Aanchal Malhotra (born 1990) is an Indian oral historian, author and artist, known for her work on the 1947

Partition of India The partition of India in 1947 was the division of British India into two independent dominion states, the Dominion of India, Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan. The Union of India is today the Republic of India, and the Dominion of Paki ...

. Her research and writings focus on the

oral histories Oral history is the collection and study of historical information from people, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people who pa ...

of individuals affected by the Partition, capturing their memories and the tangible remnants of that period. 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 New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

, India, in 1990, where she continues to live and work. She received a BFA degree in traditional printmaking and art history from

Ontario College Of Art & Design Ontario College of Art & Design University, commonly known as OCAD University or OCAD U, is a public university, public art school, art university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its main campus is located within Toronto's Grange Park (neighbourh ...

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, 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 Concordia University () is a Public university, public English-language research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1974 following the merger of Loyola College (Montreal), Loyola College and Sir George Williams Universit ...

, Montréal. She belongs to the family of Bahrisons Booksellers, founded by her paternal grandfather, Balraj Bahri, in 1953 in

Career

Malhotra's debut book ''Remnants of a Separation: A History of the Partition through Material Memory'' was published by

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the "Big Five (publishers), Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group USA, Hachette, Macmi ...

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, Montréal, and included field research in India, Pakistan and England. It is an attempt to revisit the Partition through personal and intimate objects that refugees carried with them across the border during their migration. Written as a crossover between history and anthropology, it portrays a human history of Partition. It was named a ''Hindustan Times'' "India @ 70" book and shortlisted for the Sahitya Akademi

Yuva Puraskar The Yuva Puraskar, also known as Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar, is a literary honor in India which Sahitya Akademi The Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, is an organisation dedicated to the promotion of literature in t ...

Shakti Bhatt Prize The Shakti Bhatt Prize is a literary award established in 2007 in memory of Indian publisher, Shakti Bhatt. Between 2008 and 2019, it was awarded for first books published in India by an author of any age in the genres of poetry, fiction, creativ ...

First Book Award,

Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay (3 April 1903 – 29 October 1988) was an Indian social reformer. She has worked for the promotion of Indian handicrafts, handlooms, and theatre in independent India to uplift the socio-economic standard of Indian women ...

NIF Book Prize, and Hindu Lit for Life Non Fiction Prize. Aanchal Malhotra

Outside the subcontinent, it was published under the title ''Remnants of Partition: 21 Objects from a Continent Divided'', by

Hurst Publishers Hurst Publishers (C. Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd) is an independent non-fiction publisher based in the Bloomsbury area of London. Hurst specializes in books on global affairs and has lists in Islamic Studies Islamic studies is the academic ...

in 2019. It was shortlisted by the

British Academy The British Academy for the Promotion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the sa ...

for the 2019 Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize for Global Cultural Understanding. In 2022, it won the US-based Council for Museum Anthropology Book Prize, where the committee said “Malhotra’s concern for detail — such as languages spoken, family members present and their interactions during interviews, setting and mood (as well as her own responses to the stories) — creates a strong moral and ethical underpinning for this work . . . tis a model for significant contributions to museum anthropology.” 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. Her debut novel, The Book of Everlasting Things, was also published in 2022. In addition to her books, she has been involved in several

oral history Oral history is the collection and study of historical information from people, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people who pa ...

projects and is an advisor the ''Project Dastaan'' peace initiative. In 2017, she co-founded the ''Museum of Material Memory'', a crowdsourced digital repository tracing family history and social ethnography through heirlooms, collectibles and objects of antiquity from the Indian subcontinent. .

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) * In the Language of Remembering: The Inheritance of Partition (2022)

Fiction

* ''The Book of Everlasting Things (December 2022)'' (HarperCollins India, Flatiron Books, 2022)

Anthologies

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

Awards and honours

* 2017 A Hindustan Times “India @70” Book, ''Remnants of A Separation'' * 2018 Tata Literature Live! First Book Award, longlist, ''Remnants of A Separation'' * 2022 Council for Museum Anthropology Book Prize, winner, ''Remnants of Partition'' * 2022 Valley of Words Prize for Hindi Translation, winner, ''Yaadon ke Bikhre Moti'' * 2022 History Today’s Best Books of the Year, ''In the Language of Remembering'' * 2024 Literary Prize of The Chambre de Commerce et d'Industrie Franco-Indienne, winner, ''Vestiges d’une Séparation''