Abstract
ABSTRACT This study attempts a feminist analysis of a work of historical fiction set within the tumultuous events of the partition of British India in 1947. It uses a play, Antim Raat or “The Final Night,” by Bratya Basu to portray how individual histories of injury in “private” and “public” domains, stay alive in the memory of the Muslim nationalist leader, Muhammed Ali Jinnah, the founding father of Pakistan, and influences his political pursuit of Pakistan. The play depicts experiences of rejection and religious intolerance via the political act of marriage, set within a wider context where Jinnah uses religious identity for the partition of India in 1947. The paper therefore locates personal wounds within the larger narrative of the injured nation to signify Jinnah’s exit from “old” spaces and relationships to create and celebrate “new” dreams, freedom and boundaries. The complexities of inter-religious marriage in the plot also prompt readers to uncover the intricate connection between women’s marital choices and religious patriarchies. Dina Wadia, Jinnah’s daughter, viewed as a feminist and revolutionary character in the play, assesses the (im)possibilities of an ethico-political imagination in the blurred boundaries between familial and professional realms for a political leader of the stature of Jinnah.
Published Version
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