Community, State and Gender: On Women's Agency during Partition

Author(s): Urvashi Butalia

Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 28, No. 17 (Apr. 24, 1993), pp. WS12-
WS21+WS24
Published by: Economic and Political Weekly
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 Community, State and Gender
On Women's Agency during Partition
Urvashi Butalia

Forfeminists, retrieving women's agency-just as retrieving women from history-has meant recovfring strong
outspoken, powerful women who can then form part of the struggle for liberation. However, as exploratio
the experiences of women during Partition show, it is difficult to arrive at general conclusions about wom
history and their agential capacity. Women have often played out nmultiple and overlapping identities
understanding of agency also needs to take into account notions of the moral order which is sought to,bepreser
ed when women act, as well as the mediation of the family, community, class and religion.
The focus of this paper is on the related questions of women's agency and violence. It first looks at part
incidents that took place before Partition in Rawalpindi, in March 1947. The second section examines how
newly formed nation state dealt with the question of women after Partition and the third, through memoirs an
personal accounts, the relationships between women who worked on behalf of the state with the state,an
women they worked with.

HISTORICAL events are difficult to date
in any precise way for their beginnings and
endings are not finite. The Partition of
India into. two countries, India and
Pakistan, is an event that is said to have
taken place in August 1947, yet its begin-
nings go much further back into history
and its ramifications have not yet ended.
For ma,ny of us, who were first and second
generatioln children after Partition, the
event lives on in our minds, not so much
through historicaLrecords as through the
tales that are told and retold, particular-
ly in north Indian families, of the horror
and brutality of the time, the friends and
relatives who continue to live across the
border, the visits to old ancestral homes,
much of\this creating a yearning for a-
mostly mythical-harmonious past where
Hindus and Sikhs and Muslims lived hap-
pily together, something that we con-
tinued to hold on to'in the face of an
increasingly communal present.
So major an event-descriptions of
practically all communal strife hark back
to it ('it was like Partition again' 'we
thought we had seen the worst of it dur-
ing Partition, yet. . .) but so inadequately But the process that has led me to it is,
recorded. What records we have look at
Partition mostly in terms of its constitu-
tional history, its government to govern-
ment debate, its agreements and dis-
agreements between Nehru and Gandhi
and Jinnah, the growing divide between
the Congress and the Muslim League and
so on. Hardly any attempt has been made
to record what ordinary people, on both
sides of thiborder, experienced and went brought up on stories of Partition, stories guilt, that they were reluctant to approach
through. Within a short space of time,
perhaps overnight,-millions of people were us to those very horror$ that they talk
turned into refugees. How did they cope
with this dislocation? What did they have
at hand that equipped them to deal with
the trauma that must have accompanied
the uprooting? How did they rebuild their
lives? What helo did the state provide?
What-part did such resettlement plav in time that I also began to explore my own
reshaping or changing the shape of the family history, which is equally one of
cities or villages where the refugees hiad division, with one relative being left
settled? Indeed, what, if any, have been behind in what became Pakistan, and op-
the implications of this large exodus or in- ting to become a Muslim, and the reopen-
flux of refugees in terms of communal ing of family contact with him after more
strife? These, and a host of other ques- than 40 years. These, and other circum-
tions, remain largely unanswered today. stances, made me increasingly convinced
If these overall experiences remain of the need to attempt to understand how
largely untouched, there are other, lesser 'ordinary' people experienced this event,
known, experiences that lie beneath these, which is what we call history, in the hope
that need further excavation. These are the that this would throw some light on the
experiences of women and children. In a world we live in today. And while not wan-
larger work, researched jointly by Sudesh ting to.valorise or romanticise either the
Vaid and myself, we attempt to construct notion of ordinary people, or that of ex"
a kind of people's history of Partition. But perience, I did feel that both formed part
in this paper, it is the story of women- of the complex whole we call history.
and partially that of children-that I By this, I do not mean to posit the 'raw
would like to look at. Much of what I say experiences' of 'ordinary people' against
below is based on our joint work, but the a category called history,for b9th are not
analysis I make or the conclusions I draw unproblematic concepts. Clearly there is
are, of course, mine. no way that history can inqorporate all
experiences at all times for nich depends
QUESTIONS ABOUT HISTORY
on who writes history, when it is written,
who is written about ano so on. But what
My own trajectory to.this exploration became clear to me ifter 1984-and
has been a peculiar and circuitous one. subsequently by the increasing com-
munalisation of our society-was that cer-
for me, as important as the exploration tain kinds of historical explorations
itself, and one which forms part of this become important at certain times. Why
project. I am not a historian; history is not had the history of Partition been so in-
my subject. But I was led to this work complete, so silent on the experiences of
through a process of political engagement the thousands of people it affected? Was
with history, contemporary communalism this just historiographical neglect or
and activism within what we describe as something deeper: a fear, on the part-of
the 'women's movement. Like most some historians, of reopening a trauma so
Punjabis of my generation, I have been profound, so riven with both pain and
which have,'in some way, inured many of it? This had, for example, been true of the
history of German Nazism. And could it
about. The need to begin to understand be that just as, for many people, 1984
Partition in more depth only became real acted as some sort of catalyst, so also for
to me after the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in many historians, the renewed cxperiences
which hundreds of Sikhs were brutally of communal strife, have surfaced per-
killed, and by the sXubsequent escalation sonal and family ngrratives, especially of
of the Punjab problem. It was around this 1947. in a way that perhaps had not hap-

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pened before, thus forcing many of them my. men are targeted ed and nearly attacked me in Bhagalpur,
to come face to face with Partition again, my world is destroyed or the Hindu women who refused to allow
albeit in a different way. And in doing so, and then water to be given to the dying and wound-
to expand and stretch the definition of I am left to pick up the pieces ed, were certainly exercising a kind of
what we call history? All these were ques- to make a new life
agency. Could we, as feminists, see. such
tions that led me to this work. I do not It matters little if I am a Muslim, Hin-
agency as unproblematic and empower-
claim here to be writing a new, a different du or Sikh
ing. Were these women, not allying
history, but merely to be making an ex- and yet I cannot help my sisters
themseives with the interests of their com-
ploration that is important to me, and that for fear that I may be killed or
munity, however patriarchal, male centred
that they mav be harmed.'
I find difficult to ignore. and oppressive it may have' been? If so,
I am aware, of course, of the many pit- Violence is almost always instigated by
were they not reinforcing patriarchies
falls in such an exercise. Experience itself, men, out its greatest impact is felt by
within theii communities?
for example, is not an unproblematic women. In viokft conflict, it is women
who are raped, women who are widow- In feminist circles I had barely con-
given. Nor is memory, the tool that I am
ed, women whose children and husbands sidered the possibility that ithere could be
by and large working with, sacrosanct.
are sacrificed in the name of national something other than their interests as
Just as experience is mediated through
integrity and unity. And for every fire that
women, that could hold women together.
historical understanding,.so also memory
is lit, it is women whose job it is to pain- The complexity of their roles, the dif-
is subject to selection and mediation.
fully build a future from the ashes... We ficulties of s!ruggle -given these, were ab-
People choose to remember certain things
women will have no part of this madness, sent from muich of our discussions. That
depending on who they are, how they are and we will suffer it no more... Those women's loyalties could have shifted, that
placed, their class, their economic and who see their manhood in taking up arms, they were not undifferentiated and honio-
political circumstances, their gender and can be the protectors of no-one and geneous, that their intere:sts could tie in
indeed the position of the interviewer who nothing.2
with those of their men arid their class-
might act as a catalyst for such memories. Soon after 1984, when I began work on
these dimensions are todav becoming in-
Partition, much of what I found fell con- creasingy important for feminists to ques-
QUESTIONS ABOUI FENLINNISM veniently into these patterns. It was only tion and understand.
A second route that has led me to this much later that a different kind of ques-
It was with these kinds of questions that
exploration was through my work as a tioning began. In 1990, 1 participated, as
I came to the work; on Partition, not with
feminist and an activist in women's cam- part of an investigative team sent by the
any expectation of finding answers, but
paigns. It was this that led me, as indeed People's Union of Democratic Rights
in the hope that the questions would
it does many of us who are engaged in the (PUDR) in a fact-finding into Hindu-
perhaps reveal somne of the complexities
process of recovering women from history, Muslim riots in Bhagalpur where more
of this major event which is so much a
to look specifically at women during Par- than a thousand Muslims were killed.
tition. Why was it that we heard so. little Believing women to be the worst victims,part of our lives, and .n doing so, point
about them? Were they not very much a who also had to face the added threat ofto the ways in which those of us who are
involved in feminist and civil rights ac-
part of the millions who had suffered and sexual assault, this was what I now began
tivities and campaigns, could be better
been made homeless? How had they ex- to look for. What I found was something
rather different. In one instance of the equipped for what is bound to be a long,
perienced the anguish of the division, the and in today's post-masjid context,
euphoria of the newly-forming nation? killing of some 55 Muslims in urban
despairing struggle.
My assumptions were simple-women Bhagalpur, a Hindu woman had tried to
must have been part of the whole process, protect them, but had been stopped by her My paper is divided into three parts.
but we heard so little about them because neighbours (all women) from even giving The first looks at particular incidents that
history, like all other disciplines, is patriar-water to the dying and wounded, even took place before Partition in Rawalpindi
though they begged for it. In another in March 1947. In the second section I
chal in nature, and had thus marginalised
women. instance, we heard that while men broke look at the newly formed nation state and
I believed then-as indeed I do now, but down houses after an orgy of killing, the how it deals with the question of women
with many qualifications-that in times women carried away the bricks, assisted after Partition and in ihe third I exainine,
of communal strife and violence, women them, washed away the blood. A third mainly through memoirs and personial ac-
remained essentially non-violent, an instance took place in a' largely Muslim counts, the relationships between wcmen
village where a group of women almost who worked on behalf of the state, with
assumption that, I think, informs much
of the writing on violence in history, as turned violent when they suspected I was the state and the women they worked
a Hindu. And these were only a few with. Although the questions that need
well as the thinking of feminist groups.
Many feminists assert today that women instances: today we have innumerable discussion are many, I will focus here on-

are essentially non-violent, that in com-
munal strife they are at the receiving end
of violence as its victims, it is their homes' one of women's agency, not only that of
that are destroyed, their bodies violated,
their men killed and they are left with the
task of rebuilding the community. The
twapassages bel'w, one taken from an ac-
tivist pamphlet, provide examples of this.
I am a woman
I want to raise my voice
because communalism affects me
In every communal riot
my sisters are raped
my children are killed
similar examples. ly on the related questions of agency and
The question that faced me now was violence.
their victimhood. With this came other
questions, other problems. For feminists, The Comniuniity
retrieving women's agency-just as retriev-
ing women from history-has meant A resounding silence surrounds the
recovering strong, outspoken, powerful' question of women and Partition. It may
women who can then form part of our seem a truism to say this, but it bears
struggle for liberation. Indeed, in our remembering that at least half of the
anxiety to reclaim powerful women, we millions who were dislocated, killed,
see any kind of agency as positive.3 But uprooted wvere womern. A substantial por-
what I was seeing here was something dif- tion of the task of reconustruction and
ferent: the Muslim women who question- rebuilding fell on women.

Economic and Political Weekly April 24, 1993 WS-13

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 Although not many women Figured in *in the local gurudwara every year. Here, few people can do that ... she had death
the negotiations that preceded and follow- the incidents of that week are recounted in her control and it was only when she
ed the breakup of India into two coun- by survivors and the tales of the women's wanted it that death took her. For nearly
tries, some did figure prominently in thesacrifice occupy a prominent place in the half an hour she did the path ... half an
execution of many of the decisions-in ceremony. It is they who are seen to have hour and then as she spoke her last 'shlok:
particular Mridula Sarabhai, Premvati upheld, by offering themselves up for she also ended. She knew she would
Thapar, Rameshwari Nehru and others. death, and more particularly 'heroic' die... so much control... over death.'

In addition, women experienced this eventdeath, the 'honour' of the commujnity. There are any number of such stories,
in particular ways: thousands of women Here is one such account from a survivor: of both men and women-,although the
on both sides of the newly formed borders ... in Gulab Singh's haveli 26 girls had numbers of women are much iarger than
(estimates range from 25,000 to 29,000 been put aside. First of all my father, Sant those of men-offering themselves up for
Hindu and Sikh women and 12,000 to 15,000 Raja Singh, when he brought his daughter, death, or simply being killed, in an at-
Muslim women) were abducted, raped, he brought her into the courtyard to kill tempt to protect the 'purity' and 'sancti-
forced to convert, forced into marriage, her, first of all he piayed (he did 'ardaas') ty' of the religion. While most able-bodied
forced back into what the two states defin- saying 'sacche ba.dshah' we have not men felt they could go out and fight, and
allowed your Sikhi to get stained, anid in kill if necessary, for the women, children
ed as 'their proper homes' torn apart
order to save it we are going to sacrifice
from their families once during Partition and the old and weak, a martyr's death
our daughters, make them martyrs, please
by those who abducted'them, and again, seemed to be the only option preferable
forgive us..
after Partition, by the state which tried to to conversion to the 'other' religion. A
Then there was one man who used to do second story relates to a different incident
'recover' and 'rehabilitate' them. Untold
coolie work in our village. He moved for- from the same village:
numbers of women, particularly in Sikh
ward and ... caught his [the faiher's] feet
families, were killed ('martyred' is the term One more story fiom our village.... in the
and he said, bhapaji, first you kill me
that is used) by their kinsmen in order to morcha when the military came... no, the
because my knees are swollen and I won't
'protect' them from being converted, military did not come... people were col-
be able to run away and the Musalmaans
lecting... when I went there there was one
perhaps equal numbers of them killed will catch hold of me and make me into
Hari Singh, he signalled to me to get
themselves. The violence women ex- a Musalmaan. So my father immediately
out. .. like this, get out, get out ... he was
perienced took particular forms: there are hit him with his kirpan and took his head
sitting like this and he was signalling to
accounts of innumerable rapes, of women off... [then] Nand Singh Dheer, he said
me that the Musalmaans had cut his
being stripped naked and paraded down to my father, Raja Singa, please martyr
tongue off, he had refused to become a
streets, of their breasts being cut off, of me first because my sons live in Lahore...
Musalmaan. Then we left the morcha and
their bodies being carved with religious do you think I will allow the Musalmaans
we all went to the banks of the river where
symbols of the other community.4-And to cut this beard of mine and niake me go
we collected. There was a well there. . . at
then there are other, less obvious, traumas: to Lahore as a sheikh. For this reason kill
the well Sardarni Gulab Kaur... in my
for many, particularly middle class me. My father then killed him. He killed
presence said 'sacche badshah: let us be
women, the dislocation meant that the op- two and the third was my sister Maan able to save our girls... this incident of
tion of marriage, supposedly a part of Kaur.. my sister came, and sat in front
25 girls of our household had already
'normal' everyday society, was closed off,of my father, and I stood there, right next taken place [25 girls had been killed]...
to my father, clutching on to his kurta as
and they had to live alone, or as 'spinsters' so she knew that Sant Raja Singh had kill-
children do, I was clinging to him .., but
with their families, others were widowed, ed his daughters and other women of his
when my father swung the kirpan--'-!vaar
along with losing their homes and posses- household... those that are left, we
kita' perhaps some doubt or fear came
sions, and were left to build lives on their should not risk their lives and allow them
into his mind, or perhaps the kirpan got
own, something that many of them were to be taken away... so, at the well, after
stuck in her dupatta ... no one can say...
ill-equipped for. Several had to spend their having talked among themselves and
it was such a frightening, such a fearful
decided, they said, we are thirsty, we need
lives in women's homes, permanent scene. Then my sister, with her own hands
water, so the Musalmaans took them to
refugees, and many are still alive today, moved her dupatta aside and then he
the well. . . I was sitting with my mother,
their stories still untold. swung the kirpan and her head and neck
this incident of the 25 women had taken
When we began our investigations-in rolled off and fell. . . there. . . far away.
place, we had come out of the morcha...
a rather random way,-we were led, first I crept downstairs, weeping, sobbing and
so sitting at the well, Mata Lajwanti, who
of all, to the incidents of March 1947, all the while I could hear the regular swing
was also called S4rdarni Gulab Singh, sit-
some months before Partition,,that took and hit of the kirpans... twenty-five girls
ting at the well, she said two words, she
place in a number of Sikh villages around were killed, they were cut. One girl, my
did ardaas in two words, saying 'sacche
Rawalpindi-Thamali, Thoa Khalsa, taya's daughter-in-law, who was preg-
badshah', it is to save Sikhi that we are of-.
Doberan, Choa Khalsa, Kallar, Mator and hant... .somehow she didn't get killed and
fering up our lives. . . forgive us and ac-
others. Here, during an eight-day period later my taya's son shot her with a
cept our martyrdom. . . and saying those
from March 6 to 13 much of the Sikh pistol ... [but she] was saved. She told us,
words, she jumped into the well, and some
kill me, I will not survive... I have a child
population was killed, houses were eighty women followed her,.. they also
in my womb... she was wounded in the
decimated, gurudwaras destroyed (figures jumped in. The well filled up coniplete-
stomach, there was a large hole from
of people killed are in the region of ly... one woman whose name is Basant
which blood was flowing. Then my
4,000 to 5,000).5 In one of these villages, Kaur, six children born of her womb died
mother and my 'phupad' sat together and
Thoa Khalsa, some 90 women threw in that well, but she survived. She jumped
Harnam Kaur said to them-her name
themselves into a well in order to preserve in four times but the well had filled up...
was Harnam Kaur- he said give me some
the 'sanctity' and 'purity' Qf their religion, she would jump in, then come out, then
opium. We arranged for opium, peoplc
as otherwise they would have had to face jump in again... she would look at her
used to eat it those days. . . in a ladle we
children, at herself... till today I think
conversion. A small community of sur- mixed opium with saliva... She said the
she is alive.'
vivors from these villages still lives in 'japji saab path'. . . just as the 'japji path
Delhi and keeps alive the memory of the bhog' took place so did her bhog. Com- For several days aftfr these villages were
deaths by holding a remembrance service pletely as if she was prepared tor det. surrounded .... and under attack, the people

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 had been hiding out in what they felt were statistics we have are both shocking and may have been a choice, for others the
'safe' places: large houses and gurud- horrifying: in Doberan 70 women were ab- 'decision' must have been one they felt
waras. Negotiations were current at the ducted, in Kahuta this figure was as high 'compelled' to take' because of the par-
time for the release of the villagers in ex-as 500, in Harial 40, in Tainch 30, in ticular circumstances of the situation.
change for money and arms. In Thoa Bamali 105, in Rajar 95 and it is said that Here, the women are thus simultane-
Khalsa in particular,-even during the time in Rawalpindi alone about 400-500 ously agents and victims, and I would like
that the women and children had been women were abducted.9 Not only this, then to pose a further question. On whose
sheltering in the gurudwara, several hadabducted women were often sold from behalf were they acting: on their own, or
been killed by their families, who fearedhand to hand and were ill used by their on behalf of their commttnity? In this
danger and conversion. Thus for the 90 captors. Anis Kidwai records: particular instance it seems, to be the
women who threw themselves into a well,
We have considerable evidence before us honour of the community that seems to
the step they took was one for which an to show that 75 per cent of the girls are be at work. It is perhaps for this reason
'atmosphere' for want of a better still (probably in 1949) being sold from that this particular kind of agency, this
word-had already been created by the one man to another. frhesej girls of tender specific kind of violence, becomes some-
community in the preceding week. It is years have not been able to settle down thing to be celebrated as 'heroic'. As we
against this backdrop that we need to see anywhere, nor will they be able to settle shall see in the next section, a different
their decision. Basant Kaur, a grand- down for many years. Their youth is be- kind of agency (when women act on their
mother today, was present in Thoa Khalsa ing sold for a few thousand, and lustful own behalf) becomes a subject for collec-
when the women took the decision to men, having satisfied their lust for a while, tive censorship, something to be covered
drown themselves. She remembers the begin to think of the monetary benefit by a veil of silence and something that
time, after the incident, when they were that could come from their sale.|"
calls for the state to assume the role of
finally rescued by the military and taken But what of the women who took their the patriarch and the family. But before
to Rawat: own lives, or who 'offered' themselves up I go on to discuss that I want to look
They brought us there. From there... you for death? Can we see them only as vic- briefly at the question of violence.
know there was no place... nothing to tims? Or did they themselves play some This act of mass drowning can also be
eat, some people were eating close by but part in the decision to take their own lives?
where could I give the children anything seen as a violent one. If women are, as is
A glance at the particuiar context of Thoa often believed, essentially non-violent,
from... 1 had barely a few paise... my
Khalsa yields some interesting insights. how do we explain such an act? I would
elder son had a 'duvanni' (two annas) with
The village was under attack for eight like to suggest here that the manner in
him, we thought we would use that .., my
days, from March 6 to March 13, the day which these 90 women chose to die was
brother's children were also hungry ... but
then they said the duvanni was no good
on which the mass drowning took place, no less violent, although certainly dif-
('khoti')... [weeping] such difficulties... and for these six days practically everyone ferent, from the generally visible violence
nothing to eat, we had to fill their in the village was aware of the discussions that formed part of Partition. But so
stomachs. . . today they would have been and negotiations that were going on. If patriarchal are notions of violence, that
ranis... so many of them, jethanis, we are to believe the accounts of the sur- we only see it as relating to men. And so
children... I was the youngest. . . now Ivivors, the decision to drown themselves communalised have such notions become,
sit at home and mny children are outwas taken by the women, and was spear- that we only see violence as relating to the
working and I keep telling them these headed by Sardarni Gulab Kaur, otherwise 'other' the 'aggressor'. This obscutis
stories... they are stories after all .., andknown as Lajjawanti. It is t-rue that most several things: many women of Hindu and
you tell them and tell them until you lose of the survivors we spoke to are male, but Sikh communities must have/ seen their
consciousness... 8 even in Basant Kaur's account, while sheown men as being perpetrators of violence
Stories of this kind of mass suicide, or ofgrieves over the loss of lives, she never
towards them: for just as there were
women being killed by their own families,once questions the decision af the women.
'voluntary' suicides, so also there were
are legion. How do we read these ac- Can we therefore ask that when they took mass murders. Equally, for men of their
counts? Are the women being spoken ofthe decision to jump into the well the
own communities, women's potential for
here agents or victims? Can the act of women of Thoa Khalsa were not mere vic-
violence (which the Thoa Khalsa incident
mass death by jumping into a well be seentims but that they were acting upon some
provides an instance of), or their agency
as a violent one or not? These are not easykind of a perceived notion of the good of
in this respect, has to be contained, to be
questions to answer. their community, that they saw their act circumscribed. They cannot therefore be
At one level the. assumptions about as being part of this? That in doing so named as violent beings, as having agen-
women's non-violence and their being vic- they shared, in some way, the values of the
tial capacity. This is why their act has to
tims are true.enough. We can read this in- men, that the honour of the community
be invested with valour: women have to
to whatever accounts and records we havt lies in 'protecting' its women from the
be kept within their 'aukat' that is one
When we look at the women in Punjab patriarchal violence (for example rape and that defines them as non-violent.
during Partition we see, quite simply, the sexual assault, or worse conversion) of the
violence they suffered. The abduction and other community; the natural protectors
I want to suggest that violence is nof
rape is part of this (see below for a detail- here eare the patriarchs, the men, but at only the killing and looting that is so
ed discussion), as are the deaths at the much a part of communal strife, but that
this particular historical juncture, sur- acts such as these (the mass drowning) are
hands of their own families and often at rounded as they are by hordes of poten-
their own hands. Many women were also violent acts, whose mmifications,
tial killers, they are unable to offer such particularly in terms of their symbolic im-
humniliated in different ways-their breasts protection. The women thus, one can
portance, are, if anything, much wider and
and noses were cut off, their bodies brand- perhaps say, could well have consented to
ed with signs and symbols of the 'other' their own deaths, in order to preserve the
deeper than those of what one might,
rather cynically, term the 'routine' violence
religion, pregnant women were forcibly honour of the community. There is, as
aborted, and often women were made to there must be in all such patriarchal 'con- of communal strife. This, I would submit,
is part of the violence of communities, in
strip naked and were paraded through the sent' on the part of women, an element
crowvded streets of towns and cities. What of choice here. But while for some this
which both men and women are involved,
and indeed part of the patriarchies that

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are embedded in these communities,
which both men and women help to build
and sustain.
Given this, one might ask why the myth
of women's non-violence persists. In many
of our Partition interviews we found that
women had been quite upfront in taking
up arms and fighting, although these were
isolated incidents. They also formed part
of the Muslim League National Guard,
which was said to have been instrumental
in the Rawalpindi killings. But these are
the direct acts of violence. In the remem-
brance rituals for the Thoa Khalsa inci-
dent today, it is women who become the
symbols of the honour of the family and
community, and their act of offering
themselves up for death becomes an
honourable one, not only because they
have 'saved' themselves from conversion
to the 'other' religion, but also because by
doing so, they have saved the community
from dishonour and 'dilution' of its
purity, which could have happened only
through them. Divested of violence and
of agency, this act can then be located in
the comfortable realm of victimhood and
non-violence. In the next section, which
deals with the state, I will attempt to
explore another dimension of the question
of women's agency and violence.
II
The State
I would like to start this second section
of my paper with a quote from a news-
paper report from March 1947 which
relates to the incident above.
The story of 90 women of the little village
of Thoa Khalsa, Rawalpindi district...
who drowned themselves by jumping into
a well during the recent disturbances has
stirred the imagination of the people of
Punjab. They revived the Rajput tradition
of self-immolation when their menfolk
were no longer able to defend them. They
also followed Mr Gandhi's advice to
and Anis Kidwai makes a reference to
Indian women that in certain circum-
this being initiated by Mridula Sarabhai
stances even suicide was morally preferable
though it does seem doubtful that
to submission.
Sarabhai could have persuaded both
. . . About a month ago, a communal army
governments to do this.
armed with sticks, tommy guns and hand-
grenades surrounded the village. The
villagers defended themselves as best they
could... but in the end they had to raise
the white flag. Negotiations followed. A
sum of Rs 10,000 was demanded... it was
promptly paid. The intruders gave solemn
assurance that they would not come back.
The- promise was broken the next day.
They returned to demand more money
and in the process hacked to death 40 of
the defenders. Heavily outnumbered, they
were unable to resist the onslaught. Their
women held a hurried meeting and cop-
cluded that all was lost but their honour.
Ninety women jumped into the small welL-
WS-16 Economic and Political Weekly April 24, 1993
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Only three were saved-there was not Irates. (* footnote about persons equal-
enough water in the well to drown them ling women, no records of men).
all. (3) The primary responsibility for
-The Statesman, March 15, 1947. recovery of abducted persons will rest with
While one kind of violence was the local police who must put full effort
valorised-and continues to be so in the in this matter. Good work done by police
remembrance rituals that are performed officers in this respect will be rewarded. by
in gurudwaras every year-and women's promotion or cash awards (*** footnote
'martyrdom' spoken of in glowing terms, about exaggerated figs, rewards, trading
another became a cause for state concern achievements).
and was treated rather differently. On (4) MEOs [military evacuation officers]
will render every assistance by providing
December 6, 1947- a bare three-and-a-
guards in the transit camps and escorts for
half months after Partition the two
the transport of recovered persons from
newly-formed nations came to an agree-
the Transit camp to their respective
ment on the question of 'recovering' those
Dominions.
women who had been abducted', and
(5) Social workers will be associated ac-
'rehabilitating' them in their 'native' tively with the scheme. They will look after
places. This vocabulary of recovery, the camp arrangements and receive the ab-
rehabilitation, homeland was actually a ducted persons in their own Dominions.
euphemism for returning Hindu and Sikh They will also collect full information
women to the Hindu and Sikh fold, and required about persons to be recovered
Muslim women to the Muslim fold. On and supply it to the inspector general of
this point-that this was what was to be police and the local SP.
done-both countries were agreed. Thus (6) The DLOs will set up transit carnp!
even for a self-defined secular nation in consultation with the local Deputy
(India) the natural place/homeland for Commissioners and the public workers
women was defined in religious, indeed and supply informationn regarding ab-
communal terms, thereby pointing to a ducted persons to be recovered.
dissonance/disjunction between its pro- (7) Co-ordination between the different
agencies working in the district will be
fessedly secular rhetoric (although sectxlar
secured by a weekly conference between
was also really understood in religious
the superintendent of police, and local
terms) and its actively communal (i e, reli-
MEO officer, the district liaison officer
gious) identification of women. Women
and the deputy commissioner. At this
who had been taken away by the 'other'
meeting progress achieved will be reviewed
community had to be brought back to
and every effort will be made to solve any
their 'own' community, their 'own' difficulty experienced."
homeland: both concepts that were Although the terms of the agreement
defined for women by the men of the refer carefully and consistently (except in
respective countries. They did not have a Clause I) to 'persons'. what is being
choice. discussed here is the fate of women. This
The agreement arrived at between the is quite clear from the activity that
two nations was known as the Inter Domi- followed, where large-scale rescue efforts
nion Treaty, which was later enacted as an were mounted to locate and rehabilitate
act of parliament, the former possibly women. Little attention was paid to men
among the first of the agreements between in this regard, presumably because they
were able to make their own decisions. I
the otherwise two hostile nations. The
have been able to find no record at all of
genesis of the treaty was not quite clear
similar recovery of men, and although
there was some discussion on children
(because clearly they complicated the
picture considerably) it was fairly cursory,
given particularly that they were among
the foremost victims of such dislocation,
The terms of the treaty were clear:
violence and trauma. Anis Kidwai does
women on both sides of the border who
mention that some sort of pressure was
had been abducted were to be forcibly
brought to bear on Muslim families in
recovered and restored to their families.
Delhi to move to Pakistan, but this was
Some of the clauses were as follows:
quite different from legislating on the
(I) Every effort must be made to recover
and restore abducted women and children
issue, which is what was done for women.
within the shortest time possible. The key officers who were charged with
(2) Conversions by persons abducted the responsibility of rescuing abducted
after March 1947 (*) will not be recognisedwomen were themselves women. Mridula
and all such persons must be restored to Sarabhai was put in overall charge of the
their respective Dominjons. The wishes of operation and assisting her (or otherwise
the persons concerned are irrelevant and involved in the operation) were a number
nonsequently no statemPents of such of other women: Rameshwari Nehru,
persons should be recorded before tnagis-Sushila Nayyar, Premvati Thapar, Bhag
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Mehta, Kamlaben Patel, Damyanti ween the two Dominions that in such cages several hands. After seeing so many men's
Sahghal, Anis Kidwai and others. These they should be forcibly evacuated.'2 faces, this daughter of Hindustan, how
women social workers were assisted by the But forcible evacuation was not that will she ever look at the face of her
police of the country they worked in, as parents, her husband?"3
easv. Sometimes the women resisted-out
well as (in the case of India) by Indian The women's fear was real. Their non-
of fear of a second dislocation, a repeat
workers. Every time a rescue operation acceptance by Hindu families became a
of the trauma, another uprootirtg, or fear
was to be mounted, a woman officer was major problem: suddenly the state, so
of non-acceptance, and equally because
required to go along, accompanied by the quick to come forward with its 'recovery'
many of them were actually happy and
police and others. In the eyes of the state, was at a loss to know what.to do for the
settled in their new situations, while at
the women were better placed to handle re-integration of these women into the
others they were happy to return. While
the delicacy of the situation, and to 'per- new nation, which became, in the eyes of
the women officials charged with the
suade' those who were reluctant to give up the state, synonymous almost with their
task of rescuing abducted women were
their new homes, to return to the national- families. Anis Kidwai, Kamlaben Patel,
recruited because it was felt that they
parental fold. 'Persuasion' was clearly a Damyanti Sahgal, all three women who
would be better able to persuade reluctant
euphemism, since the agreement had worked with abduied women, point to
women to return, being women, they also
categorically stated that the women's this. Several things were at work here:
understood only too well the fear and
wishes were of no consequence. The families had filed complaints about
dilemmas faced by those they were re-
feeling that women would be better missing relatives, particularly missing
covering. Anis Kidwai, who worked as a
qualified to handle such a 'delicate' task women, but between the filing of corn-
social worker in refugee camps in Delhi
was also shared by some key women (Pad- plaints and the actual recovery, months,
sums up the dilemma of many of these
mini Sen, Mridula Sarabhai) who insisted sometimes years, would pass. In the in-
women poignantly. I quote from her at
that women should be sent to rescue terim the women would often have mar-
some length:
women. ried, or become mothers, or simply settled
In all of this, sometires a girl would be
That the state was fully aware of the in their new homes. Anis Kidwai says:
killed or she w6uld be wounded. The good
delicacy of the task is pointed out by the "But now a different problem arose. The
'maal' would be shared among the police
following: the 16th meeting of the Parti- and the army, the second rate stuff would majority of the girls did not want to go
tion Council had decided, in early 1948, go to everyone else. And then these girls back."4 While this was true for some of
that both Dominions should take charge would go from one hand to another and the women, where their families were con-
of refugees in their areas and that no then another and after several hours would cerned, they faced a different dilemma.
turn up in hotels to grace their decor, or
refugees should be forced to return to their Some of the women were now 'soiled',
they would be handed' over to police
own areas unless and until it was clear that they had lived with, married, borne
complete security had been restored andofficers in some places to please them. children to the men of the 'other' com-
the state was ready to resume respon- And every single one of these girls, munity, they had therefore 'diluted' the
sibility for them. But for women they said:because she had been the victim of a 'purity' of the community, how could they
saazish, she would begin to look upon her now be taken back? And what was to be
The Ministry of Relief and Rehabilitation
'rescuer'. peiforce as an angel of mercy done with the visible results of their
has set up a Fact Finding Branch in con-
who had,/in this time of loot or killing, impurity, their sexuality, i e, their children?
sultation with the Red Cross, an Enquiry
rescued,her, or fought for her, and brought So acute was the problem that both
and Search Committee with the special
her away. And when this man would cover Gandhi and Nehru had to issue repeated
objective of tracing abducted women.
her naked body (whose clothes had appeals to Hindus, asking them not to
Already 23,000 names have been given to
become the loot of another thief) with his refuse to take the women back into the
Pakistan. For the recovery of abducted
own loinclbth or banian, when he would family fold. In a public appeal made in
women the government depends at present
put these oii her, at that moment she January 1948 Nehru said: "I am told that
on the active assistance of military
would forget her mother's slit throat, her
authorities, district authorities, women sometimes there is an unwillingness on the
father's bloody body, her husband's
and social wvorkers and prominent part of their relatives to accept those girls
trembling corpse-she would forget all
persons. and women[who had been abducted] in
this and instead thank the man who had
Concerted efforts continue to be made their homes. This is a most objectionable
saved her. And why should she not do
for the recovery of abducted and forcibly and wrong attitude to take up. These girls
this? Rescuing her from the beast this
converted persons. On December 6 a con- good man has brought her to his home.
and women require our tender and loving
ference of both Dominions was held at He is giving her respect, he offers to marrycare and their relatives should be proud
Lahore and it was decided that both her. How can she not become his slave for to take them back and give them every
Dominions should make special efforts tolife? help" 15
recover these women. More than 25,000 And Gandhi said: "I hear women have
And it is only much later that realisation
enquiries about abducted women who are this objection that Hindus are not willing
dawns that among the looters this man
in Pakistan have been received by the to accept back the recovered women
Women's Section of the Ministry of Relief alone could not have been the innocent,
because they say that they have become
and Rehabilitation... nearly 2,500 have among the police just he could not have
been the gentleman. But all were tarred impure. I feel this is a matter of great
already been rescued... the main obstruc-
with the same brush. Each one had played shame. That woman is as pure .s the girls
tion facing our rescue parties today is the
with life and death to 'save the honour' who are sitting by my side. And if any one
fear harboured by the majority of ab-
of some young women, and thousands of of those recovered women should come
ducted Hindu women that they may not
be received again into the fold of their mothers and sisters must be cursing these to me, then I will give them as much
supposedly 'brave men' who had abducted respect and honour as I accord to these
society, and the Muslims being aware of
this misgiving have played upon the minds their daughters. young maidens"'6
of these unfortunate women to such an But by the time this realisttion came, it For several years afterwards-indeed
extent that many of them are reluctant to was too late. Now there was nowhere for well into 1955-the fate of these women
come away from their captors back tc her to go: by this time she is about to was of considerable concern to the two
India. It has been mutually agreed bet- become a mother, or she has been through
governments. Legislative assembly records

Economic and Political Weekly April 24. 1993 WS-17

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for the years following 1947 show an West Bengal) comes back to Kapoor and after three menstrual cycles, and hence her
ongoing concern and debate on how many mocks his concern for being limited by family could accept her back. Similarly,
women had been rescued, where the certain 'geographical considerations', we were told in one of our interviews that
largest number of recoveries had taken while Guha, also from West Bengal, stories were published which openly ac-
place, why had other places done so badly asserts: "abduction is one of the most cepted that Sita had had sexual congress
and so on. lnterestingly, although it was abominable offences a man can commit with Ravana, despite which she remained
women who were key in the actual and in the matter of honour of women, pure.
recovery operations, questions were raised there cannot be any question of religion The state did not, of course, enter into
mainly by men. The fact that fewer Hindu or nationality..:"9 the task of recovery entirely on its own.
women were recovered from Pakistan than And yet, these were the very questions Just as families filed reports of missing
Muslim women from lndia became a that dictated the nature of the whole relatives, so also they recorded missing
matter of great concern and figures on enterprise: questions of religion and na- women. Interestingly, many of the reports
how many had been recovered, or concern tionality. The women were Hindus and were filed by men, and later it was the men
about the slow rate of recovery came up Muslims and they had to be brought back who often refused to take women back.
often. For example, in anger to a question to their Hindu and Muslim nations. There It was perhaps the enormity of these
in parliatnlent the following figures were are close parallels in the notions of numbers that acted as a pressure on the
given for the year 1952: from April 1951 honour as defined by the community and state to take up the task of recovery. In-
to the end of January 1952 1,703 family on the one hand and the state on terestingly enough, although both coun-
recoveries had been made in India as the other. For the survivors among com- tries traded numbers to see who had suc-
against 629 in Pakistan.'7 munities and families where women were ceeded in flushing out more women and
In the discussion that followed the 'martyred' or chose to become 'martyrs' 'restoring' them to ,their 'families' (the
presenting in parlaiment of the Abducted they (the women) were taking upon them- word often became synonymous with the
Persons (Recovery and Restoration) selves the task of preserving the 'honour' nation), there was no disagreement bet-
Bill-which later became an act-one of the community, perhaps the biggest ween them on the necessity of the task,
J J Kapoor from Uttar Pradesh made an blow to which would have been forcible although often their functionaries felt dif-
interesting statement. He said: conversion-a transgression or a blatant ferently. We have seen some of the am-
I extend to this Bill my wholehearted sup- violation of the boundaries and spaces bivalences in the attitudes of the women
port arid' I congratulate the great delineated for themselves by the two social workers (and will see more in detail
humanitarian consideration which has ac- communities Hindus (and Sikhs) and below) but Kamlaben records that often
tuated it in bringing forward this measure Muslims, and equally importantly, for the hefty Sikhs would come outside camps
and also for setting before the country a spaces delineated for the women by each and weep, asking that their women, who
very high standard. For what could be of the communities. These family codes had become 'pure' by tasting Amrit
considered to be of greater humanitarian were paralleled by the codes of the state (Muslim women whom the state had
utility than the work of restoring abducted
where the women themselves did not, by rescued) be restored to them, the func-
children to the lap of weeping parents and
and large, necessarily take on the task of tionaries would respond that they were
restoring abducted sisters to loving wives
holding up the honour of the 'nation' (or only doing their jobs, which they would
and abducted wives to pining husbands?
if they did, we have no record of it). But lose if they did not return the women to
Of all the crimes and sins that had been
the state invested them with this, their :heir rightful homes.
committed during the horrible days that
followed the ill-fated Partition of the
rescue or recovery was seen as a 'humanit- If these were the problems posed by ab-
country in 1947, 1 think no greater sin arian'
and task, an 'honourable' enterprise and ducted women, the children (on whom I
no greater crime was perhaps committed so on. Thus the patriarchal family and the touch only briefly here) born of their
than the one relating to the abduction of patriarchal state both came close in their unions with men of the 'other' community
innocent children and women, and it must perception of women's role. While women posed quite another. Throughout this
be our sacred duty to restore abducted per- carry the honour, they do not have a paper I have dealt only with experiences
sons to their original families irrespective choice. from one side of the border, and largely
of the period of abduction... We must give But while there was a similarity in how the experiences of Sikh and Hindu
due credit to the devoted band of workers the state and the community saw women women. For the Sikh and Hindu com-
who have rendered yeoman service and as carrying the honour of both, there were munities, and indeed here they had clear
above all to our sister, Shrimati Mridula also differences in how both approached support from the state, the children born
Sarabhai whose services in this direction the question of women. of these unions somehow posed bigger
have been so very conspicuous. For the community it was the woman's problems. The women could be, in jnany
There are, however, one or two things to sexual purity that became important, as ways, 'repurified' because they had been
which I would like to draw the attention
also her community and/or religious iden- forced into their situations-and brought
of the honourable Minister. One of them
tity. For the state, because the women the back into the family, religious and
is that Uttar Pradesh seems to me to have
state was rescuing, were already in a state national folds, but a child of a Muslim
been dragged within the purview of this
of sexual 'impurity' having often lived father and Hindu mother made things
Bill because in the chart that has been sup-
with their captors, this problem had to be more difficult. In the debates that follow-
plied to us by the government, I find that
pushed aside, and their religious identity ed on this subject, suggestions were made
during the period commencing from Ist
January 1951 riAht up to this date, theremade paramount. Hence Gandhi's exhor- that such children should be treated as war
tations
has not been a single case of any abducted to families to take their sisters and babies and left behind in the country in
person having been recovered in UP. Not daughters back. Gandhi's and Nehru's which they were born. Kamiaben says that
only that, even in 1950 there were only two were not the only exhortations: the when she and others argued that where
cases. Thus it does not appear to be ministry of relief and rehabilitation iswar
said
babies were concerned, it was the
necessary at all to tarnish the fair name to have issued a pamphlet which quoted mothers who stayed behind after soldiers
of UP." Manu to establish that a woman who had left, here what was being proposed was
In the ensuing discussion further figures had sexual involvernent with someone different. Other solutions were then sug-
are traded, another MP (this time from other than her husband, became purified gested: infants could come along with

WS-t8 Econiomic and Political Weekly April 24, 1993

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women to the camps, however, if their For the post-colonial, deeply contested, complexities and different aspects here
families objected, the children would have fragile and vulnerable state, this was an that we can perhaps only begin to explore
to stay behind in the camps and the social exercise in restoring its legitimacy. Indeed, the meanings that may lie there. For while
workers would have to find homes for I would even suggest that the legitimacy the attempt to uncover these experiences
them; older children were meant to stay of the state at this time depended very is one sort of exercise, it is also important
with their 'natural'- fathers, and children much on this venture of the recovery of to ask what tools we have at hand to begin
in the womb would clearly have to be done what had been lost: prestige, women and this exploration. There are very few 'of-
away with. Damyanti Sahgal points out perhaps property. Thus the state acted on ficial records' or 'facts and figures' that
that the process of getting rid of childrenits own behalf and on behalf of those are available hcre. And indeed what we are
in the womb--safaya' she calls it (in communities who appealed to it and in- dealing with is what lies 6eneath and
Jullundar this was known as 'medical vested it with agency on their behalf. The beyond these facts and figures: the sub-
treatment' was taken up by the state, and situation was an extraordinary one: in a texts that lie in personal diaries, memoirs,
specific hosptials were targeted (she names sense male autbority within the family accounts of survivors. It is these that add
Kapur hospital in Delhi) which, according had collapsed, families had been unable the 'other' dimension to history. I do not
to her, made their fortune on such clean- to protect their own, so they appealed to mean to say that these voices are in any
ing operations. And this out of a special the state. And for the self legitimation of way more sacrosanct than those of official
budget put aside by the state, and at a time the state and the community, the question records, merely that in attempting to
when abortion was not yet legal in In- of gender became crucial. approximate the 'truth' of any situation,
dia.20 Kamlaben Patel corroborated this. What about the women who resisted, it is at least as important to examine these
She said that pregnant women were taken who did not want to return? Here, I would voices as it is to look at records. For rny
to Jullundur where they were kept for like to go back to the question of agency. part, I have found this a process that raises
periods of up to three or four months- Can we perhaps say that in this extra- several key questions which I feel deserve
enough time for an abortion-and given ordinary situation, removed from the to be asked.
what she referred to as 'medical simultaneously coercive and supportive Apart from a few sporadic discussions
treatment'." context of their communities, and often on the fate of the abducted woman, most
A conference was called in Lahore to of their class, those women who resisted records are quite silent on the experiences
discuss the problem of what to do with were acting as women, as mothers, and of others. We know little about the women
children born of mixed unions. It was were exercising agency on their own who took their own lives, or about those
generally felt that it would be better to behalf? Unlike, say the women of Thoa who 'offered' themselves up for sacrifice,
leave such children with their fathers. Khalsa.who acted as members of their and of how they arrived at such decisions.
However, at Mridula Sarabhai's insistence, community. These abducted women were Equally we know little of how many
women were allowed to. take their children in a sense in a 'no-man's land' and thus women actpally wanted to be 'rescued',
with them to Jullundujr where they would when they acted or attempted to resist how many were ready to face a second
keep them with themselves for 15 days being8restored to their original families, trauma, a second dislocation, and what
after which they could decide whether they were exercising a different kind of their feelings were about the larger
they wanted to keep them or not. Anis agency? discourse that occupied the space around
Kidwai tells the story of a young woman The silence that has surrounded these them, the discourse on 'nationhood', the
who could not decide whether she wanted issues is part of the genefal silence on the
state, on 'freedom'. Were they aware of it
to keep her child or not. Eventually she pain and trauma of Partition. At the same at all? Did they feel involved in it? Their
left the child with Kidwai, making her time the silence about women's experien- stories, which are as much part of history
promise that she would look after it and ces specifically suggests something dif- as any others, can today only be recover-
keep the mother informed of where the ferent: for what are at stake here are not ed-and that too partially-through ac-
child was given. But, as she says, although only questions of state, but also questions counts of survivors or through memoirs
they made such promises, they were of identity, of agency, of religion and of and writings from the time.
seldom able to keep them.22 sexuality. As far as the Indian state was But such accounts are also incomplete:
At this stage we can perhaps ask: why concerned, women were defined in terms we know for example, that the violence of
did the question of the recovery of women of their religious identities (an unusual Partition also included sexual assault and
become so crucial to Indian state? Why stance for a su'pposedly secular state to rape on thousands of women. Many were
did families, more particularly men, bring take)-they were either Hindu or Muslim. killed, thousands were abducted and were
pressure upon the state to launch such And the children of mixed unions, apart untraceable, there were any number of
large-scale recovery operations? I would from being visible reminders of these, did voluntary and forced abortions and
like to hazard that many things were at not fit easily into either category. The separations from the children born of
stake here. For men, who in more 'nor- women, however, saw themselves differ- rape. Accounts of survivors mention these
mal' times would have seen themselves as ently-as members of a community, as things but only in a fairly general sort of
protectors of women, the fact that many Sikh or Hindu, or Muslim, as mothers, way, for rape, forcible marriage, abduc-
of 'their' women had been abducted (no as women-and acted upon these dif- tion, all of these are still difficult to speak
matter that some women may have chosen ferent identities at different times. It is
of,to
to articulate, because of the stigma
to go, they had to be seen as being for- the women themselves that I now want to they continlue to carry. Women will not
cibly abducted), meant a kind of collapse, turn. speak of them, nor will families. Con-
almost an emasculation of their own versely, the accounts of women's 'heroism'
agency. Unable to be equal to this task, III do not have to be hidden: they can be
they now had to hand it over to the state, talked about. While the latter can then be
The Women
the new patriarch, the new super, the new recovered in some ways through accounts
national, family. As the central patriarch, How do we begin to understand the ex- of survivors, there is little possibility of
the state now provided coercive backing periences of these women and children recovering anything substantial on the
for restoring and reinforcing patriarchy which have remained shrouded in silence? former. This paper is perforce silent on
within .the family. It seems to me that there are so many these.

Economic and Political Weekly April 24, 1993 WS-l9

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 What of the other accounts: of the pride and righteousness. "Shame on these ben tells the story of the women's in-
women who acted on behalf of the state women", they would say. But had they sistence in parliament that they be allowed
and wont into both countries to rescue the ever tried to understand the predicament to be part of the search committees, and
abducted women? How did they feel? In of these women: an oppressed woman, yet does not really question the rationale
these we are forjunate to have some one who has always lived in purdah, one for the state's concerted attempts at res-
written accounts and memoirs, and some who has, before this, not looked at a man cuing the women. She recounts how the
interviews. Kamiaben Patel, one of the of- other than her father and her brothers, two sides (mostly men on the two sides)
ficers who worled under Mridula Sara- and who now believes herself to be a loose perceived this:
bhai-who had overall charge of the woman, a bad woman, because she has Women were exchanged for women,
rescue operations-said that in the work lived with another man for months, she politically they were recovered and ex-
of the recovery of abducted women she has lost her honour.. .who will take her changed, the fewer we give away from
felt 'sandwiched' caught between being an back?".26 here, the more popular we will be; our
officer of the government and being a For the state the rescue operations were political workers also had the same feel-
woman who felt for the women she was premised on the assumption that women ing, because the fewer you give away the
rescuing. But, she went on to say, "... of a particular religion should be restored more popular you will be in Punjab and
worked as a woman, not Muslim or the more your status would go up, and
into the fold of that religion. Anis Kidwai,
Hindu, but as a woman and it was as a the same thing would happen here...28
however, questions how much meaning
woman that I felt for other women-it religion could have for women, parti- She goes on to describe a particular
didn't matter if she was Hindu or Muslim, cularly some of the Muslim women. She case in court (all disputed cases had to
if she had been abducted, she had to be says: "And what does she know of come up before a Tribunal and Kamiaben
returned to her relatives. It was because religion anyway? At least men have the went to appear on behalf of India in this
of this that sometimes I had to fight with opportunity to go to the mosque, and one) which relates to seven women and
my own people.. "23 pray, but the women, Muslims have never their children who did not want to be
But when she learnt from Mridula allowed them to stand up. The moment rescued. When Kamlaben went to appear,
Sarabhai and Rameshwari Nehru that they see young women, their eyes becomeher Pakistani counterpart, also a woman,
some women were refusing to return to full of blood: run away, they tell them, Rabiya Karigar, came along to offer her
their 'homes', that they had even changed go off. What are you doing here...the mnoral support as a woman. Kamlaben's
their religion, Kamlaben said "When I culprit is within themselves,. but it is the iccount:
learnt that some women were refusing to women the'y make run away: if they come I swore on the Koran and then I presented
come back and that they had converted, into the masjid the whole namaz is our Inter-Dominion agreement saying we
ruined. If they try to listen to the last call
I found this difficult to believe. This con- are working under this and we don't only
version should not be considered conver- of the month of ramzan, everyone's at- take women from here but also from
sion and such marriages as they have tention is distracted... if they go into a India and send them here. Then suddenly
made should not be considered marriages. quawali, the stAfis will turn their attention there was a shout from the back-benches
from god to tthe world...1
Such women should be treated as ...they shouted, we don't want them but
Interestingly we don't want to give you our-women.
'viashyas' [those Who are reluctant to it is only in the accounts
of these womed, Kamiaben Patel, Anis In court the Christian lawyer who was
returnl... today it is necessary that those
women who have been forcibly abducted, Kidwai, Damyaipti Sahgal, that we findarguing on our behalf had a resolution
passed against him and was boycotted.
should be taken away from the 'paraya' something appro4ching an understanding
The judge then said the agreement was
m6n who have made them slaves in and sympathy for the dilemmas of the
nothing but a piece of paper and that
'paraya houses and they should be women who were-abducted, or who left
unless this could be turned into law they
brought to their 'real' homes. " 24 voluntarily, and those who were reluctant
had no use for it. Immediately there was
Although Kamlaben clearly felt sym- to return. And yet, their own stances
a habeas corpus on seven people and we
pathetic towards the women she was res- vary: Kamlaben, for example, speaks
had to leave, but you know Amritsar was
cuing, she did not seem to question the sometimes as an 'Indian', other times as only an hour and a half away, and news
notions of 'paraya' and 'real' homes a 'Hindu', sometimes as a 'social worker', travels very fast and by the time we got
which the state had created. Anis Kidwai, as a 'nationalist' and sometimes, by her there, there were four or five habeas cor-
who worked in relief camps at Delhi, felt own definition, as a 'woman', this last puses there on several women so that they
differently. She says: "the reader will find category subsuming, often, all others. shouldn't be allowed to go back.. .every-
it difficult to understand how I felt as a Anis Kidwai also speaks of how she felt one kept going on about fewer women
woman on hearing about these hapless as a woman, separately from how she felt coming from there, more going from
women who did not want to return. I kept as an Indian; and Damyanti's articulation here. They would say, "chale gaye heere,
trying to convince everyone that they is also similar: "Of course we felt for the aa gaye kheere ". 29
needed to think coolly and, calmly, to women we were flushing o t-sometimes She points out that for disputed cases
understand why it was that these women we had to use the police tt'bri,ng tliem there was a tribunal but that the two SPs
did not want to return. But no one was out. But what we were doiog had to be oj either side would fight: "That was
willing to listen..."25 done." Perhaps it is because\ of this, that fun", she says,
Although, on the whole, it seemed as in spite of their sympathy.\for the ab-
You see, we had a tribunal for disputed
if Muslim families were more willifig to
ducted women, all of them cpntinued to cases of Muslims who claimed to be
take Muslim women back than Hindu act on behalf of the state, and not ques- Hindu and vice versa. There were psycho-
ones were, perhaps because Islam does tion why national honour wasX at stake so logical reasons for this. It was very dif-
not have the same strict codes of purity much in each country's women. For both ficult for me to say she is a Muslim and
and pollution that Hinduism hai, there countries it seemed almost as if the loss should be sent back to Pakistan, our SP
were some Muslims who were reluctant of these women-particularly to the could get very angry, he would feel this
to do so. Anis Kidwai points out that 'other' religion-meant more than any was politics, and I would say, no, if this
Muslim men would grind their teeth and other loss, something that seemed to be was politics, we would not be doing it
their faces would fill up with religious shared by both men and women. Kamla- here, we'd do it with Muslims in our own

WS-20 Economic and Political Weekly April 24, 1993

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 countrv. It- we have four crore Muslims also in its violence towards the abducted mainly aunts and' uncles who lived on
in our country, what do we want with women, and exercising agen.cy on behalf land contiguous to her family's, made ef-
400? If there are four crore Muslims in of the state and often against women. forts to trace her. Finally, six years after
India it's because of progress. Those who her 'abduction' she was traced to Amrit-
This was, in many ways, similar to the
t'ave settled aRd made up their houses, sar district where she was happily mar-
kind of consent given to the violence of
we're not planning to pull them out, but
patriarchal communities by both men and ried. She refused to return, but the family
those who have been abducted, we have
women in incidents such as the one we was anxious that she do so because they
to shelter them. I would say, I'm not play-
have seen (the mass suicide by drowning) wanted her to marry their son, in order
inB politics, I'm not a Muslim or a Hindu,
in the early part of this paper. Apart from to keep control of the famlily's property
or a Christian. I'm a woman and it's
because of this that I'm doing what I'm notions of honour and virtue that pro- which would otherwise hate been, pre-
doing.3" vided the rationale for the rescue opera- sumably, taken over by the state. Finally,
There is irritation here at the objec- tions, there were also more material con- she was taken away forcibly, and she took
tification of women, but there is also sideratioifs. One particular story, again her younger child with her. Buta Singh
pride at the 'largeness' of India which can culled from personal memoirs and news- then made desperate attempts to get to
have 'four crore Muslims'. I would like paper accounts, relates to a Laila Majnu Pakistan, so much so that he was suspec-
to suggest here that in spite of the under- like story which became a legend in ted of being a ;py, and finally he con-
standing, sympathy and anguish that Pakistan. A young Muslim woman was verted to Islam and found his way to his
these women felt at the fate of the ab- sold to one Buta Singh, a peasant from wife, Zainab's village. There, Zainab had
ducted women, they aided and abetted the Amritsar district. Buta Singh married her, by now been married off to her cousin.
entire rescue operation mounted by a they fell in love and had two children, The case came up before the tribunal.
patriarchal state,, consenting thus, not both young girls. For several years after Buta Singh was confident that his wife,
only in the patriarchy of this state, but her disappearance, the girl's relatives, who had time and again declared herself

APPIOI NTMENTS

School of Oriental and African Studies

(University of London)

Lectureship in Politics and Development Studies

Applications are invited for a Lectureship in Politics and Development Studies. The successful
candidate will be based in the Department of Political Studies and will be expected to take a major

role in the teaching of interdisciplinary BA and MA courses in Development Studies. Applicants should

have completed or be about to complete a PhD on a relevant topic. Preference will be given to
candidates with expertise in public administration or related fields. The appointment will be
effective from 1 October 1993.

The Lecturer salary scale is ? 13;400 ?- 24,736 plus E 2,134 London Allowance.

Overseas candidates may apply directly by letter supported by a full curriculum vitae and the names

and addresses of three referees to the Personnel Office, School of Oriental and African Studies,
Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H OXG, from whom further particulars may be
obtained.

Closing date: 28 May 1993.

Economic and Political Weekly April 24, 1993 WS-21

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to be happy with him, and who had been
forced to go back, would stand by him.
But in court Zainab denied Buta Singh
and gave his child back to him. The
lovelorn and bereft man then committed
suicide, and it was only later that a per- multiple and often overlapping identities.
sistent woman journalist managed to get
a confession out of Zainab that she had
been forced into giving the denial in
court. What was at stake here, on both
sides, was property. Buta Singh's own
women, history, their agential capacity,
their roles and identities, the meanings of
violence. As my work developed, it
became clear from the accounts of Parti-
tion that women have and often play out
Thus the women who committed mass
suicide could have done so out of fear of
rape because they were women; equally
they could have been acting, at that
particular point, as members of their
important ones, much more succinctly and
elegantly, by Kumkum Sangari in 'Consent,
Agency and Rhetorics of Incitement' Nehru
Memorial Museum and Library, Occasional
Papers on History and Society, Second
Series, No LIX, p 27 and passim.
4 Figures quoted here, and subseqfently, have
been taken from the following sources: G
D Khosla: Stern Reckoning:.A,Survey of the
Events Leading Up To and Following the
Partition of India, Delhi, Oxford Univer-

family in east Punjab did not want him community and class. For those who sity Press, 1948, reprinted 1989, Appendix

to marry and were happy when Zainab tesisted rescue, their agency was perhaps 11; Gurbachan Singh Talib: Muslim League

was taken away, because they did not on behalf of themselves and their Attack on Sikhs and Hindus in the Punjab

want a fragmentation of their property. children, born and unborn. And for those 1947, Delhi, SGPC 1950, reprinted Delhi,

who worked with the rescue teams, dif- Voice of India 1991, Appendix-Atrocities.
And Zainab's family wanted her back,
for the same reasons. 31 What, one ferent identities operated at different 5 Sources as in note 4.

wonders, had 'religion' and 'homeland' times: a servant of the state, a member of 6 Bir Bahadur Singh, personal interview. In-
to do with the lives of these two young a new nation, a Hindu, a woman. Thus terviewed by Sudesh Vaid and Urvashi
our understanding of agency too needs to Butalia.
people?
take into account notions of the moral 7 Ibid.
IV order which is sought to be preserved 8 Basant Kaur, personal interview. Interview-
when women act, as well as the mediation ed by Sudesh Vaid and Urvashi Butalia.
Conclusion
of the family, community, class and 9 Khosla op cit, and Talib op cit, Appendices
Perhaps the most difficult part of an religion. and passim.
exercise such as the one I have atte?npted In the remembrance rituals that take 10 Anis Kidwai, Azadi Ki Chaon Mein (Hindi),
is to draw all the different threads place in gurudwaras in different parts of Delhi, National Book Trust, 1990. My
together into a conclusion. As I have said the country, the women's 'heroic' steps in translation. Translated from the original
at the beginning, my intention here was offering themselves up for death are Urdu by Noor Nabi Abbasi.
to pose some particular questions, rather valorised, while their abductions are gloss- II Kirpal Singh (ed): Partition of Punjab 1947,
than to provide answers. For me, al- ed over. These' valorous women are now India and Pakistan, Delhi, National
though the real root of these questions is beginning to find their way into small Bookshop, 1991 p 572. My emphasis.
located in 1984, they came out most booklets and illustrated comic-type things, 12 Sixteenth Meeting of the Partition Coun-
sharply in 1990, during the Bhagalpur in- which are distributed free, or sold very cil, 1948.
vestigation that I have referred to earlier.
cheaply, to people, but which are used
13 Anis Kidwai, op cit, p 142-43.
A different set of questions came up in especially for children, to tell them
14 Ibid.
another such investigation, once again for stories and impress on them the impor-
the People's Union for Democratic 15 Hindustan Times, January 17, 1948. Quoted
tance of believing in and practising
Rights. In 1989 a group of women, many in Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru, Se-
their religion. It does not take much to
of them in their 60s, went on strike out- cond series, Vol 5, Delhi, Jawaharlal Nehru
see that this is a preparation for the
side the house of the then home minister, future. Fund, 1987, p 113.

Buta Singh, demanding an increase in 16 Quoted in Anis Kidwai, op cit, p 143.

The story of these women is by no
their pension. Many of these women were 18 Parliamentary Debates, (1952), Vol 1,
means over. Today, more than 'ever,
refugees from the time of Partition, they Part II, Proceedings Other than Questions
questions of violence, of women's par-
had spent much of their lives in camps, and Answers (February 5, 9, pp 677-87.
ticipation in it, of their agency and
many had been widowed, perhaps some 19 Ibid.
collusion, are becoming important. While
had even been 'rescued' although no one 20 Damyanti Sahgal, personal interview. Inter-
it is important that hisotrians look
spoke of this. Now, close to retirement viewed by Urvashi Butalia.
at areas they have left untouched, it
age, they were demanding of the state the 21 Kamiaben Patel, personal interview, Inter-
is equally important that women acti-
right to a pension that would enable them viewed by Urvashi Butalia. I am grateful to
vists do some introspection and examine
to live with dignity. This same state had Sonal Shukla for her assistance in this
their assumptions about wbmen. For,
continued, albeit in an arbitrary sort of interview.
rather than make simplistic assump-
way, to act the stable patriarch for these 22 Anis Kidwai, op cit, 146.
tions about the power of women, it
women, providing them with work in its
is better, as Kumkum Sangari points 23 Kamiaben Patel, personal interview, op cit.
sewing production centres. At the tail-end
out, to capture the complexities of 24 Ibid.
of their lives, having been rendered home-
struggle. 25 Ibid.
less and alone of widowed by Partition,
26 Anis Kidwai, op cit, p 146-47.
most of them had no other family to turn
27 Ibid.
to but the state. Here. then, was a dif- Notes
28 Kamiaben Patel, personal interview, op cit.
ferent kind of agency, directed at a state
that had at one time being quite coercive I Gabriele Dietrich (1992): Some Reflections 29 Ibid.

and violent towards these same women.
An interest in history, and ao involve-
ment in activism were the things that
formed my starting point in this exercise.
In the process I discovered how difficult
it is to talk in generalised terms about
on the Women's Movement in India, Delhi,
Horizon.
2 Taken from an activist pamphlet brought
out by Women Against Fundamentalism,
Delhi, nd.
3 This point is made, as are many other more
30 Ibid.
31 Som Anand, 'Lahore: A Memoir, un-
published manuscript, chapter 17.
32 Sadda Hak, Ethey Raka, a report on refugee
women workers of Delhi, Peop1e's Union of
Democratic Rights, Delhi, 1989.

WS-24 Economic and Political Weekly April 24, 1993

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