Sudha Murty: Want children to know Partition was wrong, should never be repeated

During the ongoing Jaipur Literature Festival 2026 Sudha Murty said the story of Indias past particularly Partition is essential for children to understand adding that she consciously addresses the sensitive topic in her latest book The Magic of the Lost Earrings to help young readers realise it was a mistake that must never be repeatedMurty who drew a packed audience cutting across age groups said the impulse to explore this painful chapter of history in her new novel was rooted in a desire to explain it to her own granddaughter Anoushka Sunak on whom the books central character Nooni is basedIf you dont know history you wont understand your future When I look at the Partition I always feel that I should tell children this happened What happened was wrong and should not be repeated I felt very sorry for the people who emigrated from what is today called Pakistan and BangladeshJust because a person who knew nothing about India its culture or its languages took a pencil and drew a line and said that from that moment onwards this land no longer belonged to them and had become a foreign land How heartbreaking that is said the philanthropist Rajya Sabha MP and authorDrawing from personal experience Murty referred to the family history of her soninlaw former British prime minister Rishi Sunak whose family was uprooted twice first during Partition and later in AfricaThe 75yearold noted that Sunaks grandparents were originally from regions that are now in Pakistan and were forced to leave everything behind during Partition After rebuilding their lives in Nairobi they were uprooted again and eventually migrated to London when Sunaks father was ten years oldThey lost their homes businesses and savings rebuilt their lives in Africa and were uprooted again before finally settling in London Murty said pointing out that losing ones home repeatedly is a hardship few truly comprehendThis she added is what she wanted her granddaughter to understand that how much effort and sacrifice lie behind the stability people enjoy todayI wanted to tell her that land and freedom are not easily earned Our ancestors worked very hard losing their homes more than once and still rebuilt their lives with resilience she explainedReflecting on the Partition Murty described the trauma of people becoming refugees in their own land overnightShe expressed particular concern for the Sindhi community which she said suffered an irreversible cultural lossAt least in Punjab after the division Punjabis were able to find another land called Punjab where their language was spoken Same is the case for Bengal But for Sindhis the loss was far deeper They not only lost their land they did not get any land of their ownThey lost their land their language and their culture Over generations the next generation switched to Hindi and within three generations Sindhi became one of the forgotten languages she saidThough she has no personal experience of migration and has lived in Karnataka all her life Murty said the consequences of Partitions trauma struck her deeply during her visit to Pakistan nearly two decades ago one at the Taxila Museum and another when she accompanied a friend to her prePartition homeMurty recalled being charged a higher entry fee at a museum because she was a foreignerIt hurt me deeply that I shared the same history food and traditions yet became a foreigner simply because a border was drawn she saidAnother moment that stayed with her was visiting a friends ancestral home in Lahore where personal memories from a mango tree to footprints preserved in old cement were still intactSeeing her grief made me realise how one wrong decision can affect generations of children Murty saidHer latest novel third in her bestselling Magic Series begins with Nooni planning a vacation with her grandparents and on the first leg of the journey finds a pair of earrings that accidentally landed in her luggageAnd soon what starts as a search for the rightful owner of the earrings brings forth the sensitive issues of Indias Partition immigration and moreMurty has authored 50 books over 300 titles including the translations into 23 Indian languagesThe fiveday literary festival is hosting more than 350 celebrated authors and scholars including Booker Prize winner Banu Mushtaq chess legend Viswanathan Anand British actor and author Stephen Fry Sahitya Akademi Award winner Anuradha Roy veteran film critic Bhawana Somaaya and authors Manu Joseph Ruchir Joshi and KR MeeraThe festival will conclude on January 19