Ambala), 27 May 1951.
1s7 D. Gilmartin, 'Partition, Pakistan and South Asian History: In Search of a
Narrative',Journal ofAsian Studies 57, 4 (1998), p. 1092.
l8 A.Jalal, 'Secularists, Subalterns and the Stigma of "Communalism": Partition
Historiography Revisited' Modern Asian Studies 30, 3 (1996), p. 688.
189 Ansari, Life After Partition, p. 12.

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A Tale of Two Cities - The Aftermath of Partition For Lahore and Amritsar 1947-1957

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