Interviewing My Grandmother About the Partion of India in 1947
In August of 2015, my maternal grandmother Farhat Jahan Begum visited Washington DC from her home in Pakistan. During that visit, she told me a very compelling story about her truly harrowing trip to Pakistan from India when the two countries split up in 1947. I wanted to make her story available to others so I recorded this 35-minute interview with her in Urdu and transcribed it and then translated it to English. Please take a look. It should be understood that this is one woman's viewpoint as told from her memory decades after the events happened. I cannot guarantee the accuracy of her account. In particular the most significant events of this interview occurred at the Biyaas train station in India. But I cannot find any other record of this station existing. Furthermore deadly pogroms likes she describes were happening all over India and Pakistan to people of different religions. This interview should not be considered as an endorsement of any of those pogroms nor shoul...