Introduction

Based on 3rd June Plan, two independent states of India and Pakistan came into existence at midnight on 15

August 1947 after prolonged tensions between Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims. This was the partition among 390

million people based on religion. The Muslim majority areas were given to Pakistan and Hindu majority areas

were given to India by boundary commission for the partition of India. As a result of partition, Punjab was

divided into two parts: West and East Punjab. Pakistan received western Punjab having 16 districts and India

got eastern part having 13 districts. This was done based on statistics provided by census of 1941; according to

which, Muslims were in majority in Punjab with the ratio of 56.95% as compared to 26.52% Hindus and

13.48% Sikhs.

Due to the partition, Sikhs started horrifying bloodshed against the Muslims with the support of Hindus because

the Hindu-Sikh coalition meant to take the area from Jumna to Chenab. This partition created a situation of

fratricidal slaughter and the greatest mass migration in human history. The activist groups like Akal fouj and

RSS were vigorously involved in anti–Muslim activities which forced the Muslims to migrate from East Punjab

to West Punjab. History witnessed bloodshed of 500,000 to 800,000 Muslims only during migration from East

to West Punjab and overall, about 6million refugees. 4 million refugees settled in west Punjab and the other two

million settled in other parts of the country.1

It was a general notion at the time that partition was a temporary phenomenon and people could get back to

their homes when situation became normal. Hence, most of them sought to settle near boarder districts like

Sheikhupura, Lahore, Kasur, and Sialkot etc. Those who had money left in planes, ships, or special trains.

However, all of them were not facilitated because spaces were scarce. Therefore, most took regular trains and

the poorest of the poor travelled on foot.

1
Chattha, Ilyas. “After the Massacres: Nursing Survivors of Partition Violence in Pakistan Punjab Camps”. The Royal Asiatic

Society. 2015

1
The huge influx of refugees from August 1947 onwards were the people from the ordinary towns and farming

communities who had no idea of the intensity of violence that now forced them to flee from their native lands.

The scale of the total number of migration and the number of deaths remains open to dispute; estimates of the

death toll vary from between 200,000 up to 2 million. The violence that they suffered with just made it more

difficult for them. Trains would often arrive filled with only the dead bodies of the passengers. This migration

was so dangerous that the caravans were attacked, children orphaned, families separated, and the women were

raped and abducted. They were without food, shelter, medicines for days and moving on foot without any

supplies and they were dying at the rate of thousands per day. For the evacuation of refugees on both sides of

the boarder a department was formed with the name of Military Evacuation organization (MEO) thus Muslim

refugees from East to West Punjab were looked after by MEO Pakistan. This organization was involved in

making transit camps for refugees, collecting, transporting, and settling them in relief camps. There were 20 big

camps each with 20,000 refugees and 40 small camps each with 5000 refugees in west Punjab.

The focus of this research study will be on different problems faced by the refugees settled in these camps like

Walton and Boli camps at Lahore and Hanafi High School camp at Kasur. The condition of refugees in the

camps was dreadful. A volunteer missionary worker working in the Lahore camps said that there was little or

no hygiene or sanitization. Medical aid was similarly nominal or zero. The food brought in usually runs out in 2

to 3 weeks and the allowance provided by the government was totally insufficient. Many refugees died because

of cholera, malaria, diarrhea, and respiratory diseases. Many of the injured died because they could not be

treated immediately.

The death toll in the West Punjab camps was staggering in the month of October 1947. The death toll in one

camp of 150,000 reached 600 dailies, 200 a day in the 80,000 camp was no exaggeration. The doctors were

worried about the flood of patients and their trembling condition. “Independence Day should be written not in

letters of gold, but in letters of blood”, told a bitter doctor, in Lahore, to an American journalist who visited the

city’s camps on 7 September 1947. The condition of the refugees was even worse in the remote areas where

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many refugees were sitting on the side of the road without any shelter and medical aid. There was only one

doctor in the town of Narowal's three camps caters to more than 80,000 refugees.

To make matters worse, in the last months of 1947, floods and cold weather swept over. By mid-December,

more than 1,200 people had died of cold in the Lahore camps. On Sunday 27 December, another 79 refugees

died of the cold at Walton Camp. "Seasonal casualties" in the Kasur camp reached a peak of 314 in one day.

The number of casualties on the roadside could not be determined. Punjab Refugee council on December 10,

1948, evaluated that the government has provided malaria prevention and other pills to the refugee population

in the camps was at a cost of about Rs. 6 million. By early September, the refugee population in the Kasur

camps had reached 250,000. The supply of the vaccine had run out, although government efforts to obtain it

reached as far as France. Thus, the refugee population was at risk of an outbreak of cholera. An injured young

farmer who had lost all his family members was lying in bed for many days and now his condition had

improved. When a nurse asked him what he was going to do when he left the hospital, his face darkened and

replied that I will kill few Sikhs. Others set out to find the missing family members after the recovery.

The families had registered complaints with the local police about the disappearance of missing relatives,

especially the girls. By the second week of September, the refugees reaching Kasur from the princely state of

Faridkot had reported the abduction of 600 Muslim women and girls alone, according to the police statistics. As

of November 18, 1947, according to one report, 34 Muslim women and 12 children were recovered and handed

over to the authorities in Kasur2.

Statement of the problem

To understand the problems of settlement, food crisis, poor health faced by the refugees after partition of 1947-

1948, it is necessary to know about their miseries as millions of people get displaced and were murdered thus it

was the greatest mass migration of the history. The present study focuses on the issues faced by the refugees

2
Nisid Hajari, Midnight Furies’ The Deadly Legacy of India’s Partition. Boston New York: Houghton Muffin Harcourt, 2015.

3
especially at camps in Lahore. The research mainly points out the grievances of women and children who were

dying without proper medical aids and sanitation which caused certain diseases. Once the migrants crossed the

border their stories and their scars spread hate for each other which can be observed even in today’s generation.

Significance and scope of the study

• The research study focuses on explaining the refugees’ issues in the period of independence from 1947-

1948.

• The focus of the research will be on the refugees having shelter in the camps of Punjab region.

• The time will be focused 1947-1948 as this was the period of huge influx of refugees toward Pakistan.

The research will be beneficial for all the students who have interest on the area of refugees’ problems in

Pakistan since its independence. The research is also beneficial for the future researchers, the findings of the

study will serve as a reference material and a guide for future researchers who wish to research on the same

topic. Another positive point of the research is that there are very small number of researches containing a

thorough study about this topic and the study of our research is based on different sources thus it provides a

comprehensive knowledge about problems faced by refugees.

Literature Review

Primary sources

Qudratullah Shahab in his book Shahab Nama published in 2017 while discussing the events related to the

refugees, he narrates that when he reached Lahore in search of his relatives in 1947, and he visited refugee’s

camps where he found that the people who migrated were in worst Condition, many of them were children,

women, and old aged people. Their eyes were full of tears, and they lack the necessities of life.3

According to the volume four of Jinnah papers many of the Muslim families offered, refugees to stay in their

homes and under the leadership of Muslim League relief committee different funds were being given to the
3
Qudratullah Shahab, Shahab Nama. (Lahore: Sang-e-Meel.2017)

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people who migrated and for women refugees a separate camp had been established by female workers of

Muslim League. Besides providing food and shelter to the refugees the relief committee also looked for

upcoming winters and for these 168000 and 27000 rupees was being spent on blankets.4

The condition of Western Punjab became worsen because of refugees who were coming from conflicted areas

of Amritsar, Jallandhar, Hoshiarpur and Ludhiana. These refugees were being sent to the refugees’ camps that

were established by Muslim League. The people in these camps were being given food and clothes and certain

health facilities and transportation.5

The journeys and lives of refugees were captured by eminent photographers among them was Margaret Bourke-

White, she was a western photographer in south Asia and her images have dominated the popular imagery of

partition. This exhibit showcases some images from the collection of the photographer, F.E Chaudhary, a local

who witnessed the movement of people around him. His collection of photographs told the stories of refugees

such as they lacked basic arrangements. People in camps used tents, fabrics, and charpoys to create shelters for

themselves. In one of his captured pictures, it was shown that refugees were being helped by the volunteers that

are standing at Lahore Railway station. The refugee’s luggage had been piled up and they were waiting to be

given a space to settle at a camp.6

Some other photographs of him show that refugees were sitting on charpoys with their few belongings which

they brought from India. At Walton camp Lahore a hospital with a dispensary was established with no doors

and the open space has been covered with dark fabric and patients were waiting outside. Those photographs

said a lot about refugees and the problems which they faced.

Secondary sources

4
Jinnah, Muhammad. Jinnah Paper. Karachi.13 Oct 1947.
5
Jinnah, Muhammad. Jinnah Papers. New Delhi.15 Aug-30 Sep 1947.

6
F.E. Chaudhry, “1947 Through the Looking Lens”, retrieved from https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/1947-through-the-
looking-lens-the-citizens-archive-of-pakistan/TQIiIj3VI7yzJA?hl=en on date 2/12/2021.
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William Henderson in his article The Refugees in India and Pakistan published by Journal of International

Affairs Editorial Board had discussed the condition of refugees the author said that they suffered unimaginable

hardships, they had insufficient food, no proper shelter and raging epidemic further create difficulty for them.

The refugees who reached at camps were not in good condition because they were attacked by Hindus and

Sikhs during in their way of migration. They were badly wounded mainly with sword cuts and gunshot wounds;

many others were in poor health.7

Another article named After the Massacres: Nursing Survivors of partition violence in Punjab Pakistan camps

that is being written by Ilyas Chattha also described the survivors of the 1947 partition violence in the Pakistan

Punjab relief camps. The article showed that the refugees suffered with the epidemic of cholera and due to lack

of sanitation many of the refugees died of malaria, diarrhea, and respiratory diseases. The author of this article

talked about the volunteer missionary worker, who worked in the Lahore camps, had said that there was little or

no sanitation, medical aid was likewise nominal or nil, and the ration that was given by the government was not

sufficient. The death rate was shocking in the West Punjab camps in the month of October 1947. To made

matter worse flood and cold weather had put a bad effect and caused a lot of sufferings in the Lahore camps

over 1200 died of cold and in the Walton Camp another 79 refugees died in cold. The women suffered badly

especially those who were pregnant. In Hanafi Camp at Lahore pregnant women and those who had recently

given birth had a very uncomfortable time. The babies were born dead and there was no support from the

midwife or traditional birth attendant. Alongside women children were among the foremost victims of the

partition violence, many of the children became orphan and so many had lost, and some were being kidnapped.8

A book published in 2012 with the title of partitioned Lives: Migrants, Refugees, citizens in India and Pakistan,

1947-65 had also something to say about this research. The issue of migration and the consequent turning of

thousands into homeless and penniless along with different problems another issue of citizenship was

7
Henderson, William. “The Refugees in India and Pakistan”, retrieved from, https://www.jstore.org/stable/24355263 on date
5/12/2021.
8
Chattha, “After the Massacres: Nursing Survivors of Partition Violence in Pakistan Punjab Camps”, Pp273-293.

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engendered because no one knew that who was Indian and who was Pakistani. The act of migration, even if

temporary served to define one’s nationality, the rehabilitation policies were limited.9

Nisid Hajari in one of his books named Midnight’s Furies talked about the sad stories of refugees, gangs of

killers set whole villages aflame, hacking to death men and children and the aged, women were raped and once

the migrants crossed the border rolled into Lahore station dripping blood, their carriages filled with hacked off

limbs, within ten days over 150000 migrants had flooded into Lahore which further increased the problems

which were already prevailing.10

Research Question

What were the main problems faced by refugees at relief camps of Lahore Pakistan after the partition of 1947-

1948?

Research objectives

The objectives of the research will be.

• To know about the problems faced by refugees in camps especially women and children.

• To figure out estimated numbers of refugees and the way they treated.

• To know about the health issues which led to high mortality rate among the refugees.

• To highlight the factors which became major reasons for problems of refugees.

Research methodology

This research paper will use qualitative method for data collection.

Data collection

9
Roy, Hai Manti. “Partitioned Lives: Migrants, Refugees, Citizens in India and Pakistan, 1947-65”. History Faculty Publications:
University of Dayton. 2012
10
Nisid Hajari, Midnight Furies’ the Deadly Legacy of India’s Partition, Pp11-94.

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The researcher will use the qualitative method to draw a reliable conclusion based on facts and the consulted

materials. The documents written by writers of that time will be utilized as a primary source. The primary data

will be collected from books, magazines, papers, and letters written by Jinnah. Online sources like articles,

journals, books, and different websites would be consulted as well.

Data Analysis

The issue of refugees was one of the biggest problems in 1947. Such a large influx of people to Pakistan was

unpredictable that’s why there were no special arrangements for them. Due to unfair demarcation of boundaries

the people from Muslim majority areas were also compelled to move to Pakistan. As a result, 6.5 million people

migrated to Pakistan. However, the exact number of missing, dead and survived refugee’s record was not found

in any book. As there were no arrangement so they faced tremendous problems. The largest influx was from

East to West Punjab, so there were many camps arranged in Lahore. The data about the major camps was easy

to find out but there was no such data regarding the minor camps. The research tried to fill the gap by providing

the data about all the camps in boarder areas of Lahore. The major problem faced by refugees in Lahore camp

was shortage of food. They were not given sufficient food to survive as they were in large number. Wounded

mothers were not able to feed their infants, due to which many children died of starvation.

Furthermore, they also faced health issues. The unhygienic environment led to many diseases, like cholera,

diarrhea, and respiratory diseases became very common among them. Doctors and medicines were not

available as there was only one doctor to treat 80,000 patients at a time. The condition gone worse and

thousands of refugees died due to diarrhea.

The research also focuses on the conditions of women and children in camps as they were the most affected

victims of the migration. The young women were raped and abducted and those who survived were full of

wounds, many of them were their breasts cut off due to which they were unable to feed their babies. Due to lack

of medical resources lot of pregnant women could not gave birth to their babies. Many of the kids who reached

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alive in West Punjab were kidnapped from the camps then they were used as domestic servants and for

begging. In addition to these women also faced the problems.

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Bibliography:

Chattha, Ilyas. “After the Massacres: Nursing Survivors of Partition Violence in Pakistan Punjab Camps”. The

Royal Asiatic Society. 2015

Hajari, Nisid. Midnight Furies’ The Deadly Legacy of India’s Partition. Boston New York: Houghton Muffin

Harcourt, 2015

Henderson, William. The Refugees in India and Pakistan, retrieved from,

https://www.jstore.org/stable/24355263 on date 5/12/2021.

Jinnah, Muhmmad. Jinnah Papers. New Delhi: 15 Aug-30 Sep, 1947.

Jinnah, Muhammad. Jinnah Paper. Karachi: 13 Oct 1947.

Roy, Hai Manti. “Partitioned Lives: Migrants, Refuges’, Citizens in India and Pakistan, 1947-65”. History

Faculty Publications: University of Dayton. 2012

Shahab, Qudratuallah. Shahab Nama. Lahore: Sang-e-Meel.2017

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