HATS OFF TO THE TURBANAL !!

The Sikh Who Stopped The Horrors Of Partition

When the British left India in 1947, they left behind a country on the edge of civil war. Hindu and Muslim extremists were itching to murder one another, and bloodshed seemed inevitable. To head the violence off, the government tried dividing the country into two states, Muslim Pakistan and Hindu India, but they rushed the borders, leaving many stranded on the wrong side. The resulting violence killed around one million people. It would have killed more were it not for Khushdeva Singh.A Sikh doctor, Singh ran a refugee station right at the new border. Unlike the fervent extremists all around him, he made it a policy to shelter people from all religions, treating them equally. But his most heroic actions came when local militias made it clear they were planning to enter the station and murder anyone Islamic. Rather than sit back and let violence unfold, Singh embarked on a campaign of bribery, flattery, and outright lies that succeeded in smuggling all the town’s Muslims to a safe camp. Not content to bask in this victory, Singh then repeated his plan in three other towns. When he finally visited Pakistan after the violence was over in 1949, Muslims whom Singh had saved lined up to salute him. At least 317 people claimed they owed him their lives. 2 The British Rabbi Who Risked Everything To Save His People 06