Science-fictionalizing the Partition of India to ‘re-narrate’ trauma

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this article, I suggest that the use of a science fiction short story, ‘A Visit to Partition World,’ by Tarun K. Saint in The Gollancz Book of South Asian Science Fiction(2019), to fictionalise the experience and after-effects of Partition in the formation of the nation, encourages readers to contemplate the after-life of Partition and re-evaluate its contemporary significance. The article discusses how the policies of the newly formed states, the course of historiography, and the silence around the event has perverted the transmission of memories resulting in violent after-effects, particularly in the form of inter-generational trauma. The short story compels us to re-evaluate the nature of nationalism with respect to a rapidly changing socio-cultural reality due to emerging technologies. Science fiction is used as a mode to address this interface and pitch alternative modes that demonstrate methods of critical engagement and commemoration of the event.