It is taken for granted that during partition （Indo-Pak, 1947）, Hindus were massacred by Muslims and same isconsidered true vice versa. This is a deep rooted attitude behind years of prejudice between both the commu...It is taken for granted that during partition （Indo-Pak, 1947）, Hindus were massacred by Muslims and same isconsidered true vice versa. This is a deep rooted attitude behind years of prejudice between both the communities.The collective sensibility of one community has affected the other. The available history of partition discussesmainly the political issues or is marked with patriotic bias. For the historians, it has been a constitutional or politicalarrangement which does not affect the contours of Indian society. If seen from the perspective of survivors, thehistory of partition appears very different. It is all violence for them. This difference leads to a wide chasm betweenhistory and the account in form of oral history in particular about partition; its pain and silence. On one hand wherenations can insulate them behind national interests and agendas, the communities that faced partition have to livewith painful memories and moments of violence they faced. Urvashi Bhutalia in her The Other Side of Silence andRitu Menon in her Borders and Boundaries narrates the inhuman experiences of women migrants and trauma facedby survivors. Women in their short stories speak for themselves, without any restrictions or depending on any criticor historian to interpret their pain, about the violence they faced by strangers as well as their near and dear ones.They were subjected to rape and abduction, given no choice of repatriation, were forced to abort or abandonchildren fathered by their abductors. They struggled to put their life together in state of loss of identity andbelongingness. The paper tries to investigate the link between community, caste, gender with violence at the time ofpartition. It deals with the ＂memory＂ that steps in when history fails to address the issue of dislocation. It discusseswomen＇s unspeakable horrifying experiences, their painful truth and their silence that is still in the process ofhealing and forgetting.展开更多
文摘It is taken for granted that during partition （Indo-Pak, 1947）, Hindus were massacred by Muslims and same isconsidered true vice versa. This is a deep rooted attitude behind years of prejudice between both the communities.The collective sensibility of one community has affected the other. The available history of partition discussesmainly the political issues or is marked with patriotic bias. For the historians, it has been a constitutional or politicalarrangement which does not affect the contours of Indian society. If seen from the perspective of survivors, thehistory of partition appears very different. It is all violence for them. This difference leads to a wide chasm betweenhistory and the account in form of oral history in particular about partition; its pain and silence. On one hand wherenations can insulate them behind national interests and agendas, the communities that faced partition have to livewith painful memories and moments of violence they faced. Urvashi Bhutalia in her The Other Side of Silence andRitu Menon in her Borders and Boundaries narrates the inhuman experiences of women migrants and trauma facedby survivors. Women in their short stories speak for themselves, without any restrictions or depending on any criticor historian to interpret their pain, about the violence they faced by strangers as well as their near and dear ones.They were subjected to rape and abduction, given no choice of repatriation, were forced to abort or abandonchildren fathered by their abductors. They struggled to put their life together in state of loss of identity andbelongingness. The paper tries to investigate the link between community, caste, gender with violence at the time ofpartition. It deals with the ＂memory＂ that steps in when history fails to address the issue of dislocation. It discusseswomen＇s unspeakable horrifying experiences, their painful truth and their silence that is still in the process ofhealing and forgetting.
