JAMMU, Jul 27: Prof. Subhash Chander, Professor of English Literature at the Department of English, Bhadarwah Campus, University of Jammu, has published his debut novel, The Villages We Could Not Return To, bringing to English fiction the story of families displaced from hundreds of villages in Pakistan-occupied Poonch, Rawalakot, Palandari and Bagh after the events of 1947.
Set in the months following India’s Independence in 1947, the novel follows a fourteen-year-old boy whose family leaves its ancestral village of Naththagala in Tehsil Palandari, District Poonch, believing they will return within a few days. That return never comes. Nearly eight decades later, the narrator, now a ninety-three-year-old retired professor, looks back on those events through the eyes of his fourteen-year-old self.
Written entirely from the perspective of the young boy, the novel portrays the lives of ordinary families caught in extraordinary circumstances. It tells of displacement, loss, courage, friendship and the acts of humanity that survived amid violence and uncertainty.
The novel draws upon the experiences of families who were forced to leave hundreds of villages in Pakistan-occupied Poonch, Rawalakot, Palandari and Bagh. Through the story of one family, it recalls the lives of countless others who lost their homes and were scattered across Jammu and other parts of India. While they rebuilt their lives, memories of their villages remained with them across generations. Many came to be known simply as Poonchiye, refugees or displaced families, identities that reflected their displacement rather than the places they once called home.
Prof. Chander belongs to a third-generation family displaced from the Poonch region of the erstwhile Princely State of Jammu and Kashmir. He has previously authored Just Breathe: The Gentle Art of Returning to Yourself and Protect Your Peace: You Can Heal Yourself. The Villages We Could Not Return To is his first novel.
The novel is available worldwide on Amazon Kindle, while the paperback edition is expected to be released shortly.