Amrita Pritam as witness: Ethnography of structural violence in post-Partition Punjab

Amrita Pritam's poetry is often interpreted through the lens of Partition violence and the suffering of Punjabi women. This study offers an ethnographic reading of selected poems from Khushwant Singh's translations, situating her work within Punjab's socio-political transformations after 1947. Drawing on Carolyn Forché's poetry of witness, Johan Galtung's structural violence, Cathy Caruth's traumatic memory, Dominick LaCapra's working-through, and Rob Nixon's slow violence, it argues that Pritam transforms personal grief into collective memory and resistance. Her poetry reimagines violence through acts of witnessing, healing, and female empowerment, extending beyond conventional postcolonial interpretations.