A YouTube channel that connects Indians and Pakistanis who were separated by the 1947 partition has gained hundreds of thousands of followers through both countries.
Nasir Dhillon, 38, started Punjabi Lehar in 2016 with a friend – since that time, he says the channel has helped hundreds of people reunite with their loved ones, often practically, across the border.
Once the British left Indian in 1947, they will divided the place into two self-employed countries – Indian and Pakistan. The partition was a deeply traumatic event that set off an influx of religious assault. About 12 million people became asylum seekers and between 500, 000 and a million people were killed.
The particular neighbouring countries discuss a tense connection, which makes it difficult with regard to Indians and Pakistanis to travel across the edge.
Mr Dhillon, who is a Muslim, states he was inspired to start Punjabi Lehar because of his own family’s partition experience — his grandfather and father had relocated to Pakistan from Amritsar in India’s Punjab state.
“They had a good lifestyle in Pakistan, yet always yearned to return to their village within Amritsar, ” he says.
But they passed away before that desire could be fulfilled, something Mr Dhillon nevertheless feels guilty regarding.
Punjabi Lehar hit headlines in India in The month of january 2022 when a video of an emotional re-union between two siblings right after 74 years went viral. One of the brothers, Sikka Khan, had remained in Indian with their mother as the other brother, Sadiq Khan, ended up in Pakistan with their father after partition.
Politeness Nasir Dhillon
They found each other after a man through Sikka Khan’s village spotted an appeal made by Sadiq by way of a video posted on Punjabi Lehar.
“There is no larger virtue than reuniting loved ones, ” Mr Dhillon says.
Before starting the station, Mr Dhillon would certainly often visit Nankana Sahib – the birth place of Expert Nanak, the owner of Sikhism. Here, he became buddies with Bhupinder Singh Lovely, a Pakistani Sikh, who later on co-founded Punjabi Lehar with him.
On Nankana Sahib, Mister Dhillon and Mr Lovely met a number of people whose loved ones had gone missing during the partition.
“In the beginning, we didn’t genuinely have a strategy. We would make a note of the details of people searching for family members and publish them on our social networking accounts, ” he says.
This led to a number of successful reunions, using the videos getting praise and attention upon social media.
That’s how they decided to create a YouTube channel specifically for linking people separated from the partition.
Courtesy Nasir Dhillon
The route now has more than 600, 000 subscribers. Mr Dhillon states they are flooded with requests from people in India plus Pakistan to find lost family members.
“People also approach us to get their ancestral homes or gurdwaras (the Sikh place of worship), ” he says.
Punjabi Lehar doesn’t have the team but Mr Dhillon and Mister Lovely have now built up a network of contacts and active supporters and workers in both countries, which helps them monitor people.
Whilst virtual reunions continue to be easier, they have been able to organise more actual physical meetings after the Kartarpur Sahib corridor was inaugurated on both edges of the border in 2019. The hallway is a visa-free bridging that allows Indian pilgrims to visit the Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara – the final resting place of Guru Nanak : in Pakistan.
Mr Dhillon feels that the corridor’s inauguration is the best thing to get happened to those that got separated using their loved ones during the partition.
“Many people looking for separated family members are in their seventies now. They had quit hope of conference them, but the Kartarpur corridor is producing reunions possible, ” he says. The Khan brothers also fulfilled there in The month of january.
Politeness Nasir Dhillon
Mr Dhillon states reuniting people is a rewarding and fulfilling experience.
“I have heard from my elders that people are remembered by the legacies they leave at the rear of. I do it for the sake of my elders, meant for my redemption along with theirs, ” he says.
But Mr Dhillon himself has one particular wish he is waiting around to be fulfilled – to visit the village in Amritsar that his grandfather cherished so much. He had applied for a visa as soon as, but his request was rejected.
“I have not given up. I still wish that I will be able to go there one day. ”
India, the world’s largest democracy, is celebrating 75 years of independence from Uk rule. This is the sixth story in the BBC’s special series on this milestone.
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