FROM IDENTITY LOSS TO SELF-RECONSTRUCTION: THE SIGNIFICANCE OF NAMES IN AMRITA PRITAM’S PINJAR (1950)

Abstract

This research offers a critical and theoretical analysis of Amrita Pritam’s Pinjar (1950), it focuses on the intricate relationship between loss, naming and identity. It especially highlights women during the Partition of India. Through the lens of Frege’s descriptivist theory of names and Saussure’s structural linguistics, the study finds how names in the novel function as more than mere labels, they are presented as vessels of cultural, familial, and religious identity. The transformation of the protagonist’s name from Puro to Hamida represents not only a shift in societal roles but a deeper rupture of selfhood caused by abduction, forced assimilation, and historical trauma. The renaming of Puro is analyzed as a symbolic act of erasure and redefinition, showing how personal identity is restructured by violent socio-political forces. The research answers and explains three basic questions: How do character names symbolize identity and cultural belonging? How does their transformation reflect trauma and survival? And how do collective historical events, like Partition, reshape individual identities? The study contents that names in Pinjar (1950) operate as contested symbols, reflecting the tensions between belonging and exclusion, memory and forgetting, violence and resilience. The research employs close textual analysis alongside theoretical interpretation, drawing from Frege and Saussure’s linguistic frameworks and supported by feminist and trauma theory. The analysis is grounded in literary study, focusing on language, character development, and symbolic motifs within the novel. By centering on the transformation of identity through language, this study contributes to broader conversations in literary, linguistic, and cultural trauma studies. It ultimately positions Pinjar (1950) not only as a powerful Partition narrative but also as a timeless exploration of how names, and the identities they signify, are shaped, fractured, and reinvented in the crucible of historical upheaval.