Partition Trauma and Women: Unending Lament in Shoba Rao’s “An Unrestored Women and other Stories”

Abstract

The Partition of India has gained widespread scholarly attention as a result of its massive political, social, economic, historical and moral significance in not only the affected countries, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh but also the whole world. However, not much attention has been paid to the experiences of women during the partition particularly with regard to the violence inflicted upon them, the consequent trauma and then the inevitable reliving of those horrors in memory. This paper on Shobha Rao’s collection of short stories, An Unrestored Womenand Other Stories (2016) attempts to analyse select fictions and female characters who were victims of Partition, including those who experienced life in refugee homes and repatriation camps, the hitherto concealed narratives.