Voice of the Voiceless: Oral Histories and the Traumas of Partition

Madhurima Guha

Prof. Salil Misra

MA History
School of Liberal Studies
Dr B. R. Ambedkar University, Delhi
Introduction:

The partition of India and Pakistan, as we know was the biggest turning point of our country and
a bloody path towards independence from the British raj. Two Indian provinces, Punjab and
Bengal, suffered the brunt of partition, with Pakistan receiving the majority-Muslim districts and
India receiving the majority-Non-Muslim districts.

In my paper, I will examine the oral histories of the survivors and sufferers of the partition and
several stories and works of fiction about the partition. Partition was a decision taken by the elite
and the political party members, and a small number of powerful people; these people are mostly
featured in the politics and history of the partition, but the stories of how everyday people
survived are still insufficiently reported. Partition experience was really subjective, and it varied
for different people. Communities that had existed in harmony for generations throughout the
Indian subcontinent began to attack one another in a horrifying wave of religion-based riots. The
decision-makers were unprepared for such massive and brutal destruction since the subcontinent
had seen mass killings, forced conversions, mass abductions, and horrific sexual abuse that
instilled hatred in people's hearts for the opposite community. That hatred has turned into
animosity which is still felt today.

As I said, oral narratives are subjective and are biased according to the person’s personal
experience. Therefore, the experience of partition cannot be described by a clear definition, and
it is a memory that is engraved within the experiences of the survivors. My topic is a subjective
topic, and I will work on the oral narratives and memories of partition and also examine some of
the fictional work around the partition and examine how and why people have different views on
the partition. I will also work on how partition gave way to the animosity between the two
communities, Hindus and Muslims. I will also present my views on the question of
communalism in India which got strengthened after the partition and the bloody riots that
followed.

While working with the Partition Museum, I came across many people and families with
divergent opinions on Partition, where some were the first generation that suffered the trauma
and some were their successive generations. What I found interesting was how their thinking has
altered due to the sufferings they faced, and I am keen to explore more by taking interviews of
the families that survived the partition and know their side of the story.

Literature Review:
Secondary sources:
● Home, Uprooted: Oral Histories of India's Partition- by Devika Chawla
She talks about the idea of home through oral histories with three generations of Partition
refugees from Delhi, India. Devika Chawla explores what home means to those who have
been displaced; how the notion of home has a life of it's own, and why it is important to
tell this story of an Un/homely Partition.

● The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India- by Urvashi Butalia
This book has in-depth firsthand testimonies of Partition survivors. Butalia’s family
members were Sikh refugees from Lahore, a city in the new Pakistan, who were forced to
escape to India. Butalia writes about the fustrating silence around Partition’s gendered
violence, and the inaccurate ways it is often described as protecting their honour.

● Victory Colony 1950- by Bhaswati Ghosh

This novel revolves around Amala Manna and her younger brother Kartik who owes their
lives to a local Muslim family who hid them when rioters were roaming their village.
However, they escaped only to be separated at a train station in Calcutta.

● Midnight’s Furies: The Deadly Legacy of India’s Partition- by Nisid Hajari

The author analyses the intentions and flaws of the nations’ first two leaders, India’s first
Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Pakistan’s first Governor-General Muhammad
Jinnah, both of whom were ill-prepared for partitioning the nation. Hajari in his book
points an essential question of how two nations with so much in common become
enemies so quickly.

● Memories Of Madness : Stories Of 1947- by Bhisham Sahni and Khushwant Singh

Memories of Madness bring together works by three leading writers- Khushwant Singh,
Bhisham Sahni, and Saadat Hasan Manto, who witnessed the insanity of those months.

Primary source:
My primary sources will be the interviews I will conduct with the partition survivors or their
family members who can tell about the hardships their family faced.

For fictions around partition, I will work on the writings of Saadat Hasan Manto like “Toba Tek
Singh”, “Mottled Down”; work of Alok Bhalla titled “Stories about the partition of India” which
has 3 volumes and the book by Khushwant Singh titled “Train to Pakistan”.