Advanced Seminar: Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan

3 units

The division of India and Pakistan at the time of Independence from British colonial rule was a major event that has left its mark on the lives, memories, and politics of contemporary South Asians. Why did British India break apart along apparently religious lines? Was sectarian or communal violence inevitable, or endemic in South Asian society? How was Partition - a time of violence, mistrust, dispossession, displacement, and mass migration -- experienced by ordinary people? How is the traumatic memory of this event borne by individual women, children, by families? How does its legacy persist, and how is it being remembered, and reckoned with, today? In this course, we will not find final answers to these difficult questions, but we will learn how to explore them responsibly, using literature, film, and other archival sources. This course provides students with a forum to discuss and explore topics of their own choosing.