Kavita Daiya, on India and Violence
From Verve:
Text by Kavita Daiya | |
Published: Volume 17, Issue 1, January, 2009
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And so the 1947 Partition lives on in Indian political life, more than 60 years after it was enacted by our British colonisers, Rushdie once described, as a parting gift. Long after it is over, Partition lives on in Godhra, in Samjhauta, in Malegaon, in 7/11 and now, 26/11. I am particularly interested in how Partition circulates in contemporary political discourse in India; for instance, in their inflammatory rhetoric against Indian Muslims, Hindu nationalists regularly cite the memory of Partition violence to incite ethnic conflict. Now, this same Partition and its aftermath are being used by terrorists to justify their massacre in Mumbai. There are two pertinent dimensions to the lessons of Partition. Firstly, in and after 1947, no one in the newly formed governments or the British administration was willing to admit the true extent of violence that millions of people had suffered at the time. Official figures, even a decade after, claimed that 200,000 to 300,000 people were killed. Half a century later, we have come to acknowledge the magnitude of the holocaust of 1947: in actuality, approximately two million people died during Partition. Today, the Indian government claims that the 26/11 attacks left 173 dead. Yet, we already know that a much bigger tragedy has occurred than is being spoken: for example, on the fourth day of the attacks, while clearing the Taj, firemen reported removing 160 dead bodies from there alone. Surely, we must not wait for decades, like we did in the case of Partition, to acknowledge the true number of people who lost their lives in this carnage? Sms-es circulating in Mumbai assert that at least 1,000-1,500 people have died. By not officially acknowledging the deaths of all those who died, we erase their existence and strip them of their humanity. We fail to mourn them, and in that, we devalue their lives. We must recognise and honor all those who died in the 26/11 attacks, today. Secondly, we can learn much from Partition survivors who paid the true price for India’s freedom. They did not step back from taking on the government they felt had failed to protect them. I have been struck by how many Partition survivors who lost homes, family and friends describe their alienation from the Indian state, which they feel did nothing to protect or help them. For instance, think of Amar Devi Gupta, a Kashmiri Hindu from the Poonch area, who describes her experience when she flees to a refugee camp in Srinagar when Pakistan attacked Kashmir in 1948. Her violent anger at the elite Indian politicians is palpable in her writing. When Jawaharlal Nehru visited her refugee camp, she angrily slapped him for the failure of the Indian nation-state to protect Kashmir, which led to thousands dying in the Pakistani attack. Later, although offered the headship of the Red Cross in Kashmir, a disillusioned Gupta who had lost many family members in the war left India with her brother permanently – first for Kenya, and later the UK in 1955. The same furious anger at the nation’s failure burns within every Mumbaikar today. I hear it today in survivor Shruti Jalan-Narang, who lost her husband and parents-in-law in the 26/11 attacks, and who cried: “I don’t think I belong to this country anymore. The government has done nothing for us.” She also said, “I am ashamed to be called an Indian today.” Partition survivors’ anger never turned into a political movement in India, but let us today mobilize our anger about 26/11 to initiate change. An affluent South Mumbai resident urged her friend: “We, people like us who have the time and resources, need to step up now. The common man who travels through CST has to return to his job day after day to feed his family. So it is up to us—we have the leisure and the resources—to do something.” Right now, very little has changed in terms of state action towards increased public safety; some bloggers have noted that 26/11 may well have been just a “probing attack” for a bigger one to come. So how long will it take for us to make Mumbai safer? Will new, stronger Indian women emerge to lead the way? 9/11
How many Partitions? Kavita Daiya teaches at George Washington University, and is the author of Violent Belongings: Partition, Gender and National Culture in Postcolonial India |