Partition Horror: More than Seven Decades Later, Pakistani Woman Finds Long-Lost Family in Rajasthan

Key Points:

India is a country of immense diversity — regional, cultural, linguistic, and religious. While this diversity has often enriched the nation, it has also, at times, become a source of conflict. From language disputes to cultural clashes, India has seen tensions that have shaped its history. One of the darkest consequences of these divisions was the Partition of 1947, born out of deepening mistrust between Hindus and Muslims.

The British quickly realised that India’s internal diversities made it vulnerable to division. As they prepared to leave, they played their final political card — the partition of the subcontinent into India and Pakistan. This division was the result of a combination of British policies, escalating religious tensions, and failed negotiations between the Congress and the Muslim League. The “divide and rule” strategy, the Muslim League’s demand for a separate state, and rising communal violence ultimately culminated in the Partition.

The human cost of Partition was devastating. Millions fled across borders seeking safety and identity. Families were torn apart, people travelled in overcrowded trains risking their lives, and many never saw their loved ones again. As survivors say, “Some suffered, some empathised, some lost their lives, some were left behind — and everyone was crying.”

This is the emotional story of one such family separated by Partition

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Daphia Bai: Story of Partition

In Mailsi, a small town in Pakistan’s Punjab province, an 86-year-old woman — once known as Daphia Bai, now Aisha — finally reunited with the family she had been searching for her entire life. Her hands trembled as she held a phone, her cheeks wet with tears. When the video call connected, she saw her nephews and grandsons from India for the first time in more than 70 years. Overwhelmed, she cried and kissed the phone screen, cherishing the moment she had waited for since 1947.

See Also: Dr. Manmohan Singh Could Never Return to His Village Gah in Pakistan, But The Villagers Still Remember Him Fondly as ‘The Village Boy Who Became Prime Minister’

In Morkhana, a town in Bikaner (Rajasthan), her relatives — including Khoju Ram and Kalu Ram — gathered around a phone, equally emotional and speechless. They struggled to communicate because she spoke Saraiki while they spoke Marwari, so a translator helped bridge the gap. As reported by The Indian Express, more tears than words were exchanged during their first conversation.
Daphia told them she had spent her entire life searching for them, even offering money and ghee to strangers who might recognise her story.

Converted To Islam 

Before 1947, Daphia’s Meghwal family freely travelled between Bikaner and the region that would later become Pakistan. But during the chaos of Partition, as families rushed to cross borders, 13-year-old Daphia was allegedly kidnapped. She said she was forced to convert to Islam and married off. She later became the mother of seven children, but her heart never stopped longing for her lost family.

Her memories remained few but vivid — the names of her brothers Alsu, Chothu, and Mira; a town filled with peacocks; and the fact that she had been attending her maternal uncle’s wedding in India when everything changed. These fragments were the only clues that could one day reconnect her to her roots.

A YouTube Video that Changed Everything

In August 2019, Pakistani YouTuber Muhammad Alamgir uploaded a video sharing her story. He learned about her through Munawwar Ali Sheikh, a friend of Daphia’s grandson Naseer Khan. The video caught the attention of Delhi-based Partition-history enthusiast Zaid Muhammad Khan. Deeply moved, he began searching for her family using the limited details she remembered.

Zaid contacted people in Bikaner, especially in Morkhana, believing it might be the “peacock town” she spoke of. He even checked revenue records for names like Alsu Ram, Chothu Ram, Moti Ram, Mesa Ram, Gangu Ram, Budla Ram, and Mira Bai — but the names were too common to identify anyone.

Then came the breakthrough. One of the people he reached out to, Bharat Singh — a 20-year-old shopkeeper from Morkhana — began asking local Meghwal families if they remembered a girl who had gone missing during Partition. Finally, he found a family whose elders often spoke of a sister lost in 1947. Hope resurfaced.

On September 13, just days after Bharat Singh made contact, a long-awaited call came from Pakistan. As the family gathered in Bikaner, Daphia appeared on the screen. Her grandnephews — Khoju Ram (30) and Kalu Ram (23) — were overwhelmed to see the grandmother they had only heard about in stories. Photos were shared, tears flowed, and for a brief moment, seven decades of pain seemed to fade.

See Also: Kashmir Continues to Grow Despite Pakistan’s Misadventures Since 1947

One Last Wish

Her grandson Naseer said that even as she grew older, her longing to meet her family only intensified. After losing most of her children and being left with only two daughters, her yearning became even more profound. She would repeatedly say “Morkhana” without knowing it was near Bikaner.

She had once travelled to Yazman tehsil in Bahawalpur, where some Meghwal families still lived. Elders there would sometimes pretend to be her brothers just to comfort her.

Around the time Alamgir shared her story, she even placed an advertisement in an Urdu newspaper. She wrote that she had been sold for an ox to a man named Ahmad Baksh, forced to recite Islamic declarations, and given the name Aisha Bibi. Though she built a life in Pakistan, she confessed that every year on Pakistan’s Independence Day, her heart longed for the family she had lost in India.

Now, her only wish before she dies is to receive a visa to visit India and embrace her long-lost family. Both her Pakistani and Indian families are praying that her final wish comes true. Whether she ultimately meets them in person or not, the journey that reunited them after more than 70 years is what truly matters. [Rh]

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