“We all know how unreliable memory can be, how transient reminiscences are, and how inaccessible the past will always remain. Experiences can never be duplicated or revived…by those who took no part in the struggle.”
An oral historian and writer, Aanchal Malhotra delves into the latent themes and incidents of the 1947 Partition of the Subcontinent, bringing a newer and more innovative perspective to it. Hailing from New Delhi, India, what makes Malhotra distinctive is her novel and pioneering technique of relating to the historical occurrence through material memory, one that takes into account the tangible objects as preservers of memory of the 1947 Partition.
Her historical archive Remnants of Partition: 21 Objects from a Continent Divided unlocks the colossal migration through secrets long buried in objects guarded by the people who then experienced one of the largest displacements in the world. From a string of pearls to a young woman’s poetic voice, the Remnants is a remarkable work of unearthing stories from family heirlooms that have survived the chaos and feral turmoil of the Partition.
Since its initial publication, the Remnants has been shortlisted for various awards including the Shakti Bhatt First Book Award, Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize, and the Oxford Book Cover Prize with many more. In 2019, it was shortlisted for the British Academy’s Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize for Global Cultural Understanding for presenting an account of an event that continues to shape the lives of many South Asians to date.
