Name: Amnah Baseerat

Roll no: 18013

Course title: Pakistan Studies
Section: BSMT
Date: May 1, 2019
“THE OTHER SIDE OF SILENCE” by Urvashi Butalia

My Grandfather emigrated from India when violence broke after the announcement of Redcliffe

Awards. He used to narrate the story of his migration and I still remember the mist in his eyes

when he talked about his father (my grandfather) whom they have had left behind as he was too

weak to walk. He used to talk about his friends who were mostly Sikh and they used to live in

harmony. It was like he never had wished for partition but fate was not on his side as he wished to

go back to his village where he grew up. I never understood why was he like that as we were taught

in School that all Hindus Sikhs were animals disguised in human body and we were the ones who

became victim of such atrocities the partition brought unto us. I got an opportunity to go through

Urvashi Batalia Work as a part of Pakistan Studies course and the book gave me goosebumps. My

grandfather was not alone who was devastated by the partition, the Hindus and Sikhs suffered the

same deadly and heinous fate as our forefathers. The history taught to us is biased as we are only

forced to see one side of a completely censored story.

I admire Urvashi Butalia work because she analyzed the partition of the Subcontinent, through

an oral history of individual experiences. The recollection of traumatic events and tracing them

down from the people who survived the horrors of partition with one hell of a tale silenced by the

pressure of society as women were not comfortable expressing their feelings to a male historian or

writer. One of the biggest issues was the women violence. As she was a feminist writer and activist
so she highlighted the silence of women during partition by authoring a marvelous book ‘The

Other Side of Silence’ which is the product of more than seventy interviews conducted with the

survivors of the Indian Partition (Anindya Bhattacharya 143).

Other historians talked about the regular stuff that we learn every day i.e. the political movements,

wars, aftermath, partition movements, refugee settlement, etc. The story of partition is incomplete

without mentioning how women sacrificed their lives and honor for it. Although she did not

experience the pain that the Partition caused personally, the stories so many people narrated made

it all real and right there for her to experience.

Nearly 75,000 women were killed, raped and abducted on both sides of the border. Old

women were abducted for their property and the young girls were raped and then sold. The women

were never allowed to speak on their own but the men seldom spoke about them. The bodies of

women came to represent the strength of different communities and their vulnerability exposed the

weakness of male protectors. The most intriguing character which elucidates the partition is a

Muslim girl named Zainab who was abducted and sold to a jat from Amritsar Buta Singh. They

both got married and had two young girls. After several years a search party looked for Zainab and

forcibly took her to Pakistan. She was then forced to marry her cousin for the sake of property.

Buta Singh changed his religion and nationality for Zainab but unfortunately finds out that Zainab

got married to her cousin. She states that “How had Zainab felt on this? How had the experience

of abduction, almost certainly of rape, marked her?” (Urvashi). Once an abducted woman said

“Why should I return to India? Why are you particular to take me to India? What is left in me now

of religion or chastity?” (Urvashi) And another said, “I have lost my husband and have gone in for

another. You want me to go to India where I have got nobody and of course, you do not expect me

to change husbands every day.” (Urvashi)

Women have always been endangered to oppressive measures legitimized by culture and social

consent. Women have faced rape; specific kinds of violence had been visited on women. Many of

them paraded naked on the streets, their breasts were cut off! To defile their purity, they were

forced to have sex with men of other religion. A separate committee was also set up to relocate

such women, but surprisingly, many of them never wanted to be found. When the women were

rescued and forced to go to their families so the families didn’t accept them as they used to say

that they are no more “pure”. Not only women were subjected to violence from outside but they

were also the victim of violence within the family. Many women protested. They refused to go

back as some like Zainab had relationships with the abductors. She also talks about the Nawab of

Gujrat who used to select the abducted women for their use and they would rate them on the basis

of their appearance.

Then she talks about how the British were planning to cause trouble between the people of

India before leaving, causing such state of affairs that the brother will fight brother. There will be

killing and rape. Everyone will pray to have British back on the rule.

Urvashi also talks about the social workers and organizations who struggled for the rescue

of the other abducted women. Many steps were taken for the recovery and rehabilitation of the

abducted women. How abducted women were being taught, as there were no financial support and

member were not even well educated to teach, so that they could stand on their own in the future.

Writing an account of the hypocrisy of this ‘rescue work’ takes things to another level of barbarity

altogether. The men involved were themselves at times harboring abducted women. Two police

officers were on duty rescuing one woman when they themselves raped her.
 The one issue that I find in the reading was that the MEN was also victimized during the

partition which Urvashi didn’t mention. Not only the women were harassed or raped but the men

were also maltreated.

In conclusion, I would say that Urvashi provides the other side of the picture of partition. I

find her work. Her book helps understand partition in the detailed different side.