| Description |
The 1947 partitioning of British-ruled India into India and Pakistan marked the most incisive and traumatic moment in the history of the continent. Planned and carried out catastrophically by the British, it caused political upheaval, violence, and a gigantic wave of migration. An estimate of 14–16 million people were displaced along religious lines, with the Muslim population heading towards Pakistan and Hindu and Sikhs towards India. Along with mass migration came contagious diseases and hate crimes against members of other communities, many of them directed at women. It is difficult to say how many people lost their lives in the aftermath of partition, but estimates range from 200,000 to no less than two million.
In this course, we will look at literary portrayals of this most crucial of moments in the history of India and Pakistan, trying to examine the ways in which such an event affects the souls of an entire continent, individual nations, and families. Unsurprisingly, these accounts will look rather different depending on whose point of view they are presented from. For this reason, we will discuss texts by British authors alongside those by Pakistani and Indian authors, trying to get a sense of how ‘history’ is constructed and narrated. In addition, we will examine the ways in which Indian partition speaks to twenty-first-century contexts of religious fundamentalism, nationalism, and terrorism. |
| Literature |
Students are expected to prepare two plays and one novel:
- Howard Brenton, Drawing the Line. London: Nick Hern Books, 2014.
- Tanika Gupta, Lions and Tigers. London: Oberon Books, 2017.
- Singh Khushwant, Train to Pakistan (any edition)
Further materials, specifically films and short stories, will be announced in the first session. |
eG