In history we read about various invasions followed by massacres. Many of these were carried out by Iranian, Arab, Turkish, and Afghan forces. In some cases, Lahore suffered destruction with countless women and children taken into slavery. History is about learning from the past, and not repeating the same mistakes. Sadly, the response these days to those horrors of the past is a “dull disinterest”. The normal response is: “Oh, I never knew that.” Why have we become like this?

The most recent massacre took place in 1947, in which over one million people of various faiths were killed ruthlessly. When faith not facts becomes a consideration, the outcome is mass murders. Faith is blind say the sages. But then our new generation, call them Generation Z, gives an indifferent shrug to those happenings. Our school textbooks barely mention the details, or if a mention is made it’s the Muslim version only, not the complete picture. In this column we have advocated the conversion of the Bradlaugh Hall on Rattigan Road into a Partition Museum. Our bureaucrats have shrugged it off. But then given that our investment is among the world’s lowest in education, this is not surprising. Before the Partition killings, the one before it, specifically concerning Lahore, was the 1857 mass massacre carried out by the East India Company.

In an earlier column we had listed a few events, but today let us go over the actual massacres that took place in Lahore. I am aware most of us may not be interested in it, but let’s go over events only.

The War of Independence has been, rightly or wrongly, blamed on soldiers protesting over the use of cow fat and also pig fat, depending on one’s faith, in the making of the latest rifle cartridges. Recent research by a Cambridge historian proves that both fat types were used, given that industrial lubricants were not available then. That is understandable. As discontent spread all over the sub-continent, on the 11th of May 1857, the soldiers at Meerut revolted murdering English officers. As the killing spread, a large army of disorganised ‘freedom fighters’ were marching towards Delhi, hoping that the clueless emperor Bahadar Shah Zafar – then on British pension - would lead them. The aging Mughal emperor, confused that he was, allegedly supported the ‘rebels’. News of this uprising rapidly spread to all the cantonments in the sub-continent and in the Punjab the first to rise against foreign rule was Ferozepur, where the 45th Native Infantry had attacked the EIC defences.

The revolting soldiers headed towards Lahore en route to Delhi. On the morning of the 13th of May all the EIC Indian soldiers in Lahore were ordered to disarm. A murmur ran through the ranks as on one side the entire English artillery stood ready to fire, and on the other three sides the cavalry stood ready to attack. It was a hopeless situation. All the arms were moved to the Lahore Fort, where rations for six months were rushed from all the markets for 4,000 mouths. The traders sided with the EIC, and most were later well rewarded. With the arsenal secure and preparations for a possible siege in place, it was all set for a massacre. Here, like even today, the Lahore Police assisted the rulers, and assisted mercilessly.

Mind you the Punjab Police have been trained to support the rulers, not the people. The British especially trained them into virtual robots, which they remain even today. It was surely an unplanned revolution, like all revolutions are. The stage was set for a final battle at Delhi, and Lahore was the collection point.

The EIC soldiers and their supporters, over half of them Punjabi, mostly Sikh from the Ranjit Singh’s defeated Army, gathered at the Company Bagh, later renamed Lawrence Garden, and now called Jinnah Bagh. In those days, the Mian Mir Cantonment did not exist, and Lahore’s cantonment was in the Old Anarkali Bazaar. The Parade Ground was at the old university cricket ground. The first martyr was a soldier who shouted in praise of the ‘rebels’ in Old Anarkali Bazaar. He was immediately nabbed, put in front of a cannon and blown apart. This method of punishment was to be the standard way of dealing with every person opposing the British invaders. As a first step lead and sulphur sale were banned, and all stocks confiscated. Inside Lohari Gate a small procession against the EIC shouted slogans.

The Lahore Police under Subhan Khan’s Police Battalion arrested five of the ‘freedom seekers’. In front of Lohari Gate a cannon was placed and they were all blown to pieces. A row of cannons was also put in place outside Shahalami Gate and Bhati Gate. Two rows were installed outside the Lahore Fort gate as well as on the walls.

Throughout the walled city it was announced that those indulging in ‘negative’ discussions would be pointed out to agents, and they would be all blown apart. For a good three weeks thousands of innocent citizens were picked up and their shreds lay outside these three main gateways. The objective was total submission. Police agents in plainclothes stalked through every lane and street listening to discussions. The next day a few people would be picked up and blown apart. The terror was such that people stopped discussing events in the streets. All these events played on the minds of the disarmed soldiers stationed in the Saddar Cantonment.

On the 30th of July, their commanding officer, Major Spencer, was murdered. Hundreds of totally confused sepoys fled towards the River Ravi at the Mahmood Booti area. There the Deputy Commissioner of Amritsar, Mr. Cooper of Cooper Road fame, headed a battalion of soldiers who started killing anyone seen in the area.

One document states that “the killings were by the hundreds a day”. Those running towards Amritsar were all gunned down. In the jails of Lahore there was a ‘rush’ of prisoners and using an official policy of ‘Elimination of all Undesirables’ hundreds of ‘suspects’ were shot dead. One account claims that the number killed could be over 15,000 plus.

It is important that we recognise those classes that supported the EIC against the people of this land. They were the Punjab Police trained by the British that led the killings. Then there were soldiers of the defeated army of Ranjit Singh. But the most telling support for the English came from the feudal landlords of the Punjab, who organised armed horsemen who went about murdering anyone in sight.

Our history books need to be rewritten to include the massacres of old, and how our city and its citizens suffered and came through to emerge time and again. That is why being honest to ourselves is a primary trait that we must nurture.

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2024