Photographer Margaret Bourke-White was on hand during the independence movement and Partition to capture an era of this country's history. Malavika Karlekar reviews a book on her life and work
If you've ever wondered about the striking, determined blonde with a camera played by Candice Bergen in Richard Attenborough's Gandhi, Pramod Kapoor's book based on the Getty Images archives has the answers. In 1946, Margaret Bourke-White was appointed by Life to photograph the exchange of populations that followed Partition. By then she was known as a talented photographer with energy, initiative and, of course, the brashness and nerves of steel to elbow her way in. Photography critic's Vicki Goldberg's biography of Bourke-White introduces us to a woman who had the looks, charm and acumen to entertain at the same table "Hindu nationalists, Moslem separatists, Communists, British diplomats, and maharajahs". Photographer Sunil Janah became her assistant and well-known journalist Frank Moraes fell hopelessly in love with her.
When Bourke-White arrived in March 1946, she knew that photographing Mahatma Gandhi was a priority; she quickly learnt how to spin ” a requirement stipulated by his implacable secretary and took an image that has been "endlessly reproduced": the Mahatma poring over papers on his lap while the spinning wheel occupies the left foreground. The photographer was to go on to take many more shots of the man who affectionately called her "the torturer". Soon, Mohammed Ali Jinnah's Direct Action Day found her in the "fetid alleys of Calcutta (Kolkata) photographing the dead and dying in various stages of decomposition. A year later, at "the stroke of the midnight hour" as India was awakening to freedom, Bourke-White was to be photographing a land torn apart in horrific scenes that were "straight out of the Old Testament". In Halfway to Freedom, Bourke-White wrote, "While I traveled with the migration, my respect for Moses grew, for I glimpsed the colossal problem he had to solve. But these people had no Moses".
Full review here Sify
Showing posts with label partition literature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label partition literature. Show all posts
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Re-reading history to 'bridge' the Partition
He was only 18 years old when he was forced to summarily pack up his life in Lahore and cross over to India during Partition in 1947. It has now been 63 years and he leads a comfortable life in Mumbai but his tired eyes can still vividly recall the day at Bhatinda station where he saw Hindu rioters attacking truckloads of Muslims travelling to the other side of the border-he pleaded with fellow Hindus to spare two aged Muslim men who were bleeding but the rioters did not relent. They had already stripped the ailing men off and had found out that they were Muslims, so they "could not be allowed to go".
Such heartrending personal accounts of the Partition are being documented by a group of students of Cathedral and John Connon School, J B Petit, Dhirubhai Ambani International School, H R College and Jai Hind College in Mumbai to help the youth have an unbiased understanding of the historical event. "We belong to the second post-Independence generation. We aren't directly affected by Partition but are suffering its after-effects in the form of wars and insurgency. Most young people are limited by the scope of their history textbooks," says Ria Mirchandani, who along with friends Zara Rustomji, Kunal Mehta, Niyati Mahimtura, Raghav Sawhney and Shawn Wadia, hopes to generate an unpartisan view of the tragedy.
Full report here Times of India
Such heartrending personal accounts of the Partition are being documented by a group of students of Cathedral and John Connon School, J B Petit, Dhirubhai Ambani International School, H R College and Jai Hind College in Mumbai to help the youth have an unbiased understanding of the historical event. "We belong to the second post-Independence generation. We aren't directly affected by Partition but are suffering its after-effects in the form of wars and insurgency. Most young people are limited by the scope of their history textbooks," says Ria Mirchandani, who along with friends Zara Rustomji, Kunal Mehta, Niyati Mahimtura, Raghav Sawhney and Shawn Wadia, hopes to generate an unpartisan view of the tragedy.
Full report here Times of India
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
The literature of Partition
Indian novel writing in English is a living and evolving literary genre. It is richer in content, wider and variegated in range. Before Independence, their subject matter was inescapably political but after Independence a clear shift has been marked in their focus and one can easily find that human relationships, social issues, gender equations and other important issues like futility of existence, alienation, Diaspora and psychosomatic issues have become the main concerns of the novelists.
Not only in the history of the India but also in the history of the world, the Partition of India has been documented as the most lethal incidence, the entire humanity has ever witnessed. Indubitably, the partition loiters as an unforgettable event, not only for its political significance in the emergence of the Sovereignties of India and Pakistan, but also for its lasting impact of monstrosity and horrific emotional duress. The people, who had never been out of their confined parishes for ages together, were suddenly coerced to choose a country. It is believed that history books on the incident of partition do not record lively and passionately the pain, trauma and sufferings of those who had to part from their kith and kin, friends and neighbours, the deepening nostalgia for places of those who had lived in for generations, the anguish of those devotees who got removed from their places of worship and the harrowing experiences of those countless people who boarded trains thinking they would be transported to the realization of their dreams but of whom not a man, woman or child survived the journey.
But if we go through the literature written on the tragedy of partition particularly in the form of novel, one can find that the issues before and after partition have been discoursed in a such a manner that one feels with that unfortunate lot of people who passed though the trauma of the partition. The novelists, who have dealt with this tragic incident, simultaneously have attempted to explore other issues pertaining to human destiny touching the universal problems which are larger than the bloody bath of the partition.
Full report here Greater Kashmir
Not only in the history of the India but also in the history of the world, the Partition of India has been documented as the most lethal incidence, the entire humanity has ever witnessed. Indubitably, the partition loiters as an unforgettable event, not only for its political significance in the emergence of the Sovereignties of India and Pakistan, but also for its lasting impact of monstrosity and horrific emotional duress. The people, who had never been out of their confined parishes for ages together, were suddenly coerced to choose a country. It is believed that history books on the incident of partition do not record lively and passionately the pain, trauma and sufferings of those who had to part from their kith and kin, friends and neighbours, the deepening nostalgia for places of those who had lived in for generations, the anguish of those devotees who got removed from their places of worship and the harrowing experiences of those countless people who boarded trains thinking they would be transported to the realization of their dreams but of whom not a man, woman or child survived the journey.
But if we go through the literature written on the tragedy of partition particularly in the form of novel, one can find that the issues before and after partition have been discoursed in a such a manner that one feels with that unfortunate lot of people who passed though the trauma of the partition. The novelists, who have dealt with this tragic incident, simultaneously have attempted to explore other issues pertaining to human destiny touching the universal problems which are larger than the bloody bath of the partition.
Full report here Greater Kashmir
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Pain of partition
The 1984 Sikh riots continue to torment even after 25 years. Sunita Sharma has painted a moving picture of the social impact of the riots in her novel Main Khush Hun Kamli (I Am Happy Kamli)
Some wounds refuse to heal. The 1984 Sikh riots continue to torment even after 25 years. Sunita Sharma has painted a moving picture of the social impact of the riots in her novel Main Khush Hun Kamli (I Am Happy Kamli). “I had the story with me for 14 years but publishers were not willing to touch a disturbing story which could have political repercussions,” says Sunita, who started her career as a lecturer before moving to writing and social work.
The story of Jasjot (name changed) came through her niece, who was a good friend of Jasjot.
“Jasjot was a kid when the riots broke out. She saw her uncle burnt alive and a burning tyre put around the neck of her father. The impact was such that she lost her voice for five months. Her father, who used to run a cinema hall suffered heavy losses in business as the theatre was burnt down during the riots. Poor economic condition and a big family forced him to marry her at the age of 16 to a Canada-based boy, Manvinder. The marriage was kept a secret. He turned out to be a beast. He had illicit relations with his sister-in-law and used to tease Jasjot for not being sexually mature. When my niece shared this story, it became the catalyst for me to start working on it. How can a man stoop so low?” Sunita says. Manvinder got shocked when Jasjot became pregnant. “He would say I have had physical relations with so many women. Nobody complained of it!”
Full report here Hindu
The story of Jasjot (name changed) came through her niece, who was a good friend of Jasjot.
“Jasjot was a kid when the riots broke out. She saw her uncle burnt alive and a burning tyre put around the neck of her father. The impact was such that she lost her voice for five months. Her father, who used to run a cinema hall suffered heavy losses in business as the theatre was burnt down during the riots. Poor economic condition and a big family forced him to marry her at the age of 16 to a Canada-based boy, Manvinder. The marriage was kept a secret. He turned out to be a beast. He had illicit relations with his sister-in-law and used to tease Jasjot for not being sexually mature. When my niece shared this story, it became the catalyst for me to start working on it. How can a man stoop so low?” Sunita says. Manvinder got shocked when Jasjot became pregnant. “He would say I have had physical relations with so many women. Nobody complained of it!”
Full report here Hindu
Sunday, April 11, 2010
REVIEW: Pakistan at Knife's Edge
Pakistan at Knife's Edge
M B Naqvi
Roli
Rs.350
ISBN 9788174367907
Pp 264
Blurb
Pakistan at Knife's edge is veteran journalist M B Naqvi's understanding of contemporary Pakistan and the directions the country could take or ought to. From the sacking of the chief justice of the Supreme Court, Iftikar Muhammad Chaudhry, by General Pervez Musharraf, to the return of Benazir Bhutto and her assassination on 27 Deceber 2007, the book traces the lawyers’ agitation to the general elections in 2008, and also the rise of a more vocal civil society.
M B Naqvi focuses on the lawyers’ movement for judicial autonomy and reinstatement of democracy and derives great hope from it, the movement has become a locus for a more broad-based demand for democracy raised by civil society. So Pakistan is poised at knife’s edge: which way will it go? A human rights activist and fervent supporter of liberal democratic dispension, Naqvi presents a compelling blueprint for the future of the country.
Reviews
Witness to Pakistan's history Business Standard
Few journalists can claim to have a career that spans the entire life of their country. M B Naqvi (1928-2009) covered every twist and turn of Pakistan practically since it was created. Born in Amroha, near Lucknow, Naqvi moved to Hyderabad in Sindh and began work as a reporter with Indus Times in the 1950s.
He never looked back. Naqvi Sahib, as he was known, died literally with his boots on and his pen in hand, writing his last column days before he died at the age of 81 in November last year, leaving behind the complete manuscript of his book Pakistan At Knife’s Edge.
The book is a comprehensive look at all that has happened to Pakistan in the past 60 years, and what each event of the past could mean for the future. Readers not as well versed with those events could be baffled by the speed with which Naqvi dashes between the decades, recounting events of Partition and the creation of Bangladesh before diving into a chapter about the “restoration of judiciary” movement that brought down Musharraf. Naqvi’s recounting of his country’s history may resemble the roller coaster his nation has experienced but at no point does he lose the thread of history, a history he lived everyday in newsprint. He also never loses his idealism, or his belief in democracy, in better relations with India, and his vision for Pakistan, not as a cat’s paw for world powers but a responsible and respected nation.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Jaswant to release Jinnah book in Islamabad
Former External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh will release his controversial book on Pakistan's founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah in Islamabad next week.
There had been talk of Singh releasing 'Jinnah: India-Partition-Independence' in Pakistan since August last year. The much-delayed launch ceremony has finally been scheduled by Oxford University Press, the book's publisher in Pakistan, at Islamabad Club on April 14.
Singh is expected to participate in events in other cities also, including Karachi, during his first visit to Pakistan since the release of the book.
Earlier, Mr Books, one of Islamabad's most popular book stores, had planned to host Singh in the federal capital but his trip to Pakistan was put off as the book had then not been published in the country. Despite the delay in Singh's visit to Pakistan, copies of his book have been flying off the shelves.
Pirated copies of the book too entered the market and Oxford University Press filed a complaint with police that led to the arrest of several book store owners.
Singh argued in his book that Jinnah was not solely responsible for the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947. Singh was expelled by BJP following the release of the book last year.
Full report here PTI
There had been talk of Singh releasing 'Jinnah: India-Partition-Independence' in Pakistan since August last year. The much-delayed launch ceremony has finally been scheduled by Oxford University Press, the book's publisher in Pakistan, at Islamabad Club on April 14.
Singh is expected to participate in events in other cities also, including Karachi, during his first visit to Pakistan since the release of the book.
Earlier, Mr Books, one of Islamabad's most popular book stores, had planned to host Singh in the federal capital but his trip to Pakistan was put off as the book had then not been published in the country. Despite the delay in Singh's visit to Pakistan, copies of his book have been flying off the shelves.
Pirated copies of the book too entered the market and Oxford University Press filed a complaint with police that led to the arrest of several book store owners.
Singh argued in his book that Jinnah was not solely responsible for the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947. Singh was expelled by BJP following the release of the book last year.
Full report here PTI
Friday, March 12, 2010
REVIEW: Humanity amidst Insanity
REVIEW
Humanity amidst Insanity: Hope During and After the Indo-Pak Partition
Tridivesh Singh Maini, Tahir Malik and Ali Farooq Malik
UBSPD
Rs 295
Pp 186
ISBN: 8174766308
Paperback
Blurb
A novel approach by an Indian and two Pakistani journalists to bring the humane and positive episodes of the 1947 partition holocaust, to the fore. A series of interviews of the survivors of Indo-Pak partition who owe their survival to the other community. Tales of hope and faith in the crisis of humanity, when people were killing each other in the name of religion, these angels of sanity helped the innocent and gave them life. An analytical approach to the good involved and practiced during the times of violence and terror. A new look at the relations that could become a reality for the Indo-Pak partition sores which have long been unhealed.
Review
The other side of tragedy Daily Times
Every crisis poses an opportunity to seek some lesson, some space to persuade reflection. From tragedy can come wisdom that might open minds, that might save lives. This book epitomises the hope and progressive foresight in daring to look at the other side of tragedy.
The reality of the 1947 partition of the subcontinent was almost 2 million people dead and 15 million displaced. The consequences led to three wars, mindless confrontation, billions of dollars spent on the military and millions of people reeling in poverty. South Asia, which could well provide world leadership in the understanding of different faiths and bring harmony between them, has actually still not fully recovered from the trauma of 1947. The authors however realise the first step is to confront the human stories of that summer and then to attempt to heal the wounds. The future of the planet they say depends on dialogue and understanding, which renders this book a welcome initiative in the right direction.
Humanity amidst Insanity: Hope During and After the Indo-Pak PartitionTridivesh Singh Maini, Tahir Malik and Ali Farooq Malik
UBSPD
Rs 295
Pp 186
ISBN: 8174766308
Paperback
Blurb
A novel approach by an Indian and two Pakistani journalists to bring the humane and positive episodes of the 1947 partition holocaust, to the fore. A series of interviews of the survivors of Indo-Pak partition who owe their survival to the other community. Tales of hope and faith in the crisis of humanity, when people were killing each other in the name of religion, these angels of sanity helped the innocent and gave them life. An analytical approach to the good involved and practiced during the times of violence and terror. A new look at the relations that could become a reality for the Indo-Pak partition sores which have long been unhealed.
Review
The other side of tragedy Daily Times
Every crisis poses an opportunity to seek some lesson, some space to persuade reflection. From tragedy can come wisdom that might open minds, that might save lives. This book epitomises the hope and progressive foresight in daring to look at the other side of tragedy.
The reality of the 1947 partition of the subcontinent was almost 2 million people dead and 15 million displaced. The consequences led to three wars, mindless confrontation, billions of dollars spent on the military and millions of people reeling in poverty. South Asia, which could well provide world leadership in the understanding of different faiths and bring harmony between them, has actually still not fully recovered from the trauma of 1947. The authors however realise the first step is to confront the human stories of that summer and then to attempt to heal the wounds. The future of the planet they say depends on dialogue and understanding, which renders this book a welcome initiative in the right direction.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
The other side of tragedy
BOOK REVIEW
Humanity amidst Insanity: Hope During and After the Indo-Pak Partition
By Tridivesh Singh Maini, Tahir Malik and Ali Farooq Malik
UBSPD; Pp 186
From the blurbs
A novel approach by an Indian and two Pakistani journalists to bring the humane and positive episodes of the 1947 partition holocaust, to the fore. A series of interviews of the survivors of Indo-Pak partition who owe their survival to the other community. Tales of hope and faith in the crisis of humanity, when people were killing each other in the name of religion, these angels of sanity helped the innocent and gave them life. An analytical approach to the good involved and practiced during the times of violence and terror. A new look at the relations that could become a reality for the Indo-Pak partition sores which have long been unhealed.
Daily Times
EVERY CRISIS poses an opportunity to seek some lesson, some space to persuade reflection. From tragedy can come wisdom that might open minds, that might save lives. This book epitomises the hope and progressive foresight in daring to look at the other side of tragedy.
The reality of the 1947 partition of the subcontinent was almost 2 million people dead and 15 million displaced. The consequences led to three wars, mindless confrontation, billions of dollars spent on the military and millions of people reeling in poverty. South Asia, which could well provide world leadership in the understanding of different faiths and bring harmony between them, has actually still not fully recovered from the trauma of 1947. The authors however realise the first step is to confront the human stories of that summer and then to attempt to heal the wounds. The future of the planet they say depends on dialogue and understanding, which renders this book a welcome initiative in the right direction.
Humanity amidst Insanity is a novel approach by an Indian and two Pakistani journalists to bring the human and positive episodes of the 1947 partition holocaust to the reader. It compiles a series of interviews of the survivors of Indo-Pak partition who owe their survival to the other community. The authors suggest that the partition of India showed us some of the worst sides of humanity but even in those dark days, the human spirit of compassion remained resilient. Simplistic in tone and language, this read brings home a forgotten or perhaps an underestimated lesson that humanity prevails no matter what the condition.
The book poses two significant questions eventually addressed through interviews and supporting literature, asking what were the types of intercommunity bonds that existed pre-partition and were there social barriers between communities that should have been checked in time? And what was the nature of pre-partition camaraderie in villages and towns? It is suggested that if one were to look at the overall organisation of pre-partition societies, there was cohesion generated by ‘tribe’ or biradari, rural commonalities, linkages and economic interests. The anthropological paradigm of ‘ethnic bonding’ between some Punjabi castes like the Jats on both sides of the border and the common ‘Punjabi ethos’ show a complete neutralisation of the Muslim-Hindu divide during partition, with faith and nationalistic fervour taking precedence. In the pre-partition milieu, religious identity in rural settings was overshadowed by bonding between similar tribe or caste or occupation or geography.
Another perspective highlighted is the notion of honour (izzat), which was of paramount importance for individuals of all participating communities. Many individuals saved people from other communities as a manifestation of honour, whether while doing their duty or in a personal capacity notwithstanding religion, caste and creed. The concept of ‘watan’ or paidaish or place of birth proved to be equally important for analysing the quandary of the generation surviving the trauma of partition. The positive, it is suggested, continues to reflect when establishments acknowledge the significance of watan or paidaish place when it comes to politicians. It has been aptly said: “Every bird loves to fly back to its nest and so do we, human beings. We are passionately attached to our roots, the pull of these roots beckons us to our ancestors” (pg, 39).
Holocaust scholar Marianne Hirsch’s ‘concept of postmemory’ is cited to prove significant, as some of those who were interviewed were not actual witnesses to the happenings during partition but had been fed on stories related to it. The authors do acknowledge the shortcomings of oral history such as inherent biases of the individual interviewed. However, despite the limitations, the authors believe oral narrative offers a different way of looking at history, a different perspective and insider snippets. For instance, Brigadier SS Chowdhary, a retired army officer from the Assam Regiment now living in Chandigarh, recollects his concern while fighting the wars of 1965 and 1971: he was keen to know whether any of his previous colleagues were on the other side. In spite of the fact that India and Pakistan were so hostile to each other, there was this curiosity in his mind that he might be fighting against his old friends. Fahmida Bano from Lahore reminisces how her husband took care of their Sikh friend’s daughters from Amritsar and brought them to Lahore to stay with them for months till the partition quagmire settled down and eventually took them back to India.
Full review here
South Asian Citizen Web
THIS VERY thoughtful and much- needed book says Partition was 75 percent inhuman and depraved, but there was 25 percent of it which was human and which has not been memorialised because of the dominant hostile narratives that came after 1947.
The memory of Partition has concretised the communal fracture of India and made it permanent in the shape of India and Pakistan. Even the ‘neutral’ accounts compiled after the more intense periods of nationalism have been ‘partitioned’, the Indian side putting on record the good deeds done by non-Muslims, and the Pakistani side recording the acts of grace of the Muslims.
This book could be the first of its kind. It is ‘unpartitioned’ in its account of the residual good among two savage communities and puts its hope in the 25 percent of the population of India and Pakistan to save the subcontinent from descending into a Hobbesian end of its 1.4 billion people.
Think of it, this can be done very easily too today, with the help of the nuclear weapons that Partition has caused to appear like malignant growths on the map of the region. The book contains interviews with non-Muslims who fled to India in 1947 and 11 interviews with refugee families in Pakistan. One doesn’t need to emphasise that they are moving in the extreme.
Around 13 million changed home in 1947 and it took them two months to complete the process. Hundreds of thousands got killed, women were raped and children lost. The wound of it went deep, bequeathing to South Asia one of the world’s most lethal sets of nationalisms that braked development and prosperity and unleashed poverty-provoking wars. If there was holocaust in the West this was one in which ‘no one community could be held responsible’. Politely, it means both were abysmal. If that is what the book says, which it does, then we are face to face with an evil that was more pervasive and therefore more sinister. That means we were 80 percent all individual Hitlers.
Ashis Nandy thinks that the 25 percent Muslims and non-Muslims not subscribing to the hatred of their community are the saving grace which will finally rescue the Subcontinent from its historical death-wish succubi. He makes a case for abstention of uniformity of thinking that nationalism dictates because the 25 percent at Partition who did not conform are today worth remembering.
One hopes that those in India and Pakistan who did not conform after the Mumbai attacks in November 2008 will also be remembered some day when madness has finally left us. But people like Ashish Nandy have always been there though few in number: Khushwant Singh, Balraj Sahni, Kartar Singh Duggal and Saadat Hasan Manto.
The book mentions only Manto as the Pakistani ‘deviant’. That is understandable for two reasons: first that a community that dominates numerically is bound to have more ‘original’ people; second, anxiety levels in a smaller revisionist state are so high that deviationist thinking is cruelly suppressed as opposed to the big status quo power where ‘comfort’ levels prevalent in society tolerate deviationist and innovative thinking
Full review here
Humanity amidst Insanity: Hope During and After the Indo-Pak Partition
By Tridivesh Singh Maini, Tahir Malik and Ali Farooq Malik
UBSPD; Pp 186
From the blurbs
A novel approach by an Indian and two Pakistani journalists to bring the humane and positive episodes of the 1947 partition holocaust, to the fore. A series of interviews of the survivors of Indo-Pak partition who owe their survival to the other community. Tales of hope and faith in the crisis of humanity, when people were killing each other in the name of religion, these angels of sanity helped the innocent and gave them life. An analytical approach to the good involved and practiced during the times of violence and terror. A new look at the relations that could become a reality for the Indo-Pak partition sores which have long been unhealed.
Daily Times
EVERY CRISIS poses an opportunity to seek some lesson, some space to persuade reflection. From tragedy can come wisdom that might open minds, that might save lives. This book epitomises the hope and progressive foresight in daring to look at the other side of tragedy.
Humanity amidst Insanity is a novel approach by an Indian and two Pakistani journalists to bring the human and positive episodes of the 1947 partition holocaust to the reader. It compiles a series of interviews of the survivors of Indo-Pak partition who owe their survival to the other community. The authors suggest that the partition of India showed us some of the worst sides of humanity but even in those dark days, the human spirit of compassion remained resilient. Simplistic in tone and language, this read brings home a forgotten or perhaps an underestimated lesson that humanity prevails no matter what the condition.
The book poses two significant questions eventually addressed through interviews and supporting literature, asking what were the types of intercommunity bonds that existed pre-partition and were there social barriers between communities that should have been checked in time? And what was the nature of pre-partition camaraderie in villages and towns? It is suggested that if one were to look at the overall organisation of pre-partition societies, there was cohesion generated by ‘tribe’ or biradari, rural commonalities, linkages and economic interests. The anthropological paradigm of ‘ethnic bonding’ between some Punjabi castes like the Jats on both sides of the border and the common ‘Punjabi ethos’ show a complete neutralisation of the Muslim-Hindu divide during partition, with faith and nationalistic fervour taking precedence. In the pre-partition milieu, religious identity in rural settings was overshadowed by bonding between similar tribe or caste or occupation or geography.
Another perspective highlighted is the notion of honour (izzat), which was of paramount importance for individuals of all participating communities. Many individuals saved people from other communities as a manifestation of honour, whether while doing their duty or in a personal capacity notwithstanding religion, caste and creed. The concept of ‘watan’ or paidaish or place of birth proved to be equally important for analysing the quandary of the generation surviving the trauma of partition. The positive, it is suggested, continues to reflect when establishments acknowledge the significance of watan or paidaish place when it comes to politicians. It has been aptly said: “Every bird loves to fly back to its nest and so do we, human beings. We are passionately attached to our roots, the pull of these roots beckons us to our ancestors” (pg, 39).
Holocaust scholar Marianne Hirsch’s ‘concept of postmemory’ is cited to prove significant, as some of those who were interviewed were not actual witnesses to the happenings during partition but had been fed on stories related to it. The authors do acknowledge the shortcomings of oral history such as inherent biases of the individual interviewed. However, despite the limitations, the authors believe oral narrative offers a different way of looking at history, a different perspective and insider snippets. For instance, Brigadier SS Chowdhary, a retired army officer from the Assam Regiment now living in Chandigarh, recollects his concern while fighting the wars of 1965 and 1971: he was keen to know whether any of his previous colleagues were on the other side. In spite of the fact that India and Pakistan were so hostile to each other, there was this curiosity in his mind that he might be fighting against his old friends. Fahmida Bano from Lahore reminisces how her husband took care of their Sikh friend’s daughters from Amritsar and brought them to Lahore to stay with them for months till the partition quagmire settled down and eventually took them back to India.
Full review here
South Asian Citizen Web
THIS VERY thoughtful and much- needed book says Partition was 75 percent inhuman and depraved, but there was 25 percent of it which was human and which has not been memorialised because of the dominant hostile narratives that came after 1947.
The memory of Partition has concretised the communal fracture of India and made it permanent in the shape of India and Pakistan. Even the ‘neutral’ accounts compiled after the more intense periods of nationalism have been ‘partitioned’, the Indian side putting on record the good deeds done by non-Muslims, and the Pakistani side recording the acts of grace of the Muslims.
This book could be the first of its kind. It is ‘unpartitioned’ in its account of the residual good among two savage communities and puts its hope in the 25 percent of the population of India and Pakistan to save the subcontinent from descending into a Hobbesian end of its 1.4 billion people.
Think of it, this can be done very easily too today, with the help of the nuclear weapons that Partition has caused to appear like malignant growths on the map of the region. The book contains interviews with non-Muslims who fled to India in 1947 and 11 interviews with refugee families in Pakistan. One doesn’t need to emphasise that they are moving in the extreme.
Around 13 million changed home in 1947 and it took them two months to complete the process. Hundreds of thousands got killed, women were raped and children lost. The wound of it went deep, bequeathing to South Asia one of the world’s most lethal sets of nationalisms that braked development and prosperity and unleashed poverty-provoking wars. If there was holocaust in the West this was one in which ‘no one community could be held responsible’. Politely, it means both were abysmal. If that is what the book says, which it does, then we are face to face with an evil that was more pervasive and therefore more sinister. That means we were 80 percent all individual Hitlers.
Ashis Nandy thinks that the 25 percent Muslims and non-Muslims not subscribing to the hatred of their community are the saving grace which will finally rescue the Subcontinent from its historical death-wish succubi. He makes a case for abstention of uniformity of thinking that nationalism dictates because the 25 percent at Partition who did not conform are today worth remembering.
One hopes that those in India and Pakistan who did not conform after the Mumbai attacks in November 2008 will also be remembered some day when madness has finally left us. But people like Ashish Nandy have always been there though few in number: Khushwant Singh, Balraj Sahni, Kartar Singh Duggal and Saadat Hasan Manto.
The book mentions only Manto as the Pakistani ‘deviant’. That is understandable for two reasons: first that a community that dominates numerically is bound to have more ‘original’ people; second, anxiety levels in a smaller revisionist state are so high that deviationist thinking is cruelly suppressed as opposed to the big status quo power where ‘comfort’ levels prevalent in society tolerate deviationist and innovative thinking
Full review here
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Nostalgia compensates for a lost world
Rita Kothari has done great service in translating stories of Partition from Sindhi language, of which there has been no serious acknowledgment so far. This indeed has been the fate of the Sindhis themselves, who, although deeply affected by Partition, neither got to be heard significantly nor did they get any place of their own for their language and culture to flourish.
Sindhis on either side of the border suffered various kinds of losses — material, psychological, and spiritual. Some of them get articulated in in this collection.
Alive
“Perhaps of all Partition migrants,” says the translator, “the Sindhis have willed themselves to forget Partition most successfully.” This was as though an engineered forgetfulness on the part of the majority that wished to invest itself in business enterprise rather than indulge in a “crippling” nostalgia. But then, some of them, the writers, did not restrain themselves from giving voice to the “unspoken.” They articulate the silence and sensitively portray the lived reality rather than repress it. Nostalgia it may well be, but what lies behind this sentiment cannot be dismissed as mere sentimentalism. As the translator points out in his note: nostalgia can be seen as compensation for a world lost to the Sindhis.
When seen through Kothari's perspective presented in the “Introduction”, the stories come alive in the specific Sindhi context. What makes the Sindhi experience of Partition different?
She goes on to identify the reasons for the departures: the geographical position of Sindh, its “cultural isolation”, Hindu-Muslim economic interdependence, and so on.
Full report here The Hindu
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