I am wearing a sari at a glamorous party in Versova, Mumbai. The other guests, a mixture of movie executives, models and air hostesses are all wearing jeans, sharing substances and dancing to US rock music. All part of India’s colonial hangover.
In 1947, India broke free from almost 200 years of colonial rule. Having stoked up tensions between Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs and promoted the social stratification of castes as part of their divide-and-rule strategy, the scarpering British partitioned India, creating Pakistan (which would itself later be engulfed in war as East Pakistan strove for independence as Bangladesh). Partition also left Kashmir’s ownership up for grabs. Fifteen million people were displaced and one million killed in the brutal battles for land, resources and housing. My late mother was one of many babies lost in a caravan fleeing to Lahore: family folklore holds that it was only her green eyes that helped identify and reunite her with her own desperate mother.
