Presented by History for Peace in collaboration with Karwaan - The Heritage Exploration Initiative.

The year 1947 is as evocative of independence from British colonial rule as it is of the partition of the subcontinent that birthed the nations of India and Pakistan. The '47 Partition has been extensively researched and has increasingly gained a prominent position in the school history textbook, with the class 12 NCERT textbook even featuring oral history narratives towards a nuanced understanding of the event. Yet, what do we actually know of the intricate negotiations and narratives that comprise the event of Partition? Who, for instance were Fazl-i-Hussain and Khizar Hayat Khan Tiwana? How far back can the '47 Partition be traced? What transpired within the Radcliffe Commission meetings? What function did the figure of 'the Punjabi soldier' fulfil in British colonial India and in the aftermath of independence?

In this session, Professor Rajmohan Gandhi takes pre-submitted questions from social science school educators based on his talk delivered on the Karwaan platform (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvLNRWtpJ04) and his book, Punjab: A History from Aurangzeb to Mountbatten (Aleph Book Company, 2015).