Anita Rani - One Show presenter, and weekend twinkle-toes on this season of Strictly Come Dancing - explored her family's history in last night's episode of Who Do You Think You Are?
Anita's family are of Sikh and Hindu Indian heritage - and so it was off to India to discover her grandfather's troubled history. What was revealed was easily one of the most tragic and heart-breaking stories featured in Who Do You Think You Are? It was a story of conflict, violence, the partition of India and Pakistan, and the atrocities that take place when prejudice blinds men to the rights-and-wrongs of this world.
More than anything, this was a story of violence against women - something which this part of the world (and, many would argue, the rest of the world too,) still struggles with to this day. Only one or two generations ago, the women in this region of India were killed, or forced to kill themselves, to stop them from falling into the hands of the men of the opposite faction. Ethnic and religious differences led to the horrendous deaths of innumerable women and girls, many of whom were killed at the hands of those who were supposed to protect them. Perhaps, difficult though it may be, we should bring these things, these bloody and forgotten histories, to light more often - as a lesson to all.
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