Amil and the After

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The Partition: 1947, Part 1

By Seemi Aziz, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ

A young girl holds a camera and smiles. Behind her is her father and his family to the left, and her mother and her family to the right. Yellow and orange flowers fills the space between them.Mass movements of large groups of people from one global region to another is not new, but there are certain instances that are etched in the memory of people. August of 1947 was a pivotal point in people’s lives who existed in that certain region and era, i.e., India. It was an impact that touched colonial global relations. Its history needs to be explored to understand the context and content of the group of books being explored in this blog. Continue reading →

WOW Recommends: Book of the Month

WOW Recommends: Amil and the After

Cover of Amil and the After. Two hands rise up from the bottom of the cover and the fingers overlap above the title. Above the hands is a dark city in shades of blue and a starry night sky.Amil and the After by Veera Hiranandani is a companion novel to her Newbery Honor book, The Night Diary. That first book told how the twelve-year-old, twins, Amil and Nisha with their father and grandmother, made a harrowing escape from their family home because the British partitioned India in 1947. That meant that since the family were Hindus, they had to leave what became Pakistan since it just for Muslims after the partition. These historical fiction novels about events that few American children are acquainted with will give young readers insights about how those past events influence what is happening in today’s world.

“That’s when India became free from British rule, partitioned into two countries, and Pakistan was born. Most Muslims went to Pakistan. Most Hindus, Sikhs, and other non-Muslims went to India, and everyone started fighting and killing one another. Many starved or became ill and died on the journey.” (p. 5 Amil and the After.) Continue reading →