Stoicism: Portrayal of Women in Khamosh Pani, Pinjar and Eho Hamara Jeevna

Abstract

Women bodies are the victim of sheer oppression and violence due to their vulnerable status since time immemorial. Instances of rape, murder, abduction, honour killing, and domestic violence are quite common in the case of women even in the contemporary world. They were the principal victims of the communal violence at the time of partition as well. They were murdered and humiliated before their loved ones; abducted and forcefully married after conversion or even sold out like inanimate entities. To avert the worst, copious of them committed suicide or others were killed by their family members for the sake of honour. The plight of these misfortunate women has been depicted by many writers very often through their works and even by cinema industries. The present paper tries to explore the fate of these wretched women which have been depicted on the silver screen in Khamosh Pani (Silent Waters), Pinjar (The Skeleton) and Eho Hamara Jeevna (Such is Her Fate). Women characters in these movies are trapped in a quagmire of hideous social evils, inflicted upon them by society, which has left them with nothing but trauma, violence, suffering, identity crises, atrocities and so on. All these women are Sikh women, who are swirling in the gyre of ‘in-betweenness’ due to their past traumas and the kind of life they are living right now. Keeping aside their emotions, these women do not lose their self-control and always try to strike a balance to live a harmonious life even after such atrocities. Their stoic personalities have encouraged them to undergo the sufferings inflicted upon them but their soul is completely torn due to these inhuman atrocities.