Aditi Sharif:

The partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 has become an inevitable part of Indian sub-continental history.  Whenever we hear the word ‘Partition’,  some thoughts certainly pop up in our minds. These are some political occurrences that happened in the long past and can only be traced in the history book. What does the history constitute? We can find a series of facts related to partition that are- the debate between Gandhi and Jinnah, Nehru and Patel, and other political developments. Undoubtedly, there are some relevant numbers of deaths, occurrences of violence, damages, and losses. However, the traces of people’s narratives of grief,  agony, and nostalgia can hardly be found in these dominant narratives.  And as always, the presence of women’s voices and agency has become obscured (Butalia, 1998).  

Beyond these dominant narratives, where can we find the presence of women in a different light? In this regard, a glimpse of ‘The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India’ written by feminist researcher Urvashi Butalia can be helpful. In this renowned book, she searched the human dimensions of partition[how families were divided, how friendships endured across borders, how people coped with trauma, how they rebuilt their lives, and how their experience of dislocation, and trauma shaped their lives] based on interviews and oral history (Butalia, 1998). 

While investigating the impacts of partition on the lives of women, Butalia found an awkward silence. From some relevant secondary sources that she enquired about, nearly one million women were victims of rape, abduction, and other severe forms of violence. Even when she talked with the family members of the victims, they didn’t mention any rape or abduction. Most of them just muttered about their disappearance. Now,  where do these women disappear? (Butalia, 1998)

From her research, it was evident that thousands of women were abducted in both countries. These women were picked up from their houses, mostly by the men who were familiar with their circumstances, that was the common myth of Conflict Studies. Even, women, belonging to the age of fifties or sixties, were common victims for their properties. Given the fact, that a large number of women were abducted from both borders, the states decided to rescue them. The whole mission was based on a whimsical perception that – after March 1947, relationships with men of other religions were considered forced, no matter how much she protested. Some female ‘social workers’ were assigned to rescue these women from their perpetrators. Shockingly, a significant number of women didn’t want to go back to their countries as many of them started to consider their perpetrators as their saviors, their ‘honor’ was lost, and their poor financial conditions back in the country. Until 1954, these types of ‘forced evacuation’ were continued despite having strong controversies. However, most of these women were not accepted by their family members. The situation of pregnant women was the worst in India. Due to the strict Hindu dogma related to purity and pollution, a large number of pregnant women didn’t get a place in their homes in India. State sponsored mass abortion and created ‘Ashram’ to rehabilitate these women (Butalia, 1998).

While reading this book, I frequently thought about the havoc this ‘historical event’ created in the lives of women that reminded me of some other horror stories of Bangladeshi women in our liberation war which led me to ask one of my relatives about the war crimes happened against women in our native women. She completely denied it and told me that she would clearly remember that if something like that happened despite being a child. That reminded me of the awkward silent history of partition about which no one wanted to talk! (Butalia, 1998)           

References

Butalia, U. (1998). The Other Side of Silence; Voices from the Partition of India. New Delhi: Penguin Books.

Photo: Collected from Internet.

Biography:

Aditi Sharif is an Anthropologist, currently researching Gender Studies, Mental Health, and Migration. She is also a volunteer writer of Women Chapter English.

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