Historiography of Partition of India A Critical Appraisal

Abstract

Historiography of partition of India has been a subject of wide range of interpretations, approaches and positions. Expressions of all those historiographical interpretations have their tilts according to the circumstances. That range could be classified under many thematic shifts and perspectives. This research paper attempts to study the various interpretations by different historians and writers. By doing this it bring into fore the shifts, every new position brought out. Those shifts would enable the thematic scheme of this article to indulge in the intellectual exercise to comprehend the partition of India in broader level. It would further be studied that how came the current exercise in partition historiography comprehend the partition in far more plausible manner by ascertaining the particularities of that transformation, which still haunts the present situation in India and Pakistan in relevant aspects. Thus an effort is offered to critique to the trends while elaborating them and then to evaluate the focused historiography of the scattered, subaltern and marginal aspects of partition. In that way this research tried to bring all the trends from the onset of partition to the current exercises in thematic integrity. Intended outcome is to bring out the new avenues stemming from the fault-lines of the current literature on partition.