Partition of India: A reading list
Editor’s Note: We feature the brilliant recommendations of our partner, the Champaca Bookstore, in the Read section twice a month. FYI: Champaca is an independent women-run and founded bookstore and children's library in Bangalore.
Partition continues to cast its long shadow on the subcontinent, yet rarely do we engage with its legacy with any nuance or empathy. Here’s a list of books to help you do just that.
Seventy-five years since the Partition of India, memories and wounds of this forced migration still persist in the lives of survivors and the generations born after them. While Partition continues to shape the politics of the sub-continent, rarely do we engage with its legacy with nuance and empathy. We are highlighting stories from the Partition of India—in an attempt to better understand this crucial piece of history through literature, books and children's stories.
Dark Star by Ranbir Sindu. An old woman wishes to die in the same room she was born. She speaks to herself, recounting her life—telling us where she grew up, the wreckage and violence she witnessed as a young woman travelling from Pakistan to India in 1947, her married life in London, and why she chose to come back to her ancestral home. As her life unfolds to the reader in memories, the book comments on what it means to be a woman, the futility of borders, and death.
The Other Side of Silence by Urvashi Bhutalia. In The Other Side of Silence, feminist writer and activist Urvashi Butalia reflects on a difficult question—what did community, caste, and gender have to do with the violence that accompanied partition? As people scrambled for their lives, countless women were abducted, children went missing. Through interviews, conversations, diaries, and parliamentary records, Butalia presents the diverse, often painful stories of women during Partition.
The Moon from Dehradun by Shirin Shamsi. Azra cannot bear to be separated from her doll Gurya. But when a sudden, long journey comes along Gurya is left behind and Azra finds herself alone, longing for a piece of home. Inspired by Shamsi’s own family story, The Moon from Dehradun is a moving picture book for children about a young girl and her forced journey to a new home.
In The Language of Remembering by Aanchal Malhotra. Aanchal Malhotra’s first book Remnants of a Separation, which marked the 70th anniversary of India's partition, told the human story of this historic event by examining the stories that can be found in objects that survivors carried with them as they travelled across the newly constructed borders. As a natural progression, In the Language of Remembering collects conversations recorded over many years with generations of Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, and their respective diaspora. Written with empathy and sensitivity, the book reveals how Partition is not an event of the past, as survivors and subsequent generations carry its memories with them even today.
The Lost Homestead by Marina Wheeler. Marina Wheeler’s mother Dip Singh was forced to flee Punjab in 1947. In The Lost Homestead, she tries to make sense of her mother’s story and to better understand her roots in what is now Pakistan. Touching on themes of political change, freedom, family, nationhood, and migration, Wheeler writes about coming to terms with the past and new beginnings.
Shurjo’s Clan by Iffat Nawaz. Shurjo is a child born in the new country of Bangladesh. But her family and their house in Dhaka are both haunted by the ghosts of war and tragedy. Blending history and magical realism in her debut novel, Nawaz paints an honest portrait of how we inherit the grief of our ancestors.
Midnight’s Borders by Sucharita Vijayan. In Midnight’s Borders, journalist and activist Sucharita Vijayan travels along the borders of India for seven years. Through detailed narrative reportage, she traces India’s Partition (of Punjab and Bengal), the decades of war and violence with neighbouring countries that have followed, and raises pertinent questions on the meaning of nationhood and freedom.
Victory Colony, 1950 by Baswati Ghosh. Set in Kolkata, Victory Colony, 1950 is about refugees who travel to India from East Pakistan in 1947. The story centres the experience of Amala Manna, a woman who is displaced from home and separated from her younger brother Kartik. Published by indie publisher Yoda Press, the book explores Amala’s life after Partition and her complicated relationship with a man who volunteers and assists in rehabilitation efforts.
For more recommendations, browse Champaca's collection of books on India's Partition.
