Exploring self through memory: Narratives of Punjabi and Sindhi Partition survivors

Abstract

The reciprocal association between working self and autobiographical retrieval is illustrated in the self-memory system model. This study attempted to investigate the self-memory system model in the context of memories of the 1947 Partition of British India. This event, which dramatically altered the lives of many survivors, generated indelible memories. In this study, the published Partition narratives of displaced Punjabi and Sindhi survivors were content analyzed, and themes were extracted. The working self of the Partition survivors triggered recall of this event, whose evaluation varied along three dimensions, namely, avoidance, rumination, and reflection. The theme of repression was central to avoidance narratives. Furthermore, rumination narratives were marked by nostalgia and a sense of alienation. Finally, the themes of cognitive reappraisal, self-complexity, and self-discrepancy resolution surfaced in reflection narratives. The emerging research findings highlight the centrality of emotion regulation in autobiographical retrieval and its implications for well-being.

Keywords

avoidance partition reflection rumination working self

In 1947, India gained independence from the British, and the independent republic of Pakistan was carved out of British India. The1947 Partition of British India left a long-lasting, debilitating impact on several lives: the circumstances surrounding the Partition were marked by gory violence, sexual barbarism, and upheaval on both sides of the delineated border (Balasubrahmanyan, 2011; Bhavnani, 2014; Butalia, 1998; Greenberg, 2005; Kothari, 2007, 2009; Menon and Bhasin, 1998; Raj, 2000; Shaikh, 2009). It was difficult for the survivors, to come to terms with the arbitrarily drawn Radcliffe Line, which put their birthplace and nationality at odds with each other (Shaikh, 2009).

Furthermore, the event resulted in Punjab being partitioned into West Punjab (Muslim-majority) and East Punjab (Hindu-and Sikh-majority), which were conceded to Pakistan and India, respectively. The entire province of Sindh was accorded to Pakistan. The Sindhi Partition experience, unlike its Punjabi equivalent, was more concerned with growing insecurities, perceived fear of persecution, economic disparities, and less with communal violence (Bhavnani, 2014; Kothari, 2007, 2009). Thus, Punjab and Sindh differed greatly in their experience of Partition.

While Partition entailed political fragmentation of an erstwhile united territory, it carried manifold connotations, which cannot be fathomed without considering the memories, the images, and the meanings inextricably linked to fundamental concerns of individual and national identity (Greenberg, 2005). Unfortunately, much of the Partition literature has been written from “above”—through the lens of a historian—reflecting an elitist stance. Consequently, rather than focusing on chronicled historical accounts, some researchers working on the Partition of India (Balasubrahmanyan, 2011; Bhavnani, 2014; Butalia, 1998; Kothari, 2007, 2009; Menon and Bhasin, 1998; Raj, 2000) have diverted their attention to oral history, which accounts for people’s experience of the event. Thus, understanding the concept of “autobiographical memory” (AM) becomes inevitable.

AM: a theoretical overview

AMs, generally, involve recounting events from the personal past through the lens of the present (Bluck, 2003; Conway, 2005). They comprise life stories (Bluck and Habermas, 2000; Conway and Pleydell-Pearce, 2000) and incorporate information stored at varying degrees of specificity (Conway and Pleydell-Pearce, 2000). Conway et al. (2004) modified the original Conway and Pleydell-Pearce’s (2000) theoretical framework to explain autobiographical retrieval in terms of the interplay between three self-memory system (SMS) structures, namely, the episodic memory system, the working self (similar to “working self-concept”; Markus and Wurf, 1987), and the long-term self. The long-term self embraces the information that the working self needs for goal regulation. It subsumes the autobiographical knowledge base and conceptual self. The autobiographical knowledge base incorporates three dimensions, namely (a) “life story schema” (Bluck and Habermas, 2000; Habermas and Bluck, 2000),which is a higher order, abstract, and invariant mental framework that selects certain personal memories, arranges them systematically, generates life narratives, and engages in autobiographical reasoning; (b) lifetime periods; and (c) general events. Whereas, the conceptual self includes abstract, self-related knowledge, and consists of temporally independent configurations, such as “possible selves” (Markus and Nurius, 1986), beliefs, attitudes, and values. The working self is primarily concerned with monitoring current goal pursuits. Finally, episodic memories are near-accurate representations of sensory-perceptual information related to particular events.

Episodic memories which are well-positioned in the autobiographical knowledge base and closely linked to the conceptual self undergo deep processing and reflect enduring individual concerns; these are mainstays of “narrative identity” (Adler, 2012; Singer, 2004; Singer et al., 2013). Such episodic memories are essentially called “self-defining memories” (SDMs; Blagov and Singer, 2004; also called “integrative memories,” Singer and Blagov, [2000] 2001). The preference for self-coherence in the long-term self necessitates the working self to retrieve these memories (Conway, 2005; Conway et al., 2004). SDMs rely on “reflection”: a “meta-regulatory process,” which involves remembering past events along with their further processing in terms of explanation and evaluation (Staudinger, 2001).

Also, SDMs foster “self-event connections” (Pasupathi et al., 2007) and “self-integration” (Weeks and Pasupathi, 2011) through the process of meaning-making (Blagov and Singer, 2004; Janoff-Bulman, 1992; McLean and Thorne, 2003; Singer, 2004; Singer et al., 2013; Staudinger, 2001; Thorne et al., 2004). Meaning-making includes two dimensions, namely, finding meaning and using memory to guide behavior, which is central to the directive function of AM (Alea and Bluck, 2013). Research studies (McLean and Thorne, 2003; Thorne et al., 2004) have demonstrated that meaning-making is more characteristic of situations involving conflict or those generating tension as these situations challenge one’s self-concept (Bluck and Habermas, 2000; Weeks and Pasupathi, 2011). Thus, the link between the meaning-making and directive function of AM permits one to conclude that SDMs have implications for the long-term self (Conway et al., 2004).

Recently, emotion regulation (ER) has been acknowledged as a distinct function in the broad taxonomy of AM functions (Pillemer, 2009). It is incorporated under the directive function of AM (Bluck et al., 2005) and is seen as a mechanism for serving all the three broad AM functions (Bluck, 2003; Pasupathi, 2003). ER includes strategies that individuals utilize in order to eradicate, sustain, or modulate the emotional expression and/or experience (Gross, 1998, 2002; Rusting and DeHart, 2000). Gross (1998, 2002) has highlighted two important ER strategies in the process model, namely, “cognitive reappraisal” and “expressive suppression.” Since SDMs involve reinterpretation of adverse or negative circumstances, they can be seen as employing the ER strategy of cognitive reappraisal.

However, not all individuals can generate SDMs. Research studies (e.g. Josephson et al., 1996; Moffitt et al., 1994) have suggested that depressed individuals experience difficulty in generating SDMs. This finding has been corroborated by Williams et al. (2007), who indicate that depressed individuals are more likely to demonstrate overgenerality or reduced specificity in autobiographical recollections which in turn impedes problem-solving. Furthermore, they consider rumination, which entails a passive focus on undesirable features (Nolen-Hoeksema, 2000; Staudinger, 2001), a crucial mechanism underlying depressive disorders (Nolen-Hoeksema, 2000; Staudinger, 2001), and overgeneral autobiographical retrieval. The extent of self-integration, which is closely associated with mood-incongruent memory phenomenon, depends on the employment of specific mood regulation strategies, such as positive reappraisal versus continued focus (Rusting and DeHart, 2000; similar to “reflective self-focus” vs “ruminative self-focus,” McFarland and Buehler, 1998).

Yet, there are personal memories that remain undisclosed (Pasupathi et al., 2009), especially those pertaining to violent trauma (Fivush, 2010; Janoff-Bulman, 1992) wherein the survivors are compelled to avoid talking about traumatic experiences by enduring the “conspiracy of silence,” stemming from unwillingness on the part of society to acknowledge survivors’ experiences (Danieli, 1998: 4; Janoff-Bulman, 1992). Thus, in addition to rumination, non-disclosure of the traumatic memories precludes their integration into the self-concept (Danieli, 1998: 4;; Janoff-Bulman, 1992; Pasupathi et al., 2009). Furthermore, these traumatic memories can rarely be called memories due to suppression of the present by the past, whose vividness renders the present unreal (Hackett and Rolston, 2009).

Inherent in these modes of retrieving personal past is the impact of trauma on AM. Traumatic memories, unlike ordinary AMs, are susceptible to “extremes of retention and forgetting” (van der Kolk and Fisler, 1995: 508). Traumatic events are often linked to the development of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) which triggers memory disturbances, such as vivid and intrusive recollections, re-experiencing the trauma, memory fragmentation, amnesia (Brewin et al., 1996; Ehlers et al., 2004), and overgeneral autobiographical retrieval (Moore and Zoellner, 2007). Janoff-Bulman (1992) highlights that trauma survivors typically employ two sets of strategies: (a) automatic processing, which can assume the form of either denial/emotional numbing or intrusive re-experiencing of the traumatic event and (b) controlled processing, which entails restructuring one’s assumptive world in order to facilitate the integration of trauma into one’s self-concept. Thus, it can be inferred that traumatic memories need to undergo controlled emotional processing in order to facilitate successful adaptation and readjustment.

Current research

The current research attempts to examine the SMS model in the context of the 1947 Partition of India by perusing the narratives of Punjabi and Sindhi Partition survivors. The Punjabi Partition narratives were drawn from Butalia (1998), Menon and Bhasin (1998), and Raj (2000), while the Sindhi Partition narratives were drawn from Balasubrahmanyan (2011), Bhavnani (2014), and Kothari (2007). These sources contain excerpts of the interviews conducted by the authors and are a literary analysis of the narratives. Some published autobiographical excerpts of Sindhi writers, cited in Kothari (2009), were also included in the analysis.

The number of survivors interviewed by most of these authors (e.g. Bhavnani, 2014; Butalia, 1998; Kothari, 2007; Menon and Bhasin, 1998) ranged between 60 and 75, approximately¹ (Ashraf, 2016; Nandita Bhavnani, 2017, personal communication; Ritu Menon, 2017, personal communication). All the narratives from these works were perused, but the focus was on narratives that were personal rather than those that were political for the current analysis.

Data analysis

The narratives extracted from the sources were subjected to “directed content analysis” (Hsieh and Shannon, 2005). Prior literature was used to extract preliminary coding categories, which were then operationally defined and subsequently used to code published narratives (Hsieh and Shannon, 2005). Themes were extracted after content analysis and then the themes were further refined (Braun and Clarke, 2006). The first author (N.P.) read and re-read the narratives multiple times before content analyzing the data and extracting themes. The second author (M.K.) read the narratives twice and then followed the same procedure. Both the authors analyzed the narratives independently and arrived at a consensus about the themes. In addition, the insights offered by the authors of the original sources have been considered when analyzing the findings.

Emerging themes

In this study, we have reduced the themes to three dominant cognitive styles, namely, “avoidance,” “rumination,” and “reflection.” These themes correspond to some extent with Janoff-Bulman’s (1992) taxonomy of coping strategies, such as denial/emotional numbing, intrusive re-experiencing of the trauma, and rebuilding shattered assumptions, respectively. In addition, Watt and Wong’s (1991) categories of reminiscence, McFarland and Buehler’s (1998) idea of reflective versus ruminative self-focus, and Staudinger’s (2001) conceptualization of reflection are also of utmost relevance.

Avoidance

In the context of Partition, some survivors suppressed their traumatic experiences (see narratives in Butalia, 1998; Menon and Bhasin, 1998; Raj, 2000) that were too painful to recall (Janoff-Bulman, 1992), demonstrating a “repressive coping style” (Weinberger et al., 1979).

A closer look at the Partition narratives (see Table 1) reveals non-disclosure of traumatic Partition-related memories as appearing to be more characteristic of Punjabi survivors than their Sindhi counterparts as they experienced more traumatic violence. Many Punjabi survivors of Partition, as documented in several works (Butalia, 1998; Menon and Bhasin, 1998; Raj, 2000), have often questioned the relevance of remembering unpleasant memories as they claim to have put these memories away a long time ago (see Table 1). One of the ways in which Partition trauma was boxed off was by recalling an official narrative instead of a personal one (see Narrative 1 in Table 1). In addition, many women survivors of rape, abduction, and other forms of physical/sexual assault refused to speak about their traumatic experiences in order to relieve themselves of anxiety (see Narrative 6 in Table 1).

Table 1.

Narratives of avoidance.

Narrative	Region	Nature	Gender	Narrative
1	Punjab	Respondent-specific, but evident in other Punjabi survivors’ accounts²	Male	“Why do you want to talk about partition, everyone knows what happened … The British came, we had to leave, we are here. There is no use in talking about the past, it’s done.” (Raj, 2000: 42–43)
2	Punjab	Generic	NA	“… no one came forward to help at the time, what is the use of doing all this now? Who will benefit from it?”(Butalia, 1998: 359)
3	Punjab	Respondent-specific	Male	“What is the use of raking all this up again?” (Mangal Singh, cited in Butalia, 1998: 194)
4	Punjab	Generic	NA	“Partition? What do you want to talk about that for? Anyway, it’s too late—they’re all dead.” (Menon and Bhasin, 1998: 13)
5	Punjab	Respondent-specific	Male	“why do you want to remember all of this. This pain, this hardship. It is up to us to protect our children from such suffering, from bad things. This is our protection.” (Raj, 2000: 43)
6	Punjab	Respondent-specific	Female	“Leave it. What use is it recalling the past? Forget about it. I’ve banished it all from my mind. I lead a respectable [honourable] life now, why look back to the past—even my children don’t know anything about it. Nothing can be done about it now.” (Menon and Bhasin, 1998: 95)

NA: not applicable.

Narratives of avoidance can be understood in the light of Derakshan et al.’s (2007) vigilance-avoidance theory, which postulates that repressors demonstrate heightened sensitivity when presented with self-relevant, threatening stimuli, since these stimuli are instrumental in activating episodic memories and autobiographical knowledge base. Following the stage of vigilance, the repressors avoid attending to, perceiving, and remembering the threatening stimuli in order to avoid anxiety. This model helps us to understand the mechanisms that Partition survivors would have most likely employed when choosing not to discuss painful memories.

In the context of this study, survivors who avoided talking about the Partition seemed to have endured trauma that was much more severe than those who did not (Butalia, 1998; Menon and Bhasin, 1998; see Narrative 6 in Table 1). Cienfuegos and Monelli (1983) rightly point out that difficulty in expressing one’s suffering depends upon the intensity of the trauma. Rather than engaging with the unpleasant emotions associated with the event, they seemed to have distanced themselves from the event and its repercussions.

Rumination

There were other Partition survivors who unable to come out of the trauma continued to mourn over the past (see “obsessive reminiscence”; Watt and Wong, 1991),demonstrating “rumination” (Nolen-Hoeksema, 2000; see Narratives in Table 2). The narratives cited in Table 2 primarily are of those who were adolescents or young adults at the time of Partition. However, evidence suggests that the elderly were more pessimistic about restoring pre-Partition status (Bhavnani, 2014; Saksena, n.d., cited in Menon and Bhasin, 1998), with many of them dying soon after Partition (Bhavnani, 2014).

Table 2.

Narratives of rumination.

Narrative	Region	Nature	Gender	Age at the time of partition (years)	Narrative
1	Punjab	Respondent-specific	Female	NA	“Our land had water and we could grow two crops. What fine and white wheat we used to get … There is no peace even today. I don’t sleep, there is a feeling of being unsettled … There is no well-being … Those who were happy there (in West Punjab) became unhappy here … It was our kismat to see such bad times … But I have no country now … People die for their country. I have nothing to die for. What could we women do? … That was our real home, the home we loved. Relationships were stronger, families looked after each other. All that has also gone, finished. Now no one cares. There is no hunger now for food, only a hunger for people.” (Somvanti, cited in Menon and Bhasin, 1998: 216–220)
2	Punjab	Respondent-specific	Female	Around 16	“… Those were beautiful days, and it was a beautiful relationship. Now after Partition, after 1984, where is my country? … But as a woman, if I cannot call a home my own, if my home is not mine, how can a country be mine?” (Taran, cited in Menon and Bhasin, 1998: 248)
3	Punjab	Respondent-specific	Female	Around 18 or 19	“… so many buffaloes, so much milk … Heaps of butter was made every morning … the basmati grown there was so fragrant you cook it here, you smell it out there … Things were given so that we would remember them … Now they give useless things … We all lived so peacefully … Of course I feel lonely. I feel it but who shall I say it to? Before whom should I cry? Will anyone solve my problem? No one can. I have to deal with it myself.” (Gyan Devi, cited in Menon and Bhasin, 1998: 137–141)
4	Punjab	Respondent-specific	Female	Mostly, a young adult	“today they would have been ranis … so many of them, jethanis, children … now I sit at home and my children are out working and I keep telling them these stories … they are stories after all … and you tell them and tell them until you lose consciousness …” (Basant Kaur, cited in Butalia, 1998: 202)
5	Sindh	Respondent-specific	Female	18	“We had mauj, a good time in Sindh; there is no mauj here … We would get mangoes and dates-where do we get that over here? I remember people catching pallo, and all kinds of fish from the Sindhu. We were better off there.” (Pribhibai Dohit, cited in Bhavnani, 2014: 306)
6	Sindh	Respondent-specific (excerpt from a short story)	Male	17³	“In the wispy smoke of my cigarette, I still see my Karachi, that camel cart and the journey of the uprooted. The cat tried very hard to jump out of the tub, but its walls were higher than mountains. What can one do? Sighs have lost warmth, silences have become long and weary.” (Mohan Kalpana, cited in Kothari, 2009: 66)
7	Sindh	Respondent-specific (excerpt from a short story)	Male	NA	“Fifteen years have gone by. I miss Sindh, I miss my companions, but most of all I miss poor, humble Muhammad … the memory of this humble and selfless friend haunts me.” (Ram Panjwani, cited in Kothari, 2009: 73)

NA: not applicable.

These survivors spent most of their time recalling their homeland and were unable to acknowledge the loss of this “symbolic” object, making them vulnerable to the traumatic experiences of Partition. This led to a “depressive self-focus” that exacerbated the problem (Pyszczynski and Greenberg, 1987).

A careful perusal of these narratives demonstrates the salience of two dimensions, namely, nostalgia (synonymous with “escapist reminiscence”; Watt and Wong, 1991) and alienation. Many of these survivorsoffer favorable descriptions about a comfortable and prosperous life during the pre-Partition period Deprived of access to their homeland, the only way to sustain a relationship with it, is through memories, which results in conflation of time and space.

Many survivors indirectly expressed the desire to return to one’s homeland by engaging in nostalgic reverie over the pre-Partition period (see Narratives 1, 2, 3, and 5 in Table 2). Nostalgia, marked by a sense of wistfulness or pensive longing for the past (The New Oxford Dictionary of English, 1998, cited in Margalit, 2002: 62; Sedikides et al., 2004), predominantly entails positive affect and is often used to combat current feelings of alienation (Sedikides et al., 2004). In this study, these romanticized memories were marked by a sense of rootedness in physical environment. Rootedness entails maintaining natural ties, battling against deracination, and basing one’s identity in these natural milieus (Fromm, [1955] 1991). Many of the Partition survivors emphasized things such as place of origin (soil), natural settings, quality of wheat, and fruits. The link between nostalgia and rumination can be explained using Godbole et al.’s (2006) research, which found evidence for higher nostalgia among individuals with a principally positive past when faced with a bleak future. Nostalgia can also be seen as a means to circumvent current mediocrity (Sedikides et al., 2004), which was typically the case with many survivors who were unable to come out of the Partition trauma.

In addition, a sense of alienation strongly resonates in the narratives of rumination. Before analyzing the theme of alienation, it is important to understand the theoretical perspectives related to this construct. Fromm ([1955] 1991) conceives alienation as a state of self-estrangement and detachment from other individuals and the external world despite having attained “freedom from” hegemonic establishments. Furthermore, Seeman (1959, 1975) has offered a sociological perspective on alienation by outlining six dimensions: namely, powerlessness, normlessness, meaninglessness, social isolation, self, and cultural estrangement. The first dimension, powerlessness, reflects the inability to exert control over consequences and reinforcements. On the contrary, normlessness concerns the employment of socially censured behaviors to attain goals. The third dimension, meaninglessness, reflects incomprehensibility and inability to predict outcomes. The fourth dimension, social isolation, indicates the extent to which social relationships are distant. Self-estrangement is concerned with the level of intrinsic involvement in activities. And finally, cultural estrangement (also called “isolation”; Seeman, 1959) is conceived along the lines of individual denunciation or commitment to socially shared values. A sense of alienation prevails in the aftermath of immigration and occurs as a result of interruptions in the quotidian existence, departure from the familiar environment, and loss of belongingness (Handlin, 2002: 4). This can indeed be ascertained in the context of 1947 Partition of British India, which was a classic instance of forced and irreversible migration.

Seeman’s three dimensions of alienation, namely, meaninglessness, powerlessness, and social isolation surface in the narrations of those who persistently focused on the negative impact of the event. To illustrate, social isolation is evident in Somvanti’s narration on account of distancing from close relationships (see Narrative 1 in Table 2). It is important to note that she lived in a joint family prior to Partition, which provided her with opportunities to foster interpersonal relationships; however, this was disrupted in the aftermath of Partition.

Basant Kaur’s detailed narrative (see Narrative 4 in Table 2) points out a glaring sense of meaninglessness. She survived the Thoa Khalsa “mass suicide” incident in which many women jumped into the well to safeguard community and family honor; she was also complicit in assisting her “nanan” (sister-in-law) and her daughter to kill themselves. She experiences an overpowering guilt for having survived these incidents. This is corroborated by Bir Bahadur Singh’s (Butalia, 1998: 241–242) assertion about her daylong weeping and singing “dukhan” (tragic song) when recollecting the Thoa Khalsa incident; this eventually stopped but not without taking a heavy toll on her sleep. In addition, a sense of powerlessness and social isolation emerged in Gyan Devi’s narration (see Narrative 3 in Table 2) as she finds herself unable to resolve her concerns in the new land. In general, survivors who ruminated were unable to adapt to the changed circumstances; instead, they found themselves “frozen in time.”

Reflection

Partition turned the world of many Punjabi and Sindhi Partition survivors upside down. However, some chose not to let themselves be emotionally overwhelmed by the tumultuous situation when recounting the event. Rather than letting the circumstances define them, they defined the circumstances. They perceived the event as providing opportunities for growth and development. And this dimension becomes apparent as they narrate how the event allowed them to look at life from a different perspective and take charge of it. They chose to see the glass as “half-full” rather than “half-empty”. This constitutes the essence of reflection (Staudinger, 2001; see narratives in Table 3).

Table 3.

Narratives of reflection.

Narrative	Region	Nature	Gender	Age at the time of partition (years)	Narrative
1	Punjab	Respondent-specific	Female	Mostly, a young adult	“Partition provided me with the opportunity to get out of the four walls of my house … Personally I feel Partition forced many people into taking the initiative and finding their own feet.” (Bibi Inder Kaur, cited in Menon and Bhasin, 1998: 215)
2	Punjab	Respondent-specific	Female	Around 22 or 23	“If Partition had not taken place I would have been a writer and a lecturer … So, Partition changed the direction of my life … I felt now was the time to work for the country.” (Nirmal Anand, cited in Menon and Bhasin, 1998: 190)
3	Punjab	Respondent-specific	Female	Around 20 or 21	“If Partition hadn’t happened, if I hadn’t lost my husband and daughter, learnt to stand on my own two feet—I think life would have been more difficult! … It was a tragedy, of course—I was quite alone, afraid to go anywhere, insecure … Whatever is written will happen.” (Durga Rani, cited in Menon and Bhasin, 1998: 147)
4	Sindh	Generic	NA	NA	“We used to be like frogs living in a well, now the whole world is our oyster.”(Bhavnani, 2014: 300)
5	Sindh	Respondent-specific	Female	10	“… before Partition, we were brought up in the lap of luxury … Then circumstances put us in a situation where we struggled to make two ends meet. When I got this job, I realized how important it was to save and not fritter away one’s savings. I also came to cherish my independence, the freedom that came from being a bread-winner.” (Nimmy Vaswani, cited in Bhavnani, 2014: 275)
6	Sindh	Respondent-specific	Male	NA	“When we left Sindh, we left all the privileges … But when we realised we had no region we decided to create security by making money.” (cited in Bhavnani, 2014: 290)
7	Sindh	Respondent-specific	Male	Around 15	“… (T.M. Advani) would instill in us the belief that with a firm will, you can achieve whatever you want in life … This was a big inspiration in those difficult days … Thereafter, there was no looking back.” (Lakhimchand Bahirwani, cited in Bhavnani, 2014: 300–302)

NA: not applicable.

A favorable consequence of Partition was that many middle-class women survivors e found themselves in the public domain having to eke out a living, which empowered them - (Bhavnani, 2014; Butalia, 1998; Menon and Bhasin, 1998). Durga Rani’s involvement in “Ashram” (hermitage) work offered her a glimpse into the agonies of women who were more powerless and more helpless than her. This might be a precipitating factor in giving her a sense of direction in life and strengthened her motivation to work for cause of Ashram women and in the process helped cast aside her own suffering. It is noteworthy that she was eventually able to see Partition from a balanced perspective by weighing both the pros and the cons (see Narrative 3 in Table 3). Unlike Durga Rani who received limited education, Nirmal Anand (see Narrative 2 in Table 3) was a teacher during the pre-Partition days. Her shift toward social work could be a result of an overpowering guilt she experiences for having failed as a “teacher,” when she saw her students setting houses on fire. Her narrative puts before the audience general insights she acquired about herself as a result of Partition. A similar strand emerges in Bibi Inder Kaur’s narrative (see Narrative 1 in Table 3). On the contrary, Nimmy Vaswani’s narrative (see Narrative 5 in Table 3) offers important clues about the lessons she learnt and values she nurtured in the aftermath of Partition.

Furthermore, reflection in autobiographical narrations appeared to be more characteristic of survivors whose socioeconomic circumstances worsened in the immediate aftermath of Partition but improved later. Because they achieved a lot in the aftermath of Partition, they could afford to look back without bitterness. Little changed for survivors, whose socioeconomic circumstances remained constant. The survivors coming from affluent families had liquid assets and contacts with influential people in divided India. Due to this, they were able to re-adjust to a new environment without facing much difficulty. This is evident in Lata Badlani’s following narrative:

He (my husband) joined us in Udaipur … Except (for) a few months of uncertainty about my husband’s job, we had no problem in resettling. (Kothari, 2007: 98)

Similarly, individuals from lower socioeconomic status (SES) groups were used to facing hardships since the pre-Partition era. As a result, they did not find it challenging to re-adjust in the new environment despite facing event-specific hardships. For example, this becomes apparent in Gena Nawani’s (cited in Kothari, 2007: 96) following statement: “But some of us were neither peaceful in Sindh nor here.” Or, consider Punjabhai Valodra’s assertions:

But who would loot us? What did we have for anyone to loot? And who would murder a Harijan? We were not afraid of conversion either. Who would try to convert us? … I was not worried at all. And nothing changed for us. (Balasubrahmanyan, 2011: 475)

However, many middle-class survivors encountered humongous financial losses, faced the stigma of being a “refugee,” were compelled to live in the refugee camps for a relatively long period, and found themselves at the mercy of the new Government for support. In other words, Partition brought about an abrupt change in their socioeconomic conditions. To restore their pre-Partition SES and maintain their notions of being autonomous, they had to work harder than before and push themselves to their limits. Hence, these survivors see Partition as a platform to use their abilities optimally.

Age was also a decisive factor with respect to how Partition was understood and seen as central to one’s identity. Reflection narratives were more characteristic of those who were adolescents and young adults at the time of Partition. This is primarily because the ability to engage in autobiographical reasoning or life reflection, which is central to formation of a coherent life story and narrative identity, emerges during adolescence (Habermas and Bluck, 2000; Staudinger, 2001). In addition, the greater prevalence of reflection or self-defining narratives in this age group can be explained using the phenomenon of “reminiscence bump” (Conway, 2005; Conway and Pleydell-Pearce, 2000; Habermas and Bluck, 2000; Rubin et al., 1998), which pertains to more autobiographical recollections of events that occurred during the age of 10–30 years than those from other time periods. This is palpable given that identity concerns assume significance during adolescence (Conway and Pleydell-Pearce, 2000; Habermas and Bluck, 2000).

Furthermore, reflection narratives appeared to be more characteristic of Sindhi Partition survivors than their Punjabi counterparts. It is important to note that the magnitude of violence in Sindh was much lower than that in Punjab (Bhavnani, 2014; Kothari, 2007, 2009). A closer look at the original sources reveals that many Sindhis were shop-keepers unlike their Punjabi counterparts who were farmers. Thus, the Sindhis had sizeable liquid assets as compared to the Punjabis which explains their easier integration into the new country.

Reflection narratives are primarily marked by cognitive reappraisal, meaning-making, self-complexity (Linville, 1985), and resolution of self-discrepancies (Higgins, 1987). These narrations primarily evaluate the event as having a favorable impact at a personal level. What also appears to transpire beneath many of these narratives is a strong “internal control” (Rotter, 1966) and an unflinching resilience to counteract the harmful effects of stressful circumstances. Moreover, these narratives are indicative of “post-traumatic growth” (Tedeschi and Calhoun, 2004). In this study, post-traumatic growth can be seen as synonymous to minimization of self-discrepancies, especially when one is able to attain personally or socially set standards. For Nirmal Anand, growth was associated with realizing her ideal standard of being a social worker, whereas for Nimmy Vaswani, growth occurred on account of meeting the socially expected standard of being a breadwinner, which permitted her to learn important lessons such as valuing financial resources. Finally, individuals who reflected upon their experiences demonstrated self-complexity in their narrations. As discussed before, an important outcome of Partition was an increase in the visibility of both Punjabi and Sindhi women in the public sphere. This inevitably meant performing various roles across both personal and work domains. For example, this becomes apparent in Durga Rani’s following narrative (Menon and Bhasin, 1998: 147):“I was looking after my children, my in-laws, I had a job, I had books—that was enough.” Also, some male survivors who became successful businessmen and traders later, entered workforce at a tender age in the aftermath of Partition (Bhavnani, 2014). This brought about a substantial reorganization of their self-concept.

Thus, many of the Partition survivors who reflect upon their experiences adapted to the changed circumstances and consequently rebuilt their lives successfully. They were guided by “self-efficacy” (Bandura, 1977) and entrepreneurial ethos; they did not desire receiving charity (Bhavnani, 2014; Butalia, 1998; Kothari, 2007, 2009; Raj, 2000). Many of these survivors did not see themselves as “sharnarthis” (refugees) but as “purusharthis” (diligent, hard-working individuals) (Bhavnani, 2014; Kothari, 2007, 2009; Raj, 2000). They were able to climb the social ladder through hard work and effort, reflecting their “agency” (Adler, 2012). Thus, their resilient spirit helped them cope effectively with the adversity. In fact, two of India’s past prime ministers were Partition survivors.

Situating the themes within the broader theoretical framework

As stated before, SMS model postulates that the working self influences autobiographical recall in a manner that is consistent with the self-coherence goals of the long-term self. Maintaining self-coherence, according to Markus and Wurf (1987), is one of the potential modes to regulate affect. The working self of survivors who avoided talking about Partition was driven by the need to circumvent the negative affect associated with the event. This event, although having impacted them greatly, has failed to enter their long-term self-structures on account of repressive coping. Avoidance depends on what Conway and Pleydell-Pearce (2000) call “dysfacilitation,” a mechanism which terminates generative retrieval process before episodic memories are formed. Furthermore, those who ruminated accentuated the positive affect of the pre-Partition period and negative affect of the post-Partition period. The stark contrast between these two periods serves to reinforce their persistent feelings of helplessness and mediocrity, which have permeated their long-term self. Rumination stems from ineffective “inhibitory control of memory construction” wherein the episodic knowledge is activated rapidly during the retrieval process and induces pain to the retriever (Conway and Pleydell-Pearce, 2000: 282). As stated before, rumination underlies depressive disorders. Finally, the working self of survivors who reflected upon the favorable impact of the event was in accordance with their conceptual self of being self-reliant. Self-reliance is synonymous with autonomy, an important dimension of well-being (Ryff, 1989). The outcomes of these cognitive styles resonate with Brewin et al.’s (1996) categorization: specifically, avoidance, rumination, and reflection correspond to premature inhibition of processing, chronic emotional processing, and integration, respectively. Thus, reflection, rumination, and avoidance are the cognitive styles involved in autobiographical recollections that reveal the extent to which the event is integrated into the self-structures of these survivors and the implications these styles have for their well-being.

Conclusion

The 1947 Partition of British India was an event marked by churning of identities: the powerful became powerless, the powerless found a way to empower themselves, and women gained entry into the public sphere in the event’s aftermath. Brown et al.’s (2012) transition theory would conceive of Partition as having produced an “historically-defined autobiographical period” (H-DAP) for many Punjabi and Sindhi survivors who migrated to India because the event brought about significant alterations in their lives. This theory receives credence as many of these survivors not only discuss their personal lives against the backdrop of sociopolitical events during 1947–1948 but also attribute their current circumstances to the H-DAP. This study relied on secondary sources as Partition survivors are few and far between and are gradually dwindling in number. Findings from this study suggest that the multiplicity of experiences varied as a function of factors such as gender, SES, age at the time of event, and region. The diverse experiences that survivors underwent challenge the “metanarrative” (see Lyotard, 1984) of Partition. Thus, narrative knowledge (Lyotard, 1984) is essential to understand the nuances of Partition. AM, in the form of oral narratives, is a potent tool to promote catharsis since it encourages emotional expression and relieves the sufferer from trauma-related pain (Cienfuegos and Monelli 1983). In other words, AM could be an important mode through which survivors can enhance their well-being.

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Sharmila Sreekumar for suggesting the idea of analyzing Partition narratives.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The research project was funded by the Indian Council of Medical Research (Ref. No. 3/1/3/JRF-2012/HRD-69 (50015)).

Notes

Author biographies

Ninad Patwardhan is a Research Scholar at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. He is currently pursuing his doctoral research in the area of autobiographical memory. He has co-authored a review article “Factors affecting psychosocial well-being and quality of life among women living with HIV/AIDS,” in NITTE University Journal of Health Science (5(4)).

Mrinmoyi Kulkarni is an Associate Professor at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. Her areas of interest include contraceptive use, behavioral health, self-regulation, and well-being. She has written research articles in these areas, the most notable ones being “Predicting contraceptive behavior in India using attitude theories,” in Journal of Applied Social Psychology (37(11)) and “Social determinants of health: the role of neighborhoods, psychological factors and health behaviors in predicting health outcomes for the urban poor in India,” in Journal of Health Psychology (18(1)).

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