Sita as the Migrant Subject: Gendered Experiences of Displacement in Qurratulain Hyder’s Sita Haran

Matloob Ahmad

Research Scholar, Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). matloobahmadalig@gmail.com

Abstract

This paper examines Qurratulain Hyder’s Sita Haran through the lens of migration and gender, positioning Sita as a migrant subject whose displacement is shaped by historical rupture and patriarchal subjugation. Moving beyond the mythic frame of abduction, the study reinterprets Sita’s movement as a form of enforced migration that showcases the harrowing journey of displaced women during Partition and its aftermath. The narrative reveals the gendered nature of mobility, exile, and loss, positioning women’s bodies as sites of national, cultural and moral anxiety. This paper explores Sita’s experiences through a postcolonial feminist framework, drawing on Gayatri Spivak’s subalternity and Chandra Talpade Mohanty’s critiques of Third World womanhood, arguing that Hyder transforms Sita from a symbol of passive endurance into a figure who exposes the silences surrounding women’s trauma in nationalist histories. By blending myth, memory and modern history, Sita Haran challenges dominant narratives that aestheticize women’s suffering while marginalizing their trauma within accounts of migration. Ultimately, this study positions Hyder’s text as an important intervention in South Asian literature, one that reframes displacement through a gendered lens and foregrounds women’s experiences as central to understanding migration, loss and belonging in postcolonial contexts.

Keywords: Displacement, Gender, Migration, Postcolonial feminism, Trauma.