Little has been written about partition and its aftermath with respect to the neighboring Punjabi cities of Lahore and Amritsar. Both were profoundly affected by the legacies of violence, mass migration and their emergence as new border towns. Lahore was eventually able to recover from the economic setbacks, but Amritsar faced long-standing problems. This paper seeks to bring a comparative approach to the understanding of the impact of partition on the two localities. It focuses on four major themes: first, the characteristics of the partition-related violence in the cities; secondly, the differential class and community experiences of violence, migration and resettlement; thirdly, the ways in which memory and national historical discourses impact upon each other with respect to the cities remembered past; finally, the extent to which Lahore and Amritsar became refugee-dominated cities and the degree to which migrants and locals competed and cooperated with each other in the aftermath of partition.

Major General J C Katoch formally opened a fauji mela (army fair) in Amritsar's historic Rambagh Garden on November 27, 1950. Sardar Baldev Singh, the then Defense Minister of India, was among the distinguished guests. The most popular attraction was a 110-feet high steel structure that was ascended by a lift. The view, rather than the ride, drew the visitors. Nor was it any view that was sought: the panorama that people were anxious to glimpse was proclaimed in the name of the structure, the `See Lahore Tower'. Many who ascended to glimpse the minarets of the distant Badshahi Mosque were former residents of the Pakistani city.

Before partition, Hindus and Sikhs owned two-thirds of Lahore's shops, four-fifths of its factories and paid seven-tenths of its urban taxes. Leading philanthropists, such as Dyal Singh and Ganga Ram had bequeathed libraries and hospitals to the city. By the end of the colonial era, there were not only distinctive Hindu and Sikh localities in the walled city, but also in the suburbs of Krishan Nagar, Sant Nagar and Model Town. Muslims were less economically dominant in the pre-independence Amritsar, but were numerically important. They had accounted for just under half of Amritsar's pre-independence population. Many Muslims were engaged as artisans in the pashmina shawl and later carpet industries. The main Muslim localities were in the suburbs of Sharifpura, Islamabad, Angarh and Gujjarpura. The latter area was bounded by the open space of a large Muslim graveyard and British stables and gallops. Other areas of Muslim concentration were the areas adjacent to the Rambagh Gate, Lahore Gate and Hakiman Gate of the walled city and Kucha Qazian in the heart of the city. Mounting violence was to gradually transform the demographic make up of both cities.

From the beginning of March 1947, violence disrupted normal life in both cities. There were nightly curfews. No-go areas were created that could only be crossed with impunity by the Indian Christians, Europeans and untouchables. There were frequent bombings, arson attacks as well as stray stabbings and the occasional pitched riot. The final round of bloodletting in August completed the two cities' demographic transformation. Massive conflagrations had reduced large areas of their inner cities to ashes. Around 6,000 buildings had been destroyed in Lahore, 10,000 in Amritsar. Rebuilding efforts were still in their infancy at the time of the fauji mela in such riot affected areas of the city as Katra Sher Singh and Katra Jamail Singh.

History and Culture Journal, Locality and Partition, Economic Setbacks, Indian Christians, Demographic Transformations, Government Reports, Contemporary Accounts, Muslim League, Financial Assets, Communal Organizations, Kashmiri Muslim Refugees, Refugee Rehabilitation, Political Cultures, Cultural Traits, Social Dislocation.