Entangled Memories of Partition in Modern South Asia

Realms of Memory

Much of the focus on the memory of the partition of British India has been on the region of the Punjab. King’s College London Professor Ananya Kabir is interested in the repercussions of partition for the region of Bengal where she has ancestral ties. How did cultural actors, from archeologists and artists to singers and novelists, use their craft to shape and assess the memories of the new nations of South Asia? How did they contend with the two stages of partition—the division of British India into India and Pakistan in 1947 then the civil war within Pakistan in 1971 and the creation of Bangladesh? My conversation with Ananya Kabir draws from a discussion of her book, Partition’s Post-Amnesias: 1947, 1971 and Modern South Asia.