‘Broken Threads’: A thoughtful memoir on how a colonial past has framed a family’s present
Mishal Husain’s family found themselves displaced by the Partition, their lives irrevocably upended by arbitrary borders drawn by departing British officials.
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“Begging him to exercise patience, Azad said that once the deed was done there would be no going back, and creating Pakistan in the current atmosphere could lead to yet more bloodshed.
‘On this one question I shall give you complete assurance,’ Mountbatten told him. ‘Once partition is accepted in principle, I shall issue orders to see that there are no communal disturbances anywhere in the country. If there should be the slightest agitation, I shall adopt measures to nip the trouble in the bud.’”
Mishal Husain is best known for her incisive interviewing style on the BBC – but in her deeply personal memoir Broken Threads: My Family from Empire to Independence, Husain exposes a far more intimate story, weaving the history of her family with the broader tapestry of British imperialism in the Indian subcontinent.
Husain’s narrative is not just a recounting of her family’s past, but also an exploration of how the threads of history, often frayed and broken, frame the present. The book is structured around the lives of her ancestors, tracing their journey from the heart of the British Empire to the uncertain, tumultuous times of Indian independence. Through this lens, Husain examines the impact of colonialism, migration, and the partition of...
