Faith, Gender, and Activism in the Punjab Conflict

The Wheat Fields Still Whisper

By: Mallika Kaur

Narrated by: Soneela Nankani

Punjab was the arena of one of the first major armed conflicts of postcolonial India. During its deadliest decade, as many as 250,000 people were killed. This audiobook makes an urgent intervention in the history of the conflict, which to date has been characterized by a fixation on sensational violence - or ignored altogether.

Mallika Kaur unearths the stories of three people who found themselves at the center of Punjab’s human rights movement: Baljit Kaur, who armed herself with a video camera to record essential evidence of the conflict; Justice Ajit Singh Bains, who became a beloved “people’s judge”; and Inderjit Singh Jaijee, who returned to Punjab to document abuses even as other elites were fleeing. Together, they are credited with saving countless lives.

Braiding oral histories, personal snapshots, and primary documents recovered from at-risk archives, Kaur shows that when entire conflicts are marginalized, we miss essential stories: stories of faith, feminist action, and the power of citizen-activists.

©2019 Mallika Kaur (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing

Excellent for those wanting to understand

There are few audiobooks in English which pay this level of detail to 20th century Punjabi history. This book is split into easy to digest blocks, and the narrator speaks clearly with energy.