ABSTRACT
The 1947 Partition of British India stands as one of the most traumatic episodes in South Asian history, displacing over 14 million people and reshaping national, regional, and personal identities. Yet, within the dominant historiography of political negotiations and cartographic ruptures, the gendered experiences of women— particularly those from rural districts like Rawalpindi—have often been marginalised or reduced to symbolic representations of communal honour. This research brings Rawalpindi to the fore as a key site for analyzing the gendered aspects of Partition trauma and resilience. One of the first places to experience mass violence against women in March 1947, Rawalpindi became synonymous with the communal and patriarchal violence that characterized the partitioning of the subcontinent. Zooming in on this place makes it possible to engage with the intersection of space, memory, and women's voices, historically rendered invisible in mainstream historiography. The subtitle highlights not just trauma but also the modes of female agency that arose in the face of loss, dislocation, and survival, providing a sophisticated reading of Partition's gendered legacy.
The research identifies four central themes: strategic gendered violence, displacement and identity negotiation, agency and resistance, and intergenerational memory work. Findings reveal that the violence was neither spontaneous nor random; it was premeditated and economically motivated, with militias targeting women not only for sexual violation but also for their property, gold, and social positioning. While acknowledging the deep trauma endured, the study challenges the victim narrative by highlighting how women deployed tactical agency. From forming night patrols and engaging in barter diplomacy to creating informal literacy circles in refugee camps and leveraging evolving legal frameworks for property reclamation, Rawalpindi's women demonstrated remarkable adaptability.
A key contribution of this paper is the introduction of the “three-layer agency model” and “intergenerational memory work” which are rooted in interdisciplinary theoretical traditions. Informed by feminist theory, the model prioritizes women's everyday experiences and negotiations of power. Subaltern studies guide their attention to silenced voices and recovered narratives. Trauma is a theory that gives us the critical framework to grasp the psychological and corporeal effects of Partition violence, while memory studies—particularly postmemory and oral history—shed light on how trauma gets passed down through generations. Together, these genres offer us the possibility of a rich examination of women's agency as complex, cumulative responses to structural violence and histories of violence, rather than as individual acts of resistance.
