Gendered Violence and Women’s Trauma: A Reading of Traumatic Experiences in Sidhwa’s Cracking India and Malgonkar’s A Bend in the Ganges
Date
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Faculty of English
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.