This paper offers a feminist reading of a novel and short story by Jyotirmoyee Devi
on the predicament of Hindu and Sikh women who were abducted and/or raped in the
riots surrounding the Partition of India in 1947, repatriated subsequently on state
initiative, but rejected by their families and communities. I contend that the
rejections were motivated, and even ideologically rationalised, by a long and
complicated history of the patriarchal fetish regarding women’s sexuality.
Using Jyotirmoyee Devi’s writings, I examine how women, sexually abused by
the rival community in the riots of Partition, unless excluded, become
representative of the ‘fallen’ nation.
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