The selection of August 14 as “Partition Horrors Remembrance Day” is itself indicative of the true intent behind the decision. Partition horrors neither started nor ended on August 14, 1947, the date on which Pakistan came into being. That being so, the real motive seems to be to put the entire blame for Partition-related violence on one entity, the Muslim League.
The truth is that lumpen elements from both communities were involved in the killings and other atrocities that followed. To sum up, Partition was and is a nuanced story in which both communities had their share of heroes and villains. Distorting that story for political ends will not only be doing a great disservice to the nation but is also an insult to the memory of all those who perished or suffered during that dark phase in the subcontinent’s history.
G.G. Menon,
Tripunithura, Kerala
