Amongthemwere preg-
nant women, innocent
children,theagedandthe
ailing.Thehumancostwas
staggering. Yet statistics
failedtoconvey thepro-
fundityofthetragedy,the
enormityofthechallenge
ahead.
Forinstance,takethe
storyofMohammedHus-
sainSultanandhisdaugh-
ter Khurshid, and how
theirfamilystooddivided
atthe timeofPartition.
Kavita Puri writes
poignantly:“...Mohammed
HussainSultanturnedup
at hisnowteenagedaugh-
ter’sschoolinDelhi.He
toldKhurshidto leavewith
himimmediately.Hehad
alreadywarned his child
thatif hewereevertoap-
pearandask her tocome
outof class,shemustdoas
hesays.NOquestions.Mo-
hammed was a Muslim
civilservantworkingin the
Imperial Secretariat.Days
earlier, hehadbeentipped
off by some Dalits, un-
touchables, who he had
beengivingcharitableas-
sistanceto,thattherewere
toberiotsinthearea he
lived in. ‘Leave quickly,’
theytoldhim.Hearranged
to sendhisfamilyto Kara-
chi;onlyKhurshidwould
staywithhim,asshewas
abouttositforherschool
exams.Hiswifeandeldest
daughter, dressedinsaris
to looklikeHinduwomen,
madetheirwaytoDelhi
station,boundfora new
country. Khurshid’s
mother was carrying a
newborn,andin herpurse,
shekeptthephotograph of
herhusband, andKhur-
shid with her younger
brother, Yusuf,whohad
diedyearsearlier,andwas
buriedin India.Shetookit
as a reminderof thesonshe
wasleavingbehindinIn-
dia’searth.”
Or takethe story of
Denys and Mohammed
Sarwar, a rare bond
betweena Britishofficer
and his batman. Sarwar
was a responsible man,
cheerful, gentle. And
Denys,whohadlearntto
speak Urdu, trained,ate
andlivedalongside Indian
cadets.KavitaPuriwrites
thatatthetimeofParti-
tion, Sarwar and Denys
transcendedtheirnation-
alities:“WhenDenysand
Mohammed parted, they
bothknewit wasforthe
lasttime.‘I don’tremem-
berdiscussingit at all,but
I’msureweallknewin our
heart of hearts that we
wouldn’t see each other
again,’ says Denys. ‘I
couldn’t putmyhandon
myheartsaying, I remem-
berbeingin tearsor nearto
it sayinggoodbye, butI’m
sure I was. Everything
seemed to behappeningso
quicklyat thatstage.India
waspartof theBritishEm-
pire.Thenit suddenlybe-
came independent and
everything sort of
happenedbangbangbang
ontopoftheother.AndI
thinktherewasprobably
very little time for
emotion.’”
If there waslittletime
foremotionfora British
man,therewasnoneforan
Indian; thecostsofParti-
tion were exponentially
higher.
KavitaPuri’sis notthe
onlyvoiceonPartition 72
years after India and
Pakistankepttheirtrysts
withdestiny. Therearethe
equally engaging,anddis-
turbing, voices of Aftab
Husain,theeminentmul-
tilingualpoet andwriter
fromPakistan,andSarita
Jenamani, the Cuttack-
born multilingual poet.
Theyhaveselected,edited
andcontributedpoemsonPartition in Silence
BetweentheNotes:AnAn-
thologyof PartitionPoetry.
Thepoemshavebeende-
scribed bythenotedauthor
Mohammed Hanif as
“songs of separation,voices
ofdespairand thecruel
music that still rings
through the present
subcontinent”.POETRYTOPORTRAY
TERROR
Human miserydoes not
makefor instantpoetry.It
lendsitselfmorereadilyto
prose,shortstories,even
long-formjournalism. Butdistanceintimeallowsfor
thepoeticmetretofindits
ownsoul.If sadsongsand
music be the abiding
memoryofPartition,then
AftabHusainandSarita
Jenamanigiveusabiding
melancholy.Theywritein
the introduction: “After
the Second World War
German cultural critic
TheodorW. Adornohad
famously pronounced,
‘writingpoetryafterAus-
chwitz is barbaric.’ He
meant,perhaps,thatany
attempttocapturelifein
concentration camps in
poetry,simplydenigratesClearly,whenit comesto
Partition,therearenoends,
onlyfreshbeginnings.