An Indian author, Lalithambika Antharajanam whose literary works are in Malayalam language is a social reformer, voices the role of women in the society and as an individual. In her short story, the author voices out the effects of partition of India on women and their story of survival and recovery. The author revisits and reinterprets history and partition and throws light on the gendered trauma and the female body as a prey to religious hatred. In the story, through the protagonist, the author charts out the turmoil’s of partition and how surviving becomes the ultimate reason to move on from their pasts.
Jyoti, a refugee of the divided nation with the seed of damnation growing in her which keeps bringing the memory of the horrific events back. Not just Jyoti, but there are other women who have faced violence but have different experiences. The old woman is a witness to violence and loss of her children and is left all alone. Another woman, also witnesses the killing of her husband and is raped in front of his dead body. Jyoti, was raped along with fifteen other women while crossing the border and is now growing the baby of her rapist. All these women were victimized yet they choose to survive in their own ways and are taking refuge in this chaotic nation. The baby growing in Jyoti too is seeking refuge in her womb but Jyoti is unable to accept her fate and wants to get rid of anything that reminds her of the trauma. According to Freud’s theory, the two women are in a state of ‘mourning’ for their loss but, Jyoti is in the state of ‘melancholia’, blaming herself for her loss.
Women were represented nation’s honor and with a symbol of purity. However, these are the women who have been continuously colonized, first by the colonizers, then by the men of their own community as a result of patriarchy and then by the men of other communities to seek revenge. Lalithambika Antharajanam focuses on this socio-political construction of the female body and how it is used to defile the honor of the nation. Through this story, the author highlights the gendered phenomenon of partition and how the female body though reduced to a site of violence, survives and recovers this gendered genocide.
Each women in the story chose to survive by accepting and adapting a way to do so. The protagonist Jyoti, on the other hand is unable to accept her fate. She decides to abandon the baby and start her life afresh. When the baby is born, she walks away but comes back and after looking at the baby, she decides to accept the baby and her fate. Why did Jyoti decide to do so? What made her change the decision and accept her fate? Was it because she could not gather the courage to do so? Or is it because she was sorry for the baby? As she looks at the baby and touches the baby, a motherly instinct glows in her and this becomes the reason for the change of heart. This motherly instinct has always been there in her, from the time she was giving refuge to the baby in her womb but she couldn’t accept the reality. She decides to move from the phase of victimhood to motherhood. For Jyoti, motherhood in itself becomes the source of strength. Lalithambika Antharajanam, shows how the female body became a site of gendered violence and uses the same female body to give a voice to the silenced and victimised souls. By accepting their traumatised bodies, these women choose to survive and not succumb to the mistakes made by the nation.