Search results for ""Author Urvashi Butalia""

The Partition of British India into the nations of India and Pakistan in 1947 and the further redrawing of the borders in 1971 to create Bangladesh were major, wrenching events whose effects are still felt today in the everyday lives of people in all three nations in fundamental ways-yet these events have never been explored in all their aspects. This volume gathers essays from scholars in a variety of fields that explore substantial new ground in Partition research, looking into such understudied areas as art, literature, migration, and, crucially, notions of "foreignness" and "belonging," among many others. It will be required reading for any scholars of the recent history, politics, and culture of the subcontinent.

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The partition of India into two countries, India and Pakistan, caused one of the most massive human convulsions in history. Within the space of two months in 1947 more than twelve million people were displaced. A million died. More than seventy-five thousand women were abducted and raped. Countless children disappeared. Homes, villages, communities, families, and relationships were destroyed. Yet, more than half a century later, little is known of the human dimensions of this event. In The Other Side of Silence , Urvashi Butalia fills this gap by placing people—their individual experiences, their private pain—at the center of this epochal event.Through interviews conducted over a ten-year period and an examination of diaries, letters, memoirs, and parliamentary documents, Butalia asks how people on the margins of history—children, women, ordinary people, the lower castes, the untouchables—have been affected by this upheaval. To understand how and why certain events become shrouded in silence, she traces facets of her own poignant and partition-scarred family history before investigating the stories of other people and their experiences of the effects of this violent disruption. Those whom she interviews reveal that, at least in private, the voices of partition have not been stilled and the bitterness remains. Throughout, Butalia reflects on difficult questions: what did community, caste, and gender have to do with the violence that accompanied partition? What was partition meant to achieve and what did it actually achieve? How, through unspeakable horrors, did the survivors go on? Believing that only by remembering and telling their stories can those affected begin the process of healing and forgetting, Butalia presents a sensitive and moving account of her quest to hear the painful truth behind the silence.

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Breaching the Citadel, part of the Sexual Violence and Impunity in South Asia series, supported by the International Development Research Centre, Canada, puts India in focus, showcasing new and pathbreaking research on sexual violence and impunity. Bringing together both young and established scholars, the book explores medical protocols, the functioning of the law, the psychosocial making of impunity, histories of sexual violence in places like Kashmir, the media, and sectarian violence, among other timely topics. The essays Urvashi Butalia has collected here were developed through comparative research and a series of workshops, so each entry is peer-reviewed and on the cutting edge of the field. Breaching the Citadel breaks new ground as it uncovers and analyzes the link between sexual violence and the structures and institutions that enable perpetrators to act with impunity.

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For its 34th Curve commission (2021), the Barbican presents the first major London solo exhibition by Mumbai-based artist Shilpa Gupta, whose celebrated practice explores physical and ideological boundaries and how, as individuals, we come to feel a sense of isolation or belonging. Gupta presents and builds on her acclaimed project For, In Your Tongue, I Cannot Fit (2017–18), an experiential sound installation of 100 microphones suspended above 100 metal spikes, each piercing a page inscribed with a fragmented verse of poetry by a writer who has been imprisoned for their work, writings or beliefs. Spanning the eighth to the 21st centuries, the soundscape alternates between languages, each microphone uttering verses of poetry, echoed by its 99 counterparts. Giving a voice to those who have been silenced, Gupta’s haunting installation highlights the fragility of personal expression while raising urgent questions of censorship and resistance. Gupta also presents new drawings and sculptures that reflect on issues of confinement and the right to free expression. The book includes a loose-insert postcard featuring a poem in Urdu and English by the revolutionary Pakistani poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz.

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India is changing. And at the heart of this change are its women. The change is widespread and varied, individual and collective, reflecting the full spectrum of women's lives, whether in politics or in economics, in business, or within their daily domestic work. This book maps - in words and in marvelous color photographs - some of the changes that are both visible and invisible in India today. In "Women Changing India", six writers flesh out the stories captured by photographers Raghu Rai, Martine Franck, Olivia Arthur, Alex Webb, Alessandra Sanguinetti, and Patrick Zachmann from the world-renowned Magnum Photos. These beautiful and evocative photographs focus on the world of women working with the help of microloans, participating in grassroots governance, working behind the scenes in the Mumbai film industry, and moving into new jobs, often in male-dominated fields. Together, they are making contributions in varied fields and imagining a new future for themselves and other women. Featuring contributions from leading writers, "Women Changing India" offers a window into the lives of women living in South Asia today, bringing to public attention their complex realities and their aspirations for a better world.

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