My research has been coming along more slowly than I would like. The sheer volume of information on my topic is making it difficult to wade through what is important and useful toward my paper and what is just interesting.
This week I spent a day at the library and found myself mostly focusing on the partition between Pakistan and India. The violence on both sides is disturbing and certainly ethnic cleansing, but I have been trying to formulate and gain enough evidence for my argument that the violence was actually genocide. Reading about the murders, rapes, and maiming is sometimes so shocking that attempting to qualify the partition as either genocide or simply ethnic cleansing seems trivial.
“The Great Partition” by Yasmin Khan talks effectively about the effect of rape against the women on both sides of partition. In our own American culture the reality of rape brings with it a sense of embarrassment but in Muslim and Hindi cultures the unimaginable shame and guilt seems overwhelming. “The voluntary and enforced suicides of women and the murder of relatives by shooting, poisoning or drowning was not uncommon as it was, in some cases, regarded as preferable to the life worse than death which, it was believed, was certain to follow after rape” (Khan 2007 p. 133). Although the physical act of murder was not necessarily committed by those on either side, the act of rape brought with it inevitable social ramifications, ostracism or even potential death. Something more than death was imposed upon the women who were raped; both they and their families were so overcome with the mortification of their realities that they were driven to commit murder either by themselves or of themselves.
While the weapon of rape in a conservative and religious community is not a prevalent element of my paper, I found it something worth considering. The emotional and psychological impact of rape has lasting ramifications – both individually and collectively – which I may be able to tie into the psychological security of the relations between Pakistan and India.
Kelsey,
ReplyDeleteA very good post. I think you've definitely got something to work with in terms of the broad social psychological effects of rape as an element of the collective violence of the Partition. You'll need to be careful that it doesn't overpower the larger paper, but it is definitely something to pay attention to.
A really great post and interesting point, Kelsey. Was rape a basic way of stopping a certain group or entity from recreating? Because you pointed out early that rape had many social ramifications, ie woman being killed or ostracized (so basely being unable to marry), so if they raped enough woman, then do one would be able to procreate, so a race could potential die out.
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