Women as Martyrs: Mass Suicides at Thoa Khalsa During the Partition of India

The paper is an attempt at understanding the mass suicides committed by women during the communal riots instigated by the partition of the Indian subcontinent. Firstly, the position and the role assigned to women are investigated by applying Giorgio Agamben’s concept of <em>bios </em>an...

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Autor principal:	Arunima Dey
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN ES
Publicado:	Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona 2015
Materias:	indian partition communal violence suicide indian women patriarchy honour General Works A
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/a2e1827e974543f2bd65f71df2198744
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:a2e1827e974543f2bd65f71df21987442021-12-02T16:53:53ZWomen as Martyrs: Mass Suicides at Thoa Khalsa During the Partition of India2339-852310.5565/rev/indialogs.34https://doaj.org/article/a2e1827e974543f2bd65f71df21987442015-04-01T00:00:00Zhttps://revistes.uab.cat/indialogs/article/view/34https://doaj.org/toc/2339-8523The paper is an attempt at understanding the mass suicides committed by women during the communal riots instigated by the partition of the Indian subcontinent. Firstly, the position and the role assigned to women are investigated by applying Giorgio Agamben’s concept of <em>bios </em>and <em>zoē </em>within a gendered perspective; this forms the introductory theoretical framework of the topic. The core part of the paper concentrates on one significant event which took place in the village of Thoa Khalsa, Rawalpindi district in March 1947, where ninety women took their own lives as a desperate attempt to avoid rape, abduction and religious conversion, thereby averting the ruination of their community’s honour. Bhisham Sahni’s depiction of the episode in his semi-autobiographic novel, <em>Tamas</em>, along with testimonies and print media sources, allows for exploration of the notion of national and religious honour and more importantly whether the suicides were a decision made by a person actively responsible for her own fate or rather someone passively succumbing to the patriarchal expectations of the state and community.Arunima DeyUniversitat Autònoma de Barcelonaarticleindian partitioncommunal violencesuicideindian womenpatriarchyhonourGeneral WorksAENESIndialogs: Spanish Journal of India Studies, Vol 3, Iss 0, Pp 7-17 (2015)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN ES
topic	indian partition communal violence suicide indian women patriarchy honour General Works A
spellingShingle	indian partition communal violence suicide indian women patriarchy honour General Works A Arunima Dey Women as Martyrs: Mass Suicides at Thoa Khalsa During the Partition of India
description	The paper is an attempt at understanding the mass suicides committed by women during the communal riots instigated by the partition of the Indian subcontinent. Firstly, the position and the role assigned to women are investigated by applying Giorgio Agamben’s concept of <em>bios </em>and <em>zoē </em>within a gendered perspective; this forms the introductory theoretical framework of the topic. The core part of the paper concentrates on one significant event which took place in the village of Thoa Khalsa, Rawalpindi district in March 1947, where ninety women took their own lives as a desperate attempt to avoid rape, abduction and religious conversion, thereby averting the ruination of their community’s honour. Bhisham Sahni’s depiction of the episode in his semi-autobiographic novel, <em>Tamas</em>, along with testimonies and print media sources, allows for exploration of the notion of national and religious honour and more importantly whether the suicides were a decision made by a person actively responsible for her own fate or rather someone passively succumbing to the patriarchal expectations of the state and community.
format	article
author	Arunima Dey
author_facet	Arunima Dey
author_sort	Arunima Dey
title	Women as Martyrs: Mass Suicides at Thoa Khalsa During the Partition of India
title_short	Women as Martyrs: Mass Suicides at Thoa Khalsa During the Partition of India
title_full	Women as Martyrs: Mass Suicides at Thoa Khalsa During the Partition of India
title_fullStr	Women as Martyrs: Mass Suicides at Thoa Khalsa During the Partition of India
title_full_unstemmed	Women as Martyrs: Mass Suicides at Thoa Khalsa During the Partition of India
title_sort	women as martyrs: mass suicides at thoa khalsa during the partition of india
publisher	Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
publishDate	2015
url	https://doaj.org/article/a2e1827e974543f2bd65f71df2198744
work_keys_str_mv	AT arunimadey womenasmartyrsmasssuicidesatthoakhalsaduringthepartitionofindia
_version_	1718382878442651648

Women as Martyrs: Mass Suicides at Thoa Khalsa During the Partition of India

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