Postmemory and the Partition of India: Learning to Remember - Comprehensive Notes

  • Memory Studies Field: Emerges from understanding historical knowledge, generational memory changes, memory technologies, and trauma narratives.

    • Focus shifts from 'what we know' to 'how we remember it.'
    • Technological, political, interpersonal, social, and cultural shifts influence remembering and forgetting.
    • Key questions include defining memory, its study prospects, and investigation tools.

  • Postmemory and Partition of India: Shuchi Kapila explores postmemory in the context of the Indian Partition of 1947.

    • Personal Context: Book began after the author's father's passing and husband's sudden death, reflecting on the loss felt by millions during the Partition.
    • Acknowledgments: Thanks to colleagues, friends, family, and institutions for their support.

  • Acknowledgments - People:

    • Sue Ireland, Jan Gross, and Elizabeth Prevost for generosity and engagement.
    • Tamara Beauboeuf-Lafontant, Caleb Elfenbein, Karla Erickson, and Deborah Michaels for being writing partners.
    • Brigittine French and Maria Tapias for Ethnographic' advice.
    • Sharon Clayton and Kevin Engel at Burling Library for procuring materials.
    • Ekta Shaikh for being a research assistant.

  • Acknowledgments - Sharing of Stories:

    • United States, United Kingdom, and India - thanks those who shared stories.
    • Vinay Kumar in Chicago for sharing his stories.
    • Vineet and Anuradha Nayar, H.K.L Jaggi, Sharda Ranjan, Darshan Ranjan, Veena Thapar, Vijay Thapar, Guneeta Singh Bhalla, Karyn Bellamy-Dagneau, Mallika Ahluwalia, Priyanjana Ghosh, and Anupam Anand for assistance.

  • Acknowledgments - Personal: Johanna Meehan, Maura Strassberg, Caleb and Tina Elfenbein, Tim and Jen Dobe, Phil Jones and Tara Shukla, Jonathan Larson and Deborah Michaels, Dan Reynolds and Garrett Roche, Alan and Jill Schrift, Susan Ferguson, Erin Bustin, Xavi Escandell, Brigittine French, Mark Laver, Tony and Jacqui Perman, Maria Tapias, Angela Voos, Meena Khandelwal, Wendy Singer, Rashmi Varma, Clelia Clini, Meenakshi Malhotra, Kiran Keswani, Krishna Menon, Rita Chakravorty, Anu Vijh, Anna Neill, Talia Schaffer, and Pam Thurschwell for being friends.

  • Family Acknowledgments:

    • Love and encouragement from Jane and Amy Roberts.
    • Ashutosh Kapila (brother) for his questions.
    • Daughter, Shivani, for curiosity and excitement about the book.
    • Mother, Usha Kapila, for her stories, memories, love, and support.

  • Content Overview: The book delves into personal, cultural, and public dimensions of partition memory.

  • Chapter 1: Introduction: “Learning to Remember: The Indian Partition of 1947”

    • Kapila reflects on family jokes about her mother’s nostalgic accounts of pre-partition life in Gujranwala.
    • The laughter masked the pain hidden beneath the nostalgia; learning about her father's suffering only after his death revealed the encrustation of decades of pain from violence and knowledge of the horrors humans could inflict on each other.

  • Postmemory of Partition: Exploring practices of partition memory, focusing on the ‘hinge generation’ (those too young to experience it directly but grew up in its shadow).

    • Marianne Hirsch defines postmemory as the experience of those growing up dominated by narratives preceding their birth, shaped by traumatic events they can neither understand nor recreate. This haunts their psyches even when they know very little about them.
    • Driven by an ethical imperative to understand partition's legacy; examining scholarly histories, oral histories, and feminist studies.

  • Partition as Founding Trauma: Priya Kumar frames partition as the subcontinent's