Memory, Nationalist Politics and People's Histories: With Anam Zakaria on Partition, 1971 and the Power of Dialogue

In this episode, Priyam is in conversation with Canada-based Pakistani Writer, Oral historian and Educator Anam Zakaria. Anam speaks about the personal yet deeply political nature of her work and her own positionality as is reflected in her books - 1971: A People’s History from Bangladesh, Pakistan and India, Between the Great Divide: A Journey into Pakistan-administered Kashmir and The Footprints of Partition: Narratives of Four Generations of Pakistanis and Indians. She takes the listener through how her research on Partition led her to study the 1971 Bangladesh War beyond its reductive and simplified general understanding as an Indo-Pak bilateral issue, talking about the sensitivities of writing such a book and also delineating much of what unfolded during her time researching in Bangladesh. She also talks about her complex relationship with India in the years before and after her first visit to the country and her involvement with Student Exchange Programmes and other Cross-Border initiatives.