D.F Karkara was a Parsi war correspondent who covered the liberation of Nazi concentration camps in Poland. Three years later, some British army officers invited him to witness the genocide in the Punjab which India's Free Press (it would soon cease to be free as 'Security Measures Acts' were imposed) had no interest in covering for fear or upsetting the country's new political masters.
What had led to the trains filled with slaughtered refugees, Karkara saw in Amritsar, in which vastly more people were killed by violent mobs than had been slaughtered by Brigadier Dyer? The plain fact is that vast quantities of armaments had been distributed in the Province. This was an open secret. Arms salesman, both British and Indian were minting money and were thick on the ground at every elite watering-hole.
Karkara writes
Our leaders discounted stories which appeared in the Press about this gun-running. They called it yellow journalism. Meanwhile, our own soldiers, defending the refugees, were being killed by modern automatic firearms. The only people who were disarmed by government were the law-abiding. In the streets of Amritsar, within sight of the police and the military, ferocious-looking Sikhs carried threatening kirpans (long swords) and bhalas, which were short spears tied to nine-foot bamboo sticks. But in Bombay, the Chief Justice of the High Court, Sir Leonard Stone, had to get special dispensation from the Home Department to be able to carry a walking stick. It did not make sense.
Actually it made perfect sense. Mahatma Gandhi had warned in 1939 that if the Brits departed without handing over the entire Army to Congress, then the Muslims and the Punjabis (regardless of creed) would overrun the country. The non-violent Hindu- who supported Congress- would be fucked in the ass. It was important that the Punjabis slaughter each other so that the two new countries could rise up unmolested by their pugnacity.
Karkara was not free of the prejudices of his time. He thought there was something sinister in the fact that Punjab had been under Governor's rule. But this was because Jinnah had ensured that the Province was ungovernable. The truth is, the Brits did not want their favorite Province to go up in flame. It was White officers who brought Karkara to Amritsar though a Sikh General, S.B. Chimni, did welcome him once he arrived. Perhaps Chimini thought a journalist could pressure the Civilian administration to shake off their lethargy and help the refugees. Soldiers can sometimes be very naive.
Karkara too was naive. He had somehow got it into his head that Nehru and Gandhi were sincere in their professed beliefs. He didn't understand that Nehru knew that he would only win a General Election under a universal franchise if he slaughtered Muslims and Commies and jailed the bleeding hearts. This is because the voter wanted 'the smack of firm Government'. The just wanted the smacking to be done by a brown, preferably Brahminical, rather than a mleccha, White, hand.
Gandhi was not interested in smacking but had no objection to Hindus starving to death or being killed by Muslims or Japs or anybody else who might turn up on Ind's coral strand. Nehru, however, as a Socialist, understood that his job was to kill Commies and keep killing them till they cried Uncle. At that point Congress could become a Socialist Party and he could retire. Sadly, Congress threatened to replace him with his daughter- which meant his son-in-law, a Parsi like Karkara- would wield power in his place. Since it is no fun playing King Lear- more particularly if your son-in-law is a pudgy, middle-class, LSE graduate- Nehru stayed on as Prime Minister and thus took the blame for the Chinese invasion. He had so weakened the country that even Pakistan thought it could take a bite out of India. That is when the worm- Shastri- turned. Thankfully the little sparrow died and Indira took over because otherwise her Aunty, whom she hated, might have been given the top job. Since her own younger son was an utterly unemployable sociopath, she had to ensure he would inherit her job. In India, people join politics to spend more time with their families or else to keep some relative out of power. It is said that Rajiv & Sonia only took up their Dynastic burden so as to keep out their sister-in-law and nephew. As for Rahul, God alone knows why he is still pretending to be a politician. Is it because Robert Vadra has a gleam in his eye? Perhaps the fellow will become the Indian Zardari. He once tweeted about the plight of a 'mango man in a banana republic' though he was by no means an 'Aam admi'. Still, this little flicker of wit may have put Rahul on the qui vive. I mean, look at Kejriwal. He is clearly a mango of some description.
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