Body as a Territory: A Study of Violence Against Women as Portrayed in Partition Literature of India and Pakistan
Body as a Territory: A Study of Violence Against Women as Portrayed in Partition Literature of India and Pakistan

Author(s): Adhyeta Mishra
Subject(s): Anthropology, Gender Studies, Studies in violence and power
Published by: Transnational Press London
Keywords: Body; Territory; Violence Against Women; Literature; India; Pakistan; British;
Summary/Abstract: India achieved its independence from British colonial domination in the year 1947 after decades of movement and fight for self-rule or ‘swaraj’. However, for many, independence came at its own cost. With the birth of a separate state, the Islamic republic of Pakistan, hundreds and thousands lost their lives and those who survived, lost their home and family in the civil riots and communal violence that followed thereafter. It was definitely not the kind of freedom people had dreamt of, had laid their lives for –“vo intezar tha jiska ye vo sahar to nahin .” This freedom bled of violence and witnessed the merciless butchering of civilians, especially women who were abducted by men from warring communities and either raped, looted or murdered, for the violation of the female body meant violation of the ‘sanctity’ of the entire community.

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