Published Paper Details:

This paper attempts to study the role of women in recreating the space in the process of resettling in the outskirts of Calcutta. If Partition has destroyed a whole generation of women, it has also provided an opportunity for many women to move into the public sphere which was even unimaginable to many women before Partition. Such large-scale displacement of women made the country think about workplaces where women were a new presence and on political mobilization where women began to participate in great numbers. not all women welcomed this newfound independence. This individual freedom was also a form of slavery, a burden which one can neither carry, nor avoid. Women's dominion, sphere, and location have always been inside the house and have been connected, across time and cultures, to a private world apart from a public one inhabited by males. Compared to their male compatriots, women were far more vociferous. Since they were more receptive to criticism and more eager to speak out against the system when surrounded by supportive individuals, refugee women were the first to organise. Even the screaming fits that hungry kids would throw at home had to be dealt with. This is how women started to take care of both the outside world and their homes. Hindu refugee women gradually started to make their public debuts.