Kashmir 1947: Krishna Mehta's Story

Dawn Book Review, December 24, 2005
Kashmir 1947: A Survivor’s Story
By Krishna Mehta
Penguin India.
For more information log onto
www.penguinbooksindia.com
ISBN 0-14-400017-2
168pp. Indian Rs200

It has been nearly 60 years since partition, but never has the environment been more conducive to discuss Kashmir than it is now. Once regarded as dangerous and taboo, the subject dominates most forums today. As hatred turns into understanding, several books on the partition and on Kashmir are seeing the light of the day. Kashmir 1947: A Survivor’s Story is one such book written by Krishna Mehta. Mehta was the wife of a senior civil servant stationed in Muzaffarabad as the Wazir-i-wazarat. Her first-hand account of the conflict in a region which both countries were determined to acquire makes for a chilling read. In no time, the author sets the scene of the problems that her family was faced with.

Mehta belonged to a well-known and well-to-do Kashmiri family. It was in July 1947, a month before partition, when Muzaffarabad turned into a volatile city, gripped by communal tensions. One fine morning, her house was attacked by bloodthirsty raiders when her husband was not at home. He had, in fact, gone to defend the city but never came back. In order to survive, Mehta, along with her children and faithful servants, escaped and watched their house being looted and razed to the ground from a distance.

The author describes, in detail, the events of those frightful days and nights in a simple and forthright manner. It was in such trying times, when even the most trusted friends refused to provide shelter, that her family was rescued by strangers (mostly Muslims).

The book is absorbing but the most touching part of her story is her vivid description of the happenings at the Domal Veterinary Hospital. Several Hindu families had taken refuge in that hospital. When the raiders eventually got there, they forcibly took the attractive women. But many such women preferred death to dishonour as they jumped from the Domal Bridge into the river. Mehta writes: “The desire for self-immolation was too great and they all went to their death with a seeming lack of pain, pity or feeling.”

Then her life at Dutiyal Camp is also rather disturbing. Women everywhere were prime targets of looters. Some of them were even married to their kidnappers against their will and had to live with them for a while. Even at the end of captivity, these women were caught between the devil and the deep sea for fear of rejection by their families.

Even under such circumstances, Mehta helped many women to overcome their problems and empowered and educated Muslim women in adjoining villages to take a stand against the practice of forced kidnapped marriages. All in all, Mehta’s book, an autobiography of sorts, is a very heart-rending account of the partition. — Moniza Inam