The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India - Urvashi Butalia
[alert-success] The Other Side of Silence
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The Partition of India into two countries as India and Pakistan in 1947 resulted in a significant upheaval in human history. Within a span of two months, a total of twelve million individuals were forcibly relocated, resulting in the loss of one million lives. Additionally, it was reported that seventy-five thousand women were subjected to abduction and sexual assault. As a consequence, families were separated, properties were forfeited, children disappeared, and homes were demolished.
Nevertheless, the violent and unsettling realities that occurred during Partition have been largely ignored in public recollection. However, even in private, the discussions around Partition have not ceased and their consequences are still ongoing.
Urvashi Butalia's extraordinary memoir, The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India is the result of ten years of interviews and research, examines the objectives of Partition and its impact on the ground and in people's lives. The novel is constructed from oral narratives and testimonies, often from women, children, and dalits - previously unheard marginalized voices - and supported by documents, reports, diaries, memoirs, and parliamentary records. This is an emotional and individual account of Partition that prioritizes individuals rather than high-level politics.
The Other Side of Silence explores the extent to which communalism, casteism, and gender constructs contributed to the violence during Partition, addressing questions that have typically been avoided or ignored. These are the undisclosed narratives of Partition, narratives that India has refrained from addressing even after fifty years of independence.
“My focus here is on the small actors and bit-players, whose lives, as
the lives of all people, were inextricably interwoven with broader
political realities. How these realities touched on and transformed
their lives is what my work is concerned with.” (71)
The Other Side of Silence recounts a horrifying event that took place in the village of Thoa Khalsa, located in the Rawalpindi area. During the Partition, it is reported that in one Sikh community, a total of ninety women chose to "voluntarily" throw themselves into a well instead of being captured by the "enemy". The migrant refugees from this area continue to observe the occasion at a gurdwara in Delhi, referring to the deaths as martyrs rather than suicide. They hold the belief that throughout that period, men were required to bravely embrace the choices made by women, and in certain instances, even convince women to take their own lives.
The author, Urvashi Butalia was born in Ambala, Punjab, in 1952, into a family of Punjabi descent. She is a prominent Indian feminist, author, and publisher known for her contributions to literature, particularly in the field of gender studies and women's rights in South Asia. She pursued her education at the University of Delhi and the University of London. Her parents are Subhadra and Joginger Singh Butalia. She is a professor at Delhi University.
Urvashi Butalia is a researcher of oral histories from a feminist perspective.
Butalia co-founded Kali for Women, India's first feminist publishing house, in 1984, along with Ritu Menon. In 2003 she set up her own publishing house, Zubaan House. She played a vital role in bringing attention to women's issues and publishing works that focused on women's experiences, struggles, and achievements. The publishing house aimed to give voice to marginalized and underrepresented perspectives, including those of women from diverse backgrounds and regions in India. She is a recipient of Padma Sri award in 2011 for her remarkable work in partition history.
The Other Side of Silence was published in 1998. This book is the perspectives of those who experienced the partition firsthand, particularly women. Due to the unavailability of suitable resources to depict the terrible reality faced by women, Butalia took it upon herself to gather the stories and compile them into a book.
Through oral histories and personal narratives, Butalia sheds light on the often-overlooked stories of women who lived through this tumultuous period of South Asian history. The book is a mix of lengthy transcripts from interviews and her own commentaries over the stories. She has interviewed around seventy people over the span of ten years and condensed these interviews into books. Some of the stories are the result of multiple interview of the same person. The stories in the book concentrate on the marginalized and silenced voices of women and children. Sudesh Vaid, helped in collecting the data, though she abandoned the author in the middle. Urvashi Butalia shares her difficulty in compiling these interviews:
There are, of course, no complete pictures. This I know now: everyone
who makes on, draws it afresh. Each time, retrospectively, the picture
changes: who you are, where you come from, who you’re talking to, when
you talk to them, where you talk to them, what you listen to, what they
choose to tell you . . . all of these affect the picture you draw.”
(100)
The Other Side of Silence is divided into eight chapters: Beginning, Blood, Facts, Women, Honour, Children, Margins, and Memory. Krishna Sobi says, "Partition is difficult to forget but dangerous to remember". True to this word, Urvashi Butalia takes a dangerous road to recount and rewrite the stories of "human beings whose bodies and lives has been played out". She brings out the sufferings and pain to the limelight through the first hand narratives of people who have experienced partition in their lifetime. The Other Side of Silence draws attention to innumerable incidents of rape, abduction and forcible marriage of women, which was followed by forcible rescue from the enemy nation, which again caused much chaos.
Chapter one titled, "Beginning" explains the events that led to the formulation of The Other Side of Silence. On collecting stories, Butalia says:
“No neat chronologies marked the telling; there were no clear beginnings
and endings. I began to understand how much, and how easily, the past
flowed into the present, how remembering also means reliing the past
from within the context of the present.” (18)
In chapter two, "Blood" she places the interview of two people, Ranamuna and her own mother Subathra Butalia and explains the sequence of dreadful events that followed after the partition. In chapter three, titled "Facts," the author examines historical documents and provides a comprehensive analysis of the relevant data pertaining to the partition.
In Chapter four, titled "Women," there is a detailed exploration of the recovery initiatives undertaken after the Partition to reunite abducted women with their families. She says:
Talk of the martyrdom of women is almost always accompanied by talk of
those women who lives were saved, at the cost of those which were lost,
and although there may not be any direct condemnation, it is clear that
those who got away are in some ways seen as being inferior to those who
‘offered’ themselves up to death to save their religion.” (165-6)
Butalia criticizes India's approach to recovery, highlighting evidence that indicates that the focus was primarily on national pride rather than the well-being of the women. She argues that for many women, the recovery process resulted in further displacement, trauma, and even rejection by their own families.
Chapter five, titled "Honour," delves into the topic of healing, while the latter half specifically examines the instances of women committing suicide or being murdered by their own family members in the sake of preserving "honour." These crimes were subsequently portrayed as acts of martyrdom. Butalia used this discussion to highlight how the exclusion of intra-familial or intra-community violence during Partition has effectively eliminated it from the overall definition of violence.
Chapter six titled, "Children" Butalia confronts that every other documents related to partition has neglected the narratives of children. She explains the story of Trilik Singh, a nine year old boy who escaped from a family where his own father and two uncles decided to kill the women and children of their family in
order to escape to India. They called it as martyrdom. Being the survivor, the story of Trilik Singh is overwhelming. She explains about Khushwant Singh and many other abducted children, whose stories are silenced and marginalized.
Butalia concludes by the chapter, "Memory" highlighting the absence of official memorials in India to commemorate the lives lost and brutality inflicted during Partition, despite the country's extensive efforts to commemorate its independence. Butalia questions how the state can effectively commemorate the victims of Partition when it was involved in the carnage that took place.
The Other Side of Silence offers a nuanced and empathetic exploration of the human impact of the Partition, shedding light on the stories of loss, trauma, resilience, and survival. By centering the voices of ordinary people, especially women, Butalia challenges dominant narratives and provides a more comprehensive understanding of the Partition's social and emotional dimensions.
The narrative examines the silences surrounding the Partition, including the trauma that many survivors carried with them for decades and the ways in which their experiences were often suppressed or ignored by society. Through Butalia's meticulous research and sensitive storytelling, The Other Side of Silence contributes to a deeper reckoning with the legacy of the Partition and its lasting effects on individuals and communities in India, Pakistan, and beyond. She says:
There are instances where silence is more important than speech, times
at which it is invasive to force speech, and I think we need to be able
to recognize those when we meet them.” (283)
The Other Side of Silence is not just a historical account but a testament to the power of personal stories in understanding the complexities of identity, violence, and memory. It remains a vital resource for scholars, students, and anyone interested in exploring the human dimensions of the Partition of India.
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