Betelgeuse

Review

In trying to cram whatever time left prior to enlistment to reading books that I'll hardly have time for in the next two years. I recently had the pleasure of reading "INDIA", written by Sanjeev Bhaskar.

Sanjeev is also known as host of the tongue-in-cheek Bitish talk show "The Kumars". Just a little teaser on how outrageously funny he is, you can catch him and the family having an interview with Michael Parkinson. Who by the way, hosts another very popular TV talk show as well, but that perhaps is for another day.

The Kumars with Michael Parkinson
(Part 1 )
(Part 2 )


Unlike the title not everything in the book is about him and his travels around India. While, he did travel to the India and felt the richness of its economic centers, tasted the produce of its bread basket and seen the products of its industrial landscape. What i found most interesting was his sojourn to find the hometown of his parents which was in Pakistan.

The Partition of India displaced about 12 million people, whom at the proclamation of independence of the two states of India and Pakistan had to move themselves from what has been their homes for generations to unclaimed residences and squatters across a line drawned up by an "unbiased" Briton, The Radcliffe line.

The only difference between the peoples of the two sides of that crude line was religion. In other words the creation of a Muslim Pakistan and Hindu India.

One can only imagine the displacement of almost 12.5% of the known population of the two states at that time. The horrors being mobbed and attacked by your neighbours of countless decades just because of your religion is to me entirely unfathomable. Nor is the hundreds upon hundreds of new refugees seeking shelter in places where sanitation and infrastructure was already at its seams.

Many left not being entirely sure if the move was for temporal safety or a permanent displacement. Many moved in with a Goldilocks mentality not knowing or caring if the real owner was going to return. Many sought shelter in slums that are shockingly still there today.

The personal toil and stories that each one of them faced from disease to incredulously long travel by way of buses, trains or even on foot to their new homes, has left an indelible mark on my thoughts about the Indian subcontinent.

The book has given me an unseen picture of the internal tensions that lies within the contemporary history of the subcontinent. It also adds to the rich layers that already surrounds my opinion of this incredible land.

posted by Sidestepper: Daniel @ 2:28 AM