In 1948, the mountains of Kashmir had already seen too much history.
India and Pakistan were barely months old. The celebrations of August 1947 had given way to convoys, ceasefire negotiations, and artillery fire in high-altitude terrain. The first war between the two new nations was underway.
- In one sector of that conflict stood Major Yunus Khan of the Indian Army.
- Across the divide was Major Sahibzada Yaqub Khan of the Pakistan Army.
They were brothers who grew up in the same home in Rampur.
BEFORE THE BORDER
The brothers were sons of Sir Abdus Samad Khan, a prominent figure in the princely state of Rampur. Like many from elite families of the time, they entered the British Indian Army, then one of the most professional and expansive military forces in the world.
Yunus was commissioned into the Garhwal Rifles.
Yaqub, born in 1920, entered the 18th King Edward’s Own Cavalry in 1940.
The same drills, the same codes of conduct, the same regimental traditions shaped them. During the Second World War, both served under the British Crown. Yaqub fought in North Africa and was captured near Tobruk in 1942, spending years as a prisoner of war before being released in 1945. The experience marked him deeply and would later inform his composure as both soldier and diplomat.
When they returned home after the war, the empire they had served was nearing its end.
1947: THE ARMY IS DIVIDED
The division of India in 1947 was not just territorial. It was institutional.
As described in Freedom at Midnight by Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins, the British withdrawal unfolded with extraordinary speed. Political negotiations raced ahead, but beneath them lay a complex and painful process: dividing the British Indian Army between India and Pakistan.
Regiments were split. Equipment was apportioned. Officers were asked to choose allegiance.
For Yunus and Yaqub Khan, that moment arrived quietly but decisively.
Yunus chose to serve India.
Yaqub opted for Pakistan.
It was a bureaucratic act on paper. But its consequences would unfold on the battlefield.
WAR COMES HOME
In October 1947, fighting broke out over Jammu and Kashmir. Tribal fighters entered the princely state; India responded after the Maharaja signed the Instrument of Accession. What followed was the first Indo-Pakistani War, fought across difficult mountain terrain through 1947 and 1948.
By then, both brothers were serving as majors in their respective armies.
Accounts that have since entered Partition lore recount an extraordinary episode: during one engagement, Major Yunus Khan led Indian troops against a Pakistani position and wounded an officer, only to later realise that the injured man was his younger brother, Major Yaqub Khan.
The reported exchange between them was brief and restrained. There was no theatrical confrontation. Just the recognition of duty fulfilled on both sides.
In that moment, the abstraction of Partition lines on maps, negotiations in Delhi, debates in London became painfully human.
THE HUMAN COST OF PARTITION
The story of Yunus and Yaqub Khan is not an isolated anecdote. It belongs to a larger archive of divided lives.
In Remnants of a Separation, written by Aanchal Malhotra, personal accounts of families fractured by the 1947 Partition are carefully documented. Through oral histories and preserved heirlooms, the book reveals how siblings, parents, and entire households found themselves on opposite sides of a suddenly hardened border.
Among the narratives referenced are cases like Yunus Khan and Yaqub Khan, brothers who went on to serve in the armies of India and Pakistan, respectively. Malhotra’s work shifts the focus from political leaders to private memory, showing how Partition did not just divide land but also professions, loyalties, and family bonds.
In that sense, the Khan brothers’ story sits within a wider pattern: the transformation of shared pasts into separate national futures.
AFTER 1948
The ceasefire of January 1949 froze the conflict, but it did not erase what had happened.
Yaqub Khan’s career rose steadily in Pakistan. He eventually became a Lieutenant General before transitioning into diplomacy, serving as Pakistan’s ambassador to major capitals and later as Foreign Minister. Known for his intellectual depth and quiet authority, he remained one of Pakistan’s most respected statesmen.
Yunus Khan continued his service in the Indian Army, building a career grounded in the same professional ethos that had shaped him before Partition. He retired with distinction, largely away from public spectacle.
Years later, the brothers met again in Delhi during one of Yaqub’s official visits. They embraced but reportedly did not revisit the wartime episode.
Some silences are deliberate.
MORE THAN A WAR STORY
Partition is often remembered in numbers: millions displaced, hundreds of thousands dead. Books like Freedom at Midnight capture the political urgency and administrative chaos of 1947. Works like Aanchal Malhotra’s restore the intimate human voice to that upheaval.
Between those two lenses, the grand sweep of history and the quiet testimony of families stand the story of Yunus and Yaqub Khan.
They were not symbols when they were born.
They were not adversaries when they trained.
They became both because history demanded it.
In 1947, they chose different nations.
In 1948, they faced each other in war.
And in doing so, they became one of Partition’s most striking reminders: that borders are drawn on maps, but they are lived in families.
