Mother and the child in the Partition of British India (1947) and the anti-Sikh pogrom in and surrounding Delhi (1984)

ABSTRACT

What were women's relationships with their children like in the partition of India in 1947 and the anti-Sikh Pogrom of 1984, and what were the children's experiences of these violent moments? While with the partition, many children were abandoned and post-abduction children were seen as a symbol of humiliation for the woman, with the massacre of 1984, surviving children were seen as symbols of the future. By drawing upon interviews, we see how trauma haunts the women and their children, and that these personal accounts disrupt idealized minority world notions of maternal care and the innocent child.

KEYWORDS:

• Women
• children
• partition
• 1984 pogrom
• cultural trauma
• shame

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).