The Centre for Studies in Violence, Memory, and Trauma

Department of English

Invites you to a talk

“Property, Violence and Displacement: Partition in ”

by

Nandita Bhavnani

Time: Wednesday, 10 February, 2016 at 3.00 pm.

Venue: Room 56, Faculty of Arts, Delhi University.

This paper seeks to dwell on two aspects of Partition that are yet to receive the full extent of scholarly attention that they deserve: the relatively low level of violence in Sindh at a time when several parts of northern undivided were immersed in brutal violence; and the role of landed property as a major motivator for communal violence. Finally, however, there was an outbreak of anti-Hindu violence in Hyderabad in mid-December 1947, followed by a more significant pogrom in in early January 1948. It is widely acknowledged that these bouts of violence were perpetrated mostly by destitute Muhajirs, in the hope of terrorizing Sindhi Hindus into emigrating, thus leaving their properties behind as future housing for Muhajirs. The paper will dilate upon how landed property acted as a motivator for Partition violence, not only in Sindh, but also in other parts of the subcontinent. In many regions, this tussle over property turned into a three-way contest between the local majority, incoming refugees, and the local minority. Local governments also played their own role by forcibly usurping minority property for their own vested interests. Landed property - including Hindu evacuee property - subsequently became a major cause of the conflict that soon sprang up between Sindhi Muslims and Muhajirs, a conflict that has only grown over the decades and has led to marked violence in Sindh.

Nandita Bhavnani is an Independent Scholar based in and currently Visiting Fellow, Department of English, University of Delhi. She is the author of The Making of Exile: Sindhi Hindus and the (2014), Remembering Mohan T. Advani: The Man and His Legacy (2012), and I Will & I Can: The Story of Jai Hind College (2011), apart from numerous articles on Sindhi history and culture. She is the winner of the Katha South Asian Translation Award in 2000 for the best English translation of a Sindhi story. She is a qualified CA who worked at Price Waterhouse, Siemens, and Merrill Lynch before turning to academia.

CSVMT Webpage: http://englishdu.ac.in/index.php/centers/center-for-studies-vocational/ Email: [email protected]