Partition: India, Pakistani authors share views on oral history in online session

Amritsar, August 16

The Sanjha Punjab initiative of the Manjha House held a live online session with Pakistani author Anam Zakaria and artist-author Aanchal Malhotra.

Both Anam and Aanchal have researched on the history of the Partition, documented stories of migration, people-to-people interactions in post-Partition period and have worked to bring these stories to the current generation.

The event, held ahead of the Independence Day celebrations, sought to bring together poets, writers and artists from both sides of the border on one platform to exchange oral histories of art and civilisation.

In conversation with Majha House founder Preeti Gill and member Arvinder Chamak, Canada-based Anam, whose books “The Footprints of Partition: Narratives of Four Generations of Pakistanis and Indians ” and “1971: A People’s History from Bangladesh, Pakistan and India”, have documented these oral histories, said she had heard many stories about the Partition, which raised her curiosity. She started asking various people and her relatives about it.

“Once I did that, many unknown things came to the fore. While there was mention of bloodshed, there were also stories of hope and where people of other religions risked their lives to help,” shared Anam.

When asked about the geo-political and social perception of a nation, Anam said both India and Pakistan had different views on freedom. “Governments always give a political colour to the Partition but common people still remember their soil and roots even though they have spent their whole life in the country they migrated too,” said Anam.

Sharing her own experience, Aanchal, founder of the Museum of Material Memory, which is a repository of material culture of the Indian subcontinent, tracing family history and social ethnography through heirlooms and collectibles, said once she was in Pakistan interacting with some people for her research.

Some of them were criticising the Hindus, so she reminded them that she herself was a Hindu.

“The immediate reaction was that I was just like their daughter. This is what they told me. It was a strange thing for me to understand that while some people hate Indians and if someone meets them with love, they also take them as their own,” said Aanchal.

Her debut book “Remnants of a Separation: A History of the Partition through Material Memory” was published by HarperCollins in 2017, to mark the 70th anniversary of Indian Independence.

Talking about today’s generation, Anam said it was sad that nowadays politics and borders had become intransigent due to which the youth listened only to stories of hatred and believed them to be true.

“I believe that if they hear stories of mutual support and how people from both sides contributed towards each other’s safe passage during the Partition, this narrative of hatred will change,” she said.

Both the authors said oral history was an important tool of knowledge and understanding between the generations. “Partition is not a story but a personal experience. The books are a small initiative, a hope that those who read them will take it towards peace and love and tomorrow,” they said.