Gendered Violence and Women’s Trauma: A Reading of Traumatic Experiences in Sidhwa’s Cracking India and Malgonkar’s A Bend in the Ganges

Abstract

The study of Indo-Pakistan partition violence has undergone a dramatic transformation since the mid-1980s. A profusion of scholarly activity in this area has led to two new interpretations and revisiting of the traumatic moments during Indo-Pakistan partition period made essential. The escalation of communal violence and the subsequent migration that over took the two new nations created a tumultuous start for the embryonic nation- states. This research examines the experiences of partition violence in Bapsi Sidhwa’s Cracking India and Manohar Malgonkar’s A Bend in the Ganges. Written and published at different post partition historical moments, these texts examine the gendered violence upon women. The objectives of this dissertation are to highlight some compelling questions relating to rape, abduction and silence of women during partition. Could there be an alternative optimistic way of such colonization without communal violence? Was cross migration necessary? Why were women killed by their own men? Was the motive of partition achieved? Who took the responsibility of women victims who were raped by men of other community? Gendered violence and ensuing trauma focused on the people’s revolution for the liberation of their civilizations. Poor became the tools of success for elites and ignited to fight against themselves. Sentiments of poor have been used and throw like garbage. Gendered violence have created people’s habitat, a deserted land without a hope of life as seen in the novel. This dissertation carries out an investigation of the fictional representation of the anatomy of communal violence during partition. Keywords: Gender, Trauma, Violence, Partition, Rape, Abduction, Religion, Women victim, Silence.