CINEMATIC REPRESENTATIONS OF PARTITION OF INDIA
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.20319/pijss.2017.33.492501Keywords:
Partition of India, Violence of Partition, Displacement, Communal, Gender Relations, Sexuality, FilmmakersAbstract
The partition of India in August 1947 marks a watershed in the modern Indian history. The creation of two nations, India and Pakistan, was not only a geographical division but also widened the chasm in the hearts of the people. The objective of the paper is to study the cinematic representations of the experiences associated with the partition of India. The cinematic portrayal of fear generated by the partition violence and the terror accompanying it will also be examined. Films dealing with partition have common themes of displacement of thousands of masses from their homelands, being called refugees in their own homeland and their struggle for survival in refugee colonies. They showcase the trauma of fear, violence, personal pain, loss and uprooting from native place. Also, how the cinematic space tries to recreate those horrors, bestial passions and disregard for humanity in the larger political arena will also be examined. At the same time, sexuality and gender relations where women’s bodies became site of conflict between two communities will also be discussed. Moreover, how the personal experiences of filmmakers during the times of partition shaped their cinematic depictions will also be enumerated. Films which remind us of that communal carnage called partition, for instance, Lahore (1949, Hindi), Chhinamula (1951, Bengali) Megha Dhaka Tara (1960, Bengali), Subarnrekha (1965, Bengali) Garm Hawa (1973, Hindi), Tamas (1987, Hindi) Bombay (1995, Hindi), 1947 Earth (1998, Hindi), Gadar: Ek Prem Katha (1998) Fiza (2002, Hindi), Pinjar (2003, Hindi) Dev (2003, Hindi), Partition (2007, English) and Midnight Children (2012, English) will be examined.
References
Banerjee, S. (Eds.) (1982). Ritwik Ghatak, Directorate of Film Festivals. Delhi: National Film Development Corporation Limited.
Basu, S. (2001). “Chhinnamool” in South Asian Cinema. ed. Lalit Mohan Joshi. London. Issue 5-6.
Butalia, U. (1998). The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India. Delhi: Penguin India.
Chandra, B. et al. (1990). India’s Struggle for Independence. New Delhi: Penguin Books.
Das Gupta, C. (2008). Seeing is Believing: Selected Writings on Cinema. New Delhi: Penguin Books.
Donnel, Eric O’. (2005). Women and Homeland in Ritwik Ghatak’s films; Constructing post-independence Bengali cultural identity. Retrieved from http://www.ejumpcut.Org/archieve/jc47/ 2005/ghatak/text.html
Film Miscellany, (1976). Pune: Film, and Television Institute of India.
Gope, S. B. (1985). “Bengali Cinema”, in T. M. Ramachandran, ed., 70 years of Indian Cinema, 1913-1983. Bombay Cinema India International.
Guha, R. (2007). India after Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy. New Delhi: Picador.
Hasan, M. (Eds.). (1993). India’s Partition Process Strategy and Mobilisation, New York: Oxford University Press, General Editor’s Preface.
Hood, J. (2000).The Essential Mystery: Major Filmmakers of Indian Art Cinema. New Delhi: Orient Longman.
Inder Singh, A. (1991). The Origins of the Partition of India 1936-1947. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Joshi, L.M. (Eds.). (2004). South Asian Cinema. London: Issue 5-6.
Kaul, S. (Eds.) (2001). The Partitions of Memory: The Afterlife of the Division of India. Delhi: Permanent Black.
Kaushiva, K. (2008). “Partitioned Memories: The Trauma of Partition in Ghatak’s Films” in Meenakshi Bharat and Nirmal Kumar (Eds.) Filming the Line of Control: The Indo-Pak relationship through the Cinematic Lens. New Delhi: Routledge.
Khosla, G.D. (1990). Stern Reckoning: A Survey of the Events Leading up to and following the Partition of India. New Delhi: OUP.
Menon, R., and Bhasin K. (1993). “Recovery, Rupture and Resistance: Indian State and abduction of Women during Partition”, EPW, Vol. XXVIII, NO.17, 24 April 1993. Kidwai, B.A., (1990). Azadi ki Chhaon Mein (Hindi edition translated from Urdu by Nur Nabi Abbasi), New Delhi.
Menon, R., and Bhasin, K. (1998). Borders and Boundaries: Women in India’s Partition,
Kali for Women. Delhi.
Moon, P. (1998). Divide and Quit: An Eye-witness Account of the Partition of India. New Delhi: OUP.
Page, D. (1982). Prelude to Partition: The Indian Muslims and the Imperial System of Control 1920-1932. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Pandey, G. (2003). Remembering Partition: Violence Nationalism and History in India. New Delhi: Cambridge University Press.
Raina, R. (1983). “The Context: A Social Cultural Anatomy”, in Aruna Vasudeva & Philippe Lenglet ed. Indian Cinema Superbazaar. Delhi: Vikas Publishing House Pvt. Ltd.
Rajyadhaksha, A. (1982). Ritwik Ghatak: A Return to the Epic. Bombay: Screen Unit.
Ray, M.S. (1995). Bengali Cinema: An Overview, in Maitra, P., ed. 100 years of India Cinema. Calcutta: Nandan.
Ray, S. (2001). Our Films, Their Films. New Delhi: Orient Blackswan Pvt Ltd.
Sarkar, S. (1983). Modern India 1885-1947. Madras: Macmillan India Ltd. South Asian Cinema Foundation, issue 5-6. London.
Talbot, I. and Singh, G. (2009). The Partition of India. New Delhi: Cambridge University Press.
The Hindu, (Feb 6, 2010). “Blast from the Past: Dharm Putra 1961.”
Vasudevan, R. (2010). The Melodramatic Public: Film Form and Spectatorship in Indian Cinema. Delhi: Permanent Black.
Wolpert, S. (2006). Shameful Flight: The Last Years of the British Empire in India, New York, OUP.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2017 AUTHORS
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
