In 2016, I published a book, Revisiting India’s Partition: New Essays in Memory, Culture, and Politics (co-edited with Amritjit Singh and Rahul K. Gairola). That book examined what Vazila Zamindar referred to as the “Long Partition.” Debali Mookerjea-Leonard, the author of Literature, Gender, and the Trauma of Partition: The Paradox of Independence (2017) and The Indian Partition in Literature and Films: History, Politics, Aesthetics (2015), was a contributor to that volume. When India and Pakistan were celebrating 75 years of independence in 2022, Debali and I decided to co-edit a special issue on Partition and its continued impact on the subcontinent. We felt that while celebrations marked 75 years of Independence (and the 50 years of the creation of Bangladesh in 2021), there were urgent questions to be addressed about the impact of Partition on these nations and the region in our present time.
Our call for papers generated a robust response which demonstrated the scope and volume of work ongoing on Partition across the globe. As we note in the Introduction, recent developments in South Asian politics with the emergence of authoritarian regimes indicate a crisis in democracy in the region. The eleven essays in this double issue focused on the topic “Partition at 75+” offer new and exciting insights into the significance of Partition in South Asia today. I am grateful to Debali Mookerjea-Leonard for collaborating with me on this special issue. It has been a privilege to work with an academic who is a prominent Partition scholar with rigorous editing skills, a generous spirit, and deep knowledge.
With this new volume, South Asian Review, also brings on board Amit R. Baishya as a new Associate Editor who will serve as Book Reviews Editor. Amit is Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Programs at the University of Oklahoma. Among his publications are Contemporary Literature from Northeast India: Deathworlds, Terror and Survival (Routledge, 2018). He is also the coeditor of three collections: Northeast India: A Place of Relations (coeditor Yasmin Saikia, Cambridge University Press, 2017), Postcolonial Animalities (coeditor Suvadip Sinha, Routledge, 2019). He recently co-edited a special issue on “Northeast Indian Anglophone Literature” with Rakhee Kalita Moral for this journal. We are excited to have him on board and invite scholars who have forthcoming books or who want to serve as book reviewers to reach out to him at [email protected]. We also thank Pallavi Rastogi who served as Book Reviews editor for the last five years. During her tenure, she standardized our book review processes and edited each one we published with great care. She continues with us as Associate Editor.
As always, I thank my Editorial team at South Asian Review—Robin Field, John Hawley, Maryse Jayasuriya, Pallavi Rastogi, Amit Baishya. Their many hours of volunteer service to this journal ensures its success. Debali and I also thank our anonymous peer reviewers whose work on the essays included in this double issue was invaluable. Finally, a big thank you to the SALA Executive Committee and the Taylor & Francis production team for their support of our work.