- School of Humanities
De Montfort University
Clephan Building
The Gateway
Leicester, LE1 9BH
Pippa Virdee
De Montfort University, History, Faculty Member
- Colonial Punjab, History of Colonial India, South Asian Diasporas, History of Pakistan, Post-colonial History, Colonialism, and 33 moreSouth Asia, History and Memory, Women's History, Refugee Studies, Refugees, Pakistan, British Empire, Diasporas, History of Punjab, Colonialism and Imperialism, South Asian History, Punjab Studies, History of India, South Asian Studies, British Imperial and Colonial History (1600 - ), Sikh Studies, Imperialism, Historiography, South Asia (History), Pakistan Studies, Social History, Cultural History, Religion and Violence, Partition of India, Collective Memory, Refugees and Forced Migration Studies, History, Sikh diaspora, Islam and Sufism in South Asia, Tourism and Aviation, Gender Studies, Women's Studies, and Genderedit
- My area of academic interest is in British colonial history, the history of the Punjab, especially the Partition and ... moreMy area of academic interest is in British colonial history, the history of the Punjab, especially the Partition and its legacies, the construction of identity in colonial and post-colonial India and Pakistan. Being based in the UK, I also maintain an interest in exploring the history of these communities in the UK Diaspora. My current research is more interested in exploring these histories through women's experiences.edit
What is Pakistan? The name refers to a seventy-year-old post-colonial product of the bloodiest partition of territory and population that accompanied the end of British empire in South Asia. But the region of the Indus Valley has a... more
What is Pakistan? The name refers to a seventy-year-old post-colonial product of the bloodiest partition of territory and population that accompanied the end of British empire in South Asia. But the region of the Indus Valley has a four-thousand-year-old history, and was the site of one of the earliest and greatest riverine civilisations in the world.
This Very Short Introduction looks at Pakistan as one of the two nation-states of the Indian sub-continent that emerged in 1947. Pippa Virdee reaches into the ancient past to demonstrate the influence of trajectories of human settlement and civilisation on Pakistan’s contemporary political arena, and shows how the longer continuities between the land and its peoples are as important as the short-term changes in the political landscape.
This Very Short Introduction looks at Pakistan as one of the two nation-states of the Indian sub-continent that emerged in 1947. Pippa Virdee reaches into the ancient past to demonstrate the influence of trajectories of human settlement and civilisation on Pakistan’s contemporary political arena, and shows how the longer continuities between the land and its peoples are as important as the short-term changes in the political landscape.
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This book revisits the partition of the Punjab, its attendant violence and, as a consequence, the divided and dislocated Punjabi lives. Navigating nostalgia and trauma, dreams and laments, identity(s) and homeland(s), it explores the... more
This book revisits the partition of the Punjab, its attendant violence and, as a consequence, the divided and dislocated Punjabi lives. Navigating nostalgia and trauma, dreams and laments, identity(s) and homeland(s), it explores the partition of the very idea of Punjabiyat.
It was Punjab (along with Bengal) that was divided to create the new nations of India and Pakistan and that inherited a communalised and fractured self. In subsequent years, religious and linguistic sub-divisions followed – arguably, no other region of the sub-continent has had its linguistic and ethnic history submerged within respective national and religious identity(s) and none paid the price of partition like the pluralistic, pre-partition Punjab.
This book is about the dissonance, distortion and dilution which details the past of the region. It describes ‘people’s history’ through diverse oral narratives, literary traditions and popular accounts. In terms of space, it documents the experience of partition in the two prosperous localities of Ludhiana and Lyallpur (now Faisalabad), with a focus on migration; and in the Muslim princely state of Malerkotla, with a focus on its escape from the violence of 1947. In terms of groups, it especially attends to women and their experiences, beyond the symbolic prism of ‘honour’. Critically examining existing accounts, discussing the differential impact of partition, and partaking in the ever democratising discourse on it, this book attempts to illustrate the lack of closure associated with 1947.
It was Punjab (along with Bengal) that was divided to create the new nations of India and Pakistan and that inherited a communalised and fractured self. In subsequent years, religious and linguistic sub-divisions followed – arguably, no other region of the sub-continent has had its linguistic and ethnic history submerged within respective national and religious identity(s) and none paid the price of partition like the pluralistic, pre-partition Punjab.
This book is about the dissonance, distortion and dilution which details the past of the region. It describes ‘people’s history’ through diverse oral narratives, literary traditions and popular accounts. In terms of space, it documents the experience of partition in the two prosperous localities of Ludhiana and Lyallpur (now Faisalabad), with a focus on migration; and in the Muslim princely state of Malerkotla, with a focus on its escape from the violence of 1947. In terms of groups, it especially attends to women and their experiences, beyond the symbolic prism of ‘honour’. Critically examining existing accounts, discussing the differential impact of partition, and partaking in the ever democratising discourse on it, this book attempts to illustrate the lack of closure associated with 1947.
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This volume examines the relationship between imperial collapse, the emergence of successor nationalism, the exclusion of ethnic groups with the wrong credentials, and the refugee experience. It brings together a coherent range of essays,... more
This volume examines the relationship between imperial collapse, the emergence of successor nationalism, the exclusion of ethnic groups with the wrong credentials, and the refugee experience. It brings together a coherent range of essays, written by established authorities and emerging scholars, which offer a highly original and comparative way of examining the refugee experience on a global scale. The book is structured into three distinct sections. The first of these contains three overview pieces introducing the key themes in the volume. The second focuses specifically upon the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires at the end of the First World War, with individual essays on specific case studies. The third examines 'The Consequences and Legacy of British Imperial Collapse', with a particular focus upon the experiences of South Asians immediately after the partition of India and the specific case of Uganda.
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Coming to Coventry reveals the hidden history of the South Asian migrants who arrived in the city from the 1940s to the 1960s. It is a fascinating story of individuals who uprooted themselves to improve their lives and those of their... more
Coming to Coventry reveals the hidden history of the South Asian migrants who arrived in the city from the 1940s to the 1960s. It is a fascinating story of individuals who uprooted themselves to improve their lives and those of their families. The pioneers who arrived in Coventry had little concept of what Britain was like, yet they gradually laid the foundations for an established South Asian community.
The book features personal accounts from many of the early migrants, and a wealth of photographs giving an intimate glimpse of their lives. Through an exploration of work, family, and social activities, it charts the challenges and successes as they settled into their new home.
The book features personal accounts from many of the early migrants, and a wealth of photographs giving an intimate glimpse of their lives. Through an exploration of work, family, and social activities, it charts the challenges and successes as they settled into their new home.
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In the summer of 1947, as preparations commenced for the partition of the province of Punjab in British India, the Lahore-based Panjab University became the site of a fierce debate concerning its future. Waged within, by its officials, as... more
In the summer of 1947, as preparations commenced for the partition of the province of Punjab in British India, the Lahore-based Panjab University became the site of a fierce debate concerning its future. Waged within, by its officials, as well as between the members of the Punjab Partition Committee, this debate saw the Hindus and Sikhs among them desiring a ‘physical’ partitioning of the university, while the Muslims wanted it to stay intact at Lahore, which was expected to fall in Pakistan. With no agreement forthcoming, and after references to the respective ‘national’ governments, the university remained where it was, while any ideas of academic cooperation between the two sides collapsed, as a new ‘East Panjab University’ was established at Simla, India. The debate over this new university vis-à-vis its old counterpart, further carved out the university as a space of not just education, but one of exhibiting new-found sovereignty and creating a staff/student-citizenry, in those partitioned times.
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Since the seventieth anniversary of India’s Partition in 2017, a wider public caravan of commemoration led by interested individuals and groups has joined academic studies of the subject. These are more popular among the South Asian... more
Since the seventieth anniversary of India’s Partition in 2017, a wider public caravan of commemoration led by interested individuals and groups has joined academic studies of the subject. These are more popular among the South Asian Diaspora in the Global North (UK and the US), where they are a part of the “intellectual decolonization” agenda. The digital turn in oral history has been a catalyst for this development, in which documentation, production, and consumption all occur in digital formats. This essay asks some questions of this growing field, starting with an interrogation of its location in the West, away from the partitioned ground and its sociopolitical realities in the East. The essay then retraces the twentieth-century genealogy of oral history and its interaction with Partition studies prior to the current trends, thereby locating the place of Partition in memory studies. Above all, this essay attempts to question the power dynamics around the ways digital projects excerpt, decontextualize, and depoliticize oral testimonies by reducing them to sound bites for wider social and community engagement, which audiences passively consume.
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This article weaves together several unique circumstances that inadvertently created spaces for women to emerge away from the traditional roles of womanhood ascribed to them in Pakistan. It begins by tracing the emergence of the Pakistan... more
This article weaves together several unique circumstances that inadvertently created spaces for women to emerge away from the traditional roles of womanhood ascribed to them in Pakistan. It begins by tracing the emergence of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) as a national carrier that provided an essential glue to the two wings of Pakistan. Operating in the backdrop of nascent nationhood, the airline opens an opportunity for the new working women in Pakistan. Based on first-hand accounts provided by former female employees, and supplementing it with official documents, newspaper reports and the advertising used for marketing at the time, it seeks to provide an illuminating insight into the early history of women in Pakistan. While the use of women as markers of modernity and propaganda is not new, here within the context of Cold War and American cultural diplomacy, the ‘modernist’ vision of the Ayub-era in Pakistan (1958-69), and its accompanying jet-age provide a unique lens through which to explore the changing role of women. The article showcases a different approach to understanding the so-called ‘golden age’ of Pakistani history: a neglected area of the international history on Pakistan, which is far too often one-dimensional.
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Khushwant Singh’s novel Train to Pakistan was published in 1956, almost ten years after the partition of India/ creation of Pakistan in 1947. Its publication inaugurated what has been called 'South Asian Partition Fiction in English' (Roy... more
Khushwant Singh’s novel Train to Pakistan was published in 1956, almost ten years after the partition of India/ creation of Pakistan in 1947. Its publication inaugurated what has been called 'South Asian Partition Fiction in English' (Roy 2010). It remains, to date, one of the most poignant and realistic fictional accounts depicting the welter of partition and saw a sensitive screen adaptation in 1998 by Pamela Rooks. It captures one of the most horrific symbols of partition—that of the burning, charred and lifeless trains that moved migrants and evacuated refugees from one side of the border to the other. The trains that previously served to bring people and goods from disparate worlds closer together were overnight turned into targets of mob attacks and transporters of mass corpses. They thus became an emblem, a much-photographed representation (Kapoor 2013) of the wider violence and ethnic cleansing that was taking place in Panjab (Ahmed 2002: 9-28); one of the two regions divided to make way for the two new nation-states.
Selecting some key individuals in the village, relevant to and representative of our efforts to excavate the myths and memories associated with partition, and situating their sensibilities vis-à-vis the sentiments exhibited in the novel, we conducted interviews to collect and compare experiential accounts. An attempt in the Wildean spirit to attest that 'life imitates art far more than art imitates life', the article, located in the Faqiranwalla of 2017, looks back to the Mano Majra of 1947. In doing so, not only does it reflect on this intervening time-span and what it has done to those remembrances, but, also brings to fore the well-remarked realisation that, in this case too, 'the past is another country' (Judt 1992). Like in the novel then and life today, the connecting link in this article too, between Faqiranwalla and Mano Majra, is the train, as both share the overweening presence of the railways in the village, through which its life is/was governed.
Selecting some key individuals in the village, relevant to and representative of our efforts to excavate the myths and memories associated with partition, and situating their sensibilities vis-à-vis the sentiments exhibited in the novel, we conducted interviews to collect and compare experiential accounts. An attempt in the Wildean spirit to attest that 'life imitates art far more than art imitates life', the article, located in the Faqiranwalla of 2017, looks back to the Mano Majra of 1947. In doing so, not only does it reflect on this intervening time-span and what it has done to those remembrances, but, also brings to fore the well-remarked realisation that, in this case too, 'the past is another country' (Judt 1992). Like in the novel then and life today, the connecting link in this article too, between Faqiranwalla and Mano Majra, is the train, as both share the overweening presence of the railways in the village, through which its life is/was governed.
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This article explores key developments in the way Partition has been represented in the history of India and Pakistan. It more specifically examines how alternative silent voices have been become more visible in the past fifteen years in... more
This article explores key developments in the way Partition has been represented in the history of India and Pakistan. It more specifically examines how alternative silent voices have been become more visible in the past fifteen years in the historiography of Partition. This shift has been made possible with the use of oral testimonies to document accounts of ordinary people’s experiences of this event in the history of India and Pakistan. The article then goes on to reflect on the author’s experiences of working in South Asia and the use of oral history as a radical and empowering tool in understanding women’s history in Pakistan.
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In the history of Partition women have been long overlooked, often forced to hide in the shadows of their male counterparts. There are now a number of key works that have focused on the role of women, but these have largely focused on... more
In the history of Partition women have been long overlooked, often forced to hide in the shadows of their male counterparts. There are now a number of key works that have focused on the role of women, but these have largely focused on women’s experiences in India. Sixty years on and we know little about Muslim women and their experiences of migration and resettlement in West Punjab, Pakistan. In an attempt to trace the experiences of the Muslim women, this article will explore their history by examining official documents, newspaper accounts and women’s own testimonies. It attempts to understand how this silent history is documented from these various sources.
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Following the decision to partition the Punjab, the region was swept by the most horrific communal carnage that India had ever seen. For many it was the sheer scope and magnitude of the events that has left such a haunting memory. The... more
Following the decision to partition the Punjab, the region was swept by the most horrific communal carnage that India had ever seen. For many it was the sheer scope and magnitude of the events that has left such a haunting memory. The crimes were gruesome and, while they had elements of spontaneity, there were clear signs of organisation too. In addition to ‘outsider’ violence, some male family members killed their wives and daughters to save them from the ‘dishonour’ of rape. Others committed suicide to save themselves from either being slaughtered or being converted to the other’s faith. This was violence against humanity of unspeakable magnitude; it was barbaric and sadistic and it was being perpetrated against former friends and neighbours
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This chapter examines the dreams, memories and legacies of partitioning the Punjab. It explores the expectations people had and the results of brutal and violent partition, which divided the people of Punjab.
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This chapter contextualizes the background to the violence and migration that accompanied independence and Britain’s departure from its ‘jewel in the crown’. It then discusses remembrance of these events as reflected in the main... more
This chapter contextualizes the background to the violence and migration that accompanied independence and Britain’s departure from its ‘jewel in the crown’. It then discusses remembrance of these events as reflected in the main controversies among scholars surrounding the nature of the violence, the number of casualties and more recently to what extent partition-related violence should be considered genocide and/or a form of ethnic cleansing. The chapter then considers the ways in which literature and film have represented partition and debates over a peace museum and a memorial. The chapter finally considers the ways in which oral testimonies have been increasingly used to delve into the human cost of partition and consider the legacy of partition in conserving a re-imagined Punjabi community in the sub-continent and among the diaspora.
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This chapter explores the legacies of colonial rule in the Punjab and its consequences for those who were uprooted due to Partition. Individual accounts highlight the longevity of the resettlement process, rebuilding homes and lives,... more
This chapter explores the legacies of colonial rule in the Punjab and its consequences for those who were uprooted due to Partition. Individual accounts highlight the longevity of the resettlement process, rebuilding homes and lives, which at times went on for ten to fifteen years. Some refugees moved a number of times before finally settling down, this restlessness and loss of their homeland is evident through oral narratives that capture those traumatic years of being perpetually displaced. Virdee then focuses on individuals who chose to leave and resettle in Britain.
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To date very little work has been done on the experiences of urban refugee labor as a result of the 1947 partition of the Punjab. While the wider remit of this study compares experiences of Ludhiana and Lyallpur, two provincial cities... more
To date very little work has been done on the experiences of urban refugee labor as a result of the 1947 partition of the Punjab. While the wider remit of this study compares experiences of Ludhiana and Lyallpur, two provincial cities that have grown at phenomenal rates since 1947, the focus of this paper is on the experiences of Lyallpur. The paper will examine the ways in which Lyallpur adapted following the total out-migration of all non-Muslims and the influx of Muslims from East Punjab, especially Ludhiana. The local economy in Lyallpur changed dramatically in the post-1947 period and this theme will be examined with particular reference to the pioneering textile laborers in Lyallpur. The experience gained previously in Ludhiana, an important textile centre, seemed to play a vital role in the subsequent settlement and prosperity of these migrants. The textile workers of Ludhiana found new opportunities in Lyallpur, which sought to expand this sector in the post-1947 period.
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A personal and reflective essay which discusses women, history writing, academia and Punjab/Sikh History. I welcome any comments or thoughts.
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Sharing my piece from a commemorative edition on Gandhi in the National Herald. It revisits my doctoral research on the former Muslim princely state of Malerkotla and recalls attempts at communal harmony by that state, sandwiched between... more
Sharing my piece from a commemorative edition on Gandhi in the National Herald. It revisits my doctoral research on the former Muslim princely state of Malerkotla and recalls attempts at communal harmony by that state, sandwiched between its famous Sikh princely brethren & British Indian apparatus, but on this occasion, more sensible than both.
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Punjabi translation of 'Remembering Partition: Women, Oral Histories and the Partition of 1947' Oral History, Vol 41, No 2 Autumn 2013. Translated by Tohid Ahmad Chattha, Department of History and Pakistan Studies, GC university... more
Punjabi translation of 'Remembering Partition: Women, Oral Histories and the Partition of 1947' Oral History, Vol 41, No 2 Autumn 2013.
Translated by Tohid Ahmad Chattha, Department of History and Pakistan Studies, GC university Faisalabad.
The paper is available via 4-parts: http://www.wichaar.com/news/122/
Translated by Tohid Ahmad Chattha, Department of History and Pakistan Studies, GC university Faisalabad.
The paper is available via 4-parts: http://www.wichaar.com/news/122/
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In the wake of a literary festival in Punjab earlier this year, Dr Pippa Virdee of De Montfort University explores the region’s rich history, language and culture, highlighting their importance in fostering greater understanding and... more
In the wake of a literary festival in Punjab earlier this year, Dr Pippa Virdee of De Montfort University explores the region’s rich history, language and culture, highlighting their importance in fostering greater understanding and tolerance.
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Women, advertising and tourism in Pakistan — the early years of Pakistan International Airlines.
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Deconstructing the visual representation of a ‘golden-era’ of Pakistan that is seen as more liberal, modern and tolerant of others
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A Roundtable discussion on my book, offered by the following: Introduction by Abraham Akhter Murad Crossborder Microhistories by Uttara Shahani Temporal transgressions by Emily Keightley Multiple Disassociations by Manav Kapur Localized... more
A Roundtable discussion on my book, offered by the following:
Introduction by Abraham Akhter Murad
Crossborder Microhistories by Uttara Shahani
Temporal transgressions by Emily Keightley
Multiple Disassociations by Manav Kapur
Localized Histories by Ilyas Chattha
Response by Pippa Virdee
Introduction by Abraham Akhter Murad
Crossborder Microhistories by Uttara Shahani
Temporal transgressions by Emily Keightley
Multiple Disassociations by Manav Kapur
Localized Histories by Ilyas Chattha
Response by Pippa Virdee
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This is a part 2 of a podcast and freely available to listen. The conversation and discussion in the podcast is largely drawn from my book "From the Ashes of 1947: Reimagining Punjab" (Cambridge University Press, 2018)
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This is a part 1 of a podcast and freely available to listen. The conversation and discussion in the podcast is largely drawn from my book "From the Ashes of 1947: Reimagining Punjab" (Cambridge University Press, 2018)