
Inside Divisions: Representation of Women's Agency and Women as Sites of Nationalistic Appropriation

This article is an attempt to scrutinize the period television drama ‘Tamas’ to understand the way women's agency during times of mass violence is dealt with in popular culture, thereby identifying the discourses that are at work behind such representations. This television series is based on a novel of the same name written by Bhisham Sahni. The rationale for choosing a television series rather than a movie is that it allows the storyteller to portray several characters rather than focusing on only a few central ones.
Tamas captures the lives of women belonging to different communities with varied economic standings and several such instances are relevant for examining women agency, and how women are used as sites of nationalistic appropriation. However, it should be made clear that in elucidating the concept of agency this article in no way attempts to suggest that women are not one of the worst affected groups during instances of mass violence. In fact, rape and sexual violence are the most common instruments of subjugating women on such occasions particularly because patriarchal order associates the “honour” of women with the dignity of the community, and this perpetuates even more emotional burden on the women who are the victims of various acts of sexual violence.

The partition violence happened at a time when the British were still exercising a degree of authority's like the complete transfer of power had not taken place. The first instance is of Lisa Hamilton, the wife of the British administrator Richard who is too bewildered by the violence she confronts in India. She is unable to grasp the full force of the communal hatred and her racial difference does not make her feel threatened by the violence ensuing outside their Bangalow. Although she is seen urging her husband to prevent the situation of communal hatred from escalating, she has very little understanding of the same. The only time we see her moving out of her enclosed space is when she goes to treat the people in the camps set up for the victims of communal violence. What kind of agency does a ‘white lady’ exercise when we see her helping the wounded and homeless victims of communal violence? This question automatically leads us to acknowledge the fact that the British colonial enterprise derived its legitimacy from the so-called civilized behaviour of the colonizer as opposed to the uncouth colonized people. Civilizing behaviour of the colonizers was to a great extent dependent upon the ladylike behaviour of their women who fitted well into the public/private dichotomy and would not transgress the boundaries set out by the colonial patriarchal structure. The agency she exercises does not in any way serve to threaten the hegemonic order of society she inhabits. She compares her duty to serve the victims of the religious pogrom to her service for the British soldiers in England at the time of the war. She does not express any desire to understand the dynamics and causes behind the violence and plays into the roles set out for women being the ‘caregiver’ and ‘nurturer’ while at the same time remaining apolitical, thereby not stepping into the public space.
There are two female characters in the feature whose display of agency pushes the boundary of the hegemonic order but remains contained within it.

At one instance in the series, we see a Sikh female character running to help a young Muslim man called Kareemdim, a school teacher, whose house is surrounded by other young Sikh rioters. She takes up a sword and warns the men of her community to dare touch this man and finally helps him find a haven.
Another scene in the feature depicts a Muslim woman named Rajo, hiding a Sikh family in her house, giving them refuge and attempting to protect them from the male members of her family.
It should be borne in mind that the subject positions of women are constituted in and through their familial and communal discourses. The question that arises here is the extent to which women can exercise agency while remaining within the boundaries of their communal identity which is based on upholding the gender differences and where the dominant discourses allocate to women the role of the potential victims whose dignity needs protection from the men of the ‘other’ community. The two instances described earlier, nonetheless point out that women are often capable of acting as protectors in particular contexts even if they fail to radically transform the patriarchal hegemonic order. It is crucial to make this argument because the dominant narratives of partition have barely managed to document such events.
