Projects Document Anguish of 1947 Split: India's Survivors of Partition Begin to Break Long Silence

From The Washington Post:

Every year in March, Bir Bahadur Singh goes to the local Sikh shrine and narrates the grim events of the long night six decades ago when 26 women in his family offered their necks to the sword for the sake of honor. At the time, sectarian riots were raging over the partition of the subcontinent into India and Pakistan, and the men of Singh's family decided it was better to kill the women than have them fall into the hands of Muslim mobs. "None of the women protested, nobody wept," Singh, 78, recalled as he stroked his long, flowing white beard, his voice slipping into a whisper. "All I could hear was the sound of prayer and the swing of the sword going down on their necks. My story can fill a book."

Although the political history of the 1947 partition has featured prominently in Indian classrooms, personal stories such as Singh's have gone unrecorded. Hundreds of thousands of Indians have remained trapped in their private pain, many ashamed of the acts they committed, others simply wary of confronting ghosts from so long ago. Now, however, the aging survivors of partition are beginning to talk, and historians and psychologists are increasingly acknowledging the need to study the human dimensions of one of the most cataclysmic events of the 20th century.

About 1,300 survivors of partition, including Singh, have been interviewed as part of an ambitious, 10-year research project that examines the experiences of people across India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. And since late last year, a number of new books, research papers and cultural events have attempted to lift the shroud of silence surrounding partition.

More here.

Comments

[Hektor Bim]

It's precisely these kinds of stories that have to be read every time someone says that Partition was regrettable but necessary or talks about how the founding of Pakistan was such a great event.

[Hektor Bim]

It's precisely these kinds of stories that have to be read every time someone says that Partition was regrettable but necessary or talks about how the founding of Pakistan was such a great event.

[Steven Augustine]

The study of 20th Century Victimology will keep 24th century historians very busy. In this case, as in many others where there was no great technological gap between the sides of the conflict, one must consider many of the "survivors" with a critical eye... especially the males.

[Omar Khan]

This is wonderful. I have been interviewing prominent and not so priminent partition survivors for many years as well, and published some of the interviews with notables like Princess Abida Sultan of Bhopal and Ghani Khan at the link above on my site Harappa.com. I have many more great interviews to come, including with writers like Ahmed Ali.

[Omar Khan]

This is wonderful. I have been interviewing prominent and not so priminent partition survivors for many years as well, and published some of the interviews with notables like Princess Abida Sultan of Bhopal and Ghani Khan at the link above on my site Harappa.com. I have many more great interviews to come, including with writers like Ahmed Ali.