Gender and Spaces in Partition Fiction: A Study of Select Novels by Muslim Women
Abstract
The Partition of India in 1947 caused a significant change in the social, political,
geographical and cultural sphere of the sub-continent. The human cost of Partition was
incalculable as the nation was engulfed in riots, arson, murder, rape, arson and forced
religious conversions. History has been largely silent on the experiences of women
until the publication of The Other Side of Silence (1998) by Urvashi Butalia and
Borders & Boundaries: Women in India’s Partition (1998). Since then, several works
have been published that talk about the experiences of women from different
communities. However, Muslim women have been under-represented in the study of
Partition (R.U. Ali 2009). Furthermore, while the notion of a separate nation-state for
Muslims was about geographical and cultural space for Muslims, Partition has not
been adequately studied spatially (Gould and Legg 2019).
This thesis aims to read physical, social and mental spaces as represented in
the anglophone novels on Partition by Muslim women. The theoretical informed
reading of the select texts will be done by employing the tools of feminist geography
(Massey 1994; McDowell 1999; Rose 1993; Domosh and Seager 2001; McDowell and
Sharp 2016), geocriticism (Westphal 2011; Prieto 2011) and spatial literary studies
(Tally Jr 2011; Richardson 2015; Tally 2014, 2013). Emphasising the difference in
experiences of space between different genders and social groups, feminist geography
focuses on the experiences of women and maps their world, which is often overlooked
in the gendered patriarchal social context. While geocriticism reads and analyses the
place as represented in several works by multiple authors except for nongeographical
places like domestic spaces, spatial literary studies is a comprehensive approach which
includes the reading of place, architecture, and different kinds of spaces including
physical, social and mental spaces (Tally Jr 2020). Since the objective of this thesis is
the comprehensive spatial understanding of Muslim women’s Partition novels, I intend
to employ both the theories of geocriticism, focusing on definite places like cities or
states, and spatial literary studies to understand intimate and social spaces like homeplaces and cultural spaces from a gendered perspective.
For the purpose of this study, four anglophone novels by Muslim women
writers have been selected which are The Heart Divided (1990) by Mumtaz Shah
Nawaz, Sunlight on a Broken Column (1961) by Attia Hosain, Shadows of Time (1987)
by Mehr Nigar Masroor and Broken Reed (2005) by Sophia Mustafa. The Muslim
women writers selected for this study belonged to elite families and had Western
education. While the narrative of lower-class women is largely absent in their writings,
their position of “class privilege, gender disadvantage and minority status” (Jackson
2018) provides a unique perspective.
This thesis explores the gendered representation of spaces in the select works
on Partition by Muslim women. It intends to study how these Muslim women novelists
portray Partition and the events leading up to it. It discusses how female characters,
particularly Muslims, perceive and make sense of place amidst the socio-political
changes. Moreover, it examines how these characters see and experience the spaces in
various social settings including their homes, educational institutions, social
gatherings and other public spaces vis-à-vis their identity as a Muslim, a woman, and
a subject of the Empire. It further attempts to read how various physical and social
spaces transformed after the Partition and how these changes are represented and
experienced by Muslim women. It explores how urban spaces are narrated and how
the effects of Partition are reflected in the spatial makeup of cities like Amritsar,
Lahore, Delhi, Lucknow and Rawalpindi. Furthermore, it discusses the idea of nation
and nationalism and how Muslim women experienced the contesting nationalism and
their participation in the nationalist movement. It critically analyses how certain spaces
were deemed safe or unsafe for women amidst the violence during Partition. Further,
It reads the representation of physical and social spaces in the trajectory of the novels
and how communal relationships change and evolve over a period of time.
Open Access Repository: Gender and Spaces in Partition Fiction: A Study of Select Novels by Muslim Women
Abstract
The Partition of India in 1947 caused a significant change in the social, political,
geographical and cultural sphere of the sub-continent. The human cost of Partition was
incalculable as the nation was engulfed in riots, arson, murder, rape, arson and forced
religious conversions. History has been largely silent on the experiences of women
until the publication of The Other Side of Silence (1998) by Urvashi Butalia and
Borders & Boundaries: Women in India’s Partition (1998). Since then, several works
have been published that talk about the experiences of women from different
communities. However, Muslim women have been under-represented in the study of
Partition (R.U. Ali 2009). Furthermore, while the notion of a separate nation-state for
Muslims was about geographical and cultural space for Muslims, Partition has not
been adequately studied spatially (Gould and Legg 2019).
This thesis aims to read physical, social and mental spaces as represented in
the anglophone novels on Partition by Muslim women. The theoretical informed
reading of the select texts will be done by employing the tools of feminist geography
(Massey 1994; McDowell 1999; Rose 1993; Domosh and Seager 2001; McDowell and
Sharp 2016), geocriticism (Westphal 2011; Prieto 2011) and spatial literary studies
(Tally Jr 2011; Richardson 2015; Tally 2014, 2013). Emphasising the difference in
experiences of space between different genders and social groups, feminist geography
focuses on the experiences of women and maps their world, which is often overlooked
in the gendered patriarchal social context. While geocriticism reads and analyses the
place as represented in several works by multiple authors except for nongeographical
places like domestic spaces, spatial literary studies is a comprehensive approach which
includes the reading of place, architecture, and different kinds of spaces including
physical, social and mental spaces (Tally Jr 2020). Since the objective of this thesis is
the comprehensive spatial understanding of Muslim women’s Partition novels, I intend
to employ both the theories of geocriticism, focusing on definite places like cities or
states, and spatial literary studies to understand intimate and social spaces like homeplaces and cultural spaces from a gendered perspective.
For the purpose of this study, four anglophone novels by Muslim women
writers have been selected which are The Heart Divided (1990) by Mumtaz Shah
Nawaz, Sunlight on a Broken Column (1961) by Attia Hosain, Shadows of Time (1987)
by Mehr Nigar Masroor and Broken Reed (2005) by Sophia Mustafa. The Muslim
women writers selected for this study belonged to elite families and had Western
education. While the narrative of lower-class women is largely absent in their writings,
their position of “class privilege, gender disadvantage and minority status” (Jackson
2018) provides a unique perspective.
This thesis explores the gendered representation of spaces in the select works
on Partition by Muslim women. It intends to study how these Muslim women novelists
portray Partition and the events leading up to it. It discusses how female characters,
particularly Muslims, perceive and make sense of place amidst the socio-political
changes. Moreover, it examines how these characters see and experience the spaces in
various social settings including their homes, educational institutions, social
gatherings and other public spaces vis-à-vis their identity as a Muslim, a woman, and
a subject of the Empire. It further attempts to read how various physical and social
spaces transformed after the Partition and how these changes are represented and
experienced by Muslim women. It explores how urban spaces are narrated and how
the effects of Partition are reflected in the spatial makeup of cities like Amritsar,
Lahore, Delhi, Lucknow and Rawalpindi. Furthermore, it discusses the idea of nation
and nationalism and how Muslim women experienced the contesting nationalism and
their participation in the nationalist movement. It critically analyses how certain spaces
were deemed safe or unsafe for women amidst the violence during Partition. Further,
It reads the representation of physical and social spaces in the trajectory of the novels
and how communal relationships change and evolve over a period of time.
Open Access Repository: Gender and Spaces in Partition Fiction: A Study of Select Novels by Muslim Women