The Other Side of Partition

Violence, whether caused by ethno-religious conflicts or divisions of political spaces, leads to displacement, within a country or across international borders. The 1947 Partition of India resulted in a huge human exodus in search of security and was accompanied by mass massacres. This traumatic experience left marks on all spheres of life, including culture as expressed in creative efforts in the fields of literature, music, cinema, drama and painting. This article discusses some of these creative impacts. No comprehensive discussion is attempted in this limited space. Rather, the intention is to sensitise younger scholars about the vast research potential of a subject area which remains largely too particularistic and is scattered across disciplines. Hopefully, taking cues from this article, further research would be undertaken in respect of the plentiful South Asian experiences of 1947 and its aftermath.