My mother, Allah Rakhi Ismail, who has died aged 81, was a survivor of the partition of India whose experiences imbued her with an iron will and a strong self-belief.
Born in Kasel, a farming village outside Amritsar, Punjab, Allah Rakhi was the only daughter of Karam Din, a tenant farmer, and Rahmat Bibi. The couple also had four sons, Ismail, Hamid, Majid and Karim.
At midnight on 14 August 1947, as the partition of India began after the end of British rule, it was unexpectedly announced that Amritsar was to be annexed to India. At first, Karam, a respected “strongman” of the village, refused to leave his lands for the new Pakistan, despite knowing that, for a Muslim family, it would almost certainly mean death. Yet he relented, and his best friend, Jai Singh, a Sikh, secured the family’s passage to the railway station – and Allah Rakhi, aged 10, fled that night to Pakistan.
She witnessed terrible atrocities on the “blood trains” – transport carrying Muslims from India to Pakistan, and Sikhs and Hindus in the other direction. After months in transit camps, the family moved into an abandoned house in Kot Radha Kishan, near Lahore.
Despite Allah Rakhi’s protests, her parents brought an end to her secondary education, insisting that she work on the land in their new home.
At the age of 23, she had an arranged marriage to Muhammad Ismail and had to move 200 miles to rural Chitti Kothi. However, she could not accept being a submissive daughter-in-law – and the couple decided to emigrate to the UK. Muhammad went first, then in 1964 Allah Rakhi followed with their two young sons, to Huddersfield, Yorkshire. In quick succession they had three daughters.
As part of a growing Asian female workforce in Britain, Allah Rakhi worked full time at Crompton’s factory in Huddersfield, sewing garments for the NHS. She bought her first corner shop in 1975, which she ran for 35 years, working long hours there – and at the factory – while supporting her children’s further education as their route out of poverty.
In her retirement, Allah Rakhi devoted her time to her grandchildren. She struggled after our father died two years ago – yet she showed her resilience when she decided to take up swimming.
She is survived by her children, Tariq, Khalid, Sajida, Shahida and me, and 12 grandchildren.
