UPDATED FOR THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF PARTITION 'Puri does profound and elegant work bringing forgotten narratives back to life. It's hard to convey just how important this book is' Sathnam Sanghera 'The most humane account of partition I've read ... We need a candid conversation about our past and this is an essential starting point' Nikesh Shukla, Observer ________________________ Newly revised for the seventy-fifth anniversary of partition, Kavita Puri conducts a vital reappraisal of empire, revisiting the stories of those collected in the 2017 edition and reflecting on recent developments in the lives of those affected by partition. The division of the Indian subcontinent in 1947 into India and Pakistan saw millions uprooted and resulted in unspeakable violence. It happened far away, but it would shape modern Britain. Dotted across homes in Britain are people who were witnesses to one of the most tumultuous events of the twentieth century. But their memory of partition has been shrouded in silence. In her eye-opening and timely work, Kavita Puri uncovers remarkable testimonies from former subjects of the Raj who are now British citizens – including her own father. Weaving a tapestry of human experience over seven decades, Puri reveals a secret history of ruptured families and friendships, extraordinary journeys and daring rescue missions that reverberates with compassion and loss. It is a work that breaks the silence and confronts the difficult truths at the heart of Britain's shared past with South Asia.

Chiefly on the partition of Punjab, 1947.

The dark legacies of partition have cast a long shadow on the lives of people of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The borders that were drawn in 1947, and redrawn in 1971, divided not only nations and histories but also families and friends. The essays in this volume explore new ground in Partition research, looking into areas such as art, literature, migration, and notions of ‘foreignness’ and ‘belonging’. It brings focus to hitherto unaddressed areas of partition such as the northeast and Ladakh.

Within Weeks Of The Birth Of Independent India, The Kashmir Valley Was In Flames. Indian Troops Were Fighting Against Invading Pathan Tribesmen Who Sought To Claim The Princely State For Pakistan. These Were The First Sparks In A Conflict Which Remains Unresolved. Attempts To Establish How The Kashmir Dispute First Erupted Have Been Obscured And Impeded By Competing Nationalisms. Retrieving Stories Of Attackers And Survivors, Looters And Looted, Fighters And Civilians, Andrew Whitehead Sets Out To Write A Full And Impartial Account Of How Kashmir Became A Theatre Of War. He Has Gathered A Remarkable Range Of First-Hand Testimonies Of The Most Notorious Episode In The Invasion The Desecration Of A Convent And Mission Hospital In The Riverside Town Of Baramulla-Including One Written By A Missionary Priest And Never Consulted Before. It Provides A Powerful Human Dimension To What Is Often Seen As A Dispute About Territory. In The Process We Come Closer To Resolving Questions That Have For Decades Been The Subject Of Controversy: Who Were The Invaders? Were They Commanded By Pakistan? What Support Did They Get From Local Kashmiris? And Why, When Srinagar Was At Their Mercy, Did They Fail To Capture The Kashmir Capital? Apart From Making Brilliant Use Of Oral History, Andrew Whitehead Has Uncovered Archive Documents Which Challenge Both Indian And Pakistani Accounts Of The Genesis Of The Kashmir Dispute. Also Unearthed Is A Letter From Kashmir S Last Maharaja, Written At The Height Of The Crisis, Requesting Immediate Accession To India. Rigorously Researched And Immensely Readable, This Book Not Only Explains How The Kashmir Conflict Started But Also Why It Has Proved So Difficult To Solve.

Communal violence, ethnonationalist insurgencies, terrorism, and state violence have marred the Indian natio- state since its inception. These phenomena frequently intersect with prevailing forms of gendered violence complicated by caste, religion, regional identity, and class within communities. Deepti Misri shows how Partition began a history of politicized animosity associated with the differing ideas of ""India"" held by communities and in regions on one hand, and by the political-military Indian state on the other. She moves beyond that formative national event, however, in order to examine other forms of gendered violence in the postcolonial life of the nation, including custodial rape, public stripping, deturbanning, and enforced disappearances. Assembling literary, historiographic, performative, and visual representations of gendered violence against women and men, Misri establishes that cultural expressions do not just follow violence but determine its very contours, and interrogates the gendered scripts underwriting the violence originating in the contested visions of what ""India"" means. Ambitious and ranging across disciplines, Beyond Partition offers both an overview of and nuanced new perspectives on the ways caste, identity, and class complicate representations of violence, and how such representations shape our understandings of both violence and India.

The story of Beero and his motley group friends is set against the impending partition of India. Beero’s passage through adolescence is told through a series of vignettes involving characters who are each more eccentric than the next—wrestler, quack, prostitute; Hindu, Muslim, Sikh. But when partition becomes a reality, in a time of terror and carnage, the insane turn out be the only ones sane.

Fifteen women. Fifteen inspirational stories. From highly influential individuals in politics, to award-winning leaders and inspirational philanthropists, to ordinary women who have embraced British life, a range of Punjabi women all share personal stories of racism, gender inequality and the partition of India and Pakistan.