COLLECTIVE TRAUMA AND CHILD ABUSE IN AMIT MAJMUDAR’S NOVEL, PARTITIONS USING CATHY CARUTH’S TRAUMA LENS

Abstract

Across the Indian sub-continent, two communities had lived together for a millennium but in a terrifying outbreak of harsh violence, they attacked each other. This resulted in a mutual genocide and exclusive massacre. Partition was not only the time of happiness for people of Pakistan and India but an ordeal of loss of too many innocent lives on the both sides of the border. This study investigates the partition incidents with special reference to violence on children of both sides of the border through the use of Cathy Caruth’s Collective trauma theory. The novel, Partitions by Amit Majmudar bears instances of child violence and embodied trauma. The research methodology for carrying out the research is Textual Analysis through Cathy Caruth’s book, Unclaimed Experience. The Trauma Analysis focuses on quoting historical references from Caruth’s Unclaimed Experience in order to explain the trauma and violence through literature. The results indicate that through literature, one can deeply understand the effects of trauma during partition.