Remembering Partition Women Oral Histori
Remembering Partition Women Oral Histori
Remembering Partition Women Oral Histori
Abstract: This article explores key developments in the way Partition has been represented
in the history of India and Pakistan. It more specifically examines how alternative silent voices
have been become more visible in the past fifteen years in the historiography of Partition.
This shift has been made possible with the use of oral testimonies to document accounts
of ordinary people’s experiences of this event in the history of India and Pakistan. The article
then goes on to reflect on the author’s experiences of working in South Asia and the use of
oral history as a radical and empowering tool in understanding women’s history in Pakistan.
The use of oral history has been a growing trend The purpose of this article is to examine
in Partition Studies since the 1990s. Popularised some of the developments that have taken place
by the need to explore ‘history from below’ it in partition historiography, especially since offi-
has changed our understanding of Partition by cial records were opened up to the public; to
shifting the focus from the ‘great men’ of history focus on the impact of oral history, which has
to one which encompasses a people’s history. increasingly been used in the past fifteen years,
Oral history as a new methodological tool has transforming our understanding of the gendered
been pivotal in enabling this shift. It has dimension in Partition Studies and the transfor-
enhanced our understanding of the human mative impact of this period on the lives of
trauma and turmoil ordinary citizens endured women. Finally, the article reflects on the expe-
during those chaotic and frenzied days of the riences of working with oral history in South
collapsing British Empire in India. Moreover, it Asia and more specifically on my experiences of
has provided an opportunity to document the interviewing women in Pakistan.
history of those people who, until recently, were
silenced, marginalised and outside the official Historiography and Partition’s
histories. To date much of this new research has representation
been largely confined to India, and more specif- The starting point for Partition literature is the
ically concerned with developments in the official histories produced in India and Pakistan.
Punjab, but there have been some studies on Such writings tended to celebrate the achieve-
other regions including Bengal, Delhi and ment of independence, to play down the dislo-
Pakistan Punjab. Comparative work has also cation surrounding Partition and/or to displace
started to emerge, whereby locality based blame for the violence. The Indian nationalist
studies have used first-hand accounts to provide approach was to understand Partition as the net
some much needed coverage to local voices. result of years of divisive policies adopted by the
50 ORAL HISTORY Autumn 2013
colonial power. These undermined pre-existing advances in Regional Studies4 the emphasis has
cultural unities and social interaction, which cut predominately been on why Partition happened,
across religious identity. For Pakistani writers, rather than on how it impacted and transformed
on the other hand, the creation of a separate the lives of ordinary citizens. The pervasive hold
homeland arose from the desire to safeguard of the national leadership in shaping perceptions
community values away from the tyrannical of Partition, the relationship between the British,
Hindu majority rule. The ideologically incom- the Congress and the Muslim League, have all
patible discourses arising from the ‘divide and contributed to an obsession with what happened
rule’ and ‘two-nation theory’ understandings of at the top echelons. Moreover, this imbalance is
Partition that followed from independence have reflected in the history books,5 which have for a
helped frame the post-independence relation- long time neglected the heavy price paid by the
ship between India and Pakistan. citizens of the two new nations. This curriculum
Much of the early historiography was of hatred continues to feed religious bigotry on
concerned with the ‘high politics’ that accom- both sides of the border, placing Hindus and
panied the process of transferring power. This Muslims against each other.
has partly been directed by the sources that were By the early 1980s, a new historiographical
available; early accounts were dependent on key school emerged and challenged existing assump-
insiders providing autobiographical accounts of tions; writers such as Ranajit Guha pioneered
their experiences. There was however, a glaring the study of Indian history ‘from below’.6 The
omission of ordinary voices and how high poli- Subaltern Studies School,7 as they came to be
tics affected those at the bottom of society. Liter- known, sought to provide an alternative history
ature and film to a limited extent filled that void. from the populist nationalist struggle that was
Fiction was perhaps the only way in which being depicted. By the early 1990s the impact of
emotive, traumatic and religiously sensitive this approach started to permeate Partition
material could be depicted in countries that Studies and resulted in a shift away from the
were divided on the basis of religion. Writers ‘great men of history’ approach towards a
such as Intizar Hussain, Bhisham Sahni, Saadat ‘history from below.’ Regional Studies had
Hasan Manto and Amrita Pritam were writing already shifted the focus from national to
from their own personal experiences of disloca- regional politics, but social activists and femi-
tion and captured the human drama of Partition. nist writers pushed the agenda into probing a
In the ‘official’ histories both India and hidden and traumatic past. A key catalyst for
Pakistan have produced documentation to this was the chilling similarities between Parti-
displace blame for the violence of August 1947, tion violence and the anti-Sikh riots in Delhi that
which despite its biases is useful to the historian. followed the assassination of Indira Gandhi in
One of the best-known attempts to document 1984. Second, and more importantly, the
the violence is Khosla’s account, which was first Golden Jubilee of Independence encouraged a
published in 1949.1 Khosla, interestingly, uses reassessment of partition. Marked with special
eyewitness accounts to illustrate the violent and publications, it presented an opportunity for
horrific nature of the disturbances. In Pakistan, introspection and reflective writing which was
there have been a number of government publi- able to deal with the horrors and violence that
cations that understand the violence against accompanied independence. Fifty years on a
Muslims in East Punjab in terms of a so-called new generation of writers was more willing to
‘Sikh Plan’.2 Khan, meanwhile, provides an tackle and challenge taboo subjects such as
insightful piece, again illustrating this with first- violence, rape and the abduction of women.
hand accounts of Pakistani refugees and their Interestingly, in Europe, this coincided with the
experiences of being uprooted.3 Though this ongoing debate about ethnic cleansing, geno-
publication, like that of Khosla, has many biases, cide, and war crimes against women in Bosnia.
the combined effect of the two publications at In this case, ‘feminist activists made a concerted
least provides some insight of localised and effort to affect the statute establishing the Inter-
personal experiences of the frenzied months national Criminal Tribunal for the Former
following Partition. It also provides a useful Yugoslavia, the rules of evidence under which
alternative to the other personal accounts of the rape and other crimes of sexual violence would
time from the officials themselves. be prosecuted…’.8 Thus there was now a wider
For both India and Pakistan it was important discussion about the use of mass rape against
to establish an independent national identity; re- women in conflicts; indeed Menon and Bhasin
imagining the past and creating a new national note the similarities with accounts of violence
history allows this new identity to emerge and against women in Bosnia and Herzegovina with
to reinforce and justify the nascent nation-state. Partition violence.9 In both these cases women
Thus the dominance and glorification of the are the upholders of community honour and are
‘great men’ such as, Jinnah, Gandhi, Nehru is then tainted by the ‘other’ and forced to take on
palpable in the post-independent histories of the burden of dishonouring the community.
India and Pakistan. Despite some important Scholars such as Menon, Bhasin,10 Butalia11 and
Autumn 2013 ORAL HISTORY 51
Fatima’s residence
was located on the
top floor of this
building. Photo:
Pippa Virdee, 2007.
comparatively little has been written about work however, does bring together through
women in Pakistan. Nighat Said Khan, a Lahore personal narratives, the story of families divided
based activist, has conducted some interviews by Partition in Delhi and Karachi.18 Recently
with women, largely in Sindh, but the interviews there is work emerging on Bengal and also
remain largely unpublished.16 More recently I Yasmin Saikia has been exploring the impact of
have has attempted to bridge this significant gap the 1972 war in Bangladesh on women.19 But in
in documenting the experiences of Partition and addition to these accounts there remain many
resettlement of women in Pakistan Punjab, espe- unexplored histories of lesser-known experi-
cially in terms of how this is recorded in public ences of the upheaval caused by Partition and
and private spaces.17 Second, the majority of the independence.
work so far has attempted to document the The use of oral history in the study of Parti-
plight of Punjabis. Although, the region, it can tion has been embraced in recent scholarly work
be argued, suffered the worst of the atrocities, because it has allowed the researcher to delve
within wider Partition historiography the deep into the human dimension, an attempt to
research is geographically limited. Zamindar’s understand through emotions the impact on
Autumn 2013 ORAL HISTORY 53
everyday life.20 This is often absent in the offi- story. Bornat et al argue that, ‘for the oral histo-
cial records. As a methodological tool, oral rians the interview is always more than the
history has complemented official documentary recorded and transcribed words, it is a process
sources rather than competed with them. For in which the narrator, the interviewee, is actively
example during my own research, I found that constructing and creating an account’.22 There
although the Ministry of Relief and Rehabilita- is also in many ways a power imbalance between
tion of Displaced Persons and the Liaison the two agents; it is ultimately the interviewer
Agency were looking into the abduction of who has the ability to interpret, recount and
women and children during 1947, the docu- analyse the interview before narrating it and the
ments could not reveal anything about the interviewee has no power or control during this
women themselves. Further there is not much process. Some oral historians may share a tran-
information about their personal circumstances, script with the interviewee but this approach is
how the women responded once they had been not standard. However, the process of collecting
‘recovered’ and what happened to them after- these personal histories has enabled historians
wards. Oral testimonies in this case have been to broaden what history is about,23 it has democ-
significant in filling that missing dimension and ratised history and enabled hidden voices to be
allow the historian to document not just the incorporated into our wider understanding of
political history which examines the govern- society. There is then a dilemma about the use of
ment’s role in recovering abducted women but these accounts and the radical potential of oral
to explore the cultural, social and human reper- history to reclaim the history of ordinary people.
cussions of this history. They can complement Sangster however forces us to question the
the official source material, providing an alto- impact of feminist discourse which ‘hoped to use
gether more comprehensive analysis. Moving oral history to empower women by creating a
away from the statistics of how women’s lives revised history for women [emphasis in original]’
were uprooted and how they rebuilt their lives; and to what extent this is overstated. She ques-
they enable us to document the aftermath and tions whether we are ‘exaggerating the radical
not just the event itself. Furthermore, the level of potential of oral history, especially the likelihood
detail required in grass roots case studies is diffi- of academic work changing popular attitudes?’
cult to obtain if local records are not available, And she asks ‘are we ignoring the uncomfortable
especially if they were destroyed, at times delib- ethical issues involved in using living people as a
erately, as in 1947. The use of oral testimonies source for our research?’24 As an oral historian
thus becomes an important source of informa- this is one of the challenges of working with
tion as well as allowing us to understand the living history. The radical nature of course comes
perceptions and lived experiences of ordinary from providing space for alternative histories to
lives. Moreover, with women’s voices that are exist and challenge the status quo.
often marginalised, oral history has become even
more important as it has the ability to empower Remembering Partition: a female gaze
those unexpressed utterances, which would In this section I reflect on some of the main
otherwise remain undocumented. At the same themes that became important in collecting
time this process has at least democratised the first-hand accounts in India and Pakistan; and
discourse which has until recently remained themes which were particularly useful for
concerned with high politics. understanding a gendered perspective of the
However documenting, recording and Partition period and the impact on women’s
recounting these stories also presents the lives in Pakistan. Over the past ten years or so I
researcher with ethical dilemmas. The subject have collected testimonies from around 100 or
matter in many cases concerns stories of trauma, so men and women, and in more recent times I
forced migration, violence, rape and loss of one’s have chosen to focus on women, especially
homeland. These are emotive subjects that can Muslim women, in an attempt to balance some
evoke strong responses in some cases, while of the recent research which has focused on the
others find it hard to re-live that painful experi- Indian Punjabi experience.
ence again. Although the people were speaking I first used oral testimonies for my doctoral
willingly there is still a sense of burden and research. It was an integral part of the method-
responsibility on the interviewer to be aware of ology and complemented the ‘history from
the impact the interview may have on the inter- below’ approach that I wanted to adopt. It also
viewee. This interaction and the interview followed logically from the historiography
process itself create a new historical document outlined earlier, as it was moving away from
‘by the agency of both the interviewer and the established modes of thought. The locality based
interviewee’ (emphasis in the original).21 The approach I adopted also allowed local voices to
interview process is therefore much more emerge, so it presented an opportunity to
complex, one in which the interviewer has an narrate not just localised case studies but to tell
agenda to document an untold story and the this story through the people who inhabited
interviewee shares their particular experience or these places. So cities such as Ludhiana and
54 ORAL HISTORY Autumn 2013
Lyallpur became important because of these English. This was a time-consuming process but Kamoke is a small city
migrants and the transformative impact the an important one for me as a researcher because in Gujranwala district
movement of people has had on these localities. and is associated with
it allowed me to engage and interact with mate-
violence and the
Documents provided the factual details such as rial intimately while reflecting on the interview abduction of women
the level of population displacement, govern- itself. The ability to speak the local dialect is an during Partition. I did
ment responses to the refugee crisis, and absolute advantage, especially in a region where a number of interviews
housing reconstruction, but oral accounts language is such an emotive and political here. Photo: Pippa
provided a glimpse into the lived experiences, subject. It also allows the interviewer to estab- Virdee, 2008.
the impact of displacement, how they adapted lish trust and rapport with the interviewee.
and ultimately how these cities were trans- Interviews conducted with a local translator
formed after August 1947.25 while useful in providing access to people, does
I have collected oral testimonies from a mean that some of the sub-text of the interview
diverse range of people in India and Pakistan, can be lost in translation. The ability to conduct
rural and urban, men and women. For my the interview yourself, to respond to the visual
doctoral work I focused on localities (Ludhiana and verbal expressions are crucial. Interestingly,
and Lyallpur) but within these places I concen- Hamilton seeks to analyse the emotions in oral
trated on areas which had experienced high history interviews.26 Conducting interviews in
levels of refugee resettlement. Once in those Pakistan was initially quite challenging for me.
areas, it was not difficult to find people who had My East African/Indian/British background
migrated, either in India or Pakistan. This also allowed me to adopt a neutral position but even
created a snowballing process that led to multi- then certain words or phrases would locate me
ple interviews in a geographically tight space. as ‘Indian’. This was problematic because I was
Other interviews were conducted with a more then no longer viewed as a neutral and objective
targeted approach; this was particularly useful researcher and instead belonged to the ‘other’.
for conducting interviews with women involved Conversely it is worth highlighting that belong-
in the rehabilitation of refugees in Pakistan. On ing to a particular region also at times allowed
the whole the interviewees have been given me to bond with some of the interviewees more
pseudonyms but in some cases, where the easily, especially when we spoke the same
person’s views are already in the public domain dialect, which would immediately establish
or their identity forms part of the narrative then rapport and congeniality. There was then a sense
the identity has been revealed. of kinship in the interview. Interestingly, the
Most of my interviews have been conducted concerns over my background were mainly
in Punjabi and then translated and transcribed; expressed by men I interviewed rather than
translating directly from oral Punjabi to written women. This perhaps reinforces how generally
Autumn 2013 ORAL HISTORY 55
Wagah-Attari border men are more politicised (and in this case adopt- rape of a niece. This subject is still very sensitive
crossing. Picture ing a nationalist stance) then women. But my and people, regardless of their religious back-
taken from the gender, however, was crucial in allowing me ground, do not open up about it easily. Some-
Pakistan side. Photo:
Pippa Virdee, 2005. access to women, especially in Pakistan where times stories are recounted by using the example
society is more conservative and gendered segre- of a friend or distant relative, thus creating some
gation more common. distance between the experience and associated
The majority of the interviewees were dishonouring. In an interview with Tahira
recounting events and memories from the 1940s Mazhar Ali we discussed how the recovery of
and so their ability to accurately reconstruct women was marred with difficulties, in large
these events may be questionable. There are part due to the stigma and shame associated
obvious concerns over memory and the ability with being forcibly abducted and raped. She was
to recall these events but this is further compli- actively working at the time to improve the
cated by nationalist fervour in a politically condition of women and was familiar with the
charged environment. In addition there are the plight of women who were abandoned or then
inevitable allegations that people may change or forcibly recovered by the government.27 The
exaggerate their experiences for the benefit of following extract from this interview also shows
the interviewer. I was more concerned about the the disjuncture between government initiatives
ethical questions of whether we should subject of recovering abducted women and the realties
people to recollect something as traumatic as the in then locating these women back to their
communal carnage, abduction of women, and ‘rightful’ homes:
the forced migration that took place following
independence in August 1947. For many this I was working with Mridula [Sarabhai],28
period is still too traumatic to talk about. Indeed particularly after Jawaharlal [Nehru] asked
some of the people interviewed were emotion- for the return of the abducted Hindu
ally upset by the whole experience and in some women. I got myself immersed in the task of
of the interviews the truth was concealed from recovering those women. Mridula asked me
me because it was too sensitive to talk about. I to ask those women to come back to their
only discovered this through informal conversa- homes. But many of those women did not
tions with other members of the family who later want to face the family because of shame
informed me that certain things had been hidden and sheer embarrassment they felt. Quite a
from me. For example on one occasion I was few were accorded acceptability and some
informed that the interviewee was involved in were happy and well settled in the house-
violence and looting and in another case the holds they were living. Such women, there-
interviewee kept silent about the abduction and fore, did not want to go back.29
56 ORAL HISTORY Autumn 2013
use to allow them to go out. So they used to Wagah border and I was introduced to her by a
live indoor. In UP [United Provinces] the mutual acquaintance. The interview took place
women from well-off families used to go out at her home in an informal but confined space.
in palanquins; they were not allowed to go Our mutual friend had informed Fatima that I
out without taking a mehram [a close male wished to interview her about her experiences
family member].34 of Partition but once the interview started she
was reluctant to open up to me. The reasons
The issue of social conditioning was vividly were two-fold: her brother was present at the
highlighted during one of the interviews that I interview and she felt her brother’s views were
did in Lahore. Fatima35 was from a relatively more important than hers. When I asked Fatima
deprived background living in a densely popu- about how she found out about the distur-
lated building. She had migrated from nearby bances, her brother mumbled in the back-
58 ORAL HISTORY Autumn 2013
Autumn 2013 ORAL HISTORY 59
View from a house ground, ‘well now I don’t have permission to formal education. 40 Although education
in Lahore where I talk otherwise I could have explained every- provided many women with more political
conducted an
thing.’ I respond by saying that I just wanted to awareness, it is important to note that formal
interview. Photo:
Pippa Virdee, 2008. record women’s experience and wanted them to education was not the only route. In the case of
explain things in their own way. Fatima Salma Begum, who was from an affluent back-
responds, ‘what can I say, I don’t recall ground, her lack of formal education did not
anything.’ By doing so, she validated her own detract from her overall awareness of the poli-
brother’s agency and marginalised her own tics surrounding the Muslim League and the
voice. Similarly in another interview I asked demands for a separate state. Her family was
Reshma Bibi how she came from India, her well connected and politically active and while
response was, ‘I cannot remember at all. You she was not discouraged from studying, she
should ask any man who could tell it to you herself made a decision not to study because of
properly’.36 Sangster has also highlighted that her own lack of interest. Yet in my conversation
women often remember the past in different with her it was clear that she took an interest in
ways to men, often ‘they downplay their own politics via her family’s network:
activities, emphasising the role of other family
members in their recollections.’37 In Butalia’s My father then joined the Khilafat Move-
experience, ‘women almost never spoke about ment and he was advocating sooti [home-
themselves, indeed they denied they had spun cotton] against imported cloth. The
anything ‘worthwhile’ to say, a stance that was government offered him a good job through
often corroborated by their men…or they simply my paternal uncle but he was too involved
weren’t there to speak.’38 While, Menon and with the movement’s activities…During the
Bhasin suggest that there is ‘gendered telling’ of German war, they asked the British that they
the narrative, so that men recount the story in a will fight only on one condition that they
‘heroic mode’39 which in many ways resembles will have to give them independence. One
the dominant nationalist discourse. Conse- of my nephews went to the war as a Major.
quently, Fatima’s brother goes on to explain So many people from Punjab were killed in
what happened and what prompted them to that war. 41
leave. His explanation includes political analysis
for the disturbances, which were most likely In an interview with Nusrat, the absence of
informed retrospectively and through informal women’s contributions in politics is highlighted,
discussions. Throughout the interview Fatima’s something that she believes remains largely
brother remained present, sometimes remaining silenced. She also touches on how her own
silent and sometimes contributing to the inter- desires were thwarted by the reluctance of her
view. He tried to take over, not it seems because father:
he did not want his sister to talk to me but
because he thought he had more knowledge and There was another political activist called
therefore a discussion with him would be more Fatima Begum. Her father started publishing
beneficial to my research. Looking at it from his the first Urdu newspaper Paisa Akhbar 42
point of view he was trying to assist me with my from Lahore. She did a lot of work for the
research by providing an informed opinion, movement of Pakistan. But no one knows
much more than his sister could, but by default her name, even no one mentioned her
he was silencing his sister’s views. The interview although there are many speeches and I
highlighted the complexities of speaking with always used to listen with the hope that
women, especially with those who are illiterate someone will mention Baji Fatima’s name
or from rural areas. Paradoxically it is often the that she served the nation very well. But to
women themselves who have been conditioned my disappointment, no one speaks about her.
to feel they have little of value to contribute and The reason was that she never cared to
are therefore reluctant to share their views. promote herself in public. She was a silent
But given the opportunity, they are also worker and always liked to be behind the
willing to open up and let the interviewer come scene. A renowned lawyer and writer Abdul
into the ‘char diwari’ and into their personal Qadir arranged political meetings at his place
space, narrating their stories as experienced and and Baji Fatima took us to attend a couple of
visualised by them. In their own way the period those meetings. I was a student then.
leading up to Indian independence and the
creation of Pakistan was also creating opportu- [Her daughter encourages her to share her
nities for Muslim women’s emancipation. own story] Tell her how nana jaan [grand-
Education for girls during the 1940s was still father] disliked women’s participation in the
largely exclusive, middle class families were politics. He was of the view that it was not
beginning to encourage education for girls but appropriate for girls to step into the thorny
amongst the lower classes it was still not consid- bush of politics, it is not respectable field for
ered appropriate and girls remained outside women:
60 ORAL HISTORY Autumn 2013
women to speak, it presents us with an oppor- that in reality women played multiple roles.
tunity to piece together a social cultural history Fatima Sughra’s account shows us how a young
of hidden lives, often confined to private spaces middle class girl, encouraged by the elite female
but nonetheless, lives which are important in leadership, becomes a symbol of the Muslim
shaping the newly created nation of Pakistan. separatist movement. The separatist movement
In a recent article in Oral History, Gluck asked and subsequently Partition also provided an
whether feminist oral history had lost its opportunity for many women to become more
‘radical/subversive’ edge?45 As these personal mobilised politically and thereby visible in
narratives from Pakistan demonstrate, there is public spaces. The accounts presented here do
still some progress to be made but they do highlight the marginality of women’s histories,
provide the historian an insight into other alter- which to some extent has been internalised by
native narratives, which is essential if old histo- many women themselves, but more importantly
ries are to be challenged and reappraised. These they also highlight women’s own agency in
accounts also allow us to explore the subtleties circumventing and creating space for them-
and the complex histories of women’s lives selves regardless of these obstacles. It is these
during this difficult period. It further challenges alternative spaces created by women which are
the preoccupation with victimised accounts of important in moving forward any discussion on
women during Partition and instead suggests displacement and upheaval caused by Partition.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank Ian Talbot for reading an
earlier draft of this article and his valuable
feedback.
NOTES
1. Gopal Das Khosla, Stern Reckoning: A The following is a small selection of subaltern 15. Paola Bacchetta, ‘Reinterrogating
Survey of Events Leading Up To and literature: Ranajit Guha (ed), Subaltern partition violence: voices of women/
Following the Partition of India, New Delhi: Studies (5 vols), New Delhi: Oxford University children/Dalits in India’s partition’, Feminist
Oxford University Press, 1949, reprinted in Press; Shahid Amin, Event, Metaphor, Studies, vol 26, no 3, Fall 2000, pp 567-585.
1989. Memory: Chauri Chaura, 1922-1992, 16. Nigar Said Khan, Rubina Saigol and
2. Government of Pakistan, Note on the Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995; Afiya Sehrbano Zia, Locating the Self:
Sikh Plan and the Sikhs in Action, Lahore: and David Arnold, ‘Gramsci and Peasant Perspectives on Women and Multiple
Government Printing Press, 1948. Subalternity in India’, Journal of Peasant Identities, Lahore: ASR 1994.
3. Saleem Ullah Khan, The Journey to Studies vol 11, no 4, 1984, pp 155-77. 17. Pippa Virdee ‘Negotiating the past:
Pakistan. A Documentation on Refugees of 8. Karen Engle, ‘Feminism and its Journey through Muslim women’s
1947, Islamabad: National Documentation (dis)contents: criminalizing wartime rape in experience of partition and resettlement’,
Centre, 1993. Bosnia and Herzegovina’, The American Cultural and Social History, vol 6, no 4,
4. At the forefront of this shift towards Journal of International Law, vol 99, no 4, 2009, pp 467-484.
regional politics in the case of the Punjab October 2005, p 778, pp 718-816. 18. Vazira Fazila-Yacoobali Zamindar, The
were such historians as Ian Talbot and 9. Ritu Menon and Kamla Bhasin, Borders Long Partition and the Making of Modern
David Gilmartin. Talbot has highlighted the and Boundaries: Women in India’s Partition, South Asia: Refugees, Boundaries,
transformation in the Punjab Muslim New Jersey: Rutger University Press, 1998, Histories, India: Penguin, 2007.
League’s fortunes in the period from the p 63, ff34. 19. Uditi Sen, ‘Dissident memories:
1937 to the 1946 provincial elections. This 10. Menon and Bhasin, 1998. Also see Exploring Bengali refugee narratives in the
breakthrough was essential for the creation Ritu Menon and Kamala Bhasin, ‘Recovery, Andaman Islands’ in P. Panayi and P. Virdee
of Pakistan. Ian Talbot, Punjab and the Raj, rapture, resistance: The Indian state and (eds) Refugees and the End of Empire:
New Delhi: Manohar, 1988 and David the abduction of women during partition’, Imperial Collapse and Forced Migration
Gilmartin, Empire and Islam: Punjab and Economic and Political Weekly, vol 28, no during the Twentieth Century, Hampshire:
the Making of Pakistan, Berkeley: University 17, 24 April 1993, pp 2-11. Palgrave, 2011, pp 219-244; and Yasmin
of California Press, 1988. 11. Urvashi Butalia, The Other Side of Saikia, Women, War, and the Making of
5. Krishna Kumar, ‘Partition in school Silence Voices from the Partition of India, Bangladesh: Remembering 1971, Durham:
textbooks: A comparative look at India and New Delhi, Penguin 1998. Duke University Press, 2011.
Pakistan’, in S Settar and Indira Baptista 12. Veena Das (ed), Mirrors of Violence: 20. Ian Talbot and Darshan Singh Tatla,
Gupta (eds), Pangs of Partition, Vol II, New Communities, Riots and Survivors in South Epicentre of Violence, Delhi: Permanent
Delhi: Manohar, 2002, pp 17-28. Asia, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990. Black, 2006; Ravinder Kaur, Since 1947:
6. Ranajit Guha (ed), Subaltern Studies 1 13. Joan Sangster, ‘Telling our stories. Partition Narratives among Punjabi Migrants
Writings on South Asian History and Society, Feminist debates and the use of oral of Delhi, New Delhi and Oxford: Oxford,
Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1982. history’ in Robert Perks and Alistair 2007; and Ishtiaq Ahmed, The Punjab
7. The Subaltern Studies groups comprised Thomson (eds), The Oral History Reader, Bloodied, Partitioned and Cleansed, Oxford
historians interested in exploring subaltern London: Routledge, 1998, p 87-100. First and Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2012
themes such class, caste, gender etc. The edition. 21. Sangster, 1998 p 92.
group was started by Ranajit Guha and a 14. Sheila Rowbotham, Hidden from 22. Joanna Bornat, Leroi Henry, and Parvati
number of influential volumes emerged during History, London: Pluto, 1973. Also see Raghuram, ‘Don’t mix race with the
the 1980s covering inter-disciplinary themes. Sangster, 1998, pp 87-100. speciality’: Interviewing South Asian
62 ORAL HISTORY Autumn 2013
overseas-trained geriatricians’, Oral History, 29. Interview with Tahira Mozhar Ali. 37. Sangster, 1998, p 89.
vol 37, no 1, 2009, p 82, pp74-84. 30. Sherna Berger Gluck, ‘What’s so 38. Butalia, p 126.
23. Joanna Bornat, ‘Oral History as a social special about women? Women’s oral 39. Menon and Bhasin p 55.
movement: Reminiscence and older history’, in Susan H Armitage, Patricia Hart 40. For a more in depth discussion see
people’ in Perks and Thompson, 1998, and Karen Weathermon (eds), Women’s Dushka Saiyid, Muslim Women of the British
p 190, pp 189-205. Oral History The Frontiers Reader, Lincoln: Punjab: From Seclusion to Politics, chapter
24. Sangster, 1998, p 92. University of Nebraska Press, 2002, 4, Hampshire: Macmillan Press, 1998.
25. Pippa Virdee, ‘Partition in transition: pp 3-20, p 16. 41. Interview with Salma Begum; recorded
Comparative analysis of migration in 31. Interview with Abida, age 74; recorded by Pippa Virdee in Lahore, 19 April 2007.
Ludhiana and Lyallpur’, in A Gera and N by Pippa Virdee in Lahore, 19 September 42. Moulvi Munshi Mahboob Alam came up
Bhatia (eds) Partitioned Lives: Narratives of 2008. with the idea of Paisa Akhbar in 1888,
Home, Displacement and Resettlement, 32. Interview with Henna; recorded by based on the Penny newspaper.
Delhi: Pearson, 2007, pp 156-173. Pippa Virdee in Gujranwala, 26 April 2006. 43. Interview with Nusrat; recorded by
26. Carrie Hamilton, ‘Moving feelings: 33. Alessandro Portelli, ‘The peculiarities of Pippa Virdee in Lahore, 24 April 2007.
nationalism, feminism and the emotions oral history’, History Workshop Journal, 44. Interview with Fatima Sughra, age 77;
of politics’, Oral History, vol 38, no 2, 2010, vol 12, no 1, 1981, p 98, pp 96-107. recorded by Pippa Virdee in Lahore,
p 86, pp 85-94. 34. Interview with Farkhanda Lodi, age 70; 24 September 2008.
27. Interview with Tahira Mazhar Ali, age recorded by Pippa Virdee in Lahore, 22 April 45. Sherna Berger Gluck, ‘Has feminist
82; recorded by Pippa Virdee in Lahore, 2007. oral history lost its radical/subversive
19 September 2008. 35. Interview with Fatima; recorded by edge?’, Oral History, vol 39, no 2, 2011,
28. Mridula Sarabhai was tasked with Pippa Virdee in Lahore, 24 April 2007. pp 63-72.
rescuing abducted women and returning 36. Interview with Reshma Bibi, age
them to their families following approximately 72; recorded by Pippa Virdee Address for correspondence:
independence in India. in Gujranwala, 26 April 2007. [email protected]