“The fact is, both sides killed.”
Somini Sengupta on Khushwant Singh’s novel Train to Pakistan, which has been republished by Roli. This 50th anniversary edition includes 66 incredible black-and-white photographs of the Partition period taken by Margaret Bourke-White.
The photographs are deeply disturbing. It’s hard, turning every page - but they need to be looked at. An estimated 12 to 14 million people had to migrate, over a million were killed, and some 75,000 women were abducted and subjected to sexual violence - and yet, for decades, there has only been a deafening silence about the tragedy (see Nandini Gooptu on the Indian Partition). These pictures are a reminder of the vast tragedy on both sides of a newly-drawn border.
“Babies were born along the way. People died along the way. Many of them simply dropped out of line from sheer weariness. Sometimes I saw children pulling at the arms and hands of a parent or grandparents, unable to comprehend those arms would never be able to carry them again.” - Margaret Bourke-White.More photographs from Bourke-White’s record of the Partition here.
