BROKEN THREADS HB

@⁨Ridhika Purva⁩ reviewed the book "Broken Threads" by Mishal Husain, a British journalist of Pakistani origin. As with the book, there were 2 broad parts to our discussion. *1 - Personal stories*: Ridhika mentioned how her own grandparents' experiences of the Partition piqued her interest in hearing personal stories from the other side as well. In this story, the author mentions how a gift of a part of an old sari led her to uncover the story of her family going back 2 generations, which spans their lives in undivided India, their experiences through Partition & moving to Pakistan & Britain. In particular, it was fascinating to hear about the lives of her grandparents who lived interesting lives across different parts of undivided India. One set of grandparents Shahid & Tahira were from Aligarh; Shahid trained in UK's Sandhurst academy, and became the personal secretary of Field Marshal Sir Claude Auchinleck. The others were Mary the nurse (born to an Irish father and Indian mother, and raised in Anganapale, AP) and Mumtaz the Punjabi doctor. Even in short, their stories were really interesting to listen to. *2 - Partition and political themes*: However, the book soon turned to political themes with Mishal stating (among other things) that the Partition was not done in an impartial manner, with Mountbatten favouring India, and also suggesting that Jinnah had agreed to retain an undivided state if he was made the leader. This section is where most of our group's discussion happened. It was also interesting that the historical narrative that we're familiar with, stands in contrast to many of the claims here. Ma'am mentioned that our understanding of history also evolves, with interpretations of events often changing over time with newer evidence. We discussed how the seeds of the Partition had perhaps already been sown with the provincial elections of 1937 & 1946, as well as the distancing of the Muslim League from the Congress's main movements in the 1940s. We also discussed different books covering Partition stories, and how it was perhaps difficult to find one single account that is unbiased, but that a more complete picture can probably be pieced together by reading more of them. We also touched upon Pakistan's development arc (initial promise, then decline & authoritarianism), and discussed the factors that could explain why this trend repeats across some countries time and again. Great session & lively conversations, opened up a lot of new threads for us to discuss & review in upcoming sessions as well!