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The Partition Motif
in Contemporary Conflicts
However, there are many sensitive areas in the world where territory and demography have been the bone of contention between warring nationalities and at other times between various countries. This work, edited by Jassal and Ari, includes papers read in a conference on ‘Memory and the Partition Motif in Contemporary Conflicts’ and aims to discuss various aspects of Partition on the affected people. Through various papers, one realises the, ‘violence, fear, domination, difference, separation and the unsatisfactory resolution of problems.’ The contributors are eminent academicians, researchers and a few people who have experienced partition first-hand. The common thread running through all the papers is the pain and helplessness of the masses that have to live partition in their day-to-day lives. So you have, Honaida Ghanim, narrating her family’s struggle when Palestinians lost their homeland in 1948 with the birth of Israel. Some were forced to leave their homes, while others were cut off from their relatives because villages were divided. People had to smuggle themselves across the border mostly at night to meet a close relative like one’s mother or children. A poignant narration of a divided family. There was much jubilation when the Berlin Wall dividing East and West Germany was demolished and Germany became one nation. However, with barricades on the land eliminated, the people of the two former parts of Germany broke from each other. They corresponded with each other when the Wall divided them but when it was time to meet they realised that they did not have much in common. For example, the people living formally in East Germany realised that their relatives had not been generous to them by giving them gifts when the wall existed, rather they were being sent cheap quality goods. The residents of former West Germany thought that their relatives from East were simply being ungrateful. This aspect has been put across in a novel way by Tatjana Thelen in her essay, Partition and Partings, The Paradox of German Kinship Ties. It is often argued by the decision-makers in any country that the division was, ‘only of the map of the country and not of the hearts of the people,’ (eminent freedom fighter Maulana Azad’s declaration after the partition plan of June 3, 1947 was accepted). They forget that lines once drawn on land engrave themselves in people’s hearts. As Alok Bhalla quotes this and further Jawaharlal Nehru, a former Prime Minister of India, who said to Leonard Mosley that in 1947: "We expected that the Partition would be temporary, that Pakistan was bound to come to us.’ Such research makes this work valuable. The Healing, Reconciliation, and Comparative Dimensions, offer a very analytical and pragmatic viewpoint regarding partition, its reconciliation and the consequences. Usually we encourage melting down of boundaries and unification of two parts which were united, once upon a time. But this solution brings with its own set of problems. Nevertheless, the eminent scholars are all for peace process. They appreciate steps being taken by a few people, e.g. in Israel a school is trying to educate children belonging to Jewish, Muslim and Christian communities together. Such efforts are commendable but again these innovators who are treading this difficult path have to balance as they face opposition from hardliners in all the three communities. The scholars have tried to bring forth that partition means humiliation, a question mark on identities and thinning down of the line between sanity and madness, in the name of religion. The papers are detailed and have to be read with great care to understand the different nuances. The book is reasonably priced for all the information that is packed in it. The editors have done a commendable job and papers have been selected carefully keeping all the major regions in mind. Besides research scholars, the book can be read by all those who are curious to have an impartial viewpoint.
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