Book talk examines making of partition violence in Punjab

Speaking at the event, Dr Adnan Tariq argued that the violence of Partition should not be understood simply as a sudden eruption of communal

LAHORE: A book talk on Punjab, Blood and Borders: Understanding Partition Violence through Secret and Archival Records, authored by historian Dr Adnan Tariq, was organized by Al-Mawrid, bringing into focus new archival perspectives on the violence, forced migration and demographic transformation that accompanied the Partition of Punjab in 1947.

Speaking at the event, Dr Adnan Tariq argued that the violence of Partition should not be understood simply as a sudden eruption of communal hatred following the announcement of the Radcliffe Award. Drawing on secret and archival records, he examined the violence as a developing historical process in which communal mobilisation, attacks on property and settlements, territorial anxieties and population displacement increasingly became interconnected.

The talk focused particularly on three important themes that, according to Dr Tariq, help explain the evolution and direction of Partition violence.

Violence in the Hazara Belt

The first theme was the violence against non-Muslim communities in the Hazara belt between December 1946 and March 1947. Dr Tariq placed these events within the prehistory of the Punjab catastrophe, arguing that communal violence and population displacement had already begun well before the final announcement of Partition.

The Hazara experience, he observed, is important for understanding how violence could move beyond isolated communal clashes and begin to affect entire communities. Attacks, intimidation and displacement demonstrated an emerging relationship between violence and demographic change. This earlier phase, he argued, needs to be incorporated into the wider chronology of Partition rather than treating August 1947 as the sudden beginning of mass violence.

The Great Fire of Katra Jaimal Singh

The second major theme was the Great Fire of Katra Jaimal Singh in Amritsar, in which around 5,000 shops were burnt, the majority of them belonging to Muslims.

Dr Tariq described the fire as a crucial episode in the development of the violence that followed. Its significance was not limited to the destruction of property. The burning of a major commercial area had serious economic, social and demographic consequences, weakening the established Muslim presence in the city.

According to the argument presented at the talk, the Katra Jaimal Singh fire helped give a particular direction to subsequent violence. The targeting of commercial property demonstrated how communal violence could also become a means of transforming urban space and removing a community’s economic foundations. Violence, therefore, increasingly affected not only human lives but also homes, businesses, neighbourhoods and the material presence of communities.

Nankana Sahib Conference of 27 July 1947

The third theme was the Nankana Sahib Conference of 27 July 1947, which Dr Tariq identified as a significant turning point in the political and communal mobilisation preceding the final phase of Partition violence.

The importance of the conference, he explained, lies partly in its timing. It occurred before the announcement of the Radcliffe Award on 17 August 1947 and therefore raises questions about explanations that attribute the subsequent violence primarily to the delayed boundary announcement.

Dr Tariq argued that the conference reflected an increasingly focused approach towards the political uncertainties surrounding the future of Punjab. Questions of security, territory and demography were becoming closely connected, while communal mobilisation was increasingly oriented towards the anticipated territorial consequences of Partition.

This development, he suggested, helps explain why the subsequent violence in eastern Punjab increasingly resulted in the forced migration and large-scale removal of Muslim populations. Violence was not merely a consequence of people leaving their homes; it increasingly became one of the mechanisms through which populations were compelled to leave.

From Communal Violence to Forced Migration

Bringing these three themes together, Dr Tariq presented Partition violence as an evolving process rather than a single event. The earlier violence in Hazara, the destruction of Katra Jaimal Singh and the political mobilisation associated with the Nankana Sahib Conference represented different stages in a developing pattern in which violence became increasingly connected with territory and demography.

He argued that the conventional explanation of Partition violence as an immediate reaction to the Radcliffe Award overlooks developments that had already transformed the political and communal landscape. By examining secret and archival records, the book seeks to reconstruct these developments and place them within a longer chronology.

At the heart of the book is therefore a fundamental question: Were people simply fleeing violence, or did violence itself become a means of moving populations and creating a new demographic reality in Punjab?

Dr Tariq suggested that the experience of Punjab is best understood through the interconnected concepts of communal violence, targeted destruction, ethnic cleansing and forced migration. The Partition border did not simply divide an existing population; it emerged alongside a violent process that profoundly transformed that population.

The book talk highlighted how archival and secret official records can challenge established narratives and open new questions about the causes, chronology and character of Partition violence. Punjab, Blood and Borders thus seeks to shift the discussion from the familiar question of why Partition violence happened to a more complex inquiry into how violence developed, acquired direction, and ultimately helped remake the demographic and territorial landscape of Punjab.