1947 Amritsar train massacre
1947 Amritsar train massacre | |
---|---|
Muslim refugees | |
Attack type | Massacre |
Deaths | 3,000 |
Injured | 1,000 |
Perpetrators | Sikhs |
An attack on a
Massacre
On Monday, 22 September 1947, a train was leaving 30 miles east from Amritsar and was attacked by Sikhs. This attack was repulsed. Trains carrying Sikh troops did pass by during the attack, but they did not intervene.[4]
However, when the same train arrived at
The next day, the train was returned to its platform.[4]
Effects
The West Punjab Government announced other attacks that happened during the 1947 Partition of India. This included the attack of a refugee train in Kamoke carrying Sikh-Hindu passengers around 25 miles west of Lahore on Wednesday, 24 September. This attack was responsible for a further 340 deaths of both Sikhs and Hindus and wounded a further 250.[4] Following the massacre the West Punjab Government announced a ban on refugee convoys from West Punjab.[5]
Meetings within the Indian cabinet to stop further attacks were called the next day, as reported by the Associated Press of Great Britain. Military spokesmen reported on the mounting tensions in the Punjab and the serious attacks on refugee trains and convoys.[4]
References
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8166-6560-0.
The trains were not safe, however, for they did not have proper state protection, and the soldiers who did travel on-board often had their own communal allegiances. An article in an October 1947 issue of the British Railway Gazette noted that 3,000 passengers had been killed on a Muslim refugee train in Amritsar. (Footnote 8, Notes to Chapter 3: "Indian Railways," British Railway Gazette, October 3, 1947, 390.)
- ^ a b "Indian Railway". Railway Gazette. 87 (October): 390. 1947.
(Footnote *) Since this article was received, an attack on a Muslim refugee train at Amritsar resulted in 3,000 passengers being killed; and 340 Hindus and Sikhs were killed when several thousand Muslims made a reprisal attack on a refugee train at Kamoke, 25 miles from Lahore, on September 24—Ed. R. G.
" - OCLC 22415680.
Two great tragedies were enacted during the last week of September. One was an attack on a Muslim refugee train at Amritsar on the evening of September 22. Mention has been made of the non-Muslim refugee train from Pind Dadan Khan which was attacked at three different places. When this train arrived at Amritsar, the news of the attack and the heavy loss of non-Muslim life spread through Amritsar and caused bitter resentment. On the evening of September 22, a Muslim refugee train on its way to Lahore was held up and attacked. It is feared that the loss of Muslim life was very heavy.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "3000 Dead in Indian Train Massacre - Australian Associated Press New Delhi, September 25th". The Advertiser (Australia). 27 September 1947. Archived from the original on 23 April 2016.
- ^ a b "India's worst train massacre". Northern Advocate. 24 September 1947. Retrieved 15 March 2023.
- ISBN 978-1-86189-874-6.
Yet at the close of colonialism, when British India was in the process of partition, railway carriages provided little protection from physical violence and political turmoil. In October 1947, amid large-scale migration between Hindu and Muslim regions, 3,000 passengers were killed on a Muslim refugee train in Amritsar.
- LCCN 2017040450.
Amritsar: Sikhs armed with rifles, swords, and spears attack seven trains of Muslim refugees. Men, women, and children: 3,000 people are murdered. The Pakistani Government now stops all trains between the Indian Punjab and the Pakistani Punjab.
- ^ Talbot, Ian (2008). "Partition of India". In Stone, Dan (ed.). Historiography of Genocide. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK. p. 429.
The jathas led the attacks on Muslims that ethnically cleansed them from the East Punjab. From May onwards, there had been a widespread collection of funds, manufacture and import of weapons and the establishment of an organization of 'dictators', 'company commanders' and village 'cells'. Little is known about their total numbers, the second rank of leaders or their composition, save that many ex-servicemen from both the British Indian Army and the Indian National Army were in their ranks. During the final days before the publication of the Radcliffe Boundary award, jathas commenced heavy raids on Muslim villages in 'border' areas. The jathas were ruthlessly efficient killing machines which carefully targeted their victims. They were well armed with Sten guns, rifles, pistols, spears, swords and kirpans (steel sword/dagger) and were well organized. The largest was around 3,000 strong. They later preyed on refugee foot columns and trains. An attack on a Pakistan bound Special just outside Khalsa College, Amritsar that was marked by military precision, resulted in the massacre of over 1,000 Muslims.(Footnote: 80. Civil and Military Gazette (Lahore) 19 September 1947.)
- ^ Talbot, Ian (2008). "Partition of India". In Stone, Dan (ed.). Historiography of Genocide. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK. p. 427.
The violence was at its greatest in East Punjab.(Footnote 63): British observers commented that refugees fleeing from Jullundur and Ludhiana experienced, 'far worse treatment than anything ... in Montgomery and Lahore'. Report of Mr Hadow's Tour of Jullundur, Hoshiarpur, Ludhiana and Ferozepore Districts. 7 January 1948. East Punjab Affairs 1947–50. G2275/80 Do. 35,3181, Dominions Office and Commonwealth Relations Office PRO.
- LCCN 2013937985.
Muslim refugees heading in the opposite direction from East to West Punjab faced similar perils. A spate of attacks in the Jullundur and Amritsar districts between 21 and 23 September 1947 culminated in the killing of every person aboard a packed refugee train making for the border.34 (Footnote 34. IOR, MSS EUR, Mudie papers, F164/16, Colonel, Advanced HQ/ME Pakistan, Amritsar, 'Report on East Punjab Situation', 24 Sept. 1947.)
Further reading
- Kaur, Navdip (2011). "Violence and Migration: A Study of Killing in the Trains During the Partition of Punjab in 1947". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 72: 947–954. JSTOR 44146786.