|
|
PARTITION: Tape 27
Writer
255MODEM
Mod Date & Time
255MODEM May 12 08:43
TAPE 27
Side A
GHAZI SALAHUDDIN
... editorial director, Jang newspaper group, and former newspaper
editor; bespectacled Muhajir intellectual and journalist; born in
UP; 50+; interviewed in smart, book-lined new flat in Karachi - 5
Jan 1997
8 - born in Farukabad ? district of UP in 1938; but father
in railways and posted in Bombay; later opted for Pak
50 - [moving to Pak] 'you cd look at the opp it provided ...
it was a new co ... '
65 - 'we left Bombay on 15 Aug 47, and I have memories of
going in a taxi from our hse to the rail stn, and the
way being blocked by proc'ns and celebr'ns all around';
went first to UP, then to Pak
72 - came to Pak in March 48; 'for those months we were in our
home town, I have memories of being in terrible fear of
being attacked; there was more fear than in act viol ...
but then people used to stand guard all night ... young
people ... with spears and sticks; there were rumours
of which vill had been attacked, ... so that was a time
of fear and uncertainty'
86 - came to Karachi in March 48
98 - father had been sched'd to take a train which was
massacred - changed trains by chance
122 - part of mother's family still in UP
143 - 'there are times in history when it becomes a rev'ny
surge in one direction, that no idividl they can
stand [up to] ... the tide flows in one direction, and
there's no stopping it'
150 - sailed from Bombay, and stayed with father's friend in
Karachi, then got a small plot, then an unfinished hse
for govt servants, then a squatter's settlement later
regularised, 'then of course things began to improve' -
and father got a job in private sector
164 - 'life was a struggle ... '
175 - 'i think the Muh's saw themselves as makers of hist when
Pak was being created, and they have become the
victims of history; I think the reasons for supp'g the
m'ment for Pak was difft in difft areas, and for Ms of
diff't categories ... there were three diff't kinds of
M': minority elite, oppressed majority, slight maj and
not oppressed
182 > (goes thro pro-Pak motivation of these diff't groups:
UP elite, Bengal and Punjab - latter being the last to
join Pak movement)
209 - 'the v word muhajir has religious overtone ... when you
become muh you do something that the holy prophet had
done; and cos there was a vacuum in Sindh, these mhs
occd govt position and had opp to grow; but the Sindhi
popn, the host popn, there was linguistic and cult
divide ... and ult when rel passions subsided, culture
became a major issue; it's my belief that in normal
times, culture is large than rel'n; it's lang, it's |
|
|