A Divided Legacy is perhaps the first book to analyze Partition novels in three major languages of the Indian sub-continent: English, Bengali and Urdu. In addition, Punjabi novels available in English translation have also been included. The book is thus an important addition to the numerous writings that have appeared in recent years on an event that not only created two nation states but also affected the psyche of the people who had been thus divided. Part of the collective memory of the sub-continent, the Partition generates diverse responses from the generation that witnessed it and the children who inherited their legacy. A Divided Legacy examines both the detailed narratives that have been written on the Partition as well as novels that, either written in the late forties or situated around 1947, choose to be disturbingly silent.

Contents:

1. Massacres and Madness / 2. The Fiery Plain: The Partition in Selected Urdu Novels / 3. Divided Hearts / 4. Public Politics and Private Lives / 5. A New Dawn: Voices from East Pakistan / 6. The Struggle Continues: Bengali Novels of Class Consciousness / 7. Hindu and/ against Muslims / 8. The Fires of Partition in Sharf Mukaddam and Anita Desai / 9. Caliban's Children: Salman Rushdie and Shashi Tharoor / 10. Beginning Again: Bapsi Sidhwa and Mahmud Sipra / 11. Betrayal in Bengal: In the Shadows of Fireflies / 12. Nostalgic Shadows: The Partition in Sunil Gangopadhyay, Amitav Ghosh, and Taslima Nasreen