THE UN-TRAVERSED MARGIN

The most awaited dawn of Indian Independence, along with the gaiety of freedom also brought the gloom of Partition of Indian sub-continent in 1947. The Political and geographical Partition was succeeded by religious fanatism which resulted in unprecedented dance of death and destruction. The religious turbulence threw millions of people haywire across the borders. Women were the victims and the worst sufferers in this communal vendetta of Men to seek revenge on one another. This aspect of the suffering is much focussed to criticise the ‘other religion’. Unfortunately, the suffering induced on Women by the Men of their own community in the guise of ’protectors’, is rarely spoken and recorded. Saadat Hasan Manto recorded this untraversed truth of the suffering afflicted on women in the short story ‘Open It’ (Khol Do). Therefore this paper attempts to speak about this unspoken savagery plagued on Women during the Partition of the Indian Sub-continent.