“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.
I liked the connection the NYT piece makes between the pictures Bourke-White took at the Nazi camps and then during the Partition. It makes the line offered by the Roli Books publisher about there being no monument to the Partition all the more pointed and troubling.
Comment by Amitava Kumar — September 21, 2006 @ 2:31 pm
I can’t bear it sometimes. I think my father, my family went through partition, and I want to suppress the tremendous feelings of sadness that come with thinking about it.
Comment by MumbaiGirl — September 22, 2006 @ 8:41 pm
I have not undergone the process of migration post partitition but living in kolkata, everyday i come across persons who have experienced its ravages and have not been able to come to terms with it, both emotionally and economically.
Coming to the novel, how good is it? What do the readers of this blog feel about it. I read it in high school and was not captivated by it except for a vivivd description of the change of seasons over the plains of the Punjab. It seemed quite a filmy story set in and around august 1947.
Comment by shoummo from kolkata — September 23, 2006 @ 4:43 am
What about Tamas? And the novel is great - what was shoummo reading?
Comment by flerrdi — October 5, 2006 @ 11:16 pm
that kind of tragedy… like 25 years ago happened in chile, my country, thousands of people had to migrate, houndreds were killed, and now and yet,after many years there has only been silence about the tragedy, i think that people must be punished, ´cause all taht violence still hurt in their harts, and their familys…..
my english´s not so good but i think u can understand what i´m saying.
Comment by gero figueroa — July 18, 2008 @ 10:18 pm