The Partition onf India - 1231 Words

The Partition of India in August, 1947 was a significant event in history that accounted for the separation of one of the world’s oldest civilization into two, independent nations – Pakistan and India. Like many other wars in history, The Partition of India was instigated by religious, political and social conflict. This resulted in violence, discrimination and the largest human displacement in contemporary history. While the Partition was well-studied, much of our understanding was focused on the political side of history, not the human side of it. This was why oral history played an important role in manifesting the complexity of a historical event. Our focus here is Maya Rani’s testimony from Butalia’s book, The Other Side of Silence:†¦show more content†¦To Rani, ‘people dying here, others dying there’ (cited in Butalia, 2000, p.268) was something that happened every day, it was no surprise to her. Thus, Rani’s cynical view about the future of India and Pakistan was conceivably drawn from memories of witnessing horrendous fights and strife throughout her whole life (cited in Butalia, 2000, p.268). Official documents have little say about women and children of the Partition as they were viewed as a collective. Earlier reports on the abduction of women only gave the reader the statistics and brief statements that glorified community nationalism rather than the victims itself. Many failed to dwell into the individual trauma of this particular group (Menon Bhasin, 1998, p.11). Rani’s testimony was significant in that not only it opened us to another outlook from a witness point of view; it also revealed that people who were not physically involved were also affected psychologically. This was also the only part in the testimony where Rani displayed sympathy and grievance. Her sensitivity and deep connection with these victims correlated with age and gender. Her emphasis on the words ‘young’ and ‘girl’ throughout her testimony evoked our sense of disbelief that people would do such inhumane things to each other (cited in Butalia, 2000, p.271). Her hesitant manner, evident