(Re)Narrating Nation in Baldwin’s What The Body Remembers, A Sikh Woman’s Perspective on the Partition of Sub Continent

Abstract

This paper celebrates Shauna Singh Baldwin, a Sikh woman’s contribution to strengthening her national discourse through her novel, What the Body Remembers. This research also aims to examine the factors involved in creating a nation and nation-state, using the Partition of the Subcontinent and the creation of Pakistan and India as an example. The theories of nation and nationalism by Renan (1883), Gellner (1983), Anderson (1991), Stalin (1994), and Bhabha (1994) have been used to construct the theoretical framework for the current study. Through this novel, written by a woman and based on the Partition of India, the researcher highlights the “female voice.” This paper concludes that Baldwin has reinvented Sikh history and customs in her novel and connected her people with their glorious past and the sacrifices of their ancestors. She has highlighted the Sikh community’s contribution and disappointment during the Partition of the sub-continent. This research also highlights how Baldwin criticizes British policies, which became the main reason for huge bloodshed during migration. This paper may help the future researcher to focus on the reinterpretation of social, historical, and religious myths from the female point of view.