Analysing Oral Accounts of Women Survivors of 1947 Migration

Abstract

This paper analyses forty narratives by Muslim women survivors of 1947 migration from East to West Punjab. The respondents were interviewed for their most precarious experience during the migration. The narratives could be divided into three phases, i.e., pre eviction, eviction and journey phase with violence being a permanent and continuous feature of all the three phases. The narrators endured physical and psychological violence as they were attacked and massacred massively. One reason for these attacks may be that the women represent family honour in the subcontinent and therefore attacking, kidnapping or raping them means abasing the whole rival community. The paper explores the ideology behind protecting or exploiting women to safeguard or damage the honour and pride of the Muslim community by the Muslim and non-Muslim men, respectively. Finally, the women’s volition for suicide and honour killing substantiate the argument that the women stood for familial and communal chastity and pride. Women’s apparently passive and honour bound role bears great impact in determining the repute of their family and
religious community at large.

Keywords: Migration, partition, women, violence, resistance