Providing an apt answer to the question what now, the collection is the first of its kind in the field, consisting of twenty-eight stories composed by forty-two artists after an open call was released in 2011. The graphic anthology, This Side, That Side, challenges this indifference, and makes an attempt to “restory” the event for contemporary readers. The present, however, has been mostly indifferent to the experience of the Partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, and the subsequent partition of Pakistan and Bangladesh in 1971, events pushed aside in current discussions. Later, others such as Salman Rushdie chose a broader canvas in Midnight’s Children filled with magic realism to comment on the post-partition time. Writers like Saadat Hasan Manto painted a disturbing picture of humanity (or lack thereof) with short stories like “Khol Do” and “Toba Tek Singh”. The literature written around the time of Partition was most likely a way to respond or to understand the chaos and violence of the time thus relying heavily on memory and lived experience. In Borders and Boundaries, feminist historiographers Ritu Menon and Kamla Bhasin briefly remark on the fact that Partition Literature made up for the lack of social history at a time when the political reasoning behind the catastrophe seemed a prime concern. Partition Literature has always had a somewhat fraught yet fascinating relationship with history. This Side, That Side: Restorying Partition, Graphic narratives from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh.
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