Violence, Trauma, and the Haunting Memories of Partition Novels

Abstract

Trauma is a haunted bridge between unfaceable memory and inexplicable reality.  Memory, on the other hand, being rooted in past, cannot manifest itself in the present without triggering or recalling trauma. Theories of trauma and memory are interdependent, and one cannot be discussed without the other. Memory is always ‘postmemory,’ and trauma is always intergenerational, especially when it is connected with collective memory and collective trauma.  Using the early Partition novels as a platform, this paper aims to examine how the Partition narratives address these issues of haunting memories of communal violence and mass migration. This paper will focus on the various aspects of social and cultural trauma and collective memory and will briefly discuss some major traits of trauma and memory theory to provide a theoretical background. The comprehensive theoretical framework will be put into perspective through the lenses of earlier novels on Partition, such as, Amrita Pritam’s Pinjar (1950), Khushwant Singh’s Train to Pakistan (1956), Attia Hosain’s Sunlight on a Broken Column (1961), Manohar Malgonkar A bend in the Ganges (1964) Chaman Nahal’s Azadi (1975), Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children (1981), and Bapsi Sidhwa’s Ice Candy Man (1988), to name a few. However, the textual discussion will be more reflective in nature than analytical in the sense that it will pose questions and open a potential array of critical discussion instead of offering a traditional method of critical analysis of the selected novels.