Communal Violence, Trauma and Indian Women: Fictional Representations of Women in Manju Kapur's A Married Woman and Anita Rau Badami's Can You Hear the Nightbird Call?

This thesis examines fictional representations of Indian women’s responses to trauma in the background of communal violence. It argues that fiction allows for the reimagination of women’s conditions during communal riots, and their responses to trauma as a result of those riots. While ethnographic research seeks answers from traumatized victims, a fictional text can open up spaces for debates about conditions of women and their responses to trauma in the background of communal violence. Through Manju Kapur’s <em>A Married Woman</em> and Anita Rau Badami’s <em>Can You Hear the Nightbird Call?</em>, this project examines women’s negotiations of their religious and national identities within the private and the public and their responses to trauma caused by communal violence. The Introduction draws on texts on gender and diaspora theory as well as scholarly work on the evolution and history of communalism in India. It also looks at the historical backgrounds of two events of communal violence that underpin Kapur’s and Badami’s texts, namely, the Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid controversy and the resulting 1992 riots, and Indira Gandhi’s assassination and the resulting 1984 anti-Sikh riots. Chapter 1 examines Indian women’s negotiations of religious identities in <em>A Married Woman</em>. Through the characters of Astha, Pipee and Sita, I argue that Kapur draws parallels between women as Other and religious minorities as Other. Her text shows the ways in which trauma crosses religious borders of Hindu-Muslim, and opens up possibilities for envisioning ways of ethically coexisting with the Other. Chapter 2 investigates communal violence in India and Canada in <em>Can You Hear the Nightbird Call?</em> Focusing on the characters of Bibi-ji, Leela and Nimmo, I argue that communal violence subsumes class, religion and location. Her text highlights how trauma crosses national boundaries and how the three women are torn apart by their losses. In my Conclusion, I suggest for new avenues of research that might contribute to a further understanding of the dynamics of communal violence and trauma, and a future investigation into the negotiation of male religious identities in the background of communal violence.

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