In Urvashi Butalia’s book, The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India, she interviewed multiple people, specifically women, who lived through the horrific Partition of India. One significant woman who Butalia interviewed was Damyanti Sahgal. Butalia wrote that, along with being a victim of violence caused by the Partition, Damyanti later “worked for many years in the Indian State’s recovery and relief operation” (91). Damyanti’s detailed account offered significant insight into the true nature of the Central Recovery Operation. As Butalia described the broad account of what happened to women with statistics and general knowledge, Damyanti provided a first-hand account that truly illuminates the severity of the “recovery”
the War affected the young women from the reservations. She is able to show you
Miriam, L. (1928). The Problem of Indian Administration. Maryland, MD: The Lord Baltimore Press. Retrieved from Alaskool.
In “The Great Silence” Ted Chiang presents the reader with the idea that humans and other intelligent species do live on earth. Communication between different species on earth can be difficult because they can’t express their thoughts to one another. According to a possible solution to fermi’s paradox, intelligent life would rather hide than to present themselves to potential enemies. Humans have a hard time trying to find other species to communicate with because they only focus on extraterrestrial life. Humans created the Arecibo observatory to send out signals into space and pick up any signals that could be sent by extraterrestrial life. Although Humans cannot speak directly to other species we are able to communicate with our actions and vibes.
Veena Das’ Life and Words is an attempt to capture the way in which major “events” reside in the recesses of everyday life. Drawing mainly from the aftermath of the Partition of India in 1947 and the assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984, Das explores the way violence leaves its mark on the people it touches, how it affects them at the immediate moment, and how it is carried through various forms of memory and silence into their everyday lives. Das also addresses that the manner in which the nation-state dealt with and constructed the violence of events also shapes the moments of and after violence, and the way these events inhabit the everyday life. The relation of the event and the everyday is understood in terms of how a number of dichotomous factors, related to the inside and the outside, interact and affect each other. In blurring the boundaries between the ordinary and the eventful, Das is able to give significant insights into the interface between the individual and the collective, the self and the other, and the everyday and the event.
Anisa Kidwai’s memory of the partition compelled her to write down not of her own deeds nd sufferings, but about thousands of innocent victims whose sufferings can easily rise above its historic limitations and also can be a subject to transhumanism in Nietzsche’s terminology. Mrs Kidwai personally was charmed by Gandhiji’s principle of nonviolence which is a key word of the Indian concept of humanism that plausibly could have diverted the direction of the partition agitation to some other positive way. While working in two refugee camps, the writer saw how the affected people of the riot in 1947 were attacked by thirst, hunger and different epidemic diseases. It was also shaming for her to see how girls were raped and wounded brutally by the riot hooligans, how everyday fifteen and every night ten newborn babies opened their eyes unwanted and in the most unhygienic atmosphere. She was shocked to see a little boy talking of only ‘murder’ and ‘death’. Amidst destruction and distrust, there were few, who bore the message of hope and
In a century defined by conflict, World War One was a conflict that redefined one nation in particular: India. The horrors of trench warfare, the sheer loss of life and the unprecedented scale of the war often overshadows the involvement of colonial troops. And although the sacrifices of New Zealand and Australia are solemnly remembered and revered, the role of India is often neglected: confined to the backs of history books and to the bottom of footnotes. As Shashi Tharoor so poignantly describes, India’s role in WWI has been “orphaned by history." But between 1914 and 1918, 1.5 million Indian men would set sail for foreign lands to fight, and many, to die, in a bitter conflict between the very same European powers that had scrambled to claim
In comparison’s to the very old man suffering, Boori Ma a poor women suffering started with the partition. “It was with this voice that she enumerated,……..the details of her plight and losses suffered sin her deportation to Calcutta after Partition (Lahiri, 70).” During the partition treaty, India and Pakistan are split because of religious reason; Hindus from Muslim land were millions of people are left without any place to go. “…the turmoil had separated her form a husband, four daughters, a two-story brick house, a rosewood almari, and a number of coffer boxes whose skeleton keys s...
This Blessed House by Jhumpa Lahiri is a short story that follows a small period of time in the two characters’ lives. Having known one another for only four months, newlyweds Sanjeev and Tanima, called Twinkle, are finding it difficult to adjust to married life. Both have very different personalities, a theme that Lahiri continuously points to throughout the story,. Their conflict comes to a head when Twinkle begins finding Christian relics all over the house. Sanjeev wants to throw the relics away, but Twinkle collects them on the mantle and shows them off at every opportunity. As a character, Sanjeev is unadventurous and exacting, while Twinkle is free-spirited and does not care for the fine details. The root of the conflict between Jhumpa Lahiri’s characters Sanjeev and Twinkle in “This Blessed House” is the clashing of their two very different personalities in a situation that forces them together.
The first common theme in Saadat Manto’s short story is rape and the effect it has on women during the Partition. A young girl, Sakina, is raped by a few men of in her community while her father is desperately looking for her amongst the dangers and chaos of the Partition. He asks social workers to help him find Sakina. When they do, they approach her and assure her to go along with them. Sakina confides in them but then ends up being repeatedly raped. At first, Sakina is a terrified and hesitant young girl trying to avoid the men. However, the ending is dramatically contrasted with her polar behavior. In the last scene, Sakina, is half conscious and barely alive yet she responds to the doctor’s command “open it” (his reference was to the window) by lifting her clothes up. Sakina “ …stirred a little. She moved her hand painfully towards the cord holding up her salwar” (Manto 362). After this scene, readers can powerfully feel the change that has come upon her after she has been raped. A once young and innocent girl had become
Women, not only in India but throughout the world, in the more recent years have gained enough power to raise their voice and become independent. When discussing a Hindu woman’s status and role in society, one can conclude that until recently, women have been burdened and suppressed by the patriarchal and marital power. “The society depicted in doctrinaire literature reflects a strong system of patriarchal values and a rigid code of conduct for women.” A society expects a great deal from its women and forces upon unbreakable rules, which come with unbearable consequences that both the family and individual female would have to face if...
The decision to grant independence to India was not the logical culmination of errors in policy, neither was it as a consequence of a mass revolution forcing the British out of India, but rather, the decision was undertaken voluntarily. Patrick French argues that: “The British left India because they lost control over crucial areas of the administration, and lacked the will and the financial or military ability to recover that control”.
Gandhi’s first hand experiences in dealing with discrimination began in South Africa. In Chapter VII ‘Some Experiences,’ Gandhi recalls on his first days of his arrival the incident at the Durban court where he was asked to remove his turban. He refused and left the court. He quickly learned that Indians where divided in different groups. “One was that of Musalman merchants, who would call themselves ‘Arabs.’ Another was that of Hindu, and yet another of Parsi, clerks. The Hindu clerks were neither here nor there, unless they cast in their lot with the ‘Arabs.’ The Parsi clerks would call themselves Persians. These three classes had some social relations with one another. But by far the largest class was that composed of Tamil, Telugu and North Indian indentured and freed labourers.” Gandhi learns the plight of the indentured laborers later on in his stay in South Africa.
She finds only poverty and turmoil. It reflects Mukherjee’s own experience of coming back to India with her American husband in 1973, when she was deeply affected by the chaos and poverty of India.
Marginalization of the people of this region could be seen in vogue in the historical writings as well as the theoretical framework of the intellectuals. Popular intellectuals of the academic circle such as Eric Wolf’s ‘people without history’, E.P Thompson’s ‘ unsung voices of history’, Genovese’s ‘ objects and subjects of history’, Ranajit Guha’s ‘Subaltern’, Lacan’s ‘ others’, Sharia’s ‘ hybrid histories’ and many other intellectuals continuously questions the validity of the existing orthodox historical discourses of the marginalized down through the ages. The mainstream society carries on a continuous, harsh and systematic attack on the social system of the Northeast, their culture, their tribal identity and their way of life. The debts of mainstream India to the efforts and struggles of the tribes of this region during the colonial regime and even in the pre- colonial days should be acknowledged by re- writing the history of our country. The history of their struggles is not only documented in their scripts but also in their folktales, dances and songs that passed on from one generation to the other. In sh...
In 2013 the New York Times published an article on the women in India. In detail the article explains the role of the women in the Indian society throughout time. The growth of women in the Indian society has changed drastically, years before women were the ones who stayed at home and raised the children while men worked, now women are able to attend school, gain employment and even have roles in the government. The New York Times does not only explain the growth of women, but also brings out the real issue with the number of dowry deaths and violent deaths that women suffer due to their husbands that the Indian government rarely reports. The article continues to discuss the concerns many women in India have about the way they are treated in their own society, beginning with a story of a women who was raped and killed in New Delhi. The country of India has been working over time to give women more of a voice and to help prevent the major issues that have been occurring in their country (Harris, 2013).