Discrimination and Alienation of the Displaced in Krishna Sobti’s a Gujarat Here, a Gujarat There

Abstract

In August 1947, the Partition of India and Pakistan was accompanied by riots, bloodshed, mass casualties and migration, which has left a bitter legacy to this day. With no accurate accounts of how many died or lost their home, estimates suggest that around a million people died, ten million migrated across the border and thousands died from diseases and malnutrition. The uprooted people from both sides lost their loved ones and are displaced from their homes. They feel alienated in the new unfamiliar place because they are continuously haunted by the past and feel no strong connection to the new land. They are treated as ‘refugees’ and ‘outcasts’ in the newly settled land. In this context, Krishna Sobti’s novel, A Gujarat Here, a Gujarat There, documents the relentless struggles of the central female character, a refugee of Partition, against unfair discrimination in the host country because of her identity as an outsider, a woman and a refugee. Through the textual analysis of the novel, this paper explores how characterising refugees as outcasts in the receiving country hinder their integration and pushes them to the margins of the society. It also highlights how discrimination can result in creating systemic social barriers to belonging and physical and psychological alienation which isolates individuals and damages their sense of self.