Impression of biracial identity in adolescent children and
experience of displacement in “The Night Diary”
The current thesis aims to explore displacement experience of a young
Girl as portrayed in the Novel “The Night Diary”. This novel is written
by Veera Hiranandani. It is set in the era of Subcontinent Partition
happening in 1947. In this paper an attempt has been made to examine
the impact of displacement, identity crisis and biracial identity on a 12
year old refugee girl. Dow (2011) defines refugees as those persons who
are “unexpectedly forced to involuntarily leave their homes and flee for
their lives often to unknown destinations”
The Night Diary is a fictional story of one family's experience
during the partition of Subcontinent into two countries in
1947. The story is told in the form of diary entries written by the main
character, Nisha. The entries are addresses to her deceased mother.
Half-Muslim, half-Hindu twelve-year-old Nisha doesn’t know where she
belongs, or what her country is anymore. When her father decides it’s
too dangerous to stay in what is now Pakistan, Nisha and her family
become refugees and embark journey to their new home. The journey is
long, difficult, and dangerous, and after losing her mother as a baby,
Nisha can’t imagine losing her homeland, too. But even if her country
has been ripped apart, Nisha still believes in the possibility of putting
herself back together. In the novel the mental health of Nisha is
powerfully influenced by war-related violence and loss of her homeland.
The barbaric conditions they encounter en route to India and within their
host country also impact her a lot.
In the years following the 1947 partition a vast amount of literature have
been written on the historical and political significance of the Partition.
Yet there are very less research studies that focus on emotional and
mental scars inflicted by the Partition of 1947. I will try to explore
different aspects of Nisha’s displacement experience. My research will
broadly include topics like biracial identity, citizenship, community,
identity crisis, sense of belongingness, war-related violence, survival and
resilience in refugees.
Objectives:
 The objective of this research is to increase awareness about
displacement experiences of refugees.
 To recognize the impact of partition and war- related violence on
mental health of young children.
 To examine the survival instincts and resilience in children after
being displaced from one’s home country.
 To work on the themes which are highlighted in the Novel by
Veera Hiranandani.
Research Questions:
 How partition of subcontinent effected the life and mental health of
families?
 How resettlement practices and forced migrant cause identity crisis
in children?
 What are the hurdles which orphan children face and what coping
mechanisms do they use?
 How refugees survive while they have no country to call their
own?
 What is the effect of biracial parents on religious and ethnic
identity of children?