PARTITION OF INDIA AND PAKISTAN August 1415 1947

PARTITION OF INDIA AND PAKISTAN August 14/15, 1947

THE PARADOX OF INDEPENDENCE August 14 th, 1947: Declaration of the formation of Pakistan August 15 th, 1947: India achieves independence About 15 million people crossed borders About 1 million people died in the communal violence Tens of thousands of women were abducted, raped and murdered; thousands others were killed for “honour” or committed suicide

MAPPING PARTITION

PARTITION IN IMAGES

A MOTTLED DAWN… Subah e azaadi/ Dawn of Freedom by Faiz Ahmed Faiz Written in August 1947 Ye daagh ujala ye shab gazida sehr Voh intezar tha jiska yeh who sehr to nahi Yeh who sahar toh nahin jiski arzoo lekar Chale the yaar ki mil jaayegi kahin na kahin Falak ke dasht mein taaron ki aakhri manzil Kahin toh hoga shab-e sust mauj ka sahil Kahin toh ja ke rukga Safina e gham e dil http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=3 hc 7 ml. XYT 4 U

AGHA SHAHID ALI’S TRANSLATION These tarnished rays, this night-smudged light – This is not that Dawn for which, ravished with freedom, we had set out in sheer longing, so sure that somewhere in its desert the sky harboured a final haven for the stars, and we would find it. We had no doubt that night’s vagrant wave would stray towards the shore, that the heart rocked with sorrow would at last reach its port.

PARTITION IN LITERATURE AND FILM Faiz Ahmed Faiz, “Freedom’s Dawn” (1947) (Urdu) Saadat Hasan Manto, “Toba Tek Singh” in A Mottled Dawn (1955) (Urdu) Khushwant Singh, The Train to Pakistan (1956) (English) Bhisham Sahni, Tamas (1974) (Hindi) Bapsi Sidhwa, Ice Candy Man (1988) (English) Atia Hosain, Sunlight on a Broken Column (1992) (English) Films: Garm Hawa (1973) (Hindi/Urdu) Earth (1998) (English) Manto (2018) (Urdu/Hindi)

URVASHI BUTALIA, THE OTHER SIDE OF SILENCE: VOICES FROM THE PARTITION OF INDIA Cf. http: //www. 1947 partitionarchive. org Oral history/written history History/ Memory Speaking/Silence Home/Nation Borders/Boundaries

SAADAT HASAN MANTO (1912 -1955) ““I wish to live neither in Pakistan nor in India. I wish to live in a tree”. Fetish of the border The liminal space of the asylum Rationality/ir-rationality

“KHOL DO” Spare writing that foregrounds the violence Sexual violence and gendered ideologies The new normal—routinization of violence

KAMLESHWAR, “KITNE PAKISTAN”? (“HOW MANY PAKISTANS? ”) Nayi kahani/New Story movement in Hindi literature Imagistic, experimental writing, moving away from/beyond realism Pakistan as metaphor of dismemberment Psychic breakdown/physical mutilation “Anyone else? ” Gendering Partition

GARM HAWA/HOT WIND New wave of Indian cinema Home/watan: secular dream Woman/nation Nationalism/revolution