I am a second year PhD student in the Department of English at the George Washington University, Washington D. C. My areas of interest are South Asian migrations, environmental humanities and cultures of the diaspora.
I am working on a book which will span the latter half of the 20th century, a history of the subcontinent, making ordinary citizens my primary sources. The aim is to go beyond a simplistic reading of history as a cause and consequence of events seen through a singular lens. The book will try to make people the primary source of understanding the modern landscape of India as a nation. It will study how a particular period in history, taught unilaterally to us in schools and colleges, was experienced by different citizens of this newly born nation. It is going to be a people’s history, showing how different individuals from different geographical areas, speaking different languages and having lived myriad lives, remember events that have shaped this nation and themselves.
How do people who had no role to play in major decisions involving life altering events like the Partition of 1947, the Indo-Sino War, the Emergency years, the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, the Mandal Commission years, the Kargil War, etc remember these events? Is it fair for us to study history as merely a compilation of dates and treaties without delving into the lives of ordinary citizens who were affected by them?
In order to do this, and especially while documenting Bombay, which has been a major colonial city and a commercial hub, it is important to record the narratives of the vibrant and bustling Parsi community which has contributed immensely to what Bombay is today. I would be happy to hear from readers from the community with good and vivid memories of Bombay in the 1950s and 1960s and India in the 1950s and 1960s.
ANANYA BHARDWAJ
Washington DC, USA
ananyabhardwaj@email.gwu.edu