THE MAKING OF EXILE

by NANDITA BHAVNANI

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  ——Nimanal Shah Yaadgaar [Nimanal Shah Souvenir], Sakhi Kutia, Baroda, 1971.

  Acknowledgements

  This book would simply not have been possible without the narratives of the many Sindhis I interviewed and read: My deepest thanks to them all. In a sense, this is their story, their book.

  It would have been very difficult for me to write this book without the steadfast encouragement and acute insights of Neeraj Mohan Sahay. His razor-sharp perceptions and wealth of erudition have added enormously to this book. Many, many thanks, my friend.

  I am deeply grateful to Dr Ashis Nandy for many things: for introducing me to Partition studies, for his generous guidance and help, and for his insightful comments on the manuscript. I am honoured to have his foreword for this book.

  Special thanks to Kavita Panjabi whose warmth and enthusiasm gave me much-needed encouragement during the long gestation of this work. This means more to me than I can say.

  When I started my research, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to get to know many Sindhis who were then in the autumn of their lives and have since passed on. Some of them became good friends and enriched not only my life, but also my understanding of Sindhis and their history. I
feel blessed to have known them. My heartfelt thanks to the late: Atu Lalwani, Indra and Harish Vaswani, Popati Hiranandani, Arjan ‘Shad’ and Mohini Mirchandani, Mohan Panjabi, Dr Nari Kripalani, Hari Motwani ‘Sindhi’, Hari ‘Dilgir’ and Nanki Daryani, Nooruddin Sarki, Mohan Makhijani, Shyam Pamnani, Hundraj ‘Dukhayal’ Lilaram, A. J. Uttam and Sundri Uttamchandani.

  I am also grateful to Majlis Manch, for their fellowship in the year 2001, which not only funded my travels to Dubai and Pakistan, but also acted as a source of great encouragement.

  In Sindh, special thanks to Abdul Khalique Junejo and family, Mehrumal Ramnani and family, and B. M. Kutty, Karamat Ali and Sharafat Ali at PILER, for all their help. I am especially indebted to Salam Dharejo for his generous and invaluable assistance.

  A very special thank you to my nieces, Nishita and Urshila Mehta, who have been a great source of help, support and encouragement. I am particularly grateful to Nishita for creating the two maps used in this book.

  Many thanks to Veena Bijlani, for her generous help and permission to use the photographs for the cover of this book.

  I am especially grateful to Sahib Bijani, whose encyclopaedic memory gave me many nuggets for my work. He, and the rest of the ‘family’ at the Indian Institute of Sindhology, Adipur – especially Lakhmi and Vashi Khilani, Pritam Varyani, Dr Moti Prakash, Chandra Khemnani and Mukesh Tilokani – gave generously of their large-hearted warmth, hospitality and help: Thank you all.

  If interviewing Sindhis was one gateway to researching Partition, another significant point of access was Sindhi literature. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my teacher, the poet and playwright, Vasudev ‘Nirmal’ Madhav. He taught me to read and write the Perso-Arabic script in 10 lessons flat, thereby unlocking for me the Sindhi language and its wealth of literature.

  Given the decline of the Sindhi language, it is extremely difficult to obtain books in Sindhi today. For allowing me to use their libraries, I am especially grateful to Haresh Shahani at Jai Hind College, Rekha Jagasia at Kamla High School, Mitra Mukherjee at SNDT Women’s University and Manju Nichani at KC College of Arts, Commerce & Science. Many thanks also to those who shared generously from their collection of books, articles and material: Jyoti Punwani, Gobindsingh Advani, Shakun Kimatrai, Rita Kothari, Saaz Aggarwal, Usha Bhandarkar, Bhagwanti Rupani and the Indian Institute of Sindhology.

  Lata Jagtiani’s book, Sindhi Reflections, has proved to be a valuable treasure-trove of first-person accounts of Sindhis who remember Sindh and Partition. I am deeply grateful to her for allowing me to quote at length from it.

  Over the years, many persons have assisted me in myriad ways; I thank them all: Badar Abro, Ashok H. Advani, Ashok K. Advani, Lalit Advani, Sherina Advani, Suneel Advani, Aleeka, Sarah Ansari, Arun and Savita Babani, Kirat Babani, Suchitra Balasubrahmanyan, Allah Warayo Behan, Lachman Bhatia ‘Komal’, Gita Bhattia, Ritesh Bhavnani, Urvashi Butalia, Savita Chandiramani, Shobha Chandnani, Thakur Chawla, Nalini Chhugani, Armaity D’Rozario, Ram Daryani, Dalip Daswani, Sadhna Garg, Sobho Gianchandani and family, Seema Gurnani, Hari Himthani, Neil Hingorani, Dr Vikram Hingorani, Chandra Hiranandani, Harish Jagtiani, Nand Javeri, Charulata Jhaveri, Raj Jotwani, Muhammad Ibrahim Joyo, Nirmala Kaneria, Prahlad Karamwani, Nari Kimatrai, Raju Singh Kirnaut, C. S. Lakshmi, Kamlu Lalwani, Rajesh Mahapatra, Chandra Malkani, Sindhu Malkani, Vikram Malkani, Jetho Mariwalla, Mangaldas Meghani and family, Safdar Mehdi and Aatif Safdar, Mukesh Mirchandani, Iqbal Mirza and family, Shahid Mosvi, Gopal Motwane and family, Gaurav Motwani, Zubeida Mustafa, Kanaiyalal Nagpal, Asif Noorani, Kanchan Pamnani, Parmeshwari Pamnani, Papan and Hira Panjabi, Narayan ‘Bharati’ Paryani, Parsram Peswani, Sumana Ramanan, Kajal Ramchandani, Kumkum and Vijay Ramchandani, Roma Ramchandani, Saroj Ramchandani, Neelambari and Jerry Rao, Nanik Rupani, Prabhu Sainani, Ahmed Salim, Nisar Ahmed Sarang, Nari Sawlani, Chandra Shivdasani, Ravi and Mithu Shivdasani, Amrita Shodhan, Hiro Shroff, Gita Simoes, Sind Educationists’ Association, Hemal Store, Ratna and Bhagwan Thadhani, Ishwar Tharani and family, Kamla and Dhiren Tolani, Suresh and Laj Totlani and family, Sujata and Rajni Upadhyaya, Choithram Vanvari and family, Nirmal Vaswani, Brahma Kumari Vijayantimala, Soni Wadhwa, Manohar Wadhwani and Mohan Wadhwani.

  At Westland, special thanks to Aradhana Bisht, for being a fount of advice and support. I am also grateful to Dharini Bhaskar for her close editing of the manuscript.

  My heartfelt thanks to my family – Nirmala and Nari Bhavnani, Anjali and Ameet Dalal, Dr Nita Bhogilal – for helping me in a thousand ways. A special thank you to my daughter, Meha Bhogilal, for her enthusiastic help in taking many print-outs and her patience in putting up with my absences. Thanks also to Archana Khapre, without whose support my work would have become doubly difficult.

  Last but not least, this book would not have been possible without the large-hearted help and support of my husband, Kuntal Bhogilal. I cannot thank him enough.