ABSTRACT
The partition of India, one of the most traumatic and disruptive events of the twentieth century, ushered in an era of uncertainty and dislocation following widespread collective violence, rape, arson and the displacement of millions of refugees across South Asia. Hitherto neglected aspects of this catastrophe, especially the experience of abducted women and divided Muslim families (for many of whom ‘the long partition’ remains a reality of everyday experience, as Vazira Zamindar argues), have been addressed in recent times, reconfi guring the historical archive.1 The basis for some of this questioning of prior assumptions about the historical experience of 1947 has been a revisiting of the literature of the partition. This corpus of writing has provided illuminating insights regarding the moral and psychic economy underpinning the neargenocidal violence that took place during 1947-48, as well as about the resistance to ideological formations that propagated such violence. Witnessing Partition focuses on literary representations of the partition, which, I will argue, offer crucial insights into the traumatic effects extreme violence has had on the collective psyche and imagination over time. Through contextual readings I hope to indicate the potential of selected texts, primarily novels and short stories, to stand as testimony to the horrors of collective violence.2
