Gender and Culture through the Eyes of Partition Texts
Dr. Brian Mendonça
brianlibra@gmail.com
Abstract
One of the looming subjects of post-colonialism in
the context of India is Partition. When the British gave India her independence in 1947, they also left it partitioned – into India
and Pakistan. Many of those affected were women. The post-colonial space can be
examined from the literature by and about women emerging after a long silence from India, Pakistan
and Bangladesh.
Post-colonial theory dismantled earlier linear,
largely patriarchal, narratives by the establishment about Partition. New media
and multi-media have redefined the terrain of Partition studies. Women writers
in genres of short story like Lalithambika Antharajanam and novel like Amrita
Pritam have presented the theme from a uniquely female perspective.
Women film makers in India and Pakistan like Deepa Mehta in Earth (1999) and Sabiha Sumar in Khamosh Paani (2003) have afforded a more nuanced apprehension of Partition. Earth was made from Bapsi Sidhwa’s Ice Candy Man and Pinjar (2003) from a short story by Amrita Pritam.
Male writers have not been lacking to empathize with the horrors women went through as a result of Partition. In Manik Bandhopadhya’s short story ‘The Final Solution’ the lead character finds no option but to kill her oppressor. Elsewhere in 'Alam's Own House,' by Dibyendu Palit, Raka does not allow her relationship with Alam to blossom. Similarly, Sabira waits for Zakir in Delhi but makes no move to contact him in Pakistan.
Women film makers in India and Pakistan like Deepa Mehta in Earth (1999) and Sabiha Sumar in Khamosh Paani (2003) have afforded a more nuanced apprehension of Partition. Earth was made from Bapsi Sidhwa’s Ice Candy Man and Pinjar (2003) from a short story by Amrita Pritam.
Male writers have not been lacking to empathize with the horrors women went through as a result of Partition. In Manik Bandhopadhya’s short story ‘The Final Solution’ the lead character finds no option but to kill her oppressor. Elsewhere in 'Alam's Own House,' by Dibyendu Palit, Raka does not allow her relationship with Alam to blossom. Similarly, Sabira waits for Zakir in Delhi but makes no move to contact him in Pakistan.
It is fruitful to study these narratives largely by
women about women if only to see how through the agency of their female characters they may be said to install a new psyche of humanism and empathy.
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National Seminar on ‘Assimilating the Change:
Assessing the Role of Gender and Culture in the Post-Colonial World.’
Department of English, Dnyanprassarak Mandal’s College and Research Centre,
Assagao, Bardez, Goa, 6th-7th March 2020. Pic courtesy Susan Deborah.
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