Punjab Bloodied, Partitioned And Cleansed: Book Review: Nadeem Omar Tatar

A gud review yet the reviewer failed to challenge bogus One nation Theory which obviously gave birth to two nation theory..tit for tat anyway, read Nadeem umar

Punjab Bloodied, Partitioned And Cleansed:
Unravelling the 1947 Tragedy through Secret British Reports and First Persons Accounts
By Ishtiaq Ahmed
Book Review:  Nadeem Omar Tatar
Nadeem Omar Tarar is Director, National College of Arts (NCA) Rawalpindi Campus. He holds a PhD degree in Art History and Theory from the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.

However, contrary to the evidence marshalled in the form of interviews, the author continues to frame the oral testimonies of the victims and survivors of partition of Punjab into a nationalist and communalist context, by defining the violence of partition as “ethnic cleansing” or “genocide”. One feels the Political Scientist in the author has subdued the sociological imperative. The violence of the partition of Punjab in 1947 needs to be made analytically distinct from the wider literature on ethnic cleansing, as it feeds on to the communalist history writings from both countries. The violence of partition has to be read as part of politically motivated revenge and honour killings, and not community- led ethnic killings or genocide of religious groups on the wrong side of Manto’s proverbial border. 

One should remember that the killings took place in the backdrop of the chaos in which the two independent nations came into being. This chaos was basically created due to the hurried nature of the British withdrawal, which was announced soon after the victory of the Labour Party in the British general elections of July 1945, due to the realization that the British Empire, devastated by the war, could not afford to hold on to its over-extension . One can imagine the odds of one of the largest forced migrations in history of the world, with an estimated 17.9 million people leaving their homes in a span of six months, traveling in opposite directions on foot, carts and carriages, and under administrative transition and divided loyalties. All this was an ideal situation for a disaster and a communal problem of the first degree, which the Governor of Punjab rightly anticipated when the plans for partition of Punjab were first contemplated by the British. As a result, 

between 500,000 and 2 million people died due to mob violence and extremists on both sides, although exact numbers are still not known. for full article click http://www.j-saps.org/admin/upload/punjab_bloodied_%28book_review%29_-_nadeem_omar_tarar.pdf