Culture / Never Forget: 12 Movies & Books To Help You Continue The Partition Conversation

Never Forget: 12 Movies & Books To Help You Continue The Partition Conversation

Culture Aug 15, 2022

by Hina P. Ansari

It’s the 75^th Anniversary of Partition with Pakistan’s Independence Day on Sunday August 14^th followed by India’s Independence Day on August 15^th. It is safe to say that we have all heard stories from our grandparents and parents who have witnessed the largest human movement in history. The birth of the two nations was a result of the migration of 15 million people with up to 2 million in casualties from the violence that followed. However, as generations fall away for newer ones, we are becoming more removed from hearing those first-hand accounts. So, in order to keep these stories alive and understand from where we came, we have listed 12 titles including books, speeches and documentaries for you to collect and share so that we can continue this conversation about Partition in the spirit of “Never Forget”.

Books

The Other Side of Silence: Voices From The Partition Of India

by Urvashi Butalia

**Never Forget: 12 Movies & Books To Help You Continue The Partition Conversation: The Other Side Of Silence.** Photo Credit: www.amazon.com

In The Other Side of Silence, Urvashi Butalia examines the human dimensions affected by this historical event. Through interviews conducted over a decade, with the help of diaries, letters and memoirs, the author is able to piece together a more concise and in-depth history with the necessary humanistic element which has been absent in past accounts.

Midnight’s Furies: The Deadly Legacy Of India’s Partition

by Nisid Hajari

Hajari hones in on how decisions by leaders and others were responsible for the Partition. He doesn’t shy away from the horrors of Partition including the unspeakable violence with citizens turning against each other. His meticulous research makes this a masterpiece.

The Pity of Partition: Manto’s Life, Times And Work Across The India-Pakistan Divide

By Ayesha Jalal

Never Forget: 12 Movies & Books To Help You Continue The Partition Conversation: Midnight’s Furies: The Deadly Legacy Of India’s Partition. Photo Credit: www.bookshop.org — **Never Forget: 12 Movies & Books To Help You Continue The Partition Conversation: Midnight’s Furies: The Pity Of Partition.** Photo Credit: www.bookshop.org

Best known for his short stories in his new home of Lahore, Pakistan, Saadat Hasan Manto (1912-1955) was known as the master of 20th Century Urdu literature. Ayesha Jalal examines Manto’s work and hold his work of fiction to the light to capture the humanity (an inhumanity) of the sectarian violence that occurred right before and after the British exodus.

Mottled Dawn

By Saadat Hasan Manto

Never Forget: 12 Movies & Books To Help You Continue The Partition Conversation: Midnight’s Furies: The Pity Of Partition. Photo Credit: www.bookshop.org — **Never Forget: 12 Movies & Books To Help You Continue The Partition Conversation: Mottled Dawn.** Photo Credit: www.bookshop.org

If you are looking for his short stories which he penned this book needs to be on your list. Manto as mentioned found his way from Punjab to Lahore during Partition where he used the creative writing tool as away to tell stories. Even though this collection of short stories are labelled as fiction, there is no denying the fact that truth is buried in between the lines.

Victory Colony 1950

By Bhaswati Ghosh

Works of fiction has been a benchmark for South Asians authors who want to have the Partition as a worthy backdrop. Even though it’s not a non-fiction resource, fictional works brings forth many lessons and educational takeaways. Bhaswathi Gosh’s Victory Colony 1950 is no exception. Fleeing from communal violence in her village as a result of the Partition, Amala Manna now finds herself at Calcutta’s Sealdah railway station in 1949. A refuge from East Pakistan (which eventually became Bangladesh), Amala loses her younger brother Kartik. She is now on a mission to find him thanks to the help she receives from a group of volunteers at a refugee camp she calls her temporary home.

Ice Candy Man

By Bapsi Sidhwa

Never Forget: 12 Movies & Books To Help You Continue The Partition Conversation: Victory Colony 1950. Photo Credit: www.bookshop.org — **Never Forget: 12 Movies & Books To Help You Continue The Partition Conversation: Ice Candy Man**. Photo Credit: www.amazon.com

There’s a reason why this books is found in numerous must-read lists. Ice Candy Man by Pakistni author Bapsi Sidhwa tells the story of Hindu-Muslim post-Partition violence through the yes of a 4 year-old Parsi girl by the name of Lenny Sethi. Again not shying away from the harsh truths of Partition, Sidhwa breaks it all down and brings us a touching and heart breaking POV of a young girl who is trying to understand the world around her.

Midnight’s Children

By Salman Rushdie

A Partition novel list needs to include Brit-Indian author Salman Rushdie. And Midnight’s Children is that book. This Booker Prize-winning book centres around Saleem Sinai who was born on August 15, 1947 right at midnight when India claimed independence. Rushdie weaves the story from the British Raj all the way through to post-Independence India. Sinai realizes that he has special telepathic powers and finds that he is not alone and in fact all children born from midnight to 1am on August 15th also hold similar powers and they converge together to see if they can solve the emerging problems that a brand new country faces.

Train To Pakistan

By Khushwant Singh

Never Forget: 12 Movies & Books To Help You Continue The Partition Conversation: Midnight's Children. Photo Credit: www.amazon.com — **Never Forget: 12 Movies & Books To Help You Continue The Partition Conversation: Train To Pakistan.** Photo Credit: www.amazon.com

Khushwant Singh tells the story from one of the far flung villages in India where the residents seem to be disconnected from the ongoing post-Partition religious violence effecting Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs. Suddenly one summer night a “ghost train” arrives loaded with bodies of thousands of refugees bringing the village a realization of their new world.

Films

The Inheritors Of Partition

BBC

Never Forget: 12 Movies & Books To Help You Continue The Partition Conversation: Train To Pakistan. Photo Credit: www.amazon.com — **Never Forget: 12 Movies & Books To Help You Continue The Partition Conversation: The Inheritors Of Partition.** Photo Credit: www.bbc.co.uk

Released in August 2022 in time for the 75th Anniversary this BBC documentary focuses in on three people across the UK who are descendants of this historical event. Kavita Puri follows them as each try to “piece together parts of their complex family history and try to understand the legacy of partition and what it means to them today. She connects with a young man who goes to the Pakistani village where his Hindu grandfather was saved by Muslims; a woman who has always thought of herself as British Pakistani but a DNA test reveals she also has roots in India; a woman with Pakistani heritage and a man with Indian heritage plan their wedding and realise that their families actually originate from within an hour of each other in the Punjab. Five years after the award-winning series Partition Voices, Kavita Puri explores the 75th anniversary of the division of the Indian subcontinent through three stories from the third generation in Britain.”

Looking Back At The British Raj In India

Lecture By Shashi Tharoor

This 2017 lecture that Tharoor gave at The University of Edinburgh “discusses how the British Raj has shaped the narrative around India-UK relations. The former diplomat, who is currently serving as Member of the Indian Parliament, was discussing relations between the two countries at the University’s McEwan Hall on Monday 2 October, 2017 – Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday.”

The Day India Burned: Partition

BBC

Filmed in 2007, this BBC documentary peels back the effects of the end of The British Raj. “The story is told through the testimony of people who lived together for centuries, but were forced out of their homes as one of the largest and most ethnically diverse nations in the world was divided. Dramatized reconstructions evoke some of the mistrust, violence and upheaval that ensued.”

India’s Partition: The Forgotten Story

By Gurinder Chadha

BBC Two

In this personal story, acclaimed director Gurinder Chadha visits her family where she discusses Partition with her aunts and uncles. Filled with touching stories, this easily mirrors the many conversations that we may also have had with our own elders.

Main Image Photo Credit: www.artnet.com

Hina P. Ansari

Author

Hina P. Ansari is a graduate from The University of Western Ontario (London, Ontario). Since then she has carved a successful career in Canada's national fashion-publishing world as the Entertainment/Photo Editor at FLARE Magazine, Canada's national fashion magazine. She was the first South Asian in...

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