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| Torn from
the Roots : a Partition memoir |
| Stories about the
atrocities perpetrated upon women and the manifold
tortures they lived through are gradually finding
an escape route in memoirs and criticism about
the Partition. This book is a step forward in
this direction. Other than the heart-rending
stories of rescue and rehabilitation, Patel's
accounts raise a deeper philosophical issue
of the use of women's bodies as signs of
male triumphalism enacted through the
violation and pollution of women. Uma
Randeria's fine translation of Kamla
Patel's Mool Sotan Ukhdelan
from Gujarati is indeed a tribute to Mridula Sarabhai and
Kamla Patel whose courage in the recovery of
abducted women in the aftermath of the
Partition is exemplary.
|
| —The
Tribune,June 2006 |
| In Patel's
account, sexual love becomes an unlikely power against
the formidable force of nationalism and a
breath-taking battle ensues. Ultimately,
love takes a beating to nationalist forces,
but not before demonstrating the fragility
and fallibility of the notion of nationalism. |
| —
Telegraph,
14 July, 2006 |
| In fact,
the unique value of this memoir derives
from the fact that the author is no
intellectual, no ideologue, she has no axe to
grind, no point to prove…What is significant
here is the vulnerability to experience, the
ability to remain open to the infinite
surprise of living in a manner that mere
intellectuals, armoured in critiques of
naïve empiricism, should envy, but probably
won't. It is a curiously moving spectacle-
like learning. |
| —The
Book Review,
, May 2006 |
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