Partition in Bangla Little Magazines: Trajectories of Politics and Culture

Abstract

The partition of India in 1947 that transgressed both the geographical and cultural boundaries left millions of people homeless and victims of communal violence. Like other media that presented the horror of partition, little magazines, too, responded to the post-partition socio-cultural upheaval. Despite being the “Other” to mainstream printing practices, little magazines became socially pungent and attentive critique of the socio-political milieu of the state. Bangla little magazines promoted a body of partition literature which was often side-lined by the mainstream magazines and academia. This article explores the trajectories of politics and culture in which these small presses conceptualized “partition” both as a historical event and literary representation that revived the cultural amnesia to reproduce an alternative storehouse of counter narratives. Moreover, focusing on the paratexts, it decodes the esthetic paradigms of these “advance guard” magazines to understand their representational politics. In short, this article relocates “partition” within the network of Bangla little magazines and its alternative printing cultures.