Lajwanti

Text Interpretation

'Lajwanti' is a story that sheds light on cruelties of Partition against women and forces us to

reflect upon the simple question of whether the trauma of this historical event was the same for

both genders. The author, Rajinder Singh Bedi, one of the leading Urdu writers of the

progressive writer's movement, is primarily known for this genre of Partition tales and had done

a great job in 'Lajwanti' in showing the disparity in the suffering of a woman and a man in the

Partition time. The story is set just in the aftermath of Partition and revolves around 'Sunderlal,' a

man whose wife, 'Lajwanti,' has been abducted during Partition. His loss has made him sensitive

to this cause, and that is why he leads a committee in the locality for the rehabilitation of women

who had been abducted and raped.

The abduction of his wife has made Sunderlal realize the importance of her, and he decided that

he would honor her if he ever found her back, the same wife whom he used to thrash cruelly for

trivial issues. Domestic violence was not something that was frowned upon in society at that

time. Instead, a husband was expected to beat his wife, and the women used to think that getting

a beating is their job. It was such an integral part of the culture that there were songs about it:

Lajo herself used to sing, "I shall never marry a city boy/ He wears boots and my back is

slender…"

This social stigma on gender power division was so ingrained in the masses that even women

despised their husbands if they treated them as equal or let them have some kind of say in things;

they expected to be treated as properties and live under the thumbs of their husbands. This can be

seen from the following extract from the text:

men let their wives show independence and spirit, the women themselves would turn up their

noses in contempt and say," What kind of man is he! He can't even control a woman…!"

Another noteworthy point the author has tried to make about the Indian society at that time is the

sheer degree of denial to accept the abducted and raped women as victims and survivors of the

brutality of barbarous criminals. They were treated as if they were responsible for the savagery

against them; it was their fault for being kidnapped and raped. Rather than welcoming and

celebrating these women for fighting through the horrifying cruelty bestowed upon them, they

were shunned and disdained by not only the society but were even forsaken by their own families

in many cases, as shown in the text:

There were some amongst these abducted women, whose husbands, parents, brothers and sisters

refused to recognize them. "Why didn't they die? Why didn't they take poison to preserve their

virtue and honour? Why didn't they jump into a well? Cowards, clinging to life! Thousands of

women in the past killed themselves to save their chastity!..."

The author has also conveyed how the orthodox promoters of this immoral practice of

abandoning women just because they were forcefully abducted and raped during the Partition

based their arguments on Hinduism's ancient scriptures. In the text, the local priest validates the

abandonment by referring to how 'Maryada Purushottam Raja Ram' banished Queen Sita.

However, that is not completely true. Ram never in his heart has the slightest of doubts about his

faithful wife; it was not Ram who ordered Sita to go through 'Agniparikhsya.' (exploring the real

reasons for the banishment is out of the scope of this writing). However, the crux of the point is
the prevailing use of propagation of misinterpretation of sacred texts, which the people held in

high regard, by conservative preachers of the society to justify the immoral abandonment of

women by their families.

The most important part of the story is the one that depicts the mixed emotions of Lajwanti after

returning to her beloved husband and how Sunderlal was deaf to the vibrations of the emotional

rollercoaster her wife was going through due to the trauma she has experienced. First, Lajwanti

was happy, seeing her husband treat her like a goddess and even calling her 'Devi,' the same

husband who used to beat her on most minor issues. She has never been receiving end of such

kindness and love from her husband in her entire time with him. She wanted to let it all out about

her horrifying experience to her husband so that she could feel better. However, her husband

always discarded the proposal believing that it would reopen her wounds, and she is too fragile

like the leaves of 'Lajwanti' to go through that experience again in her mind.

At last, Sunderlal talked a little to Lajwanti about her 'dark days' in abduction, asking her about

whether the kidnapper treated her well or not, whether he was violent with her or not, but that's

it, he never gave her a chance to get it all out of her chest, and her sorrow remain locked up

inside her. Although she was in a state of pure joy with her husband's newfound love and respect,

she was apprehensive that her dream world would get shattered any moment, and she will be

forced to again live with her abductor. This shows how the inability to open up to her husband

about her horrifying experience was pushing Lajwanti towards negative thoughts and anxiety,

which are precursors to post traumatic stress. Soon, suspicion found a place in the mind of

Lajawanti because her husband continued treating her like a fragile being. She started wishing

her life to get back to the way it was before the unfortunate incident. Her husband was unwilling
to listen to the pain she had or was going through due to his misconception that talking about the

incident would be painful for her, but it was the exact opposite.