Synopsis

After-effects of Colonialism

Broadcast Dates: February 21 - March 6, 2022

1947

In one of its final colonial acts on the Indian sub-continent, Great Britain partitioned disputed Punjab into Indian and Pakistani territories. Ten million people were dislocated and millions died as Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, and other religious minorities, who had lived together Were forced to abandon their homes.

Tariq Malik

was born into this chaos in Kotli, a village in Western (Pakistani) Punjab in 1951. The effects of this displacement and violence have shaped his life.

As an adult Tariq, who'd become a chemical engineer, moved to Kuwait to support his family, as his father had done before him. Harsh desert sands with buried corpses and land mines continue to inspire his present day writing.

Tariq emigrated to Canada and now lives in Vancouver. He writes poetry, historical fiction, and short stories about his own experiences of displacement, and that of others.

Exit Wounds, (poetry) will be released by Caitlin Press in fall 2022.

Rainsongs from Kotli, (short stories), is available from Amazon.

Tariq's poems are included in Unmooring the Komagata Maru – Charting Colonial Trajectories, (UBC Press, 2019)   Nights of Kleptomania, (poetry) and Chanting Denied Shores, (fiction), can be ordered from the author: Tariq Malik