Bearing Witness: Partition, Independence, End of the Raj

August 14/15, 1947, means more than the ‘Independence’ of India. It marks the birth of two nation states, India and Pakistan, and is fixed in the memory of many as partition and the end of the Raj. Bearing Witness nuances this historical moment by considering contemporary and post-event responses to partition, inherited by Indians and Pakistanis as one of uncontested significance. From testimonials and speeches by Jinnah and Nehru to fictional and non-fictional accounts by Indians and the British, and political cartoons from English newspapers at the time, Kamra offers an inductive study of primary texts ignored until now. The book studies the three groups most affected by the events of 1947: the educated Indians, for whom the moment was a rite of passage; the survivors of partition, for whom the event is inextricably linked with trauma and loss of home, family, and community; and the British, for whom this heralded exile.