The study is a novel attempt that chronicles Punjab’s partition while dealing with ‘partition itself’. The narrative weaves disparate local and national events, taking the reader back to 1947 in dimensions large in numbers and scope. Almost a day to day report of the Punjab through 1947, it restores the human dimension to a story that was essentially one of acute human misery. Based mainly on 15 regional and national newspapers it closely examines the Punjab and its partitions through letters, opinion columns, editorials, classifieds and photographs. Equal emphasis is also laid on hitherto unused and unpublished sources, these include personal diaries, letters, memoirs and notes recorded by observant contemporaries including civil, police and military field officers, culled from centres in India and the United Kingdom. Tanwar breaks free of tutored statements of ‘so called facts’ to provide new dimensions to crucial issues and events, challenging perceptions that have been held for long, seeking the ‘little histories’, the ‘local intensities’ the ‘local voices’, side stepping in the process the trend of downsizing, downplaying the tragedy of Punjab’s partition, a trend which has prevailed as part of a misplaced obligation to demonstrate oneness in writings on India’s struggle for freedom. This book is exceedingly relevant to our present times, more so in view of the thawing process of relations between India and Pakistan. It is essential reading for those with interest in Punjab, both East and West, and colonial Indian history.
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