INDIA, BHATINDA: When Indian Sika Khan met his Pakistani brother for the first time since Partition in 1947, tears streamed down his wizened cheeks.Sika, a six-month-old Sikh labourer, and his elder brother Sadiq Khan were torn apart as Britain divided the subcontinent at the end of colonial rule.
This year commemorates the 75th anniversary of Partition, when bloodshed killed possibly more than a million people, families like Sika’s were splintered, and two sovereign nations — Pakistan and India — were formed.Sadiq, Sika’s 10-year-old son, escaped to Pakistan after his father and sister were slaughtered in sectarian murders.
“My mother couldn’t endure the stress and committed suicide by jumping into the river,” Sika explained in his basic brick house in Bhatinda, a district in the western Indian state of Punjab that bore the brunt of Partition violence.
