The Night Diary

Partition 1947 (Saktishree)

The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani

Growing up in Northern India in 1947, Nisha’s life is full of both joys and worries: she loves cooking with Kazi, her family’s cook, playing with her twin brother Amil, and beginning the project of writing in her new diary; but she mourns her mother, who died in childbirth, frets about how few friends she has due to her shyness, and—above all—she worried about what is happening to India. Muslims, Sikhs, and Hindus used to coexist in her village of Mhirpur Khas but everything changes when the government announces that India will be partitioned into two countries: India for the Hindus, Sikhs, and other religions and a new country, Pakistan, for the Muslims. While Nisha is haunted by the knowledge that her mother was Muslim, that she herself is neither one thing nor the other, and that her beloved Kazi is Muslim as well, the family is forced to flee due to mounting violence in their village. Nisha, Amil, their father, and their grandmother set out on the arduous and dangerous journey to the new India.

Their trek is both harrowing and heartwarming as the family perseveres through various well-paced perils, growing closer to one another in the process. Unfortunately, the end of the book is rushed and somewhat misses the climactic mark: while the ending is happy, this resolution is achieved through the unlikely appearance of Kazi in the new India instead of through resolving the tension between Nisha and her father, which had otherwise been artfully built throughout the arc of the novel. Nonetheless, this book will be an informative and engaging tale for many young readers, providing a useful window into the history of the Indian subcontinent for those who were unfamiliar and a thought-provoking mirror for young people whose families were involved in this still-relevant time in history.

Subjects this book includes that some readers may be sensitive to: harassment and discrimination, death (including violent death).