Aanchal Malhotra

Aanchal Malhotra
Malhotra at a panel discussion at the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature 2024
Born1990 (age 35–36)
New Delhi, India
EducationOntario College of Art & Design; Concordia University
OccupationAuthor
Writing career
GenreIndian history
Notable works
  • The Book of Everlasting Things (2022)
  • In the Language of Remembering (2022)
  • Remnants of a Separation (2017)
  • Remnants of Partition (2019)
Websiteaanchalmalhotra.com

Aanchal Malhotra (born 1990) is an Indian historian, author, and artist, known for her work on the 1947 Partition of India. Her research and writings focus on the oral histories of individuals affected by the Partition.[1][2]

She is the author of the critically acclaimed books Remnants of a Separation and In the Language of Remembering.

Early life and education

Aanchal Malhotra was born in New Delhi, India, in 1990, where she continues to live and work. She received a BFA degree in traditional printmaking and art history from OCAD University in Toronto, where she won the University Medal and the Sir Edmund Walker Award for Graduate Studies. She completed a MFA in Studio Art from Concordia University, Montréal. She belongs to the family of Bahrisons Booksellers, founded by her paternal grandfather, Balraj Bahri, in 1953 in New Delhi.[3]

Career

Malhotra's debut book Remnants of a Separation: A History of the Partition through Material Memory was published by HarperCollins India in 2017, to mark the 70th anniversary of Indian independence. The project (under the same name) initially began as her MFA dissertation at Concordia University and included field research in India, Pakistan, and England.[4] It is a historical and anthropological attempt to revisit the Partition through personal and intimate objects that refugees carried with them across the border during their migration.[5][6][7] It was named a Hindustan Times "India @ 70" book[8] and shortlisted for the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar, Shakti Bhatt Prize First Book Award, Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize, and Hindu Lit for Life Non-Fiction Prize.

Aanchal Malhotra speaking at Emirates Airline Festival of Literature 2024.

Outside the Indian subcontinent, it was published under the title Remnants of Partition: 21 Objects from a Continent Divided by Hurst Publishers in 2019.[9] It was shortlisted by the British Academy for the 2019 Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize for Global Cultural Understanding.[10] In 2022, it won the United States Council for Museum Anthropology Book Prize, where the committee called it "a model for significant contributions to museum anthropology.”[11][12]

To mark the 75th anniversary of Partition in 2022, Malhotra published a sequel titled, In the Language of Remembering: The Inheritance of Partition, which focused on the contemporary relevance of Partition in the everyday lives of Indians, Pakistanis, and Bangladeshis.[13]

Her debut novel, The Book of Everlasting Things, was also published in 2022.[14]

In addition to her books, she has been involved in several oral history projects and is an advisor the Project Dastaan peace initiative. In 2017, she co-founded the Museum of Material Memory,[15] a crowdsourced digital repository tracing family history and social ethnography through heirlooms, collectibles, and objects of antiquity from the Indian subcontinent.[3]

Books

Non-fiction

  • Remnants of a Separation: A History of Partition through Material Memory (2017) / Remnants of Partition: 21 Objects from a Continent Divided (2019)[16]
  • In the Language of Remembering: The Inheritance of Partition (2022)[8]

Fiction

  • The Book of Everlasting Things (2022)

Anthologies

  • Looking Back: The 1947 Partition of India 70 Years On (Orient Black Swan, 2017)
  • Departures in Critical Qualitative Research (University of California Press, 2019)
  • India at 70: Multidisciplinary Approaches (Routledge, 2019)
  • Our Freedoms: Essays and Stories from India's Best Writers (Juggernaut, 2021)[17]
  • The Book of Dog (HarperCollins India, 2022)

Awards and honours

  • 2017: Hindustan Times “India @70” book for Remnants of A Separation[8]
  • 2018: Tata Literature Live! First Book Award longlist for Remnants of A Separation[18]
  • 2022: Council for Museum Anthropology Book Prize for Remnants of Partition[12]
  • 2022: Valley of Words Prize for Hindi Translation for Yaadon ke Bikhre Moti[19]
  • 2022: GQ "Top 10 Indian non-fiction books of 2022" for In the Language of Remembering[20]
  • 2024: Chambre de Commerce et d'Industrie Franco-Indienne Literary Prize for Vestiges d’une Séparation[21]

References

  1. ↑ Harrison, Stephen (26 March 2019). "The Notability Blues". Slate. ISSN 1091-2339. Retrieved 18 June 2026.
  2. ↑ Jindal, Shubhangi (23 March 2024). "5 female writers who celebrate womanhood and champion individuality through their works". Harper's Bazaar India. Retrieved 13 June 2024.
  3. 1 2 Sharma, Himini (23 July 2019). "The Precious Past". The Citizen.
  4. ↑ "The stories objects tell: What survivors of the Partition of India took with them". CBC. 15 November 2019.
  5. ↑ Sridhar, Lalitha (2 December 2017). "Tangible memories: Tales through objects from across the bloodied border". The Hindu.
  6. ↑ Jhurani, Aarti (18 August 2019). "Five heart-wrenching books that explore the partition of India". The National.
  7. ↑ Sanyal, Devapriya (October 2019). "Book review: Remnants of a separation". Contemporary South Asia. 27 (4): 564. doi:10.1080/09584935.2019.1689670.
  8. 1 2 3 "India @ 70: 5 books that capture India's freedom struggle, independence and partition". Hindustan Times. 14 August 2017. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
  9. ↑ Malhotra, Aanchal (28 October 2022). "Remnants of Partition: 21 Objects from a Continent Divided". Hindustan Times.
  10. ↑ "Indian author on British Academy's Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize shortlist". The Times of India. 12 September 2019. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 8 June 2024.
  11. ↑ McEnaney, Lillia (3 October 2022). "2022 Council for Museum Anthropology Awards". Council for Museum Anthropology. Retrieved 8 June 2024.
  12. 1 2 "Aanchal Malhotra's 'Remnants of Partition' wins US-based Council for Museum Anthropology Book Award". Scroll.in. 17 October 2022. Retrieved 8 June 2024.
  13. ↑ Jalil, Rakhshanda (10 June 2022). "Review of Aanchal Malhotra's In the Language of Remembering: The Inheritance of Partition: Conversations about memories". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 28 September 2022.
  14. ↑ "Book Review: The Book of Everlasting Things by Aanchal Malhotra". Publishers Weekly. 26 September 2022. Retrieved 28 September 2022.
  15. ↑ "The Museum". Museum of Material Memory. Retrieved 18 June 2026.
  16. ↑ "Remnants of Partition: 21 Objects from a Continent Divided". Publishers Weekly. 24 June 2019.
  17. ↑ Malhotra, Aanchal (2021). Roy, Nilanjana S. (ed.). Our freedoms: essays and stories from India's best writers. New Delhi, India: Juggernaut. pp. 10–15. ISBN 978-93-5345-145-5.
  18. ↑ "Sujatha Gidla and Janice Pariat on the longlists of the Tata Literature Live Awards". Scroll.in. Retrieved 7 June 2024.
  19. ↑ "Winners of the 'Valley of Words' Book Awards Announced". The Wire. 2 October 2022. Retrieved 7 June 2024.
  20. ↑ Khan, Arman (29 December 2022). "Top 10 Indian non-fiction books of 2022". GQ India. Retrieved 7 June 2024.
  21. ↑ "CCIFI Literary Prize 2024". CCIFI. 27 June 2024. Retrieved 18 June 2026.
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