MR.M.K.Nanda

DOB: 20^th August 1927

Place of Birth:  Kundian, West Punjab, now in Pakistan

Ancestral Village: Eminabad, West Punjab, now in Pakistan

Education:

various schools in Kashmir, India

DAV High School , Lahore, Pakistan

DAV College, Lahore:  B.A left incomplete due to partition

Camps College Delhi (a temporary college set up for refugees?): Completed B.A

C.A.- Delhi, India

Parents:

Father : J.K.Nanda (posted in Forest Department, J&K. Retired as Conservator of Forests)

Mother : Chandan Devi

Family Life and Early Years:

I had 2 elder brothers and 2 sisters.

My family was anti-British. They supported Gandhiji and the Congress.

My college day icons were J.P.Narayan, Bhagat Singh and S.C.Bose.

In 1942 during the Quit India movement, there were lot of strikes in college, slogan shouting and not much studying!  The college was opposite the police station. The police would come and the students would hide or run away from them.  There was great fervor in the minds of youngsters in that era.

However the Muslim League also started around this time which polarized the community.

The Swadeshi movement was very important in my household. All imported items were strictly prohibited except Forhans toothpaste! Godrej’s Hamam was our family soap.

The resistance to imported goods continued well after Independence. My family’s support to the cause of Freedom was also through education.

My Nanaji (maternal grandfather) was Mahatama Hansraj http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lala_Hansraj   who pioneered the DAV educational movement.  D.A.V. :- Dayanand Anglo Vedic schools were created with the aim of fusing the best systems in education from  India as well as the West.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dayanand_Anglo-Vedic_Schools_System

http://vedicphilosophy.tripod.com/Mahatma_Hans_Raj.htm

The influence of the Arya Samaj was widespread in Lahore, and it played a significant role in shaping the outlook of the middle classes of the city. From the DAV days, right from its inception on the first of June in 1886 in the Arya Samaj Lahore, Hansraj ji had learnt to treat his staff and students as his own kith and kin. Boys of DAV school and later of the DAV College were treated like his own sons, irrespective of caste, creed or colour. No wonder Sir Shahabuddin, Speaker of the Punjab Legislative Assembly of undivided India and an ex-DAV School student spoke thus on the demise of Mahatma Hansraj ji:

``When my father died, I became fatherless,
When my mother died, I became motherless,
Today on the death of Lala Hansraj, I am
Reduced to the state of an ORPHAN.’’

Hans Raj did by leading the country from the darkness of ignorance to the enlightenment of knowledge. He devoted his whole life serving the DAV institutions and also served as president of Arya Samaj Lahore and Arya Pratinidhi Sabha Punjab. Because of his services, sacrifice and simplicity people called him as Mahatma.  Without doubt the largest non-governmental educational organization in the world is the chain of Dayanand Arya Vedic schools and colleges spread over the length and breadth of the country.

 My Mamaji (Maternal Uncle), Balraj Bhalla was part of the revolutionary movement. http://ranbir.vibhu.net/resources/3.jpg

He was arrested during the freedom struggle. He spent 7 years in jail. His companions were hanged. A story related to me of Mamaji was that he had a cavity created in his tooth especially for hiding gold “ponds” slipped to him by his family, while he was in jail to help him. Another interesting story is about the card games and “tricks” he learnt while in prison from other. Many years later while travelling in a train in England he was challenged ( as an unsuspecting tourist) to a game from a card shark. The unsuspecting card shark lost!

1947 and Partition:

Trouble had started between Hindus and Muslims. We were in Sanasar a beautiful  meadow in Kashmir. We had no telephones, radio or newspapers. Letters would only come to Batote (which was lower in the valley) One day a letter came from my Masi informing us of the seriousness of the Punjab situation. She advised that jewellery should be taken out of Lahore, so my mother went and picked up her valuables.

We were so cut off that we came to know about India achieving Independence from tourists who visited Sanasar . Later we heard about the killings and moved to Jammu. We were held up, unable to leave, due to trouble in Punjab and riots in that area. Raiders would come from Pakistan through Baramulla. Tension was building up, we could not come to Delhi.  The killings created negativity. The Rawalpindi area faced the first riots. Fear followed us. It was almost September/October, 1947 that we finally were brought to Delhi from Jammu by IAF Dakota aircrafts.

There was total dislocation, very traumatic. Luckily for us we did not have to stay in the refugee camps as we had relatives. My father stayed on in Jammu and continued earning his salary. My married sister Raj Virmani came by a kuccha (unmetalled) road from Srinagar.

We all thought we would go back home. We expected that after the initial trouble there would be peace. Many people had gone to hill stations thinking that they would wait out the trouble and then return home. Punjab was so big, we did not know what the line of divide would be. It was being decided by the Radcliffe Commission. 

What was the impact of Independence and Partition?

The impact of partition – Refugees.

I was excited about a new India but personally partition was a very traumatic experience. As a student I was very religious; Partition came as a shock, it shook my foundations. I remember reading Somerset Maugham’s book in 1948 about a character who had suffered and how his experience changed him forever. I decided that I will now only believe in what is lawful. I will start afresh.

It was a defining change in Mr. Nanda’s life. His idealism was based on spirituality but after the violence and bloodshed of partition, it shifted to a life based on “Rights of Man” 

This interview was conducted in Mr.Nanda's home in New Delhi in May 2010.