Hi Zhang,
Welcome to UE. Your command of English will improve faster if you are always careful when using it, including here in your posting:
'Hi [
avoid extra letters; please spell properly, not in computer-slang], everyone, I am a new English learner from China, and I wrote a review of some
material. I hope someone can check the grammar mistakes for me. Just grammar mistakes; but if
you have other ideas
for it, go ahead, write it down, and I will
be thankful. Here is the whole piece, just three hundred words, not too long. Thanks [
don't be sloppy; one 's' is correct]. My email is
EMAIL REMOVED - Send PM to This User Instead
and I hope I will receive
your kindly reply.'
[I will post corrections here, Zhang, rather than emailing them, so that all can read and learn-- or correct me.]
'Among this week’s readings, I was interested in Buthalia Uvashi’s “Beginning”, which explores the idea that borders are created and sustained not only by force, but also by history and memory. In this introduction, the author looks with empathy and humanism [
these two are somewhat synonymous, and one could easily be deleted at the question of partition; it is not just a voice of the partition of India, but also of the shift of all colonial areas.
In fact, when an area is colonized by conquest, it not only changes the notions of territory, dominion and other external aspects, but also deeply changes the memories of the people; how deeply it changes depends on how much land the colonizers have conquered. Inevitably, a new notion of nationhood and border and frontier are created.
In answer to the first question,“How have frontiers and borders been related to colonialism”, it is clear that British colonizers divided India into two separate countries by their process of colonization. When the British introduced severe colonial rules to the Hindus, drew the lines of division, then created Pakistan, colonialism became not only a kind of external aggressive instrumentality, but also a force for historical meaning.
In answer to the second question, Buthalia Uvashi clearly explores the idea that borders and frontiers are created by force, and are sustained by mythologies and memory. The evidence to prove this idea is the continued enforcement of the border between India and Pakistan, or between Hindu and Muslim, after the British colonial process has ended. The new generation, obviously, finds it hard to imagine themselves in the situation of colonialism. The only way to show them a clear, comprehensive view of the past is through memory, and this memory is sometimes accompanied by prejudice, misapprehension and a sense of inevitability. With the passage of time from generation to generation, this prejudice and misapprehension is likely to fade from people’s minds, but it is more likely that the concept of borders and frontiers will be sustained, deeply rooted in the succeeding generations.
Buthalia Uvashi states that partition was not, even in her family, a ‘closed chapter of history’, but that ‘its simple, brutal political geography infused and divided us still.’ (Buthalia 2000 p. 5)
So, sometimes this situation could be thought of as “inevitable” and “tragical”, still sustained from its unfortunate beginning.'