“Breaking Barriers: Rape and Rescue During the Partition of India”
“Breaking Barriers: Rape and Rescue During the Partition of India” Brooklynn Scott Senior Division, Historical Paper Words: 2,491 Introduction On the strike of midnight on August 15, 1947, a nation was divided into two-- India and Pakistan. Unfortunately, the violence building up to this moment did not look to dissipate any time soon. Fear of kidnapping, rape, and murder continued to hang over the women of South Asia during this tumultuous time. Official estimates say over 83,000 women were abducted in the violence of partition,1 but historians say there were well over 100,000.2 Such violence was so widespread, especially in the new border cities, that women became a new symbol of religious, national, and sexual tension. In response, the new countries decided to take action and formed government agencies to recover abducted women and return them to their families. However, their well-intended actions paradoxically broke more personal boundaries. While partition left a trail of broken hearts, it ultimately marks a period where women battled social barriers together. Religious Tension When India gained independence from Great Britain the greatest controversy was the decision to split India into two countries: Pakistan for Muslims and India for Hindus and Sikhs. Although migration was not legally required, the surge of movement resulted in the largest human migration in history.3 Not everyone agreed that one’s religious identity should determine their national identity, however pressure built for religious segregation. Hatred simply boiled for the 1 Khan, Yasmin. The Great Partition: the Making of India and Pakistan. Yale University Press, 2017.
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