This book examines the afterlife of Partition as imprinted on the memories and postmemories of survivors and their children to show how they script their life stories to reinscribe tragic tales of violence and abjection into triumphalist sagas of fortitude, resilience, industry, enterprise and survival.

By drawing upon current research in history, memory, narrative, violence, trauma, affect, home, nation, borders, refugees and citizenship, this book analyses the traumatizing effects of the somatic impact of direct violence and the aftermath of the equally traumatic experience of displacement, resettlement and struggle for survival shared by successive generations of survivors. At the same time, this book reveals the silences, stutters and stammers that interrupt survivors’ narrations to bring attention to the untold stories repressed in their consensual narratives. Moreover, arguing that the event of Partition radically transformed the notions of home, belonging, self and community, it shows that individuals affected by Partition produce a new ethics and aesthetic of displacement and embody new ways of being in the world.

An important contribution to the field of Partition studies, this book will be of interest to researchers on Asian history, South Asian studies and postcolonial studies.