Brief Idea of a subject: ‘VICTIMS
OF INDEPENDENCE’ :- Story of a Sailor who happened to face
interrogations by the Britishers for many months for having participated in
Mutiny of sailors in February 1946. Further to that, he was deployed on
security duties in Calcutta Port till the declaration of Independence. There he
developed his friendly relations with a prostitute. Prior to the declaration of
Independence, he gave his option for Pakistan Navy because of his family business
in Okara Town of Montgomery District of West Punjab which was supposed to be
included in Pakistan. Accordingly he was asked by the Naval Authorites to
report on board a Chitagong bound ship going from Calcutta to East Pakistan,
which he declined to obey: That unless he comes to know the present position of
his family members with whom his links through letters had been cut off for
more than a month, he would not go to that side of Pakistan. But in Defence
Forces such excuses are seldom entertained.
Ultimately he had to ask for a
Court Martial to seek justice for himself and his family in that difficult
period of partition after the independence. To avoid implications of constituting
a Court Marttial, the authorities finally allowed him to proceed by train to
Karachi instead of going to Chitagong by ship to enable him see his family
members on the way at Okara Town. His service File was also dispatched to
Karachi base of Pakistan Navy severing all his connections with India and
Indian Navy for ever. On his way to Karachi, he comes to know that all his
family members had already been killed and house demolished beyond recognition.
Instead of going to Karachi he was now advised to return back to Bombay for
seeking his re-employment into the Indian Navy. What happens after this to his
and his girl friend’s life would be explained as highlights of the subject being
developed in the form of a full length Novel under the Title ‘Victims of
Independence’.
Balbir Singh
