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In the Language of Remembering: The Inheritance of Partition, by Aanchal Malhotra

shivendra.singh@harpercollins.co.in | 11 April 2022

HarperCollins

presents

IN THE LANGUAGE of REMEMBERING
The Inheritance of Partition

by Aanchal Malhotra

The much-anticipated sequel to bestselling author Aanchal Malhotra’s remarkable debut book, Remnants of a Separation


HB | Non-fiction | 756 pp | Rs 799

Publishing in the 75th year of India’s Independence and Partition, the book serves as a reminder of the price this land once paid for not guarding against communal strife – and what could happen once again should we ever choose division over inclusion.

Brings together conversations recorded over many years with generations of Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and their respective diaspora.

Advance praise from noted historians and authors like Manu Pillai, Urvashi Butalia, Ritu Menon, Farah Bashir, T.C.A. Raghavan, Yasmin Khan; Foreword by Anam Zakaria.

Releasing 10 May 2022 | Available Wherever Books Are Sold

 

Author Aanchal Malhotra says, “In the last decade of working as an oral historian of the 1947 Partition, I have realised that the impact of Partition does not always end with those who witnessed it. Through interviews with descendant generations, I noticed that some – like myself – felt shades of their ancestors’ trauma. They wanted to speak about a tragedy they had not witnessed, but which impacted them sometimes in silent ways. While there are multiple archives that record eyewitness memory, there are hardly any that attribute the same seriousness to descendant testimonies or even to the passage of memory from one generation to another. But it is important for this kind of intergenerational, cross-border, oral history archive to grow as well – to understand how inherited memory may shape and re-shape present worlds. In the Language of Remembering consists of interviews recorded over several years with Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis, and serves as a record for how the 1947 Partition continues to impact generations of South Asians born after it.”


Siddhesh Inamdar, Executive Editor, HarperCollins India, says,
“One can argue that the mark of an accomplished contemporary historian is how effectively she can draw links between the past and the present. Aanchal Malhotra fares wonderfully on that test with her new book, In the Language of Remembering. Its standout quality is that in it the subcontinent’s history gains a profound resonance: 1947 links forward to 2022, the partitions of the past metamorphose into the fault lines of the present. The book is as much about India’s future as it is about the lessons drawn from the moment of the nation’s origin. At its core are Aanchal’s compassion and empathy as she exhumes silent, fading stories to build a monumental, human history of Partition. This is a book that we at HarperCollins are proud to be publishing as it marks 75 years of Partition and remembers its horrors in a way that treats its survivors – across the borders of country, class and religion – with respect.”


Udayan Mitra, Executive Publisher,
HarperCollins India, says, “For the past five years, ever since the ground-breaking Remnants of a Separation was published, we’ve been waiting for more – because the remnants of Partition, of course, are far from being erased from the present that we inhabit. In the Language of Remembering takes the conversation forward – exploring how, through successive generations, we have carried the memories and consequences of Partition with us, and continue to do so; how, through the stories that we remember and recount, the legacy of Partition remains with us and defines us. Aanchal Malhotra’s new book is not a history of the past; it is a living document for the present. We at HarperCollins India are immensely proud to bring this exceptional work of non-fiction to readers everywhere.”


ABOUT THE BOOK

Oral historian Aanchal Malhotra’s first book, Remnants of a Separation, was published in 2017 to mark the seventieth anniversary of India’s Partition. It told a human history of the monumental event by exhuming the stories lying latent in ordinary objects that survivors had carried with them across the newly made border. It was acclaimed for the freshness of its approach to a decades-old, much-written-about subject. But more significantly, it inspired conversations within families: between the generation that had witnessed Partition and those who had only inherited its memories.

In the Language of Remembering, as a natural progression, reveals how Partition is not yet an event of the past and its legacy is threaded into the daily lives of subsequent generations. Bringing together conversations recorded over many years with generations of Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and their respective diaspora, it looks at how Partition memory is preserved and bequeathed, its consequences disseminated and manifested within family, community and nation. With the oldest interviewees in their nineties and the youngest just teenagers, the voices in this living archive intimately and sincerely answer questions such as: Is Partition relevant? Should we still talk about it? Does it define our relationships? Does it build our characteristics or augment our fears, without us even realizing?

As the subcontinent marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of Partition, In the Language of Remembering will most importantly serve as a reminder of the price this land once paid for not guarding against communal strife – and what could happen once again should we ever choose division over inclusion.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Aanchal Malhotra is an oral historian and writer from New Delhi. She is the co-founder of the Museum of Material Memory and writes extensively on the 1947 Partition and its related topics. Her first book, published in South Asia as Remnants of a Separation and internationally as Remnants of Partition, was shortlisted for the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar, British Academy’s Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize for Global Cultural Understanding, Hindu Lit for Life Non-fiction Prize, Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize and the Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize. In the Language of Remembering is her second book.


PRAISE FOR THE BOOK

‘Aanchal has [done] a great service … The nuanced stories and experiences of Partition survivors offer an essential lens into our past and present. It is a lens that, for me, provides the only hope to move beyond distorted, jingoistic and censored state histories.’
– FROM THE FOREWORD BY ANAM ZAKARIA

‘Compassionate, caring and insightful, Aanchal Malhotra’s deeply personal enquiry traces a complex and multi-layered history to reflect on and come to terms with its many legacies … It offers that precious thing: hope.’ – URVASHI BUTALIA

‘It is at the intersection of history and memory – national, familial, individual – that we get an insight into how trauma unfolds over time. In this unique intergenerational account, Aanchal has given us a sensitive and precious archive.’ – RITU MENON

‘A work of immense courage and grace. Aanchal delicately redirects our gaze and imagination to generations which continue to be affected from the horrors of displacement that haunt the subcontinent.’
– FARAH BASHIR

‘The 1947 and 1971 partitions and divisions in South Asia acquire in Aanchal Malhotra’s sensitive prose an immediacy and a pressing relevance, two and even three generations after the actual events. A worthy sequel to Remnants of a Separation.– T.C.A. RAGHAVAN

‘A moving and emotional meditation on South Asia’s history and the way that Partition still resonates in the present.’ – YASMIN KHAN

SELECT PRAISE FOR REMNANTS OF A SEPARATION

‘In this book, the Partition is not just a memory but also a museum of loss.’ – Scroll

‘A seminal piece of work indicative of an un-learning of the clichéd rhetoric on the genocide that has intellectually imprisoned generations of Indians and Pakistanis alike.’
The Tribune

‘A different approach from the vast and well-mined documentary archive available on the subject.’ – The Hindu

‘One could call Malhotra’s writing evocative, or immersive, or enchanting, but none of that would fully encompass just how sensory the experience of reading these stories is … these memories imprint you with the dawning realization of just what it means to be born of this subcontinent.’ – The Daily Star, Bangladesh

‘Aanchal Malhotra’s work shines a light onto a shadowy world and in so doing her book becomes a passport to another landscape, where tragedy, loss, memory and grief are slowly replaced with wonder.’ – Asian Affairs

‘One of the most compelling books I have read in a long time. It is a searing account of the power of memory to shape and reshape worlds … This is oral history at its best.’ – Family and Community History Journal

‘By writing and delving into the multiple layers of memory, Malhotra has prised open the door to a new field of history writing, itself unconstrained by the limiting influence of sources that generations of historians have grown accustomed to studying.’ – Lekh Review

Remnants of a Separation was included in Hindustan Times’s list of ‘India @ 70: Five books that capture India’s freedom struggle, independence and partition’.


Remnants of a Separation
featured on the longlists and shortlists of a number of literary awards, including:

Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar

Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize

Hindu Lit for Life Non-fiction Prize

Tata Literature Live! First Book Award

Publishing Next Printed Book of the Year

Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize

British Academy’s Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize for Global Cultural Understanding

Winner of:

Oxford Bookstore Book Cover Prize

 

*

For reviews, excerpts, interviews and more information, please contact Shivendra Singh at
shivendra.singh@harpercollins.co.in

In the Language of Remembering
About the Book - In the Language of Remembering

Oral historian Aanchal Malhotra's first book, Remnants of a Separation, was published in 2017 to mark the seventieth anniversary of India's Partition. It told a human history of the monumental event by exhuming the stories lying latent in ordinary objects…

About the Author - Aanchal Malhotra

Aanchal Malhotra is a writer and oral historian from New Delhi. She is the co-founder of the Museum of Material Memory, and the author of two critically acclaimed and award-winning books, Remnants of a Separation and In the Language of…

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