This paper focuses on the problem of violence towards women during the riots that followed India's 1947 Partition. The gender-specific interpretation of the partition genocide makes it easier to talk about the numerous types of violence directed at women and the symbolic significance of these acts. The idea of the nation as a "mother" and its ideological ramifications for female citizens are also explored in this paper. The paper also discusses the subject of kidnapped women, the state's efforts to recover and rehabilitate them, and the guiding ideology that guides those efforts of individual autonomy, and control over their bodies and lives.