This week, we are reading Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri. This book is a collection of stories about Indian immigration and reflects the lives of anyone who has ever felt like a foreigner. In order to fully understand the conflicts experienced by the migrants, we need to understand how Partition split a subcontinent into multiple nation-states.
Up until August 1947, the larger Indian subcontinent was a British colony; however, following protest from Indian citizens and outside nations, Britain left India and allowed them independence. At the time, the subcontinent consisted of a mainly Muslim and Hindu population. Following Britain’s departure, a group of men, including India’s future Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and future Pakistani Governor-General Moammad Ali Jinnah, sat and negotiated the future of the Asian subcontinent(The Guardian). Eventually, the group would agree to split the area into two nations: the northwestern and northeastern regions of the region would become Pakistan and the rest was left as India. The two Pakistani regions- the northeastern portion eventually becoming Bangladesh- consisted of the mainly Muslim population, while the Indian region would consist of a mainly Hindu population. According to The Guardian, the men responsible for this partition of land understood the religious conflicts that would arise, and were visibly nervous about the decision to split the subcontinent along religious boundaries. The splitting of the land would lead to the migration of hundreds of thousands of Indian citizens between the two nations; many citizens did not want to be a part of the religious “minority” in fear of religious persecution(BBC). Many people scattered across borders, leading to massive increases in refugees and displaced families. Tensions between Hindus and Muslims were at an all-time high in the two nations(The New Yorker). With millions of people forced out of their homelands, violence and panic erupted throughout India and Pakistan over religious differences and border disputes(BBC). This is considered to be one of the largest forced migrations in the world that was not the result of war or famine(BBC).
The effects of Partition are still evident today in India and Pakistan as conflicts continue. In order to further understand the stories told by Lahiri, it is important to understand how displacement and religious borders have confused the identities of many Indian citizens. In our reading for this week, we will almost certainly see the effects of Partition reflected in the lives of Lahiri’s characters and short stories.
References:
Dalrymple, William, et al. “The Mutual Genocide of Indian Partition.” The New Yorker, 22 June 2015, www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/06/29/the-great-divide-books-dalrymple.
Khan, Yasmin. “Why Pakistan and India Remain in Denial 70 Years on from Partition.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 5 Aug. 2017, www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/05/partition-70-years-on-india-pakistan-denial.
“The Partition of India: What Happened? – CBBC Newsround.” BBC News, BBC, 6 Dec. 2018, www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/46428985.
“Learning Curve British Empire.” The National Archives, www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/empire/g3/cs3/background.htm.
Thank you so much for your post! It gave a lot of important history about India, Pakistan, and their relationship. This must have been very hard for individuals in these countries.
Thank you for this context. The impacts of Partition cannot be understated, and it is clear how it affects some of the characters in the short stories we read this week. Mr. Pirzada in particular comes to mind, and his obvious anxiety about the state of his country and his wife and seven daughters.
Your post provides great context for better understanding the stories of Interpreter of Maladies. This is an area of history that I know very little about, and something that has always confused me because of how complex it is. This context will make the stories and characters in our reading have a much bigger impact.
Thank you for all your work explaining some of the context of the conflict between these nations. I knew about the conflict between the two nations before this but was not really sure why. It was also interesting to learn that all of this happened as recently as 1947 which may explain why the conflict is still so palpable even today. This helped me understand why so much migration is happening from and within the Asian subcontinent.