Feminist Fiction and the Indian Partition of 1947 , livre ebook

Academica Press - Priyanka Gupta

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67 pages

English

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The Partition of the Indian Subcontinent in 1947 unleashed unprecedented violence. In Feminist Fiction and the Indian Partition of 1947, Indian scholar Priyanka Gupta explores how women were doubly suppressed and victimized before and after the partition. The violence, and the displacement of large populations, made this historical episode of separation more and more significant for women. Novels set during the Partition offer unique viewpoints and perspectives that have not previously been explored.

Sujets

Feminist

Literary Criticism

Themes

Subjects

Women

Literature

Women's studies

General officer

Woman

Feminism

The Women

General

History

Asia

India

Informations

Publié par	Academica Press
Date de parution	28 août 2022
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781680534528
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	3 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,5598€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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Feminist Fiction and the Indian Partition of 1947: New Perspectives
Priyanka Gupta
Academica Press
Washington∼London
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Gupta, Priyanka (author)
Title: Feminist fiction and the indian partition of 1947 : new perspectives | Gupta, Priyanka
Description: Washington : Academica Press, 2022. | Includes references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022952203 | ISBN 9781680534511 (hardcover) | 9781680534528 (e-book)
Copyright 2022 Priyanka Gupta
Contents Chapter 1 Introduction to Partition: A Feminist Perspective Chapter 2 Female Oppression in Amrita Pritam’s Pinjar (1950) and Khushwant Singh’s Train to Pakistan (1956) Chapter 3 Gendered Violence in Bhisham Sahni’s Tamas (1971) and Bapsi Sidhwa’s Ice Candy Man (1988) Chapter 4 Bodily Mutilation in Shauna Singh Baldwin’s What the Body Remembers (1999) and Amit Mazumdar’s Partitions (2011) Chapter 5 Conclusion Select Bibliography
Chapter 1 Introduction to Partition: A Feminist Perspective
Introduction
The term ‘Partition’ means the division or the splitting of one state into parts. 1 The historical event of the partition of two states, namely India and Pakistan, resulted in one of the most traumatic communal carnages and human convulsions 2 of history till date. 3 The saga of freedom struggle which is cast in the shadows and embedded in the pages of the history needs to be re-interpreted and re-analyzed through the partition narratives which include poems, short stories, documentaries, novels, dramas and the other literary works. The partition created anarchy in the society, and the records and proceedings of which are preserved in the form of chronicles, texts, travelogues and short-stories in libraries around the world. Out of these narratives, the fictional works, chiefly novels highlighting women’s plight are studied and discussed in this research work.
Figure 1 Map showing the borders drawn after the partition of India. 4
The division of the sub-continent resulted in the overall commotion of all communities of the society which leads to rampant violence. The violence that escorted was unparalleled, sudden and cataclysmic which gave rise to different consequences of partition, such as division of families, enduring cross-border friendships, coping up with trauma, lamenting over the loss, searching for the family members, and experiencing dislocation and displacement. The actions of hooligans provoked common people, who suffered mutual agitation resulting in colossal bloodshed and killings. The violence and indomitable chaos during partition created hue and cry, and thus destroyed the political, social, cultural, and economic set-up. Bhalla states that the unprecedented violence accompanied partition was traumatic so much so that it defied understandings. Other writers have also written on the partition violence differently-some doubted it, and rest pre-emptively and scornfully described it. 5
The partition resulted in two-fold mayhem: one was the binary division of the state and the other was the mutilation and killings of the millions. Trumbell, a veteran correspondent of the New York Times, comments in Freedom at Midnight, that the streets were flooded with blood like rainfalls in India and remarked that he had seen lifeless people by hundreds and thousands without eyes, feet or hands. The portrayal of merciless and pathetic panorama where women, men and children were beaten up to death with stones and left to die would fill anyone with a feeling of horror and disgust. 6 The story of partition as well as the untold stories of the traumatic experiences of the survivors is unending. There was an endless displacement of people throughout the sub-continent. The trains were fully loaded with people either inside or over the roof; the common man was the ultimate sufferer. The atmosphere was gloomy and filled with obscurity. The people were uprooted from their original homeland and were turned into refugees in their homeland. Hence, the society at that time was struggling hard to deal with the situation.
The partition literature and other visual media inform us that the attainment of independence for both the states was not a successful event, and it was followed up by mass exodus, large-scale public hostility, dispossessing and repositioning of family units and the sufferings of millions. 7 The memoirs and the literature of that period assist us in the study to find out what had happened, and to support us with the fact to figure out the pathetic conditions at that time. Commenting upon the disastrous plight of partition survivors, Collins argues that partition was a convulsion which resulted in a sudden and shocking disintegration of society. The monstrous slaughter provoked one after other heinous crimes, and each atrocity was equivalent to some building that was destroyed by an explosion, and that happened to Punjab which crumbled into pieces after partition. 8
Butalia mentions at this point about the division as ‘partitioning two lives is hard enough. Partitioning millions is insanity.’ 9 Moreover, communalism spread widely when the proposals for the partition of both Punjab and Bengal were still being rumoured, and long before the mass exodus of people had taken on its ultimate gigantic proportions. 10 Penderel Moon states that the dawn of independence was disfigured by massive brutal killings and massacres which culminated in migrations in Punjab on a large scale that happened in world history. Within a short span of three-four months, thousands and millions of people were constrained to abandon their inherited homes and began a new journey in strange surroundings. 11 The freedom, accomplished by martyrdom was lessened by looking at the immense exodus of people and, the bloodshed of the freedom fighters. Jawahar Lal Nehru’s speech, “at the stroke of the midnight hour…India will awake to life and freedom…” 12 delivered in the Constituent Assembly manifested the foundation of division which was a total partition in 1947. 13
Auden in Partition says that the separation was the only solution left after the cataclysmic events. He further states that the separation was worse and deadly. 14 Gyanendra Pandey aptly comments upon the devastation that occurred during partition. The effects of partition were so much threatening and horrific that one can’t envisage the brutality. In Mainstream Weekly, Politicizing History: True Story of Partition, Behera critically comments that the severity of partition was so much that till today we are obsessed with the bloodshed and killings of people. The resonance of partition and its interlinking with society and people is still haunting in our minds. Also, the connecting thread of partition with past and present scenario is a continuous and unending dialogue. 15 The nation till today is not able to forget the repercussions of partition even after seventy-three years of independence.
The present research studies partition literature regarding the issues, such as gendered violence, sadism, sexual harassment, physical torture, mental pressure, and changed identity. As we know that the physical torture of the people during partition was very common, but concerning women, it was at its peak. The gendered violence particularly hints at the violence faced by women so much so that the physical and mental pressure forced women to kill themselves. Death became more effortless for those women than surviving in the society haunted by fear. Focusing on the depiction of sadism in mainstream history, the present study analyzes the violence against women. The purpose of this research is to revisit the past narratives in the form of fiction, dramas, and short stories and to explore the neglected role of women and the mutilation they faced at the hands of male domination. Carr concludes that the past is seen best and can be represented through the eyes of the present. 16
This research investigates the facts and records of the sufferings of women during partition. Similarly, Isabella comments about the cataclysm that turned the country into a battleground. She explains that gendered violence resulted in the complete sweep of the whole communities. Also, she specifically converses about women’s sufferings, and she notes partition as the ‘dilemma for women which tormented them physically and boundaries were used as a mode to strike the opponent. The methods of tormenting women in that period were a tremendous change which was unaltered and resistant to the basic patriarchal configuration of society.’ 17 The partition set new challenges to the whole world as many people were forced to change their religion. The changed identity from Hindu to Muslim and vice-versa affected their psyche and resulted in the besieged individuality of people. The critics such as Butalia, Jalal and Pandey found that women were at higher risk of experiencing violence during the time of the separation andultimately suffered silently. 18
This research is based on the fact that partition not only affected women at the external level but also at the integral and psychological part of women. The voiceless voices of women raise the question of their existence as human beings before and after the partition. They were natural targets in any situation. 19 The other issues were debated in different research works, but the gender perception of women both as survivors and victims are absent from the standard historical accounts. 20 This research is an attempt to look out for the possible reasons for the unacknowledged role of women during partition.
Bhalla anticipates that the anecdotes of riots are finished but the stories of life began-in fact these are the stories that are never going to end for both the nations. 21 This means the partition gave both the countries different stories until today. The events of partition are studied, analyzed and premeditated concerning different aspects and depending upon their priorities what th