Revisiting Border and Defying Boundaries: Unravelling Echoes of the Partitioned Woman in Geetanjali Shree’s Tomb of Sand
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17507/jltr.1703.08Keywords:
nation, border, partition, traumaAbstract
This paper explores the multifaceted concept of the border, which is geographical, social and psychological, through the perspective of the partitioned woman in Geetanjali Shree’s Tomb of Sand. It aims to explore how borders serve as repositories of memory and examine diverse perspectives on the history of partition, critically analysing the impact on women and the courage and compassion they exhibited in overcoming these challenges. Furthermore, it investigates the significance of the concept of 'border' through protagonist Ma’s experiences and understanding during the partition and in contemporary times. Using insights from border studies and feminist postcolonial theory, the researcher examines how the 1947 Partition continues to shape identity, memory, and femininity. Through Ma’s journey across literal and metaphorical borders, Tomb of Sand reimagines the border not merely as a site of division and violence but as a space of reclamation, connection, and healing. This study analyses how Shree employs non-linear memory, symbolic spatiality, and intertextual references to Partition narratives to illuminate Ma’s suppressed experiences and the courage required to confront them. This paper also argues that Shree’s novel offers a transformative framework for understanding the resilience of the partitioned woman, revealing how borders can be crossed, defied, and utilised as a locus of healing. Through this lens, the article contributes to broader discourses on trauma, gendered history, and the enduring human quest to transcend imposed boundaries in both historical and contemporary contexts.
References
Ahmed, S., & Pal, A. R. (2015). Partition of India and women. Journal of South Asian Literature, 50(1), 1–15.
Akkamwad, V. D. (2025). Narrating trauma, resisting erasure: Women’s experiences of Partition in Tomb of Sand. International Education and Research Journal, 11(3), 173-175. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15584591
Anzaldúa, G. (1987). Borderlands/La frontera: The new mestiza. San Francisco: Aunt Lute.
Butalia, U. (2000). The other side of silence: Voices from the Partition of India. Duke University Press.
Chauhan, A. (2025). 1947 Partition Archive: Contextualising the narrative of trauma and post-memory of the community of survivor. IIS University Journal of Arts, 14(1), 94–105.
Dasghosh, A., & Hussain, S. (2025). Sustaining feminist mnemonics: A study of temporal and spatial ecology of memory in Geetanjali Sree’s The Tomb of Sand. Communications on Applied Nonlinear Analysis, 32(ICMASD), 787-804.
Hicks, E. (1991). Border writing: The multidimensional text. University of Arizona Press.
Jha, S. K. (2022). A critique of Geetanjali Shree's Tomb of Sand as a feminist metafiction. Literature and Gender Studies, 11(3), 45–62.
Johnson, C., Jones, R., Paasi, A., Amoore, L., Mountz, A., Salter, M., & Rumford, C. (2011). Interventions on rethinking “the border” in border studies. Political Geography, 30(2), 61–69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2011.01.002
Kabir, A. (2018). Gender, memory, trauma: Women’s novels on the Partition of India. South Asian Review, 39(1), 34–50. https://doi.org/10.1080/02759527.2018.1428946
Kumar, K. (2001). Prejudice and pride: School histories of the freedom struggle in India and Pakistan. Viking.
Menon, R., & Bhasin, K. (1998). Borders and boundaries: Women in India's Partition. Kali for Women.
Michaelsen, S., & Johnson, D. E. (Eds.). (1997). Border theory: The limits of cultural politics. University of Minnesota Press.
Paasi, A. (1998). Boundaries as social process: Territoriality in the world of flow. Geopolitics, 3(1), 69–88. https://doi.org/10.1080/14650049808407608
Paasi, A. (2001). Europe as a social process and discourse. European Urban and Regional Studies, 8(1), 7–28. https://doi.org/10.1177/096977640100800102
Paasi, A. (2009). Bounded spaces in a ‘borderless world’: Border studies, power and the anatomy of territory. Journal of Power, 2(2), 213–234. https://doi.org/10.1080/17540290903064275
Sarkar, S. (2015). The border as resource: Revisiting the Partition. Cenacle: A Peer-Reviewed Annual Journal of English, 1(5), 1-9.
Sekaran, S. N., & Pandey, P. S. (2025). Echoes of Trauma: The Interplay of Bodies and Borders in Gitanjali Shree’s Tomb of Sand. Critical South Asian Studies, 3(1), 53–62. https://doi.org/10.33182/csas.v3i1.3506
Sendhardt, B. (2013). Border types and bordering processes: A theoretical approach to the EU/Polish-Ukrainian border as a multi-dimensional phenomenon. In A. Lechevalier & J. Wielgohs (Eds.), Borders and border regions in Europe: Changes, challenges and chances (pp. 21–44). Bielefeld: transcript Verlag. Retrieved May 20, 2025, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1fxhcq.4
Shree, G. (2021). Tomb of Sand (D. Rockwell, Trans.). Tilted Axis Press.
Singh, D. (2023, February 18). “If you think Partition happened in 1947 and it’s over, you are mistaken”: Tomb of Sand author Geetanjali Shree. Moneycontrol. Retrieved April 15, 2025, from https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/trends/lifestyle/tomb-of-sand-author-geetanjali-shree-interview-partition-9943621.html
Wilson, T. M., & Donnan, H. (Eds.). (2012). A companion to border studies. Wiley-Blackwell.
Wilson, T. M. (2009). Introduction: Experience, memory and locality in the cultures of European borders. Anthropological Journal of European Cultures, 18(1), 1–9. Retrieved 22 April, 2025, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/43234479
Yusin, J. (2019). The silence of Partition: Borders, trauma, and Partition history. Journal of Borderlands Studies, 34(2), 215–230. https://doi.org/10.1080/08865655.2017.1402198
