1947, 1971: history, facts, and fictions

Abstract

ABSTRACT After 24 years of the partition, the new neighboring country, Bangladesh, was born in 1971 in the Eastern region of India. The division of India and the birth of Bangladesh are, apparently, two unconnected events standing at two different times. However, researchers have found the incidents deeply interlinked. Kabir described partition not as an “event” but as an “ongoing process” while Zamindar termed this catastrophic event “a long partition” as the making of Pakistan and India involves years of social, political, and bureaucratic efforts. One of the main queries of this study is to find how partition is portrayed in Bangladeshi fictions. Do the fictions recognize the Liberation War of Bangladesh as an extension of the partition? In search of answers, the study inspects 12 Bengali novels focusing on partition and the Liberation War. This study is guided by the concept of “long partition” and the “Trauma theory” while it also takes Kabir’s theoretical proposition “Post-amnesia” into account.