If you read the first-hand account of Operation Recovery by Kamla Patel (1912-1992) of Sojitra in Charotar about an operation carried out by the newly constituted governments of India and Pakistan in 1947 to recover abducted women and children and restore them to their families, it definitely makes you feel a live film being presented before you. Born in a Gandhian family and a young widow Kamlaben at no stage claims to be the heroin. She gives total credit to Mridula Sarabhai under whose direction she works at Lahore in most risky era of Partition. When Deval Shastri of Vadodara could locate book written by her, “Moolsotan Ookhadela”, from the Central Library, originally written by her in Gujarati and sent it to me the photocopy on advice of Rashesh Patel of Karamsad, it was a pleasant surprise. I could not resist reading the book sailing with her nostalgia. “Torn from the Roots: A Partition Memoir” is the translation by Uma Randeria but to read the original book makes you feel the incidents happening just before your own eyes.
The first edition of her book in Gujarati was published in 1984 and since it was in demand one of the prestigious publishing house R.R. Sheth published the second edition in 1985 in Gujarati. The English version took more than two decades to see the light of the day. Though we have almost forgotten the contribution of the Lion Lady of Charotar, her book in English was well received and appreciated by celebrated writers like Khushwant Singh and Rumina Sethi. Kamlaben Patel, right-hand woman of Mridula Sarabhai who oversaw Operation Recovery, conveys the pathos and urgency of those turbulent times in her candid, no-holds-barred memoir of the more than five years that she spent in Pakistan and on the recovery mission; of how women were exchanged like oranges and apples; of the heartbreaking stories she heard and the lives she saved. Compassionate in its humanitarianism, this book is also of rare archival value, restoring women to a central place in the history of India's Partition.
Khushwant Singh wrote: “Kamla Patel came from a middle-class family. She became a disciple of Gandhi and spent many years in Sabarmati ashram where Mridula was a frequent visitor. That’s where they met. The one thing the two women shared with passion was veneration for Gandhi and what he stood for. The most important lesson they learnt from him was that once you are convinced your cause is just, then fight for it without fear of consequences: fear is cowardly, fear is sinful. Mridula was a born leader. Being the eldest, her siblings looked up to her. She grew up knowing how to organise and give orders. Everyone in the family called her Boss. Bossy she was - with no small talk or banter. She cut her hair short, wore no cosmetics or jewellery. When she joined the freedom movement, she took to wearing Punjabi style salwar-kameez. After Independence and the partition of the country, she realised there was more work to do and moved to Delhi. Gossip-mongers said she had developed a Nehru fixation.”
“The most important work on hand was the rehabilitation of millions of Hindu and Sikh refugees forced to flee from Western Pakistan. And the most humanitarian task requiring immediate action was rescuing women abducted on either side of the border and restoring them to their families. In a speech delivered on December 7, 1947, Gandhiji brought up the matter in his usual matter-of-fact manner of speaking. He said it was reported at a joint Indo-Pak meeting held in Lahore that the number of abducted women was 12,000 for Muslim women abducted on this side and over twice that number of Hindu and Sikh women abducted in Pakistan. His figures were undoubtedly underestimates. But how were these women to be located and taken out of the clutches of their abductors and given the freedom to choose their destinies? From the Indian side, Mridula Sarabhai was chosen to lead the operations. In her turn, she chose Kamla Patel to be her principal aide and posted her at Lahore.”
Even while going through the chapters of Kamlaben’s original book in Gujarati, one does feel that the book contains readymade plots for some romantic films. Of course, she presents the stories with utmost factual descriptions without adding any mirch masala. The book does raise pertinent questions leading to painful experiences too. Despite the setting up of camps and tribunals where victims were scarcely allowed to make decisions and take charge of their lives, Kamla Patel stands out as an exemplum of uprightness and justice, working more from her heart than from any kind of moral righteousness. Another painful issue was the state decision regarding "war babies", the children born outside regular wedlock during this period. It was callously decided that although the mothers would be rehabilitated to their respective countries, their children would be left behind in the country they were born. Would a Hindu man, for instance, be willing to father his wife’s Muslim child? Many children were willingly or forcefully abandoned, and, of course, many unborn children were aborted under the pretext of a "medical check-up".
Next Column: Mridula Sarabhai earned the title ‘Anti-National’
Photo Line:
1.The cover page of the first edition of Kamla Patel’s Moolsotan Ookhadela
2.The cover page of Torn from the Roots: A Partition Memoir translated by Uma Randeria
