Mookerjea: Quarantined: Women and the Partition 33

Quarantined: Women and the Partition

DEBALI MOOKERJEA-LEONARD
Introduction
Responding to the problem of Hindu and Sikh families and communities refusal to
reintegrate women sexually iolated during the !artition riots and later repatriated from
!akistan" Mahatma #andhi addressed the issue at a prayer meeting on $ %ecember
&'($:
)t is being said that the families of the abducted women no longer want to receie
them back* )t would be a barbarian husband or a barbarian parent who would say that
he would not take back his wife or daughter* ) do not think the women concerned had
done anything wrong* +hey had been subjected to iolence* +o put a blot on them and
to say that they are no longer ,t to be accepted in society is unjust*
&

-n ./ %ecember &'($" he urged his audience again:
0en if the girl has been forced into marriage by a Muslim" een if she had been
iolated" ) would still take her back with respect* ) do not want that a single Hindu or
Sikh should take up the attitude that if a girl has been abducted by a Muslim she is no
longer acceptable to society**** )f my daughter had been iolated by a rascal and made
pregnant" must ) cast her and her child away1 2+oday we are in such an unfortunate
situation that some girls say that they do not want to come back" for they know that if
they return they will only face disgrace and humiliation* +he parents will tell them to
go away" so will the husbands*
.

3nd in 4anuary &'(5" the !rime Minister of )ndia" 4awaharlal 6ehru also made a similar
plea*
3
+he repeated appeals" the state7sponsored homes for 8unattached women"9 and
recent feminist studies by Ritu Menon" :amla ;hasin" <rashi ;utalia" and =eena %as>
drawing upon oral histories and o?icial records>testify to the prealence of the
practice by families of rejecting women abducted and@or raped in the communal
Areligious community basedB riots of &'(/7$*
(
ContextualiDing these desertions within
the social production of a discourse of honor and of womens sexual purity" ) examine
the rejections through a reading of the ;engali feminist author 4yotirmoyee %eis
A&5'(7&'55B short story 8Shei Chheleta9 E8+hat Fittle ;oy9G and noel Epar Ganga Opar
Ganga EThe River ChurningG* 4yotirmoyee %ei does not raise the Huestion: why are
womens bodies subjected to a gendered form of communal hostility1
I
)nstead" she
analyDes how womens bodies are made the preferred sites for the operation of power
di?used throughout eeryday domestic life* She critiHues the oer7emphasis on chastity
and tabooed social contacts among Hindus that led to their abandoning the women
abducted and@or raped during the communal riots* )n doing so" her work breaks the
silence surrounding the sexually7ictimiDed women that has operated as an e?ectie
denial of their citiDenship* Her writings address the representational de,ciency in the
social and cultural historiography of the &'($ !artition of ;engal of the large7scale
gendered iolence>except for token references in ,ction*
/
+he locus of the trauma in
3( Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the idd!e East, .(:& A.JJ(B
research studies has been the loss of homeland" migration" dispossession" and refugee
dilemmas* <nlike ;engali ud"astu ArefugeeB ,ction that deals primarily with dislocation"
economic struggles" and wistfulness for a lost time and place" 4yotirmoyee %ei focuses
on the society7wide repression of memory of the negotiations of national borders
performed on the bodies of women* She repeatedly demands accountability for the
tragic conseHuences of !artition" interrogates the meaning of )ndependence" and
expresses skepticism about the gendered nature and class character of its priileges*
4yotirmoyee %ei calls attention to the ellipses of history" and especially to womens
histories that are inextricable from the histories of nation7formation but which hae
been" until recently" only a few glosses in the margins" if not wholly omitted* 3fter the
feminist scholarship of the last twenty years" the critiHue of the absence of gendered
national histories might not seem absolutely cutting edge" but in the &'/Js" at the time
the short story and the noel were published" it was radical* More radical was her
embedding of these histories in the context of the national struggle at a time when the
euphoria of )ndependence had not faded* +he &''& republication of 4yotirmoyee %eis
writings under the aegis of the 4adapur <niersity School of Komens Studies"
Calcutta" and the subseHuent 0nglish translations from feminist presses like :ali for
Komen" %elhi" and Stree" Calcutta" ouch for the piotal position of her work in
contemporary feminist scholarship* )t also coincides with the renewed interest in
!artition since the &'5Js*
Partition !omen: "reco#ered$ %& the tate' re(ected in the communit&
Carrying forward the preliminary feminist research on !artition by ;utalia" %as"
Menon" and ;hasin" my paper suggests that it is possible to link the rejections of
abducted and raped women with the social production of a discourse of honor and"
especially" of womens sexual purity* )mbricated in a program of Hindu cultural
nationalism beginning in the nineteenth century" the discourse of womens chastity was
deployed to counter issues of foreign domination*
$
0lite women con,ned to the priate
sphere were considered unsullied by ;ritish coloniDation" and their chastity was made a
critical site of symbolic economies inoling the nation" a site of pedagogy and
mobiliDation for an embryonic collectie political identity* +hat is to say" the nationalists
engaged in a process of myth7making whereby feminine sexual purity was endowed with
the status of the transcendental signi,er of national irtue* A+his simultaneously
shielded masculine proto7nationalism from the narration of its failures*B Lrom this
period of early nationalism and high imperialism ,rst emerges the ,gure of the chaste
upper7caste" upper7 and middle7class Hindu woman* 3nd in her role initially as Kife" and
later as Mother" it was a ,gure destined to function as the supreme emblem of a
consolidated Hindu nationalist selfhood* +his formulation of an ideal femininity did not
grow out of some social pathology* )nstead" it was embedded in the macrosociological
dynamics of colonialism and culture" wherein the central struggle was for control oer
state apparatuses" property" and the law*
+he !artition riots of &'(/7($ and the destabiliDation of community alliances that they
entailed also treated womens bodies as a site for the performance of identity* 3ccording
to the same patriarchal logic that resulted in the mass rape of women from the 8other9
religious community AMuslimB" the 8purity9 of Hindu and Sikh women became a political
prereHuisite for their belonging in the new nation* A)n the communal iolence
surrounding !artition" Hindu and Sikh women sometimes committed suicide or were
murdered by male kin" and these acts>designed to thwart the rial communitys
AMuslimB aims to dishonor the nation by iolating its women>were lauded as self7
sacri,ce by the womans family*B +he Hindus in )ndia iewed !artition as the loss of
territory of 8ancient ;harata9 A;harata is the Sanskrit word for )ndiaB* +hey felt that"
een if the 8diseased limb9 of this territory could be sacri,ced by the )ndian 6ational
Mookerjea: Quarantined: Women and the Partition 3I
Congress leadership for the independent possession of the erstwhile colonial state
apparatus" the women could not be so forfeited* 3nd newly independent )ndias
8national honor9 demanded the repossession of national property AHindu and Sikh
womenB from !akistan*
+he eents around !artition>the migrations" mass killings" and abductions>spurred
the state to assume responsibility for the restoration of its citiDens* +o enable this" the
)ndian state entered into an )nter7%ominion 3greement with !akistan in 6oember &'($
and mounted a recoery mission in early %ecember that year* Khile the territorial claim
for !akistan was iewed by the Congress as an unfortunate practical concession" the
!akistani goernments demand for the return of the Muslim abductees was considered
eHually legitimate to the Congress own demand for the return of Hindu and Sikh
women* +he iolence on the part of the state during the recoery mission often led to
uprooting women who had settled into life in their new homes* +his uprooting was
normaliDed as beneolence" while womens rights to self7determination regarding their
future domiciles Aand citiDenshipB were obliterated* +he process of repatriation
objecti,ed the women as only bodies marked by religious a?iliation" and placed these
bodies under the protection of the state* 3lso" the presence of abducted Muslim women
in Hindu and Sikh homes challenged the states claims to legitimacy in the arena of
international politics" and it was therefore necessary to 8return9 them to !akistan* +he
women were important only as objects" bodies to be recoered and returned to their
8owners9 in the place where they 8belonged"9 a belonging determined by the state and
which adanced the states claims both nationally Arecoery of Hindu and Sikh womenB
and internationally Areturn of Muslim womenB* )n this paper" ) use 4yotirmoyee %eis
writings as a basis for exploring how women sexually abused by the rial community in
the riots of !artition" unless excluded from the nation" become representatie of the
fallen nation*
+he accumulating histories of iolence and social death Aexclusion from societyB in the
period around !aritition oblige a reision of prior periods because legislations around
satidaha Awidow burningB A&5.'B" widow remarriage A&5I/B" the ;rahmo Marriage 3ct
A&5$.B" the 3ge of Consent ;ill A&5'&B" and the Sarda ;ill A&'.'B were not discrete
moments* Rather" the rejections that abducted and@or raped women experienced in the
aftermath of the partition riots seem less anomalous when iewed as the culmination of
deelopments in the legal status of )ndian women oer the !ongue dur#e$ South 3sian
gender historians hae made detailed studies of the many tumultuous debates around
speci,c colonial ordinances focusing on Hindu women* Howeer" ) urge the necessity for
situating these discussions in a historical continuum* 6ationalist anxiety about
colonialism manifested itself in" and intensi,ed" gender pathologies" and the discursie
deelopments around chastity in the colonial and nationalist era clearly had concrete
conseHuences for women" because their bodies were not simply sites for discourse but
were also sites of patriarchal constraint and iolence* +he repudiation of abducted
wies" daughters" mothers" and sisters was a dramatic demonstration of the fact that
nationalist discursie constructions of Hindu femininity held abundant scope for
iolence* 6or is this simply a historical issue in South 3sia* +he recent escalation of
Hindu nationalist@culturalist sentiments in )ndia urges a reassessment of this
essentialiDing ideology for women* Reports by feminist groups on the recent iolence in
#ujarat illustrate the transformation once again of womens bodies and sexuality during
ethno7religious conMicts into an important arena for enacting emphatically modern
gender pathologies* +he attacks on Muslim women" mostly of childbearing age or who
will soon enter their reproductie years" and the murder of children" een fetuses"
adumbrates a new and" in some respects" more awful form of ethnic cleansing and
partition*
)n the next section of this paper" ) analyDe 4yotirmoyee %eis writings on !artition as
3/ Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the idd!e East, .(:& A.JJ(B
representatie texts of womens experience of social hostility following their iolation"
as well as of the su?ering resulting from their rejection at home and in their
communities* Howeer" ) argue that this early moment of her writings is simply a
moment of breaking the silence* )t does not proceed much further analytically than to
produce narratie and a?ect around the costs of an ideology with which eeryone as
part of the community was familiar* +he raped woman lost" or was at least threatened
with the loss of" her personhood through the iolent eent and the subseHuent social
death that followed as abducted women were uniformly rejected across di?erentials of
caste and region* 4yotirmoyee %eis writings measure the costs of that ideology*
)n*nihed hitorie: !omen in "Shei Chheleta$ and Epar Ganga Opar Ganga
;orn in &5'(" married and widowed at an early age" 4yotirmoyee %eis life was
largely structured by the cultural terrain of patriarchal nationalism* 3lthough her
access to economic priileges as the granddaughter of the !rime Minister to the !rince
of 4aipur shielded her from the crises a?ecting the lies of propertyless Hindu widows
and enabled her to pursue a literary career" she lied within the narrow circumference
of rituals and prohibitions that ordered the social existence of women" and especially of
widows* 0mbedded within this priileged social context" she nonetheless mustered a
keen critiHue of the constructed nature of gender" and of the systemic oppression of
women* Her memoirs" essays" short stories" noels" and poetry coer a wide range of
subjects" from womens histories" their education and gainful employment" and Hindu
womens rights" to property and diorce in the Hindu Code ;ill" women in the 4aipur
aristocracy" the condition of prostitutes and 8untouchables"9 to !artition and the war in
;angladesh* Her work combines insights gleaned from a hybrid library of )ndian and
0uropean intellectual@philosophical traditions* )n her indiidual capacity as a writer and
feminist" she worked towards instituting womens ciil" political" and human rights*
Writin+ !omen hitorie o, re(ection
3 reading of 4yotirmoyee %eis works suggests that the discursie deelopments
around 8ideal9 womanhood in Hindu cultural nationalism" the responsibility on 8the
gendered and sexed female body *** to bear the burden of excessie symboliDation9
5
played a signi,cant role in the responses generated towards the female ictims of
!artition" and that 8the iolence of the !artition was folded into eeryday relations9 and
the eents of !artition 8came to be incorporated into the temporal structure of
relationships*9
'
4yotirmoyee %eis writings mark a negation of the patriarchal discourse of
colonialism@nationalism by exposing the brutal and isolating practices that ritualiDed
forms of purity demanded* +he compelling Huestion animating 4yotirmoyee %eis short
story 8Shei Chheleta9
&J
and noel Epar Ganga Opar Ganga,
&&
is not so much ho% state7
interention a?ected the lies of women" but rather: what happened after that1 ;oth
focus on the reception" or non7reception" of women in the community to which they had
returned Aor" were returnedB on the basis of the religion of their
fathers@brothers@husbands* Some of the Huestions that resonate through both texts are
as follows: Khy are women who were abducted" raped" and dislocated by !artition
repeatedly displaced after their 8recoery9 to boarding schools" or to hostels for
single@working women" or forced to take to begging or prostitution1 Khat makes their
reinstatement in their original families impossible1 How does the symbolic burden
placed on a woman by cultural nationalism produce an immediate e?ect on the female
body1 Khat is the status of the indiidual detail" and does the speci,c case matter1
Charting the histories of womens oppression acHuires the semantics of a political
project for 4yotirmoyee %ei* Nuestions of historical isibility or the denial thereof" the
Mookerjea: Quarantined: Women and the Partition 3$
constitution of the political subject through history" and the deliberate
easions@perersion of history are central to her interests: the priilege of %ho gets to
write" %hose history is written" and ho%* +hat the state manipulates the process of the
dissemination of histories>for instance" the state sanctions for undergraduate studies
the work of historians with certain political biases while refusing patronage to others>
constitutes the core of 4yotirmoyee %eis critiHue of the writing of history in the
opening chapter of the noel Epar Ganga Opar Ganga* A+he project of history writing in
the years immediately following )ndependence routinely focused on the oercoming of
imperialism* 3s histories of the nationalist moement for the most part" these typically
centered around a select group of ideologues from the )ndian 6ational Congress"
detailing their role in the freedom struggle*B 3lthough 4yotirmoyee %eis counter7
history in the noel incorporates a larger concern for the recuperation of obliterated
narraties of other subordinated groups>class@caste>the focus is on womens absent
histories* +he noel analyDes with relentless intensity the condition of the women7
ictims of !artition*
%rawing upon the ancient Sanskrit epic aha"harata" the noel Epar Ganga Opar
Ganga was originally entitled &tihashe Stree Parva or The Woman Chapter in 'istor(
A8Stree !ara9 or 8+he Koman Chapter9 is the title of one of the books in the original
epic" whose generic title is 8)tihasa9 or 8History9B* Howeer" in her authorial preface"
4yotirmoyee %ei indicates that" despite its name" 8+he Koman Chapter9 of the
aha"harata was not about su?erings speci,c to women" but focused on general grief
and bereaement for the losses incurred in the battle of :urukshetra* She therefore
refers to the epics 8Mausala !ara9 or 8+he ;ook of )ron Clubs9 which makes an
obscure mention of the abduction and rape of the Oadaa women* Critical about the
silences that ,ll the interstices of history" 4yotirmoyee %ei draws a parallel between the
suppression of womens histories of oppression in =yass Aauthor of the aha"harataB
scant attention to the predicament of the abducted and raped women in the 8Mausala
!ara9 and the recent historical context of !artition* !lacing !artition on a comparable
scale with the deastation of the subcontinent during the battle of :urukshetra" and the
iolation of Oadaa women after the death of their men in the battle" 4yotirmoyee %ei
thus positions the !artition atrocities as constituting the epic of the modern )ndian
nation*
Hence" it is not coincidental that in Epar Ganga Opar Ganga the description of the
student population at the womens college at %elhi where Sutara teaches" incidentally
named Oajnaseni Aanother name for %raupadi in the aha"harataB" bears traces of the
)ndian national anthem" although mutilated to sustain the sacred geographic releance*
A+he song had been composed in undiided )ndia*B +he original line naming the di?erent
proinces runs 8!unjab" Sindh" #ujarat" Maratha" %rair A%eccanB 2"9 while 4yotirmoyee
%ei emphasiDes the all7)ndia character of the college by writing" 8+here were students
from all parts of the split Pmaha;harata" 2 Marathi" #ujarati" Madraji A%eccaneseB"
!unjabi women 29
&.
Amaha: greatQ )harata: )ndiaB* Conspicuously absent is the mention
of Sindh Aand of Sindhi women in the collegeB" since following !artition it was !akistani
territory* +he iolence performed on the original line from the anthem thus becomes a
metaphor for the seered subcontinent as well as for the brutalities isited upon women*
-pening with Sutara %atta" 3ssistant !rofessor of History" meditating on the absences
in the historical discourse" Epar Ganga Opar Ganga narrates the costs of the iolence
surrounding !artition" thus o?ering an account that deiates from the glorious textbook
histories of the )ndian freedom struggle* )n telling a story that has been deleted" the
noel proides a correctie" re7inscribing the obliterated" unspeakable womens bodily
experience of the political diision of the country as the new 8Stree !ara"9 the 8Koman
Chapter*9
Khile the constitutie nature of the iolence in !unjab and ;engal might hae been
35 Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the idd!e East, .(:& A.JJ(B
marked by regional speci,cities" 4yotirmoyee %ei takes a holistic approach towards
understanding the dilemmas of women twice subjected to iolence" initially sexual and
later social* 3nd" indeed" the refusal to reintegrate women within the community was
not regionally speci,c* -ne of the textual strategies 4yotirmoyee %ei employs is to
continuously bring together women from ;engal and !unjab" the two partitioned
proinces: Raj A!unjabiB with ;aruna and Sujata A;engaliB in 8Shei Chheleta9Q Sutara
with :aushalyaati" Sita ;hargaa" Mataji and other women from !unjab in Epar Ganga
Opar Ganga*
&3
+hus" Sutaras feeling of a special a?inity with her !unjabi colleagues
and friends at %elhi is based on a shared history of iolence" homelessness" and
migrancy* +hat said" while the subject of 4yotirmoyee %eis !artition ,ctions is the
rejection of sexually assaulted women" the plots do proide indications of a Hualitatie
di?erence in the character of the iolence in !unjab and in ;engal* +he sexual and
reproductie iolence Rajs mother A!unjabB is subjected to" or :aushalyaati speaks of"
is replaced by a more cultural iolence for Sutara A;engalB* ) use the relatie 8more9
because despite the focus on Sutaras social marginaliDation" incidents of the abduction
of her sister" her friends suicides@abductions" and her personal sexual harassment are
also present* +he economic struggles inoled with migration transform in similar ways
Raj and Sutaras lies from those of the preious generation of home7bound elite
women" obliging both to ,nd gainful employment in ciil society* +his articulates the
transitions in womens lies as they emerge as suriors in the public sphereQ
4yotirmoyee %eis feminist conictions are obious in her repeated emphasis" in her
,ction and essays" on the importance of womens ,nancial independence*
4yotirmoyee %eis !artition ictims are 8deeply wounded people*9
&(
Rajs mother
A8Shei Chheleta9B" Sutara" :aushalyaati" 8Mataji9 AEpar Ganga Opar GangaBR7all are
exiled subjects 8who in a most organic way" are tied to a history and a place but who"
oerwhelmed by yet another more powerful history" must lie out their days
elsewhere*9
&I
;ut the 8elsewhere9 4yotirmoyee %eis women characters encounter is
not only a di?erent country but a di?erent life outside the domestic pale" the
possibilities of which they could neer hae foreseen" and for which they lack the
correct surial skills* )n 8Shei Chheleta"9 history iolently interjects itself into Rajs
mothers sheltered existence" raages her home" inades her body" and eentually
makes her homeless* -riginally from a wealthy family and married into one" later raped
and with the resulting child" Rajs mother adjusts to the contingencies of life by
perfecting her skills as a beggar and cultiating an ingratiating smile* )ndependence
makes little sense in the lies of migrant women like her" for whom the freedom of the
country is tethered to betrayals by their families" by the nation" and more substantially"
by the loss of control oer their bodies and the erosion of consent*
Since the narratie landscape in 8Shei Chheleta9 is de,ned by Raj" the readers are not
clued in to whether Rajs mother 8chose9 to migrate to )ndia or was recoered on state
initiatie" a subject that animates the gendered critiHues of the state in recent studies
on !artition* Lor instance" feminist ethnographers Ritu Menon and :amla ;hasin in
)orders and )oundaries and =eena %as in Critica! Events critiHue state policy of
interention in displacing 8abducted9 women" leaing no space for their exercise of
preference in their citiDenship* +hey emphasiDe that many of these women" far from
longing to be 8recoered"9 had married their abductors" borne children" settled in their
new lies" and resisted state repatriation e?orts* Sugata ;ose and 3yesha 4alal on the
other hand" argue that the eents of abduction and rape>long before any initiatie by
the state to restore them to their former communities>sere as the starting point for an
erosion of consent* +hey suggest that recent scholars 8miss more than a historical
nuance or two in their dogged anti7statism*9
&/
Countering ;ose and 4alals argument"
howeer" Martha 6ussbaum indicates that the erosion of consent has a longer history"
originating not with abduction and rape but with the denial in many cases of womens
Mookerjea: Quarantined: Women and the Partition 3'
decisions pertaining to marriage*
&$
+his last point will be instantiated in what follows*
+he debates around the 8Recoery Mission"9 howeer" do not constitute the point
4yotirmoyee %ei makes in her writings* She depicts the intense community disdain
towards the women subjected to tabooed sexual contacts" the near7unliability of their
situation" and the possibility of spaces outside of middle7class domesticity for raped
women" as well as the bonds fostered on a shared basis of su?ering*
"-hei .hhe/eta$
4yotirmoyee %eis short story 8Shei Chheleta9 is set in mid7&'IJs %elhi" though its
plot is structured around the communal iolence preceding !artition in Fahore during
&'(/7($* Khen the little girl Raj Aor RajkumariB and her family eacuate from Fahore
during the riots under police protection" her mother is accidentally left behind* -n
arrial at :hasa near 3mritsar>a 8safe9 place with Hindus and Sikhs in majority>the
family conducts a desperate" but futile" search for the missing woman* 0entually" they
assume" from reports of suicides" arson" and communal iolence" that the deserted
woman was killed in the riots* +hat is" they conclude>notwithstanding reports of
abduction and@or rape>that she died 8honorably*9 Seeral years later" returning from
work one eening" Raj>now liing in the refugee colonies in %elhi>meets a beggar on
%elhi7streets* +his beggar is Rajs mother" and she is accompanied by an unfamiliar little
boy>the 8wrong9 child* She approaches Raj and her friends ;aruna and Sujata for
alms* Her mother recogniDes her" but Raj>the 8correctly9 born daughter>at ,rst
bewildered at the beggars cross Huestioning" later shrinks from the embarrassed
realiDation that her mother>who she had told her friends was dead>had been raped in
the communal iolence* %eliberately withholding recognition" Raj returns home" but the
memory of the Fahore riots haunts her" together with her recent ision of her
abandoned" destitute mother* +he presence of the little boy" howeer" makes it di?icult
for her to accept the truth" and Raj decides to confront the beggar woman the following
day to clarify her suspicions* ;ut for all her searches Aand later ;arunas tooB in the
beggar7haunts of %elhi oer the next seeral weeks" the mother and child are not found*
Khether it is suicide or murder" the only contingency imaginatiely iable for Rajs
family is the abandoned womans death" implementing a deliberate closure of the other
8less respectable9 and sinister possibility" her abduction and rape* Khile the memory of
a mother" whom for seeral years Raj considered dead" mists her eyes" the moment of
the meeting with her" when comprehension of the beggar womans identity dawns on
her" is saturated with anxiety and shame* +he prospect of her mothers alternatie life is
far too deiant for Raj" and the fact that she is alie causes more uneasiness than the
preious assumption of her death* Raj is caught in an emotional impasse: while she
realiDes the beggar womans place in her life" she also desperately wants to beliee that
she is mistaken* !erhaps her mothers retreat can be read as 8shame"9 as an e?ect of
the internaliDation of Hindu patriarchal nationalist norms*
+he conscious omission of the mothers name is intriguing: the narrator refers to her
as 8Rajs mother"9 her mother7in7law uses 8;adi ;ibi"9 meaning eldest daughter7in7law"
8;ibi9 is used" especially in the !unjab" to address womenQ her husband calls her 8;ibi9Q
and her brothers7in7law and their wies call her 8;ibiji9 A8ji9 is an honori,cB* )n addition
to the routine )ndian practice of identifying women by the names of their children
>8Rajs mother9>this anonymity might be explained as the customary use of relational
forms of address that are used to embed women in the familial to the extent that there
is almost a refusal to acknowledge their indiiduality* 3lso" the deliberate oersight
might allude to Rajs mothers condition as nondescript" so that by remaining nameless
she could be any among the abundant casualties of the sexual and reproductie iolence
associated with !artition* ) add that with the exception of the three young women>Raj
and her friends ;aruna and Sujata>eeryone else is referred to by their relationship to
(J Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the idd!e East, .(:& A.JJ(B
Raj*
4yotirmoyee %eis narratie techniHue>the use of short" crisp sentences" mostly
unsentimental prose except in the third section where she recounts the familys retreat
from Fahore" frugal descriptions" short paragraphs and" hence" freHuent breaks>
intensi,es the feel of the sad" broken lies she narrates*
She ERajG lay wide awake* +he ision of the beggar woman clad in a dirty salwaar
kammeD with a ripped chunni coering her head" a face pleading and weary" holding
by the hand a boy" small and skinny like a beggar" returned to her* How long had she
been begging1 2
She felt she should say something about it to her father" or to her uncles* ;ut what if
they ask why she hadnt mentioned it before1 Khat would she say1 +hat she had not
been able to recogniDe her properlyS -r" 2 or what1
She remembered the little boy* Khat could she hae said about him1 Khose child
was he1 Mothers1 Could Mother hae come1 +hen why did she hide1
!erhaps the woman was not her mother after all1 *** Oes" that was a possibility* 3
feeling of relief surged through her* +he disHuiet was fading* ;ut from the deepest
reaches of her mind" a thin dark" beggar woman with sad eyes" ill7clad" holding the
hand of a small boy" gaDed steadily at her" near the bushes of Nueens !ark*
Her mother* 3nd that little boy who wasnt her brother*
&5

+he mothers repudiation by the family" embodied in Rajs intentional non7recognition" is
combined with tacit encouragement from the community" in the ,gure of Rajs friend"
;aruna* ;aruna trusts Rajs story insofar as the beggar woman they had met was her
motherQ she commiserates with Rajs lossQ but when the discussion shifts to the child"
she" like Raj" recoils from capitulating to the existence of another sexual life for a
Mother* Khen the childs paternity becomes suspect" her initial compassion" 8Khy
didnt you say so right away1 Oou could hae taken her home"9
&'
is displaced" not by a
cautionary Huali,cation but by an outright denial" 8Maybe you were not able to
recogniDe her properly" Raj* +hat was not your mother*9 ;arunas silences" together with
her de,nitie dismissals of the possibility" almost force the ictimiDed mother into a
8discreet disappearance"9
.J
since" for the surial of the communitys myth of its own
purity" it becomes almost imperatie to isolate" or negate" the raped woman* 3 Hindu
womans intimacy with a Muslim man would constitute a transgression on grounds of
iolation of the codes of conduct as well as a political betrayal of the nation" since it was
along lines of religious faith>and the perceied impossibility of a harmonious
coexistence>that a demand for a separate homeland for Muslims A!akistanB was ,rst
raised and eentually led to partitioning the subcontinent*
+he anxiety oer the 8wrong9 children was not restricted to the families" but as
studies by Menon" ;hasin" ;utalia" and %as illustrate" debates were held in political
circles to settle the perplexing issue of the citiDenship of these children* 3lso" cogniDant
of the social odium women with children born from the attacks were likely to encounter"
the state not only sponsored orphanages for abandoned children" but also organiDed
clandestine mass abortions Aabortion was otherwise illegal in )ndia until &'$&B* )t is thus
important to note that" while Rajs mother must hae been certain of the social
contempt she would endure and perhaps had the option of terminating her pregnancy or
abandoning the infant" neertheless" she exercises her discretion in keeping him with
her* )n doing so" she bargains her motherhood at the cost of jeopardiDing her domestic
security* Khile the childs presence as proof of the mothers sexuality outside of
marriage shatters cultural templates dictating a irtuous womanhood Afundamental to
which" as noted earlier" are monogamy and chastityB and makes impossible her re7
absorption in her former family@community" the child is itself an abiding proof of the
failed manhood of one community* +he child fathered by the 0nemy is testimony to the
Mookerjea: Quarantined: Women and the Partition (&
rials irility in gaining control oer the communitys women" and thus a reminder of
the national humiliation*
) concur with =eena %ass contention" in her work on national honor and practical
kinship" that" 8it is the ideology of the nation which insists upon *** puri,cation*9
.&
Howeer" ) take issue with her position that" unlike the nation" 8practical kinship ***
knew strategies by which to absorb Ewomen and childrenG within the family**** E3ndG in
the face of collectie disaster the *** community showed a wide ariety of strategic
practices were aailable to cushion them from the conseHuences of this disaster*9
..
+o
the contrary" empirical eidence from the work of ;utalia" Menon" and ;hasin" as well as
my reading of 4yotirmoyee %eis texts" ,nds the community and the nation operating in
an expedient alliance" so that the purity of the one supplements the purity of the other*
+he nation not only preseres the interests of the community but also" as ;enedict
3nderson has pointed out" experiences itself as a community*
.3
) ,nd it more useful to
consider the 8EfGamily" community and state *** as the three mediating and interlocking
forces determining womens indiidual and collectie destinies*9
.(
!erhaps some
Hindu@Sikh women" as %ass research demonstrates" found acceptance in their original
communities* Sometimes it came in exchange for their silence or after abandoning their
children in the custody of social workers* Howeer" %as" citing state7sponsored
pamphlets that solicited families in an idiom of purity" to accept 8reclaimed9 members"
.I
writes that 8EeGen in &''J" Menon and ;hasin A&''3B found women liing in camps in
some cities of !unjab" either because their families had neer claimed them or because
they had refused to go back to their families*9
./
;utalia claims that" for many
repatriated women"
E+Ghe ashrams became permanent homes 2 there they lied out their lies" with their
memories" some unspeakable" some of which they were able to share with a similar
community of women* 3nd there many of them died 2 3s late as &''$ some women
still remained in the ashram in :arnalQ until today there are women in the #andhi
=anita 3shram in 4alandhar*
.$
-n a di?erent register" and with a di?erent status from facts and raw data" but
furnishing a more textured understanding" literary writings on the horrors of !artition
by Falithambika 3ntherjanam" Rajinder Singh ;edi" 4yotirmoyee %ei" and :rishna Sobti
also corroborate the claim that a large number of women were deserted by kin and
community on the grounds of their loss of 8purity*9 ) will refer brieMy to another
nuanced literary moment that suggests the impossibility of a return of the 8normal9 in
structures of intimacy ruptured by the &'($ iolence: Rajinder Singh ;edis <rdu short
story 8Fajwanti*9
.5

)n 8Fajwanti"9 ;edi notes the refusal by 8husbands" parents" brothers and sisters 2 to
recogniDe9
.'
missing wies" daughters" and sisters reclaimed from !akistan" and when
the 8recoered9 women are brought before a crowd of waiting relaties one of them
says 8PKe dont want these sluts 2 they were de,led by Muslims*9
3J
Sunderlal" in ;edis
story" welcomes home his raped wife Fajwanti after she is 8rescued9 from !akistan*
Howeer" his acceptance is tempered with irony because her brief absence has altered
the dynamics of their marriage condensed in the switch from 8Fajo"9 his former
nickname for her" to 8%ei9 AgoddessB* +he re7making of Fajwantis profaned body into
the sacred" iniolable body of a goddess" pushes her beyond human contact" and
constitutes a denial of her embodiedness* )n a moe similar to that which pre7con,gured
other women as temptresses A8sluts9B" their bodies acHuiring an excess of sexual
charge" Fajwanti is transformed into a goddess" and thus desexualiDed*
3&
Khile
Sunderlal discursiely annuls her sexuality" it remains the terrain of contest with his
absent adersary" the man who abducted her and with whom she lied until she was
brought to )ndia* Sunderlal asks her whether the -ther man mistreated her" and his
agitated ow of compassion is prompted" not by remorse for the pain he had preiously
(. Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the idd!e East, .(:& A.JJ(B
inMicted on her" but rather by an unreal threat that his wife might actually yearn for her
-ther life* +hat he transcends conention and 8pardons9 Fajwanti marks Sunderlal not
only as di?erent but also as superior to the rest of his community" and an all7forgiing
godhood is something he arrogates to himse!f* 3lso" Sunderlal sanctions no space for
Fajwanti to be heardQ curious about 8Kho was he19 he halts her narratie with 8Fet us
forget the pastS Oou didnt do anything sinful" did you1***9
3.
;ut his Huestion seeks no
answer" because" at a subterranean leel he suspects that she might express her
satisfaction with the Huality of her -ther life>and thus shatter his re7construction of
their histories in separationQ Fajwantis continued presence in his life is proisional on
the repression of her past* +he return of normality in their marriage is not postponed"
but preented* +he memory of the eents of her abduction and rape arrests the
possibility of a return to prelapsarian bliss* )n addition" Sunderlals anxiety that
Fajwanti might unfaorably compare her life with him to that with her abductor is
rooted in the contingency that>as 6ussbaum suggests earlier>their marriage su?ers
from the lack of Fajwantis genuine consent* Khile at some leel" he struggles to
oercome the intertwining of national identity with his wifes chastity Aor lack thereofB"
other patriarchal realities nourish his anxiety*
3s ) discussed aboe" through the initial accentuation of the chastity of Hindu women
as a marker of the superiority of Hindu culture" together with the later expulsions of
women in contact with the -ther" the womans body functioned as a frontier
safeguarding the nation and the communitys collaboratie interests* )n her study of the
role of gender in the consolidation of a Hindu identity" Sangeeta Ray also notes the
scripting of di?erence on the body of woman by way of embedding it in a set of
regulated social and cultural practices that purport to maintain a historical continuity
with the past" which the -ther presumably lacks:
+he raped female body encompasses the sexual economy of desire that is denied the
mythologiDation of the purity of ones own ethnic" religious" and national gendered
subject* +he ineitability of rape leaes women with the 8choice9 of committing
suicide so that she can be accommodated within the narratie of the nation as a
legitimate and pure" albeit dead" citiDen* +hose who surie rape are refused entry
into the domestic space of the new nation*2 +he purity of the family mirrors the
purity of the nation" and the raped woman cannot be the ehicle of the familial
metaphor that enables the narration of the nation*
33
E0ar 1an+a O0ar 1an+a
Rays remark is useful in reading 4yotirmoyee %eis later noel Epar Ganga Opar
Ganga and" despite the anger that su?uses the work in conseHuence of the new national
citiDenrys dealings with women>including those without isible signs of iolation>her
optimistic aesthetic interention opens up a textual possibility for resituating these
women into the heart of middle7class domesticity*
) refer here to an excerpt from a lecture on gender injustice by former Linance
Minister !rofessor Madhu %andaate in which he mentioned an incident brought to his
attention by Sucheta :ripalani" former Chief Minister of <* !* ) cite the incident not
because it o?ers a factual instance of the disenfranchisement women encountered" but
more importantly" the incident might hae been an inspiration for 4yotirmoyee %eis
noel* )nstantiating his claim in the context of womens experiences of !artition that" 8in
a large number of cases" Ethe abused and@or conerted HinduG women were not
welcome in their original families"9 %andaate said"
Khat happened in 6oakhali in ;engal during #andhijis peace march in that strife7
ridden area is an epic to be remembered" narrated to me by the late Sucheta
:ripalani" who had accompanied #andhiji in his peace march to 6oakhali" which
Mookerjea: Quarantined: Women and the Partition (3
succeeded in restoring peace there* -ne night Sucheta :ripalani receied news that
three young girls in #andhijis !eace ;rigade were likely to be kidnapped* 3long with
the three young girls" she approached the Muslim landlord next door and reHuested
him to protect the girls as his daughters* +he Muslim landlord put his hand on the
:oran and took a ow that he would fully protect the three girls* 3fter a few months"
peace returned to 6oakhali* +he members of #andhijis !eace ;rigade then returned
to their respectie homes* Khen the three young girls who were protected by the
Muslim landlord returned home" their parents told them* POou hae no place in our
family" as you had stayed with a Muslim for three months" forgetting that you were
Hindus* PKhat shall we do1 asked the girls* +he parents reply was P#o onto the
streets and" if need be" become prostitutes" but our doors are closed for you*
%isowned by their parents" the girls took shelter in #andhis 3shram* +hey were
neer married and later on died unsung and unwept* +his only reeals the grim story
of women who had to su?er only because of the communal prejudices of a tradition7
bound society*
3(
+here are striking parallels between this incident and the plot of 4yotirmoyee %eis
noel" and the possibility that her daughter" 3shoka #upta" who olunteered with
:ripalani in relief work led by #andhi in 6oakhali" helping abused women" mentioned
the incident to her cannot be ruled out*
+he noel Epar Ganga Opar Ganga opens with Sutara %atta" an 3ssistant !rofessor of
History in a womens college" pondering oer the Huestion of omitted histories of
su?ering* She turns to her personal history of pain during the 6oakhali riots in the
autumn of &'(/ and the continuing disgrace oer subseHuent years" and her story is
then presented in a Mashback* +he narratie unfolds in the background of a blaDe of
communal iolence" arson" murder" and rape in the 6oakhali and Comilla districts of
east ;engal subseHuent to the #reat Calcutta :illing in 3ugust &'(/* Sutara %atta" then
an adolescent" loses her parents in the communal fury: her father is murdered" her
mother attempts suicide Aand is eentually untraceableB" and her sister Sujata is
abducted* Sutara herself loses consciousness in the course of an attack* She is rescued
by +amiDuddin>a Muslim family friend and neighbor to the %attas>and his sons*
Conalescing in their care for six months" she is eager to be reunited with her suriing
family members" i*e*" her three brothers and a sister7in7law" whereupon +amiDuddin and
his sons escort her to the 8safety9 of Calcutta* )n Calcutta" she joins her brothers and
sister7in7law ;ibha at the home of ;ibhas parents where they hae taken refuge to
escape the iolence of the riots* +he elderly women of the household" ;ibhas mother
and aunts" disapproe of Sutaras presence in the family>because she spent six months
liing among Muslims and so is 8polluted9>and hasten her further displacement*
Shunned by family and the community" Sutara is sent to a Christian boarding school for
women" a non7Hindu space where the student7body is primarily constituted by lower7
castes or low7caste conerts and women in situations similar to hers* She is especially
unwanted at social eents and ;ibhas mothers routine snubs reach a peak on ;ibhas
sister Subhas wedding day when Sutara is fed separately and hurriedly sent home to
protect other guests from her 8polluting9 touch* A3nd years later" at the suggestion of
her mother" ;ibha deliberately delays initing Sutara so as to preent her from
attending ;ibhas daughter Rebas wedding*B
+hrough the many years" Sutaras brothers either witness her humiliation mutely or
pretend it did not happen A;ibhas father" brother !ramode" and sister Subha protest
occasionallyB* )n the meanwhile" Sutara completes her studies and ,nds employment
teaching history at a womens college at %elhi" realiDing painfully that she will neer
hae a 8home"9 not only because she has no place in her brothers a?ections" but also"
because her marriage prospects are bleak Ashe is 8polluted9B* Her correspondence and
occasional meetings with her Muslim neighbors from the illage" all of whom continue
(( Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the idd!e East, .(:& A.JJ(B
to cherish her>especially +amiDuddins wife and daughter Sakina>come to an abrupt
end when +amiDuddins wife suggests a matrimonial alliance between her elder son 3DiD
and Sutara* )n Calcutta" ;ibhas brother !ramode expresses his resole to wed Sutara"
infuriating especially his mother" who has already arranged a match for him*
6eertheless" !ramode goes to %elhi and proposes marriage to Sutara* +he noel ends
with her bewildered acceptance*
+he noel is structured in four partsQ the last three" the 83di !ara9 A+he ;eginningB"
the 83nusashana !ara9 A+he %iscipliningB" and the 8Stree !ara9 A+he Komen ChapterB"
derie their names from books of the aha"harataQ the ,rst short section is titled
8Sutara %atta*9 +he second" third" and fourth sections plot Sutaras continuous
migrancyQ hence" the locale for the second is a illage in 6oakhali" the third Calcutta"
and the fourth %elhi* Lurther" towards the end of the fourth section" the author hints at
a future possibility of Sutaras passage to 0ngland with !ramode* Kithin these larger
changes of location there are smaller displacements too: Sutara is transferred from her
original home to that of her neighbors at 6oakhaliQ from the residence of her extended
family to the boarding school at Calcutta* Small or large" each of the transitions also
bears a permanent character" i*e*" Sutara neer returns to the original site" whether it is
her parents home" her Muslim neighbors at 6oakhali" or to her brothers and extended
family at Calcutta* Her perpetual moements adance the feeling of homelessness" and
each site becomes a new place of exile* ASigni,cantly" it is among the women refugees
from Kest !unjab" residing at %elhi" that Sutara" for the ,rst time" feels the bond of
community" of being part of a shared history of iolence*B 3s with Rajs mother in the
short story discussed aboe" gendered migrancy constitutes a central trope in the noel*
+he attack on Sutara" followed by her prolonged contact with the Muslim family who
sheltered her" brands her as 8impure"9 8polluted"9 an -ther" in her 8natie9 community"
whose material practices in the performance of daily life are troubled by her presence*
Her integration in her original community is almost impossible because her body carries
an alternatie history" the imprint of another set of practices that constitute another
eeryday life* +he details of her life are rendered meaningless for others" and the course
of future eents" the multiple instances of psychological harassment" is determined by
the single incident of bodily iolence* )n stating a claim for exemplarity" 4yotirmoyee
%ei furnishes a bounty of details" but she suggests simultaneously that the details are
inconseHuential: Sutara" like Rajs mother" could hae had a particular kind of life" she
could hae had a particular kind of dignity" or she could hae had no dignity" but the
moment she is sexually assaulted she becomes a non7person" the details of whose life
and personhood translate only into so many petty minutiae* +he eent of iolation
assumes the rank of the de,nitie moment of Sutaras life* )t determines the plot" so
that the noel itself enacts the simpli,cation of the character socially* Sutara becomes
paralyDed in deciding its conditions" in determining the status of the detail in her own
life* Fike ;huaneswari ;haduri in #ayatri Chakraorty Spiaks essay 8Can the
Subaltern Speak1"9
3I
the womans ASutara@Rajs motherB only practicable mode for
signi,cation is by the negation of a negation* Howeer" eentually neither Rajs mother
nor Sutara may be de,ned by the sexual iolence they encounter*
Sutaras alterity is insupportable in the upper7caste Hindu family that had been made
secure from all contact with the outside through discourses of cultural nationalism
insisting on Hindu domesticity as the sanctuary for launching Aand sculptingB a Hindu
national identity* )t is di*erence that constitutes community identity>di?erent religion"
di?erent set of customs" di?erent foods>so that communities" like nations 8are foreer
haunted by their de,nitional others"9
3/
and Sutaras position at the periphery of two
rial communities makes her loyalties suspect* +hus" 4yotirmoyee %ei situates Sutara
within the 8woman7as7nation9 paradigm" but in her writings the fa!!en woman is the
symbolic representation of the nation* )t is interesting to note that womens citiDenship
Mookerjea: Quarantined: Women and the Partition (I
is contingent not only on residence in the right country and following the right religious
faith" but also on their possessing the right AiniolateB body* )n the domain of the elite
home" the de,nitie factor for belonging was unsullied irtue*
+he gender dynamics in the noel do not operate on the basis of an antagonism
between men and women* Rather" excepting the gendered character of the iolence
during the night of the riot" the noel highlights the role of women not as 8ictims9 of a
patriarchal culture but as actie in policing one another and reproducing repressie
masculinity Aand femininityB against women* Khile 4yotirmoyee %ei deems the fetish of
womens bodily purity to be the cardinal cause of Sutaras miseries" she also indicates
that its perpetuation was guaranteed by women who" as 6ira Oual7%ais and Lloya
3nthias caution" 8actiely participate in the process of reproducing and modifying their
roles as well as being actiely inoled in controlling other women*9
3$

3s preserers of domestic sanctity" women were authoriDed to take crucial decisions in
assessing other womens rectitude* )n Epar Ganga, Opar Ganga" ;ibhas mother and
aunts endorse the continuity of patriarchy and eto Sutaras existence because of her
contact with the forbidden that disrupted her caste and religious practices* ;ibhas
mother monitors" with a reproing igilance" the social and intimate contacts between
family members* She orchestrates Sutaras alienation both from her brothers and from
the extended family" in the name of safeguarding the future for ;ibhas daughters* Khen
;ibhas mothers e?orts to isolate Sutara are defeated by her idealist son !ramodes
decision to marry her" she reproaches ;ibha for restoring her orphaned sister7in7law
ASutaraB to her extended family in Calcutta:
3fter a long silence" E;ibhas motherG turned to ;ibha" 8) told you repeatedly not to
bring that girl ESutaraG here* %ont* %ont get her* ;ut you persistedS Oou let her stay
here* #ood for youS Saed your face from peoples comments* 3 ,ne thing you did
ruining my familyQ dug a canal and courted a crocodile into my backyard**** Khat was
the point in fetching her anyway" she who had lied with those unclean non7belieers
EMuslimsG1 Khateer happened was her misfortune* She should hae stayed back*
+here are countless women like her in that country E!akistanG* Oou think she retained
her religion7caste purity liing with them for such a long time1 Kho knows what she
ateS 3nd then" %hat had happened1 That about which no one knows* She certainly
could not hae remained a Hindu liing with MuslimsS9 3nger" disappointment" and
reulsion swept through E;ibhas motherG and she burst into tears*
35
;ibhas mother" perhaps the most ocal of all" is by no means the only character in the
noel to oice such sentiments* Howeer" it is her acknowledgment of the possibility of
marriage" een in its denial" that is radical* Sutaras stay with a 8mlechchha9 AimpureB
Muslim family realiDes the worst fears of 8pollution9 in the upper7caste Hindu
household* Her body seems to undergo a process of losing her original caste" and as a
result" she is treated as a low7caste 8untouchable*9 3s the term 8untouchable9 suggests"
she cannot inhabit the same space as the other members of the family* 3t the wedding
of ;ibhas sister Subha wedding" elderly women who hae no clue about the exact
nature of the eents during the night of the attack make suggestie comments about her
past" and a well7wisher warns the family that guests" especially the women" will
probably refrain from participating in the wedding dinner for fear of the contagion of
Sutaras contaminating presence* )t is only after Sutara escapes the superision
exercised by the patriarchal family and community and migrates to a new space of
economic independence that it is possible for her to establish some genuine social
solidarity>a sisterhood with refugee women from Kest !unjab*
4yotirmoyee %ei illustrates the modalities of womens participation in social
processes 8as reproducers of the boundaries of ethnic@national groupsQ as participating
centrally in the ideological reproduction of the collectiity and as transmitters of its
cultureQ as signi,ers of national di?erences*9
3'
+hus" the women ensure the continuation
(/ Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the idd!e East, .(:& A.JJ(B
of the ideology of purity deeloped in the name of an abstract national good* +he
Huestion that begs itself here is that" while the national patriarchy has a stake in
controlling womens sexuality ranging from material Huestions of property to more
abstract ideas of national@community purity" why do women participate in segregating
other oppressed members of their own sex1 +he answer lies" not in false consciousness"
but perhaps in that AchasteB elite women bene,ted from these dissociatie practices in
the form of priileges patriarchy o?ered* +hey receied" for instance" a greater access
to the public sphere" in exchange for endorsement of the patriarchys iewsQ they were
een considered ethically superior" to say nothing of the experience of their
empowerment*
Khile she is unwelcome in her natie community" Sutara cannot enter into a
meaningful relationship with her Muslim neighbors through marriage despite the
kindness and sustenance she receies from them" because engaging with Muslims
would be seen to be a betrayal of her parents deaths" her sisters abduction" and her
personal experience of iolence* 4yotirmoyee %eis presentation of Sutaras decision as
a problem of loe itself seems psychologically true" although o?icial documents and
recent feminist studies hae illustrated that abducted women often married the men
responsible for their abduction" bore children" and with time grew attached to their past
abductors* So" why was a marriage proposal from +amiDuddins family unthinkable for
Sutara1 )t is important to acknowledge that marriage between the abductor and
abductee was made possible" at least in many cases" because the woman was totally
disempowered and at the abductors mercy" whereas Sutaras situation in %elhi" when
the marriage proposal arried" was di?erent* )t is di?icult to predict if Sutara would
hae been able to resist if +amiDuddins family had abducted her or coerced her into
marriage with 3DiD while she was younger and liing with them soon after the disaster"
but years later in %elhi" educated and ,nancially independent" her circumstances can no
longer be compared with the helplessness of abducted women* Sadly" Sutaras response
to the marriage proposal from +amiDuddins family holds them guilty by associationQ she
treats them not as indiiduals who sheltered her een enduring threats from their
community" but rather as part of the community that deastated her life* Lor her"
correspondence and meetings with old Muslim friends were ,ne" but not the emotional
commitment of marriage*
4yotirmoyee %ei subtly reinforces the implication of Sutaras iolation through such
incidents as Sutaras Huarantine on the night of Subhas wedding* She also jogs the
readers memory with allusions to Mary Magdalene" Fucretia" 3mba" %raupadi" and
Sita* Howeer" it is critical to note that in both the short story and the noel the eent of
the assault that ruptures the womens 8good9 past lies from the 8tainted9 presents and
futures is not central to the narratieQ and in the case of the noel it is een left slightly
ambiguous*
%idi Eelder sister" SujataG suddenly let out a sharp" shrill scream" 8Ma" Ma" Mother"
ohS ;aba"9 and keeled oer and fell to the ground*
+heir mother" unlocking the door to the cowshed" was shocked* +hen she said" 8)ll
be there right away" dear*9
;ut Mother could not reach them ESujata and SutaraG* Shadows had engulfed her*
+hey were trying to seiDe her hand* ;ut Mother freed herself and ran to the pond
behind the house and leaped into it*
+he ,re had set the whole area ablaDe* -ne of the men tried to stop her" another
said" 8%ont bother* Fet her go" thats the mother* Feae her*9 %idi was nowhere" had
she died1
Khats the matter with %idi1 Sutara did not see her again* She wanted to run to
where Mother was" but her feet were caught in something and she stumbled*
3nd then1
(J
Mookerjea: Quarantined: Women and the Partition ($
+he sparse description retains a feel of the sinister and elicits the horror of the eents
despite the somewhat euphemistic Huality of 4yotirmoyee %eis prose* ;eyond this
arrested narration and another mention that" 8!sychologically and physically Sutara was
deastated"9
(&
the trauma of the sexual assault resurfaces mostly as a confused"
nebulous memory" with scattered references to her torn and dirty clothes" her friends
suicides" drownings" and abductions* )t is referred to again in ;ibhas mothers words"
83nd then" %hat had happened Eon the night of the attackG1 That about which no one
knows*9 ;oth in the short story and the noel" the staging of sexual iolence remains
beyond the narrated Aand the narratable1B* Khat the noelist represents are the
aftere?ects of that trauma*
)t is best" ) feel" not to read@dismiss 4yotirmoyee %eis syncopated" circumlocutie
writing as reticence or" as residual prudery of a post7=ictorian noelist" because the use
of the ;engali eHuialent for 8rape9 is not rare in her writings" especially in her essays*
Rather" the eiling of bodily trauma through language constitutes a counter7discourse to
the economy of display of woman* Her prose recoers something of the priate pain that
women su?ered* 3lso" her seeming reluctance to engage further with the issue of
iolation is not to dealue the sexual terroriDation of women Ashe discerns the threat of
sexual assault as a primary form of control oer womens bodiesB but rather" not to
compromise the unmitigated intensity on womens rejections in their after7lies in the
community* A-r" is it possible that because Sutara was destined to reenter the space of
elite domesticity that 4yotirmoyee %ei chose to maintain its 8sanctity91 3nd was her
allegiance to that space responsible for withholding details of the attack on Sutaras
body1 -r" was it anxiety about her readership1 3ny of these contentions would diminish
the potentials of her indisputably radical critiHue of patriarchy" and ) feel are less alid
since she was a fairly established writer at the time the noel was published*B
+he initial withering away of Sutaras matrimonial possibilities" based on the single
eent of sexual abuse" which ;ibhas mother euphemistically refers to as 8other
problems"9 illustrates how sexual iolence" in a twisted way" inoles a process of
remoing the body from circulation within the libidinal economy* Sutara is no longer
allowed to desire" in fact" she is not een allowed much social agency* )t is signi,cant
that between her restoration to her extended family in Calcutta and her ,nding
employment in %elhi" she has little textual presence by way of speech* 3lthough her
condition constitutes the problematic" and she is constantly acted upon" she rarely
speaks* ) understand her silence not as resistance but as a metaphor for her loss of
social agency through the 8theft of the "od(9
(.
Aitalics in originalB* Sutaras silence is
socially structured and policed by the family: her brothers paucity of interaction with
herQ by the community: her presence is unwelcome in social eentsQ and by the state:
the prohibition on biographical exchanges between students at the residential school
she attends* )n reinserting Sutara back into the script of middle7class domestic sexual
economy" the noelist re7genders her" by way of establishing a claim for a di?erent
destiny for gender" and eentually makes the details of peoples lies matter once again*
<nlike =eena %ass suggestion that marriage was a strategic practice of the
community through which some repatriated women were rendered inisible through
absorption within the family"
(3
) read !ramodes wedding proposal to Sutara neither as a
community game plan nor as a fairy7tale ending" but rather" as an indiidual act of will*
!ramode and Subha" ;ibhas brother and sister" witness Sutaras repeated disgrace and
disenfranchisement within their family* +he high points in this continuum of harassment
are the Huarantine on the night of Subhas weddingQ the oerheard gossip between their
aunts insisting on Sutaras being left with the MuslimsQ and the deliberately delayed
initation she is sent in order to preent her from attending her nieces wedding* AKhile
Sutaras reinsertion within middle7class respectability might signal a compromise to the
loe7interest>of which there is not much in the noel>!ramodes proposal is not
(5 Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the idd!e East, .(:& A.JJ(B
inconsistent with character7deelopment* ;oth he and Subha are sensitie" een
apologetic" throughout the noel" to Sutaras distress induced by the seniors in the
family*B ;eyond simply constituting a 8happy ending9 at the leel of the plot" !ramodes
proposal has a sharp feel of a conscious" if slightly patroniDing" act of good will by a
responsible citiDen: 8=ery gently" !ramode asked" POou wont say no" will you1 Ke" Subha
and )" talk about you often* Ke liked you a lot* Cant tell whether its loe" but we were
pained by your plight* Could you try and like us19
((
!erhaps not the ,rst admission of
her distress by her kinsfolk A!ramodes father" 3mulyababu" is pained by her condition
earlier onB" it is neertheless the ,rst proactie step taken to reintegrate Sutara within
the Hindu fold* 3lthough this 8restoration9 within the community remains incomplete
since !ramodes impending departure for 0ngland o?7centers him to some degree" it
nonetheless contains a possibility" if slightly contried" of transcending community
disdain through indiidual arbitrations*
Re7contextualiDing Sutara within bourgeois domesticity" 4yotirmoyee %ei immediately
undermines the happy ending by returning to themes of the solitude of socially excluded
women Ahinting also at their non7reproductiityB:
ESutaraG switched o? the lights in her room* Stars sparkled in the dark Chaitra
EMarch73prilG sky* 3t the edges of the garden Esurrounding the womens dormitoryG a
few 0ucalyptus trees stood straight and tall" apart and lonely* Fike the residents of the
EwomensG hostel* Solitary trees lacking shrubbery" fruits and Mowers" branches and
twigs* Cyclones would bend but couldnt break them*9
(I
Separated from middle7class domestic life" Sutara with her colleagues and friends
working in the college and residing in the dormitory constitute a community" a womens
community that disregards regional di?erences and sustains a group7therapeutic
function through a mutual support system* Lrom a lukewarm suggestion of womens
solidarity in miniature in 8Shei Chheleta"9 signaled by Rajs relief after sharing with her
friend ;aruna 8EwGhat she had neer disclosed to her near and dear ones" not een to
her father" what she had concealed from her uncles" brothers" and sisters"9
(/
the author
deelops and ,ne7tunes the idea in her noel* Kriting in the &'/Js" her recognition of
the potentials of feminist solidarity is exceptional" although by ultimately distancing
Sutara from the collectie at the womens hostel 4yotirmoyee %ei declines to adance a
radical alternatie to the family* 3lso" while Sutaras entry into middle7class
respectability marks a de,nitie break from the ,xation with purity and routine
rejections" it also weakens the possibilities of a life as a single" independent woman* +he
ending of the noel raises seeral Huestions: %oes Sutaras reinstatement within the
domestic space with its demands for womens chastity suggest potentials for its
reorganiDation1 -r" on the other hand" is the act in itself a subordination of the womens
struggle to the struggle for the nation1 Can it be because the nation still reHuires this
construction to shore up its integrity1
.onc/uion
3n interiewee" cites <rashi ;utalia" unable to ,nd a rationale for the orgy of
brutality he had participated in during the !artition riots" described it as temporary
insanity: 8E-Gne day our entire illage took o? to a nearby Muslim illage on a killing
spree* Ke simply went mad*9
($
) contend that the rejections of women" on the other hand" cannot be explained using
the language of insanity and catastrophe" or as an unleashing of the ulgar self* Rather"
the rejections of abducted Hindu@Sikh women were motiated and een ideologically
rationaliDed by a long and complicated history of the nationalist and patriarchal fetish
on womens sexuality* Hence" ) suggest the need to situate the abandonments as te!os of
the political" cultural" and legal debates around elite AHinduB womens issues from the
Mookerjea: Quarantined: Women and the Partition ('
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries* 3 reisiting of the past" ) insist" tracks the
iolence inoled in the translation from the discursie to the isceral* <sing
4yotirmoyee %eis writings" ) indicate that they o?er possibilities for reconsidering the
exclusie nature of community membership" the discursie iolence sanctioned in the
name of tradition" the recuperation of expelled bodies" and gendered citiDenship as well
as the exigency for womens histories not subsumed under grand titles of national
history* )n writing about womens oppression>the language for which" as she states in
the preface of her noel" has not yet been deeloped>4yotirmoyee %ei exposes the
silence surrounding uncomfortable social issues* )n populating her works with women
who refuse to annul the self by suicide subseHuent to the eent of rape" and who instead
choose to surie" her woman7centered narraties di?er from the dominant narratie
that recommends that women choose death to dishonor* ) conclude the paper citing a
factual instance of intolerance towards raped women expressed by a major proponent of
non7iolence: #andhi* Mahatma #andhi not only adised women subjected to sexual
iolence in 6oakhali in &'(/ to consume poison" but in &'($ during the !artition riots
he went further" exalting suicide" een murder" as deterrents to rape* )n his speech at a
prayer meeting on &5 September &'($" #andhi responded to the news of deastating
populist measures adopted in the face of communal iolence in this way:
) hae heard that many women who did not want to lose their honor chose to die*
Many men killed their own wies* ) think that is really great" because ) know that such
things make )ndia brae* 3fter all" life and death is a transitory game* *** E+Ghey Ethe
womenG hae gone with courage* +hey hae not sold away their honor* 6ot that their
life was not dear to them" but they felt it was better to die than to be forcibly
conerted to )slam by the Muslims and allow them to assault their bodies* 3nd so
those women died* +hey were not just a handful" but Huite a few* Khen ) hear all these
things ) dance with joy that there are such brae women in )ndia*
(5
Fess than three months later" in early %ecember" &'($" #andhi" attempting to
reintegrate abducted Hindu and Sikh women within their families and communities Ato
preent them from becoming wards of the stateB" would alter his iews radically and>as
cited at the beginning of this paper>appeal to the public to accept" een respect" them*
1
NO2E-
+his paper was written under the auspices of a %octoral Lellowship A)nternationalB from the
3merican 3ssociation of <niersity Komen 0ducational Loundation* 3n earlier ersion of this
paper appeared in Genders 35" .JJ3* ) thank Sibaji ;andyopadhyay" Fauren ;erlant" Carol
;reckenridge" 3nn :ibbey" Spencer Feonard" Martha 6ussbaum" :umkum Sangari" Clinton Seely"
and Holly Shissler for their comments on this paper*
Mohandas :* #andhi" Co!!ected Wor+s of ahatma Gandhi Ahenceforth CWGB =olume '5
A%elhi: !ublications %iision" Ministry of )nformation and ;roadcasting" #ot* of )ndia" &'I57
&''(B" '* Lor a detailed study of #andhis responses towards women subjected to iolence during
the communal riots around !artition" see %ebali Mookerjea 8+he Missing Chapter: Rewriting
!artition History*9 !aper presented at the +hird South 3sian Komens Conference" <niersity of
California at Fos 3ngeles and California State <niersity at 6orthridge" Fos 3ngeles" Calif*" May
.JJJ*
2
Mohandas :* #andhi" CWG '5: &&$75*
3
8) am told that there is an unwillingness on the part of their relaties to accept those girls and
women Awho hae been abductedB back in their homes* +his is a most objectionable and wrong
attitude to take and any social custom that supports this attitude must be condemned* +hese girls
and women reHuire our tender and loing care and their relaties should be proud to take them
back and gie them eery help*9 4awaharlal 6ehru" 'industan Times A&$ 4anuary &'(5B" cited in
Ritu Menon and :amla ;hasin" )orders and )oundaries: Women in &ndia,s Partition A6ew
;runswick: Rutgers <niersity !ress" &''5B" ''*
4
Menon and ;hasin" )orders and )oundariesQ Menon and ;hasin" 8Recoery" Rupture"
Resistance: )ndian State and the 3bduction of Komen during !artition9 Economic and Po!itica!
Wee+!( A.( 3pril &''3B: KS .7&&Q <rashi ;utalia: 8Community" State and #ender: -n Komens
3gency during !artition"9 Economic and Po!itica! Wee+!( A.( 3pril &''3B: KS &.7.(Q and The
Other Side of Si!ence: -oices from the Partition of &ndia A%elhi: =iking" &''5BQ =eena %as"
86ational Honour and !ractical :inship"9 in %as" Critica! Events A%elhi: -xford <niersity !ress"
&''IB" II753*
5
8%ei9 is not the authors last name* )t reMects a Hindu7;engali social conention of referring
to upper7caste women as 8%ei9 meaning 8goddess*9 3lthough the practice is somewhat outdated
now" women writers from a past generation most of whom were from the upper castes are
habitually referred to using 8%ei9: 8Swarnakumari %ei"9 83nurupa %ei"9 83shapurna %ei"9
8Mahasweta %ei"9 etc* Since 8%ei9 fails to actually distinguish between writers" ) use
84yotirmoyee %ei9 throughout this paper*
6
3 recent issue of Seminar and a collection of essays titled The Trauma and the Triumph hae
been deoted to the study of !artition in the 0ast* Seminar I&J A.JJ.BQ The Trauma and the
Triumph: Gender and Partition in Eastern &ndia" eds* 4ashodhara ;agchi and Subhoranjan
%asgupta" ACalcutta: Stree" .JJ3B* ;y way of explaining the paucity of literary and historical
writings from the erstwhile 0ast !akistan" Shelley Leldman suggests that the !artition of ;engal
in &'($ was oershadowed by the contestation oer ;engali cultural identity culminating in the
Fanguage Moement and followed by the demand for regional autonomy leading eentually to
the liberation struggle in &'$&* Shelley Leldman" 8Leminist )nterruptions: +he Silence of 0ast
;engal in the Story of !artition"9 &nterventions &:. A&'''B: &/$75.*
7
Sibaji ;andyopadhyay" 8!roducing and Re7producing the 6ew Komen9 in Socia! Scientist" ..:&7
. A4anuary7Lebruary" &''(B" &'73'* Sumanta ;anerjee" The Par!our and the Street ACalcutta:
Seagull" &'5'B* <ma Chakraarti" 8Khateer Happened to the =edic %asi1 -rientalism"
6ationalism and a Script for the !ast"9 in Recasting Women: Essa(s in Co!onia! 'istor(" ed*
:umkum Sangari and Sudesh =aid A6ew ;runswick: Rutgers <niersity !ress" &'5'B" .$75$Q
!artha Chatterjee" The .ation and its /ragments: Co!onia! and Postco!onia! 'istor( A!rinceton:
!rinceton <niersity !ress" &''3BQ +anika Sarkar" 'indu Wife, 'indu .ation: Communit( Re!igion
and Cu!tura! .ationa!ism A6ew %elhi: !ermanent ;lack" .JJ&B*
8
Sangeeta Ray" En0Gendering &ndia: Woman and .ation in Co!onia! and Postco!onia! .arratives
A%urham: %uke <niersity !ress" .JJJB" &3I*
9
=eena %as" 8+he 3ct of Kitnessing: =iolence" !oisonous :nowledge and Subjectiity"9 in
-io!ence and Su"1ectivit( =eena %as et* al*" eds* A;erkeley" Fos 3ngeles and Fondon: <niersity of
California !ress" .JJJB" ..J*
10
4yotirmoyee %ei" 8Shei Chhe!eta9 ,rst published in &'/& in Pra"asi APra"asi" )hadra &3/5 ;SB
reprinted in 2(otirmo(ee 3e"ir Racana0San+a!an ol* ." ed* #ourkishore #hosh ACalcutta: %eys
!ublishing and School of Komens Studies" 4adapur <niersity" &''(B* 3ll translations from the
short story are mine* %ebali Mookerjea" 8+hat Fittle ;oy: 3n 0nglish +ranslation of 4yotirmoyee
%eis ;engali Short Story PShei Chhe!eta,,9 eridians .:. A.JJ.B" &.57&(I* 3ll page numbers are
from this text*
11
4yotirmoyee %ei" Epar Ganga Opar Ganga, in 2(otirmo(ee 3e"ir Racana0San+a!an ol* &" Subir
Roy Chowdhury and 3bhijit Sen" eds* ACalcutta: %eys !ublishing and School of Komens Studies"
4adapur <niersity" &''&B* 3ll page numbers are from this text* )nitially titled &tihashe Stree
Parva" this noel was ,rst published in the autumnal issue of the journal Pra"ashi in &'//Q it was
published in book form under its present name in &'/5 A8My Kords"9 &.$B* +he noel has been
translated into 0nglish as The River Churning by 0nakshi Chatterjee and published by :ali for
Komen" &''I* Howeer" in my work ) hae used my own translations*
12
4yotirmoyee %ei" Epar Ganga Opar Ganga" &.'*
13
Set in Kest !unjab" Shauna Singh ;aldwins partition7noel What the )od( Remem"ers A&'''B
uses a similar techniHue to project the plight of the two communities a?ected by communal
iolence and !artition* Shauna Singh ;aldwin" What the )od( Remem"ers A6ew Oork: 6an 3*
+alese" &'''B*
14
C*M* 6aim" Am"iguities of 'eritage A:arachi: City !ress" &'''B" &$/*
15
6aim" Am"iguities of 'eritage, &$I7&$/*
16
8=eena %as"9 ;ose and 4alal claim" 8has suggested how the )ndian state may hae impinged on
the exercise of choice by raped and abducted women by creating a legal category of Pabducted
women for the purposes of its repatriation programme* Khile taking a strong and entirely
laudable position against the many instances of iolence by the post colonial state" she is curiously
silent about the negation of consent and choice at the traumatic" iolent moment of abduction and
rape* ;y dramatiDing" if not romanticiDing" examples of murderers and rapists turned into
besotted husbands of their former ictims Asuch as a big" bearded Sikh weeping copiously at the
border checkpointB" she presents a more benign picture of acceptance of raped women by
families" and of kinship communities of ictims and perpetrators alike" than is warranted by the
historical eidence or the cultural context*9 Sugata ;ose and 3yesha 4alal" odern South Asia:
'istor(, Cu!ture, Po!itica! Econom( A%elhi: -xford <niersity !ress" &''$Q Fondon and 6ew Oork:
Routledge" &'''B" &'57&''*
17
Martha 6ussbaum" personal communication*
18
4yotirmoyee %ei" 8Shei Chheleta"9 &((7&(I*
19
4yotirmoyee %ei" 8Shei Chheleta"9 &((*
20
Rajeswari Sundar Rajan" Rea! and &magined Women: Gender, Cu!ture and Postco!onia!ism
AFondon and 6ew Oork: &''3B" $J*
21
%as" Critica! Events" 5J
22
%as" Critica! Events" 5J75&*
23
;enedict 3nderson" &magined Communities: The Origin and Spread of .ationa!ism AFondon
and 6ew Oork: =erso" &''&B*
24
Menon and ;hasin" )orders and )oundaries" .II* 3lso manifest in the polemics around purity
is a split between the objecties of the political state R repatriation of its citiDens to the 8right9
country" regardless of their preferences no doubt" but more importantly of their iolated
conditionR7with that of the nation@community ensuring its purity ia the chaste bodies of the
women* 6ira Oual7%ais and !nina Kerbner speak theoretically of a 8clear disjunction *** between
the nation" de,ned narrowly in cultural terms" and the state>the latter being the political
community which both goerns and grants its members citiDenship*9 6ira Oual7%ais and !nina
Kerbner" 8)ntroduction9 Women, Citi4enship and 3i*erence" 6ira Oual7%ais and !nina Kerbner
eds* AFondon and 6ew Oork: Ted ;ooks" &'''B" &.*
25
%as" Critica! Events" 5J*
26
%as" Critica! Events" 5.*
27
;utalia" The Other Side of Si!ence" &.'*
28
Rajinder Singh ;edi" 85a1%anti,9 translated by 3lok ;halla" Stories a"out the Partition of &ndia"
ol* &" ed* 3lok ;halla A6ew %elhi: )ndus" &''(B" I(7/I*
29
;edi" 85a1%anti"9 I5*
30
;edi" 85a1%anti"9 /(*
31
+he !unjabi folk7song the local rehabilitation committee members use to plead for acceptance
of rescued women" 8%o not touch lajwanti Ethe touch7me7not plantG@ Lor she will curl up and
die***S9 has thus a resonance with Fajwantis life*
32
;edi" 85a1%anti"9 /I*
33
Ray" En0Gendering &ndia, &3I7&3/*
34
!rofessor Madhu %andaate" 8Social Roots of #ender 4ustice"9 in The odern Rationa!ist .$:."
Lebruary .JJ.* )nternet edition http:@@www*themronline*com@.JJ.J.m3*html A.J 3ugust .JJ(B*
35
#ayatri Chakraorty Spiak" 8Can the Subaltern Speak19 ar6ism and the &nterpretation of
Cu!ture, ed* Cary 6elson and Fawrence #rossberg A<rbana: <niersity of )llinois !ress" &'55B"
.$&73&3*
36
3ndrew !arker" Mary Russo" %oris Sommer" !atricia Oaeger" 8)ntroduction9 .ationa!isms and
Se6ua!ities" ed* 3ndrew !arker et* al* A6ew Oork: Routledge" &''.B" I
37
6ira Oual7%ais and Lloya 3nthias" 8)ntroduction9 Woman0.ation0State, eds* Oual7%ais and
3nthias A6ew Oork: St* Martins !ress" &'5'B" &&*
38
4yotirmoyee %ei" Epar Ganga Opar Ganga" .(37.((* 0mphasis added*
39
Oual7%ais and 3nthias" 8)ntroduction"9 Woman0.ation0State, $*
40
4yotirmoyee %ei" Epar Ganga Opar Ganga" &3I7&3/*
41
4yotirmoyee %ei" Epar Ganga Opar Ganga" &3$*
42
Hortense Spillers" 8Mamas ;aby" !apas Maybe: 3n 3merican #rammar ;ook9 3iacritics &$:.
ASummer &'5$B: /I75&" /$*
43
%as" Critica! Events" II753*
44
4yotirmoyee %ei" Epar Ganga Opar Ganga, .('*
45
4yotirmoyee %ei" Epar Ganga Opar Ganga, .I3*
46
4yotirmoyee %ei" 8Shei Chhe!eta"9 &(3*
47
;utalia" The Other Side of Si!ence, I/*
48
Mohandas :* #andhi" 8Speech at a !rayer Meeting"9 CWG, '/: 355735'*