Community and Violence-Recalling Partition

Community and Violence Recalling Partition Gyanendra Pandey The narratives of the survivors of partition subtly construct in retrospect domains of 'inside' and 'outside' for defining violence of those traumatic days. A desperate act of self-immolation gets transformed into a heroic sacrifice sanctifying the inner domain of the community, while violence in form of revenge gets displaced onto the evilness of the other inhabiting the outside. Neither self-immolation nor revenge are acts of violence in the victims' account; they are acts done as a duty, as a response to the call of the times, securing the life of the community or nation.