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PARTITION: Tape 30
Writer
255MODEM
Mod Date & Time
255MODEM Oct 24 13:19
TAPE 30
Kewal R. MALKANI, BJP leader
From Hyderabad, Sindh; born in 1921; joined RSS in 1941; crossed
over to Delhi in Jan 1948 - to work in 'Organiser' but that and
RSS was banned in wake of Gandhi's murder; wrote Jinnah's
full-page obit in the 'Hindustan Times'
Interviewed at BJP office in Delhi, 16 Jan 1997; BJP ideologue -
and former (? current) BJP vice-president
Side A
7 > from m/c family of professors in Hyderabad, Sindh; then
mainly H town, 'perhaps the only Ms in the town were the
tonga-wallahs, barbers, butchers, and very few lawyers
... I never saw a M engineer before partition, I didn't
see a M doctor'
25 - all urban areas in Sindh were mainky M, and some Bihari
refugees commented on arival, 'how can this be Pak here,
cos there are more Ms in Patna and Ranchi than in H'bad
and Karachi'; tho' countryside 99% M
40 - friends approached to join RSS, inducted by brother in
Dec 41, found 'clean, uplifting atmos' in shaka
75 - [RSS vision] 'that I sd become free, it sd remain united,
and we sd revive our culture, cos centuries of M rule - I
wd call it Turkish rule - and more than a century of Br
rule, it had quite distorted I thinking; we thought that
our ancient arts, our sciences, our cult cd be revived,
and I cd take its rightful place in the world'
85 - [Pak demand] 'we didn't take it part seriously, we
thought it was a bad joke, we thought it was just a
bargainign counter ... only a few months before partn,
say after Mar 47, it became clear that partn is prob
coming; if someone had been told on 1st Jan 47 that
partn is coming, he wd have been almost laughed out of
court'
97 - 'we all felt that if partn comes we will not be able to
live in Sindh ... the Ms all over the country looked at
these areas as M maj, they sd they wanted to est Islam
there, and there's no justice or fairplay for the non-Ms
under such dispensation; and 2nd reason was ... the H had
a v negative view of M rule'
111 - press impact, 'the Hs felt menaced and the Ms prob felt
that some sort of a golden age was arriving for them, and
they had quite an eye on H properties in Sindh ...
s'thing unpred happ'd, we of course came away, but a lot
of Ms came from I and all these prop's were handed over
to the refugees, so the Ss felt cheated ... this is the
biggest source of trouble between the locals and the
muhajirs as they are called'
128 - in H'bad on ind day, 'you felt that something had fallen
apart, you don't know where you belonged, what was happ
... the whole thing was unreal, Pak was in a sense predom
H, all the big cities, an unreal atmos, many though that
Pak wd not last long' |
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