“I have grown up listening to my grandparents’ stories about ‘the other side’ of the border. But, as a child, this other side didn’t quite register as Pakistan, or not-India, but rather as some mythic land devoid of geographic borders, ethnicity and nationality. In fact, through their stories, I imagined it as a land with mango orchards, joint families, village settlements, endless lengths of ancestral fields extending into the horizon, and quaint local bazaars teeming with excitement on festive days. As a result, the history of my grandparents’ early lives in what became Pakistan essentially came across as a very idyllic, somewhat rural, version of happiness.” HistoryChildhoodIndiaPakistanMigrationRefugeesPartitionPartition 1947 Author:Aanchal Malhotra
“If I considered the Partition an archeological site, and the many experiences of those who witnessed it as the site’s structural sedimentation, then the deeper I excavated, the more I found, and that too in innumerable renditions.” HistoryIndiaMemoryPakistanArcheologyPartition 1947 Book:Remnants of a Separation: A History of the Partition through Material Memory Source: Remnants of a Separation: A History of the Partition through Material Memory