Reading Partition Living Partition  (English, Hardcover, Jain Jasbir)

Partition has left deep scars on the national psyche. This one distortion of history, with its disjunction between the minds of men and the course of events, has gone on to produce other distortions. We are trapped in our histories. It has impacted relationships, the notions of homeland and nation, erased languages and cultures and given rise to a whole set of questions about self and identity.

This volume, consisting of an interleaving of fiction, memoirs, historical and political analysis, moves into philosophical and psychological discussions and thus subjects partition to fresh reflection as debates about remembering and forgetting, forgiving or persisting with hostilities are carried on. Individual essays and narratives written over nearly five decades, represent the viewpoints of three generations across a cross-section of society in terms of religions, geographical locations and national borders as they move from migrations and uprooting, violence and loss to reflect upon the human being in a larger existential framework. 

Essentially interdisciplinary in nature, “Reading Partition/Living Partition” brings to the reader the work of distinguished writers and scholars of the subcontinent compelling the reader to probe her/his own conscience afresh.

About the Author
Jasbir Jain is Emeritus Fellow at the University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, currently working on the “Indigenous Roots of Feminism”. Her major interests are in theory and epistemologies and she has worked extensively in Indian literature across languages. Her latest publications are Beyond Postcolonialism: Dreams and Realities of a Nation (2006), Gendered Realities, Human Spaces: The Novels of Shashi Deshpande (2004) and Narrative of the Village (2006).