Who was the author of the book "The Other Side of Silence"?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → Urvashi Butalia
Urvashi Butalia, in her book The Other Side of Silence, narrates the incident of Thoa Khalsa, where ninety women are said to have jumped into a well during Partition.
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: A same/similar question was asked in CUET (UG) in the papers below.
| 2026 | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 |
| – | – | – | 08-06 S3* 09-06 S3* 11-06 S3* | 21-08 S1 |
* A similar question.
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…” |