The Female Victim. Rape and Bodily Violations

Transcription

1 When reading these accounts of violence, rape, abduction, and official negligence, it is important to remember that no account is completely devoid of bias and misinformation. Khosla was a Hindu man, and an official of the new Indian government. Although he does include a number of instances of violence perpetuated against Muslim men and women, they are few and far in-between, whereas the majority of this detailed document concerns the plight of Hindus and Sikhs. This should not be interpreted as the latter communities having suffered anymore than their counterparts. Khosla was employed by his government, and thus might be expected to concern himself more on areas in which the future citizens of this new state were victimized. But according to Khosla, "It is... believed that the account given in these pages is as near truth as is possible in any historical narrative." Though Stern Reckoning and the accounts referenced must be approached with the appropriate air of skepticism, they are not less truthful in what it is that they do contain, even if not all-encompassing in that truth. The Female Victim Rape and Bodily Violations "Women were raped and mutilated and then murdered." (Stern Reckoning, Direct Action Day) "Not infrequently, young women were molested and raped out in the open." (Stern Reckoning,..three young girls were raped in public..." (Stern Reckoning, Qazian village) "..there were women and young girls in all forms of nakedness. Even the ladies of the most respectable families had the misfortune of having undergone this most terrible experience." (Stern Reckoning, Lahore, account of a Hindu doctor) "Thereafter one of the Muslim Baluch military men took hold of a young girl and began to molest her in the presence of all the non-muslim refugees. This became intolerable and a young Hindu attacked attacked the Baluch soldier." (Stern Reckoning, rice mills outside Lahore, account of an eye-witness) "Some of them were circumcised. Young women and girls were molested and carried away. Reason and decency were completely banished by fanatical zeal and young innocent girls were raped in public. In one village the relations of a girl were made to stand around in ring while she was raped by several men in succession." (Stern Reckoning, Sialkot) "Women were stripped naked and molested." (Stern Reckoning, Gujranwala) "A young girl was found dying on the roadside from days later. She had been raped by several Muslims and then left for dead." (Stern Reckoning, Gujranwala) "I came across the case of a goldsmith's wide... who said that her infant daughter of about six months was rent into pieces by her thighs being pulled apart." (Stern Reckoning, Jhat Distrcit, account of a medical practitioner in a refugee camp) "One of her hands was chopped off above the wrist and then she was thrown into the fire as the result of which her lower portion got burnt. But she escaped from there and was then thrown into a well later on and brought to the refugee camp. Her children died in the well...her eldest daughter aged 18 had been abducted earlier." (Stern Reckoning, Jhat District, account of a medical practitioner in a refugee camp) "The convoy was stopped near the boundary of Bikaner State and subjected to a malevolent and harassing search in the course of which many valuables and ornaments were taken away, the

2 women folk were molested and one young girl was kidnapped." (Stern Reckoning, train attack at Bahawal Nagar Railway Station) "..three girls were carried away.. young girls were abducted, women raped and subjected to horrible tortures..." (Stern Reckoning, Sind Province) Abductions and Dishonor "..thousands of women had been dishonored and carried away or compelled to marry Muslims." (Stern Reckoning, Noakhili) "It was alleged that a large number of Muslim women had been kidnapped and converted to Hinduism." (Stern Reckoning, Bihar) "A number of young girls were kidnapped. An Army officer patrolling the town saw four non- Muslim girls being driven in a tonga.. they cried to him for help and he was able to rescue them." (Stern Reckoning, Amritsar) "Others search out young and good-looking girls and carried them away." (Stern Reckoning, "..estimated kidnapped girls at 200.." (Stern Reckoning, Rawalpindi on March 7th, 1947) At village Dinga, on September 5th, about 300 girls were abducted/kidnapped. At village Kunjah, some 20 girls were kidnapped. Later, another 100 girls were kidnapped. (Stern Reckoning, Gujrat) "Then the began to pick and choose young girls from the refugees... Swami Anand Singh objected, upon which he was shot dead." (Stern Reckoning, Lahore, account of Hindu doctor) "some women were also taken away by the rioters." (Stern Reckoning, account of a rich Reis' escape) "Many girls were kidnapped and dishonored." (Stern Reckoning, Sialkot) [At a railway in Dak] "a number of girls were kidnapped." (Stern Reckoning, Dak) "About eighteen girls were kidnapped and the women were stripped and searched." (Stern Reckoning, Dhavad) About 200 girls abducted in Akalgarh (Stern Reckoning, Akalgarh village) "Young girls were carried away, and property was looted." (Stern Reckoning, Montgomery) "..some young girls were carried away..." (Stern Reckoning, Pakpattan in Montgomery District) "Many young women were kidnapped." (Stern Reckoning, Chak No. 47) "..and thirty young girls were kidnapped." (Stern Reckoning, Jhat-Maghiana District) "..enquires showed that about fifty young women had been kidnapped." (Stern Reckoning, Jalalpur Pirwala) "The trucks were attacked on the way, and almost all the male passengers were killed. All the young girls were kidnapped." (Stern Reckoning, refugees leaving Jalalpur Pirwala) "In Chak No. 16/10R... many of their young girls were carried away." (Stern Reckoning, Vilalge Budhe) "..his two daughters were kidnapped...two girls were abducted... The daughter of the Station Master of Gurmani was kidnapped... About ten old women were murdered and... Fifteen young girls were carried away. (Stern Reckoning, Muzzaffargarh District) One Sikh woman was forced to marry Muslim men when her husband was killed. (Stern Reckoning, North West Frontier Province) "223 women carried away in one attack..." (Stern Reckoning, North West Frontier Province) "That afternoon the Zaildar asked all non-muslims to embrace Islam... the newly converted people were asked to eat beef and give their daughters in marriage to the Muslims." (Stern Reckoning, Attock Village) "On September 3, Behl was attacked... Over a hundred girls were kidnapped." (Stern Reckoning, Mianwali District) "The total loss of life in the district was not considerable though non-muslims were deprived of almost property. A number of young girls were kidnapped... " (Stern Reckoning, Dera Ghazi Khan District)

3 "Village Mehrawala was subjected to a most brutal attack... some women were raped. Four girls were carried away." (Stern Reckoning, Village Mehrawala in Dera Ghazi Khan District) "Seven girls were carried away." (Stern Reckoning, Village Rajanpur in Dera Ghazi District) "It is estimated that over four hundred persons were killed and many girls were kidnapped. About fifty houses were reduced to ashes." (Stern Reckoning, Bahawalpur state) Self-Inflicted and Family Violence "Some women would commit suicide or suffer death at the hands of their relations with stoic indifference; others would jump into a well or be burnt alive uttering hysterical cries." (Stern Reckoning, "a few women committed suicide by jumping into a well." (Stern Reckoning, Nara village in "..the non-muslims began to kill their young girls to save their honor." (Stern Reckoning, rice mills outside Lahore, account of an eye-witness) "...then about forty girls were selected and told to march out. Some of the girls resisted and were shot... some parents..tried to conceal their young girls by wrapping them up inside their bedding... they were discovered, taken to a room on the top story where they were raped by Baluch soldiers. Some girls jumped into a well to save themselves from such foul treatment." (Stern Reckoning, Gujranwala) "The frenzy of the mob prompted many women to commit suicide by jumping into burning houses... many men took the extreme step of putting their own women and children to death, to save them a worse fate at the hands of the hooligans." (Stern Reckoning, Hura Shah Mukim in Montgomery District) "Many young girls attempted suicide by jumping into wells. Some of them were rescued and carried away." (Stern Reckoning, Arauti village in Lyallpur District) "One women strapped her three children to her waist and entered the river; the two younger children were drowned." (Stern Reckoning, Village Tiba Dhak Salha in Lyallpur District) Mother's Losses "One of our biggest problems was the handling of maternity cases..quite a large number of deliveries were premature, due to panic and excitement... to which the mothers were not accustomed..deliveries had to take place in the open and in the presence of men and women. A very poignant case was that of a women who was forced to walk three miles... She had hardly covered one mile when she gave birth to a child by the roadside." (Stern Reckoning, Jhat District, account of a medical practitioner in refugee camp) Retaliation "News had gone round that a local Muslim had brought a Bengali Hindu girl from Calcutta and was keeping her against her wishes. Investigation proved that the girl... had voluntarily embraced Islam and had married her Muslim lover. The truth, however, was not known until later, and in the meantime a riot broke out." (Stern Reckoning, Bihar) "...Muslim refugees began to arrive in Sheikhpura from August 21 onwards. They related their hysterical tales about their sufferings. The Muslim League volunteers and Mr. Ahmad Shaffi, P.C.S., used to promise early revenge..." (Stern Reckoning, Sheikhpura, account of a Hindu doctor in this district) "..an alarm was raised in the town of Montgomery that some Muslim girls had been molested by Sikh boys..muslim goondas began to collect and rioting spread through the city." (Stern Reckoning, Montgomery)

4 Suspension of Law and Order "The streets were strewn with dead bodies and the corpses lay thus for several days giving out a foul stench. The talk of disposing of the corpses seemed at first impossible because there was no one to carry them away and bury or cremate them... Dozens of dead bodies were pushed down manholes and obstructed the sewage of the city. Dead bodies were seen floating in the river." (Stern Reckoning, on Direct Action Day aftermath) "Lahore railway station became a veritable death-trap between August 12th and 18th" (Stern Reckoning, Lahore) "Another feature, most alarming to the people, was the disarming of the Sikh and Hindu police at Sheikhpura from Sub-Inspector down to constables... God only knows their fate." (Stern Reckoning, Sheikhpura, account from Hindu doctor in district) "When the houses were ablaze the inmates either came out on the road, where the military got them..." (Stern Reckoning, Guru Nanak) "All the injured who were brought in the hospital by the military told us that they had been shot by Baluch soldiers... soldiers had collected Hindus and Sikhs in the rice mills on the false pretext of protecting them." (Stern Reckoning, Lahore) "I had no medicines or instruments with me to perform operations and to dress the wounds of the injured. We wrote to the authorities [for these] but the Government took no action." (Stern Reckoning, Jhat District, account of a medical practitioner in refugee camp) "The military threw a ring round the village [Harnoli] and attacked the Hindu strongholds... and some of the Baluch soldiers indulged in the most inhuman barbarities. Men were hung upon trees and shot. Little infants were dashed to the ground or had their limbs torn. Young girls were raped n a horrible manner and then slaughtered." (Stern Reckoning, Harnoli village in Mianwali Distrct "There were reports of young women and girls being raped by the Muslim soldiers." (Stern Reckoning, Bhakkar village in Mianwali District) Violence Beyond Imagination "Young children were reported to have been boiled in oil. Others were burnt alive." (Stern Reckoning, Direct Action Day) "They found that men, women and children had been brutally murdered and were lying in pools of blood." (Stern Reckoning, Sind Express attacked on its way to Lahore) "The District Engineer, Mr. S. P. R. Sawhney, had gone to Dalhousie on leave during Augst. He returned to Lahore on September 11 and was advised by his Muslim friends and colleagues to leave immediately... In his office he was attacked by some Muslims who dragged him out, tied him to a post and then sawed his body into several pieces in a diabolical manner that baffles comprehension." (Stern Reckoning, Lahore, account given by the Liason Officer of the East Punjab Government) "A most ruthless campaign of murder, rape, arson and loot was announced upon them... Nothing of this nature or on this scale had ever taken place in India." (Stern Reckoning, Khosla's interpretation of violence in Sheikhpura District) "In one instance they snatched a young child from the arms of his mother, cut it into two and stabbed the mother with a spear." (Stern Reckoning, Lahore, account of a Hindu doctor) "Young infants had been butchered and two of them were found clinging to their mothers with gashing wounds and completely covered with blood." (Stern Reckoning, Sialkot) "A huge Muslim mob attacked the town of Dinga.. A witness saw dead bodies lying naked in the streets, some of them had been horribly mutilated." (Stern Reckoning, Gujrat, Dinga)

5 Men, women and children were brutally slaughtered and their houses were reduced to ashes. Those who fled their burning homes were pursued or waylaid by the murderous hoards." (Stern Reckoning, Montgomery) " A well in Sabzi Mandi was full of dead bodies and the stench emanating from it proclaimed the fate for the non-muslims." (Stern Reckoning, Sabzi Mandi in Montgomery District) Continuing Nightmare: Exodus and Refugee Camp Conditions "The condition of refugees was deplorable.. many were suffering from dysentery and other diseases." (Stern Reckoning, Noakhali aftermath) Hindus and Sikhs began to leave the city...long lines of these unfortunate people, smitten by the scourge of religious frenzy... They carried bedding on their heads, small bundles in their hands; the women carried young children and bundles of clothes hurriedly tied up in a duster of old dopatta. They had left the major portion of their belongings to perish or be looted. They had abandoned their houses and shops to the future State of Pakistan." (Stern Reckoning, Lahore) "A mob of Muslims..assisted by Baluch soldiers... attacked the refugee camp at Government High School." (Stern Reckoning, Gujranwala) "..without the help of any instruments, we had to perform major operation with second-hand shaving blades which also were available with considerable difficulty... we were compelled to use ordinary oil which was unsterilized and unmedicated for dressing wounds." (Stern Reckoning, Jhat District) "...we had to cut their flesh with blades and extract the bullets with out fingers." (Stern Reckoning, Jhat District, account of a medical practitioner in refugee camp)