Kavita Puri is a distinguished journalist, executive producer, and broadcaster at the BBC. She is also the accomplished author behind the highly regarded book “Partition Voices: Untold British Stories.”
She conceived, scripted, and hosted the groundbreaking three-part series "Partition Voices" on Radio 4, commemorating the 70th anniversary of India's partition. This series received recognition with The Royal Historical Society's accolade for Best Radio and Podcast, as well as the prestigious Public History Prize.
In an interview with Asian Voice, she shares her opinion on how the drawing of the partition lines affected individuals, communities and continues to affect generations to come.
How has partition impacted the generations that came after in both countries? Do you think they have absorbed the consequences of this division?
I think partition hugely impacted generations on the Indian subcontinent and in the diaspora, but for those that lived through it, they had to get on with life, especially if they had moved across the new border. They did not have time to dwell on the past, and it was a traumatic event that was hard to speak of. The stories of that generation only started to emerge in recent years, as they grew older, and their children and grandchildren were curious about their history.
In your view, was the partition primarily founded on religious grounds?
Partition was done along religious lines - and formed Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan. However it's worth pointing out that at the time of partition, both countries had large minority populations. Leaders of India and Pakistan, believed they would remain, and did not anticipate the mass migration that then occurred where over 12 million people moved in the opposite directions; Muslims to Pakistan and Hindus and Sikhs to India.
Do you think the untold stories of partition need more support and encouragement to be brought into public light? Do we know enough about partition?
We need to listen closely to the generation that remembered that time. Of course, they tell stories of trauma around the time of partition, but nearly all tell other stories too; of best friends of a different religion, generations of shared traditions, culture and language among mixed communities, how friends and strangers of the "other" faith saved lives. It's important these stories are recalled too - as these are the ones the partition generation want remembered too - not just stories of division and violence. No country has ownership of victimhood, all sides suffered deeply in many ways. There are people now collecting and archiving memories, but it is a race against time. There is now a museum in Amritsar to partition. In England, this part of colonial history is still not taught in all schools.
Do you think India and Pakistan will be able to bury their hatchet one day and remember they were once one?
I think that if collective loss is recognised, then that may be possible. There is so much that both nations shared in undivided India, and the first-hand testimonies speak to that - everyday life, particularly in Punjab and Bengal - the provinces that were divided. A start would be for India and Pakistan to make it easier for people to cross the border, so they could visit their ancestral homes. There is a huge curiosity in the so-called "other" place. Contact between individuals dispels so many myths about people across the border. When I became the first one in my family this year to return to my Father's birthplace and childhood home in Lahore, I was given the warmest of welcomes by everyone there. These individual connections are so important, and counter divisiveness.
