Does Partition, which occurred decades ago hold resonance with the current generation? Does its effect still exist in our minds and hearts? And above all what's the need to revisit those stories?
A session titled, 'Re-imagining Partition' at the ongoing Jaipur Literature Festival buzzed with some of these arguments.
In conversation were graphic novelist Vishwajyoti Ghosh, author Ahmad Rafey Alam, feminist and writer Urvashi Bhutalia and Journalist-novelist Indrajit Hazra.
"It is necessary to remember what happened during Partition and how it affects our life today. During Partition there were no clear good and bad guys but we have lived with those truths and stories over years now," Urvashi Bhutalia said.
According to her, "it has lived inside us over the years but we haven't realised it in our narratives."
Vishwajyoti Ghosh has curated "This Side, That Side", a collection of stories about the Partition.
Encompassing India, Pakistan and Bangladesh Ghosh said that he discovered during the process of writing the book that memories were also partitioned.
"We do not need to relook at the Partition, it has been documented the same over years. But have we tried to explore that within us we are reliving it, then why not re-imagine it?" Ghosh said during the session.
The author shared an anecdote about how he found an 80-year-old woman online, who happened to be a psychology student at Lady Irwin College during the time of Partition.
"She narrated to me that when Lady Mountbatten set up a trauma centre for counselling rape victims they did not have a counselor and instructed the girl who was just 18 years old then to take up the job."
"Four days later she went crying to Mountbatten saying that she can't do it. Now, this is also an aspect to Partition," Ghosh said.
"We have always read about, seen or heard stories of people who went through physical violence that time. But we have forgotten to listen to those who suffered during the time and the memories of it still continue to haunt them or their generations," he added.
