The Other Side of Silence by Urvashi Butalia - A Representation of Women’s Voices during Partition

Abstract

In The Other Side of Silence, Urvashi Butalia unfolds the different layers of the history of partition as narrated to her especially by women. Memories of the past are brought back through close conversations. Butalia painstakingly captures the saga of displacement, victimisation, and the gruesome shattering of the body and soul of women. History and politics always shape human existence but the history of partition almost made women non-existent. They were brutalised to the extent that they became dumbstruck. They were silenced and treated as scraps. Their sense of belonging and citizenship was permanently contested. The partition history, therefore, remains difficult to forget. Women tried to live a half-life obliterating the past. Butalia begins her work by mentioning the perception of two Indian poets on partition history being difficult to forget but dangerous to remember. The history of partition is also the history of violence against women. Women became subject to sexual violence 'particularly rape, abduction, forced marriage, selling into prostitution'. Sexual violence happened on a mass scale without any scruples and morality. Women's rights were frequently violated in the pretext of protection, honour, or purity. The political rift turned out to be a plot for rendering women silent and invade them with utmost brutality. The power struggles throughout the ages make women pawn and the partition of India was no exception. It made enormous scars in the minds of women with none to heal it. The wound deepened with fear for further deprivation and torture in the hands of family or state. This paper aims to bring into our collective consciousness the saga of violence against women during partition as captured by Butalia and to locate the aftermath of the violence on women's body, mind, and soul. This paper investigates the following research questions.  What different forms of violence were faced by women during the partition?  How does the legacy of the partition (displacement of millions) continue even today?  Why is there the need for resistance against any type of violence against women? Revisiting partition stories is a kind of inward journey for every woman. The history of exploitation of women stresses the need for great strength and courage to resist violence during any kind of insurgency that women are subjected to.