The Qadian Diary
An Account of Displacement, Violence & Bloodshed
“As a result of the decision of the Radcliffe Commission, the Punjab became the home of such unspeakable terror, that history will forever recall the horrors that were committed on this land as marking one of the darkest chapters of human history.” In The Qadian Diary, Hazrat Mirza Bashir Ahmad MA (ra), the son of the founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community kept a harrowing first hand account of the violence and terror that afflicted the town of Qadian and its surrounding areas following the partition of the subcontinent. Kept between March 1947 and February 1948, the diary meticulously records the terrible sectarian violence that broke out across the Punjab following the announcement of the creation of India and Pakistan; the horrors of the ‘great migration’; and the carnage that was visited on Qadian during the Partition era disturbances. By turns stark, moving, and ultimately hopeful, The Qadian Diary is a fascinating and remarkable eyewitness testimony, which vividly brings to life the brutal realities of the time with clarity, poignancy and emotion and is a book of essential importance not just for historians, but anyone interested in stories of human courage, resilience, and survival.
