Unmasking the trauma of partition

Abstract

The Partition of India is one of the most traumatic episodes that has occurred on the soil of the Indian sub-continent. The pain of the division and the harrowing circumstances under which millions of refugees crossed the borders are etched so deeply on the minds of the people that the trauma refuses to heal. For a long time, the trauma of the Partition of India has dwelled in the memories and narratives of the survivors of the great divide. However, this pain is hardly acknowledged by the state. “Unmasking the Trauma of Partition” seeks to uncover this trauma of the Partition that haunts the victim in the form of re-occurring memories that are expressed in various ways by the survivors of Partition as portrayed in a rich corpus of Partition literature and films. The aim of this dissertation is to use these literary and visual texts to illuminate the ways through which the victim expresses trauma: for example, through the medium of a wounded body and its movements and through self-constructed narratives. It also examines the role the ‘other’ plays by bearing witness to the traumatic memories expressed by the survivor and explores the possibility of healing through the medium of a sympathetic listener. Lastly, the dissertation aims to discover the trans-generational haunting of the Partition for those who did not witness the event directly. To explore these different facets of how Partition has been experienced, the dissertation relies on the trauma theory discussed by Sigmund Freud and Cathy Caruth and makes use of Marianne Hirsch’s theory of postmemory, a concept that examines the role of family as a space of transmission of trauma. The dissertation reminds us of the importance of acknowledging the wounds of the Partition in order to accept Partition as a history that continues to shape us.