Children of Partition / Brothers Reunited

a border. While the situations of the Indian Pakistan border and the US Mexico border vary in many ways, the heartbreak of being separated from your children, your parents, or other loved ones are synonymous. We've briefly touched upon these grave circumstances and previous episodes of this podcast. Today, I want to introduce you to a man who was instrumental uniting family split up by Partition. One of these reunions was between two brothers who were separated during Partition and

only saw each other again this year. It had been seventy four years from I Heart Radio, I'm Nahasie's and this is Partition. A podcast will take a closer look into this often forgotten part of history. Numerous children who survived ninety seven were abandoned, lost taken to religious retreats like ashrams, or they woke up in a hospital bed with no idea where their families were, whether they were

alive or not. Authur Uvashi Battalia wrote in great detail about the lives of women in the other side of Silence, but she also devoted many pages in her book about the children of Partition. Sabbatry mcjohnny, a record collector with the United Council of Relief and Welfare, described a time when a large camp closed down in Lahore. At the time a few months after Partition, she was with the

School of Social Work in Delhi. Shortly after the camp closed down, they received information that there was some dozen children who had been left behind who seemed to belong to no one. What was to be done with them. Many children grew up in orphanages or homes for the destitute. Others made their way through life on the streets, and

some had the privilege to be adopted into homes. Brutalia mentions workers at the Gandhavan, Nita Ashram and Jilan there recount that in a two year old child was brought to the ashram, no one knew who she belonged to or where she came from. At the time the book was published, she was fifty two and still living there, a child of history without a history. This sentence is one that I keep coming back to. This woman would be in her mid seventies now. Is she still alive?

Did anyone come looking for her? Was she able to find any closure or peace? Who knows if she's even there anymore. This is a devastating story, but, as we've learned, far from unusual. In January, I had a friend sent me an article from the Washington Post about two men named Sadiq and Sica who met after seventy four years. I was captivated in their reunion video. Siica is already waiting for his brother, and Sadik is approaching with his family.

But you can hear someone saying, look there, that's your brother. After all of these years, it has finally worked out. Go run and hug him. The brothers have a teery embrace, and the younger brother, Sika, is comforting Sadiq. He tells him, we are alive, so we can be together again. Sadik Givesica a floral garland, a welcoming gesture in South Asian culture. The video of the his brothers. Reuniting gave me the full range of emotions happiness, anger, sadness, longing, annoyance, you

name it. It was such a beautiful and touching moment. But when you think about the many arduous steps it took for these siblings to meet, it's hard to ignore the continuous policing of our borders. Nasir Dillo is someone who's desperately trying to change the status quo Nasir Lis and Fezzil bad and when he's not tending to his real estate business, he helps partition survivors find people they

once knew and have now lost. What started out as a Facebook page created in transformed into a major online community with over six thousand subscribers and almost one hundred million views. Nasir is a prime mover behind the Pakistani YouTube channel Punjabi Lahare. The channel hosts an array of content from reunions and oral histories to the impacts of the recent floods. On this channel, Nasir post interview the

people affected by partition. Although it started as a way to simply document these stories, it has evolved into a way for long lost family members separated in to reconnect with one another. The channel might post an interview and viewers who might know the family members comment and try to facilitate a connections. You have channel Cube. When I art, people asked us why we created this channel and what the purpose was. I used to talk to my grandfather

about his village in India. I asked how the village was, how are the people, how are your friends? My elders used to say people were very nice in their village. Wanting to hear stories and experiences from others, connected with people from India through social media from about the Hindu and Sikh communities. He has a Sikh friend named Booping. They're saying Lovely living in nak Nanasia, a holy site

for the Sikhs which is now located in Pakistan. When Lovely came onto the project, they got more exposure because the door opened up to meet a lot more people since many pilgrims traveled to nick Nanasya from India. He will get in touch with the people visiting officers from the real estate. There was an elderly person by my real estate office in fast Labad. He recognized Lovely was a seek and struck up a conversation about his time

in India. Lovely did an interview with the elder and it went viral on YouTube and people really responded positively to it. After the success of the first partition story, we started contacting people by phone living in the area of Punjab in Pakistan regarding their history with partition. What did they see with their own eyes? They quickly started recording more and have been recording for the last seven years. Nasir says, with the Facebook and YouTube pages combined, they

probably have around stories ms name. When people from the Punjab side of India used to come to Pakistan, they used to recall that they lost a sister, a brother or a friend. I never heard any complaints or animosity among the different religions of people living in the area. They lived in love and as many conversations with his grandfather, Nasa remembered him saying how much he wanted to visit his old village again in India, but he never got

the chance. His grandfather passed away a few years ago and he couldn't go because he couldn't obtain a visa. I feel guilty that I never got to take him back. Punjabi La Hare has gained an immense following and because of that, it's become a little easier for people to find each other through the videos being posted. Coffee Logo. It used to take a long time to find people because whatever someone used to contact us about a missing

reality or a kidnapping. We used to do everything NASA and Lovely had to record, upload an attempt to locate people themselves. Before that, we didn't have a community to assist with finding people. Now, as soon as we upload a new video, we get a through because we have quite a few subscribers and people contact us or leave notes in the comments. No Sir said it usually takes around eight to ten days for someone to have an

idea to help solve where I loved one. Maybe around two hundred to two hundred and fifty people have met not only their blood relatives, but old friends and neighbors through the channel. People that leave comments on the videos and form groups. In Punjab they talk amongst themselves sanji south meaning people come together to join in conversations. We hosted it online and people would come on from their homes. Because of this, people are starting to get in touch.

The story of Sadik and Sica reuniting reach an abundance of people across the globe and with it garnered a lot of media attention. Now with an even bigger audience, Nasa says he has more than one hundred stories to work on, but's in the problems I think um one stories. The problem is we can do the stories, but the issues getting visas for people to visit and if you can get assistance from the India and Pakistan government to

verify their stories. I don't understand why there should be any issue with the success of reuniting survivors, there also comes crashing waves of disappointment. Much like the woman who has lived essentially her entire life in the astra Um, not everyone has a happy ending. The serious suspects that some people have been denied visas because their story was

not as high profile as Deak and sick Us. Absolutely the stories, John, would you look after listening to stories, it feels like it is my story, all of these partitions stories. When people are talking about partition, it is really tough for them. It feels like it is my bust. If you can't help in some way, I feel sad. He mentions one woman in particular, names Aldana Begum, a famous poet. She visited Pakistan seven times to look for

her relatives. She died recently, never having found her family members. Only a few days after her death, the Bunjabi la Our team was able to locate her family. Boni the people who sacrifice themselves, meaning the people who died, got hurt and suffered hard for India and Pakistan and left their homes. The governments won't allow them to meet with their families. We are behind compared to other countries. There is so much hate. We need to get out of it. We are going to stay in the past if we

continue like this. Doesn't matter about the borders. It should be open so people can meet each other. You can travel to Japan, America, Canada and it's not as difficult as obtaining a visa to India or Pakistan. When will they get their senses after the break? We'll hear from Saddi and Sica eight months ago where they're Sadiq and Sica reunited at the Karthurpork Corridor. It was a day

filled with laughter, tears, and most importantly, it was a celebration. However, what proceeded this day was over seven decades of separation and unknown answers to a flurry of questions. In Poul, India, Sadique was a young boy around ten years old and Sica hadn't even turned one yet. Their father was killed in the chaos and their mother took her own life not long after a partition. They had a sister, but she passed away from illness and a refugee camp, so

he ended up walking in a caravan to Pakistan. I arrived in fest Labat and settled in Jenna colony in Pakistan. The government provided me with some rations. From there, I moved to a small village just to fifty five. We got two acres of land from the government to farm. Meanwhile, Sica was under the care of a poverty stricken uncle in their village and was then given away. He was taken in by the Saints, a family that raised him

as if he was one of their own. Since ICIca was so young, A lot of what he knows about his life comes from the villagers of pool Wa. He's had to piece together the earlier parts of his life based on what others told him. Dr Jugs Are saying a farmer and friend of Sikas from the village was quoted saying he was the one who was left behind. Yeah, well, don't vide the amaze. You didn't know. Well, my life after partition was spent in poverty. I spent every day

doing labor. It was hard work tending to all the animals, but I didn't mind so much because I had people who protected me. They both started looking for each other at different points in their life. For Zadig, the older brother, it was relatively quickly after making the track to Pakistan. You do men, Yeah, I started looking for Chica two months after I had lived in Pakistan. I tried very hard,

but it was impossible, but little to no resources. Sika began his search for his brother when he was eighteen. Oh Shari, I used to ask Muslim families going to Pakistan to look for Sadik. I'd helped put some ads in newspapers and writing letters, but nothing was working. Both brothers went on with their lives, but even as years passed, they never stopped attempting to find each other. And then

fate intervened. In May, Dr Singh was visiting his daughter in Canada when he was showing a video from a YouTube channel. It was a video of Sadiq reciting all the details he knew about his brother and begging for anyone with any news to reach out. The circumstances sounded oddly familiar to doctor Singh and he had a hunch that maybe the person this man was looking for was Sica. Dr Singh called Nasir, who had conducted the interview, to

get some more details. The very next day, Nasir and Sadiq found a man who lives with Sica, and all four of them began having conversations. In a matter of days, Friends, villagers and family members began to collect all the necessary paperwork to apply for visas so Sadiq and Sica could meet at long last. However, the Indian and Pakistani government's restrictions, in addition to the coronavirus through a wrench in their plans, and their reunion was put on hold indefinitely until they

could physically meet, Video calls would have to suffice. There was one way around fund it, though. The Carthurpark Corridor is a visa free crossing, so once COVID loosened its grip on the world, Sadik and Sica started making plans to meet at the Sikh temple in the middle of the crossing. They would meet on January each group began to prepare in order to make the trip, so they expand fifty thou Pakistani rupees, which is a little over

two U S. Dollars. I did. I had to sell my buffalo in order to get some money to travel there. I traveled by bus with all of my family, friends and neighbors of Sicca also rented a bus to the corridor, and both groups brought with them an array of gifts and food to give to each other. Sara union was at the mercy of the temple's operating hours. Sadik and Sitka spent three hours together before they had to say goodbye again. Nasir said when it was time to leave,

Sadik whendn't let his brother go. Since their initial meeting, both brothers have received the opportunity to travel to each other's homes. On the Punjabula Hair channel, there is one video of the brothers talking and laughing in a car while Naser drives, and in another we see them celebrating near the border and the horror Pakistan. They love Pakistan. Yeah, yeah,

you paid in other pace, How is you get? I stayed in Pakistan for two months and one of Sadik's grandson is getting married, so I'm hoping to visit again very soon. Well. I traveled to India in me and stayed for a couple of months. Hearing their story, I hope that India and Pakistan will allow other partition survivors as well as other people to obtain visas so they too can visit their roots and memories. Before Sadik and I hung up the phone, he asked where in Pakistan

I was from. My dad was on the line to assist me with these phone calls, and he said we were from Carachi. Sadik in return said the next time ruined Pakistan, please come meet us. My dad responded with inshalla, which means God willing. This was a phrase that my parents said to me whenever they wanted me to stop asking about something when I was younger, and on some occasions even now, instead of giving me a yes or no answer, this is what they would say. But here

it was real, it was genuine. I could feel it. I've read, seen and heard countless stories of people wanting to visit their homes they left behind and thought they could visit, or their absolute exasperated grief when they describe someone who they have lost contact with and yearned to see again with all of these stories, they say in

shella or something to that effect. When it comes to getting their visas approved to visit either India or Pakistan, this phrase is really the only sense of hope they can cling to. Next time, I'll take a deeper dive into how Partition is portrayed in film and television. What

content is accessible, Are there any good examples? What is the audience supposed to take away from these depictions h We'll talk to filmmakers and writers Chanty Dcor and Fatima Ascar about their own creative work with partition, along with media they consumed on the topic. So literature really informed me. And then I saw a documentary and it was a very journalistic, you know, give me the dates, give me

the politicians name of what happened. And of course I watched it because I wanted to learn as much about the politicians who were involved and so forth. But there was really something lacking. It seemed really one dimensional around these kind of almost arbitrary conversations between politicians, but not like what was happening in the hard and soul of the people on the street. Until next week, I'm Naazie's

and This Is Partition. Partition was developed as a part of the Next Up initiative created by Anna Hosnier, Joel Monique and Senia Median. Partition is produced by Anna Hosnier, Tricia muker Gee and Becca Ramos. It is edited by Rory Gagan, with the original score composed by Mark Hadley.