Hiraeth: Partition stories from 1947 - Shivani Salil - ★★★★.½

AUTHOR: Shivani Salil

GENRE: Historical Short Story Collection.

PUBLICATION DATE: August 19, 2019

RATING: 4.5 stars.

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;

Being born and brought up in Bombay, with my parents originally coming from South India, I've never had access to any insider narrative about families who lost almost everything during the 1947 partition. Whatever I knew was based on some newspaper articles or movies. In my adulthood, I picked up "Train to Pakistan" by Khushwant Singh in order to gain a better perspective into the first-hand experience. But that book somehow didn't click with me. Today, I'm glad. I can finally say that I've read a great book on this topic.

Where knowledge is free;

Hiraeth is an anthology of 24 touching, heart-rending stories on the partition and its impact. Each story is inspired by true events, and that worsens the experience in a way, because you can't console yourself by saying, "Thank God this is only fiction." I initially assumed that 24 stories on the same topic means that they would overlap in ideas. But no, each story has a distinct setup and you find yourself drowning in the pathos of those dreary days.

"Hiraeth" is a Welsh word for a nostalgic kind of homesickness, thus it is a title that depicts this book aptly. Even the cover pic of the book is one of the best artistic renditions I have seen, not just for a book cover but also for the topic of the partition. It depicts the content of the book perfectly. Oh, and to connect it even more to the line above, the book is free on Kindle Unlimited India.

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;

Shivani Salil doesn't depict any kind of partiality in her storytelling. This isn't a book about torture against the Hindus, or torture against the Muslims, or torture against the Sikhs. This is a book about how your life can be ripped apart by situations not even in your control and you can be left without any anchor of stability. This is also a book about how circumstances can turn humans into demons, irrespective of their religious beliefs. As the author, Shivani effectively conveys the angst of every sufferer without any bias for or against the religious background of the perpetrators and the victims. Rather than using verbosity to convey her point, she uses simple and stark words that keep the stress where it is needed: on the story. The regular smattering of Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi words enhances the beauty and authenticity of the narrative.

I just wish there would have been a few stories focussing on those who decided to stay back in their hometown in spite of not belonging to the majority religion of the area. What happened to them? What were their struggles? It would have been nice to hear their perspectives too.

Where words come out from the depth of truth;

I felt that reading 24 similarly-themed stories at one go would be doing injustice to each story. So I limited myself to three stories a day and relished this book in tiny doses. This decision proved to be great as it helped me focus on each story without any boredom or emotional overload seeping in. It also gave me time to recover from the brutalities mentioned in some of the stories. We can't even imagine how harrowing those days would have been for the citizens affected by the idiotic politically-motivated decision.

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;

Hiraeth becomes the latest book to justify my newfound interest in contemporary Indian literature. If you want a tiny glimpse into the sad events that surrounded our country's political independence, pick up Hiraeth without any hesitation. It is a book that deserves to be read, because it contains stories that deserves to be told and it teaches us a lesson that deserves to be imparted: That it is high time we look beyond religion and caste! This is a book that goes beyond any rating and into the "Essential reading" category.

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;

Saadat Hasan Manto had once written, "Hindustan had become free. Pakistan had become independent soon after its inception but man was still slave in both these countries: slave of prejudice... slave of religious fanaticism... slave of barbarity and inhumanity." It's really sad how one ad-hoc line drawn on a map has created an endless stream of hatred. It would bode well for all to remember that a little more than seven decades ago, we belonged to the same country. Just to satisfy the egos of the leaders involved, an endless and needless rift has been created.

Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action —

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

Let's not allow personal demarcators such as nationality or race or religion ever come in the way of our identity. We are humans first, and that's the only tag that matters. We must learn to strengthen our unity rather than focus on what divides us.

A much-recommended anthology for all Indians (and Pakistanis - our brethren from the days gone by.)

(The highlighted words are from a poem titled "Where the mind is without fear" by Rabindranath Tagore, the first and only Nobel Laureate for Literature from India and one of our most talented writers. This work of his is one of my absolute favourites. While reading the anthology, the words of this poem were constantly hovering in my head, and as a result, my review spun itself around his beautiful and hopeful thoughts.)