Rahul Mehta Gandhinagar LsCandidate

Google search ad -- what a cruel mockery of refugees from Pakistan. One would remember relatives/friends who were killed/abducted, not some lost friends.

youtube . com/watch?v=gHGDN9-oFJE

In 1946-1948, over 10 lakh were murdered in Pakistan + Bangladesh , over 20 lakh were kidnapped and over 2 crore had to flee in a short span of few months with just their clothes. The population of Hindus in Pakistan in 1931 was about 23% (no census was taken in 1941). And in 1951, it came down to 7% and it is 3% now. And population of Hindus in Bangladesh in 1931 was about 35% which came down to some 21% in 1951 and is now 7%.

My mother was 6 years old in Karachi when whole family came from Karachi to Mumbai in 1947 and eldest mama was about 16 years old back then. And I have spoken to MANY MANY refugee victims. Almost all refugees have some relatives or close friends or close neighbors who were murdered. ALMOST ALL REFUGEES HAVE MEMORY OF RELATIVES AND CLOSE FRIENDS WHO WERE BRUTALLY MURDERED IN PAKISTAN IN 1947. Incidents of being burnt alive, buried alive, skinned alive, killed after mutilations were all common across Lahore, Karachi, Ravalpindi and whole of Pakistan. After all, if % population of Hindus came down from 23% to 7%, something earth shaking would have happened.

The neighbors in some cases helped in saving lives and escape. But they did take the house etc as "charge" for protecting lives. eg in case of my mother/mama/nana/nani etc, the neighbors helped them to escape from inner Karachi to the port from where they came to Mumbai. But the house was kept by the neighbors as "charge".

So it was sickening to me to see an advertise where a refugee victims doesnt talk about his relatives, neighbors, friends etc who were murdered or abducted, but talks about "child friend" nonsense. This ad is just a mockery of all refugee victims.

It would have been better use of Google search if one can find the murderers and abductors.

The advertisement has been huge success because paid-textbook-writers and paid-columnists in India have written NOTHING about violence and abductions during partitions. Which is why, so many Indians can believe that people can have "pleasing memories" about partition. In fact, the advertisement PROVES that today's youth knows nothing about partition violence and so can like such an advt. IMO, we activists should STOP donating money to useless organizations, and instead spend money in giving newspaper advertisements informing citizens about events of partition.