ABSTRACT
The Radcliffe line was not just drawn on the textual terrain of the subcontinent. Instead, it was a violent inscription on the bare agency of the self, pertaining to the corporeal and the psychic disposition of the subject. The present chapter engages in an understanding of such violent inscriptions that subject the bare agency of the feminine to an unprecedented spectrum of violence, with specific reference to Amrita Pritam’s novel, Pinjar. The chapter argues that within the patriarchal paradigm of Partition, the female body exceeds its corporeal considerations and often acquires epistemic and cultural significations like honour. As such, the violation of the woman involves a violation of the collective and the chapter unearths the transgressive possibilities that feminine explores in this milieu of violation and shame.
