Partition and independence

The end of empire, 1947 and its aftermath.

The Great Sindhi Exodus (Nakba??)

Extracts from Narayandas Malkani’s account of the 1947 Sindhi Hindu exodus, with the poster noting how far Sindhis have since risen in Indian business and politics, and blaming the two-nation…

Brown Pundits Archive29 July 20140 comments
Partition Tales (silent)

A family diary of a Bengali family’s 1948 move from Mymensingh to Calcutta, with the poster urging a new generation to record Partition stories beyond ideology.

Brown Pundits Archive26 July 20140 comments
Sikh-Brahmins of Chakwal

A Chakwal news feature on the Mohyal Brahmins and the few Hindu families left there, with the poster calling it a case of syncretic culture and a cost of the…

Brown Pundits Archive14 July 20142 comments
Iraq: Indian Partition and Afghan Jihad combo package?

The post finds two parallels in Iraq’s crisis: a Sunni elite fearing electoral swamping by a Shia majority recalls the run-up to Partition, while divided rebels and an Iran-Saudi proxy…

Brown Pundits Archive20 June 20140 comments
Vultures of Calcutta take Direct Action

Presenting photographs of Kolkata in August 1946, the post notes that every community accused of excess pleads amnesia, that no one has been held at fault for the Great Calcutta…

Brown Pundits Archive11 June 20140 comments
Searching for Parity (through Partitions)

Asking whether Modi can use a strong China relationship to press Pakistan for peace, the poster argues India has no wish to resume talks, and traces South Asia’s partitions to…

Brown Pundits Archive30 May 20140 comments
Ummah firster vs. Dharma firster

Casting India’s contest as Ummah-firsters against Dharma-firsters, the poster says the former expect a lower caste-Muslim alliance to topple upper-caste rulers, and warns with the case of Jogendranath Mandal, who…

Brown Pundits Archive20 May 20140 comments
Muslims are over-represented only in jails

Reacting to Saba Naqvi on the state of secularism, the poster argues that ideologies are more poisonous than events, naming the two-nation theory as the chief source, and that secularists…

Brown Pundits Archive10 May 20140 comments
Train to Pakistan

An obituary note for Khushwant Singh (1915-2014), recalling his fondness for his birthplace in pre-partition Pakistan and his novel Train to Pakistan, with a quoted extract on its Mano Majra…

Brown Pundits Archive20 March 20140 comments
Trapped at the border of impulse and conscience

A note quoting a review of Savage Harvest, Mohinder Singh Sarna’s Partition stories translated by his son Navtej Sarna, on the violence in Punjab villages and the many narratives of…

Brown Pundits Archive16 March 20140 comments