Zach Cornwell is a brilliant storyteller, a diligent student of history, and a masterful steward of historical information. It is exceedingly rare to find one of these qualities in a single narrator. To find all three is so rare that it is entirely unexpected.
In particular, Conflicted's six-part series on the partition of India in 1947 is nothing short of brilliant. There are innumberable versions of this story and tying them together seemed, at least to me, to be an imposible task and an exercise in futility. The enduring stories of Partition seemed too incongruent, murky, and charged for anyone to even try to recount something resembling the truth.
Zach was able to do just that. And he somehow did it in a cohesive and compelling narrative.
I would venture to say that most, if not all, people from the Indian subcontinent, ascribe to a narrow and reductive narrative around Partition. Most of us are unconscious of this narrative. As a Pakistani whose parents and grandparents made the journey from India to Pakistan during Partition, I know this was the case for me. I was skeptical that anyone would be able to add much to my understanding of Partition.
Conflicted's detailed, balanced, unbiased, engaging, and most importantly humanized accounts of Partition helped me make sense of a topic which was both existential and almost completed closed off. Zach covered everything from relevant historical context, character development, affects of Partition on world order, personal on-the-ground narratives, to historical ramifications. Zach even helped to stave off an impending existential crisis for this circumspect Pakistani.
Bravo!
