Religious and communal violence and collective trauma of 1947 partition
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Date
2022
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UMT, Lahore
Abstract
This thesis aims to show the communal and religious violence and horrors during the time of partition as depicted in Khushwant Singh’s Train to Pakistan. It avails Gilad Hirschberger’s collective trauma theory to explore how common and innocent people were collectively traumatized by communal violence and argues that it still persists in the collective psyche of the people of the Indian subcontinent. Before partition, different communities (Hindu, Muslim, Sikh) were living together peacefully and but the circumstances of partition broke down the trust and harmony of society. Life after partition was no longer the same. The collective trauma of partition shattered the fabric of society by exposing a darker side of humanity. Religion was used to incite communities against each other, which spread communal violence like wildfire in different parts of the subcontinent, including Punjab. Social, political and religious values collapsed and administrative authorities did not take any step to control violence. Rather they were intentionally or unintentionally involved in spreading the violence as well. Innocent people tried to protect their religion through the massacre of other communities. It caused collective trauma as each community was trying to do the same. During this time, people were no more human, they were just Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs. Violence can never be justified by any religion. The people’s sufferings were not only limited to physical suffering, they suffered mentally and emotionally as well, and their generation still have that mental anguish because of the wound of partition trauma in their collective unconsciousness. These are the ideas prevalent in Train to Pakistan, and using its characters, this thesis details collective trauma in the subcontinent.