Author: Moumita Biswas, Dr. Indira Banerji

Abstract: The Partition of India in 1947 has become one of the most devastating events in the history of South Asia that saw unprecedented communal violence, mass displacement and human suffering. Literary depictions of the day-to-day life of ordinary people tell the stories that are not always central to official histories. This article takes up the case of Saadat Hasan Manto's Khol Do for an analysis of the role of the writer in its capacity as a witness to the traumatic experiences of Partition victims. Inspecting trauma theory, testimony studies, memory studies and feminist theory, the study proposes that Manto brings fiction to bear as a potent ethical archive of collective suffering. The paper examines the collapse of humanity in face of communal violence, the gender aspect of atrocities of Partition and the lingering psychological impact on the trauma through a close textual analysis of Khol Do. The focal points are Sakina's and Sirajuddin's lives—their split identities and heartaches are the microcosm of the human toll of political violence. Instead of the violence being a one-off event in history, Manto uncovers the ability of violence to shape memory, identity and moral conscience. The paper also argues that by rehabilitating the marginalised victims and keeping the emotions that are usually missing from the historical record, Khol Do confronts the nationalist historiography. This work places Manto's writings in the broader context of the interdisciplinary discussions of witnessing and memory, and underscores the continuing importance of literature in recording human suffering and preserving the memory of Partition.

Keywords: Partition; trauma; communal violence; memory studies; gendered violence.

Article Info: Received: 20 Jun 2026; Received in revised form: 17 Jul 2026; Accepted: 21 Jul 2026; Available online: 27 Jul 2026

DOI: 10.22161/ijels.114.19