Partition Narratives - 6 Books on Partition

 

Manohar Malgonkar's 'A Bend in the Ganges' - A Short Review 

The epigraph of the novel is taken from the Ramayana " At a bend in the Ganges, they paused to take a look at the land they are leaving. The theme of Partition appears towards the end of the novel. The novel presents the history of Independence movement and the Partition of India. The novel tries to answer the question - who had won? against the background of all the communal riots and bloodshed. It tries to answer the question how people became victims of mob violence during Partition. Today, there is a renewed interest in the novel and Netflix is planning to make a web-series based on the novel. Many book lovers feel that the novel should be given some more importance. The novel is regarded as one of the greatest Indian novels. The title of the novel is similar to Bend in the River by V.S Naipaul. The novel was shortlisted for the 1979 Booker Prize. 

Train to Pakistan - Khuswanth Singh - A Short Reflection 

Partition was not something that divided a country. Along with the geographical division, love between friends and neighbours were partitioned, and even unity was divided. The people caught in the Partition were either dead, some lived, and managed to survive. ( Ideas adapted from Aditi Debnath’s blog — Train to Pakistan by Khuswanth Singh, Book Review) Trains seem to have a unique place in human history and misery. Looking at the history of the Indian Independence there are two prominent narratives, one is the Malabar Rebellion of 1921 where there was an incident of the Wagon Tragedy which involved the death of 64 prisoners on 10th November 1921 in the Malabar region of Kerala against the British in various parts of Malappuram district. The next one is the trains used during Holocaust. According to web sources, approximately 30,000 Jews were rounded up and sent via rail to refugee camps. It is popularly known as the ‘Holocaust Trains’. There are numerous national commemorations of the mass transportation of Jews across Europe. The third historical example is the trains that plied between India and Pakistan during the Partition of 1947. 

The Other Side of Silence Urvasi Butalia - A Short Review 

Ideas gleaned from the blurb and the book's introduction. Partition led to the displacement of more than 12 million people. The mass migration happened amid a frenzy of murder and kidnapping. For many years these horrid tales were buried in 'silence'. Urvasi Butalia's book is an attempt to give voice to these silent narratives in Partition. The book provides a unique space to the voices of children, women, ordinary people, the lower castes and the untouchables. Bapsi Sidhwa describes the book as one that narrates with 'honesty and clarity, the history of Partition. Salman Rushdie opines that the book is 'magnificent and necessary'. The author stresses the importance of unearthing stories of Partition and the memories associated with it. The work focuses on the plight of women during the Partition. The research and investigation into the history of Partition have led to a synergy between memory and history. The book's introduction ends on a hopeful note when the author hopes that the countries can learn something from the stories of Partition. 

Bapsi Sidhwa - 'Ice Candy Man' 

This blog is a summary of the article that appeared in History Workshop Journal Issue # 50. The article which appeared in HWJ is essentially a tape script of the interview between Bapsi Sidhwa and Urvashi Butalia. They discuss the Partition of India. Partition is seen as one of the ‘great diplomatic fault lines of the postcolonial era’. One of the reasons why partition narratives are prevalent today is to ‘overcome the legacy’, and the ‘suspicion and hatred’ that it has created. The new account of Partition which seeks to comprehend rather than to castigate. There is an attempt now to look ‘beyond the chauvinistic slogans’. There are also attempts to mythologize the events of 1947 to sustain a sense of identity. Bapsi Sidhwa's Ice - Candy Man (1988) was published in the U.S as 'Crackling India'. It is one of the most powerful novels of the partition. Ten years after the publication of the book, it was successfully adapted for cinema by Deepa Mehta and released as Earth. In India as title was 1947. It was a nice piece of information to know that the book was included in President Clinton's briefing kit for his visit to India and Pakistan in March 2000. Both the writers chose to address the human aspect, and the social aspect of Partition. This is a different approach compared to the one which looked at the politics of the situation. Urvasi Butalia and Bapsi Sidhwa looked at what happened to the common man and the woman. Another aspect is that these old narratives on Partition were written by men. Bapsi Sidhwa has approached the event as a novelist. Urvashi as a historian. They both feel that the history of Partition told so far is one-sided. Bapsi Sidhwa feels that Partition is still continuing. Both these writers kind of universalizes Partition by talking about other similiar narratives from Bosnia, Kosovo, East Timor, and Chechnya. Both of them are quick to agree that Partition is still haunting the South Asian political and cultural space. 

Shadow Lines - Amitav Ghosh 

“It took those people a long time to build that country; hundreds of years, years and years of war and bloodshed. Everyone who lives there has earned his right to be there with blood: with their brother’s blood and their father’s blood and their son’s blood. They know they’re a nation because they’ve drawn their borders with blood” Excerpt From Amitav Ghosh. 'The Shadow Lines'. Apple Books. The above passage is a powerful and poignant description of Partition that from Amitav Ghosh's novel - The Shadow Lines. At the beginning of the novel, the author invokes the memory of his father's aunt - Mayadebi. One question that the author tries to answer is - Do you remember? The narrator is in search of connections and recovery of lost information or repressed experience. The novel covers the Partition of Bengal and the creation of East Pakistan. The ideas used in this blog are culled from the article which appeared in Oxford Literary Review. The title of the article is 'Separation Anxiety: Growing Up Inter/National in Amitav Ghosh's 'The Shadow Lines' by Suvir Kaul. In this novel, the personal and the public are brought together. It exists as the narrator's autobiography and also as a national biography. The novel celebrates the force of memory. The narrator is on a search both into the public archive and private memory. Remembering is seen as both nostalgic and also as traumatic. The silences regarding Partition are voiced. Partition is treated as the handiwork of administrators and cartographers. Like Sadaat Hassan Manto's Toba Tek Singh many people are caught in the no man's land. Borders are treated as shadow lines. Anita Desai's Clear Light of Day - A Short Review This blog is based on my understanding of the article which explored the third chapter in the book South Asian Partition Fiction in English - From Khuswanth Singh to Amitav Ghosh. The author of the book is Rituparna Roy. Anita Desai's 'Clear Light of Day' is the penultimate book in the series - Partition Narratives. 

So far we have discussed the following books - 

Bend in the Ganges by Manohar Malgonkar 

Train to Pakistan by Khushwant Singh 

The Other Side of Silence - Urvashi Butalia 

Ice Candy Man - Bapsi Sidhwa 

The Shadow Lines - Amitav Ghosh 

The book by Rituparna Roy discusses most of the books mentioned above. 

The ideas in this blog are from the third chapter of the book which is titled - Women During the Partition - Victim and Agent. The chapter focuses on the works of Bapsi Sidhwa and Anita Desai. These two novels according to the Rituparna Roy offers an 'alternative version to the male visualisation of the event of the Partition'. The novels also represent the continuing trauma of the affected women. Bapsi Sidhwa's Ice Candy Man treats Partition from the Pakistani point of view. In this narrative, Gandhiji is not glorified and Jinnah is praised. Gandhi is treated as a politician. 

Clear Light of Day which was published in the year 1980 is regarded as a novel that has little to do with the theme of Partition. Anita Desai is never regarded as a writer about Partition. But the novel is a fine example of Partition trauma and the way the lives of the children are entangled with the historical developments of the time i.e. the partition trauma. Anita Desai was preoccupied with the private world or universes. From her fourth novel onwards she moves away from these private universes and the private becomes the public. The national history and the private history gets inextricably mixed. The characters and their adjustments due to the political changes of the times became Anita Desai's main preoccupation. Even though the family members in Clear Light of Day are not directly involved in politics, Partition interferes with their lives. Even a simple personal act like getting a seat in a college becomes a public act. The socio-political changes influence the personal history of the characters. The murder, rape, mutilation, mass migration and dislocation of millions of people does not figure in the novel by Anita Desai. The novel explores the life after Partition and how the wounds of the event affected the young generation who were trying to forge a new identity in the new world.

Madras @382 -Tributes to a city

 

Welcome, dear reader 

This blog explores the connection between books, memory and the city of Chennai. One of the primary attractions for me in this city is the sheer number of books available in this city. As a student, I used to frequent second-hand bookstores near Loyola College. The name of the book store was Indira bookstore. The owner used to have special prices for the students of Loyola. After supper, I along with my friends used to walk to Choolaimedu market and Indira bookstore was a pitstop on the way. We used to take the train to Central Station to find second-hand textbooks in Moore Market and sometimes even visit the shops selling used books in Triplicane. When I became a salaried person, the places for hunting books became wider. I along with my colleague started visiting the Landmark bookstore in Nungambakkam and Higgin Bothams in Mount Road. My habit of visiting the used books never left me, even now I used to visit the Moore Market Complex. Books are printed memories and there is no literature without memories. The famous writer Benyamin has reminisced about his association with a book store in Manama, Kingdom Bahrain where he used to frequent. Like Alfredo instilling the power of the visual image in the mind of the young boy in Cinema Paradiso, books are the objects for dreams, imagination and memories. 

Chennai - the city, Madras - the emotion 

Madras Month - What are we celebrating? Nanditha Krishna wrote this article in the New Indian Express on Saturday. She is a historian, environmentalist, and writer based in Chennai. She has co-authored a book with Tishani Doshi titled ‘Madras Then Chennai Now’. Another book she wrote is Madras-Chennai. In the article she laments about the way heritage buildings in Chennai are not preserved the way they ought to be. One example that she cites is the Bharath Insurance Building which is she describes as a 'beautiful, old, Indo-Saracenic building’ on Mount Road. The condition of the building is so bad, that it may collapse soon. The article contains interesting trivia about the name Chennai. The city is named after Chennappa Nayakar who was a Telugu and had never visited Madras. She is aware of the fact that the heritage buildings are renovated and restructured with a blind disregard to their former glory. Examples given are the Moore Market Complex and Spencer’s building. She differentiates between ‘tangible heritage and ‘intangible heritage’ According to Nanditha Krishna, Chennai has successfully preserved its intangible heritage like music, art and literature. The article is a clarion call to protect the tangible heritage of a city that is fast developing. The article ends with a disturbing but pivotal question - So what are we celebrating? Memories and Nostalgia? The author also pays homage to the renowned historian - S Muthiah. Nanditha Krishan ends the article with a message she received on WhatsApp - Chennai is a city, Madras is an emotion. 

Celebrities spotted! 

Chennai being a cinema city, the chances that you may encounter a film celebrity is high. I have met some celebrities in the Loyola College campus like Aravind Swami who used to play cricket on the college ground. The Malayalam actor of the yesteryears Seema ( Wife of the celebrated movie director I. V. Sasi) used to visit the campus for her evening walks, sometimes along with her son. Her cameo role in the movie Nadodikattu as herself is still a great cinematic memory. It was while staying in Valsaravakkam before our adventure to Bahrain, that we ran across stars like Urvasi and Riyaz Khan. Valsaravakkam is a place near the so-called headquarters of Tamil cinema Kodambakkam where tinsel dreams are made and unmade. The most precious memory is that of meeting Shanthikrishna in Starmark Phoenix City Mall before the COVID-19 outbreak. It was a memorable experience and all the movies that she had acted in flashed before our eyes. It is not just movie stars that I have met. Chennai being a literary capital, I have seen my authors in flesh blood during the Hindu Lit Fest. Attending book launches also is a way to meet authors. The most recent event which I attended was the book launch based on William Dalrymple’s ‘Anarchy’ at Taj Connemara. Even though these memories are personal, they can be even a collective one because movies are part of the collective memory. Every actor reminds us of the world of cinema and its digital presence. Examining digital memories is also an interesting part of Memory Studies. During one of my trips to the American Library ( USIS) I was fortunate enough to meet the great Girish Karnad. He was more than happy to sign the autograph for me.

A City’s Platter 

Chennai is synonymous with good food. The variety of food that is available in this coastal city is indeed a treat for the palate. Vegetarian food is the most popular and sought after variety in the city. There are some excellent restaurants which have become our favourite spots for hot dosas and idlis. The authentic taste of these dishes can be discovered in these places. The Namma Veedu Vasantha Bhavan at Phoenix City Mall is our favourite. When it comes to North Indian food, we like the Kapila Dasa restaurant inside the EA Express Avenue Mall. We satisfy the craving for some authentic Kerala food we frequent Ente Keralam and Kumarakom restaurant. The street food scene in Chennai is as popular as the so-called posh restaurants. The Muniyandi Vilas restaurants, Velu Military Hotel along Sundari Akka Kadai are all part of this more pocket-friendly scene. What I have given above is nostalgia and a deeply personal write-up on food zones. There is much more to the topic than this personal rambling. Recently, the Center for Memory Studies at IIT M organised a workshop on the topic Food, Memory and Machines. The topics discussed were highly academic and were bordering on memory and food anthropology. Food-centred memory studies is a vast area of study and it is linked to topics like forms of identity, nationalism, and consumer capitalism. 

The Fun We Had 

Milan Kundera’s book ‘Ignorance’ contains a detailed discussion about the word ‘nostalgia’. To quote from the book ‘ The Greek word for ‘return’ is ‘nostos’. ‘Algos’ means ‘suffering’. Nostalgia is the suffering caused by an unappeased yearning to return. The city of Chennai was my second home for almost ten years. I came back to the city after 10 years and I have experienced change. One place which used to be a regular place for hanging out was the Spencer Plaza in Mount Road. Revisiting it was like visiting a ghost town. Most of the shops were closed and to see the book store Landmark closed was heart-wrenching. These days we have Starmark but the bonding which we felt in Landmark is not there. Landmark started as a book shop in a basement near Kodambakkam High Road. For lovers of music and books, it was the most happening place in town. The movie-watching experience also has changed. In the past, it was Sathyam theatre in Royapettah. Today it has shifted to the malls with better technology and seating arrangement. We used to frequent two theatres apart from Sathyam, one was Ega and the other one was AVM Rajeshwari. Both these theatres were in the near vicinity of Loyola Hostel. The fun we had moving to the theatre and the return will never be forgotten. 

Libraries in Chennai 

This post was inspired by the phone call which I received this afternoon from British Council Library. The phone call has served as a mnemonic trigger for this post.  Chennai being an educational hub is famous for its libraries and learning centres. Two libraries which I used to frequent in Chennai is situated on the same road - Mount Road. The USIS library is near the Gemini aka the Anna flyover is a well-guarded building with round the clock vigil. As a student in Loyola 20 years ago, the library was much more accessible. USIS was the place where we used to go almost every Friday for the film show. It was open to the public and I remember watching movies like Driving Miss Daisy and Deliverance there. Movies shown were in the 35 mm film format. The walk back to the Loyola were always filled with animated discussions about the movie. My last visit to the American library was to listen to Paul Salopek, the man who walked more than 21,000 miles as part of the National Geographic assignment - Out of Eden Walk. The feeling of walking into the British Council Library is something unique. Situated near the Thousand Lights Metro station, the BCL has fewer security restrictions and there is a lovely coffee shop inside. These days the library suffers from overcrowding and lack of silence. Even-though, today we have the option of borrowing e-books from the library, a visit to access the physical books is still a memorable activity. I have memberships to both these libraries and as long as stay in Chennai, I will keep renewing the membership. That’s my way of paying tribute to the two libraries which played a significant part in my student days in Chennai. 

Building Memories of a city. 

The heritage buildings of Chennai can be roughly divided into three sections. Dravidian structures, Colonial-era buildings and the Indo-Saracen architectural style. A style that is a blend or synthesis of Islamic designs and Indian materials developed by British architects. The Madras High Court which is built in 1892, is an example of the Indo-Saracenic style. The Senate House in the Madras University campus and the College of Engineering building in Guindy are examples of this style of architecture. The Chennai Central Railway station takes inspiration from both Gothic and Romanesque styles of architecture. It was built in the year 1873. The Government Museum or the Egmore Museum has different architectural styles. Victoria Public Hall is another building that is a fine example of British Architecture in Chennai. Fort St.George was completed in the year 1653 and currently functions as the administrative headquarters of the legislative assembly of the state of Tamil Nadu. The Ripon building was constructed by Lognath Mudaliar is a fine piece of neo-classical building. The city of Madras or Chennai is a commemorative space. The heritage buildings act as memorials that reflect and reinforce the past. A visit to these buildings is a major lesson in history and memory studies. The questions regarding identity and heritage can be discussed against the backdrop of these colonial-era buildings.

Special Series - The Untold and Unknown - Indian Freedom Struggles

Mapilla Uprising of 1921 

An uprising that has stayed in the public memory for a long time. Even today, there are lots of ‘talk’ about this particular movement. There are multiple interpretations for this event just like the ‘multiple gangs of Malabar’ that were active in 1921. ( Gangs of Malabar is an expression used by the historian Manu S Pillai in a Clubhouse session and in an article in the Hindu) The event is shrouded in mystery for lack of authentic documents and archival materials. Along with Malabar Rebellion of 1921 one more historical event is celebrating its centenary this year. The Tulsa Race Massacre happened in the USA in the year 1921 between May and June. This blog doesn’t examine the details of the Tulsa Massacre since the primary objective here is to examine the 1921 rebellion. During my childhood, travelling from Calicut to Thrissur we used to travel through the district of Malappuram. One particular place which had always captured my attention was the headquarters of the MSP - Malabar Special Police. It was a huge campus with barracks and training grounds for the paramilitary stationed there. As someone who was interested in detective stories, I used to look out of the window of the car with lots of eagerness. One of the reasons for the establishment of MSP was the Malabar Rebellion of 1921. Another memory which comes to my mind is the movie 1921 directed by I. V. Sasi. The particular scene which portrayed the Wagon Tragedy is still a haunting memory. During my innumerable travels to Chennai, when Madras Mail reached Tirur station, I used to have a strange numb feeling and could feel a shortness of breath which lasted almost till the train reached Podanur in Tamil Nadu 

Jallianwala Bagh 

This is a story of silence and suffering. No weapons were raised against the oppressors. Only the guns spoke that day. Bullets and blood were scattered all around the place. The Jallianwala Bagh memorial was in the news recently. There were allegations that the new memorial was a mockery of the tragedy and it has failed to preserve the history of the place. The social media storm started with Kim Wagner tweeting about the new memorial. Kim Wagner is the author of the book ‘Amritsar 1919’. Examining the history of this 1919 massacre I stumbled upon the name Udham Singh. The legend has it that Udham Singh who was 19 years old in the year 1919 was wounded in British firing at Jallianwala Bagh. He stayed with the bodies that night. The next day morning he took a pledge that he will take revenge by smearing the blood-soaked soil on his forehead. In the year 1940, Udham Singh shot Michael O’Dwyer who was Punjab’s Lieutenant Governor in 1919. ‘The Patient Assassin: A True Tale of Massacre, Revenge and India's Quest for Independence’ by Anita Anand will be a good reference book for digging deeper into the life and times of Udham Singh. The book begins with a quote from ‘A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. “Vengeance and retribution require a long time; it is the rule”. A memorial statue of Udham Singh is kept in Jallianwala Bagh. Chief Minister of Punjab Amarinder Singh requested the central government to bring back the personal belongings of Udham Singh from the U.K to India. 

Santhal Uprising 1855-1856 

Santhal Revolt is a peasant uprising. It happened between the years 1855 and 1856. The rebellion was against the East India Company and the exploitative practices of the feudal zamindars. The revolt happened because of the excessive land tax imposed by the Santhals. Santhals are native to the Indian states of Jharkhand, West Bengal and Odisha. The two brothers who stirred the emotions of the tribal community are Sidho Murmu and Kanhu Murmu. There is a memorial for these brothers at Ranchi. The brothers used a system of communication that was unique since the tribal villages were in far-off places. Word was spread using the ‘dharwak’ .ie.the messages were circulated in folded Sal leaves. Santal Adivasis and lower caste peasants fought against the upper-caste zamindars, money lenders, police, traders and East India Company in the Bengal Presidency. William Wilson Hunter was a Scottish historian who documented the life of Santhals under oppressive circumstances. All his findings are recorded in the book — ‘The Annals of Rural Bengal’ The book was published in the year 1868. The book is criticised for portraying the ‘colonial point of view’ “ with hope in their hearts, a song in their lips and bows and arrows in their hands, the Santhal peasants raised the flag of open-armed insurrection against the unholy trinity of their oppressors” -  Quoted from the ‘Santhal Insurrection 1855-56’ Natarajan L - Oxford University Press (p 138)

References: Remembering Santa Hul - A 19th Century Struggle Against Imperialism - The Wire - Online Edition. 

Vellore Mutiny of 1806 

The Vellore Mutiny is regarded as a dress rehearsal for the 1857 Revolt. The desire for freedom and the resolve to rise up against imperial domination are the factors that led to the mutiny. It is fascinating to note that facial hair played a part in the fermentation of feelings. The Britishers implored the Indian Soldiers to have their chin clean shaved and there should be uniformity in terms of the quantity and shape of hair on the upper lip. Many members of the army expressed their anger and they refused to follow the orders. The presence of Tippu Sultan’s family is regarded as another influence that led to the mutiny. One of the deeds done by the mutineers after taking over the Vellore Fort is to hoist the flag of the Tippu Sultan inside the fort. Tippu’s imprisoned sons were trying to reclaim their past glory. K.A Manikumar, former Professor of History at MS University, Tirunelveli has authored a new book titled - Foreshadowing the Great Rebellion - The Vellore Revolt, 1806. The book examines the cause that led up to the revolt, the events that happened and the consequences of the mutiny. 15 European officers and 119 European soldiers were killed on that day. The events unfolded on July 10, 1806. 

 References: The Causes of the Vellore Mutiny - KK Pillay. Published by Indian History Congress 1806 Revolt at Vellore Fort - K A Mani Kumar Frontline Magazine, July 30, 2021.

Pazhassi Raja’s Revolt 

T.H Barber who led the final assault on Kerala Varma Pazhassi Raja describes him as a ‘natural chieftain of the country’ who was able to ‘resist the East India Company for more than nine years. He continues by describing Pazhassi Raja as someone with an extraordinary and singular character. The name Pazhassi Raja is a mnemonic trigger that is part of the collective memory of North Malabar especially Wayanad. He is regarded as a rebel who refused to ally with the enemy. His tale is represented both as a cinematic/digital memory and even in books. His final resting place is a tourist attraction. There is a museum named after him in Kozhikode. Pazhassi Raja is also known as the Lion of Kerala like Omar Mukhtar, the Lion of the Desert. He was able to garner support from the Tipu Sultan and the tribes of the hills of Wayanad. He is remembered for his guerrilla warfare techniques. 

Attingal Revolts of 1721 

On April 13th, 2021, the 300th Anniversary of the Attingal Revolt was held at Thiruvanthapuram. It was a three-day commemoration event which had an exhibition of historical documents, seminars, recital of patriotic poems. Attingal Revolt is considered the first organised rebellion against the English East India Company. The revolt happened on 1721, April 14th, 36 years before the Battle of Plassey that laid the foundation for British rule in India. The Paika Rebellion in Odisha is regarded as the first war of Independence in India. Historians and history enthusiasts point out the fact that there are 4 rebellions against the British before 1817. One of them is the Attingal Riots of 1721 which resulted in 133 British nationals. The reason for the revolt was the monopoly over Pepper. The Dutch were already enjoying the monopoly in the Pepper trade. With the arrival of the British, there was competition in trade. The British showered the Rani with expensive gifts and was able to build a fort in 1694 and they were ready to buy pepper at a much cheaper rate. This led to protests from farmers and traders. The Pillai, the feudal lords, turned against the British. Attingal Revolt is seen as a people’s revolt because Attingal came together forgetting caste, class and religious barriers. The fight was based on the love for the motherland rather than any nationalistic fervour. One book which traces the details of the Attingal Revolt is written by C.V Giri Aradhya and the title of the book is ‘Attingal Kalapam’. No one remembers this riot anymore. The Attingal Rani’s palace is in a state of decay. History textbooks in Kerala, have only two lines on the revolt. 

                                                          Freedom at Comilla 

For the past six days, we have been reading about the unknown and untold tales from India’s fight against the imperialistic powers. It was a journey of discovery. I feel that I have learned more about certain known events like the Vellore Mutiny and Jallianwala Bagh Massacre. All the tales posted here are also part of the collective memory of India. I have tried to add some personal narratives to these grand historical events. Today’s post is the last in the series and it is about two girls who shot a British Magistrate at Comilla in East Bengal. Suniti Choudhury along with Santi Ghose assassinated a British district magistrate when they were just 16 years old. They both believed that it was the need of the hour. They both were inspired by the Chittagong Uprising which was again inspired by the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland. Their act of assassination is regarded as the only successful one done by women during India’s freedom struggle. The Times of India published an interview with the daughter of Suniti Choudhary. 

You can read the interview here – https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/at-14-my-mother-had-shot-dead-a-british-district-magistrate-she-said-it-was-the-need-of-the-hour-suniti-choudhurys-daughter/articleshow/67689187.cms

Memory and Literature Series 2 - Milan Kundera, Yoko Ogawa and Saddat Hassan Manto

 

Part 1 - Milan Kundera & The Politics of Memory 

The French-Czech novelist Milan Kundera was born in the Czech Republic and has lived in France since 1975. Milan Kundera's works are about the political importance of memory. This can be termed as the 'politics of memory. Kundera's 'The Book of Laughter and Forgetting is a classic example of this. The central importance of both individual memory and collective memory is underlined in this novel. It is always the personal/collective vs the official. The reference to Clementis and Gottwald is an example. Even though Clementis was removed from the official document (except for his fur hat) he exists in the mind of the narrator. The official version makes the people forget 'the world at large forgets it faster' ( 'The Book of Laughter and Forgetting' Page 218) The reference to Mirek in the second scene is the example of an individual trying to 'prevent the erasure of history through the vehicle of his memory' For him 'the preservation of memory is a way of resisting power' 

The ideas are summarised from: 

Berlatsky, Eric. “Memory as Forgetting: The Problem of the Postmodern in Kundera's ‘The Book of Laughter and Forgetting’ and Spiegelman's ‘Maus.’” Cultural Critique, no. 55, 2003, pp. 101–151. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1354650. Accessed 18 Aug. 2021.

Part 2 - Yoko Ogawa and The Memory Police

The Memory Police is a dystopian novel set on an island that is overtaken by the epidemic of forgetting. The embodiment of this memory loss is found in the objects when they disappear. Objects disappear not just from memory but real life also. The book was published in the Japanese in the year 1994. The book was translated by Stephen Snyder and published in 2019. The disappearance of objects (memory) is enforced by Memory Police. Some of the objects that disappear are roses, birds, stamps, green beans etc. First, the object disappears and then the memory of that thing vanishes. The third stage is the memory of forgetting also disappears. The novel is narrated through the eyes of a nameless novelist. Her mother was a sculptor. The novelist is working on a novel where the protagonist is losing her voice. Each of the objects that disappear becomes a metaphor or a symbol. The birds represent freedom or flight. Roses represent desire and love. The ideas presented here are from the article which appeared in The New Yorker. 

You may read the full article by clicking on the link given below. https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/how-the-memory-police-makes-you-see

Part 3 - Saadat Hasan Manto 

He is described as the most widely read and the most controversial short-story writer in Urdu. His literary career spanned over two decades. He published twenty-two collections of short stories, one novel, five collections of radio plays, and three collections of essays. His greatest works were produced in the last seven years of his life. His life is inextricably linked to the Partition of 1947. He is also part of the research in Memory studies about the Partition. His love for the city of Bombay is well-known. He wrote mostly about the city. He wrote about prostitution, religious superstition, adolescent anxiety, sex, the Partition of India and Bombay cinema in the thirties and forties. For Manto, Bombay served as a direct material for his writing. James Joyce had Dublin, Saul Bellow had Chicago and for Manto it was Bombay. It is said that a writer like Manto could evoke his world with a single detail. The limp ten-rupee note in the story 'Ten Rupees' is an example. Manto is not taught wildly in schools, even though it was easy to understand him. He was locked up in the world of Urdu literature. When it comes to Manto's writing style, what is important is the word 'economy'. Like the great masters Pushkin, Gandhi and R.K Narayan. The quality of writing is something that makes Manto's writing powerful. In the story 'Ten Rupee', the detailed description of Bombay is not there, but 'the factory wall with the stench of urine is a powerful detail about the city. Manto admired and read the works of Manto admired and read the works of Guy de Maupassant. The ideas presented here is culled from the Introduction written by Aatish Taseer to the book - Manto - Selected Stories. Aatish Taseer has translated some of the stories by Manto.

Series 1 - Key Figures in Memory Studies

 

Maurice Halbwachs (1877-1945) 

He is a famous social scientist or sociologist. He died at the concentration camp at Buchenwald. He is influenced by Emile Durkheim. He interpreted social behaviour in terms of 'collective representations. Being a sociologist, he studied the wants and standard of living of workers. He realised that different collective representations characterised each social class. He is described as a man of rare attainment with a heart whose sensitivity rivalled its generosity' He is one social scientist who liked to keep himself informed by 'collecting and analysing the trends of public opinion. Maurice Halbwachs was permeated with a rare sense of social responsibility. He was imprisoned at a time when he was appointed the Chair of Social Psychology in the College dé France. He was also getting ready to do his research in that difficult field where Psychology and Sociology overlap. He was influenced by Henri Bergson. He was also inspired by Leibniz. He worked with Emile Durkheim. Halbwachs's thesis was titled 'The Working Class and the Standards of Living' His mind is described as a 'flexible one which was forever emancipated from a system'. His study of the industrial workers shows us that personal needs/ wants are in accordance with the theories of collective representation. Halbwachs differs from his teacher and improves upon him and is influenced by Marxist Sociology. Another notable work of Maurice Halbwach is the study on suicides which was published as 'The Cause of Suicide'. In this study, he proposed that Catholics have a lower suicide rate than Protestants. Another major study by Halbwachs is 'The Legendary Topography of the Gospels in the Holy Land'. This was part of the essay 'The Social Framework of Memory' Pilgrims wanted to find, locate, and perceive by their senses, the whole iconography of their cathedrals. Towards the end of his life. Halbwachs became increasingly absorbed in social morphology and demography. Halbwachs last work on Memory appeared posthumously in 1950 and was translated as 'The Collective Memory' Halbwachs’s interest in memory is due to his teacher, the philosopher Henri Bergson. Halbwachs made the relationship between memory and society his central program. In his book 'The Social Framework of Memory,' he argued against considering memory as an exclusively individual faculty. According to him, to remember 'means to be tied to a collective framework of social reference points that allow memories to be co-ordinated in time and space'. Halbwachs believed that memories are acquired through society, they are recalled, recognised, and located socially. Memory also orders the experience and ensures collectivities. Collective memories are not pure recollections but reconstructions. To remember one needs others, to remember is to understand a relation. The memorable events in the lives of groups to which the individual belongs to serve as a coherent system of reference points for recall. 

 Émile Durkheim - Life and Times 

Émile Durkheim was a famous French philosopher and Sociologist. He is known as the father of the French School of Sociology. He is known for his method of combining sociological theories and empirical research. He is the one who studied the concept of collective memory. The term is found in the book 'The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. In the book, Durkheim provided the foundation for connecting Sociology and Memory. Durkheim was interested in the social power of commemorative rites. The common emotions are evoked like this helped to reconstitute the social body. The sociology of memory traces its origin to Emile Durkheim and his student Maurice Halbwachs. The interest of the former is in the commemoration and the latter is fascinated about how the past is reconstituted in the present. Both these concepts are the main research areas in Memory Studies.

Photography and Memory - Series 1

 

Photography and Memory -  Part 1

A camera is a memory catcher. It is a technology-enabled device that is a powerful tool to capture the fleeting moments of life and preserve them forever. Visual media culture is solely based on this device. This photo was captured during a train journey between Chiang Mai and Bangkok during our short but memorable CELTA trip to Thailand. We were travelling in the night express train to Bangkok to board our return flight to India. This photograph can be considered a meta photograph. A photograph of a camera captured using another camera .i.e. a mobile camera.

Photography and Memory - Part 2 

These bags keep travelling between the two shores of the Arabian sea. This digital mnemonic representation embodies the essential experience of 'the temporary people ' (the novel by Deepak Unnikrishnan) of the Middle East. This picture can be captured in most of the houses in the state of Kerala also. The bags are kept ready for a well planned and prepared journey. This photo is a visual representation of migration and the expatriate experience of more than 50 years. The people who carry their bags are known as 'guest workers' or even 'invisible people'. This migration is not a forced one. The unpreparedness of the Rohingya Muslims, the Syrian refugees, and the population affected by the Partition of 1947 is not visible here. Dreams fuel this migration, and there is also a little bit of greed involved. The Wishlist includes: building their own homes, getting the sisters married, buying land and other properties. While travelling from the Middle East to Kerala, these bags contain 'Persian' or 'Gulf' items. They include Arabian dates, Arabian perfumes (Part of Lady Macbeth's night monologue), foreign chocolates, almonds and pistachios. Based on a shopping list forwarded months ago, the items are purchased. The list contains the shopping demands of grandparents as well as grandchildren. The number of items on the shopping list has reduced now; since most products are available in India. There is still a demand for the products like Olive Oil and international beauty products. Kozhikodan Halwa, chips and pickles find a place in these bags when they return to the Gulf. There are also the adventurous expatriates who carry a whole jackfruit, or even gallons of coconut oil and even boxes of mangoes. These bags sometimes are seized for their infamous contents. The airport authorities and the immigration officials are a bit wary about this baggage. The public memory of the state of Kerala is replete with images of seized and contraband goods. 

 

Photography and Memory 3 

According to BBC News, the son of Muammar Gaddafi, Saadi Gaddafi, was released today (5-9-21) from prison. I remember watching the cavalcade of Gaddafi while working in Libya in the year 2006. Libya then was a peaceful country under the rule of Big Brother. Libyans had food in their stomach, electricity and water in their homes. Gaddafi constructed the Great Man-Made River (GMMR), a network of pipes that supplied fresh water to all the major towns in Libya. Gaddafi himself described the GMMR as the 'Eighth Wonder of the World' We made an extraordinary trip to see the Great Sahara desert. The photo is one of the digital memories of the trip. We camped in the town of Ghadames, an entry point to the Sahara desert. It was a border town in Libya from where we could see the lights in neighbouring Algeria. Ghadames was known as the " Pearl of the Desert" We had found the town to be deserted and lonely. We travelled for 462 Kms from Tripoli in our friend's BMW car to reach this town. We clicked this picture before we entered the town. The town wore a deserted look at night with the desert wind that sounded like some animal howling. The Old Port of the town of Ghadames has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage site. Islamic epic drama film — "The Message" used the town as a location. The city had connections with the Berber tribe of ‘ Tidamensi’ . Tidamensi was the original name of the town. The Romans changed the name to Cydamus and later on it became Ghadames. The town was one of the oldest pre-Saran settlements.

Series 1 - Food and Memory

 

This blog is more like a photo essay. It examines the topic of food and memory through the images presented in the poster. This is also an exploration into the areas of Food Studies and Memory Studies. The food items in the poster represent the embodiment of culture and identity. Most of the images are from my personal Instagram account which was taken while working abroad. The images have strong ethnographic moorings and they are all cultural constructs. This is the morning cup of tea, I used to drink every day at 7:30 am in my workplace in Shinas, Oman. This is green tea mixed with mint leaves. This is a typical morning drink in the Middle East. The culture would have spread from Morocco which is famous for its Maghrebi mint tea which is served in silver goblets or glass goblets. The Maghreb means the setting of the sun and the evening Islamic prayer is known as Maghrebi. The tea contains spearmint and sugar. This piece of cake is known as the Tiramisu. An Italian dessert. The word tiramisu means ' cheer me up ' or ' pull me up '. It contains two layers — one layer of sponge cake soaked in coffee and a layer of mascarpone cream. There is a dedicated website for promoting ‘the culture of tiramisu’. www.accademiadeltiramisu.com.

The origins of Tiramisu can be traced to the border in Friuli Venezia Giulia, a mountainous region that borders Austria and Slovenia. They discovered a handwritten recipe for Tiramisu from 1959. The craving for South Indian food was satisfied by swallowing these capsules. They are the mini version of the breakfast delicacy known as idli. This food is part of the cultural identity of every South Indian. These steamed rice cakes dipped in chutney is the embodiment of South India.

Music and Memory - Series 1

Part 1 - Boney M and Memories 

Whenever my dad used to get angry, me and my brother used to sing the first few lines of the song 'Daddy Cool' by Boney M. This band is entangled with my childhood memories just like the Swedish band Abba. Recently the song Rasputin by this band got revived in the collective memory of Kerala because of two medicos from Thrissur Medical College who danced to the tunes of the song. The dancers were targeted by some right-wing groups because they belonged to two different faiths. I feel that there is an amount of resistance in the songs of Boney M. Most of their songs are political. Songs like Belfast, El Lute, No Woman No Cry, Ma Baker and even Rasputin are replete with words of protests and revolution. Wikipedia tells us that Boney M. was a Euro-Caribbean vocal group created by German record producer Frank Farian, who served as the group's primary songwriter. 

Part 2 - Memory and Music 

When we examine memory and music multiple areas need to be discussed. One is Cognitive Science, which studied how the human brain consumes music and stores it in the brain. The way music is remembered or recollected based on external stimuli comes under the ambit of cognitive science. The second area of connection is culture and anthropology. The third area is how technology enables the production and creation of musical archives. Michael Pickering and Emily Keightley from Loughborough University, UK points out the fact that ‘phonographic remembrance has received little research attention. They have pointed out the lack of research activities in both photography and phonographs even though both can be considered ‘more than facilitators of memory’. At the cognitive level, music connects with emotions and enhances the mood of the listener which may also lead to an embodied experience like a dance. Anthropologists will treat music as a marker of identity (a recent example is the Enjoy Enjami song) Music recording will cover areas like genres of music, performances and the acts of recording a musical piece. The video posted above was shot in Rajasthan during our ten-day Rajasthan trip in 2016. We found this local artist at the historic location known as Jaswant Thada in Jodhpur. The building is a cenotaph made by Maharaja Sardar Singh of Jodhpur in 1899 in memory of his father Jaswant Singh II. Jaswant Thada serves as the cremation ground for the Rajput family of Marwar. The tunes played by the local artist adds to the ambience of the cenotaph and gives the visitors an experience of some authentic Rajasthani music. 

The three areas where music and memory interacts can be applied to this musical act. 

1. The phenomenological experience of listening to the music of Rajasthan have stayed with us forever. These folk musicians were omnipresent in almost all the castles, Havelis and forts that we have visited in Rajasthan. Our experience of sightseeing was enhanced by these desert tunes. After all these years the external stimuli of Rajasthani music acts as a trigger to remember and recollect our journey.
2. The cultural ethos of a state is reflected in the dress worn by these local artists. With their bright turbans and traditional dress, they represent the anthropological element in the act of remembrance and recollection. 
3. The live performance was captured using an iPhone and it was posted on my Instagram account on July 27th 2016. Technology enables the process of creating archives. This is another research area that will be part of the wide area of digital memory. 

Part 3 - ABBA and Memories 

Since it is difficult to discuss all my favourite artists and tracks in one go, I will start with the group ABBA and then move on to the next artist. I dedicate this blog to my dad, who even today listen to songs and has more than five different devices to play music. My fascination with ABBA started when I was young. My Dad had this HMV LP player and a decent collection of LPs. Most of the LPs were English albums and, we had more than one LP of ABBA. If I remember correctly, we had 4 or 5 LPs with some heavenly songs. Later in life when I started earning a livelihood by teaching English, I used to tell the ‘eager and not so eager faces’ in front of me that Abba is an inspiration to everyone who wants to learn English. The group’s name is an acronym of the first letters of their first names. The artists in ABBA were born in Sweden but, they learned English and started dominating the European charts in the 1980s. Some of the songs that are etched in my memory are — (to name a few) Money Money, Waterloo, Fernando, When I Kissed the Teacher, Dancing Queen, Tiger, Move On, and Knowing Me, Knowing You. I am so happy that I am writing this short note on ABBA as the first group as part of my investigation into Memory and Music. The studies in music and memory are almost like the studies in Photography and Memory. Both photography and phonographs are ‘mnemonic devices or resources. The main aim of the research is to investigate the question - How does music facilitate the acts of recall and recollection? Music is considered a means to ‘regain the past’ or ‘relating the past to the present.

Material Memory - Series 1

Part 1 - Refrigerator Magnets and Memory 

Refrigerator magnets are popular souvenir and collectable objects. They carry the memories of the places that people have visited. There are also other memorabilia which people collect like T-shirts, mini-Taj Mahal etc. Travellers often take these material objects and proudly display them on their refrigerators. It is like a taking piece of the land that they have visited. The New Indian Express published an article recently about an artist who has started turning memories into clay art. Based in Thiruvanthapuram, Rithu Kurup began this project during the lockdown days to keep herself engaged. What she does is creating miniature versions of memory as a fridge magnet or tabletop decor. 

Part 2 - Material Memory Museum

Museum of Material Memory is a digital repository of the material culture of the Indian sub-continent. The project aims to trace family histories and social ethnography through heirlooms, collectables and objects of antiquity. The project aims to unfold generational narratives about objects. The project was co-founded in 2017 by Aanchal Malhotra and Navdha Malhotra. The former is an artist and oral historian who works with memory and material culture. Her book 'Remnants of a Separation - History of the Partition through Material Memory [ 2017) is a wonderful collection of interviews and oral testimonies based on the Partition of 1947.  Access more details about the project — http://www.museumofmaterialmemory.com/

Part 3 - Gandhiji's Pen, Chekutty Doll 

While working in the Kingdom of Bahrain, we used to make regular trips to Virgin Mega Store inside the City Center Mall. One day we were eye-shopping, we came across this pen, It was a pen with Gandhiji's figurine attached to it. There was a sense of wonderment to see an object which carried the heaviness of the Indian cultural memory. There was an instant connection with our land and home. We also realised how universal is Gandhi and his life. While working abroad ( Libya, Oman and Bahrain) the locals identify the Indianess in us by talking about Big B, SRK and Gandhiji. In 2016, while travelling through all the major cities of Rajasthan ( from Jaipur to Bikaner) we came across this puppet/doll in a roadside Dhaba. It was left dangling from a nail on a window frame. The doll had a worn outlook and it was gathering dust. Puppetry is a major art form in Rajasthan. The traditional marionettes of Rajasthan are known as Kathputli. Stories from mythology and legends are told through puppets in Rajasthan. The other states of India where puppetry is famous are Orissa, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. These dolls are also part of the collective memory of these states transmitting the rich tradition of oral history and folklore. 

Chekutty Doll is part of the public memory of Kerala. An article appeared in The NewsMinute news portal which was written by Korah Abraham. The details posted here are from this article which is titled ‘ Chekutty Dolls: How Kerala got its new symbol of hope - A project by social entrepreneurs Lakshmi Menon and Gopinath Parayil. Chekutty is a doll up-cycled from the Chendamagalam handloom sarees that were destroyed during the Kerala floods. Chekutty is a handmade doll and it has become a symbol of hope to almost 600 weavers. It is also known as the Chendamagalam Kutty. If you visit the website - www. chekutty.in, you can read the following lines. ‘Chekutty has scars, Chekutty has stains; but Chekutty represents each of us who survived the floods’ Apart from supporting a weaving community financially, the Chekutty project is a significant area in the public memory of Kerala during the 2018 Kerala floods. One of the rare cases where Memory Studies talks about hope and resilience instead of trauma and silence. 

Part 4 - 'Remnants of Separation' by Aanchal Malhotra 

 Preface to the Paperback Edition 

The preface is written by the author Aanchal Malhotra, and it discusses the following ideas, How was the research for the book done? The reasons behind writing this book. The journey or the revisitation to get the signature of the interviewees. The research is centred around the objects or things that people carried across the border. The author interviewed men and women who were directly or indirectly affected by the Partition of the Indian subcontinent. The technical and historical name for the line that separated India and Pakistan is known as the Radcliffe Line. Aanchal Malhotra was very persistent in her research, and it involved years of study. She continues with her research into the 'unknown' and 'unspeakable' zones of 'migratory memory' and its consequences. One object that Aanchal mentions in the book is a sword from Rawalpindi, which was carried to Mirpur. 

Another object or thing is a Karachi Club membership card that was issued before the Partition. Aanchal believes that there is 'a need to talk about what happened. Even though we have a massive volume of information available on Partition, there is still 'much we do not know'. The stories that are part of the book are all 'stories of courage'. Most of the men and women spent years in silence, unable to relive the trauma of the Partition. The third generation has inherited the fragmented stories and memories of the event. Aanchal quotes the author Raghu Karnad who said that people die two times. The first is at the end of their lives, and the second is when people who remember them are all gone. This work has helped to immortalise the memories of the people who got 'scattered like leaves due to partition.' Schindler's List ends with the survivors and the actors who portrayed them visiting Schindler's grave and placing stones on it, which is a traditional Jewish sign of respecting the dead. Aanchal Malhotra, after the release of the book, visited all the men and women whom she interviewed, asking them to sign on the page where their story appears in the book. This is a fitting tribute to the 'Partitioned generation' and their memories. 

Archives and the Great Divide - Review of the Foreword 

Prof. Rudrangshu Mukherjee writes the Foreword for Aanchal Malhotra's The Remnants of Partition. He talks about the creation of an archive that is based on memory, stories, the violence of lost friends and relatives. It is an archive that is about lives lived and lost. All these together becomes the stuff of 'remembrance of things past'. 'Separation' and 'Uprooting' seems to be the two words that figure in the discussion on Partition. There are two types of archival documents. The first one is the well-known and the well-mined one and mainly include the official written documents prepared for the Partition. The second type of archive is based on the narrative to understand how the Partition and Independence happened together. These archival documents do not touch the lives of millions of women and men directly involved in the Great Divide—the stories from a population that moved. Memories, possessions also moved along with this movement of the people. Many of the displaced people were unable or unwilling to speak. According to Prof.Rudrangshu, even silence can be the material for history. The objects that were brought from the 'other side, too, were silent. Some of the pertinent questions asked in this book are; What objects do people take when they leave? How do they differentiate between what is valuable and what is essential? Most of the time, people carried memories 'too heavy to be borne.' Aanchal Malhotra's book is about loss, about memories, but also hope. 

Part 5 - Kindi – An emblem of Material Memory 

Material Memory Kindi is used to keep water at the entrance of the house, so that visitors can wash their feet with this water, and also to wash hands after meals. It is normally kept outside the home and it is used for ablutions before entering a home. It is also given to new brides at the time of their marriage as a gift. It is known as a unique artefact from Kerala. This is almost the North Indian equivalent of a 'lota' which is used in Bengal, Pakistan for cleansing purposes and religious ablutions. These days 'kindi' is used as a showpiece and is exported to the US and European countries as a symbol of nostalgia. The diasporic communities use it as a mnemonic reminder of their 'real or original homes'. It is also part of the nostalgia and the trip down memory lane. Today, it has become a collector's item. Kindi also has become a derogatory word especially after it was represented in the movie Manichitrathazhu. The movie is regarded as a milestone in Malayalam cinema which led to many remakes in more than 5 languages in India. The movie, however, gave 'kindi' a bad reputation. This note is inspired by the research in memory studies done by Aanchal Malhotra which is published in her book Remnants of Separation' The book traces the histories of the 'objects' (household items) carried across the border during the Partition of 1947. The objects are regarded as physical evidence into the inner recess of one of the darkest times in human history. According to Aanchal Malhotra, 'the material memory remains an incredibly important way of understanding personal and collective histories'