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The Partition of India, 1947 (Hinduism)

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  1. Introduction
  2.  
  3. The Partition of India in 1947 is one of the most significant events in South Asian history. It refers to the political division of the Indian subcontinent that marked the end of British colonial rule in the region. There were three partitions in 1947—of British India and of the provinces of Bengal and Punjab—that created the new nation-states of India and a spatially fragmented West and East Pakistan. While the end of the Second World War, political outcomes of the provincial elections in 1946 and contingency were factors, long-term organizing efforts of communal organizations, both Hindu and Muslim, were also critical in influencing the events course and impact on these groups. Partition also evokes the horrific mass communal violence among Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs and resulted in the largest forced migrations in the history of the 20th century and resulted in horrific mass violence. While numbers vary, most estimates note the death toll around one million. Between 1946 and 1965, nearly nine million Hindus and Sikhs moved into India and approximately five million Muslims moved to both parts of Pakistan, resulting in massive displacement and making refugee rehabilitation one of the primary agendas in post-1947 restructuring in India and Pakistan. Partition as the twin facet of freedom remains a momentous event within the South Asian popular imagination, reinforced by family and personal memories of violence, exile, movement, and resettlement.
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  5. General Overviews
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  7. Works on the Partition are many. They range from historical monographs, edited volumes focused on different aspects of the Partition process, collections of official documents, fictional writings and first-person narratives, literary analyses of both fiction and film, and memoirs. These works can generally be divided into three broad categories—those that look at why Partition happened (see Politics of Partition and Politics of Religious Identities); those that look at what happened at Partition (see Experience of Partition); and those that focus on the aftermath and how Partition impacted post-1947 social, cultural, and political developments in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh (See Aftermath: India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh). Although writing on the Partition emerged within a couple of years after 1947 (See Memoirs and First-Person Narratives), historical scholarship, as is found in Philips and Wainwright 1970, on the endgames, beginning to emerge from the 1970s, of empire and the Partition. Fueled by the publication of the multivolume The Transfer of Power 1942–1947 (London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1970–1983), these narratives focused on high politics and tended to view Partition as part of a British decolonization process or as the outcome of a communal national divide that had been a constant part of India’s anti-colonial nationalist movement. Mehrotra 1979 highlights the role of the Indian Congress within the paradigm of Indian challenge and British response. Hasan 1993 ascribes Muslim separatism under the aegis of the Muslim League to a series of miscalculations on the part of the Congress ministries. In recent years, the focus has shifted to the human experience of Partition. While several scholars provide a focused examination of the experiential aspect of the Partition process, the authors of Khan 2007, Tan and Kudaisya 2008, and Talbot and Singh 2009 attempt to bring together a wide range of experiences and impacts under the rubric of their general overviews. Low and Brasted 1998 focuses on popular perceptions and subjective psychological experiences.
  8.  
  9. Hasan, Mushirul. India’s Partition: Process, Strategy, and Mobilization. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1993.
  10.  
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  12.  
  13. A collection of essays that examine the events leading up to the Partition and to the birth of Pakistan. In addition to secondary articles, it contains a range of contemporary documents such as speeches by Jawaharlal Nehru, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, and Gandhi, and an excellent annotated bibliography.
  14.  
  15. Find this resource:
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  17.  
  18. Khan, Yasmin. The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007.
  19.  
  20. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  21.  
  22. One of the few introductory monographs that provide a good overview of the Partition as a process of decolonization. The book uses archival records in conjunction with anecdotal evidence to examine the multiple meanings of independence and Partition. The work’s primary focus is on civil servants, party workers, volunteers connected with refugee rehabilitation, and social activists and how these ordinary men and women shaped government practices.
  23.  
  24. Find this resource:
  25.  
  26.  
  27. Low, D. A., and Howard Brasted. Freedom, Trauma, Continuities: Northern India and Independence. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 1998.
  28.  
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  30.  
  31. Pioneering set of essays that focus on the 1940s in British India and the run-up to the Partition. The major themes include economic policy, ethnic violence, mass migrations, and the integration of the Princely States. Through the use of a comparative framework between Punjab and Bengal, the book provides the reader an excellent overview of the heterogeneity of the Partition in different regions and contexts.
  32.  
  33. Find this resource:
  34.  
  35.  
  36. Mansergh, Nicholas, and Penderel Moon. The Transfer of Power, 1942–7. Vols. 1–7. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1977.
  37.  
  38. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  39.  
  40. An invaluable collection of primary source documents that should be the first stop for any researcher on the political history of Partition. Beginning with the Cripps Mission in 1942, the twelve volumes contain letters, memos, policy papers, and detailed minutes of meetings between various British and Indian leaders.
  41.  
  42. Find this resource:
  43.  
  44.  
  45. Mehrotra, S. R. Towards India’s Freedom and Partition. New Delhi: Vikas, 1979.
  46.  
  47. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  48.  
  49. One of the first comprehensive examinations of the high politics of the Indian anti-colonial struggle, highlighting the role of the Indian National Congress. The thirteen essays together make the argument that Partition was an unavoidable tragedy.
  50.  
  51. Find this resource:
  52.  
  53.  
  54. Philips, C. H., and Mary Doreen Wainwright. The Partition of India: Policies and Perspectives, 1935–1947. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1970.
  55.  
  56. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  57.  
  58. One of the earliest academic works on the Partition, published between the publications of the Transfer of Power volumes. It contains wide-ranging articles and first-person narratives from participants in the high politics of the 1940s.
  59.  
  60. Find this resource:
  61.  
  62.  
  63. Talbot, Ian, and Gurharpal Singh. The Partition of India. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
  64.  
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  66.  
  67. A recent addition to the Partition corpus, it provides an excellent overview of both the high politics and the impact of the Partition process on ordinary people. It also examines the continuing legacies of the Partition within South Asia, with a focus on India and Pakistan relations.
  68.  
  69. Find this resource:
  70.  
  71.  
  72. Tan, Tai Yong, and Gyanesh Kudaisya. Partition and Post-Colonial South Asia: A Reader. London: Routledge, 2008.
  73.  
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  75.  
  76. An introductory collection of essays in three volumes that provides the reader with the different dimensions of the Partition process and its experience by the general population.
  77.  
  78. Find this resource:
  79.  
  80.  
  81. Politics of Partition
  82.  
  83. The reasons why Partition happened comprise a substantial section of the academic literature on the Partition. Understandably, this wealth of literature has fueled debates among scholars who argue for a range of reasons that made Partition “inevitable.” The analyses have tended to focus on high politics, both at the national and regional level, and on the work of social and religious organizations (see Politics of Religious Identities) in communalizing identities in the decades before 1947. Political explanations have tended to emphasize, singularly or in conjunction, the role of the Muslim League, the Indian National Congress, and the British. The demand for Pakistan is seen by most of these scholars as an influential political issue that provided the Muslim League a rallying point in the 1940s. Page 1982 traces the long-term politics after the communal award that provided support to Muslim communal politics and thereby the growth in the popularity of the Pakistan demand. While Wolpert 1984 credits Jinnah with single-handedly creating Pakistan, Jalal 1985 argues that the demand for Pakistan was a tactical strategy for Jinnah and was not driven by any Islamic agenda. The focus on regional politics rather than primarily on the national arena from the 1980s has provided a more nuanced understanding of the distinctive politics in Bengal and Punjab. Singh 1987 shows that the Pakistan demand found popularity only in 1946, both at the regional and national level. Talbot 1988 shows that the Muslim League did not have much support in the regions of Bengal and Punjab and that lack of support contributed to the League’s political decline after 1947 in these regions. Umar 1987 laments the inability of the federal authorities to resolve the communal problem in Bengal, which in the author’s view, led to the Partition. Gilmartin 1988 studies how the Pakistan Movement grew out of inherent political and social tensions generated by British administrative reforms and understandings of community within Indian Muslims. Chatterji 1994 makes a unique case for Hindu communalism as the driving force between communal politics in Bengal. Rashid 2003 looks at high politics in the Bengal Provincial Muslim League to show that political splits with the All India Muslim League were apparent much before the Partition. Roy 2009 examines popular opinion to show that the Partition was a contingent affair rather than an inevitable outcome.
  84.  
  85. Chatterji, Joya. Bengal Divided: Hindu Communalism and Partition, 1932–1947. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
  86.  
  87. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511563256Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  88.  
  89. Looks at high politics in Bengal between the Communal Award and the Partition and traces a history of Bengali Hindu bhadralok (civilized middle class) communalism, which urged for the division of India and of Bengal. Argues for a shift from nationalism to communalism—from the 1930s.
  90.  
  91. Find this resource:
  92.  
  93.  
  94. Gilmartin, David. Empire and Islam: Punjab and the Making of Pakistan. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988.
  95.  
  96. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  97.  
  98. Focuses on the interaction of the British and local Islamic leadership groups in Punjab and argues that this interaction provided the basis for the Pakistan Movement. The book contends that while the British created a political system based on the Islamic community with its traditional structures of patronage and hierarchy, they were unable to provide an Islamic center to this system. By the beginning of the 20th century, this lack was accentuated by emerging electoral politics that provided the basis for the demand for Pakistan.
  99.  
  100. Find this resource:
  101.  
  102.  
  103. Jalal, Ayesha. The Sole Spokesman: Jinnah, the Muslim League, and the Demand for Pakistan. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
  104.  
  105. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511558856Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  106.  
  107. Going against the established understandings in the 1980s about Muslim communal politics, this book contends that Jinnah used the demand for Pakistan as a political strategy rather than actually wanting a division of British India. Argues that Islam was not the driving force behind the creation of Pakistan.
  108.  
  109. Find this resource:
  110.  
  111.  
  112. Page, David. Prelude to Partition: The Indian Muslims and the Imperial System of Control, 1920–1932. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1982.
  113.  
  114. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  115.  
  116. Provides a long-term structural analysis of Muslim politics in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab from the Montague Chelmsford Reforms of 1920 to the Communal Award of 1932. Argues that Muslim communal politics was an unintended consequence of British initiatives toward devolution of power and constitutional reform. Partition was thus a long-term consequence of such politics.
  117.  
  118. Find this resource:
  119.  
  120.  
  121. Rashid, Harun Or. The Foreshadowing of Bangladesh Bengal Muslim League and Muslim Politics, 1906–1947. Dhaka, Bangladesh: University Press, 2003.
  122.  
  123. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  124.  
  125. Focuses on the tensions between national and regional high politics of the All India and the Bengal Muslim league. It argues that the Muslim League found support only in the 1940s by subverting the project of an independent Bengal.
  126.  
  127. Find this resource:
  128.  
  129.  
  130. Roy, Haimanti. “A Partition of Contingency? Public Discourse in Bengal, 1946–1947.” Modern Asian Studies 43.6 (2009): 1355–1384.
  131.  
  132. DOI: 10.1017/S0026749X08003788Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  133.  
  134. Looks at Bengali public discourse in the immediate months preceding the Partition and offers a counter-narrative to the “inevitability” of the Partition. Even in early 1947, popular opinion reflected hopes of multiple political outcomes rather than just being for or against Partition.
  135.  
  136. Find this resource:
  137.  
  138.  
  139. Singh, Anita Inder. The Origins of the Partition of India, 1936–1947. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1987.
  140.  
  141. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  142.  
  143. Points out that Partition was not inevitable, primarily because the Indian Muslims were heterogeneous as the Indian Hindus. It was only after the Second World War that Muslim leadership both at the regional and national level found popular supports in their demand for Pakistan and Partition.
  144.  
  145. Find this resource:
  146.  
  147.  
  148. Talbot, Ian. Provincial Politics and the Pakistan Movement: The Growth of the Muslim League in North-West and North-East India, 1937–1947. Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1988.
  149.  
  150. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  151.  
  152. Moves away from looking at All India Muslim politics alone and traces the growth of the League in Bengal and Punjab. Uses a mixture of secondary and primary sources to explain that the idea of Pakistan was not widely accepted in these regions.
  153.  
  154. Find this resource:
  155.  
  156.  
  157. Umar, Badruddin. Bangabhanga o Sampradayika Rajaniti. Calcutta: Cirayata Prakasana, 1987.
  158.  
  159. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  160.  
  161. This book (The partition of Bengal and communal politics) is an in-depth analysis of the communalization of Bengal politics in Bengali by a prominent historian in Bangladesh. It argues that only a genuinely democratic federal solution could have prevented the partition of Bengal. Blames the Congress, the League, and the British equally for the division.
  162.  
  163. Find this resource:
  164.  
  165.  
  166. Wolpert, Stanley A. Jinnah of Pakistan. New York: Oxford University Press, 1984.
  167.  
  168. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  169.  
  170. A biographical work on the Father of Pakistan that focuses on his private and public life. It shows Jinnah to be shrewd, politically savvy, tenacious, and concerned only with the creation of nation for Muslims.
  171.  
  172. Find this resource:
  173.  
  174.  
  175. Politics of Religious Identities
  176.  
  177. Partition as the inevitable outcome of a clash of Hindu and Muslim communities, which were distinct and irreconcilable by 1947, no longer find academic credibility, although popular understandings of the event rehearse such ideas periodically. Scholarship have focused instead on long-term trends in communalization of identities from the 1920s. The crystalization of religious identities amongst Hindus and Muslims through British policies; activities of social and religious reform organizations; the development of neo-Hinduism, which tested the secular aspirations of anti-colonial nationalism; and the religious and secular aspirations of the demand for Pakistan are a few ways in which scholars have offered new understanding of the interface between religion and politics before Partition. While these works do not particularly address the event of Partition directly, they are useful in understanding the mentalities of the decades before and within the long-term development of political Hinduism and Islam and regional and religious identities. The works help us counter the arguments for “inevitability” and “suddenness” of the Partition. Pandey 1990 argues that communal identities were modern constructions, which grew in tandem with nationalist ideas and were a consequence of colonial policies rather than age-old distinctions between Hindus and Muslims. Several scholarly works have focused on the communalization of the Muslim peasantry in Bengal. While Hashmi 1992 analyzes the roles of class and religion, Datta 1999 shows that projects of Muslim self-improvement often were along anti-Hindu lines but the possibility of alternative forms of solidarity around language and region existed until the 1920s. Nair 2011 critiques the association of the Partition demand with Muslims and points out that by the 1940s some Punjab Hindus also preferred Partition to being part of a Muslim-majority Pakistan. Jaffrelot 1998 highlights the role of militant Hindu nationalism in solidifying communal identities in colonial and postcolonial India. Tejani 2008 and Adcock 2013 question the ideas of secularism and tolerance within mainstream nationalist and Hindu politics to show how those ideas influenced the formation of national identities. Also see the Politics of Religious Identities section for more on the development of Hindu nationalism.
  178.  
  179. Adcock, Cassie. The Limits of Tolerance: Indian Secularism and the Politics of Religious Freedom. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.
  180.  
  181. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199995431.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  182.  
  183. A study of the Arya Samaj’s activities in northern India in the 1920s. It traces colonial debates on religious freedom in order to examine the discourse of tolerance and secularism. Argues that the ideal of tolerance emerged as a solution to divisive politics of religion but was also responsible for framing majority-Hindu identities.
  184.  
  185. Find this resource:
  186.  
  187.  
  188. Datta, Pradip Kumar. Carving Blocs: Communal Ideology in Twentieth Century Bengal. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1999.
  189.  
  190. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  191.  
  192. A complex argument on the development of Hindu and Muslim communal consciousness in early-20th-century Bengal. Datta argues that while Hindu and Muslim community-identity formations were in dialogue with one another, these were also fluid and were often undercut by the potential for other kinds of community identity based on language, class, and culture.
  193.  
  194. Find this resource:
  195.  
  196.  
  197. Hashmi, Taj ul-Islam. Pakistan as a Peasant Utopia: The Communalization of Class Politics in East Bengal, 1920–1947. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1992.
  198.  
  199. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  200.  
  201. By focusing on the Bengal peasantry and their support for Pakistan, Hashmi makes the point that Pakistan meant different things to different groups. Discusses how religion and ethnicity played significant roles in communalizing the Bengal peasantry and aligning them with their rich co-religionists against Hindu landlords.
  202.  
  203. Find this resource:
  204.  
  205.  
  206. Jaffrelot, Christophe. The Hindu Nationalist Movement in India. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998.
  207.  
  208. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  209.  
  210. A comprehensive and detailed look at the evolution and progress of the Hindu nationalist movement in India since the 1920s. Focuses on the Hindu Mahasabha, the Rashtriya Sywamsevak Sangh, and the Bharatiya Janata Party to examine the development of militant Hinduism.
  211.  
  212. Find this resource:
  213.  
  214.  
  215. Nair, Neeti. Changing Homelands: Hindu Politics and the Partition of India. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011.
  216.  
  217. DOI: 10.4159/harvard.9780674061156Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  218.  
  219. Shifts the discussion on causation from inevitability of the Partition by examining the potential for different political outcomes in the province of Punjab. Focuses on Punjabi Hindu politics and argues that powerful Hindu Punjabis preferred the Partition.
  220.  
  221. Find this resource:
  222.  
  223.  
  224. Pandey, Gyanendra. The Construction of Communalism in Colonial North India. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1990.
  225.  
  226. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  227.  
  228. Classic work that focuses on growth of community identity in late-19th and early-20th-century northern India. It clearly shows how British understandings of Indian society as composed of distinct communities affected British policies of rule. Pandey identifies the 1920s as when communalism and nationalism parted ways, primarily because of attempts to divest the nationalist public sphere of religious and community ties.
  229.  
  230. Find this resource:
  231.  
  232.  
  233. Tejani, Shabnam. Indian Secularism: A Social and Intellectual History. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008.
  234.  
  235. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  236.  
  237. Traces the sociopolitical trajectories of the concepts of secularism and communalism in British India and questions the dichotomy between these two concepts. Focuses on the development of Hindu and Muslim communal identities in colonial Maharashtra and Sind and argues that Indian secularism was the product of nationalist aspirations.
  238.  
  239. Find this resource:
  240.  
  241.  
  242. Experience of Partition
  243.  
  244. From the 1990s, there has been a shift in the writing on Partition, from high politics and causation to the human dimension and what actually happened during Partition. These studies examine the experience of Partition along national, communal, and gendered lines. Partition in these studies comes across not as a singular event but as a process that continues to have long-term implications beyond 1947. Different themes of forced migration, refugee rehabilitation, violence and the specific experience of women, the making of borders and boundaries, and the ways in which memories of Partition impact ordinary lives of individuals and families as well as nations and states have been key in unearthing the experience of Partition.
  245.  
  246. Forced Migration (Displacement)
  247.  
  248. A major theme within the analysis of the human experience of the Partition has been to look at the migration of millions of Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs across the borders from and to India and Pakistan. The actual numbers of the displaced, as these migrants and refugees were termed, vary. The migration itself had regional differences: the western side of India witnessed a short and swift movement of refugees, while the eastern side had a protracted and chronic experience of human movement over two decades after 1947. Samaddar and Calcutta Research Group 1997 examines the different aspect of the Partition experience in the eastern front. Ghosh 1997 provides a rare analysis of the fate of Bihari Muslims who moved to East Pakistan. Rahman and Schendel 2003 urges for a distinct categorization of the displaced who crossed the India East Pakistan border. Ansari 2005 looks at the speedy demographic diversification of Sindh after the Partition. Zamindar 2007 focuses on the return of Muslims from India who had temporarily migrated to West Pakistan. Bharadwaj, et al. 2008 attempts to quantify the migratory flows in the western side.
  249.  
  250. Ansari, Sarah F. D. Life after Partition: Migration, Community and Strife in Sindh, 1947–1962. Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2005.
  251.  
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  253.  
  254. Looks at the local and regional policies of the Government of Pakistan in Sindh toward the refugees who migrated there from India. One of the few books to focus on the Partition experience at the regional level in Pakistan.
  255.  
  256. Find this resource:
  257.  
  258.  
  259. Bharadwaj, P., Asim Khwaja, and Atif Mian. “The Big March: Migratory Flows after the Partition of India.” Economic and Political Weekly 43.35 (30 August–5 September 2008): 39–49.
  260.  
  261. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  262.  
  263. Uses district-level census data to quantify the scale of migratory flows and estimate a total of 14.5 million inflow and 17.9 million outflow of people between India and Pakistan. This data implies that around 3.4 million people remain “missing.” Points out the regional variability of migration flows depended on the size of minority religious groups.
  264.  
  265. Find this resource:
  266.  
  267.  
  268. Ghosh, Papia. “Partition’s Biharis’ Comparative Studies of South Asia.” Africa and the Middle East 17.2 (1997): 21–34.
  269.  
  270. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  271.  
  272. A rare examination of the fate of Muslims in Bihar, which was a Muslim-minority region and had no hopes of joining Pakistan, and their demand for Pakistan. After Partition, most migrated to East Pakistan but could not assimilate. The creation of Bangladesh in 1971, Ghosh points out, made this group “stateless” due to their support of West Pakistan and lack of repatriation by the Pakistan state.
  273.  
  274. Find this resource:
  275.  
  276.  
  277. Rahman, Md. Mahabubar, and Willem van Schendel. “‘I Am not a Refugee’: Rethinking Partition Migration.” Modern Asian Studies 37.3 (2003): 551–584.
  278.  
  279. DOI: 10.1017/S0026749X03003020Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  280.  
  281. Well-written article that urges a re-examination of historiographical conventions regarding Partition migration by adopting a comparative and cross-border approach. Based on a number of oral interviews, it categorizes the different kinds of migrations—laborers, refugees, travelers—and how such categories impact the study of Partition migrations.
  282.  
  283. Find this resource:
  284.  
  285.  
  286. Samaddar, Ranabir, and Calcutta Research Group. Reflections on Partition in the East. Calcutta: Vikas, 1997.
  287.  
  288. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  289.  
  290. An early collection of essays that look at the Bengal experience through different lenses of history and memory, institutional politics, and refugee policies of both the West Bengal and Indian State.
  291.  
  292. Find this resource:
  293.  
  294.  
  295. Zamindar, Vazira Fazila-Yacoobali. The Long Partition and the Making of Modern South Asia: Refugees, Boundaries, Histories. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007.
  296.  
  297. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  298.  
  299. Readable and based on original research using archival records, contemporary newspapers, and oral interviews. Zamindar argues that India and Pakistan’s post-Partition policies toward migrants across their mutual borders were interconnected. Consequently, they developed similar legal and administrative practices that created distinct categories of “refugees” and ”citizens.”
  300.  
  301. Find this resource:
  302.  
  303.  
  304. Refugee Rehabilitation
  305.  
  306. The scholarship on Partition refugees and their rehabilitation is distinctly divided into authors who focus on divided Bengal and those who focus on divided Punjab. The bulk of the writing on the refugees in divided Bengal has focused on two aspects. Bose 2000 and Chatterji 2009 all look at the differential schemes and resources offered by the Government of India toward Bengali refugees: resources that failed to rehabilitate most of those who crossed the border— the initiatives of the refugees inspired against all odds to rehabilitate themselves, and their contribution to the Left political movement in Bengal in the 1950s and 1960s. In another strand of writing, Guhathakurta 1997, Ghosh 1998, and Sen 2014 have focused on voices and identities of the middle-class Hindu refugees from East Pakistan to India and emphasize both their memories and their agency in recrafting their lives after Partition. Works on refugee experience in the West, as in Bengal, have also focused on the refugees’ rehabilitation and on India and Pakistan governments’ policies and politics in this regard. The primary difference in the nature of migration, chronic in the East and swift in the West, led to differential relief and rehabilitation measures by the Indian government in these regions. These actions led some like the author of Rao 1967 to contend that Punjabi refugees were “hardy” and a success story, while the Bengali refugees were “lazy” and thus responsible for the failure of the government’s rehabilitation policies in Bengal. While Kaur 2007 examines processes of integration of Punjabi and Sikh families in Delhi, Kothari 2007 focuses on Hindu Sindhis who migrated to Gujarat. Zamindar 2007 examines the creation of particular refugee policies, which depended on the evacuation of one community to accommodate the other, in India and Pakistan. Chattha 2011 examines the resettlement of refugees from India and their interactions with the local populations in two cities of Pakistan, Gujranwala and Sialkot, after 1947.
  307.  
  308. Bose, P. K., ed. Refugees of West Bengal: Institutional Practices and Contested Identities. Calcutta: Calcutta Research Group, 2000.
  309.  
  310. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  311.  
  312. A collection of essays that focus on localized refugee politics and the impact of institutional policies on refugees from East Pakistan to India.
  313.  
  314. Find this resource:
  315.  
  316.  
  317. Chatterji, Joya. “Of Graveyards and Ghettos, Muslims in West Bengal, 1947–67.” In Living Together Separately: Cultural India in History and Politics. Edited by Mushirul Hasan and Asim Roy, 222–249. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2009.
  318.  
  319. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  320.  
  321. An interesting account of internal migrations of Muslims in Bengal after Partition, migrations that changed the demographic profile of this community in West Bengal. The author shows how post-partition political imperatives in West Bengal forced Muslims into Muslim-dominated enclaves, leading to impoverishment and alienation from mainstream Hindu groups.
  322.  
  323. Find this resource:
  324.  
  325.  
  326. Chattha, Ilyas. Partition and Locality: Violence, Migration, and Development in Gujranwala and Sialkot, 1947–1961. Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2011.
  327.  
  328. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  329.  
  330. Particular focus on the economic and urban development of Gujranwala and Sialkot through the interactions between refugees from India and the local populations of these cities. Uses low-level official records such as police first-information reports at the district level to provide a micro study of resettlement. Chattha argues that both cities actually “gained” from the Partition displacement.
  331.  
  332. Find this resource:
  333.  
  334.  
  335. Ghosh, Gautam. “‘God Is a Refugee’: Nationality, Morality and History in the 1947 Partition of India.” Social Analysis 42.1 (1998): 33–62.
  336.  
  337. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  338.  
  339. Analyzes the role of household religious practice in the nationalism of the bhadralok—Bengali Hindu middle class—before, during, and after 1947. Examines the implications of moving household lineage deities during Partition migration for national and family histories.
  340.  
  341. Find this resource:
  342.  
  343.  
  344. Guhathakurta, Meghna. “Understanding the Bengal Partition through Reconstructing Family Histories: A Case Study.” The Journal of Social Studies 76 (April 1997): 56–65.
  345.  
  346. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  347.  
  348. A rare cross-border study of the experience of Partition on a Hindu family in East Pakistan and Muslim family in India. The article uses oral interviews of family members as its primary source.
  349.  
  350. Find this resource:
  351.  
  352.  
  353. Kaur, Ravinder. Since 1947: Partition Narratives among Punjabi Migrants of Delhi. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2007.
  354.  
  355. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195683776.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  356.  
  357. An excellent micro study of resettlement of Hindus and Sikhs from West Punjab to Delhi. The book outlines their experiences thematically along lines of displacement, loss, and resettlement and their integration within India. Contains a large number of refugee voices in the form of guided oral interviews.
  358.  
  359. Find this resource:
  360.  
  361.  
  362. Kothari, Rita. Burden of Refuge: Partition Experiences of the Sindhis of Gujarat. Chennai: Orient Blackswan, 2007.
  363.  
  364. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  365.  
  366. Examines the migration of Hindus from Sindh to Gujarat and their consequent loss of linguistic identity. Through an examination of personal narratives argues that the Sindhis in Gujarat became a model immigrant community but in the process they denied their Sindhi identity in favor of a monolithic Gujarati Hindu identity.
  367.  
  368. Find this resource:
  369.  
  370.  
  371. Rao, U. Bhaskar. The Story of Rehabilitation. Delhi: Government of India, 1967.
  372.  
  373. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  374.  
  375. A problematic semi-official account of the relief and rehabilitation measures of the Indian Government for the refugees from West Pakistan. Compares refugees from West Pakistan favorably to those who came from East Pakistan and blames the failure of rehabilitation measures in Bengal on the intrinsic nature of the Bengali refugee.
  376.  
  377. Find this resource:
  378.  
  379.  
  380. Sen, Uditi. “The Myths Refugees Live By: Memory and History in the Making of Bengali Refugee Identity.” Modern Asian Studies 48 (2014): 1–40.
  381.  
  382. DOI: 10.1017/S0026749X12000613Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  383.  
  384. Uses a case study of Bijoygarh, a refugee colony at the outskirts of Calcutta, to show that a refugee agency in recreating the lives of the displaced was molded by social status and cultural capital.
  385.  
  386. Find this resource:
  387.  
  388.  
  389. Zamindar, Vazira Fazila-Yacoobali. The Long Partition and the Making of Modern South Asia: Refugees, Boundaries, Histories. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007.
  390.  
  391. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  392.  
  393. Examines the experiences of displaced families in Delhi and Karachi and connects their narratives into a discussion of the changing logic of refugee policies in India and Pakistan.
  394.  
  395. Find this resource:
  396.  
  397.  
  398. Borders and Boundaries
  399.  
  400. Several works on the Partition experience have highlighted the creation, delineation, and impact of creating new international borders between India, West Pakistan, and East Pakistan. However, cross-border analysis is rare and scholars remain bounded by the very borders they examine. Chatterji 1999 examines the complexities of creating a border where maps are rare. Schendel 2002 focuses on the plight of enclaves, territories of one nation surrounded by another nation, along the Bengal border after 1947. Schendel 2005, looks at demographic, institutional, and cross-border exchanges in the Bengal borderland, to expand the understanding of the Partition experience comparatively in India and Bangladesh (East Pakistan). Chester 2009 provides an in-depth study of Cyril Radcliffe, the chair of the Boundary Commission deputed to craft the new borders. Cons 2012 provides a micro study of the lives of the inhabitants of one enclave, Dahagram, along the India-Bangladesh border.
  401.  
  402. Chatterji, Joya. “The Fashioning of a Frontier: The Radcliffe Line and Bengal’s Border Landscape, 1947–52.” Modern Asian Studies 33.1 (1999): 185–242.
  403.  
  404. DOI: 10.1017/S0026749X99003066Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  405.  
  406. Focuses on the complexities of creating an international border between India and East Pakistan. It details both top-down mechanisms of border making by focusing on the workings of the Bengal Boundary Commission and the bottom-up mechanisms by examining the impact of the border on the people of West Bengal.
  407.  
  408. Find this resource:
  409.  
  410.  
  411. Chester, Lucy. Borders and Conflict in South Asia: The Radcliffe Boundary Commission and the Partition of Punjab. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2009.
  412.  
  413. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  414.  
  415. Narrow but useful study of the working of the Radcliffe Boundary Commission in Punjab as a process of decolonization. Highlights the different objectives of Indian and Pakistani nationalists, and the British and international politics that contributed to the hasty, poorly organized plan for Partition and the making of new borders.
  416.  
  417. Find this resource:
  418.  
  419.  
  420. Cons, Jason. “Histories of Belonging(s): Narrating Territory, Possession, and Dispossession at the India-Bangladesh Border.” Modern Asian Studies 46.3 (May 2012): 527–558.
  421.  
  422. DOI: 10.1017/S0026749X11000722Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  423.  
  424. A micro-study of histories and memories of the inhabitants of Dahagram, an important enclave in the Indo-Bangladesh border.
  425.  
  426. Find this resource:
  427.  
  428.  
  429. Schendel, Willem van. “Stateless in South Asia: The Making of the India Bangladesh Enclaves.” Journal of Asian Studies 61.1 (February 2002): 115–147.
  430.  
  431. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  432.  
  433. A rare cross-border focus on nearly two hundred enclaves along the India Bangladesh border and the implications to the nation-states of India and Bangladesh. Schendel destabilizes the assumption that contiguous territories are basic criteria for nationhood and nationalism.
  434.  
  435. Find this resource:
  436.  
  437.  
  438. Schendel, Willem van. The Bengal Borderlands: Beyond State and Nation in South Asia. London: Anthem, 2005.
  439.  
  440. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  441.  
  442. Pioneering work that uses low-level official records and shifts the Partition discussion away from nation, states, and their borders to borderlands as units of analysis. Highlights the Partition experience by indicating that the Bengal borderland was the site of extraordinary economic activity, nationalist ideological reframing, and the negotiation of people at the periphery and their new nation-states.
  443.  
  444. Find this resource:
  445.  
  446.  
  447. Gender and Violence
  448.  
  449. The horrific mass violence that accompanied the Partition has been the focus of scholarly research from the late 1990s. The estimated dead range from half a million to a million. The violence in the Western Partition was cataclysmic and short lived, lasting a couple of years, while the Eastern Partition witnessed comparatively less violence and was routinized over the next decade. The experiences of women have been central within scholarly enquiry into the Partition experience. Women were not only victims of family, community, and national violence, but they were also active agents in remaking their lives after displacement, and were closely related to work of the both the voluntary and official rehabilitation efforts. Menon and Bhasin 1998 focuses on abducted Hindu and Muslim women and the policies implemented in India and Pakistan for their recovery. Gossman 1999 examines pre-Partition riots and concludes that rather than being spontaneous communal outbursts, they were highly organized and planned. Butalia 2000 highlights the fact that Hindu and Sikh women faced Partition violence differently from how their male counterparts did. Pandey 2001 examines the different ways in which communities and nations remember the Partition violence and its implication in nationalist mythmaking. Brass 2003 argues for redefinition of Partition violence as “genocide.” Das 2007 problematizes collective violence through a study of what happened at Partition. Bagchi and Ghosh 2009 showcases women’s experiences in the Bengal Partition and highlights women’s roles in triumphing against all odds. Similarly, Virdee 2011 examines Muslim women’s experiences in recreating their lives after their migration from India to Pakistan.
  450.  
  451. Bagchi, Jasodhara, and Subhasri Ghosh. The Trauma and the Triumph: Gender and Partition in Eastern India. Kolkata: Stree, 2009.
  452.  
  453. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  454.  
  455. Contains primary source excerpts, plays, personal memoirs, literary texts, and films centered on the Bengal Partition. Makes the case that the Partition narrative here was different from that of Punjab and although women were victims of violence and patriarchal oppression during the Partition, they were also agents of change within their families and communities.
  456.  
  457. Find this resource:
  458.  
  459.  
  460. Brass, Paul R. “The Partition of India and Retributive Genocide in the Punjab, 1946–47: Means, Methods, and Purposes 1.” Journal of Genocide Research 5.1 (2003): 71–101.
  461.  
  462. DOI: 10.1080/14623520305657Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  463.  
  464. Well-argued analysis of forms of collective violence, with a focus on the Punjab massacres in 1947. Rather than seeing the Partition-related violence as a series of communal riots, Brass urges rethinking the violence as a genocide of retributive nature in which culpability became universal.
  465.  
  466. Find this resource:
  467.  
  468.  
  469. Butalia, Urvashi. The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2000.
  470.  
  471. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  472.  
  473. Pioneering work that places the experiences of ordinary citizens at the center of the analysis on Partition violence through a series of personal interviews of both victims and perpetrators of Partition violence. Butalia makes a convincing case for the gendered nature of violence and points out that women faced violence not only from the “other” community but also from males of their own family.
  474.  
  475. Find this resource:
  476.  
  477.  
  478. Das, Veena. Life and Words: Violence and the Descent into the Ordinary. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007.
  479.  
  480. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  481.  
  482. An anthropological inquiry, through case studies of the 1947 riots and Sikh riots of 1984, that examines how collective violence affects everyday life.
  483.  
  484. Find this resource:
  485.  
  486.  
  487. Gossman, Patricia. Riots and Victims: Violence and the Construction of Communal Identity among Bengali Muslims, 1905–1947. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1999.
  488.  
  489. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  490.  
  491. Looks at violence between Hindus and Muslims in pre-Partition Bengal. Makes the argument that rather than long-term animosities, such violence was orchestrated by mid-level politicians for their own advancement and power.
  492.  
  493. Find this resource:
  494.  
  495.  
  496. Menon, Ritu, and Kamla Bhasin. Borders and Boundaries: Women in India’s Partition. New Delhi: Kali, 1998.
  497.  
  498. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  499.  
  500. Pathbreaking work that focus on abducted women and their repatriation by the new nation- states of India and Pakistan. Through firsthand accounts and memoirs, juxtaposed with official government accounts, the book examines how women were involved within the self- fashioning of community, family, and nations.
  501.  
  502. Find this resource:
  503.  
  504.  
  505. Pandey, Gyanendra. Remembering Partition Violence, Nationalism, and History in India. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
  506.  
  507. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511613173Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  508.  
  509. A readable examination of Partition violence and its shifting meanings. Pandey analyzes the formation of a different kind of political community and the nationalization of populations and history through the constitution and reconstitution of memories of Partition and its attendant violence.
  510.  
  511. Find this resource:
  512.  
  513.  
  514. Virdee, Pippa. “Negotiating the Past: Journey through Muslim Women’s Experience of Partition and Resettlement in Pakistan.” Cultural and Social History 6.4 (2011): 467–483.
  515.  
  516. DOI: 10.2752/147800409X466290Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  517.  
  518. Article presents women who migrated from India to Pakistan not just as victims but also as positive agents of change. Uses testimonies and newspaper accounts in conjunction with official documents to uncover the voices of Muslim women during Partition.
  519.  
  520. Find this resource:
  521.  
  522.  
  523. Memory
  524.  
  525. Scholars have been able to get at the experience of Partition by mining literary texts and film representations. Oral interviews and contemporary writings by individuals who lived through the Partition process also provide significant sources for understanding the human dimension of Partition. Chakrabarty 1996 analyzes the memories of homeland through the writings of a group of educated Bengali refugees. Kumar 1999 focuses on key literary texts to show the continuing legacies of 1947. Didur 2006 uses literary representations to examine women’s silences regarding Partition’s sectarian violence. Sarkar 2009 and Menon 2013 look at films representing the Partition as alternative testimonies to comprehend the memory of Partition. Saint 2010 emphasizes the multiplicity of the Partition experience.
  526.  
  527. Chakrabarty, Dipesh. “Remembered Villages: Representations of Hindu-Bengali Memories in the Aftermath of the Partition.” Economic and Political Weekly 31.32 (10 August 1996): 2143–2151.
  528.  
  529. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  530.  
  531. Examines a set of essays by Bengali Hindu refugees that were serialized in the Bengali newspaper Jugantar and later compiled in a book called Chere Aasha Gram (The abandoned village). Convincingly shows that while these memories created an idealized and idyllic pastoral homeland where the Muslim was not excluded, the actual home was imagined as specifically Hindu.
  532.  
  533. Find this resource:
  534.  
  535.  
  536. Didur, Jill. Unsettling Partition: Literature, Gender, Memory. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006.
  537.  
  538. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  539.  
  540. Uses literary texts, personal testimonies, short stories, novels, and official documents to examine the silences in women’s accounts about violence. Makes a case that such silence was the result of women being unable to find a language to articulate their experiences without bringing up metaphors of purity and pollution. Thus such silences can be seen as critiques of patriarchal modernity.
  541.  
  542. Find this resource:
  543.  
  544.  
  545. Kumar, Priya. “Testimonies of Loss and Memory: Partition and the Haunting of a Nation.” Interventions 1.2 (1999): 200–215.
  546.  
  547. DOI: 10.1080/13698019900510311Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  548.  
  549. Article focuses on three post-Partition testimonies—Amitav Ghosh’s Shadowlines, Qurratulain Hyder’s Sita Haran, and Shyam Benegal’s film Mammo. Kumar argues that all these representations hinge on the Partition in ways that emphasize the continuing memories of Partition.
  550.  
  551. Find this resource:
  552.  
  553.  
  554. Menon, Jisha. The Performance of Nationalism: India, Pakistan, and the Memory of Partition. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2013.
  555.  
  556. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  557.  
  558. Looks at the performances of nationalism in the wake of the creation of India and Pakistan such as the Wagah border ceremonies, performance of folk theaters themed on Partition and films by Ritwick Ghatak and M. S. Sathyu. Emphasizes that these representations or performances indicate that India and Pakistan are far from being insular and opposed.
  559.  
  560. Find this resource:
  561.  
  562.  
  563. Saint, K. Tarun. Witnessing Partition: Memory, History, Fiction. Delhi: Routledge, 2010.
  564.  
  565. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  566.  
  567. Examines Partition literature primarily from the Western Partition from the 1940s till the 1990s as testimonies to the multiplicity of the Partition experience.
  568.  
  569. Find this resource:
  570.  
  571.  
  572. Sarkar, Bhaskar. Mourning the Nation: Indian Cinema in the Wake of Partition. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2009.
  573.  
  574. DOI: 10.1215/9780822392217Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  575.  
  576. Discusses how current cinematic memorializations of 1947 are influenced both by economic liberalization and the rise of Hindu chauvinism. Ghosh looks at both Hindu and Bengali commercial television and films about the Partition and suggests that the Partition remains a wound in the collective mind of South Asia. Furthermore, its representations on screen enable forms of historical engagement that are largely opaque to standard historiography.
  577.  
  578. Find this resource:
  579.  
  580.  
  581. Aftermath: India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh
  582.  
  583. Recent scholarship has begun to extend our understanding of the Partition experience by looking at both its short- and long-term impact. In the short term, Bandyopadhyay 2009, Chatterji 2007, Kaul 2001, Roy 2012, and Talbot 2006 analyze India and Pakistan’s policies toward their new citizens, minorities, and refugees, and how these new citizens negotiated and remade their lives with or without official help. Innovative works such as Schendel 2005 focus on the creation of borderlands, with their unique economies and cultures, on the impact of major demographic change on divided cities and on the ways in which ordinary citizens became nationalized and categorized as Indians, Pakistanis, refugees, aliens, and migrants. Hasan and Nakazato 2001 and Tan and Kudaisya 2002 focus on long-term effects of the Partition to examine its impact on India Pakistan and Bangladesh political relations and the unraveling of the situation in Kashmir. Ghosh 2007 looks at Partition-generated diaspora and its impact on the politics and culture in India and Pakistan.
  584.  
  585. Bandyopadhyay, Sekhar. Decolonization in South Asia: Meanings of Freedom in Post-Independence West Bengal, 1947–52. London: Routledge, 2009.
  586.  
  587. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  588.  
  589. An in-depth look at the different meanings of freedom and how ordinary citizens through mass agitations and individual opinions in mass media contested these ideas of freedom and Partition in West Bengal.
  590.  
  591. Find this resource:
  592.  
  593.  
  594. Chatterji, Joya. The Spoils of Partition: Bengal and India, 1947–1967. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
  595.  
  596. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511497384Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  597.  
  598. A well-researched analysis of the process of Partition of Bengal and the succeeding tensions between regional political elites and the political agency of refugee groups in West Bengal. Connects the waning of the Bengal Congress with the rise of refugee politics and the Left.
  599.  
  600. Find this resource:
  601.  
  602.  
  603. Ghosh, Papiya. Partition and the South Asian Diaspora: Extending the Subcontinent. London: Routledge, 2007.
  604.  
  605. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  606.  
  607. A rare look at the global South Asian diaspora created and impacted by the Partition in South Asia. Examines the fate of Biharis and Sindhis through innovative mining of sources from government archives, literary texts, family histories, web postings, and contemporary news articles from across the globe.
  608.  
  609. Find this resource:
  610.  
  611.  
  612. Hasan, Mushirul, and Nariaki Nakazato. The Unfinished Agenda: Nation Building in South Asia. New Delhi: Manohar, 2001.
  613.  
  614. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  615.  
  616. Book based on the proceedings of a conference at the Institute of Oriental Culture in Tokyo in I999. The sixteen essays look at contested meanings of independence and Partition.
  617.  
  618. Find this resource:
  619.  
  620.  
  621. Kaul, Suvir, ed. Partitions of Memory: The Afterlife of the Division of India. New Delhi: Permanent Black, 2001.
  622.  
  623. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  624.  
  625. A collection of eight essays that examine a range of issues—children’s experience of the Partition, national monuments and how they evoke a historical past, letters from Partition survivors, Dalit claims for inclusion—in addition to the usual themes of uprooting, violence, and refugee rehabilitation.
  626.  
  627. Find this resource:
  628.  
  629.  
  630. Roy, Haimanti. Partitioned Lives: Migrants, Refugees and Citizens in India and Pakistan, 1947–65. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2012.
  631.  
  632. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  633.  
  634. Takes a trans-border look at the aftermath of the Bengal Partition and examines the processes that led to distinct categories of identities for those who moved across the new border and those who did not. The book focuses on ordinary citizens and low-level bureaucrats to untangle the contingency and arbitrariness within the formation of identities and nationhood and urges a rethinking of the Bengal Partition that continues to inform and shape high politics between India and Bangladesh.
  635.  
  636. Find this resource:
  637.  
  638.  
  639. Schendel, Willem van. The Bengal Borderland: Beyond State and Nation in South Asia. London: Anthem, 2005.
  640.  
  641. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  642.  
  643. Innovative book that looks at the impact of the partition in divided Bengal—how the border came into place along with new bureaucracies and technologies of border control, the evolution of smuggling, the theater of nationalism, and the plight of border crossers who not only faced fences and harassment but who could also be killed. Convincingly argues for an evolving relationship between the border and the nation and how they defined each other.
  644.  
  645. Find this resource:
  646.  
  647.  
  648. Talbot, Ian. Divided Cities: Partition and Its Aftermath in Lahore and Amritsar, 1947–1957. Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2006.
  649.  
  650. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  651.  
  652. A comparative study of the aftermath of Partition in the Punjabi cities of Lahore and Amritsar through an examination of the processes of violence, demographic transition, and physical reconstruction.
  653.  
  654. Find this resource:
  655.  
  656.  
  657. Tan, Tai Yong, and Gyanesh Kudaisya. The Aftermath of Partition in South Asia. London: Routledge, 2002.
  658.  
  659. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  660.  
  661. Examines the long-term effects of the Partition on the state and society in South Asia as well as on peoples, places, and institutions. Contains a range of articles that highlight the immediate experience of partition and long-term implications of having two new nation-states and their reflexive nationalist aspirations.
  662.  
  663. Find this resource:
  664.  
  665.  
  666. Memoirs and First-Person Narratives
  667.  
  668. Writing on the Partition began as early as 1947 itself, in the form of official inquiries, memoirs, and eyewitness accounts by British and Indian officials. These works primarily focus on the Partition experience in the West. While Campbell-Johnson 1953, Azad 1959, and Moon 1961 focus on the high politics of the decolonization process and the communal violence, Darling 1949 is about the experience of the division for ordinary people. Khosla 1989 focuses on the aftermath of riots and massacres almost immediately after the Partition. Most of these books have received a new lease on life as reprints became easily available to the public in South Asia in the late 1980s and 1990s. Their popularity confirms the idea that narratives of the Partition continue to capture and inform the public imagination. Recent recountings Bhalla 2006 and Talbot and Tatla 2006 highlight the experiences of those who survived and wrote about the Partition process.
  669.  
  670. Azad, Maulana Abul Kalam. India Wins Freedom: An Autobiographical Narrative. Bombay: Orient Longman, 1959.
  671.  
  672. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  673.  
  674. Although not a professional historian, Azad provides an impressionist view of the freedom struggle and events leading up to the Partition. Azad, who opposed the Partition on moral as well as material grounds, describes the Congress leadership critically. He requested that thirty pages of his book be released after his death and these were duly published in 1988.
  675.  
  676. Find this resource:
  677.  
  678.  
  679. Bhalla, Alok. Partition Dialogues: Memories of a Lost Home. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2006.
  680.  
  681. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  682.  
  683. Contains interviews with six well-known literary figures in India and Pakistan: Intizar Hussain, Krishna Sobti, Bhisham Sahni, Krishna Baldev Vaid, Kamleshwar, and Bapsi Sidhwa. These novelists, who have written extensively on the Partition, recount their memories of the process and its impact on their writing.
  684.  
  685. Find this resource:
  686.  
  687.  
  688. Campbell-Johnson, Alan. Mission with Mountbatten. New York: Dutton, 1953
  689.  
  690. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  691.  
  692. Written by Mountbatten’s Press attaché, it provides an insider’s view of the transfer of power between India and Britain. It does not evaluate Mountbatten critically and has certain obvious imperial biases.
  693.  
  694. Find this resource:
  695.  
  696.  
  697. Darling, M. L. At Freedom’s Door. London: Oxford University Press, 1949.
  698.  
  699. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  700.  
  701. An eyewitness cum travel account that focuses on the ordinary Indian experiences in 1947 and provides a rare look at the meanings of “freedom” on the ground.
  702.  
  703. Find this resource:
  704.  
  705.  
  706. Khosla, G. D. Stern Reckoning: A Survey of the Events Leading Up to and Following the Partition of India. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1989.
  707.  
  708. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  709.  
  710. It was first published in 1949 and is available due to a recent paperback edition. Provides a firsthand description of the riots and political events leading up to and during the Partition.
  711.  
  712. Find this resource:
  713.  
  714.  
  715. Moon, Penderel. Divide and Quit. London: Chatto and Windus, 1961.
  716.  
  717. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  718.  
  719. A classic firsthand account of the Partition by a member of the Indian Civil Service who was posted in Bahawalpur, Punjab. Moon describes the manifestations of communal frenzy, the British government’s efforts to curb it, and its ultimate breakdown.
  720.  
  721. Find this resource:
  722.  
  723.  
  724. Talbot, Ian, and Darshan Singh Tatla. Amritsar: Voices from between India and Pakistan. Greenford, London: Seagull, 2006.
  725.  
  726. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  727.  
  728. Contains twenty-five interviews that explore the experiences of Partition from ordinary citizens across communities and based in Amritsar.
  729.  
  730. Find this resource:
  731.  
  732.  
  733. Fiction
  734.  
  735. Literature has proved to be a rich source for accessing the human experience of Partition. These works began to be written in the immediate aftermath of the Partition, and their continued centrality and popularity is a reminder of Partition’s continuing significance. The authors transcend traditional national boundaries, and their depictions of the experience of uprooting, alienation, and exile faced by minorities and refugees; the trauma of Partition riots; and the gendered nature of violence have also transcended boundaries between India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. The list in this section is just a small sample of the rich corpus of literary works that are in Bengali, Hindi, Urdu, and English and that range from short stories and poems to plays and fictional depictions. Short stories (Bhalla 1994; Manto 1997; Bandyopadhyay 1992) evoke the abruptness of uprooting and the violence of the event itself. Longer works by authors who lived through the trauma of Partition (Singh 1956; Hosain 1961; Sidhwa 1991; Devi and Chatterjee 1995) provide first-person recollections through their fictional representations. Rushdie 1980 and Bandyopadhya 1971 are two of many representations of how the division affected people, identities, and the subsequent restructurings in alien “homelands.”
  736.  
  737. Bandyopadhya, Atin. Nilkantha Pakhir Khoje. Calcutta: Ruprekha, 1971.
  738.  
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  740.  
  741. Set in pre-Partition rural East Bengal, the novel (In search of the blue jay) chronicles the gradual destruction of a way of life during the rioting and violence that followed the Partition of Bengal.
  742.  
  743. Find this resource:
  744.  
  745.  
  746. Bandyopadhyay, Manabendra. Bhed Bibhed. Vols. 1 and 2. Calcutta: Dey’s, 1992.
  747.  
  748. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  749.  
  750. In Bengali, this book (Prejudice) is a significant collection of short stories narrating the experience of Partition from the eastern front.
  751.  
  752. Find this resource:
  753.  
  754.  
  755. Bhalla, Alok. Stories about the Partition of India. 4 vol. New Delhi: Indus, 1994.
  756.  
  757. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  758.  
  759. An extensive collection of stories centered on the Partition of India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan and featuring tales across all communities. The anthology’s fourth volume adds Bengali and Sindhi narratives to the corpus of Partition stories.
  760.  
  761. Find this resource:
  762.  
  763.  
  764. Devi, Jyotirmoyee, and Enakshi Chatterjee. Epar Ganga Opar Ganga. New Delhi: Kali for Women, 1995.
  765.  
  766. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  767.  
  768. A rare look at the impact of Partition on the life of a raped woman, Sutara, who refuses to be a victim and manages to shun social norms to remake her life in Delhi. Originally in Bengali, but translated into English (The river churning: A Partition novel).
  769.  
  770. Find this resource:
  771.  
  772.  
  773. Hosain, Attia. Sunlight on a Broken Column. London: Chatto and Windus, 1961.
  774.  
  775. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  776.  
  777. The narrative centers on how the Pakistan movement split a landed Muslim joint family in Lucknow along ideological lines and created irrational fears and uncertainties.
  778.  
  779. Find this resource:
  780.  
  781.  
  782. Manto, Sadat Hasan. Mottled Dawn: Fifty Sketches and Stories of Partition. Translated by Khalid Hasan, New Delhi: Penguin, 1997.
  783.  
  784. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  785.  
  786. Manto is considered one of the most prominent literary figures in Partition literature for his short stories depicting the arbitrariness of the Partition and impact of the violence and displacement on ordinary people. Although his stories were originally in Urdu, this collection provides an excellent translation of some of his classic short stories, like “Toba Tek Singh” and “Colder Than Ice.”
  787.  
  788. Find this resource:
  789.  
  790.  
  791. Rushdie, Salman. Midnight’s Children. New York: Knopf, 1980.
  792.  
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  794.  
  795. A well-known postcolonial literary text that employs magic realism to depict India’s decolonization and Partition process. The life of the protagonist, Saleem Sinai, follows and interacts with the paths taken by India’s post-1947 transitions.
  796.  
  797. Find this resource:
  798.  
  799.  
  800. Sidhwa, Bapsi. Cracking India: A Novel. Minneapolis: Milkweed Ed., 1991.
  801.  
  802. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  803.  
  804. Initially published as Ice Candy Man (1988) in English, the novel revolves around the lives of the citizens of Lahore in 1947. The narrative, told from the perspective of an eight-year-old Parsee girl, provides the reader with the irrationality of the Partition decision and the impact of such decisions on the people of Lahore. Deepa Mehta in 2000 made it into a film, Earth, 1947 (Mehta 1998, cited under Films).
  805.  
  806. Find this resource:
  807.  
  808.  
  809. Singh, Khushwant. Train to Pakistan. Bombay: India Book House 1956.
  810.  
  811. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  812.  
  813. An early and well-known recounting of the impact of Partition on a small village on the border of India and Pakistan. The novel was later made into a film of the same name.
  814.  
  815. Find this resource:
  816.  
  817.  
  818. Films
  819.  
  820. From early on, films represented the human experience of the Partition. They focused on the anguish of exile and the forced migration for both Hindus and Muslims, the trauma of violence; the plight of the refugees who had to remake their lives, often without much government or financial support; and the nationalization of identities. Film representations have often been based on the novels and plays written about the Partition. These films are predominantly produced in India and the West. A number of films examine the fate of those who refused to move (Sathyu 1973) and the fate of those who did move (Ghosh 1950, Ghatak 2000, and Ghatak 2009), while others examine in detail the trauma of uprooting and violence that accompanied the event (Nihalani 1987 and Dwivedi 2003). Mehta 1998 and Sumar 2003 question the religious and political basis of the Partition. Sharma 2001 questions the possibilities of cross-border relationships after Partition.
  821.  
  822. Dwivedi, Chandra Prakash, dir. Pinjar. London: Eros International, 2003.
  823.  
  824. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  825.  
  826. Based on a novella by Amtira Pritam, the narrative revolves around a Hindu girl who is abducted during 1947 and has to return to her abductor when her family refuses to accept her back.
  827.  
  828. Find this resource:
  829.  
  830.  
  831. Ghatak, Ritwik K., dir. Meghe Dhaka Tara. 1960. DVD. London: BFI, 2000.
  832.  
  833. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  834.  
  835. A masterpiece in Bengali (Cloud Capped Star), the film is about the travails of a refugee family from East Pakistan. The story revolves around the eldest daughter, Neeta, who becomes the sole provider and has to sacrifice her own wishes and desires.
  836.  
  837. Find this resource:
  838.  
  839.  
  840. Ghatak, Ritwik K., dir. Komal Gandhar. 1961. DVD. London: BFI, 2009.
  841.  
  842. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  843.  
  844. An allegorical tale in Bengali (E-Flat) of the Partition experience through the relationship between two struggling theater groups.
  845.  
  846. Find this resource:
  847.  
  848.  
  849. Ghosh, Nemai, dir. Chinnamul. Calcutta, 1950.
  850.  
  851. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  852.  
  853. First Indian film in Bengali (The Uprooted) focused on the Partition experience. With an impressive cast drawn from Indian People’s Theater Association members such as Bijon Bhattacharya, Ritwick Ghatak and Shobha Sen, the story revolves around a group of farmers from East Pakistan who were forced to migrate to Calcutta.
  854.  
  855. Find this resource:
  856.  
  857.  
  858. Mehta, Deepa, dir. Earth, 1947. DVD. New York: New Yorker Video, 1998.
  859.  
  860. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  861.  
  862. The film, part of a trilogy by Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta, follows the love story of a Hindu maid and a Muslim man in Lahore around 1947. The story, based on Bapsi Sidhwa’s Cracking India (Sidhwa 1991, cited under Fiction), is narrated by an eight-year-old Parsi girl, Lenny.
  863.  
  864. Find this resource:
  865.  
  866.  
  867. Nihalani, Govind, dir. Tamas. Bombay: Blaze Entertainment, 1987.
  868.  
  869. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  870.  
  871. A serialized television show (Darkness) that was shown in the Indian national television as a miniseries in 1988. Based on a novel of the same name by Bisham Sahni, the plot focuses on the emigration of Hindu and Sikh families from Pakistan to India.
  872.  
  873. Find this resource:
  874.  
  875.  
  876. Sathyu, M. S., dir. Garam Hawa. Bombay, 1973.
  877.  
  878. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  879.  
  880. A classic representation (Hot winds) of the travails of a Muslim family in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, who made the choice to remain in India after 1947 and who have to face questions of loyalty and belonging as members of a minority group. Considered a landmark both within Partition films and Indian films in general.
  881.  
  882. Find this resource:
  883.  
  884.  
  885. Sharma, Anil, dir. Gadar Ek Prem Katha. DVD. Edison, NJ: Video Sound, 2001.
  886.  
  887. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  888.  
  889. A highly successful film (Gadar, a love story) on the Partition. Centers on the love between a Sikh man and a Muslim woman around the time of Partition.
  890.  
  891. Find this resource:
  892.  
  893.  
  894. Sumar, Sabhia, dir. Khamosh Pani. Karachi: Vidhi Films, 2003.
  895.  
  896. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  897.  
  898. The plot of this film (Silent waters), made by a Pakistani filmmaker, in Punjabi and English focuses on the life of Ayesha, an abducted woman of Sikh origin who has remade her life in a village in Pakistan. However, the past catches up with her when her son joins a group of Islamic radicals and a group of Sikh visitors come to her village to search for her.
  899.  
  900. Find this resource:
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