ABSTRACT

In 2005 Rev. Michael Roden, the vicar at Church of England church of St Mary’s in Hitchin (a small town about 30 miles north of London) was invited to India to give a series of sermons to Indian Church of England congregations. He was struck during his visit by the scars in Indian society that he thought were the remnants of Partition’s aftermath. His visit set him thinking about the ways in which Partition has shaped British as well as Indian and Pakistani society, and about how little people in the UK know about the calamitous results of British policy at the time of decolonization. In particular, he wondered about why it was the case that Partition had never been taught in schools in the UK, and why children were coming out of school with no understanding of the forces which had created a multi-cultural society in the UK over the course of the twentieth century. Reverend Roden contacted the University of Cambridge’s Centre of South Asian Studies and set in train a series of events that would lead to Partition being included in the curriculum of all Church of England schools in England and Wales. This process was to engage politicians, academics, playwrights, television companies and members of the general public. It would lead to more than teaching in the classroom – a swathe of television documentaries, for example, were broadcast around he 70^th anniversary of Partition in 2017, providing information about a part of the shared UK/South Asian past which has been largely neglected in Britain. Alongside this process, the Centre of South Asian Studies also prepared an exhibition of materials from its own archive collections which ran from August 2017 and drew in thousands of visitors. This paper will examine the ways in which the process of presenting Partition to the people of the UK was fashioned and followed, and the nature of the output which resulted from it, looking at the ways in which academe can interact with public opinion and public knowledge in meaningful and positive ways.

摘要

2005 年，希钦（伦敦以北约 30 英里的一个小镇）的英格兰教会圣玛丽教堂的牧师迈克尔罗登牧师应邀前往印度，向印度英格兰教会的会众讲道。在他访问期间，他对印度社会的伤痕感到震惊，他认为这些伤痕是分区的后果。他的访问让他思考了分区如何塑造了英国以及印度和巴基斯坦社会，以及英国人对非殖民化时期英国政策的灾难性结果知之甚少。他特别想知道为什么英国的学校从来没有教过分区，以及为什么孩子们在不了解 20 世纪英国创造多元文化社会的力量的情况下离开学校。罗登牧师联系了剑桥大学的南亚研究中心，并安排了一系列活动，将分区纳入英格兰和威尔士所有英格兰教会学校的课程中。这个过程是为了让政治家、学者、剧作家、电视公司和公众参与进来。这将带来的不仅仅是课堂教学——例如，在他 70 岁左右播出的一系列电视纪录片 罗登牧师联系了剑桥大学的南亚研究中心，并安排了一系列活动，将分区纳入英格兰和威尔士所有英格兰教会学校的课程中。这个过程是为了让政治家、学者、剧作家、电视公司和公众参与进来。这将带来的不仅仅是课堂教学——例如，在他 70 岁左右播出的一系列电视纪录片 罗登牧师联系了剑桥大学的南亚研究中心，并安排了一系列活动，将分区纳入英格兰和威尔士所有英格兰教会学校的课程中。这个过程是为了让政治家、学者、剧作家、电视公司和公众参与进来。这将带来的不仅仅是课堂教学——例如，在他 70 岁左右播出的一系列电视纪录片^个分区的2017年周年之际，提供有关英国共享/南亚过去已在英国基本上被忽视的部分信息。除了这个过程，南亚研究中心还准备了一个来自其自 2017 年 8 月的档案馆藏的材料展览，吸引了数千名参观者。本文将研究向英国人民展示 Partition 的过程是如何形成和遵循的，以及由此产生的输出的性质，研究学术界与公众舆论和公众知识互动的方式以有意义和积极的方式。