The partition of 1947 as it was experienced in the then princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, India, often remains overlooked. Poonch, a principality in the princely state of J&K was attacked by the Kabalis (Pashtun tribal invaders) in October 1947 in the aftermath of the partition of the Indian subcontinent, which led to mass scale displacement and rehabilitation of Poonchies. This paper analyses three obscure Poonchi life-writings Khooni Itihas 1947, Kashmir: Ek Unkahi Dastaan, and Of Duty, Intrepidity and Treachery: Story of the Hero of Poonch and their confluence with oral narratives collected from the displaced refugees residing in the demographic regions of Jammu and Rajasthan, India. Relying on Roberto Esposito’s idea of ‘community,’ it is contended that there is a conflux of the written and the oral which enables the reconstruction of partition through the lens of re-consolidation. Reaching beyond the anecdotes of violence, yet being informed by them, this paper infers that these life-writings when supplemented by the oral narratives emerge as a mechanism of re-grouping among the displaced Poonchies.

The paper tries to analyse “disability” and “religion” among the minorities in India through life writing narratives of Naseema Hazruk’s The Incredible Story (2005) and Preeti Monga’s The Other Senses (2012). The Indian Prime Minister coined a new term ‘Divyang’ which means person of extraordinary talent but still they are regarded as liability. Disabled women specially in India and in South Asia are triply marginalised, i.e. first as a female, religion and followed by infirmity. Naseema was a Muslim woman who was demeaned in her day to day life yet she became a disabled activist. The book narrates her struggle with rehabilitation, accessibility, education etc.The text also documents how Naseema, being a Muslim woman, encountered hurdles and challenges posed by the upper caste Hindus in her ceaseless struggle for the empowerment of disabled. Her autobiography is one of the pioneering texts of the disabled in India. It is considered to be the first women disabled life narrative published in the subcontinent. A founding text of disability life narratives in India. Similarly, Preeti Monga who was born in upper middle class Sikh family and was subjected to domestic and financial issues. Her story reveals continuous threat of domestic violence and fighting to save her children in an abusive marriage while asserting her right as an individual. Her only demand from a patriarchal society is dignity and respect. Both the novels analyse socioeconomic difficulties faced by the disabled and while doing so these life writings describe social realism in public discourse.

This article attempts to restore the subjectivity of Indian educated middle-class women during the Partition period through three Partition novels: Anita Desai’s Clear Light of Day (1980), Amitav Ghosh’s The Shadow Lines (1988) and Manju Kapur’s Difficult Daughters (1998). Despite extensive research on women in Partition, there is little focus on the group of educated middle-class women. In mainstream historical and political discourse, these women have consistently been constructed within the official discourse dominated by males. They are either ‘Mother India’, or the ‘new woman’ to meet the requirements of India’s changing political atmosphere. However, by delving into the particular historical context and personal experience of the educated middle-class women in three novels, the article argues that they continuously subvert the essentialized identities imposed upon them by different versions of official discourse. As the embodiment of Shakti, they are distinct from the archetypes of ‘Mother India’ and the ‘new woman’. Instead, they create their ideal family spaces based on their personal cognition, and transcend the homogeneous gender discourse to reflect the fluid and complex nature of female identity.