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A review by ranjanireviewsreads
Remnants of a Separation: A History of the Partition through Material Memory by Aanchal Malhotra
4.0
TRIGGER WARNING: This book contains mentions of death, violence, murder, rape, etc. Read at your own risk.
The Remnants of a Separation has a simple objective – to pass on the memories of the Partition to the next generation(s) who are so far removed from it that is seems to be fiction. That’s how it was for me anyway. The “batwara” was just something we studied in school. The atrocities, a dream committed in another lifetime. But what never struck me until I read this book was that there are still people alive who have the the voices, the memories, and the pain from the Partition. Like a deep gash, never fully healing, never disappearing. This book helped me bring to life a reality, that the Partition happened and so many hundreds of thousands of people went through something horrible. A whole lifetime’s worth of horrible.
Aanchal Malhotra perfectly describes the actions of the people as and when required. We see their attachment to their possession. We hear and feel their longing for their homeland. In a few instances, we see people completely detached from their soil, their “mitti”, never wanting to go back. And she doesn’t stop here. No, her Instagram profile boasts many objects related to the Partition. Scroll through the comments, and you’ll find someone asking what to do about this one object they have from so-and-so time and from a seemingly far-away land. Someone else is sharing their experiences with people who endured their own form of horrors in, and after 1947.
A few stories display powerful women in their own right which I loved. Prof. Sat Pal Kohli’s mother, who was a female moneylender. Azra Haq, who craved her own life, was a part of the WACI and felt like she belonged in the army. Prabhjot Kaur, Preet Singh, and so many countless, countless women who survived what it, to us, unimaginable.
I have the paperback edition which is revised and updated. It has two extra stories, it seems, called “Between This Side and That: The Sword of Ajit Kaur Kapoor” and, “Passage to Freedom: The Wordly Trunk of Uma Sondhi Ahmad”. I have to say the former (which was the 20th story in my edition) was much, much darker than I expected. It’s been a few days since I finished the book, and I still remember reading certain things and I don’t think I will be able to forget them anytime soon.
I would include a trigger warning as I did in the beginning as there are mentions of death, murder, violence, rape, etc. Other than that, there is nothing that holds me back from loving this book wholeheartedly. Thank you Ms. Malhotra, for this masterpiece.
The Remnants of a Separation has a simple objective – to pass on the memories of the Partition to the next generation(s) who are so far removed from it that is seems to be fiction. That’s how it was for me anyway. The “batwara” was just something we studied in school. The atrocities, a dream committed in another lifetime. But what never struck me until I read this book was that there are still people alive who have the the voices, the memories, and the pain from the Partition. Like a deep gash, never fully healing, never disappearing. This book helped me bring to life a reality, that the Partition happened and so many hundreds of thousands of people went through something horrible. A whole lifetime’s worth of horrible.
Aanchal Malhotra perfectly describes the actions of the people as and when required. We see their attachment to their possession. We hear and feel their longing for their homeland. In a few instances, we see people completely detached from their soil, their “mitti”, never wanting to go back. And she doesn’t stop here. No, her Instagram profile boasts many objects related to the Partition. Scroll through the comments, and you’ll find someone asking what to do about this one object they have from so-and-so time and from a seemingly far-away land. Someone else is sharing their experiences with people who endured their own form of horrors in, and after 1947.
A few stories display powerful women in their own right which I loved. Prof. Sat Pal Kohli’s mother, who was a female moneylender. Azra Haq, who craved her own life, was a part of the WACI and felt like she belonged in the army. Prabhjot Kaur, Preet Singh, and so many countless, countless women who survived what it, to us, unimaginable.
I have the paperback edition which is revised and updated. It has two extra stories, it seems, called “Between This Side and That: The Sword of Ajit Kaur Kapoor” and, “Passage to Freedom: The Wordly Trunk of Uma Sondhi Ahmad”. I have to say the former (which was the 20th story in my edition) was much, much darker than I expected. It’s been a few days since I finished the book, and I still remember reading certain things and I don’t think I will be able to forget them anytime soon.
I would include a trigger warning as I did in the beginning as there are mentions of death, murder, violence, rape, etc. Other than that, there is nothing that holds me back from loving this book wholeheartedly. Thank you Ms. Malhotra, for this masterpiece.