Match List I with List II:
| List I | List II | ||
| (A) | Urvashi Butalia | (I) | Kitne Pakistan |
| (B) | Saadat Hasan Manto | (II) | The Other Side of Silence |
| (C) | Bhisham Sahni | (III) | Siyah Hashiye |
| (D) | Kamaleshwar | (IV) | Tamas |
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → (A)-(II), (B)-(III), (C)-(IV), (D)-(I)
(A) Urvashi Butalia — this matches (II) The Other Side of Silence. In her book The Other Side of Silence, Urvashi Butalia narrates the incident in the village of Thoa Khalsa, Rawalpindi district, during Partition.
(B) Saadat Hasan Manto — this matches (III) Siyah Hashiye. The Urdu writer Manto wrote Siyah Hashiye (Black Margins), a collection of very short sketches on the violence of Partition.
(C) Bhisham Sahni — this matches (IV) Tamas. Bhisham Sahni’s Hindi novel Tamas is set among the communal riots on the eve of Partition.
(D) Kamaleshwar — this matches (I) Kitne Pakistan. Kamaleshwar’s Hindi novel Kitne Pakistan reflects on the divisions that Partition left behind.
Note 1: This question is taken from the chapter ‘Understanding Partition’ which was there in the pre-rationalised NCERT and has been deleted from subsequent editions of NCERT, including the NCERT book (2026-27).
Note 2: The chapter names only Urvashi Butalia’s book. The works in (B), (C) and (D), Siyah Hashiye, Tamas and Kitne Pakistan, and their writers are not in NCERT; they are explained here for the benefit of the students.
NCERT (Pre-rationalised): “5.2 Preserving ‘honour’ … At times, therefore, when the men feared that ‘their’ women – wives, daughters, sisters – would be violated by the ‘enemy’, they killed the women themselves. Urvashi Butalia in her book, The Other Side of Silence, narrates one such gruesome incident in the village of Thoa Khalsa, Rawalpindi district. During Partition, in this Sikh village, ninety women are said to have ‘voluntarily’ jumped into a well rather than fall into…” |