Post-facto Trauma of Political Partition in The Point of Return

Abstract

The novel, The Point of Return authored by Siddhartha Deb reflects the trauma after political partition of independence. It addressed the post-facto issues of independence partition linked with crossing national border, displacement, cultural confrontation citing exilic condition of Bengali immigrants inhabiting in north-east India after the creation of East Pakistan as a part of Pakistan. It also shows the painful process of cartographic reconfigurations of political boundaries, ethnic lines and the resultant violence, up rootedness, alienation and continued memory loss. The Point of Return tells parallel stories of two consecutive generations—the first, represented by Dr Dam, a migrant from newly created East Pakistan. He was a victim of post-migration consequences suffering and the life-long stigma of being an outsider in an established ethnic, cartographic and religious boundary. The story also speaks about their second generation represented by Babu, who inherited the memory of their parents and grandparents. He had to negotiate his own sense of belonging and identity in the new homeland.