Week 8

Tuesday--Bose and Jalal

  1. According to Bose and Jalal, how did the changing electoral situation in the decades preceding partition lead to the failed negotiations between the different political parties and the government?
  2. Why does Jinnah describe the eventual Pakistan created in 1947 as a “moth-eaten Pakistan?” How did the negotiating strategies of both parties lead to a partition neither wanted?
  3. What are the reasons Bose and Jalal offer for the ways in which Partition occurred and the violence that was involved?

Friday--Menon and Bhasin—Recovery, Rupture, Resistance

This is the first major research project that undertook to collect oral histories from the survivors of partition. Menon and Bhasin would publish this article is a preliminary study going on to produce book-length projects. In the last decade several more scholars have undertaken similar studies in part due to the aging population of survivors and the concerns about collecting and preserving their testimony in a timely way.

Vocabulary

Lakh-an Indian numerical term meaning 100,000

Rama and Sita—the main characters from the famous Indian epic Ramayana, whose plot revolves around the attempts of Lord Rama to recover his abducted wife Sita, from the clutches of the daemon king Ravana.

Sardar—colloquial term used for Sikh men

SP-Superintendent of Police

Chunni/Burqa/Parda—Headscarf—the speaker implies that the women pulled their head-coverings so low as to completely cover their faces (burqa) thus symbolically placing themselves in seclusion (parda)

Questions

  1. What were the circumstances in which women were abducted and recovered during 1947-1958 in South Asia? What provisions did the government take to make arrangements for their recovery?
  2. When Menon and Bhasin introduce their oral histories from abductees, how do their interviewees represent their experiences during this period? What circumstances about these oral histories should we keep in mind to fully evaluate them as sources?
  3. How does the authors’ inclusion of the testimony of the social workers add more layers of complexity to our understanding of partition? What kinds of tensions and disagreement arise within the recovery effort?
  4. How did the state define and treat the abductees through its actions in the recovery effort? What questions do Menon and Bhasin wish to raise through this article?

Manto

Manto, a renowned Urdu writer, was living in Bombay as partition unfolded. Many of his family fled to Parkistan early, but Manto resisted until urban riots and continued suspicion of Muslims in Bombay finally drove him to leave India. The short story we are about to read is from his work “Black Marginalia” which consisted of several free-form short stories written in a stream-of-consciousness narrative. Manto’s style, associated with sharp social satire, is most prominently displayed in this piece.

The short story begins in the midst of an urban riot and continues with several anecdotal moments in the riot. None of the characters are named and their relative social identities and state of mind only gradually reveal themselves to the reader.

Vocabulary

Papads—snacks made of lentil flour cooked by grilling

Tanga—horse-drawn carriage

Almirahs—cupboards

Bazaar—marketplace

Hazrat—honorific, polite way of addressing someone

Laathi—thick bamboo staffs used as weapons

Mohalla—neighborhood

Jains—members of a non-violent religious community

Har, Har, Mahadev—an old Hindu battlecry

Bhaiyon aur Behnoon—“Brothers and Sisters”

Halal/jhatka—Islamic butchers drain blood from the meat before processing it, in contrast, the “jhatka” method kills animal by beheading it in one stroke

Questions

  1. Why do you think Manto chose to string several anecdotes in his narrative rather than follow more conventional methods of story-telling or plot development?
  2. How do the characters in this piece mark their own religious identity and those of others—how does Manto reveal and expose their mindset?
  3. In what ways does the story use various narrative devices to give the reader a sense of the violence, disorder, and chaos of the riots during Partition?