New Delhi. To commemorate 75 years of independence, freedom fighter Tilak Raj Kapoor, who was awarded the President’s Medal, spoke about the pain of partition. Tilak Raj Kapoor, 94, who suffered the brunt of Partition, told how the role of Partition in Pakistan had started playing a year before 1947. When a 19-year-old youth joined the freedom struggle movement, he did not know that only after five years he would have to face the horrors of partition. In 1942, he was caught writing the slogan of Quit India movement on government buildings and the British officers sentenced 11 whips in the police station, but to save his religion and life in the partition of India and Pakistan, young Tilak Raj Kapoor was given his land-property and business. Had to leave Pakistan and come to India. Today the entire family of 94-year-old Tilak Raj Kapoor is living in Varanasi. Tilak Raj Kapoor, a freedom fighter and Presidential Medalist, has expressed the pain of Partition on the occasion of Partition Commemoration Day.
fundamentalists were openly munadi
Recalling the scene of Partition in 1947, Tilak Raj Kapoor said that a year before the Partition, the role of anarchy had started to prepare. Hindu and Sikh minorities living in Pakistan were being targeted. We lived in Mandi Bahauddin town of Punjab province of Pakistan. I remember that in the early morning of 13th August 1947, the fundamentalists were saying that if you want to stay in Pakistan then change religion or leave the country. Apart from this, there were also attacks on the houses of the minorities.
took refuge in temples and gurudwaras
According to Tilak Raj Kapoor, we along with the family had left the house and took shelter in temples and gurudwaras. One group of fanatics would take away our animals, another group would loot valuables from the house. A group used to set fire to houses and search and kill minorities by shooting them. It was all pre-planned, the fundamentalists were told in advance that minorities should not be allowed to stay in Pakistan.
started targeting women
Tilak Raj Kapoor tells you past in his shrill voice that fanatics used to come to attack playing drums. Some of us had guns, which were insufficient to compete with them even a little. Tilak Raj Kapoor says that when the fundamentalists started targeting our women, most of them considered it appropriate to embrace death to save religion and honour. Many women with us jumped from the roofs of Gurudwaras and gave their lives. Tilak Raj ji may see little today, but the view of 1947 is clearly visible to him.
Missed my house, long struggle in Kashi
He told that on August 14, 1947, leaving the property of crores, ancestral house, our soil, cotton, ghee and other business everything, we came to the refugee camp with father, two sisters, two brothers with three pairs of clothes. After staying in the camp for about one and a half months, we reached the Attari border by train and came to India. Our family reached Kashi in October 1947. After coming to Varanasi, we started the business of planting Banarasi Langde Mango orchards in 1950 while living in rented houses and today our family along with sons does a big business of fruits. We built a house in 1960 in Parade Kothi area of Varanasi. In 1967 I joined the Civil Defense and in 1980 I was awarded the President’s Medal.
For the first time any government has shared our pain
Tilak Raj Kapoor thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and said that it is for the first time since independence that the government has tried to share the pain of the people who have suffered the brunt of partition. By celebrating Partition Horror Memorial Day, the new generation of the country will get information about our struggles.