Bodies as Battlefields: Feminist Readings of Partition in South Asian Screen Adaptations

Author(s)	Ms. Sheikh Sana Assad
Country	India
Abstract	This paper examines the gendered subjugation and structural violence inflicted upon women during the 1947 Partition by analysing two screen adaptations: Deepa Mehta’s film Earth 1947 (1999) and Haissam Hussain’s television drama Dastaan (2010). Based on Bapsi Sidhwa’s novel, Cracking India and Razia Butt’s novel, Bano, respectively. Both narratives are situated in the immediate aftermath of the creation of Pakistan. I argue that these screen texts centre women’s bodies as primary sites of historical testimony, exposing the structural complicity of both Indian and Pakistani nationalist projects in silencing women’s trauma. Ultimately, this analysis highlights how the systemic suppression of female suffering is routinely reproduced by mainstream cinema, but actively resisted and made visible through parallel cinema.
Keywords	Gendered Violence, Screen Adaptations, Structural Complicity, South Asian Cinema, Partition
Field	Arts > Movies / Music / TV
Published In	Volume 8, Issue 5, September-October 2026
Published On	2026-09-04
DOI	https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2026.v08i05.87091

About IJFMR Fees & Payment Current Issue Publication Archive	Submit Research Paper Track Submission Status Publication Guidelines Publication Ethics Peer Review & Plagiarism	Join as a Reviewer Editors & Reviewers Reviewer Referral Program Get Reviewer Membership Certi.	Website/Journal Policies Usage Policy Content Policies Privacy Policy

Contact Us		+91-9687-828-838	editor@ijfmr.com

International Journal For Multidisciplinary Research