I was immediately intrigued by the cover of Lion of the Sky with the two boys flying kites, and when I read the synopsis I knew I wanted to read it. For some reason I’ve been coming across more books, and middle grade ones at that, talking about the Indian Partition and the experiences of those who survived. This was my first story which focused on a Hindu family migrating from Pakistan, and the similarities and differences of the experiences are striking, and utterly heartbreaking.
If you’re not familiar, the Indian Partition happened in August 1947 when India won its independence from British rule, and as a final act of colonialist violence a man, Radcliffe, split the country based on whether a region was Muslim-majority (today, Pakistan) or Hindu/Sikh-majority (today, India). This caused a lot of violence and the forced migration led to several million displaced and approximately a million lives lost. The trauma and harm from that time still impacts the people to this day.
I loved Raj as a narrator and how his community and friends helped him keep going even as his world shifted, with the lessons he learned. I also really loved how change was so hard for his family after moving from Sindh to Bombay, but they were able to find ways to keep surviving and even thrive as best they were able in this new environment. This was all around an intense read, but so worth it and definitely something I’d recommend picking up if you want to learn more about the Indian Partition and the experiences of people suddenly and with no notice losing their home because of British interference.
