ABSTRACT
This chapter studies how the birth of a child, resulting from intimate violence, diminished its Hindu or Sikh mother's chances of finding acceptance within her original family and community. It examines a range of literary inquiries into the mother and child's homelessness in the postcolonial landscape through a study of short fiction in Bengali, English, and Malayalam, focusing on both Bengal and Punjab. The chapter explains the dilemmas of the Partition-migrant father, particularly the fears he hopes to resolve through the birth of his child in the adopted land. It discusses how for Muslim fathers migrating to Pakistan, the birth of the child serves to alleviate an ontological crisis, a crisis of belonging. The dilemmas of women subjected to forced intimacy and the placelessness of the children produced by the violence surrounding the Partition have been excavated in narratives about Hindu and Sikh communities.
