Students and faculty soon will get an outside-the-box narrative about the Indian-Pakistani conflict from a respected scholar of both countries’ history.

Dr. Ayesha Jalal, the Mary Richardson Professor of History at Tufts University, will give a talk titled “The Pity of Partition: The Personal and Political Across the India-Pakistan Divide” Friday, Nov. 2, at 7 p.m. in Libby Hall.

The free, public event will last about two hours and be followed by a question-and-answer session.

“The personal life, family history and short stories of renowned Urdu litterateur Saadat Hasan Manto will serve as a prism to explore the human dimension of the partition of India and the post-colonial moment in Pakistan,” Jalal said. “By probing the creative tension between fictional and historical narratives, the lecture will analyze the post-colonial transition, the advent of the Cold War in South Asia, and the impact on Pakistan and its relations with India.”

Jalal is the author of seven major publications and is working on four others, including Battle for Pakistan. She has been a professor at Tufts University since 1999 and holds a joint appointment in the History Department and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

“She is going to discuss the history of Pakistan and whether creating the nation of Pakistan was actually the goal of the founder of Pakistan,” said Dr. Renee Heberle, UT associate professor of political science. “The implications of this historical argument will be discussed at length. She will put on display how she uses the best of both history and political science to get at these difficult questions. We welcome everyone to this important discussion.”

The lecture is sponsored by the Office of the President, and the College of Languages, Literature and Social

Sciences and its School of Interdisciplinary Studies. Jalal’s talk is the inaugural lecture for interdisciplinary studies.