Discourse of Trauma in Indian English Punjabi Partition Fiction

Abstract

The literary texts on Indian Partition in 1947 condemn the violence that affected millions of lives. The condemnation in Indian English novels by the Sikh writers is ethical in contrast to the condemnation by Hyder and Manto whose representation is inflected with humanistic moral concerns. The dissertation argues that the representation of the partition trauma by the Indian Punjabi Sikh writers follow the ethical lines to forge a Sikh nationhood while the trauma of the victims of the partition violence in Hyder and in Manto condemns itself. In order to come to the conclusion, the dissertation has applied trauma theory as the tool of analysis. The ethics of Sikhs’ cultural trauma is directly related to patch up the tear in the fabric of their identity -- a tear that was caused by the events of 1947. As they try to patch up the tear, they draw on their age-old discourse of demonizing the Muslims. This kind of representation adds to the bitterness even as it leads to a group consciousness. Punjabi Muslim writers like Manto and Hyder do not go for strengthening group consciousness of a Muslim or a Sikh or a Hindu. Their spotlight is on capturing the group consciousness of the victims of the partition violence. That consciousness is the experience of trauma itself. Trauma -- in its pure form -- has agency in their writings. The agency of trauma is a welcome far cry from the discourse of cultural trauma in the writings by the Sikhs.