Rashda Azhar

Rashda Azhar was born in 1939 at Ganor, Maharashtra to a Punjabi-speaking family. She recalls that every two or three years, her family moved and settled in different places around India as Mrs. Azhar's father worked in the railways and received new postings. At the time of Partition, Mrs. Azhar was eight years old. She and her family were residing in Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh at the time. She says she had heard about it in discussions between her father and grandmother. Her mother and paternal grandmother were against moving, she remembers. Her father, on the other hand, was desperate to leave immediately. News of riots and sectarian killings in other areas had begun to surface. Mrs. Azhar’s family along with a family of her father’s colleague started their journey on the 6th of August from Ghaziabad railway station to Malakwal, where her father had been posted. They were not harmed but the train following theirs was reportedly attacked and the passengers were killed.There were riots when Partition took place a week later. Mrs. Azhar recalls that a migrant family stayed with them in their home during this time.
Mrs. Azhar went on to complete her primary education from the Muslim Girls’ School in Gujrat. She obtained her master’s degree in sociology from Punjab University, Lahore in 1963. She was hired at the University of Agriculture in Faisalabad as a lecturer in sociology in 1965, and served at the university for over three decades, retiring as associate professor in 1997. Mrs. Azhar was married in 1966.