Lost Homeland, Lost Childhood: Partition and the Crisis of Belonging in Veera Hiranandani’s The Night Diary

Abstract

This paper critically examines Veera Hiranandani’s The Night Diary to explore the impact of the Partition of India on children. Through Nisha’s experiences, it highlights how Partition disrupts familiar worlds, transforms home into a contested geographical, religious, and emotional space, and generates fear, exclusion, and identity crises. The study analyses the vulnerability of refugee children during migration, their memories of lost homes, and the role of material objects in preserving connections to the past. It also investigates how children rebuild a sense of belonging in unfamiliar environments, ultimately suggesting that home is defined more by relationships and everyday practices than by a fixed physical place.