ABSTRACT
The Partition of India in 1947 witnessed terrible and exceptional acts of violence in many regions, particularly Punjab and Bengal. Millions were rendered homeless and forced to migrate, thousands were killed, women were abducted and raped, and children lost in the frenzy of communal hatred. Recent scholarship on Partition during the last two decades has attempted to expose the relationship between patriarchy and the nation state, in the context of women-centric violence. This chapter shifts the focus away from (1) gruesome acts of mob violence, (2) honour killings by family members, and (3)forcible ‘recovery’ of abducted women by state agencies to an exploration of the many forms that violence took within the domestic spaces, within personal relationships. While oral testimonies of survivors yield valuable insights into gender-specific violence, this chapter analyses women centred literary texts to foreground the myriad and subtle forms of discrimination that women were exposed to, as well as some of the strategies that they employed to resist it.
