The River Churning and Trauma of Partition

In many post-partition novels, we encounter women characters that not only embody the struggles of individuals, but also symbolise the collective experiences endured by large communities of women. Main characters in these fictional works frequently symbolise personal humiliation and collective pain. This paper will analyse Jyotirmoyee Devi’s work, The River Churning, with a specific emphasis on the portrayal of the character Sutara. Jyotirmoyee Devi portrays Sutara as a double refugee, resulting from both the partition of Bengal and her exile from her homeland. Sutara experiences social exclusion within her own family and the wider society. This paper aims to examine Jyotirmoyee Devi’s portrayal of the phenomenon of self-condemnation experienced by traumatised women, resulting from deeds for which they bear no culpability. The aim of this paper is to examine the novelist’s perception of rape and the perspectives of both the family and society towards sexual assault.