The Nation and its Women: Representation of Women in Bangla Plays of the Partition Era

The Partition of Bengal in 1905 sowed the seeds of anti-colonial nationalism in India. The ensuing anti-Partition movement went on to become the precursor of the Indian National Movement. The movement, as a result, established the codes on which the creation of the 'imagined political community' was attempted. Nevertheless, this process of 'making of the nation' by the antiPartition nationalist movement faced resistance from sections of the Bengali society. Bangla literature also responded to the conflict visible in the political world as it depicted multilayered response to the Partition, the anti-Partition movement and the model of Indian nationalism posited by the varied sections. This paper attempts to trace and thereby understand the varied responses to the anti-Partition movement through the depiction of women in the Bangla historical plays written during the Partition era(1905-1911).