Posted on Aug 12, 2022
YouTube videos are helping reunite loved ones separated by the India-Pakistan border
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https://www.npr.org/2022/08/12/ [login to see] /youtube-videos-helping-reunite-loved-separated-india-pakistan-border-partition
In a YouTube video watched hundreds of thousands of times, an elderly man with a long gray beard and black turban hugs his sister for the first time since she was separated from her family, 75 years ago.
They met in May at a border crossing between India and Pakistan. Mumtaz Bibi, wearing a pink headscarf, is a Pakistani Muslim. Her brothers Gurmukh Singh and Baldev Singh, who were both there at the border to meet her, are Indian Sikhs.
The event that separated her from the family in 1947 was one of cataclysmic proportions: the Partition of British-ruled India into two new states — independent India and Pakistan, the latter created as a homeland for Muslims.
The Partition sparked one of the biggest migrations of the 20th century, with an estimated 10 million people fleeing across the newly drawn borders: Hindus and Sikhs to India, and Muslims to Pakistan. Perhaps a million were killed.
Families like the Singhs' were torn apart. As Mumtaz Bibi's father fled to India, his wife — Mumtaz's Bibi's mother — was killed, and Mumtaz Bibi, then just a baby, was assumed by her father to have died with her mother. But a Muslim couple found her lying next to her dead mother and raised her as their own.
In a YouTube video watched hundreds of thousands of times, an elderly man with a long gray beard and black turban hugs his sister for the first time since she was separated from her family, 75 years ago.
They met in May at a border crossing between India and Pakistan. Mumtaz Bibi, wearing a pink headscarf, is a Pakistani Muslim. Her brothers Gurmukh Singh and Baldev Singh, who were both there at the border to meet her, are Indian Sikhs.
The event that separated her from the family in 1947 was one of cataclysmic proportions: the Partition of British-ruled India into two new states — independent India and Pakistan, the latter created as a homeland for Muslims.
The Partition sparked one of the biggest migrations of the 20th century, with an estimated 10 million people fleeing across the newly drawn borders: Hindus and Sikhs to India, and Muslims to Pakistan. Perhaps a million were killed.
Families like the Singhs' were torn apart. As Mumtaz Bibi's father fled to India, his wife — Mumtaz's Bibi's mother — was killed, and Mumtaz Bibi, then just a baby, was assumed by her father to have died with her mother. But a Muslim couple found her lying next to her dead mother and raised her as their own.
YouTube videos are helping reunite loved ones separated by the India-Pakistan border
Posted from npr.org
YouTube
India
Pakistan
World History
Family
Posted >1 y ago
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."A plea to a long-lost brother
Since Ranjeet's appearance 35 years ago in Burewala, Asghar has stepped into the role of Sharifa Bibi's older brother. He attended her children's weddings as an honorary uncle. When he and Sharifa Bibi meet now, they tightly embrace, something rare between an unrelated man and woman of their generation in Pakistan.
On the day of NPR's visit, Asghar shares something that Sharifa Bibi has never heard before: The trip Ranjeet made to Pakistan 35 years ago was not the first time that he had tried to find his family in Burewala.
Ranjeet told Asghar that after he'd let go of his mother's hand all those years ago, during the chaos of Partition, "he followed other Muslims fleeing to Pakistan," Asghar says. "They came to this train station. He slept here for a few nights."
Asghar says Ranjeet told him he'd remembered the name of the station. He remembered a water pump where he washed and drank. But he couldn't remember how he ended up back in India as a child — and didn't even know how he ended up as the son of a wealthy Hindu couple.
On hearing this, Sharifa Bibi is overcome and faints. Her son races toward her with a glass of water to help revive her.
"My brother cried for us, and we cried for him," she weeps. "Are you listening, brother? If you are listening, please come and see me."
..."A plea to a long-lost brother
Since Ranjeet's appearance 35 years ago in Burewala, Asghar has stepped into the role of Sharifa Bibi's older brother. He attended her children's weddings as an honorary uncle. When he and Sharifa Bibi meet now, they tightly embrace, something rare between an unrelated man and woman of their generation in Pakistan.
On the day of NPR's visit, Asghar shares something that Sharifa Bibi has never heard before: The trip Ranjeet made to Pakistan 35 years ago was not the first time that he had tried to find his family in Burewala.
Ranjeet told Asghar that after he'd let go of his mother's hand all those years ago, during the chaos of Partition, "he followed other Muslims fleeing to Pakistan," Asghar says. "They came to this train station. He slept here for a few nights."
Asghar says Ranjeet told him he'd remembered the name of the station. He remembered a water pump where he washed and drank. But he couldn't remember how he ended up back in India as a child — and didn't even know how he ended up as the son of a wealthy Hindu couple.
On hearing this, Sharifa Bibi is overcome and faints. Her son races toward her with a glass of water to help revive her.
"My brother cried for us, and we cried for him," she weeps. "Are you listening, brother? If you are listening, please come and see me."
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I've noticed this irony. I know a grocer who is a Muslim who stayed in India. He eventually Immigrated to Canada . We also have palestinian arabs who stayed in Israel and who did not flee to the West bank or Gaza Strip and some of them actually serve in Israeli army To this day as border guards fighting Terrorist palestinians who try to sneak in and attack. Yes, the tragedy of the partition of India and Pakistan In 1947 Split up families and many were killed. I'm glad Some families are reuniting.
PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
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