Looking Back: The 1947 Partition of India, 70 Years On
Contents: Introduction/Tarun K. Saint, Rakhshanda Jalil and Debjani Sengupta. Essays and Studies. 1. Cabinet mission reconsidered/Anil Nauriya. 2. In other words/Sameer Thomas. 3. Partition and Dalit politics: the figure of Jogendra Nath Mandal/Anwesha Sengupta. 4. A sepia-toned past: a photo album travels from Maghiana to Delhi/Aanchal Malhotra. 5. History, memory, genre: a critical reading of I too have seen Lahore and Milne Do from the anthology this side that side/Kajal Tehri and Asmat Jahan. 6. Photo-framed Installations: second and third generation narratives about the partition and the holocaust/Margit Koves. 7. Undoing partition: flight of utopian fantasies across borders/Ravikant. 8. Twins, but not identical: music in India and Pakistan/Vidya Rao. 9. Scripting an enclave’s marginal lives: Selina Hossain’s Bhumi O Kusum/Debjani Sengupta. 10. The absent presence: the partition in modern Urdu poetry/Rakhshanda Jalil. 11. Spaced: notes towards an exhibition/Salima Hashmi. Memoirs: 12. Inheriting the Hamam-dasta and its stories/Maya Mirchandani. 13. The sixth river: a journal from the time of the partition of India/Fikr Taunsvi; Translated from the Urdu Chhata Dariya, by Maaz Bin Bilal. 14. Dandakaranya: some memories in words/Saibal Kumar Gupta. 15. Orality of silence/Manas Ray. 16. Lahore reporting/Vishwajyoti Ghosh. Fiction: 17. Of lost stories/Anwar Ali; Translated from the Punjabi novel Gwacchiyan Gallan, to Urdu by Julien Columeau, and translated from the Urdu by Farha Noor. 18. People of God/Gurmukh Singh Musafir; Translated from the Punjabi short story Allah Wale, by Hina Nandrajog. 19. Nothing but the truth/Meera Sikri; Translated from the Hindi short story Saccho Sach, by Tarun K. Saint. 20. The other shore/Syed Muhammad Ashraf; Translated from the Urdu short story Doosra Kinara, by Rakhshanda Jalil. 21. The Echo/Zakia Mashhadi; Translated from the Urdu short story Sada-e Baazgasht, by Zakia Mashhadi. 22. God is great/Amena Nazli; Translated from the Urdu short story Allah-ho Akbar, by Asif Farrukhi. 23. A face to hate/Joya Mitra; Translated from the Bangla short story Ghrinar Samasya, by Joya Mitra. 24. Border stories/Sunanda Bhattacharya; Translated from the Bangla short story from Tripura, Borderer Golpo, by Debjani Sengupta. 25. Lost and found/Jhumur Pandey; Translated from the Bangla short story from Assam, Mokkhodasundorir Haranoprapti, by Farha Noor and Debjani Sengupta. 26. The Return/Selina Hossain; Translated from the Bangla short story from Bangladesh, Meyetir Bari Phera, by Nabina Das and Debjani Sengupta. Poetry: 27. After death: twenty years/Birendra Chattopadhyay; Translated from the Bangla Mrityur Por: Kuri Bochhor, by Debjani Sengupta. 28. Rehabilitation/Shankha Ghosh; Translated from the Bangla Punorbashon, by Shankha Ghosh and Debjani Sengupta. 29. Twenty-sixth January/Sahir Ludhianvi; Translated from the Urdu Chhabbees Janwary, by Rakhshanda Jalil. 30. After the riot/Javed Akhtar; Translated from the Urdu Fasaad ke Baad, by Rakhshanda Jalil. 31. Six shared seasons/Kaiser Haq. 32. Cold storage/Sukrita Paul Kumar. 33. Cyril’s map/Tarun K. Saint. Drama: 34. Those who haven’t seen Lahore haven’t lived/Asghar Wajahat; Translated from the Hindi Jis Lahore Nai Dekhya O Jamyai Nai, by Alok Bhalla. Interview: 35. The last conversation/Intizar Husain in conversation with Nasir Kazmi; Translated from the Urdu, by Asif Aslam Farrukhi. Bibliography. Notes on Contributors. Index.
While discourse on the Partition, especially through literary representations, has changed radically, it is time to revisit it from a third and perhaps fourth-generation point of view. On the 70th anniversary of India’s Independence and Partition, this anthology of diverse narratives collects fresh reflections on the continuing relevance and impact of 1947, and its afterlife, in South Asia.
In what ways can we re-think and re-imagine 1947 today, in 2017? Has the subcontinent worked through its burden of history and trauma relayed across generations? Or are we still trapped by the curse of mutual animosity, incoherence and distrust? Are there routes beyond polarised perceptions and attitudes that wait to be (re-)discovered?
Earlier Partition anthologies have underplayed the narratives of the aged, of marginal castes and tribes who may have experienced 1947 differently. The genres of poetry, drama and reportage have likewise not been collected and read as a whole. This anthology-of essays, memoirs, art, short fiction, poetry, graphic narrative, reportage and drama-seeks to rectify these omissions in a manner that is both self-reflexive and historically aware. It also features fresh translations-from Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu and Bangla-of older, lesser-known works together with new writing that narrates unheard and forgotten stories. In times when India-Pakistan relations are fraught, when we remain as divided by religion as by how we imagine the nation, this is an effort to cast new light on our fractured and conjoined past and to help us reflect on it with humanity.
The volume would be an asset to students and scholars of South Asian literature and history.
