Title: Violence against Women during the Partition of India: Interpreting Women and their

bodies in the context of Ethnic Genocide. (A Review)

Submitted By: Muhammad Hasham Khan

Semester: MPHIL 3rd

Course: HI-606

Submitted to: Dr Fakhar Bilal

 Journal Article Review

Dey, A. “VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN DURING THE PARTITION OF INDIA: INTERPRETING

WOMEN AND THEIR BODIES IN THE CONTEXT OF ETHNIC GENOCIDE”. ES Review. Spanish
Journal of English Studies, no. 37, May 2017, pp. 103-18,

The article, “Violence against Women during the Partition of India: Interpreting Women and

their bodies in the context of Ethnic Genocide” by Arunima Dey seeks to address the issue of

violence against women during and after the partition of India. She also examines the symbolic

meanings behind acts of violence against women. Furthermore, she investigates the notion of

nation as “mother” and its impacts on the female citizens. In addition to this, she explores that

how patriarchal societies exploited women’s bodies and sexuality in the name of religious and

national pride. Finally, she uncovers that how women’s bodies were used by an ethnic-

communities for sense of purity and honor of their respective nations.

The author starts by saying that the ethnic genocide during partition witnessed two kinds of

violence. The violence done by opposite ethnic/religious group of men against women of the

other community that involves rape, mutilation of genitalia and public humiliation while second

kind of violence was committed against women by the men of their own community. The author

also informs about the reasons of that violence. The aim behind the first kind of violence was to

abuse and humiliate the men to which women belongs which ultimately means to abuse religion

of that community while reason behind second kind of violence was to safeguard the purity and

pride of the community. According to author both kinds of violence against women ultimately

means that women are not considered as humans but the symbol of communal pride. The author

uncovers the meanings from these acts and says that women’s body become a site where one

communal group tried to prove its superiority over the other ethnic group. For this purpose, they
brand the women bodies by symbol of the other country. This branding according to author is a

permanent reminder for a woman, that she was polluted by other community.

In addition to this, the author also explores that women were paraded nakedly in the streets as

well as in the religious places which according to Josha Menon is a double-edged attack, i.e at

one side it is a humiliation of one’s religion and on the other end it is humiliation of women who

are supposed to meant to safeguard the purity of religion. The atrocities on women not end at

these acts but further extended to the amputating breasts, burning vaginas and to ripping out their

wombs. The reasons behind these brutal acts was also decoded by the author by saying that it

desexualized a women and negate her as wife and mother, which means that they will no longer

a nurturer. They did this because in a patriarchal culture women’s role is only limited to a mother

and caretaker of husbands and the ripping out of women’s sexual organs makes their very

existence inconsequential.

The author further unfolds this discussion by pointing that if a nation is considered as a mother

then it becomes the feminine within gender dichotomy, i.e male/female. Then it legitimizes the

idea that nation being mother/woman needs to be protected by its male citizens from enemies.

So, by humiliating the women ultimately means an attack on nation’s men.

The author also finds out the figures of women being raped and kidnapped during communal

violence. According to author the number of Muslim women being abducted were almost 50,000

kidnapped by Hindu and Sikhs men while 33,000 Hindu and Sikh women were abducted by

Muslim men. The author highlighted the intensity of the issue of abducted women by saying that

the issue was so intense that the government of Pakistan and India established the Inter-

Dominion Agreement on November 1947 for the recovery of abducted women. As a result of

this agreement almost 12,500 women were recovered from India during first year of recovery
and 6,200 Non-Muslim women recovered from Pakistan. The recovery was not done just simply

to bring the abducted women back but to their male family members. In this case women was not

given the choice to either live in the new state or go back to your family but they were forcefully

go back to their male family members. This again symbolized that women were not considered

as citizens but an objects of men.

Finally, the author discussed the life style of those women which came back to their families but

with the child of other nation’s men in their body. These women were not accepted by the

society because now they were impure by the blood of the other religious community. So for this

purpose the government make rehabilitation centers for such women. The child of such women

were either expired by abortion or admitted to the rehabilitation centers.

The author uses the work of eminent Historian and social scientist like Itty Abraham Floya

Anthias, Urvashi Butalia, Shumona Dasgupta, Josha Menon and so many in list. These all have

done wonderful work on the gendered violence during Partition. The author very meticulously

done her job and highlight almost all angles of gender violence. There is a sound coherence in

the whole article and a very high level of connectivity of events. But one thing which the author

missed was the positive side of men behavior towards women during Partition. As there are so

many stories of families and especially men which provide safe passage to the women to cross

the border by endangering their own lives. But the author only highlights the brutal side of men

behavior towards women.