The Speaking Window review: A heartfelt chronicle of Partition’s untold stories

Hence, it becomes even more important to chronicle these stories and experiences so that the future generations could understand what hatred can lead to. In 2017, Sandeep Dutt from Ludhiana and his friend Faisal Hayat from Rawalpindi, Pakistan, started a Facebook page called ‘Bolti Khidki,’ where they posted stories of people who lived through the tragedy of Partition. Ritika, an English teacher from Ludhiana, joined them and The Speaking Window: Tales from the Bloodied Timeline (Oxford University Press), is the result of that labour.

Tales of Separation, Connection

The tales chronicled in this book include a poignant story of separation in which nine-month pregnant Leelavanti Gambhir, who was staying at her maternal home away from her husband, had to move to a camp from Sialkot where she gave birth to her child and then boarded a train to Amritsar. Unsure about whether she would ever meet her husband, she waited for him at a relative’s place for fifteen days after which she reunited with him as he found his way to her. However, this disturbing experience didn’t dim her light; instead, it instilled a belief that you can’t fight hate with hate.

A similar story is that of Deen Muhammad from Rajpura, Punjab, who used to spend most of his time with his two best friends, Dharam Singh and Pritam Singh. However, as communal flames rose all over the country, their city was eventually engulfed in its smoke. This led to his wife taking her own life while trying to save herself from attackers who were after her as she was going to her parent’s house. Soon, he had to leave his home and somehow reached Lahore, from where he and his family moved to Sargodha. Even today, he misses his two best friends.

Generally, Partition stories focus on the region of West Pakistan and India, but we need to remember that East Pakistan (current Bangladesh) was also partitioned simultaneously. The story of Basudev Gangopadhyay delves deeper into the contrasting reality of Partition that people experienced in both the regions. A resident of Dhaka, Gangopadhyay and his family were living a peaceful life which was interrupted by the passing of his father in 1946. A year later, when Partition was announced, his brothers, who were government employees stationed all over India, received horrible news of communal violence happening on the Western side of the country. Despite this, they decided to wait for a year so that he could complete his matriculation.

Even after migrating to India, he returned to visit Dhaka after a few years and was welcomed by his neighbours. His message of not letting politicians poison our minds remains relevant even today. Similarly, Anima Shyam’s family in Sylhet (in current Bangladesh) decided to migrate wilfully rather than being forced to do so. The fact that her family took thirteen years to fully migrate out of Sylhet underscores the glaring socio-political disparities between West and East Pakistan. Even when her father went back to her village to finally uproot their entire family, the neighbours pleaded with him to not leave. If nothing, partition surely teaches us that maybe it is this humane connection that we need to preserve and not let divisive politics divide us.

A Mirror For Us

It is also crucial to mention that while violence was indeed widespread around the West Pakistan-India region, there were several stories of individuals demonstrating the importance of humanity during that critical time. Dhan Kaur, who came from Sialkot where child marriage was the norm, got married at a young of 14. In 1947, as violence escalated, both of her families decided to migrate. They embarked on a journey on foot with a group of about 40 people to Jammu, without any kind of security whatsoever.

But help came in the form of strangers giving them food, clothes and everything else they needed while they were on their way. Living through this, her only message to youngsters is to live a meaningful life. Mandowari Karmani’s story is not even one of migration but rather how her neighbours assured her in-laws of their safety, and hence, they never had to leave Mithi, a small town in Sindh. It’s stories like these that reassure us that even in the darkest times, there will be people who won’t hesitate to light a lamp of hope.

Partition was not just an event which existed in a moment but a permanent wound which still festers and is misused from time to time for narrow political gains. While horrible things happened around that period, it is equally important to understand what led to it and make sure that it doesn’t happen again. It is narratives like these which help us to deduce the same. Started as a Facebook page, The Speaking Window is a mirror being held up to our faces to remind us of what once was, how it got destroyed, and to ensure that the trauma our previous generations went through isn’t repeated again.