The Other Side of India-Partition: The Decanonisation of the Patriarchs

Abstract

Despite all the squabble and commotion around the most controversial documentary of the year “India’s Daughter”(2015) which is based on the real story of the rape victim in Delhi, we are yet to brood on how many such daughters have been ignored in past decades of India’s history. Many men and women historiographers have done extensive study on India’s Partition and contributed to the archives of Indian History. But none of them has ever attempted to focus on the heroic deeds of women activists or experiences of women victims during Partition. It is at this context we understand the relevance of the memoirs of those social activists who worked incessantly for the rehabilitation and revival of rape victims of Partition. The rescuing enterprise of Rameshwari Nehru, Mridula Sarabhai, Kamlaben Patel , Anis Kidwai and Susheela Nayyar is an instance of faith that women’s potency  cannot be shrouded in furtiveness and they are not unequal to men. The survival propensity of ordinary women and the service rendered by women activists during the violence ridden partition days of India make them stalwarts of women’s history of India. History should open to discuss the valour and indomitable spirit of these women so that it remains a record of equality and tolerance. Our history is incomplete without including her heroines and martyrs. A decanonisation of the man heroes and the patriarchs is necessary to understand the profundity of the service rendered by these women.