Remembering Partition: Violence, Nationalism and History in India (Contemporary South Asia, Series Number 7)

Through an investigation of the violence that marked the partition of British India in 1947, this book analyses questions of history and memory, the nationalisation of populations and their pasts, and the ways in which violent events are remembered (or forgotten) in order to ensure the unity of the collective subject - community or nation. Stressing the continuous entanglement of 'event' and 'interpretation', the author emphasises both the enormity of the violence of 1947 and its shifting meanings and contours. The book provides a sustained critique of the procedures of history-writing and nationalist myth-making on the question of violence, and examines how local forms of sociality are constituted and reconstituted, by the experience and representation of violent events. It concludes with a comment on the different kinds of political community that may still be imagined even in the wake of Partition and events like it. Contents 10 Acknowledgements 11 List of abbreviations 14 1 By way of introduction 16 2 The three partitions of 1947 36 3 Historians’ history 60 4 The evidence of the historian 82 5 Folding the local into the national: Garhmukhteshwar, November 1946 107 6 Folding the national into the local: Delhi 1947–1948 136 7 Disciplining difference 167 8 Constructing community 190 Select bibliography 221 Index 227 A 227 B 227 C 227 D 228 E 228 F 228 G 229 H 229 I 229 J 229 K 229 L 230 M 230 N 230 O 231 P 231 Q 231 R 231 S 232 T 232 U 232 V 232 W 232 Z 233 Gyan Pandey's latest book is a compelling examination of the violence that marked the partition of India in 1947, and how the preceding events have been documented. In the process, the author provides a critique of history-writing and nationalist myth-making. He also investigates how local forms of community are established by the way in which violent events are remembered and written about. The book will be of interest to historians of South Asia, to sociologists and to anyone concerned with the Indian subaltern story. Gyan Pandey's book is a compelling examination of the violence that marked the Partition of India and how it is remembered. It is also a critique of history-writing and nationalist myth-making. This is a book for historians of South Asia, sociologists, and all those concerned with the Indian subaltern story This book focuses on a moment of rupture and genocidal violence, marking the termination of one regime and the inauguration of two new ones.