Dawn to Dusk, Book Sale Rotary Fundraiser

Book Launch, 'Dusk to Dawn' by Brajinder Dhillon, Surrey BC, July 2010

Braijinder loves teaching.  We know that because she just received the teaching award for teaching for 30 years in the Delta school system.

Brajinder spoke to the club of her personal stories of Partition of India in 1947.

When India was partitioned into Pakistan and India she was just a child.

The country was split up in just 5 weeks. Nobody there wanted to take responsibility for the division so Sir Cyril Radcliffe was brought out from Briton to draw the boundaries and he just drew straight lines across thecountry.

Many families of each religion lived on both sides of the border.  A great many people were displaced.

She was of a Hindu family and she was now on the Pakistan side of the border.

Her father was a policeman and he was killed.

He had locked up some rioters and refused to release them sothey killed him.

The family now had to cross many miles on foot to escape across the border.

Many Muslims helped them escape.

Her brothers had to dress up as girls so they wouldn't be killed.

Many families were split up.

This partition started the worst war even seen on this continent.

Over 12 million people were displaced and nearly a million were killed.

India was a secular state and Pakistan became a Muslimstate.

The politicians were celebrating the Independence of India and were putting up flags to celebrate.

She and her Brothers took the green flags and hung them up everywhere.

Her Mother knew this was trouble as anyone carrying these flags was marked for death.

Whole families were shot.

They were hunted for days.  They finally reached a refugee camp in Lakhar.

From there they were trucked to India and freedom but with nothing except the stigma of being refugees.

She went to school there and learned to ignore the chants of the other children of refugee.

By the time her Mother passed away the family was flourishing again and they were the first in their village to buy a tractor.   Her Mother was an educated woman.

Sirinath Prasad Dwivedi Ji, President South Asian Literary Society of Canada with Author Brajinder Dhillon and Punjabi Kendri Sabha's Mohan Gill. 'Dusk to Dawn' is Brajinder's eyewitness account as a child of the 1947 partition of the Indian Subcontinent. The launch event was held at a Surrey library in British Columbia.

Author Brajinder Dhillon with her husband Jagdev Dhillon, Dave S. Hayer, MLA Surrey-Tynehead and the Parliamentary Secretary for Multiculturism, Brajinder's son in-law Graham Smith, daughter Tina Dhillon, grand son Reed Guriqbal Smith and grand daughter Scarlett Jaya Smith