The tale of a Bihari now living in Pakistan

Abu Khalid’s family migrated from Muzaffarpur, Bihar to Karachi during Partition. Here he narrates his childhood memories of the city and the long journey that brought him to his new homeland. Khalid is retired and spends his time writing poetry, gardening and stock trading

Family

“I was born on May 6, 1936 in Chapra which is north of river Ganga. My parents had seven children and I am fourth in number, with two older sisters and a brother and a younger sister and a brother. While I was growing up, several of my father’s nieces and nephews and my mother’s younger brothers lived with us on and off. We lived in Muzaffarpur where my father had a law practice but would often visit our ancestral village Khesrahi as well as Chapra, my mother’s birthplace, on occasions like family weddings.

Education

“My grandfather, Abul Farah, was a munshi in a court and my father, Abu Mahmood, had earned his LLB degree from Calcutta University. My father was the first Muslim in Muzaffarpur to acquire a law degree in first division. My brothers and I went to Muslim High School which had predominantly Muslim students. We walked to our school that was about three miles away from home and I sometimes went alone if my brothers couldn’t accompany me; one wasn’t fearful of doing so at the time as one is now. My sisters also went to a girls’ school — in strict purdah — but only for a couple of years. At home they were taught the Quran, Arabic and Urdu, as was the norm at that time but when they became older this kind of tutoring was halted. For us boys however, a salaried teacher was hired who then stayed with the family. This was a prevalent custom in Muslim families at the time. If the teacher was a college student his college fees were paid for by the employer’s family and accommodation was also provided to him by giving him a room in the outhouse.

“Our teacher’s name was Badarul Islam who lived with us and taught me and my older brother. Islam was in the final year of his BA when he joined us. An extremely intelligent man, he was a mathematician, a poet, a calligraphist, a chess-player and an expert in traditional stick-fighting (lathi). He was not only responsible for overseeing our school education but also taught us things not covered in our syllabus.

Beginning of tension

“In 1946, Hindu-Muslim riots began in several parts of Bihar. Riots occurred in Zilaor district and around the localities of the capital of Bihar, Patna and even in my mother’s home town, Chapra. In fact my maternal relatives’ house was also attacked.

Several of my mother’s relatives lived in a neighbourhood called Kareemchak in Chapra which was surrounded by a Hindu population and one night a huge mob of Hindus descended on Kareemchak. One of my relatives fired his gun at the mob leader who died on the spot; pandemonium broke out, a few more shots were fired and some more Hindus got injured. Then the police arrived and gave the residents full protection. Soon after this incident all of my mother’s family living in Chapra moved to Patna to live with my mother’s maternal uncle.

Decision to migrate

“When it dawned on us that Pakistan indeed was going to be created, my father decided to visit East Bengal to ascertain where his family could settle down. In Bihar most Muslims were planning to migrate to Dhaka because it was nearer and the fare affordable, however, when my father inspected small towns around Calcutta and Dhaka he found them impoverished,
congested and very different from his home town. Then he visited Karachi; he found the city clean with a small population of people from diverse faiths. He liked it so much that he opened an account in one of the banks and decided that this would be the future home for his family.

“In 1946 when riots took place in the outskirts of Patna, people decided to migrate. So the first group of Mohajirs from Patna arrived in Karachi in 1946 and took refuge in Mohajir Camp on Lawrence Road which was earlier known as Haji Camp from where pilgrims would go for Hajj. In this group were my maternal relatives who settled in the Camp. Later my elder brother, Abu Hamid, who had just finished his matriculation, was sent off to Karachi in 1947, just before Partition. I do not recall any debate taking place in my family about whether or not they should leave for the new country, perhaps because I was too young to be involved in those discussions.

The Journey

“Our preparations began as soon as it was declared that Pakistan had been created. It was planned that we would move from Muzaffarpur and go to Patna, Calcutta, Bombay and finally from Bombay to Karachi by boat. We embarked on our journey in September-October 1947 and it would be several months before we would reach the end. All of us moved to Patna, except my father who stayed back to sort out property matters and joined us later. In Patna, my mother’s younger sister’s family, my married sisters and more families joined us for the journey to Pakistan and this gathering took quite a while. We then set off to Calcutta, where we stayed at Maulvi Musafirkhana, a traveller’s lodge, for about two to three weeks. Then we travelled to Bombay from where we booked tickets on the Dwarka steamship for Karachi. This took around 15 to 20 days and eventually we got the tickets on January 26 or 27.

“On the day of the journey we all reached the port early but there were already thousands of people there, all bound for Karachi. We could only get a place on the deck as no room was available. It was a four-day trip from Bombay to Karachi. As we were nearing Karachi, on January 31, 1948, we heard the news that Gandhiji had been killed. That very same day our ship docked at Karachi port. My elder brother was waiting for us here. From Keamari, we hired a camel-carriage, which was the prevalent form of transportation in the city. We put all our belongings into the carriage and set off for our quarters. When we reached there was an empty ground on which there were 150 houses (quarters). The house, built on 80 square yards, had two rooms, a veranda, a toilet, a kitchen and a bathroom. Soon after, I took admission in Model High School near Burns road.

“Thus we all began our new lives in a country which was a dream of Allama Iqbal, translated into reality by Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. It was still 1948 and I had started going to school when the Quaid passed away and was buried on the hill where the mausoleum was later built. As a child I went as close to the dug up grave as I could and saw Liaquat Ali Khan, Sir Zafarullah Khan, and Sardar Abdul Rab Nishter sitting on the ground with tears in every eye waiting for the final rites for the great man who had created a new home for the Muslims of the subcontinent.”