Memories of Partition from a railway station in Delhi

Sikander Bakht’s Family and the Difficult Decision

The family of the former Pakistani fast bowler and now well-known cricket commentator Sikander Bakht also took the train to Pakistan from Lodhi Colony Station. His father, Jawan Bakht (also referred to as J Bakht), lived in Karol Bagh and had studied at St. Stephen’s College for some time. Sikander Bakht has shared this information himself. The cricket world came to know him when he took eight Indian wickets for sixty-nine runs in a test match at Feroz Shah Kotla stadium. That was during the 1979-80 series. On that visit, he also went to Karol Bagh to see the old family house and touched its every wall. Sikander Bakht recalls that his family was not completely sure about shifting to Pakistan. There were differences of opinion among the members. In the end, they decided to move. By then, riots had broken out in Delhi.

Special Trains to Lahore

Trains between Delhi and Lahore began running from the second week of August 1947 and continued until 22 November 1947. From Lodhi Colony Station, two or three trains would leave for Lahore every day. One departed at seven in the morning and another at nine. If a third train ran, it left by twelve noon. The timings were fixed so that the trains would reach Lahore in daylight. In those terrible days, trains were special targets for the rioters.
Historian Professor Gyanendra Pandey explains that people going to Pakistan had to collect their tickets and other papers from a temporary office of the Pakistan government located in the L Block of Connaught Place. Only after checks at that office were passengers allowed to travel to Pakistan. Pandey’s own research on Delhi in 1947-48 confirms the existence of this ‘Pakistan Transfer Office’, which handled the movement of officials and property and, for a time, also became a gathering point for refugees.

Packed Coaches and Government Employees

The trains leaving from Lodhi Colony were packed like cattle trucks. Old people, children and pregnant women all travelled in them. Some passengers even sat on the roofs. These trains carried Muslims who had been living in the camps at Purana Qila and Humayun’s Tomb.

Former Railway Board member Dr Ravindra Kumar says that after leaving Lodhi Colony Station, the train reached New Delhi Railway Station within a few minutes. There, extra coaches were attached for government employees who were also going to Pakistan. Most of these employees were with the railways. In the capital’s largest railway residential colony at Kishanganj, nearly twenty-five per cent of the houses fell empty. Kishanganj was once considered the biggest railway colony in the world. It had been established back in 1920. Dozens of Muslim railway workers like khalasis, linemen, guards and others left for Pakistan. A large number of railway families from the Sabzi Mandi railway colony also migrated.

The ‘Train to Pakistan’ used to stop for a few moments at stations in present-day Haryana, such as Sonipat, Karnal and Ambala, before continuing towards its destination.

The Musharraf Family and a Newspaper Hawker’s Memory

It is possible that the family of former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf also crossed the border by train. His father, Syed Musharrafuddin, was a government servant and lived with his family on Minto Road. Since government employees travelled by rail, it is reasonable to believe that Syed Musharrafuddin boarded the train from New Delhi Station with his family. The distance between Minto Road and New Delhi Station is very short. At that time, the road from the Ajmeri Gate side had not yet been built, so he would have entered through the main gate of the station on the Paharganj side.

RP Puri, the owner of the famous Central News Agency bookshop in Connaught Place, used to deliver newspapers as a hawker to Syed Musharrafuddin’s government house. On 14 August 1947, Pakistan appeared on the world map and the country was partitioned. One morning around that time, Syed Musharrafuddin was waiting for Puri. He had important news to share. Puri also delivered papers to other government houses on Jahangir Road, Ahilyabai Marg, Thomson Road, Noorjahan Road and Tagore Road, all near Minto Road. When Puri finished delivering the paper and started to ride away on his bicycle, Syed Sahib called him back. “Listen, I need to talk to you,” he said. Puri stopped and listened. “Puri Bhai, we have had a very good relationship. From now on, please stop delivering the newspaper. We are leaving for Pakistan.” Puri could hardly believe what he was hearing. Later he opened the Central News Agency. He used to say that the Musharraf family was highly educated. All their children had been born at the Girdhari Lal Maternity Hospital near Kamla Market, close to Minto Road.

Other Families Who Left

Sajjad Muneer, a Pakistani international squash player who now lives in Toronto, Canada, recalls that in the third week of August 1947, his maternal grandfather, Khan Mohammad Tufail Mohammad, and his paternal grandfather, Allah Ditta, left their homes near Doctors Lane by Gole Market and in Paharganj. For some time, the families stayed in the Purana Qila camp. Muslims going to Pakistan were housed in Purana Qila and Humayun’s Tomb. Heavy rain was falling continuously. These unfortunate people had left their houses and were living under the open sky inside the fort. When their turn came, they left for Lahore from Lodhi Colony Station. Muneer’s two grandfathers were brothers, and both worked as civil engineers in Delhi.

In those days of communal violence, an eight-year-old girl named Mamnoon Fatima was living in a government flat on Babar Road near Bengali Market. She later became the sister-in-law of the distinguished historian Professor Irfan Habib. The flat had been allotted to her father, Ghulam Sabir Kazmi, who was a government servant. Her son Hamza Farooq Habib, a well-known journalist with Pakistan’s ARY News channel, has told the story. Just before Partition, his maternal grandfather received a transfer order to Karachi, but the family was still in Delhi. There were five members in the family, including his mother and grandmother. By chance, the grandmother had a brother who worked at Safdarjung Airport. When riots spread across Delhi, she insisted that her brother help them leave as soon as possible. So Hamza’s mother, grandmother and the rest of the family flew to Karachi. His mother often told him that Hindu neighbours on Babar Road had hidden them in their prayer room so that they would remain safe. Some other members of the Kazmi family reached the new country created by Mohammad Ali Jinnah by train.

Leaders Who Begged People to Stay

At Lodhi Colony Railway Station itself, senior Congress leaders such as Lala Deshbandhu Gupta, Mir Mushtaq Ahmed, Lala Roop Narayan, Chaudhary Brahm Prakash and Sarla Sharma stood with folded hands and begged the departing Muslims to change their minds and stay in India. After listening to them, some people at the station turned back and went home. Most, however, continued their journey.

Mir Mushtaq Ahmed was a powerful speaker and later served as the Chief Executive Councillor of Delhi, a post equal to that of Chief Minister. He had raised slogans against Mohammad Ali Jinnah at several meetings in Karol Bagh and Daryaganj. Brahm Prakash became the first Chief Minister of Delhi. Sarla Sharma’s family had founded Indraprastha Kanya Vidyalaya, the first girls’ school in the capital, in Chandni Chowk, and also Indraprastha College, the capital’s first college for women.

Why This Small Station Was Chosen

It is still not fully clear why such a small station was chosen for this enormous task. People say Lodhi Colony Station was selected because it stood close to the two camps where Muslims waiting to leave for Pakistan were housed. Another reason was that the railway authorities wanted to keep those arriving from across the border separate from those departing for Pakistan. The reason for this separation is obvious.

Near Lodhi Road Station stands Khanna Market. Most of the shops there belong to families who came from Pakistan. Many of the shopkeepers had heard that special trains for Pakistan used to run from the place, but they know little more. One gentleman remembered that a man named Sadhu Ram used to sit outside the station from the 1940s onwards, selling fruit. Later his son Bansi took his place. They used to describe the scenes of Partition. After the Covid period, Bansi stopped coming to the station.

A Brief Stay in ‘Paradise’

S.M. Abdullah, a graduate of St. Stephen’s College, also left for Pakistan with some relatives. He had been a classmate of General Zia-ul-Haq at the college. In 1947, he was twenty-three years old. At that time, many families of the Punjabi Saudagaran community of Delhi travelled via Lahore to Karachi. The famous writer Sadia Dehlvi’s maternal uncle, Abdullah Sahib, used to say that while travelling to Pakistan, he believed the new country would be a paradise. Muslim League leaders in Delhi had described Pakistan as nothing less than heaven. But when he reached Karachi, the reality of that paradise looked very different. After staying for a few days, he returned to his Delhi. He found nothing special in Karachi that could keep him there. Once back in Delhi, Abdullah Sahib began sitting again with his friends at the Volga restaurant in Connaught Place.

The quiet platforms of Lodhi Colony Railway Station still carry the memory of those crowded trains, the tears, the last embraces and the uncertain journeys that began there in the dark days of 1947.

The writer is Ex-Advisor (History), Indira Gandhi Centre for Arts and Culture