GENDER STUDIES
Issues in Indian feminism
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`These essays discuss the many varieties of challenges that have faced women through the expressive and layered prism of literature.'
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THIS anthology of critical essays emerged out of a seminar on Women and Literature organised by the Department of English at Delhi University in 2000.
The book discusses contemporary issues in Indian feminism through an exploration of short stories, autobiographies, films and critical-pedagogical material. It draws on the multilingual wealth of Indian literature to show that national and private questions are inter-related: domestic and familial models ultimately reflect the tensions between the projects of nation-building and personal empowerment.
The feminine identity
The first section, "Writing Lives", views this complex relationship through a study of two autobiographies: Amar Jiban by Rasasundari Debi and Amar Katha by Binodini Das. Themes of lament and betrayal testify that the nationalist idea of "dependent subjects" formed the core of feminine identity. Sachidanand Mohanty invites our attention to the largely forgotten female literary tradition of the early women writers of Orissa wherein a desire for learning that is forbidden brings misfortune. Soofia Siddique's "I-ing Ismat: Autobiographical Ismat Chughtai", explores the processes of identity construction. Ismat struggles with the paradoxes and blurred boundaries of religious traditions in India. Siddique's narration brings together images of women in history and mythology.
The next section deals with the plight of the Dalit women. "Imaginary Maps" by Mahasweta Devi and translated by Radha Chakravarty recounts the life of tribals in Central and Eastern India. Her female characters have a collective voice and their songs tell a story of exploitation that rings differently from that of political rhetoric. Suguna Ramanathan analyses stories told by Dalit women in Gujarat. These deal with sexuality, male lust and the abduction of women: female desire is deemed subservient to parental authority. M. Sridhar's essay traces the marginalisation of Telugu Dalit women along lines of caste, class and gender. He suggests that different oppressed groups share a moral solidarity which enables them to unite in times of need. B. Mangalam observes that Bama and Sivakami have succeeded in representing the cultural history of an oppressed community in Tamil Dalit discourse.
The third section, "Local to Global" examines issues with global resonances. Through a discussion of the short stories of Phul Goswami, Indira Goswami and Nirupama Bargohain, Pradipta Borgohain describes the changes wrought by insurgency in the lives of women and children in Assam. In "Feminism and Contemporary Bengali Women's Poetry", Sanjukta Dasgupta critiques icons of Bengali literature. We learn that Bengali women writers were marginalised because of the control exercised by intellectuals like Tagore and Bankim Chandra Chatterjee. The writings of Bengali women gradually articulated protest and moved towards a discovery of self. In her essay "Multilocality", Malashri suggests that the processes of globalisation and internationalism make feminism inevitable. This leads to a discussion of the awkwardness with which certain Indian women writers use the term "feminism". The concept of home is redefined with relation to the changing roles of woman and man. In diasporic fiction, the act of relocating precipitates the woman's search for self.
The androgynous ideal
The next section, "Same-sex Love", parodies ideals of sexual propriety. In Deepa Mehta's film, "Fire", the marital crisis of Radha and Sita are resolved through homoerotic pleasure as pointed out by Dilip K. Das. Ruth Vanita builds on the same theme drawing on two texts of 14th Century Vaishnava mysticism. The doctrine of rebirth is used in different ways to legitimise intense love between Radha and Lalita and Meera and Lalita. "Androgyny in Search of Modernity" by Sukrita Paul Kumar recontextualises the symbiotic duality between male and female captured in the iconographical image of Ardhanarishwara. This theme is reinforced in Vishnu Prabhakar's novel with a possibility of endorsing the androgynous ideal in a man-woman relationship.
In the last section, "The Male Gaze", Shormishtha Panja studies man's perception of woman and the woman's perception of her own physical needs through an interpretation of Rabindranath Tagore's Chokher Bali. The stereotype of a grahalakshmi is eroded through a renegotiation of the space demanded by the new woman. Rita Joshi presents Salman Rushdie as an anti-feminist who presents distorted and grotesque characters keeping in line with the poetics of post-modernism, thus striking a break with reality. Anjelie Multani looks at female characters as both victims and oppressors in Mahesh Dattani's plays.
These essays discuss the many varieties of challenges that have faced women through the expressive and layered prism of literature. This ranges from the pleasures of acquiring knowledge to the love for other women, discrimination along multiple fault-lines of caste and class, and bearing the burdens and blessings of a rich and continually changing set of values.
Signifying the Self: Women and Literature, edited by Malashri Lal, Shormishtha Panja and Sumanyu Satpathy, Macmillan, 2004, Rs. 375.
JYOTI NAIR BELLIAPPA
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