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The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India | 
 enlarge | Author: Urvashi Butalia
Publisher: Duke University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $23.95
Buy Used: $4.00
You Save: $19.95 (83%)
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Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 420012
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 328
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.9
ISBN: 0822324946
Dewey Decimal Number: 954.504
EAN: 9780822324942
ASIN: 0822324946
Publication Date: 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
The partition of India into two countries, India and Pakistan, caused one of the most massive human convulsions in history. Within the space of two months in 1947 more than twelve million people were displaced. A million died. More than seventy-five thousand women were abducted and raped. Countless children disappeared. Homes, villages, communities, families, and relationships were destroyed. Yet, more than half a century later, little is known of the human dimensions of this event. In The Other Side of Silence , Urvashi Butalia fills this gap by placing people?their individual experiences, their private pain?at the center of this epochal event.
Through interviews conducted over a ten-year period and an examination of diaries, letters, memoirs, and parliamentary documents, Butalia asks how people on the margins of history?children, women, ordinary people, the lower castes, the untouchables?have been affected by this upheaval. To understand how and why certain events become shrouded in silence, she traces facets of her own poignant and partition-scarred family history before investigating the stories of other people and their experiences of the effects of this violent disruption. Those whom she interviews reveal that, at least in private, the voices of partition have not been stilled and the bitterness remains. Throughout, Butalia reflects on difficult questions: what did community, caste, and gender have to do with the violence that accompanied partition? What was partition meant to achieve and what did it actually achieve? How, through unspeakable horrors, did the survivors go on? Believing that only by remembering and telling their stories can those affected begin the process of healing and forgetting, Butalia presents a sensitive and moving account of her quest to hear the painful truth behind the silence.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
 the only book of its kind September 17, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
a lot of the criticism regarding repetition is fair, yes. But it misses the point. Ms. Butalia has done something that really no other author has: record first-person accounts of the partition violence, from a population that is rapidly dwindling due to age. It is regrettable that more of such work has not been done. Of course she has her own agenda-- she is angry, and especially towards the violence visited on women-- but at no point does she make an attempt to HIDE this bias. You've got to be blind not to know that there is a personal pain and anger driving all this, and what is the matter with that. Stop criticizing her for tangential stuff and focus on the unique scholarship here.
 Cheap sensationalism July 9, 2006
1 out of 10 found this review helpful
This book reads like the sensationalist columns of a cheap eveninger. The authoress has listed a number of supposed to be eye witness accounts of mass murders and other brutalities and passed it off as an intellectual work of great merit. I totally agree with many other reviewers view that the book is extremely repetitive. The current trend in the world of arts and literature especially in south Asia appears to be one of playing to the galleries of the west. Shock their ( west ) sensibilities about what is happening in the east and good readership and fame and name is assured .The book lacks any kind of depth and analysis. The work is shoddy at its best.
One important criticism about this work stands out: The author repeatedly blasts the mass suicides of the desperate victims of these riots. Does she mean to say that the invading armies of the rioters are nobleness and kindness incarnate ?
The hapless victims in the face of imminent slavery in the hands of the satanical mobs have little choice. Though unfortunate , suicide appears to be the only alternative. This practice has stood the test of time. From the times when the marauding armies of Mahmud of Ghazni swept the plains of Punjab, the helpless civilian populace knows what to expect and what fate awaits them in the hands of their brutal conquerors.
And this author has the cheek to question and criticize these practices...The author has chosen to turn a blind eye to these pages in history books. Or is it mere ignorance ? With this the author has hurt the sentiments of the victims of these riots. She has desecrated the memories of these victims and insulted the history of partition. This book is of little literary value and lacks penetrative opinion.
This book ought to be avoided like the plague. It gives a skewed understanding of the history of partition.
Unfortunately there is no way to give 0 or negative stars or I would have certainly given negative stars.
Book in need of an editor! March 26, 2006
1 out of 8 found this review helpful
I ordered this book because I am extremely interested in the
untold stories of the Partition of India even though the
reviews told me not to. I wished I had heeded the advice. The book is incredibly repetitive--to the point of being unreadable. I learned very little. Not worth the time to read or money to purchase.
The other side of silence... May 5, 2004
3 out of 11 found this review helpful
I have read this book, Mr. Moon's "Divide and Quit", Mr. Khosla's work, "Stern Reckoning" amongst others on the subject of the Partition. Ms. Butalia's work is so saturated with her personal opinions and idealogy, that it almost ceases to be a work on history than the airing of one's thoughts and mindset. Almost a diatribe, if I may. I will agree with what john_galt_who has written. I think he has hit the nail on the head. I did not consider this book worth either the money or the time.
A waste of your time and money February 23, 2004
2 out of 10 found this review helpful
The amount of matter which the author has repeated again and again if you minus all that repeated matter, the book would hardly be of about a 100 pages .. Don't even borrow to read it ..
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