डॉ. बी. आर. अम्बेडकर विश्‍वविद्यालय दिल्ली
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University Delhi
Established by The Government of NCT of Delhi

Semester to which offered: (I/ III/ V) I and III Semester

Course Coordinator and Team:  Vikram Singh Thakur and Bodh Prakash

Email of course coordinator: vikram[at]aud[dot]ac[dot]in

Pre-requisites: None

Aim: The Partition of India brought untold suffering, tragedy, trauma, pain and violence to communities who had hitherto lived together in some kind of social contract. It separated families across an arbitrarily drawn border. The Partition which has often been compared to the Holocaust has been much documented by historians, civil servants and other government agencies. However, such ‘official’ histories largely deal with Partition as an unfortunate political event. There are very few historians who have chronicled the trauma of the individual during and after the Partition. It is with this idea that the present course “Remembering Partition” has been designed to re-look at Partition through literature and cinema.

Course Outcomes: At the end of the course students would be able to:

• Understand the significance of Partition in modern Hindi and Urdu literature
• Trace the trajectory of Partition in literary representations over time
• Appreciate the differences between cinematic and fictional representations
• Understand the ideological contours of all representations of Partition
• Recognise how ideological imperatives impinge on the aesthetic form
• Appreciate the untranslatability of trauma and how creative artists find ways to bring out this dimension of the tragedy.

Brief description of modules/ Main modules: The course is divided into three modules

Module 1: Novels: Yashpal, Jhootha Sach (This is not that Dawn). Tr. Anand. New Delhi: Penguin, (1958) 2011. Paul, Joginder, Khwabrau (Sleepwalkers). Tr. Sunil Trivedi and Sukrita Kumar. New Delhi: Katha, (1990) 1998.

Semester to which offered: (I/ III/ V) I and III Semester  

Course Coordinator and Team:Vikram Singh Thakur and Bodh Prakash

Email of course coordinator: vikram@aud.ac.in

Pre-requisites: None

Aim: The Partition of India brought untold suffering, tragedy, trauma, pain and violence to communities who had hitherto lived together in some kind of social contract. It separated families across an arbitrarily drawn border. The Partition which has often been compared to the Holocaust has been much documented by historians, civil servants and other government agencies. However, such ‘official’ histories largely deal with Partition as an unfortunate political event. There are very few historians who have chronicled the trauma of the individual during and after the Partition. It is with this idea that the present course “Remembering Partition” has been designed to re-look at Partition through literature and cinema.

Course Outcomes: At the end of the course students would be able to:

1. Understand the significance of Partition in modern Hindi and Urdu literature
2. Trace the trajectory of Partition in literary representations over time
3. Appreciate the differences between cinematic and fictional representations
4. Understand the ideological contours of all representations of Partition
5. Recognise how ideological imperatives impinge on the aesthetic form
6. Appreciate the untranslatability of trauma and how creative artists find ways to bring out this dimension of the tragedy.

  Brief description of modules/ Main modules:   The course is divided into three modules

Module 1: Novels: Yashpal, Jhootha Sach (This is not that Dawn). Tr. Anand. New Delhi: Penguin, (1958) 2011. Paul, Joginder, Khwabrau (Sleepwalkers). Tr. Sunil Trivedi and Sukrita Kumar. New Delhi: Katha, (1990) 1998.

Module 2: Short Stories: Manto, Saadat Hasan, “Khol Do”, Stories about the Partition of India. Ed. Alok Bhalla, Delhi: Manohar Publishers, 2011._____________________, “Mozel”, Stories about the Partition of India. Ed. Alok Bhalla, Delhi: Manohar Publishers, 2011._____________________, “Thanda Gosht”, Stories about the Partition of India. Ed. Alok Bhalla, Delhi: Manohar Publishers, 2011. _____________________, Selections from Siyah Hashiye (Black Margins) Bedi, Rajinder Singh, “Lajwanti”, Stories about the Partition of India. Ed. Alok Bhalla, Delhi: Manohar Publishers, 2011. Hashmi, Jamila, “Exile”, Stories about the Partition of India. Ed. Alok Bhalla, Delhi: Manohar Publishers, 2011. Palit, Dibyendu, “Alam’s Own House”, Stories about the Partition of India. Ed. Alok Bhalla, Delhi: Manohar Publishers, 2011.

Module 3: Films Ghatak, Ritwik. Meghe Dhake Tara, 1960. Sathyu, M.S. and Ismat Chugtai. Garam Hawa, 1974. Sumar, Sabiha. Khamosh Paani, 2004.

Supplementary Readings: Bagchi, Jaosodhara and Subhoranjan Dasgupta. Eds. The Trauma and the Triumph: Gender and Partition in Eastern India. Kolkata: Stree, 2003. Butalia, Urvashi. The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India. New Delhi: Penguin, 1998. Chakrabarty, Dipesh. "Remembered Villages: Representation of Hindu-Bengali Memories in the Aftermath of Partition," Economic and Political Weekly,  August 10, 1996. Chakravartty, Gargi. Coming out of Partition: Refugee Women of Bengal. New Delhi:  Bluejay, 2005. Kakar, Sudhir. The Colours of Violence. New Delhi: Penguin Books India, 1995. Menon, Ritu and Kamla Bhasin. Borders and Boundaries: Women in India’s Partition.  New Delhi: Kali for Women, 1998. Pandey, Gyanendra. Remembering Partition: Violence, Nationalism and History in India. Cambridge, CUP, 2001 Prakash, Bodh. Writing Partition. New Delhi: Pearson, 2009. Assessment structure (modes and frequency of assessments): Short Stories: Manto, Saadat Hasan, “Khol Do”, Stories about the Partition of India. Ed. Alok Bhalla, Delhi: Manohar Publishers, 2011. _____________________, “Mozel”, Stories about the Partition of India. Ed. Alok Bhalla, Delhi: Manohar Publishers, 2011._____________________, “Thanda Gosht”, Stories about the Partition of India. Ed. Alok Bhalla, Delhi: Manohar Publishers, 2011._____________________, Selections from Siyah Hashiye (Black Margins) Bedi, Rajinder Singh, “Lajwanti”, Stories about the Partition of India. Ed. Alok Bhalla, Delhi: Manohar Publishers, 2011. Hashmi, Jamila, “Exile”, Stories about the Partition of India. Ed. Alok Bhalla, Delhi: Manohar Publishers, 2011. Palit, Dibyendu, “Alam’s Own House”, Stories about the Partition of India. Ed. Alok Bhalla, Delhi: Manohar Publishers, 2011.

Module 3: Films Ghatak, Ritwik. Meghe Dhake Tara, 1960. Sathyu, M.S. and Ismat Chugtai. Garam Hawa, 1974. Sumar, Sabiha. Khamosh Paani, 2004.

Supplementary Readings: Bagchi, Jaosodhara and Subhoranjan Dasgupta. Eds. The Trauma and the Triumph: Gender and Partition in Eastern India. Kolkata: Stree, 2003. Butalia, Urvashi. The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India. New Delhi: Penguin, 1998. Chakrabarty, Dipesh. "Remembered Villages: Representation of Hindu-Bengali Memories in the Aftermath of Partition," Economic and Political Weekly, August 10, 1996. Chakravartty, Gargi. Coming out of Partition: Refugee Women of Bengal. New Delhi: Bluejay, 2005. Kakar, Sudhir. The Colours of Violence. New Delhi: Penguin Books India, 1995. Menon, Ritu and Kamla Bhasin. Borders and Boundaries: Women in India’s Partition. New Delhi: Kali for Women, 1998. Pandey, Gyanendra. Remembering Partition: Violence, Nationalism and History in India. Cambridge, CUP, 2001 Prakash, Bodh. Writing Partition. New Delhi: Pearson, 2009.

Assessment structure (modes and frequency of assessments):