Violence, Trauma And The Politics Of The Body In Bapsi Sidhwa’s Fiction

Abstract

This research article examines the representation of violence and trauma in the fiction of Bapsi Sidhwa, with particular emphasis on how the human body becomes a site of political, cultural and gendered conflict. Drawing on trauma theory, body politics and postcolonial criticism, the study analyzes selected works such as Cracking India and The Pakistani Bride to explore how physical and psychological suffering are narrated as consequences of communal violence and patriarchal power structures. The article argues that Sidhwa’s fiction moves beyond historical documentation to offer an ethical engagement with pain, memory and survival. By foregrounding wounded bodies and fractured identities, Sidhwa challenges dominant nationalist and patriarchal discourses and asserts literature’s role in bearing witness to trauma.