Prompt- The 1947 Partition of British India was a horrific event. Historians differ on the causes but are agreed that the experience was devastating. Write a 5-6 double-spaced paper (1200-1500 words) developing any one of the following aspects of Partition: the political, social, cultural or economic. Through your chosen theme you may examine the causes, effects, or the actual process of Partition. But don’t try to do all three. Your paper should be analytical, focusing on a problem, rather than merely describing a chain of events. Sources and Readings: Your paper must show evidence of independent research apart from your assigned readings (you may certainly draw on assigned readings as well). A minimum of 3-4 scholarly sources (journal articles, books published by a university press or a major academic trade publisher like Routledge or Macmillan) should inform your writing. One of your sources must be a memoir, a novel, a short story, or a film about the 1947 Partition. See the list below for suggestions.
While fiction is not historical fact, creative fiction is nonetheless an important source for Partition studies. The people mentioned in the novels and films were not actual people but they represented a type of person through whom certain situations (displacement, division of families, leaving or staying), anxieties (violence, loss) and viewpoints (blame, support for or opposition to Partition) were discussed. Writers and filmmakers often used the creative mode to bear testimony and to explore the crisis of 1947 in South Asia. Note: Please use the Chicago Notes/Bibliography style of citation. The paper is not considered complete without an attached bibliography. Books and Stories Khushwant Singh, Train to Pakistan Saadat Hasan Manto, “Toba Tek Singh” (short story) Bapsi Sidhwa, Ice Candy Man Shauna Singh Baldwin, What the Body Remembers Amitav Ghosh, Shadow Lines Ikramullah, Regret Amrita Pritam, Pinjar Attia Hossain, Sunlight on a Broken Column Rahi Masoom Reza, A Village Divided Ismat Chugtai, Roots Mohinder Singh Sarna, Savage Harvest (short stories) Debjani Sengupta, ed., Mapmaking: Partition Stories from Two Bengals The above texts are just a sample. There are many more titles. Films [enable closed captions]. Films are available on Netflix, Amazon Prime and YouTube, enable closed-captioning when watching. These are sample titles: • 1947: Earth (English, director Deepa Mehta) • Meghe Dhaka Tara (Bengali, “The Cloud-Capped Stars”) (director Ritwick Ghatak) • Tamas (Hindi, 1980s TV series, available on YouTube – production values are very 1980s) • Kartar Singh (Punjabi, director Saifuddin Saif) • Lakhon Mein Aik (Urdu, 1967, director Raza Mir) • Garam Hawa (Hindi, director M. S. Sathyu) • Rajkahini (Bengali, director Srijit Mukherjee – a bit over-stylized but looks at Partition from the perspective of those who cannot belong to either side). checklist- • Formatting: double-spaced, margins no greater than 1. 25”, reasonable font size (12 point is best • Introduction: do you have a thesis statement? Your thesis statement is a brief summary of the argument that your paper develops in its body. Don’t begin with global statements that you can’t prove such as “Since the beginning of time, humans have been…”
• Analysis and evidence: as your paper develops its argument, have you used the strongest evidence to support your claims? Using a mix of secondary and primary sources means that you have read, evaluated the sources (Wikipedia is not an acceptable academic source), and presented what you consider is the best evidence in support of your argument. Generalizations such as “people” and “values” need to be broken down and made concrete. Which people? What values? Since at least some of your evidence involves chronology (it’s a history paper), be accurate when you do use dates. • Citations: Unless specified, please use footnotes or endnotes to cite sources. This also applies to when you paraphrase another author’s work. We do not use in-text citations (APA or MLA) for history papers. See the stylesheet for examples. The Chicago Style guide can be found in various places. The best-formatted one is at the Online Writing Lab at Purdue University: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/chicago_manual_17th_edition/c hicago_manual_of_style_17th_edition.html • Organization: is your argument well-organized? Sometimes a great thesis can be drowned in the clutter and confusion of a badly organized framework. Are the paragraphs well-structured? Does the paper flow well from one sub-theme to the next? Avoid excessive use of the first person such as “I feel” or “I think”. • Conclusion: Finish strong! Restate the thesis and explain why the paper’s contribution to the debate has been important. • Bibliography: No history paper is complete without one. A bibliography is not a works cited page.
