Hyderabad, June 15 -- The history of modern India is not merely a history of institutions, elections, constitutions and governments. It is also a history of memory. Nations, no less than individuals, carry wounds. Some heal and become scars. Others remain open, shaping perceptions long after the original injury has passed. The tragedy of South Asia is that one of the greatest catastrophes of the twentieth century remains not only a historical event but also a living psychological presence.

The Partition of India in 1947 displaced an estimated fifteen million people and, by most historical accounts, claimed somewhere between several hundred thousand and two million lives. Villages that had existed for centuries vanished almost overnight. ...