01 February 2014, 05:07 PM IST
Lajpat Nagar-I in Delhi is where the smallest plot allotments were made after Partition - 50-80 square metres. This is where refugees including some of our relatives came and set up homes under asbestos or tin roofs. Numbering was often mixed up, as plots were exchanged, swapped, divided or merged.
I know most of the lanes here (the backlanes between plots were long ago swallowed up as plots "grew" in all directions - up x 4-5 floors, down x 1-2 basements, sideways for corner plots and front/back for the rest) as I also went to school in Lajpat Nagar and had a lot of friends who lived in Lajpat Nagar then.
I can not think of many friends from school days who have continued to live here, especially those who were in small houses, most everybody has moved on. Pretty much every spare square inch of land that could have been utilised has been used and some places I recall as parks or open space are now commercial complexes or houses of religion or a combo of both. Some streets are totally commercial, others are mixed use, and the advent of the Delhi Metro as well as the popularity of the Central Market has seen property values go higher than other "posh" colonies nearby.
It is said that Jawaharlal Nehru visited the refugee camp in Lajpat Nagar and told the people there that India was free and they were also free to do what they wanted to prosper in the new India they had chosen. Truer words were never spoken.
I had an office for a shipping business there for almost a decade, the automobile market here came up in the '90s while I evolved into a motoring anchor, and even today, I command a fair amount of goodwill and respect with people there. So while the demonstrations and protests continue outside the Police Station, I went for a walk in the area where the incident took place.
I also had an Uncle, managed to escape being killed during Partition with sword injuries to his legs, rose to join the Indian Army and retired as a Brigadier, married a Naga lady, whose son also joined the Indian Army and died while on ROP during IS duties with 22RR in Kashmir. I do not recall how many times I have gone through the lanes of Lajpat Nagar with that branch of my family too.
One time, many many years ago, along with a few other friends, some guys called my cousin a "Chink". And not just called him Chink, but did it in a way which was worse than abusive. My late cousin, just in from a YO and Commando course, think of a 6' tall Punjabi frame with a Naga face, along with another friend of his who had a Gorkha surname, asked me to hold his glasses, not to interfere, and the two of them made short order of about 8 of these guys.
The parting shot from some of those who ran away was - wait, we shall call the Police, and fix you. Since these two young guys were serving officers, we did not wait, because we know whose side the local Police will take. Later on, I was told that these ruffians were "outsiders", I saw them again after that but they never dared look at me also.
That's because with the people who live there, this sort of stuff is simply "not done", and the people who lived there ensured that this was never forgotten. Lajpat Nagar has always welcomed successive waves of new-comers and refugees. That's a fact.
Here are two photographs which may give you an idea of the area.
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So as I walked the area, to the sound of kirtans being held and people gathered around, while life flows without an ebb in the rush of commerce-I listened.
"This was an argument and a small fight that went bad"
"When bad times come, nobody can stop trouble"
"Pakistani Muslims are coming back and creating trouble, they are different from Afghan Muslims"
"You know the Police, can anybody do anything here that the Police does not know or take part in?"
Point is - for every one incident of blatant racism like the Nido Taniam episode, or the one involving my late cousin the now deceased Indian Army Major, or going further back, the ones involving my Naga Angami aunt in Nagaland and my Punjabi Refugee Uncle in West Punjab, there are thousands of other self-correctives taking place too.
But yes, Lajpat Nagar is what it is - a destination for hope. I am very sad, I am also angry, but I hope things will improve after this. For the new Free India.
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