PARTITION: Tape 24 Writer 255MODEM Mod Date & Time 255MODEM Dec 30 14:10 TAPE 24 KHUSHWANT SINGH, interviewed at his home in Delhi, 30 Dec 1996 author of 'Train to Pakistan' and one of India's best known writers, columnists and litterateurs; born in western Punjab; at various times lawyer and diplomat; according to cover notes to one of his books, born in 1915 Side A PARTITION AND WRITING 'TRAIN' 7 - 'I was in Lahore ... I think I left L, first or sec week of Aug 47, and by then Lahore was in flames; I saw parts of the city go up in flames and fighting and shouting and I was advised by an Eng friend who was hd of the police there ... he sd, you'd better go; ... my next door n'bour was a Parsee, and he had in huge letters "Parsee ka makan", the other side was a Christian, he had big crosses outside, and there was me in the centre; ... so I left my home to a M friend ... who later became for min of Pak, and came away to join my children, I'd sent them of to Cassouli, and my wife and I took the train with an escort of Baluch policemen prov by this Eng friend' 35 - 'I was in Cassouli when the whole thing blew up ... I took the car and decided to come to Delhi, first to see the transfer of power ... and to make up my mind what I was going to do ... it was a memorable drive; I drove from Cassouli along the GTR to Delhi; the countryside was petrified, there was not a sign of life anywhere; really eery; until I came near Delhi - about 20 or 30 miles short of D, I saw a jeep coming from the other side, so I pulled up and waited for the jeep to move; they pulled up too - and we eyed each other for a long time, then I saw 3 Or 4 jeeps step out of the jeep all armed with rifles, and I drove up to them and asked them; and it was really bloodcurcling' they sd we've eliminated Ms in this area - it was chilling to hear this kind of talk; but in any case there were fellow Sikhs, so i got a sense of reassurance and drove into Delhi' on 12 or 13 Aug 65 - 'I joined this enorm crowd outside Parlt to hear the procdgs from the otuside, 1/speakers had been fitted, I heard Nehru make his famous speech, tryst with destiny speech, and Sucheta Kriplani's voice singing the natl anthem, a lot of loud applause outside, and shouting of slogans, love live Gandhi, 11 independence, and mind you most of these people were like me refugees, they'd just come, so their wounds were fresh' 78 - 'next morn i went to the red ft to see the UJ being hauled down and the tricolor go up on the RF ramparts, and that was even more memorable, cos Lord M'batten did the lowering of the UJ, and there were a lot of Brit officers with him; it was an amaziongly sudden change in the attitude towards the Brits; they became th e most loved people in the co overnight - I couldn't believe - they were being cheered and officers taken shoulder high; ... it was really a reovoln in that