Author: Eminent Contributors
Editor(s): Ritu Menon
Publisher: Kali/Women Unlimited
Year: 2004
Language: English
Pages: 202
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8188965049
Description
Never before has a single volume featured non-fiction writing by women from Pakistan, India and Bangladesh on the Partition of India. Here, for the first time, are Ismat Chughtai, Sara Suleri, Anis Kidwai, Phulrenu Guha, Meghna Guhathakurta, Shehla Shibli, Manikuntala Sen, Kamlaben Patel and many others, speaking and writing about communalism and literature; what they learnt from refugees; what Partition means to them 50 years later; and how they define themselves-Hindus? Muslims? Indians? Pakistanis? Bengalis? All of these or none? Either or neither? Not-Indian-not-Pakistani? Bangladeshi not Pakistani? Above all, their accounts raise that most troubling question: do women have a country?
An unusual mix of memoirs, interviews, reminiscences and reflective essays, this anthology is the first attempt to present women's perspective on the Partition of India, based on the experience of three countries.
RETU MENON is a publisher and writer. She is co-author of Borders and Boundaries: Women in India's Partition, and of Unequal Citizens: A Study of Muslim Women in India; and editor, Unmaking the Nation: A Three-Country Perspective on the Partition of India (forthcoming).
Contents
No Woman's Land
Excellent Things in Women
Papa and Pakistan
Communal Violence and Literature
Riots, Partition and Independence
Partition: Streams of Refugees
Either, Neither, or Both
Two Women, One Family, Divided Nations
Border Crossings: Travelling Without a Destination
Darkness and Light
Back Again, After 40 Years
Jatin & Ismat
Lock Up Your Hearts
Abandoned
Trauma & Triumph
Lady Camp Commandant
Rehabilitation, East & West