75 Years After Partition by Ranjan, Amit; Sulehria, Farooq;

Short description:

This book explores how the 1947 Partition of British India not only divided people and territories but also deepened cultural rifts in postcolonial India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, especially between Hindus and Muslims. 

Long description:

This book explores how the 1947 Partition of British India not only divided people and territories but also deepened cultural rifts in postcolonial India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, especially between Hindus and Muslims. The colonial "divide and rule" strategy, which intensified religious divides, laid the foundation for ongoing tensions. Even as the 75th anniversary of Partition approached in 2022, this cultural segregation remains prevalent. Over the years, mass media such as films, press and television have significantly evolved in India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, playing a pivotal role in manufacturing, disseminating and perpetuating the narrative of cultural differences based on religion. These cultural platforms have gained even more influence with the rise of majoritarian nationalism in both India and Pakistan.

The chapters in this volume analyse how language, cinema, and textbooks contributed to the divide instead of bridging gaps, and why unresolved questions from the Partition continue to affect the region. The chapters cover the communalization of Hindi and Urdu, how textbooks in India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan narrate Partition, the role of mass media in India and Pakistan in presenting Partition, and the portrayal of Partition in films across India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. This book is aimed at students, researchers and scholars interested in postcolonial studies, South Asian history, cultural studies, and media analysis.

The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of India Review.

The edited volume provides a valuable guide for understanding how narratives and representations of the division of British India have contributed to majoritarian nationalism in South Asia. As such it is a timely contribution to the field of study on the 1947 Partition and is deserving of a wide readership.

Ian Talbot, Emeritus Professor of Modern South Asian History,
University of Southampton

Table of Contents:

Preface. Introduction: 75 Years After Partition: India, Pakistan and Bangladesh 1. Language, religion, and identity: Hindi and Urdu in colonial and post-colonial India 2. Ideological positioning in the representation of borders: an analysis of recent Hindi films 3. Narrativizing partition and producing stigmatized identities: an analysis of the representation of Muslims in two Indian history textbooks 4. Building an ideological nation-state: migrancy and patriarchy in Khadija Mastoor’s novel, Zameen 5. Lollywood on partition: surprise departures, anticipated arrivals 6. Reimagining and reproducing the partitions (of 1947 and 1971) in textbooks in Pakistan: a comparative analysis of the Zia and Musharraf regimes 7. Cinema of Bangladesh: Absence of 1947 and abundance of 1971 8. 1947, 1971: history, facts, and fictions