The Other Side of Silence

More about the book

The partition of India in 1947 resulted in one of history's largest human displacements, with over twelve million people uprooted, a million dead, and countless women abducted and raped. Despite the enormity of this tragedy, the personal stories of those affected remain largely unknown. Urvashi Butalia addresses this gap by centering individual experiences and private pain in her exploration of the partition's aftermath. Through a decade of interviews and an analysis of diaries, letters, and documents, she highlights how marginalized groups—children, women, lower castes, and untouchables—were impacted by this upheaval. Butalia intertwines her own partition-scarred family history with the narratives of others, uncovering voices that persist in private despite the silence surrounding this event. She poses challenging questions about the roles of community, caste, and gender in the violence of partition, and examines the gap between the intended and actual outcomes of this historical moment. By sharing these painful truths, Butalia emphasizes the importance of remembrance and storytelling as a means for survivors to begin healing and confronting their past. Her work offers a sensitive and poignant account of the quest to uncover the realities behind the silence of partition.