Midnight’s Furies deals with the complicated
issue of India’s partition. The book explores the reasons of partition and
roles of leaders like Nehru, Gandhi, Sardar Patel, Jinnah, and Lord Mountbatten
etc. in partition related issues. The book starts with riots in Bengal and
moves ahead to riots in Bihar and then with the brutal and furious riot stories
of Punjab. While covering partition related riot incidents the book also covers
important issues amalgamation of major independent dominions like Kashmir,
Junagrh, Hyderabad with India.
The book banks upon narratives of
eye-witnesses, personal notes of government officials and political leaders,
published reports of 1940s to dive deeper into the issues of partition. Nisid
Hajari concludes the book in an epilogue that narrates how partition has
created a deadly legacy between the two countries which is dangerous for both
the countries as well as for the entire world.
Midnight’s Furies is an easy read
owing to simple narrative used by Hajari. Some parts of narratives makes you
realise the extent of atrocities of riots while some other parts appear to be
dwelling with unwarranted details that doesn’t add much to the overall context,
some of them appear to be repetitive.
A reasonably good book if you
want to understand the reasons of partition and the riots that shook South Asia
during India’s independence. However, the book assumes that the legacy of animosity
between India and Pakistan started only because of the partition and avoids any
detailing of religious differences in pre-Jinnah India, which the reader needs
to keep in mind.
