What the Body Remembers: Anti-Memorial for the gender-based violence during Partition of India in 1947

Gender Violence during Partition of India 1947

What the Body Remembers: Anti-Memorial for the gender-based violence 

During the Partition of India in 1947, women were subjected to various forms of violence, and there was a symbolic meaning behind this act. Women have been sexually violated to tarnish their community's pride and humiliate men of the opposing ethnic group. Women were sexually abused and had their breasts amputated; moreover, tattoos were also made on women's bodies as a sign of "impurity."

The most common forms of gender violence against women are rape, kidnapping, humiliation, and honor killing. Women were also killed in the name of honor and to save the dignity of their families and social pride. Male family members urged women to commit suicide. 

Statistics show that over 300,000 women were abducted during the Partition of India, but numbers cannot fully convey the emotional trauma that women suffered during the Partition. Partition is the tragedy of the 20th century and is recognized as one of the world's biggest refugee crises, with women being subjected to more gender-based violence than men.

 

What the Body Remembers: Anti-memorial By Prithika Deivasigamani

 

       Anti-memorial;What the Body Remembers

Prithika Deivasigamani has created a series of sculptural installations to memorialize the women who were raped during the Partition of India (1947) and the Bangladesh War of Liberation (1971). 

What the Body Remembers consist of naked lower halves of female bodies, and their genitalia is clearly articulated. The half-body sculptural fragment depicts the emotional trauma that Hindu and Muslim women suffered during the Partition of India in 1947. At first glance, the installation represents a playground scene, as if some girls are playing hopscotch or jumping rope.

However, on closer viewing the installation makes the viewer think of the girls and women who were sexually abused and brutally killed during the Partition Holocaust. 

The sculptures are painted in red and black and range in height from 5' to 6', representing the women of different ethnic groups. Prithika creates these sculptures in the memory of sexually defiled women so that these iconic bodies can serve as a visual language of historical trauma. She also uses corporeal materials in her sculptures.

Prathika did extensive research on the Partition of India to create this anti-memorial, "What the Body Remembers: the Invisible Women." The title of this anti-memorial is inspired by Shauna Singh Baldwin's novel "What the Body Remembers.” 

In the book, Shauna summarizes gender-based violence and the hardships that women faced during the Partition of India. She writes, "I have come so far, I have borne so much pain and emptiness! But men have not yet changed". 

Many women are eyewitnesses of the 1947 Holocaust, one of whom is Narendra Kaur Oberoi. She summed up the trauma of gender-based violence saying, "I recall a very troubling incident where a neighbor of ours killed his daughter because he feared she would be killed or raped on their way to the border." Like Narinder Kaur Oberoi, a Muslim woman Subhani said, "Anyone running from home with their belongings in large crowds was murdered by men with swords on horses. Anyone running empty-handed and in small crowds was spared".

Women, regardless of their religion or group, should not be subjected to violence. Women should be treated as human beings and not as objects of sectarian and national pride. Violence against women is a violation of fundamental human rights. Women were raped and killed during the Partition, and their defiled bodies were sent to their communities as a warning. It is a way of insulting the opposing ethnic group. 

Urvashi Butalia, a renowned feminist historiographer, explains in "Gender and Nation: Reflection from India," when women use the term "nation," they refer to men first. While there are differences in men's statements about the nation, men see women as a symbol of family pride and the nation's honor. 

Women Against Fundamentalism is an activist group of women. The group explained the trauma of Partition as "I am a woman; I want to raise my voice because communalism affects me in every communal riot. My sisters are raped, my children are killed, my world is destroyed, and I am left to pick up the pieces. It matters little if I am a Muslim, Hindu, or Sikh, and yet I cannot help my sisters."

Partition Memorial Project

Prithika has founded the Partition Memorial Project which comprises of five projects so far - Silent Waters, Remembering the Crooked Line, What the Body Remembers, Handful of Dust, and Broken Column. Please visit her website, Counter-Memory Project, https://www.countermemoryproject.org/, to view her thought-provoking art projects and learn about the counter-memories of various historical events and border-related trauma in different parts of the world.

Artist Bio 

Prithika's goal is to reveal the counter-memories hidden in tragic historical events through her art; that is why she creates anti-memorials. She opposes genocide, gender-based and ethnic violence. She believes that violence against any gender, race, religion, and country is wrong. 

She also presents her work nationally and internationally in various art exhibitions such as in the Weisman Museum (Minneapolis), Queen Museum (New York), the Hunterdon Museum (New Jersey), Islip art Museum, Visual Arts Center Of New Jersey, and Cambridge Art Gallery (Massachusetts). She is also the recipient of many art grants such as the Vilas International Travel fellowship, Wisconsin Art Board Grant, and Minnesota States Arts Board grant.

Prithika was born and brought up in India, and she is an installation artist, scholar, curator, and educator. Her current residence is in Chicago, USA. She has done an MFA in Studio Arts from the University of Wisconsin - Madison. She also works with various mediums in her artwork, such as fiber, clay, paper, latex, wood, drawing, and ceramics. 

Author Bio

Tahira Rani is a content writer with 4 years of experience, writing articles for different websites. Tahira loves creativity, books, articles, research, and literature. She has an MS in English Literature and Language from Lahore College for Women, University, Pakistan, 2020. She has done a thesis on the topic of  Existential Angst in Colson Whitehead’s novel, The Underground Railroad.