The Fissured Body, the Forged Nation: Gendered Violence, Recovery, and the Rehabilitation of Muslim Women in Post-Partition West Punjab (1947-1957)

Abstract

This study analyzes the profound gendered suffering experienced by Muslim women during the 1947 Partition of India, specifically focusing on the violence, dislocation, and subsequent rehabilitation efforts within West Punjab between 1947 and 1957. The research investigates the socio-political factors that positioned women as the primary targets of communal aggression, viewing their bodies as symbolic terrain for the assertion of community honor and the humiliation of rivals. Traditional historical narratives have often marginalized these female experiences, creating a significant lacuna in Partition historiography by prioritizing political achievement over human cost. This analysis employs a gendered lens and draws extensively on oral histories to document the abduction, forced conversion, and systematic trauma faced by thousands of women in East Punjab. Furthermore, it details the monumental, uncoordinated state and voluntary efforts in West Punjab—including the implementation of the Recovery of Abducted Persons Ordinance—to facilitate the recovery, re-settlement, and complex psychological rehabilitation of these displaced and often stigmatized individuals. This work aims to restore the gender dimension to the mainstream history of the Partition.