In one of the interviews, an eye-witness narrates horrific stories of how the Muslims were massacred near the railway station of this small village. He mentions Asmat, a beautiful Muslim girl who was murdered. Among the possibly hundreds who were killed, he specifically mentions about a Muslim clergy man and his wife who were murdered near the village lake. These stories highlight the scale of violence that was occurring in Punjab in almost every village, town and city.

Link to interview: https://youtu.be/_MxwxA4hBWs?si=X0G9eTE-guEKrRAT

Partition was one of the darkest periods in the Indian subcontinent’s history, however, it cannot be measured in terms of black and white. It was grayer for some, albeit black for most. It is vital to pull out individual orthodox experiences enmeshed in broader and generalised narrations of Partition. Through the fictional pieces discussed above reality was taken to its extreme levels, enabling us to see how Partition meant something else for every person.

In Thanda Gosht, two women symbolically subject Ishar Singh to physical, psychological, emotional, and sexual trauma as a parallel to everything women were subjected to in the war between the religions. On the other hand, Pinjar shows how women came in terms with their new found identities and even made good lives for themselves through love. Aur Kitne Tukde points to how women’s voices were subdued by patriarchal notions, but they still found space. There are…

In this article by David Lester, a search was undertaken to document cases of suicide during the partition of India into India and Pakistan in 1947. Cases were found for India and for women. The experience of those in Pakistan and of men was hard to locate. There is a need for further investigation to provide a fuller picture of suicide during this period.

Study: http://www.suicidology-online.com/pdf/SOL-2010-1-2-4.pdf

This study explores how the trauma of the Partition of India was transmitted to future generations. An interesting feature of trauma that is increasingly becoming the focus of recent research is that it can be transmitted across generations.

Study: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10257180/