Her grappling with identity and place of belonging in a rapidly changing world is one Hiranandani can relate to, herself the daughter of a Hindu father and Jewish-American mother. Throughout the novel, Nisha questions what this heritage makes her. Hiranandani’s protagonist, Nisha, faces a unique challenge to her identity: her father is Hindu, but her late mother was Muslim. I always knew Partition was something that had happened to my family, but I hadn’t realized how huge the event was on a global scale, and I was shocked as I began to reflect on it,” said Hiranandani. “When I was 11, I watched the movie Gandhi, which was pivotal for me. Violence, chaos, and tragedy plagued the countless travelers as their paths crisscrossed over a border which appeared overnight. Hindus and other non-Muslims living in Pakistan and Muslims living in India prior to independence were pushed to migrate to their new, respective homes as a sovereign India and a newborn Pakistan established themselves on the world stage. India’s independence brought about the formation of a new nation, Pakistan, carved out of northwestern India as a new homeland for Indian Muslims, leaving the rest of India to Hindus, Sikhs, and other non-Muslim Indians.
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