Partition, satyagraha, arrest, gave birth to Faridabad's NIT

By Saurabh Duggal

The Radcliffe line divided India into two nations and forced millions to cross the line to look for a new home. Leaving behind the bitter memory of colonial rule and the wounds of partition, over 50,000 people from the six districts of North West Frontier Post – Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan, Peshawar, Hazara, Kohat, and Mardan – found New Industrial Town (NIT) in Faridabad as their new home – a city they could identify as their own.  

Faridabad’s NIT was the biggest settlement of the people that moved to India during partition after their native places came under the newly formed Pakistan.  

Earlier, the government was planning to resettle the displaced from NWFP in Alwar and Bharatpur (in Rajasthan), but they wanted a place near Delhi. They had to wait for over two years, did satyagraha, gave arrest to compel the country’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to meet their demand of a place for their resettlement near Delhi.

Eventually, the government announced a New Industrial Town in Faridabad for the displaced and gave German architect Otto Konigsberger the responsibility to design the new city.  

The foundation of Faridabad’s NIT was laid on October 17, 1949. “My father late Kanhiya Lal was among the 81 refugees from NWFP, who sat in protest – under the banner of Khudai Khidmatgar Sangathan – in front of Nehru’s residence demanding a place for their resettlement and then they got NIT in Faridabad for the displaced,” Basant Khattak had said.

The government also sanctioned a budget of Rs 4.64 crore to build NIT. The government also constructed 5196 houses – on a 233 square yard plot each – for the displaced. The houses were given on a monthly installment of Rs 11 and 4 anna. Offering employment to the displaced, the government gave them a daily wage of Rs 1 for constricting their own houses.

“I was barely 14 at the time of partition. I along with my family had worked during the construction of the NIT,” recalled 88-year-old Chaudhary Kewal Ram Bhatia. “The city is our identity and we owe everything to it.”