Fresh start

Coming out of Partition: Refugee Women of Bengal
By Gargi Chakravartty,
Bluejay Books, Rs 295

In any disaster, natural or man-made, women are the worst sufferers. The afflictions of their dear ones, especially children, hit them very hard. The Partition of India was one such disaster which affected the lives of many women, especially in Punjab and Bengal. While much has been written about the effects of Partition in Punjab, not much is known of how it affected people?s lives in Bengal, especially women who had never stepped out of their homes. The Partition forced them to set up house, bring up children under trying circumstances and supplement family income in whatever way they could.

Coming Out of Partition talks about the lives of refugee women in Bengal, who refused to let the odds get the better of them. Instead, they chose to rebuild their lives in the refugee colonies in and around Calcutta. In her book, Chakravartty culls her material mainly from newspaper reports, her own experiences and interviews with refugee women in erstwhile East Pakistan.

Most of the research on women and Partition, writes Chakravartty, has been a chronicle of loss, violence and oppression. These are relevant aspects of Partition. But there is also a need for throwing light on other areas which are no less significant says the author. For instance, ??the ways in which uprooted women have faced the enormous challenge of rebuilding and reshaping their lives in alien conditions and how some of their concerns evolved into a new women?s movement.? This is something which Chakravartty deals with here.

The book starts with the story of Hindus migrating from East Pakistan during Partition. It goes on to analyze the reasons which prompted them to leave their homes. The emotional trauma of Partition, writes Chakravartty, left an indelible mark on its victims. This is reflected in the words of a female character who says, ?It was painful even to think of leaving the country. The first thing, which struck me was that I would not be able to watch the sunset on the river Buriganga from the terrace of our house.? Chakravartty?s book concludes with an account of her experience of communal riots that shook Calcutta after the Prophet?s hair was reported missing from the Hazratbal Mosque.

The book also deals with the empowerment of refugee women. The Bengal famine of 1943 laid the foundation for the women?s movement in the state and Partition helped to consolidate it. It also recounts the sweeping changes in the lives of refugees, thereby giving a ?people-centric perspective? to Partition. For these women, Partition involved much more than a mere physical relocation. It also meant starting a new life with minimal resources and adjusting to a milieu that was, more often than not, contemptuous about their cultural traits.

Chakravartty?s book does have its faults though. For instance, it does not say much about how Bengali Muslim women responded to Partition. Moreover, the factors which led to the segregation of refugee women from the women?s movement, and those that resulted in the empowerment of Bengali women in general, have not been elucidated.

What makes Chakravartty?s book interesting is its gendered approach to history. It compels the reader to look back on a particular phenomenon in Indian history in a new light.