Reading the Graphic Narrative “The Taboo,” from the Anthology This Side, That Side: Restorying Partition: Graphic Narratives from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, As a Microhistory of Partition

Abstract

ABSTRACT Early historiography of the South-Asian Partition tended to emphasize on the high politics surrounding the struggles against British imperialism and the transfer of power, focusing on prominent leaders and politicians and their roles in achieving self-rule. The perspectives of the general populace and the effects of high politics on those on the periphery of society, have been elided. However, since the 1990s, alternative voices, documenting the human dimension of Partition and the histories of marginalized masses, previously excluded from official histories, have started to gain importance. This article analyses how the graphic narrative, “The Taboo,” by Malini Gupta and Dyuti Mittal, offers such an alternative history, presenting the experiences of the residents of a refugee camp (Cooper’s camp) who have not been rehabilitated to this date and thereby remained trapped as “historical residues” of the Partition. This article discusses how the narrative highlights the subjectivity and agency of the refugees, particularly, the refugee women, with lower caste and class backgrounds whose histories have remained undocumented in official records. It further examines “The Taboo” as a microhistory of Partition that presents the local history of the camp and foregrounds the agency of the protagonist Lily, as an unattached refugee woman.