Critical Analysis of the Oral Testimony of Maya Rani on...

Katrina Ann Abdul Hadi ID: 24681598 School of Arts and Social Sciences ATS1325 Contemporary Worlds 1 The partition of India in 1948 led to one of the largest mass migration movements in the world. The successful attainment of independence from colonial rule is also a narrative of religious nationalism, displacement and communal violence between the two nation states of India and Pakistan or more definitively the Muslims and Hindus. In Urvashi Butalia’s (2000, pp.264-300) â€Å"The Other Side of Silence† the oral testimony of Maya Rani, a Punjabi woman who was a child living in Pakistan during the Partition is particularly important to the histiography surrounding the event as it is told from a different perspective by a person not†¦show more content†¦Her experience is reminiscent of the communal experience of the Partition by the population during the period of 1947-1952. The young girl’s suicide has a strong link to the event in Thoa Khalsa where close to a hundred women drowned themselves by jumping into a well supposedly ‘preferring’ de ath rather than being ‘dishonoured’ by the men from the opposing side. She relates the events in a somewhat cool and detached demeanour as if it had nothing to do with the particular bubble which was her life. Maya Rani then comments that little over a year after the Partition she got married â€Å"and then completely forgot about Pakistan† (Butalia, 2000, p. 267). However, how much of that which she did not elaborate on or ‘forgot’ is because of the imagined community’s sense of nationhood and the unspoken agreement of communal silence on the issue of the abuse of women’s rights, rape and the abduction and ‘recovery’ of women across borders during and after the Partition. From her point of view the whole process of hatred and ethnic cleansing was instigated by the English, by troublemakers who wanted ‘blood up to the knees’ to show that â€Å"we were incapable of ruling so that theShow MoreRelatedThe Partition onf India1231 Words   |  5 PagesThe Partition of India in August, 1947 was a significant event in history that accounted for the separation of one of the world’s oldest civilization into two, independent nations – Pakistan and India. Like many other wars in history, The Partition of India was instigated by religious, political and social conflict. This resulted in violence, discrimination and the largest human displacement in contemporary history. While the Partition was well-studied, much of our understanding was focused on the