Pakistan at 79: The ones who can, still leave 

https://arab.news/64qkz

In mid-August 1947, British rule ended in India and the land was divided along religious lines, into a Hindu-majority India, and a Muslim-majority Pakistan. It’s well documented how rushed the Partition plan was, splitting religiously plural communities that had lived side by side for hundreds of years. It resulted in one of the world’s largest migration crises.    At least 15 million people were on the move. Hindus and Sikhs toward India, and Muslims toward West and East Pakistan, which later became Bangladesh. It’s believed that at least one million people were killed in the communal violence during the lead up to and post partition. Some historians put the number as high as two million.    These figures make it hard to argue how seismic an event Partition was for south Asia — so seismic that in the years that followed many people found themselves at crossroads in the two newly formed nations. People like my own paternal and maternal grandfathers: Wali and Sikandar who ended up in Pakistan.    For them they had been uprooted once before, leaving land as a means of survival. So, the idea of being on the move once again really didn’t seem so frightening. Especially if it was for the pursuit of knowledge, academia or economic prosperity. Something both my grandfathers were in desperate search for.   In 1949, Wali Muhammed Gill, migrated to study Veterinary Science first in the UK and then pursue scientific research in the US. His masterplan, like many others of his time, was to earn enough money to then........

© Arab News Pakistan