The India Pakistan Partition & The Need for a New Narrative

In August 1947 when India finally won its independence from the British Raj after a struggle of almost 300 years. It left in it's wake a nation divided into two states: Hindu majority India & Muslim majority Pakistan. Immediately, there began one of the greatest migrations in human history & one that is the least discussed in the West. Growing up it was a paragraph in a history book at best. Grossly misrepresenting a monumental crux of the South Asian identity. 

Across the subcontinent people who had coexisted for centuries attacked each other. Hindus and Sikhs on one side, Muslims on the other. There are endless stories of families separated, women & children slaughtered, people pushed out of their homes, abandoned in refugee camps with nowhere to go in an unknown land. 

My maternal grandmother lived through the partition and throughout her life shared stories with me about where she was born & her childhood home in a faraway land called Sindh. At the time it sounded like some exotic place I would never visit. According to Nani's passport she was born in 1921. At the time of partition that would've made her approximately 25 years old. Her birth records could never be found. 

The Sindhi identity is perhaps the largest collateral damage of partition. Sindhis migrated to India with no state to call their own. They left behind their beloved Sindhu Darya, their friends, the only home they'd known - and were removed from it forever. Some will argue that this displacement proved fruitful. With no attachments to the new land they were free to move around the world, which they did. And went on to create a new identity in foreign lands as successful business tycoons often spinning their fortunes from nothing. 

But did that leave them with a fractured identity? Do they still long for the homeland of their forefathers? Have they recovered from the intergenerational trauma?

Is peace in South Asia possible?

Is it time for a new narrative?

In today's episode we explore these questions and many more with our guests Sunayna Pal and Beena Sarwar. 

Sunayna, author of the book Refugees In Their Own Country, a collection of poems about the partition based on conversations Sunayna had with her Chacha - her only connection to Sindh, the land of her forefathers. 

Purchase Sunayna's book here

Follow Sunayna in Instagram

Beena Sarwar, a renowned journalist and activist, is curator & founder of the South Asia Peace Action Network (SAPAN) and was Editor of Aman Ki Asha, a joint initiative by Jang News PK and Times Of India to foster peace between the two countries. 

Learn more about the South Asia Peace Action Network here

Follow SAPAN on instagram

Check out Aman ki Asha here

Join the Aman ki Asha Facebook group here

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