What is it about August that caused so many countries to cast off their shackles and emerge as independent nations during this month?
There are 30 if you count Bahrain, which technically ceased to be a British protectorate on August 15, 1971, although we celebrate Bahrain’s National Day in December when the weather is so much better!
Every country’s narrative of its struggle for independence is unique, dramatic and charged with the dreams and hopes of its people.
How countries manage to achieve these and carve out a national identity for themselves is really the measure of our freedom, isn’t it?
Tomorrow Pakistan celebrates its 70th anniversary of independence and on Tuesday India will do the same.
The creation of Pakistan and the independence of India loom large in the pages of world history because both are home to such a large number of people.
There was of course the emotional drama that accompanied partition.
This year, in fact, the focus of both countries on their Independence Days seems to be very much on retelling and preserving the stories of partition and the family history it is rooted in.
After all, it was one of the largest forced migrations in history.
The BBC is doing a special oral history feature, while some media outlets have appealed for people to share what they call “partition memories”.
A collection of more than 4,300 carefully catalogued and structured interviews has been released online by the Partition Archive project of Stanford University, along with over 30,000 digital documents and photographs.
Collected from 12 countries in 22 languages, it is the largest oral history archive on any topic in South Asia.
Right here in Bahrain, the convulsions of the subcontinent were felt by the Indian community and people made difficult choices to opt for Indian or Pakistani citizenship.
From members of both communities I have heard about the pitched emotions that accompanied these decisions.
There were also nerve-racking times as people waited for news from loved ones who travelled from one country to another, crossing dangerous terrain at a time when there were no mobile phones or GPS.
But the most moving memory was shared by a woman whose grandfather fled from Lahore to Bahrain.
At that time her father was a scared 10-year-old who now lives in Dubai with her brother.
Every year he and a group of childhood friends visit Pakistan to reconnect with their home and beloved city.
“He waits all year for that one-week trip to Lahore,” she smiled.
When I asked if she ever accompanied him, she said she had heard so much pain in her parents’ voices when they talked about those times that she chose to close that door in her mind.
My generation was born in a free Iand, long after the turbulence of partition.
In Bahrain today, Indians and Pakistanis are sheltered from the rhetoric that underscores relations between the two countries and have the luxury of forging friendships with each other.
Still, despite the ugliness of human cruelty and the loss that partition represents, I am glad this global movement has come alive this year.
I hope it will revive the memory of those days so that we, our children and grandchildren can understand the impulses that led our ancestors to choose which country to call home, as well as the resilience of human spirit that helped them rise above loss and pain to contribute to the creation of two new nations.
meeraresponse@yahoo.com