SOCIO-LEGAL IMPACT OF SURROGACY IN INDIA: AN ANALYSIS NIU International Journal of Human Rights ISSN: 2394 – 0298 Volume 8(IX), 2021 41 A Remembrance of Things Past: Memory vs History in ‘Remnants of a Separation’ Dr Latha Nair R Head and Associate Professor, Dean of Research,Department of English and Centre for Research St Teresa’s College (Autonomous), Cochin, Kerala – 682011,India. drlathanairr@gmail.com Juney Thomas Visiting Faculty, Department of English and Centre for Research, St Teresa’s College (Autonomous),Cochin, Kerala – 682011,India. juneythomas@gmail.com Abstract This paper explores the unsettling effects of the fundamental opposition between lived memory and constructed history. It studies how alternate history can be created by the timeless practice of recollecting facts through memory. The theoretic premise of this paper is rooted in the study of sites of memory by Pierre Nora to further enrich our understanding of material memory in Aanchal Malhotra’s Remnants of a Separation. Postmodernism has questioned the validity of history as a grand narrative. This paper reflects on the disintegration of certain traditional views about Partition narratives and the humanist notion of unitary representation of reality in history. It tries to situate the significance of memory in establishing a palpable reality suggests alternative pathways of constructing history. Keywords: material memory, Partition Studies, memory and history, lieux de mémoire . Introduction “The historian's first duties are sacrilege and the mocking of false gods. They are his indispensable instruments for establishing the truth.” Jules Michelet, Histoire Du France 1833 Memory and history have a syncretic bond. When we objectively examine the term ‘history’, we discover that it is inherently unstable, discontinuous, and disruptive. It demands an unflagging intellectual vigour and total immersion to reconstruct established historical narratives so that one can pinpoint the paradoxical nature of the representation of truth. History can be seen as a human construct, a record of the human spirit that traverses the linearity of time. Memory is inextricably linked to history and there is one thing they have in common – they reverberate the individual and collective human mind. The consciousness of the being records every thought, every action and every emotion that is experienced to create a text. This text becomes the intertext of human memory.