Kachchh: Bhuj and nearby villages along the International Border (IB) were on high alert. Nightfall approaching, villagers braced themselves for a blackout ordered by the district administration. No power supply meant spending the entire night in the sweltering heat.
In less than 24 hours, there was commotion on the streets of Bhuj. People went around telling each other that India and Pakistan had reached an understanding to halt all military action on land, in the air, and on the sea.
For friends Shagan Thakkar and Jayanti Biglani, it was time for their evening tea. But that day the two decided to take a stroll instead. “…suddenly it felt like we have gone back to Covid times,” remarked Thakkar’s son Harshad. His father replied: “You don’t know. Even before Covid lockdown, we were trapped in our homes. In 1965 and 1971 too, the same eerie atmosphere was there when India and Pakistan went to war.”
In 1965, India and Pakistan went to war in the Kachchh region before mutually agreeing to a ceasefire. The nuclear neighbours went to war again in 1971.
Thakkar and Biglani have lived through both wars.
“I have seen the Sino-India war in 1962 as well. Thankfully we do not share any border with China. But I did not know that in the next three years, I think I was around 22, I got my first job at the collector’s office and then in the next few days I would be witnessing Kachchh being bombed by Pakistan,” said Biglani.
Thakkar recalled patrolling the streets as a home guard during the wars. “They [India-Pakistan] do not fight like this anymore. We saw how they dropped bombs at various places in Kachchh, there was terror. Today, the fear was as much, but I think it is more dangerous,” said Thakkar, referring to drone warfare.
“It is no longer a traditional war, it’s technological warfare,” added Biglani.
The duo discussed how India’s air defences thwarted hostile drones. “We were able to fight back because we had S-400,” said Biglani.
In Bhuj or Kachchh, each household has hundreds of stories to tell of the 1965 and 1971 wars. Some are facts, some myths. For instance, the story of how Saraspur village was saved by a Pakistani pilot, who was raised in India but moved to Pakistan after partition.
“I was around 10 when the 1971 war happened. I remember my parents and the elderly discussing how our village was saved because of this pilot who belonged to the Khoja community in Mandvi, Gujarat. He went to Pakistan after partition, he became a pilot. During the war when he was asked to bomb a village, because he was brought up in India, he had so much love for us that he dropped the bomb on marshy land instead of any village. The hole created by the bomb is still there,” said Maoji, now 60-years-old.
Maoji, an Ahir himself, also recalled how women from the Ahir community provided the Army with water and milk during both wars.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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