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While discourse on the Partition, especially through literary representations, has changed radically, it is time to revisit it from a third and perhaps fourth-generation point of view. On the 70th anniversary of India’s Independence and Partition, this anthology of diverse narratives collects fresh reflections on the continuing relevance and impact of 1947, and its afterlife, in South Asia.

In what ways can we re-think and re-imagine 1947 today, in 2017? Has the subcontinent worked through its burden of history and trauma relayed across generations? Or are we still trapped by the curse of mutual animosity, incoherence and distrust? Are there routes beyond polarised perceptions and attitudes that wait to be (re-)discovered?

Earlier Partition anthologies have underplayed the narratives of the aged, of marginal castes and tribes who may have experienced 1947 differently. The genres of poetry, drama and reportage have likewise not been collected and read as a whole. This anthology-of essays, memoirs, art, short fiction, poetry, graphic narrative, reportage and drama-seeks to rectify these omissions in a manner that is both self-reflexive and historically aware. It also features fresh translations-from Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu and Bangla-of older, lesser-known works together with new writing that narrates unheard and forgotten stories. In times when India-Pakistan relations are fraught, when we remain as divided by religion as by how we imagine the nation, this is an effort to cast new light on our fractured and conjoined past and to help us reflect on it with humanity.

The volume would be an asset to students and scholars of South Asian literature and history.