Book Review
A Time of Madness – A Memoir of Partition by Salman Rashid
By C. Naseer Ahmad
Washington, DC
Partition evokes both painful memories as well as the yearning to search for answers and family history. The cataclysmic events during 1947 brought death, untold sufferings, and involuntary mass dislocation for so many.
Scholars and researchers have produced volumes analyzing and discussing the Partition from many and differing viewpoints. Among the few, who have written from personal experience is journalist, travel writer and author of ten books Salman Rashid.
Through one hundred and twenty pages making up seven chapters, Salman Rashid tells the reader about a “Time of Madness,” which is a memoir of Partition that engulfed the subcontinent into excruciating communal violence when humanity was lost.
The author describes his journey in search for his grandfather’s house in Jullundur, India and to know about what really happened to his beloved grandfather and his immediate family members. It is a riveting story and it becomes impossible to put the book down even for a moment until one finds out what happened to his grandfather - Dr Badaruddin, who treated all his patients “with the same affection and patience.”
Salman Rashid provides a unique perspective because before becoming a journalist he served in the Pakistan Army for seven years. His work as a journalist and travel writer brought him in touch with diplomats who facilitated his travels to India and his interactions with peace activists across the border helped him get some valuable insights that disarmed antagonist sentiments.
While traveling through the Indian side of the Punjab towards Jullundur in search of “Habib Manzil,” his grandfather’s house, the author educates the state of the railway, roads, vegetation and other aspects of society as well as transformations taking place after Partition. He provides some critical comparative analysis.
His dogged pursuit in search of answers to what happened to his grandfather and his ancestral property are so gripping that the reader might find as a travel companion in the vehicles the author travelled in, and at the same time breathing the same air.
With vivid description, the author tells about finally meeting some eyewitness who told him about his grandfather’s tragic end with a bullet after being discovered in a safe house. The eyewitness to this calamity also told the author about seeing a two-year-old mercilessly tossed to the ground from the second floor of the building where his grandfather took refuge from violent mobs. There was palpable anguish in the account of the eyewitness who lamented that it was a “time of madness” when neighbors turned against neighbors with whom they had shared generations of memories.
Through the pages of this powerful memoir, the reader will learn about the darkness in many human beings who exploited religious fervor, often in pursuit of acquiring properties of their neighbors without regard to ethics and respect for human life.
Those readers who were affected by the Partition or whose ancestors suffered extreme hardships and loss might find something that they can relate to in this book which I received from my Canadian cousin Danial Ahmad – educated in Montreal, Canada, Oxford, England, Sorbonne, Paris and Yale, US - who travelled to India with his son to carry forward the legacy of our common ancestors.
In trying to teach about family history to his son Sacha, my cousin traveled to Amritsar to visit the medical college where our maternal grandfather Dr Kareem ud Din got his training. He also visited the grave of our great grandfather Hafiz Molvi Fazal Din who in pursuit of knowledge traveled from Kharian District Gujrat, Pakistan to Saharanpur, India. We are told that all seven generations before Hafiz Molvi Fazal Din had at least someone who committed the Holy Qur’an to memory and therefore were known as “Hafiz”.
It is perhaps this legacy that our ancestors protected the life and properties of the non-Muslim fellow citizens of Kharian. During those days, our paternal grandfather, Molvi Chaudhry Abdur Rehman - Head Master High School Lala Musa - of Kharian, led the town’s effort in keeping our neighbors safe from harm’s way. In fact, one of the most prominent and architecturally outstanding buildings named after the original owner “Ram Singh” remained as one of the landmarks of the town. So, it is rather painful to read about all the atrocities committed in the name of religion during the maddening days of the Partition.
The only sad memory from those days was the tragic death of Dr Kareem ud Din, a kind-hearted physician who not only gave free medical care to the poor but also sometimes food and money as well. Our grandfather was bit by a patient afflicted by rabies as a result of being attacked by a rabid dog. Unfortunately, our grandfather caught the disease immediately due to the patient’s bite and died young and was unable to do anything for his property lost in India during the Partition.
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