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Chapter One

Introduction

Tracing Caste and Gender Marginalization in Brahmanical Philosophy and


Literature
Marginalization along the trajectories of gender as well as caste is not a recent

concern perceived in literature. Rather it is an issue that has been dealt with in different ways

by novelists, dramatists and poets. India has shown an upward movement in its economical

and socio-political development; many new laws and regulations have been also implemented

to bring a balance in the society that is highly stratified on the grounds of caste, class and

gender. However, unfortunately, the social situation related with gender and caste

marginalization has failed to show any positive change. Rather, camouflaged under

urbanization, education, and modernisation, gender and caste-based marginalization is

rampantly spreading its vicious poison across the country.

When the concerns of human life are so intricately linked with society, it is the

dramatic art which comes as one of the best choices as a vehicle to spread consciousness

about the social issues. Drama and theatre reflect the ideals of the society, its determination to

survive, its ethos, emotions, fellow-feelings, even contradictions and conflicting ideologies.

In his talk on theatre and his work at Confluence Asia International Literary Festival

at Guwahati, Dattani observed, “Theatre being a mirror to society has a great deal of truth, no

matter whatever theatre one creates...” (Dattani). Probably of all the art forms that reflect

society in its different hues, theatre has an everlasting social and mass appeal. It embodies

social realities. An intersection between society and literature is evident in a dramatic text

and again between society and stage in its performative form, i.e. drama. This intersection

between text and stage on one hand and society on the other is a unique feature of drama that

is instrumental in bringing social change since the time of its inception.

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Drama captures and enacts on the stage the various facets of a changing society. As a

cultural art form it has an immense social significance in reflecting, regulating and inviting a

change in the moral conditions of the society. Therefore, drama besides providing

entertainment also functions as an apt tool for creating social awareness and mobilise the

masses against the evils of the society. On its diverse role, Martin Esslin observes that drama,

as a co-operative and collaborative performing act exercises a powerful and lasting moral

impact by “reflecting the attitude of the more advanced groups among the population,

exposing them to public outrage and discussion and thus gradually penetrating the conscience

of society” (172-3).

Sri Aurobindo, one of the most renowned Indian dramatists, makes an observation

that since the internal situations of characters is as important as the external paraphernalia a

fine balance must be maintained between the two. In his treatise, The Future Poetry, he

reveals his vision about drama as:

Drama must have interpretative vision; the vision must contain an explicit or

implicit idea of life, the vision and idea seem to arise out of the inner life of

characters, and through an evaluation of speech leading to an evolution of

action, the true movement and result in all great drama is really psychological

(91-94).

Set within the context of contemporary Indian drama, the research study explores the

manifold ways of marginalization of gender and caste rampant in a Brahmanical patriarchal

society through the selected plays of Vijay Tendulkar, Raju Das and Mahesh Dattani. The

study encompasses three dramatists who belong to different geographical locales in the

Indian subcontinent, writing in either regional languages as Tendulkar and Raju Das or

exclusively in English like Mahesh Dattani. While the plays of Tendulkar were originally

written in Marathi and later translated into English, Raju Das’s plays have not been translated

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in English. Mahash Dattani, however, uses English as his medium for his dramatic work.

Since Dattani aims to reach multi-lingual community of India and abroad through his drama,

he takes the help of a common language that can address his global audience without any

problem. He even defends the use of English, “You’ve got to be true to your expressions.

English is for me a sort of given. It’s my language as it is to a lot of Indians here and abroad”.

In spite of the regional and linguistic differences, one common element that shadows all their

differences is their concern with gender and caste marginalization prevalent in modern

society.

The study explores the dynamics of caste and gender oppression and marginalization

in the works of the selected playwrights. Caste and gender discrimination and marginalization

have become a common sight in modern families and developed cities. Tendulkar’s Silence

the Court is in Session, Kamala, The Vultures, Kanyadaan and Ghashiram Kotwal depict the

violent marginalization of female gender that push them to a perpetual silence. Raju Das’s

main concern is with caste and women and the intersection between caste and gender that

render women doubly marginalised in a caste based society. Dattani devotes his career in

dramatic writing to capture gender discrimination and marginalisation that is practiced very

subtly in modern, educated families that forces the discriminated lot to ultimate silence.

II

Indian Drama: An Overview

Indian culture is an amalgamation of many civilizations that had taken place in its

land and hence, the land has witnessed many theatrical traditions. These theatrical traditions

were either a part of ritualistic activities performed during religious ceremonies or were a part

of their lifestyle. The existence of theatrical tradition can be traced back to as early as Indus

Valley Civilization that was the first to develop a city. Although, it left no suggestion of

drama as an art form, the archeological excavations that took place in the ancient cities of

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Mohenjodaro and Harappa reveal that dance as a cultural art form existed. The small copper

and stone figurines of dancers that were excavated also leave with a possibility that the

civilization that had dancers might have also had music and song as a part of the ritual

observation of its civilization (Richmond 27).

Immediately after Indus Valley Civilization came to an abrupt end around 1500 B.C,

India witnessed several successive conquests from the West, the culture and civilization of

which became the dominant one and highly influenced the Indian culture. The first of all the

invaders were the Aryans, whose religion and philosophy of life were evident in a collection

of sacred hyms that later became a part of Rig Vedic compositions. These hymns left ample

clues of dialogues that form an integral part of a theatre (Richmond 28).

Suniti Kumar Chatterji too is of the opinion that the presence of dialogues in Rig

Veda can be regarded as the first possible trait of developing drama as an art form. He

observes:

In India, from the earliest times in her history, at least more than 2000years ago,

the art of drama seems to have been well established... In Rig Veda, e. g. we find

a very remarkable series of dialogue hymns in which two or more characters

address each other in verses which are looked upon in orthodox Vedic tradition as

having been composed by the characters or personages themselves, who are

ordinarily superhuman or divine (05).

According to Paul Kurtz, around the eighth century B.C., the dialogues that had its

presence as sacred hymns in the Rig Veda developed into a dramatic theatre. Drawing a close

similiarity with the cult of Dionysus that gave rise to Greek theatre, Kurtz believes that Indian

theatre also has its roots in the; performances of the Vedic religion that took place in the

temple premises in the fourth century B.C. In addition to this, Paul Kurtz also belives that the

Jataka stories that illuminated on Indian life between 600 B.C. and 300 B.C. were also replete

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with evidences of the presence of theatre (66). Other notable historians like D. D. Kosambi,

Debiprasad Chattopadhaya and Adya Rangacharya too trace the origin of drama in the rituals

prevalent amongst Indo-Aryan tribes and confirm its existence in the crudest form in the Rig-

Vedic times.

The famous scholar of Sanskrit and Indologist, A. B. Keith strongly supports the fact

that Indian theatre has a divine origin. Regarding its divine origin, A. B. Keith opines,

“Indian tradition, preserved in The Natyasastra, the oldest of the texts on the theory of the

drama, claims for the drama divine origin, and a close connexion with the sacred Vedas

themselves” (12). Even according to E. P. Horrwitz, drama had a divine origin that was

passed on to the earth to cater to the five sense organs of the mortals on the earth at the

commencement of the Silver age:

...when mankind turned aside from the Divine Will, and everybody followed his

own direction. Strife and bloodshed came into existence, but God was merciful,

and separated the sexes, creating male and female, that love once more might

bind the self-willed race. No sooner did the heart feel drawn to outward things

than men lost his power of introspection. The five organs of sense were evolved

in order that gods and mortals might quench their thirst for worldly pleasures.

Indra, delegated by the other gods, approached the throne of the Godhead, and

said: “O Brahma, we wish to feast our eyes and ears on a dramatic spectacle;

deign to create the merry play for our enjoyment”. (21)

In the Indian dramatic tradition, it is Bharatmuni whose contribution to Indian

theatrical art had given Indian dramatics a definite shape and meaning. Bharatmuni, in his

Natyashastra, described drama as: “Natako Panchamo Veda”, meaning ‘drama is the fifth

Veda’. The main objective of composing the fifth Veda was to instruct the life of ethics and

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to provide some entertainment to the Gods and the humans created the art of Drama. Thus,

Bharatmuni composed a new one taking several valuable elements from the existing Vedas:

The recitative (pathya) he took from the Rigveda, the song from the Saman,

Histrionic Representation (abhinaya) from the Yajur, and Sentiments (rasa) from

the Atharvaveda, [and] thus was created the Natyaveda connected with the Vedas

principal and subsidiary (vedopaveda), by the holy Brahman who knows [them]

all. (Bharatmuni 4)

Later, on the request of Brahma that Bharatmuni, the father of Indian theatrical art, penned

down a theoretical treatise on Indian performing arts, including theatre, dance, acting and

music, which came to be known as Natya Shastra of Bharata for the mortals on the earth.

The Natyashashtra by Bharatmuni provides evidences of theatre arts performed at

festivals and public ceremonies in the Mauryan Dynasty founded by Chandragupta Maurya

(reigned from 321 B.C. to 297 B.C.). The Buddhist missionaries who travelled to Ceylon,

Syria, Greece, Tibet, China and Japan to spread Buddhism employed various forms of of arts

including drama to teach Buddhist philosophy. The Gupta Dynasty (A.D 320 - A.D. 535) that

is considered to be the Golden Age in the history of India and later embraced Buddhism took

recourse to dramatic performances to spread its philosophy (Kurtz 66-70).

Natya Shastra of Bharata is one text that can be compared to Aristotle’s Poetics.

Bharata’s Natya Shastra is the first attempt to develop the techniques in a systematic manner.

Drama, as Bharata Muni says, is the imitation of men and their doings (loka-vritti). In his

detailed theory of drama Bharat Muni observes that all modes of expression used by an

individual such as speech, gestures, movements and intonations must be employed in drama.

Thus, drama as a composite art had already been established by Bharata Muni in the Pre-

Vedic age. As a composite art, it is understood that the function of drama is to provide

instruction, entertainment, enlightenment, happiness, peace and moral upliftment. This can be

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compared to Martin Esslin’s analysis of drama. Though Esslin belongs to the twentieth

century, his observation is similar to that of Bharata regarding the function of drama, thus

proving that drama all over the world and at all times, basically, seems to have the same

purpose:

The ‘scene’, the ‘play’, the whole gamut of staged events that fall under the

description of ‘drama’ can, indeed, not only help us to pass the time agreeably but

provide us with strong emotional experiences, ‘strike us to our soul’ and produce

powerful effects upon our lives, our thinking, our behaviour. (22)

According to Historian Will Durant, drama in India is as old as the Vedas. He traces

the origin of drama in the Upanishads. Though he accepted its presence in the sacrificial rites

and festival ceremonies, he argued that the final spur to drama came with Alexander’s

conquest of India and the consequent influence of Greece culture on India (Varadpande 36).

He further traces the history of dramatic literature in India with the plays of Bhasa of fourth-

fifth century B.C. and the performance of its single acts by the Chakyar actors of Kerala in

Kutiyattam style in the temple theatres known as Koothambalam.

Aswaghosh, Bhasa, Shudraka, Kalidasa, Bhavabhooti, Harsha are some of the

eminent Sanskrit playwrights whose contributions to Sanskrit theatre are worth mentioning.

Bhasa (Fifth Century BC) is considered to be the earliest Sanskrit playwright. His plays were

mainly based on the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Puranas. Kalidasa (Third to Fourth

Century AD) is the greatest playwright in the ancient Sanskrit theatre whose plays

Malavikagnimitram (Malavika and Agnimitra), Vikramorvasiyam (Pertaining to Vikrama and

Urvashi), and Abhijnanasakuntalam (The Recognition of Shakuntala) have left a remarkable

influence on its successors. Unlike the plays of Bhasa that were steeped in the epics, Kalidasa

found the source of his plays in the daily life around him. Bhavabhuti, the great Indian

dramatist and poet of the Eighth Century and Harsha, the great emperor, too made a

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remarkable contribution to the development of Sanskrit drama in India. Bhavabhuti’s

Mahavirachitra (“Exploits of the Great Hero”) depicting various episodes from Ramayana,

Malatimadhava (“Malati and Madhava”), a complex love story full of intrigues and sacrifices

and Uttararamacharita( “The Later Deeds of Rama”) are some of his well kmown plays.

However, post fifth centry B.C. Sanskrit theatre gradually started fading out.

Although the dramatic literature diminished, the performance traditions transformed

into various forms through the traditional and classical folk. The dramas of later India that

consisted of music and comedy were known as Sangeets (Gargi 37). These Sangeets were the

combination of comedy and music. Besides Sangeets other common types of theatre that

depended heavily on the folk traditions were Puppetry, Jatra and Kobigaan in Bengal and

many other forms in other parts of the country.

With the rebirth of Loknatya (People's Theatre) or folk theatre or traditional theatre in

the Tenth Century B.C. various folk arts like Jatra and Nautanki in Bengal, Bhand Jashin in

Kashmir, Bhavai in Gujarat, Lalita, Khele, Dashavtar and Tamasha in Maharashtra;

Yakshagana, Bayalata, Attadata, Doddata and Sannata in Karnataka, Veedhi-natakam in

Andhra Pradesh, Ramleela and Rasleela in Rajasthan, Rass and Jhoomer in Punjab and

Kutiyattam, Mohiniattam and Kathakali dance dramas in Kerala also started making their

presence felt (Doctor and Chaze 145). These folk arts, unlike the Sanskrit theatre, flourished

in the countryside. However, because of the absence of sufficient scholarship on this art form,

it failed to grow as drama and make its place in the dramatic tradition as the Sanskrit theatre

did.

Another form of folk theatre that came into existence between 17th and 15th century

B.C. was the one that was heavily inspired by the Bhakti religious movement. Since the

theatrical form of folk art best suited to spread the ideologies and objectives of the religious

movement, it was adopted in different parts of the country in its ritualistic observations.

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Ankianat in Assam, Bhagavatamela in Tamil Nadu, Krishnattam in Kerala, Kuchipudi in

Andhra Pradesh, Dashavatar in Maharashtra and Rasleela and Ramleela in Uttar Pradesh are

some of the typical examples of this. As the Vaishnava Bhakti movement started waning out,

dramatic tradition started being shaped by Shaiva influence as is visible in the dramatic form

of Jatra in Bengal that was expressed through stories as in Chandimangal, Haraparvati, etc.

However, soon the interest of the masses shifted from religious themes to socio-political

historical themes and another new form of theatre emerged under different names like

Therukkoothu in Tamil Nadu, Veethinatakam in Andhra Pradesh, Yaksaghana in Karnataka

and other dramatic modes such as Tamasha, Bhavai, Mach, Nautanki in Maharashtra. It was

in the popularity of indigenous folk forms that the dramatic tradition in India was kept alive

until it came into contact with the Western influence with British colonisation in India.

The cultural life in Bengal, before it was influenced by the European theatre, was

steeped into various folk forms of entertainment like jatra, tarja and kabi-gaan. Some

common stylistic elements of the indigenous folk forms like Vaishnava Padavali (poems on

Lord Krishna and Radha), Gauriya Vaishnavism (the cult of Krishna worship in Bengal),

Mangal Kavya (long poems on local gods), Panchali (devotional songs sung to celebrate the

glory of a deity), Krittibas Ojha’s Ramayana, Kasiram Das’s Mahabharata, Kabigan (poetic

recitals) and Jatra can be traced in the Bengali plays composed in Pre Independence period

(Sen 105). The presence of these features in Bengali drama was not an inevitable part of

drama to retain the cultural ethos but rather they had gained such popularity amongst the

lower strata of the society that in order to have their viewership, the presence of these

elements became necessary. Contrary to Brajendranath Bandyopadhya, an eminent historian

on Bengali Stage, who is of the opinion that “Old Jatra has no connection with the Bengali

drama” (Bandyopadhyay 19), Sukumar Sen observes that the usage of songs in Bengali

drama clearly hints at the influence of jatra on Bengali drama (Sen 142).

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However, as the Bengali drama gradually moved towards loud and obscene

representation in its content, tone and enactment, it lost the patronage of the urban, educated

people; so much so that it was altogether neglected and people avoided being a part of its

audience. This in turn created a cultural vacuum in Calcutta which was then influenced and

captured by the European style of theatre during the second half of 18th century. It marked the

beginning of modern drama in India.

Though according to Gargi the development of theatre in India was slow (54), Erin

Bee attributes its stable growth and development to British rule in India. According to him:

Modern theatre in India developed as part of the colonial enterprise in three port

cities established and built up by the British East India Company - Calcutta,

Bombay and Madras. In the nineteenth century the British introduced Modern

European theatre to these colonial cities in three ways: by touring productions to

entertain their expatriate communities; by supporting the production of English

plays staged by the expatriates themselves in newly British-style playhouses;

and by teaching English drama in Indian universities, where Shakespeare was

presented as the apex of British Civilization. The spread of English drama was

part of colonizing Indian culture; it was designed not only to shape artistic

activity but to impose on Indians away of understanding and operating in the

world and to assert colonial Cultural superiority. (1)

Apama Bhargava Dharwadkar too in her book named Theatre of Independence:

Drama, Theory, and Urban Performances in India since 1947, clearly pinpoints the European

influence in the development of “modem urban theatre” in India. The dramatic tradition

which infused the European organisational structures, textual features, and performance

conventions from Europe, in contents were typically Indian in flavour. Gradually as the

Western influence on Indian Drama kept on increasing, it gave rise to a new dramatic theory

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that was adopted by many regional dramatic associations and led to a large scale translation

and adaptations of European as well as Indian canonical plays (3-4).

The European influence introduced the proscenium stage with a remarkable spatial

difference between the performers and the audience. While the performance took on a

heightened stage, the audience was seated on a lower level, either at the same level or in a

gradual elevated structure of seating. The difference that the proscenium stage maintained

between the performers and the audience was both in height and distance. Following this

trend a number of theatres cropped up in the city of Calcutta. ‘The Theatre’, a playhouse that

followed the the form of proscenium, was the first of its kind to be built in Calcutta in 1753.

However, after the attack of Nawab Sirajuddin on the city in 1756, it was closed down. After,

a long gap of more than one and a half decades in 1775, ‘The New Playhouse’, also known as

‘The Calcutta Theatre’, came up under the patronage of Warren Hastings. It was followed by

other proscenium playhouses like that of Chowringhee Theatre (1813–39) and the Sans Souci

Theatre (1839–1849). These playhouses performed the plays written by European

playwrights like William Shakespeare, Philip Massinger, William Congreve, Richard

Brinsley, Sheridan etc (Chattopadhya 200).

This new trend of Proscenium theatre brought in a new link between the theatre and

its audience. The urban, elite and educated audiences stayed connected with the theatre either

in the form of owner, actor or audience and in due course of time the affluent class of Bengali

society took over all the three roles. The proscenium theatre that introduced the system of

tickets, kept away many of its audiences who could not pay for the tickets. However, with

Dwarkanath Tagore’s purchasing of Chowringee Theatre on 15th August, 1835, by bidding

the highest price at the auction, theatre was opened for all, irrespective of the class to which

its audience belonged to. The Bengalis soon managed to have full control on the Proscenium

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theatre on 1st August, 1848 with the performance of Baishnab Charan Auddy in the role of

Othello.

Though the first half of 19th century in Bangla Theatre was marked by performance of

translated English and French plays on proscenium theatre by of all native actors, soon the

Bengali intellectuals felt the urge to compose plays in their own native language on concerns

that were particular of their motherland. This was also the time when many of the Sanskrit

plays were translated into English and were performed on the stage. This in turn introduced

another trend of theatre that came to be known as Babu Theatre or Baganbari theatre

(Chattopadhya 202). As the urban elite and educated class of people took the initiative to

write plays on their interest areas, theatre gradually moved away from the public to more

private spaces of the wealthy affluent classes. The plays that were composed and performed

were restricted to narrow objectives of attaining some favours of the English officials or

showing off their wealth through the production of a play during some festivity.

The most famous of the Babu Theatre was the Hindu Theatre owned by Prasanna

Kumar Tagore. Its purely Indian content and concerns brought a freash lease of life in the

domain of Private theatre (Chowdhury 62). Its first production was English translation of

Bhababhuti’s UttarRamacharita on December 14, 1831. This trend of theatre was enriched

by many more production houses that followed it like that of Nabin Basu’s Theatre at

Shyambazar, Pyarimohan Bose’s Jorasanko Theatre, Asutosh Dev’s (Satubabu) Theatre at

Beadon Street, Ramjoy Basak’s Theatre at Natun Bazar, Gadadhar Seth’s Theatre at Bara

Bazar, Kaliprasanna Singha’s ‘Bidyotsahini Ranga Mancha’, ‘Belgachhia Theatre’ by the

Rajas of Paikpara,14 ‘Metropolitan Theatre’ at Ramgopal Mallick’s palace at Chitpur,

‘Pathuriaghata Banga Natyalaya’ at Jatindra Mohan Tagore’s residence, ‘Shobhabazar

Private Theatrical Society’ by Radhakanta Deb (Sarkar 516). Though the private theatre

gained quite a popularity because of the new experiments that it tried with stage techniques,

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stage props, lights and sound and music, soon started fading out because of the introduction

of socio-cultural themes that made the Babus feel uncomfortable because it brought out the

true facet of the rich elites.

Unlike the Babus who were typical representatives of the Babu culture, Nobel

Laureate Rabindranath Tagore showed his committed humanistic vision, patriotic impulse

through his dramas. Tagore’s dramatic work ranges from philosophical to mystical, political

to social and even satirical plays. Tagore’s concerns with social issues of caste discrimination

find expression in Chandalika (1926) and Natir Pooja (1927). As his deep understanding of

the social system of the period enabled him to poignantly address the social concerns, so did

his deep insight into human lives allowed him to represent Indian womanhood in the most

honest way possible. His Muktadhara (1922) which is considered to be a strong political play

highlights his intense patriotic feelings. Regarding Tagore’s richness of dramatic art, R. K.

Ramaswami observes, “...More than anything else, he has shown the way both in the respect

of ideas as well as of methods by which the soul of Indians could be realized and revealed in

the realm of dramatic creation and representation” (203).

Harindranath Chattopadhya is another name in the realm of pre Independence theatre

whose contribution, if not had an overwhelming influence, was steeped in social concerns.

Social evils and practises had a symbolic presentation in his hands. His plays were not much

influenced by the western philosophy and techniques rather clearly showed his commitment

towards what later came to be known as Progressive Writers’ Movement. The abject poverty

of the peasants and the downtrodden are best captured in his The Window and Parrots and

Santry Lantern respectively.

However, by the second half of the 19th Century Bangla theatre gained a new

momentum in the hands of Madhusudan Datta and Dinabandhu Mitra. It moved away from

the private to the public, focusing more on the social issues and gradually, as the British

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apprehended, “social plays (that) gradually slipped into making political statements through

theatrical means” (Chatterjee). Michael Madhusudan Datta emphasised on the performance

of original plays in Bengali and attacked his contemporaries who showed intense affiliation

with the foreign language. His plays Ekei Ki Bale Sabhyata published in 1860 and Budo

Shaliker Ghade Ron are sharp satires on the trend of blindly following and adopting the

Western culture by the ultra-progressive members of the Young Bengal group.

It was with Dinabandhu Mitra’s Neel Darpan that Bangla theatre entered into the real

realm of Public theatre. It not only portrayed the oppressed conditions of the native indigo

planters in the hands of the British colonisers, but also raised the sleeping conscience of the

otherwise dormant subjects of the e\nglish. The play suited the socio-political condition of the

time so well that a number of young theatre lovers showed their interest to voice their angst

aginst the colonisers. A number of social plays mirroring the stark social truths were

composed and performed. Significant amongst them were Mir Masarraf Hossain’s Jamida-

darpan (The Mirror of the Landowner, 1873), Cha-Kar-Darpan (The Tea-Planter’s Mirror,

1875) by Daksinaranjan Cattopadhyay and Jel-darpan (The Mirror of the Prison, 1876).

These plays attempted to mirror the oppressive condition of the natives in the hands of the

landowners at the fields to huniliationg condition at the jails. Thus, Jamida-darpan was a

peasant rebellion against the land-owning babus, Cha-Kar-Darpan dealt with the poor

working conditions at the British tea-estates in North Bengal and Jel-darpan portrayed the

condition inside the jails (Chattopadhya 205). This marked the onset of National Theatre

(1869-1872) by a group of young enthsiasts and it served as the perfect medium to spread the

national spirit (Chowdhury 96). Defending the widow Remarriage movement, Mitra wrote

Bidhaba Bibaha Natak that was highly appreciated by its audience that consisted of young

revolutionaries. Other burning social issues which found dramatic expression and hit the

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Kolkata literary scenario of that time were child marriage, polygamy, alcohol addiction and

prostitution (Bandopadhya 69).

As the commitment towards social reformation and protest against the oppressive

British government intensified through the medium of theatre, especially through such plays

like Sati Ki kalankini, Bharat Mata, Puru Vikram, Bharat Yavan, Banger Sukhabashan, Beer

Nari, the British discerned the threat that theatre posed on them. In order to counter the

growing dissatisfaction of the natives against them, they tried to curb the growth and

development of drama, the tool of the masses for rebel and consequently promulgated an

ordinance to put a brake on the performance of theatre on socio-political issues. The

ordinances were followed by Dramatic Performance Act that intended to put a ban on plays

that strongly voiced nationalistic spirit like that of Anandamath, Chandrashekhar,

Chattrapati Shivaji, Karagar, Matripuja etc (Chowdhury 119-21).

The British not only influenced the theatre of Bengal and its cultural history but also

had a strong impact on the socio-religious movements. While the social reform movements

gained momentum through strong plays in the urban spaces, the social justice movement also

started making its voice heard in the undivided Bengal and later on in the divided provinces

of Bengal. Social justice movement that was gaining prominence amongst the Namahshudra

communities in the undivided Bengal in the districts of Khulna, Faridpur, Jessore and

Barishal under the able leadership of Harichand Thakur and later by his son, Gururchand

Thakur, aimed at spreading education to the chandals, the untouchables, for bringing in a

social change. The namahshudra community of East Bengal that chiefly consisted of the

Hindu lower castes, ati shudras and Muslim peasants embraced Harichand Thakur’s Haribol

philosophy to escape from the indignities associated with caste discrimination. However,

what started as religious movement, Matua Movement spearheaded by Harichand Thakur and

later by his son, Guruchand Thakur, became a movement seeking social justice.

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In 1947, when Bengal was divided into East and West Bengal and East Bengal came

in the custody of Pakistan, the Namahsudra community of East Bengal because of their

religious minority was forced to move to the newly constructed West Bengal where they

became the new victims of the state apathy. The trauma of Partition and the consequent

physical displacement and “spatial dispersal of the lower orders” (Banerjee 138) or scattering

of the Namahshudras in Bengal and in other adjoining states destabilised their organised

social movement to such an extent that their identities were challenged and new strategies for

survival were attempted at through the help of language and literature.

It was through the revival of Matua literature that the newly displaced Dalit from East

Bengal tried to protest against their oppression and inhuman condition in the new state.

Matua Literature, commonly known as Matua Sahitya had its origin in the 19th century

Vaishnava movement started by Sri Chaitanya. Harichand Thakur was an ardent follower of

Vaishanava philosophy. He strongly emphasised on chanting “Work on your hands, His name

on your lips” (‘Haate kaam, mukhe naam’) that in turn was internalised by its followers.

However, they were criticised by the uppercastes for their obsession with chanting and

compared them with the drunkards or ‘motos’. Harichand Thakur, took up this satirical word

for naming his faith and since then it is known as Matua. According to Sekhar

Bandyopadhyay, the Matuas were ‘a protestant Vaishnava religious sect’ that rejected the

humiliating hegemony of the Brahmanical varna in order to create an independent, rebellious

identity (Bandopadhya 2563-8). The matua songs commonly voiced their defiance of familiar

Gods that were otherwise worshipped by the society and aimed at union with the Absolute

Being. One such song that was addressed to Harichand Thakur was “What do we care for

Brahma-ishnu-Maheswar? We know only you!’ (Sarkar 311).

The movement played a significant role in strengthening the ideals of Guruchand

Thakur who firmly believed that self respect can be earned only through education. Thus, the

16
Matuas expressed themselves orally through Kathakata (storytelling in common public

places), Jatra (folk theatre) and kobi gaan (rhymed couplet). These compositions were a

beautiful blend of history and popular philosophy expressed in lucid language for the

uneducated masses to understand it easily. Though many of Harichand Thakur’s

compositions were lost, the ones that were traced back were compiled after his death by

Nityananda Halder, Narayan Gosai, Manindra Ray, Upendra Nath Biswas, Tarak Chandra

Sarkar and Bhagaban Chandra Biswas (Byapari 4118).

One of the chief features of the cultural aspect of the Matua Movement was Harijatra

(jatra or folk theatre composed as per the philosophy of Harichand). Harijatra not only

depicted the life style and philosophy of life of the villagers but also propounded the

philosophy of Harichand Thakur. Guruchand Thakhur, much against the wish of Harichand

Thakur who never wanted his words and philosophy to be spread in published form,

commissioned the famous palakar or song writer, Ram Jiban Bala to compose Harijatra for

social upliftment of the Namahshudras of his and neighbouring villages. These Harijatras

were of three types and were usually composed to either depict the life, philosophy and

spirituality of Harichand or the life story of Guruchand and his efforts in spreading the light

of education. The third type concentrated on the Matua believers, the influence and impact of

Matua philosophy on these followers. Many of the episodes of harijatra were also presented

in the form of palagaan. Most of the palagaans were in the lines of eulogising the

contribution of Hari philosophy on its disciples’ lives. Currently Matua Sahitya besides the

Harijatra or Harilita on the life and work of Harichand-Guruchand and on Matua religion

has also shown immense interest in composing palagaan and matua natak or Matua Drama.

Harijatra, palagaan and Matau drama composed in the honour of Harichand’s

contribution in Matua Movement are innumerable. Of the many composers of Harijatra,

Ramjiban Bala’s Harijatra (1920), Upen Biswas’s Goshtha Leela (1936), Dhanpati Pal’s

17
Haripaler Hari Darshan (1952) and Jagadish Mahato’s Harijatra (1943) are worth

mentioning. Amongst the palasong composers the contributions of Surya Kanto Thakur’s

Harichand Agamoni Pala, Nanigopal Bala’s Shri Hari Agamoni, Usharani Samajpati’s Shri

Shri Harichand Janmokotha are immense (Biswas 215).

In the sphere of Matua Natak, contributions made by Shubhas Chandra Tarafdar and

Santosh Barui through their dramas Harichander Posha Moina and Oi Ashe Mohamanab

respectively are worth mentioning. Besides these Monohar Barai’s Sri Shri Guruchander

Abirbhab, Kumud Biswas’s Kamana Sagar e Putra Bisorjon, Raju Das’s Bigyan o Juktibadi

Mohamanab Guruchand Thakur are some of the famous Harijatra. Amongst the palakirtan or

jatras that were composed on the lives of Hari followers and disciples are the famous Ram

Jiban Bala’s Hiramon (1921), Dasharath (1921), Haripal (1925), Teen kori Molla (1925),

Upendranath Biswas’s Basudeb (1935), Tarakchand (1937), Tirthamonir Upakhyan (1939)

and Anurag (1940). Based on the life of Oshwini Goshai, Bijay Sarkar’s Bishwanather

Punarjanmo and Khitish Chandra Haldar’s Bishwa Premik Shri Shri Gopal Sadhu Thakur

also had a lasting impression on the Matua community (Biswas 216).

Post 1980s there are a number of social dramas that are based on Matua religious

movement. The most recognised of these are Raju Das’s Komol Hirer Angti, Hiphen noi

Coma Chai and Bachar Moton Bachte Chai. These dramas have been performed several

times on demand by Shantikunj Natya Sanstha. Besides these, Gopal Biswas’s monologue

Dharitri, Debendra Lal Biswas’s Abhishar, Amol Kumar Mondal’s Sprishya Bonam

Asprishya, Samudra Biswas’s Satya Sangbad and Shanti Ranjan Biswas’s Sati Simantani

(19190) are performed not only to make the rural, illiterate people aware of their oppressive

social conditions but also to draw their attention at their economic deprivation.

Other folk theatres and plays that contributed towards raising awareness against social

exploitation of the poor masses were the ‘Vesteri’ and ‘Bolan Song’ of Jalpaiguri and other

18
neighbouring districts in North Bengal. While the staging of Vesteri aimed at making people

aware of the exploitative measures of the landed gentry, Bolan Songs depicted the wretched

condition of women who were the victims of dowry system. The folk forms of Malda district

dealt with the socio-economic and political oppression of the refugees who settled in these

districts (Mazumdar 265-67).

Thus, the history of Bangla Theatre clearly establishes the fact that though the English

influenced its socio-cultural performative history, there had been a blissful co existence of

two major forms of cultural activities representing the aristocratic and non aristocratic lower

strata of the society. These rural folk forms in the course of several socio-cultural and

historical events took different twists and turns to address the issues that disturbed the socio-

cultural and political mosaic of the society but ultimately unlike its urban counterpart, theatre,

faded out because of the lack of patronage.

Like that in Bengal, elite educated people in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka and

Kerala under the influence of these Western models established several theatre companies in

their provinces in their regional languages but “. . . structurally as well as in environmental

effects, it followed the 19th century European Opera of the undistinguished variety” (Mathur

25). In the state of Maharashtra, theatre developed and flourished in Poona and Mumbai. It

marked the beginning of Company theatre that dominated the literary scenario from

nineteenth century till 1930s and dealt mainly with themes drawn from history, the Puranas

and other religious background.

Though the present day Bhave Company marked the beginning of development of

Marathi theatre, the history of the origin of Marathi theatre can be traced back to Tamasha,

Gondhal, Lalit, Bharud, Povada and Kalsutri Bahulya. The folk plays like ‘Dashavatar’, that

is based on the mythological stories of Lord Vishnu and has its performance during the post-

harvest seasons and ‘Tamasha’ that aimed at providing entertainment to the Peshwa armies

19
and the masses gave way to parallel theatre. It was the theatrical performance of Bhave’s

company, under the patronage of Shrimant Chintamanrao Appasaheb Patwardhan (1775-

1851), the Brahman ruler of the post-Peshwa princely state of Sangali, in south Maharashtra,

actually marked a new beginning for the Marathi theatre. The khel (entertainment show) that

was performed at the royal court gradually shifted from the traditional folk performance to a

more refined performance that was devoid of the ‘crude forms of entertainment’ of the

indigenous folk performing traditions like Tamasha (Solomon 119). These folk forms were

known as parallel theatre and it gradually gave way to professional theatre. The new tradition

that managed to have a judicious blend of tradition and sophistication and exemplified the

‘social function of legitimating social differences’ (Bourdieu 7) was best exemplified in the

performance of Sita Swayamvar by Bhave’s troupe in the court of Sanagli. It was highly

appreciated as its performance was before a ‘selected, sophisticated audience’ (Rangacharya

97). However, with the demise of Bhave’s royal patronage in 1851 and his migration to the

colonial city of Bombay, Marathi theatre culture came in contact with the colonial culture of

the city. It was the proscenium performance that gained momentum over the content of khel.

With the dawn of print culture in theatre the oral tradition of folk performance was

totally replaced by bookish playwrights focusing on written words. More emphasis was

placed on rehearsal of the script than free flow of emotion as was evident in the oral tradition.

The print culture in theatre played an important role in giving the playwrights a significant

role. The script in their hands acquired an exclusionary caste, class and gender character.

With the rise in the number of written dramatic texts for performance like Vinayak Janardan

Kirtane’s Thorle Madhavrao Peshwa (1857) and written criticism of performances also

became popular. The articles on theatrical performances emphasised on the folk forms as

‘crude’, ‘less refined’ and slovenly form, compared to the ‘bettercrafted’ and apparently

‘more modern’ Sangeet Natak plays (Naregal 8). A gradual cultural shift from oral khel to a

20
more erudite natak became visible which in turn brought in a shift in the production form.

Highly influenced by the Brahmanical attributes of refinement and taste, natak enjoyed the

patronage of the learned people in academic and public spaces compared to its weak and

crude counterpart, khel.

The choice of subject matter also stressed on the exclusionary nature of theatre. It

revolved around depicting urban, middle class Brahmans and their community. A transition

from old themes that centered around reforms for women and nationalist political events to

the problems confronted by urban middle class families, unemployment, degeneration of

human and ethical values that were more the concerns of upper caste, urban Brahmins than

other lower castes and classes. Hence, theatre in the hands of Brahmins became a medium

that articulated their interests and needs and nicely buried down the real problems and social

issues like caste-based exploitation, class-struggles, issues of rightful access to resources like

land, caste and class based identity crisis, reservation and communalism etc did not surface

adequately in the theatre. Besides these, the influence of upper caste on Marathi theatre was

also subtly indicated through their choice of costume, colour, movement, objects and other

bodily atrifacts.

The Brahmanical nature of Marathi theatre was not a just culmination of the dominant

presence of Brahmins in the circle of playwrights, actors, company owners, audience but also

because of the location where it originated and later on flourished. Both the cities of Pune

(Poona) and Mumbai (Bombay) were historically the places where the Brahmin leadership

influenced its socio-cultural conditions and practices. According to Shekhar Bandopadhya, it

is Pune’s “traditional Brahmanical culture with its own value system nurtured in the

memories and practices cherished within the wadas [traditional homes], and invested with

pre-Independence nationalist sentiments and aspirations’’ (qtd. in Alekar 3), that had been a

mojor influence on the brahmanical nature of Marathi theatre.

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The cultural influence of caste on Marathi theatre also indicated it as a symbol of

hegemonic authority and power and its concern with ‘purity’ based on and maintained by the

principle of ‘exclusion’. The caste specific quality of Marathi became evident in its ritualistic

observations abefore the performance as well as in the choice of women actors. The theatre

companies preferred women of ‘kulin’ caste, whose dignified social position would

invariably confirm her purity and that in order helped the theatre companies to retain its

purity of caste that essentially informed the Marathi theatre form. The typical Brahmanical

nature of Marathi theatre can also be interpreted as the culmination of the collective

conscious efforts of the Brahmins to revive its lost glorious days of the pre colonial era.

Hence, its development as a cultural product of the Brahmins was the product of the judicious

efforts of the cultured elite then to preserve its caste hegemony along with an attempt of

“internalization of British bourgeois represented forms” (Singh 4)

With the origin of Sangit Natak by Annasaheb Kirloskar in 1880, of Marathi Theatre

stepped into a new trend of depicting the social issues with renewed vigour. Annasaheb

Kirloskar who was regarded as the father of Marathi Sangit Natak (musical drama) was

known for his plays like- Sangeet Saubhadra and Ramrajyavirog. Govind Ballal Deval

followed the tradition set by Annasaheb Kirloskar’s Sangeetnatak. Durga (1886),

Vikramorvashiya (1889), and Muruchhakatik (1890) are the remarkable plays of Govind

Ballal Deval. His play Sharada (1899) which deals with the problem of poor parents

regarding the marriage of their young daughters to an old man is regarded as the first social

play in Marathi theatre and it set the trend of depicting contemporary social condition of

Maharashtra in theatres. To present the condition of the contemporary condition of

Maharashtra, K.K. Chaudhari in “Marathi Theatre” remarks, “It was during this uneasy

period that Sharada sprouted from Deval’s pen and appeared on the musical stage. . .

22
Thousands of child wives of the day were physically and mentally tortured and afflicted by

the right of men to have sexual intercourse with immature wives” (389).

Annasaheb Kirloskar’s early sangeet natak, Ramrajya Viyoga (ca 1884), based on the

mythological story of Ramayana, depicted a low caste character, Shambuk, who strongly

criticizes Brahmans for not sharing their knowledge with the shudras (low castes). Theatre

under Sangeet Natak took a more bold approach towards depiction of social and national

issues of the colonial rule. Krishnaji Prabhakar Khadilkar propagated the need of

independence through his political play Kanchangadchi Mohana (1897). This trend was

further carried forward by B.V.Warekar. His plays like Turungaachya Daaraat (1923),

Sattechey Gulam (1927) targated towards creating social and economic awareness in people.

His other play Bhoomikanyaa Seeta (1950) dealt with themes like manwoman relationship

and women empowerment. K.N.Kale, Anant Kanekar, G.Y.Chitnis and S.V.Vartak together

started theatre group called Natyamanvantar. S.V.Vartak produced Andhalyanchi Shala

(School for the Blind) in 1933 that was regarded as the first modern Marathi play.

Another new turn that Marathi theatre witnessed Post Independence was the gradual

break down of the trend like Sangeet Natak and introduction of conflict in theatre. New

young playwrights like Vasan Kanetkaro, Jaywant Dalvi, S.N. Pendse, Ratnakar Matkari,

Govind Purushottam Deshpande, Satish Alekar, Vijay Tendulkar, Mahesh Elkunchwar tried

to represent the socio-culture and political reality of post-independence India. Satish Alekar

and , Vijay Tendulkar strongly criticised Brahmanical ideologies and depicted Brahmans as

exploiters of religious values for reaping benefits for itself. Satish Alekar’s plays Mahapur

(1975), and Mahanirvan (1974), etc. made a parody of values and conventional way of life of

Brahmans particular to the city of Pune. Further, Vijay Tendulkar’s play Gidhade (1970)

severely critiqued the middle class Brahmin ideologies. Similarly, another play by Tendulkar,

Ghashiram Kotwal (1972) was a critique on the debauched Brahmans in the holy city of

23
Poona. Another interesting point that marks the presence of non Brahmanical feature of the

otherwise predominantly brahmanical Marathi theatre is its recourse to indigenous features to

survive the threat of extinction.

However, compared to Marathi theatre, Gujarati theatre emerged as a reaction and

revolt. Ranachoudhuri and C.C Mehta were the well known Gujarati dramatists who made

several experiments in the form. The Parsi community started their own dramatic company

called Proscenium theatre in Bombay, “... in which romantic lyricism was debased into

meaningless verse recitation, tried to copy the spectacular form of the early 19th century

western theatre, without approaching the broad human plane of the contemporary western

drama” (Mathur 25). Since, its main objective was to reach the masses and bring a positive

change in the society it addressed social issues and carried moral values for its audiences.

Down south, The Madras Dramatic Society gave space and opportunity to more amateurish

European Theatrical practises. The renowned dramatist of this school was V.V. Srinivasa

Iyengar.

The Company drama gave way to Social drama, that was further divided into Early

Social Drama from 1930s to 1960s and the Later Social drama since 1960s. The playwrights

of the Early Social Drama like Sri Aurobindo, Rabindranath Tagore, T. P. Kailasam,

Harindranath Chattopadhyay and Bharati Sarabhai emphasised on love and sacrifice,

essentially on the values of life. They advocated individual change from within to make

possible social change. In contrast to this tradition of drama the later Social Drama had a

more aggressive approach and relentlessly fought against social problems. The

meaninglessness and futility of the social order and system was the main areas that they

attacked and tried to address.

With the changing social milieu that demanded a new sensitivity and approach to deal

with the complex problems that infested the society roughly from the 1960s, Indian English

24
Drama, as observed by Chakraborty, started acquiring a new identity of its own by “re-

investigating history, legend, myth, religion, folklore, in the context of contemporary socio-

political issues” (3). Girish Karnad, Vijay Tendulkar, Pratap Sharma, Asif Currimbhoy,

Mohan Rakesh, Nissim Ezekiel, Shiv K Kumar, Snehalatha Reddy, Gieve Patel, Gurcharan

Das, Cyrus Misty are some of the playwrights who belong to this period writing either in

regional languages or in English. These playwrights were basically non conformist in their

approach and through various theatriacal devices like folklores, mythological stories, stage

props and strong satirical dialogues constantly interrogated traditions, customs and values of

the society to expose the meaninglessness of the existing social systems.

After the first two phases of Indian drama represented by Company theatre and Social

drama, the third that came into prominence was the politically conscious drama. This

particular type overlapped the Social drama for a couple of decades starting from 1940s.

These politically conscious dramas further branched out into politically conscious dramas in

non-proscenium format with party affiliation and politically conscious drama in non-

proscenium format without any party affiliation. Soon the Indian People’s Theatre

Association (IPTA) that according to Srampickal had emerged not “...from folk theatre forms

but from the tradition of Indian adaptations of Western proscenium theatre in urban centres

such as Calcutta” (46) developed as a political theatre movement with due support of the

Communist Party of India became a cultural wing of the party. It aimed at spreading the

Leftist ideologies and values. Dramatists who were greatly involved in giving a proper shape

and success to IPTA were Prithviraj Kapoor, Bijon Bhattacharya, Khwaja Ahmad Abbas,

Balraj Sahni, Jyotirindra Moitra, Niranjan Singh Maan, S.Tera Sing Chan and Khalili

Faryadi. On the other hand since 1970s dramatists like Habib Tanvir, Prabhir Guha, Purna

Chandra Rao, Shambu Mitra and Badal Sircar shaped another tradition of the politically

conscious drama in non-proscenium formats without any party affiliation. Taking up a totally

25
non conventional approach to theatrical mode of expressions, they introduced the alternative

mode of theatre in the traditional theatrical trend.

In order to spread the protest against the fascism in India & political violence the

members of Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA) formed strong cultural

organizations. During this time a Bengali drama, Nabanna, based on the great Bengal

Famine, one of the most devastating social issues that took away hundreds of lives, was

written by Bijon Bhattacharya. This play initiated the democratization of theatre. It was

staged by the Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA) under the direction of Sombhu

Mitra and later, in 1948, by Bohurupee under the direction of Kumar Roy.

Almost in the same line of ideologies of IPTA, another form of theatre that came into

existence in the 1940s and gradually gained momentum was Street Theatre. This particular

type of theatre was adopted by the communist parties and it became a part and parcel of the

Indian freedom movement. In a free India street theatre evolved as a weapon against social-

political-economic exploitation. Theatre activist Utpal Dutta sharply used street theatre for

political awareness. Since then theatre has remained as one of the most significant and apt

weapon to fight social evils, injustice and exploitation.

Like its older counterpart, Post Independence dramatic art and performance in India

started making its footprints visible. In post independence era, the institutions like Sangeet

Natak Akademi or The National Academy for Music, Dance and Drama in English, which

was set up by government on 31st May 1952 and National School of Drama, which was set

up in 1959 under the Ministry of Culture, Government of India made remarkable contribution

to Indian English Drama. Besides these institutions, with the emergence of Theatre of Roots,

dramatic scenario in India witnessed the growth and development of regional theatre. The

movement aimed to reach the roots of existing culture to create a modern Indian theatre,

which according to Erin B. Mee marked the beginning of decolonising theatre. Regarding the

26
growing popularity of street theatre, Mee observes, “the theatre of roots, street theatre, and

English language theatre are three among the many kinds of theatre flourishing in India

today, on the proscenium and non-proscenium stages in various locations of the country in

different languages, structures, and forms” (4-5). As the movement endeavoured towards

reaching the roots of Indian culture, it gradually moved away from western impact on

dramatic tradition and tried to delve on issues and concerns that formed the core of Indian

culture and tradition. Hence, they showed their preoccupation with the existing oppressive

structures of Indian society such as patriarchy, class, tradition, gender, violence etc.

The Theatre of Roots gave rise to an array of playwrights like Vijay Tendulkar and

Asif Currimbhoy of Marathi theatre, Chandrashekhar Kambar and Girish Karnad of Kannad

theatre, Mohan Rakesh and Dharamvir Bharati of Hindi theatre and Badal Sircar of Bengali

theatre who helped modern theatre achieves its overwhelming success. These dramatists

made bold innovations with themes and stagecraft that paved way for the new resurgence

ultimately leading towards the establishment of a national theatre. Their plays revolved

around social, political and psychological problems. Mohan Rakesh with historical

characters, Badal Sircar with his third theatre, Girish Karnad with myths, and Tendulkar with

his unconventional attitude towards human problems express their anguish at the prevailing

social condition and the role man has to play in such conditions.

Following this trend the dramatist who brought political, social, psychological and

existential problems live on stage is no other than Badal Sircar. He is the name that is

strongly associated with New Theatrical Movement in India brought drama to the common

people. Some of his famous plays are Evan Inderjit (1962) That Other History (1964) and

There Is No End (1971). His later plays Procession, Bhoma and Stale News are based on the

concept of Third Theatre. The play Procession is about the search for a ‘real home’ in new

society based on equality. It suggests a ‘real way’ to new way in which man does not have to

27
live exploiting man but should work according to his own needs. Bhoma is a dramatization of

the life of oppressed peasants in India. An analysis of these three plays suggests remarkable

changes in Sircar’s concept of a ‘real home’, a new society based on equality and free from

the horrors of exploitation.

Mohan Rakesh, a name well known in Hindi theatre, perceived drama as a complex

art involving the uniform contribution of actors, scenic effects, light and music and effective

stage direction. He dealt with issues of modern day existentialist pangs, the ego clash

between husband, wife and disintegration of family ties and values. His plays like Ashadh Ka

Ek Din, and Leharon Ka Rajhans echo everyday modern life and it is this particular trait of

his drama that enables his audience to empathise with his characters.

In the hands of these dramatists theatre attained formal precision and the thematic

preoccupation of modernist anxiety. Observing on the outstandingly fresh and unique facade

that drama attained under the aegis of these playwrights can be best summed as, “. . . these

playwrights have made bold innovations and fruitful experiments in terms of both thematic

concerns and technical virtuosities. They are using legends, folklores, myths, history with

splendid results” (Bajaj and Mehta 151-52).

This new generation of dramatists, often known as modern dramatists freed

themselves from the clichéd themes of colonial rule and ventured into more real and sordid

life of human beings in the modern world. The attempts of these dramatists to mark the

beginning of a new era of Indian drama are best summed in the words of eminent dramatist

and theatre personality, Girish Karnad:

My generation was the first to come of age after India became independent of

British rule. It therefore had to face a situation in which tensions implicit until

then had come out in the open and demanded to be resolved without apologies or

self-justification: tensions between the cultural past of the country and its colonial

28
past, between the attractions of Western modes of thought and our own traditions,

and finally between the various visions of the future that opened up once the

common cause of political freedom was achieved. This is the historical context

that gave rise to my plays and those of my contemporaries. (1)

Amongst the women dramatists who contributed extensively on social issues with the

objective to raise social consciousness are Dina Mehta, Polie Sengupta and Uma

Parameswaran to name a few. All these women playwrights while addressing social issues

brought the plight of women in the centre stage. Dina Mehta’s Padmashree prize winning

play, The Myth Maker (1959) and exposed the violence against women through drama and

she succeeded in her efforts. Her B.B.C. Radio Play Writing Contest winner, Brides Are Not

for Burning depicts violence against women and evils of dowry system respectively. The

issues of women in a male dominated society finds expression in Getting Away with Murder

(2000) that depicts exploitation of women and its impact on the psyche of a woman. Like

Dina Mehta, Polie Sengupta’s plays are strongly feminist in tone and her most famous play

Mangala focuses on the plight of a rape victim.

The dramatic creations of Usha Ganguli and Mahasweta Devi are primarily based on

the wretched lives of the downtrodden and marginalised people. The apathetic treatment of

the poorest of the poor, of the victims of feudal system and the condition of the untouchables

find their best expression in Mahasweta Devi’s works like Mother of 1084, Aajer Urvashi O’

Johny, Byen and Water. A critic and teacher in Canada as well as founder of PALT-

Performing Art and Literature of India in Winnipeg, Uma Parameswaram (1938- ) writes on

diverse themes ranging from different form of Indian classical dances as in Sita’s Promise to

Sons Must Die that centres round Kashmir conflict in 1948. Rootless But Green are the

Boulevard Tree addresses the problems of immigrants in Canada. These modern dramas

introduced a new set of changes in the Indian English drama and added more dimensions to

29
it. Experiments of the post modern playwrights with interesting new themes, innovative stage

techniques and stage props brought a fresh lease of life to the existing tradition of drama.

Following the trend of Pre-Independence and post Independence Theatre of Roots, the

selected playwrights for this thesis- Vijay Tendulkar (1928-2008), Raju Das (1953 - ) and

Mahesh Dattani (1958 -)- have displayed an overwhelming commitment with social issues

like subjugation and marginalization of gender and caste. Drama in the hands of these

playwrights, like their previous generation of playwrights, is a vehicle used to arouse, alert

and create consciousness in its audience about the prevalent social issues. These playwrights

make a clarion call for the readers and audience to come out of the slumbering conscience of

complacent middle class and realize their duty, responsibility and role in providing equal

rights to all irrespective of their caste, gender and religion.

The selection of these three playwrights is not a random one. The rationale for

selecting such diverse plays from different generic, social, regional, chronological and

linguistic spectrums is to indicate the continuum of caste and gender marginalization across

regions and eras, and to highlight the universality of abuse and assault that the marginalized

men, women and other individuals encounter in their day to day life. Also mention must be

made that in this research the focus has been on the textual and thematic aspects of the

selected plays than on the theatrical elements. Hence, elements such as audience, production,

costume, lights and music though they are important in the medium of drama do not figure

prominently in the purview of the study.

Though Vijay Tendulkar, Raju Das and Mahesh Dattani address and examine not so

uncommon issues related with caste and gender exploitation and marginalization, yet no

comprehensive study of these three dramatists has yet been taken to analyse and understand

the intricacies of gender exploitation and its inextricable link with caste in a Brahmanical

patriarchal society. This study therefore, attempts to provide an insight into subjugation,

30
exploitation of women and other marginalized people in the set up of their families and in its

extension in the society. The nature and impact of caste and gender marginalization form the

central concern in the selected plays. Hence, the study endeavours to trace the roots of caste

and gender marginalization to socio cultural conditions of the Indian society. The study also

endeavours to explore how the playwrights in their depiction of exploitation and

marginalization of caste and gender have been influenced by the socio cultural practices of

the Indian subcontinent.

Of the trio, Vijay Dhondopant Tendulkar, is the name associated with Marathi

Theatre. He was born on 6th January 1928 is a very well known name associated with

Marathi Theatre. He had used theatre as a tool for depicting the reality of the society aiming

to bring a social change. In his interview with Muktha Rajadyaksha, he had stated, “Theatre

is possibly the medium I am most comfortable with. There is, I feel, more respect for a

writer’s word. And it is a medium that’s open to change from one performance to the next”

(2). His long association with Rangayan helped him develop his dramatic acumen. Rangayan,

a theatre group, that had shaped experimental Marathi theatre and gave it a new look, offered

Tendulkar ample scope to experiment and exhibit his notions of life.

Tendulkar’s stupendous dramatic output is the result of the experiences drawn from

his daily life and his artistic excellence that gave an artistic expression to his experience.

Vijay Tendulkar’s plays deal with; “Man’s fight for survival, the varied moralities by which

people live, the social position of women, the covert or overt violence in human beings . . .”

(Gokhale 31-32). Though often criticized for depicting blatantly the spiritual degeneration of

the socio-cultural milieu with which he was dealing but the beauty of his work lies in his

honest projections of squalor, poverty, crime, disorder and mental perversions of the time he

captured in his dramatic world. The plays Chimanicha Ghor Hote Menache (1960)

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Kalojanchi Shalai (1968), Ek Holti Mugli (1967) reflect Tendulkar’s concern with authority

and exploitation prevalent in the society.

The six translated plays, The Vultures (1961), Silence! The Court is in Session (1967),

Sakharam Binder (1972), Ghashiram Kotwal (1972), Kamala (1981) and Kanyadaan (1983)

that are selected for study in this research are concerned with the plight of women in Indian

patriarchal society. In the plays Silence! The Court Is In Session (1968) and Ghasiram

Kotwal (1972), the theme of gender oppression dominates. Sakharam Binder (1972) is a

study in human violence and condition of women in a patriarchal society amounted to

powerful dramatic statement. Kamala (1982) too emphasises on exploitation of women for

climbing up the social ladder of success. Kanyadaan (1982), written on the lines of

naturalistic tradition, focuses on the unbridgeable gap between upper and lower castes in a

stratified Hindu society.

In short the success of Tendulkar can be summarised in the eulogistic words of Shanta

Gokhale, noted theatre critic and a close associate of Tendulkar:

Tendulkar created his plays to explore questions that troubled him, situations that

horrified him, and conventional ideas that did not convince him. He allowed them

[his characters] the freedom to be themselves They grew into believable flesh and

blood human beings who inhabit our world today as reference points (5).

Raju Das, the second of the trio taken for study, is a Dalit theatre writer and activist

who uses his pen to give literary expression to the most mortifying and torturous experiences

of the Dalits in a stratified Hindu society. His literary career has never been able to get its due

respect and make its place in the mainstream literature but that does not weaken his pen.

Rather the fire to rebel against the established exploitative system, to create awareness

amongst the oppressed of their subjugation and to liberate the oppressed lives from their

humiliating existence is what marks his literary output.

32
The origin of Bangla Dalit literature can be traced back to mid 19th century Matua

Movement initiated by Sri Harichand Thakur and later on directed in a more organised form

by his son, Sri Guruchand Thakur. However, it was forced into a dormant stage by the

unfortunate Partition of Bengal in 1947 and state forces that came into power with the Left

Government. The rise of Dalit voice in West Bengal is a recent phenomena compared to its

counterparts in Maharashtra and Southern India. In fact the literary works of the Dalit writers

in West Bengal that actually attempt to voice their oppressive states and exploitation, agony

and betrayal, humiliation and trauma with which generations after generations they had been

existing are under a constant threat by the culturally elite mainstream Savarna literary critics.

Trying to silence the resistance writing of these revolutionary writers like, Manohar Mouli

Biswas, Manoranjan Byapari, Anil Gharai, Mahitosh Biswas, Kalyani Thakur Chanral, Jatin

Bala and Raju Das to name a few, the mainstream writers have deliberately forced them into

a kind of ‘cultural silence’ (qtd. in Sarangi 38). Yet, a number of Bengali Dalit writers have

challenged this cultural silence and have taken up their pens as swords to fight their

oppressive conditions to which they are pushed and it is quite evident in a sudden spurt of

Dalit writers with their stock of literary work.

Though constantly weighed down because of their lack of literary aesthetics, the

struggle of the protest writers to be accepted and assimilated in the main stream literature of

the civilized elite society is not too far. The enlightened Dalit writers and activists through

their fiery writings have successfully carved a niche for themselves by exposing their mission

to challenge decades of discrimination that they have suffered to restore their lost dignity and

regain a position of human existence in the society.

In the sphere of Dalit literary and cultural movement, the role of drama, unlike other

forms of writing like autobiography, prose, short story or novel is a little different. Drama as

a form of protest literature has not yet received much prominence and is still regarded as “an

33
area of neglect" (Dangle 265). However, many Dalit dramatists, like Harshabardhan

Choudhury, Anil Gharai, Mahitosh Biswas, Kalyani Thakur, Jatin Bala and Raju Das in

Bengal, are of a different opinion. They feel that since drama has the benefit of audio visual

presentation, the greatest advantage of a theatre lies in its ability to create direct contact with

its audience. This gives theatre an edge over other forms of writing to create awareness

amongst the public, to open their eyes against injustice to which they are thrust, to stimulate

them and mobilise towards a revolution for change. In the hands of Raju Das, Prangobindo

Biswas and Harshabardhan Choudhury, Dalit drama has achieved the role of a catalyst to

activate and motivate the Dalit towards a change.

The sole motive of Raju Das, the revolutionary Dalit dramatist, behind adopting the

medium of drama to address his revolutionary themes of his writing is to reach the masses

directly. The fiery themes of his plays intend to challenge the Brahminical ideology that

conditioned the lives of the lower castes and the untouchables to a life of total subjugation to

the hegemonic powers of the society. Raju Das ushered in a new phase of drama in which the

form and content is designed to address the injustices inflicted on the Dalit community.

Drawing inspiration from theatre stalwarts like Utpal Dutt and Badal Sircar, Raju Das

models his plays to create a hybrid type that is a culmination of Dutt and Sircar’s content and

technique. This fine blend of Dutt and Sircar’s types of dramas helped him to shape his

theatre type to cater to the need of the Dalits and a form that helps him send the message to

his audience. Acknowledging the influence of the major dramatists during his nascent stage

Raju Das says, “He is the Eklavya pupil and disciple of Utpal Dutt” (Das Preface: 3) that

aided him to understand the minute details in drama that are significant in driving home his

major concerns. Raju Das’s major characters like Bani, Alodebi, Reema, and even Alok, are

portrayed as the evolving dalit men and women. They embody the multiplicity of emotions of

34
ordinary dalit men and women for whom the act of living is sheer heroism. They have been

drawn as the powerhouse of strength definitely but not always.

In his efforts to fight against Brahminism and its selfish ways of dealing with human

lives, Raju Das has adopted drama as his weapon to attack the Brahminical system. His angst

is as much against the Brahminical system as against all sorts of other oppressive systems and

institutions that have become part and parcel of the working of the society. His dramas not

only voice the pain and humiliation of the oppressed but also hint at a positive ray of light,

the hope of a more tolerable society that will be rooted in equality and liberty. Through his

dramas he criticises the system of gender construction in our society that defines it by a

certain set of roles to perform and any violation from it means punishment.

Raju Das sees his writing as not an armchair exercise, but one that will be responsible

for bringing a change in the society, towards a society that will be based on equality. In an

essay on “Drama and Dramatists in Dalit Movement”, he observes the significance of drama,

especially street theatre in initiating a change in the society. In this essay, he puts forward his

strong belief “to bring a change, be the change” (Das 14). In order to achieve this he strongly

believes that elite literary genres like poetry or novel would not serve the purpose of arousing

the masses. He observes:

The need of the hour is good orators, poetry readers, singers, actors and actresses

who can go from one place to another sometimes narrating, sometimes reciting,

or maybe even acting out episodes of their lives, of their feelings and desires.

Probably there is no other alternative better than these that can stimulate the

conscience of the distressed ones for a revolution. It should be their prime

responsibility to stand by those who have been suffering since ages under the

burden of caste discrimination and waiting for someone to direct them towards a

better future. (260)

35
This marked the beginning of his career as a dramatist, both writing and performing.

His journey that started in 1988 with performing drama with Nabarun Sahitya group

continued through ups and downs and gave birth to Shantikunj bringing a gradual change in

him from a simple man highly disturbed by the burning social issues around him to a more

mature writer, an activist and rebel, working relentlessly for a better world based on equality.

The third dramatist taken for the study is Mahesh Dattani. One of the most committed

and successful playwright in Indian English literature, Dattani is a man with extraordinary

intelligence, sensitivity and creativity. His contribution to the world of drama brought back

the otherwise lost vigour and steadfastness in Indian drama written in English. Gifted with

the extraordinary talents of a scriptwriter, stage director, actor, dancer and teacher, he gives

his drama an extraordinary charm with its beautiful array of characters and stage settings that

captivate his readers and audience.

Born on August 07, 1958, Mahesh Dattani brought a fresh lease of life in the history

of drama by touching on very conventional themes in a very unconventional way. He also

blends conventional ones with closet themes that are otherwise untouched by other

playwrights. His association with Little Theatres since his college days and participation in

various workshops on acting and directing plays ignited the creative fire in him.

The uniqueness of Dattani’s plays lies in his selection of language and setting. Thus,

in 1984, when he founded Playpen, his own drama company and started staging Indian

dramas, he chose English as the medium of his dramas since that can cater to a bigger

audience than a drama in regional language. Mahesh Dattani’s choice of language also serves

his choice of setting and audience. Since his interest lies in conventional issues of social

significance, he was quite aware that his use of English as a medium for expression would

limit his plays to a very small English speaking crowd instead of reaching a wider, expansive,

grassroots audience in India. Ironically he had no problem in that because his main aim was

36
to address the urban middle class, the class that holds the possibility of bringing a change.

Defending himself for such a choice, he observes, “The more your basic needs are taken care

of, the more space you have to reflect on certain things. Whereas, if you don’t have the space

and are concerned twenty four hours about your basic needs, then you want to escape into

something else...” (Vardhan19). Making his aims and objectives very clear, Dattani

successfully managed to have a very supportive and faithful audience in India as well as

around the globe, who always felt at home with his themes and could easily connect with his

characters.

Besides focusing on age old discriminations that our society practices like

discrimination based on gender and religion and position of women in our society, Dattani

also touches upon areas which have always been considered as taboos, discussion of which

seemed embarrassing and therefore hushed up. The grey areas of sexual abuse,

homosexuality and transgender and hijras, their identity crisis and marginalization by the

society as the subalterns are the ones which Dattani tries dealing without a glitch in his plays.

In doing so he does not feel uncomfortable, rather he exercises his license as a writer to lash

at the society that defends and practise discrimination based on sexuality. In his preface to

Collected Plays, Dattani says:

I am certain that my plays are a true reflection of my time, place and socio

economic background. I am hugely excited and curious to know what the future

holds for me and my art in the new millennium in a country that has a myriad

challenges to face politically, socially, artistically and culturally. (Dattani xv)

Since Dattani’s focus is on contemporary Indian society grappling with problems of gender

issue, identity crisis and marginalization in modern Indian urban life, he came to be known as

a playwright on modern Indian urban society.

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Dattani’s dramatic output brings a lease of fresh air in the otherwise monotonous

world of drama. His themes are unique in the sense that they are both conventional as well as

novel but have the potential to stir a storm in the otherwise traditional society. John Mac Rae

honours him as “the Voice of India” and observes, “They are the plays of today, sometimes

as actual as to cause controversy, but at the same time they are the plays that embody some of

the classic concerns for world drama” (qtd. in Dattani 119).

Another feature that gives Dattani a distinct place in the world of dramas is the setting

of the actions of his plays. Dattani chooses the locale of urban city life. He situates his themes

in the family space of conflicting family members, troubled and confused with their urban

issues that leave them disjointed and hassled. Dattani aims at making the invisible visible by

not only addressing their crisis but also by sensitizing his readers and audience towards it.

Thus a medium that suits his purpose and fits well to serve his objectives, he chose the

medium of drama. Dattani’s keen awareness of the stage and his sharp use of the stage-space

have always celebrated the plurality of theatrical communication. It is this sense of his stage

that made him a playwright of outstanding calibre and creativity. In this context of

maintaining an acute balance between the importance of the message and the performance

mode of the theatre, Dattani in an interview to Anita Nair, pointed out, “I see myself as a

craftsman and not as a writer. To me, being a playwright is about seeing myself as part of the

process of a production. I write plays for the sheer pleasure of communicating through this

dynamic medium” (30). Dattani’s dramatic creed is not guided by any definite principles of

stage craft. Theatre, for him is a platform on which he believes real situations can be

performed. In an interview to Uma Mahadevan Dasgupta, Dattani mentions, “My milieu is

theatre. You can’t operate in isolation...I do not want a theatre movement to happen” (qtd. in

Chaudhuri 18).

38
However, a true understanding of the sincere efforts that the dramatists with women

consciousness in general and these three dramatists specifically have put to sensitise the

audiences and readers on the marginalised position of the victims of caste and gender and

better their condition will be incomplete without an adequate comprehension of the issues

related with gender and caste. Caste and gender are intricately linked and its numerous

evidences are found in historical, sociological and anthropological studies. The objective of

caste and the role of gender in achieving this form a very complex study that should be dealt

in detail to understand the marginalization of individuals on the basis of caste and gender.

III

Caste and Gender: A Historical Overview

India is a socially stratified nation. One of the most significant factors that give the

country an identity of a socially stratified nation is caste. Caste system is deeply rooted in

many aspects of social life. The socio cultural norms of different communities find a valid

expression through the notion of caste. Caste hierarchies prescribe different roles and assign

different duties to men and women. However, the common observation is that women bear

multiple burden of oppression based on caste, class and work hierarchies.

The origin of the caste system has often been attributed to the Aryan invasion of India

around 1500 BC and its consequent subjugation of the indigenous non-Aryan population.

Based on this hypothesis, Max Weber linked and even traced the beginning of caste

differences to racial differences that Aryan invasion introduced in the land of India

immediately after its invasion. However, this posed a huge problem which in the words of

Tapan Basu, “... not the least of these being the prevalence of the caste system among both

the 'fair-skinned', purportedly 'Aryan' progeny of North India and the 'dark skinned’,

purportedly 'non-Aryan' progeny of South India” (Basu xiii.). There are other critics who are

39
of the opinion that the beginning of the caste system can be traced to those days when some

food gathering tribes claimed dominance over other tribes to own the surplus available.

There are innumerable theories on the origin and nature of caste. Amongst them Western

thinkers like Senart, Nesfield and H. Risley are worth mentioning. According to Senart, caste

is “a close corporation, in theory at any rate rigorously hereditary: equipped with a certain

traditional and independent organisation...” (qtd. in Mohanty133). Implicit in Senart’s

definition of caste is the ‘idea of pollution’ as a main characteristic of caste. Nesfield defines

caste as “a class of the community which disowns any connection with any other class and

neither intermarry nor eat nor drink with any but persons of their community” (qtd. in

Mohanty 133).

According to H. Risley, caste is an isolated unit. Risley defines caste as “a collection of

families or groups of families bearing a common name which usually denotes or is associated

with specific occupation, claiming common decent from a mythical ancestor, human or

divine, professing to follow the same professional callings and are regarded by those who are

competent to give an opinion as forming a single homogeneous community” (qtd. in Mohanty

133). Dr. Ketkar in his definition of caste emphasises on two characteristics of caste and

observes caste as “a social group having two characteristics: a) membership is confined to

those who are born of members and includes all persons so born; (b) the members are

forbidden by an inexorable social law to marry outside the group” (qtd. in Mohanty 133).

According to Iravati Karve, a well-known Maharasrtian anthropologist, “Caste is an extended

kinship group in which every member is either an actual or potential kin of another, these

kinship groups are called Jatis” (Paranjpe 5).

The various definitions of ‘caste’ reveal that caste is nothing but hierarchically arranged

endogamous social groups. Caste divides the society into groups. The grouping is principally

based on kinship relations. Another characteristic feature of caste is its traditional association

40
with an occupation. Each caste has its own occupation. The roots of this grading system can

be traced in the Dharmashashtras and the Vedas. In fact in Rig Veda the caste order is

likened to different parts of the human body:

...the Brahmins occupied the topmost position, succeeded by the Kshatriyas

(warriors) and the Vaishyas (traders and farmers). Together, these varnas,

orceremonial ranks, each of which accommodated several hereditary groups of

jatis in society ... comprised the upper castes, who were characterised as dvija or

(twice-born) became the males among them went through an initiation ritual

(upanayana) at which they were ritualistically reborn ..... The above scheme did

not include the remaining varna, the Shudras (menials). (Basu viii)

Caste, as Romila Thapar perceives, has two aspects: theoretical and functional. The

theoretical aspect is represented by varnas; jatis represent the functional aspect of a caste.

Thapar further hints at the several implications embedded within this whole formulation of

caste. According to her, the first thing that is implied in caste is the system of endogamous

marriage, with the objective of keeping marriages confined within hereditary groups,

secondly, the hierarchical division of labour and thirdly, the idea of ritual purity and impurity

(Jaiswal 43). However, in the holy book of the Hindus, Bhagavad Gita, references to the four

orders have been based on guna (quality) and karma (deeds).

According to Dumont, the system of caste is nothing but an idea and it reflects the

state of mind, "expressed by the emergence of groups of various orders generally called

'castes' (76). He further observes that the main thrust on which caste system exists is "the

opposition of the pure and the impure"(81) which further gives rise to hierarchies in the caste

order and manages to obtain a "linear order of castes from A to Z ... "(81).

The caste system at its inception was relatively flexible in nature and was

interchangeable with class system wherein it was a person could climb the social ladder with

41
possession of more education and qualification. In fact during the Mauryan period caste

system could not influence the political and cultural scenario of the time. During the reign of

Ashoka, his philosophy of universal brotherhood did not allow the caste system to spread its

vicious roots in the society. However, over a period of time caste assumed a more fixed

nature where the chance of moving up became restricted and endogamy set in to preserve its

nature. The emergence and growing popularity of Manusmriti endorsed discrimination based

on caste background; it entitled Brahmins to enjoy special privileges but imposed severe

restrictions, even punishments on the Shudras. The Brahmins detached themselves from

others who had no opportunity of education or were designated for menial jobs and became a

caste in itself. Consequently, in order to preserve their purity and keep away from pollution

set the trend of endogamy. According to Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, “Endogamy ... was a fashion in

Hindu society and as it had originated from the Brahmin caste, it was whole-heartedly

imitated by all the non-Brahmin sub divisions or classes, who in their turn became

endogamous castes” (qtd. in Mohanty 133).

It is this particular feature of caste system called endogamy that B. R. Ambedkar regards

as ‘a key to the mystery of caste system’ (qtd in Mohanty 136). In his formulation of caste as

a system of ‘graded inequality in which castes are arranged according to an ascending scale

of reverence and a descending scale of contempt’” (Chakravarti 7), endogamy played the key

to caste system as it “reinforced the religio-cultural framework of ‘purity’ and ‘pollution’”

(Chakravarti 7). Ambedkar’s sharp gendered understanding of caste stresses the pivotal role

of endogamy, both in the making of caste and its perpetuation (Rege 59-71). Hence,

according to Ambedkar, social practices like sati, enforcement of widowhood, and child

marriage gained prominence to perpetuate endogamy. Besides these, ideological constructs

like inauspiciousness of widows and consequently their social exclusion as well as tonsuring

of young widows to strip them off of their sexual appeal were some of the common practices

42
observed for the survival of endogamy (Chakravarti 579-85). The practice of endogamy was

further strengthened and endorsed by recognising young widows who committed sati on the

funeral pyre of the deceased husbands as ideal women (Chakravarti 579-85).

Thus, it is the notion of endogamy and the need to maintain the religio-cultural

framework of ‘purity’ and ‘pollution’ that marked the beginning of the control on the

sexuality of women and their gradual disempowerment. In due course of time controlling the

sexuality of women remained no more a peculiarity of upper castes and it slowly but steadily

filtered into other middle and lower castes as a part of their conscious attempt to appropriate

brahmanical ideals of the upper castes, what according to Srinivas was ‘sanskritization’ of

middle and lower castes. Hence, controlling the sexuality of women, irrespective of her caste,

became the standard norm of the patriarchal society.

Eventually, women who once had a glorious past when they were fortunate enough to

receive a liberal dose of independence, exposed to the light of education and martial arts and

enjoyed a life equal to their brothers, fell into the dark pitch where their image was

overshadowed by the principles of caste hegemony and endogamy. Manu’s perception of

women as bereft of honesty and good nature, of vile nature, seductive in approach started

gaining an unprecedented popularity to defend the over whelming exercise of patriarchal

authority on women and rigorous control of their sexuality. This naturally led her to lose her

independence and she became subjected to the control of men throughout her life.

A woman in Hindu society is depicted as both the Creator and Destroyer as is evident in

the image of Durga and Kali, two most dominant faces of female form. The Devi Sukta hymn

of Rig Veda, a scripture of Hinduism, declares the feminine energy as the essence of the

universe, the one who creates all matter and consciousness, the eternal and infinite, the

metaphysical and empirical reality (Brahman), the soul (supreme self) of everything

(McDaniel 90). Reflecting on the high position of women that Indian women in Pre-Vedic

43
Age used to enjoy, Gorwaney observes "ideally women were accepted as a living force in

society, the embodiment of 'Skakti' and a symbol of purity religiousness, spirituality and

sacrifice” (2).

Ironically, against the positive image of women reflected in the scriptures where the

feminine energy is depicted as the source of creation and essence of all being, there are

certain religious facets like laws and ideologies that control and confine them into roles of

obedient daughter and wife, dutiful mother and subservient wife. In essence, the more

constructive part of feminine self is reduced to over emphasise the patriarchal construct of the

feminine image as an obedient, dutiful, responsible and self sacrificing woman.

In the context of Indian subcontinent it is quite difficult to produce a monolithic picture

of women’s position. In fact, the position of women had been greatly influenced, created and

recreated by the diverging forces of historical and cultural milieu. In this context the

observation of M. N. Srinivas on the complicated task of tracing the historicity of women’s

position in early India is worth mentioning. Srinivas remarks, “While in certain contexts the

Indian sub-continent is a single cultural region, in many others it is heuristically more

rewarding to look upon it as a congeries of micro regions, differences between which are

crucial (7). Even Romila Thapar refers to the same complicated journey taken in tracing the

position of women in the Indian subcontinent, “Within the Indian subcontinent, there have

been infinite variations on the status of women diverging according to cultural milieu, family

structure, class, caste, property rights and morals” (6).

However, historical evidences establish the fact that women in Vedic age enjoyed a

significant religious and social position, almost equivalent to their male counterparts. The

birth of a girl was a matter of blessing for the family and she was well accepted by her natal

family. In fact Rig Veda emphasised Matrika-puja (worshipping of Goddesses who possessed

some inauspicious qualities and were emblematic of childhood fear, starvation and diseases)

44
and Kumaripuja (worshipping a young maiden girls to emphasise on the purity and divinity

of the women of the society) to be performed at the end of all Vedic rituals (Upadhyaya 43).

Women in Vedic Age also had sacred thread ceremony known as Upavita ceremony, post

which they were introduced to the studies of Vedas, recited Vedic mantras, performed Vedic

rites and rituals; undertook Vedic vows and were even allowed to perform Yagaayajna. The

presence of Vedic scholars like Gosha, Apala, Lopamudra, Indrani, Maitreyi and Gargi

confirm the liberty and empowered life that the women lived then.

During Vedic period Swayamvara marriages were in practice, where the women had the

right to choose their own partners. Post marriage, the Vedic women as Sahadharmini or Patni,

had the right to participate and carry out religious ceremonies with her husband. She enjoyed

the social responsibilities of a loving wife and mother. Also evident in this period is the

remarriage system of both men and women. The existence of words like Parapurva and

Didhisha prove women allowed to have second husband. The system of punarvivah or widow

remarriage was also in vogue. Women in Vedic period not only enjoyed equal religious and

social rights but were revered as ornaments of home.

However, during the post-Vedic Age women’s status gradually deteriorated. The social

and family status of a woman as daughter and wife underwent a sea change. She was denied

access to education. The discontinuance of Upanayana (Thread ceremony that formally

introduces an individual to the study of the Vedas) followed by early marriage failed to

provide her with the scope to realise her womanhood independently. Even her right to her

father’s property was completely denied. The position and status of women in post Vedic

Age is best summed up in Aitareya Brahmana 7. 13, "A wife as a comrade, a daughter is a

misery and a son a light in the highest heaven" (qtd. in Pinkham 55).

The Period of Smritis marked a steady decline in the position of women. Manu’s

dictation on the role and behavioural conduct of women affected their position the most.

45
Manu’s dictates on a woman’s free movement curbed her development and made her

dependent on father in her childhood, husband during her womanhood and to her son in her

old age. His tenets further fostered a negative feeling on the intellectual capacities of a

woman. Hence, they were denied access to education, upanayana and other privileges of

ritual offering and sacrifices that the women in Vedic period enjoyed. Rather, the focus was

on marriage. Women were married off at a very early age and widow remarriage was not

encouraged at all. She was also not even allowed to have an access to her father’s property.

The main objective of the age seemed to achieve complete submission and dependence of

women on men. As they were deprived of their rights to justice, freedom, education and

equality, their condition at home and in the society denigrated drastically. R. Chaudhary in

his seminal book gives a true picture of women as ‘Abala’(the powerless) or

'Grihapinjarakokila' (Cuckoo of the cage of the house) and subject to the most derogatory

maxim; 'Putrartha Kriyate Bharya' (women has to be taken in marriage for procreation only)

(31).

According to A. S. Altekar, the position of women in a society is one of the best

yardsticks to measure the “spirit of a civilization, its excellencies and its limitations” (9). In

the perspective of Indian culture, in spite of visible cultural development, gender

discrimination and marginalization seems a glaring issue. In fact in India religion, gender and

caste are inextricably linked. The coupled effect of religious sanction of a caste stratified

Hindu society into four distinct varnas and the maintenance of the purity of caste order that is

highly dependent on the purity of women, have reduced women to a position of perpetual

subordination. In addition to this, the discontinuance of Upanayana, the neglect of education

and lowering of the marriage age produced disastrous consequences on the position and

status of women. The status of women further deteriorated with the inter-marriage between

the Aryans and the uneducated Dravidian women. Uma Chakravarty in her seminal essay,

46
“Conceptualising Brahmanical Patriarchy” observes, “Caste hierarchy and gender hierarchy

are the organising principles of the Brahmanical social order” (579). Thus, it is clear that the

subordination of women by keeping them under strict vigil and control has its birth and

development in the desire to retain purity of caste; “the purity of women has a centrality in

Brahminical patriarchy...because the purity of caste is contingent upon it” (579). Hence, caste

and gender emerge as two crucial issues that dominate the socio-political discussions and

debates.

In his essay on caste and gender, titled On the Purity of Women in the Castes of Ceylon

and Malabar, Nur Yelman argues “a fundamental principle of Hindu social organisation is to

construct a closed structure to preserve land, women, and ritual quality within it.” (qtd. in

Chakravarti 579). He too is of the opinion that the three entities, caste, gender and religious

rituals are structurally linked and therefore to control either of these, control of female

sexuality becomes inevitable because uncontrolled female sexuality can lead to marriages

outside the caste, either in the form of pratiloma or anuloma, both of which can endanger

caste purity and identity.

M. N. Srinivas too, through his study of the Indian society, draws a link between caste

system and women. It is explicit in his definition of caste:

Caste is a hereditary, endogamous, usually localised group having traditional

associations with an occupation and a particular position in the local hierarchy of

castes. Relations between castes are governed among other things by the concepts

of pollution and purity and generally maximum commensuality occurs within

caste. (3)

The two types of marriages, anuloma and pratiloma, are conceived by caste patriarchy

as institutions that risk the caste identity and its purity. Anuloma is a marriage between an

upper caste man and a lower caste woman and though religiously should not take place this

47
type of marriage has at least received religious approval compared to pratiloma marriage. A

woman in an Indian society is considered the custodian of ‘purity’ and by engaging herself in

pratiloma type of marriage she risks the caste and class purity. Therefore, this type of

marriage is absolutely unacceptable both on religious context as well as social and if it

occurs, it is usually followed by punishments like excommunication and even death.

The Holy book of the Hindus, Bhagavad Gita also traces the collapse of social and moral

systems to faulty marriages. Verses 41-44 of the first chapter of Bhagavad Gita says,

“families are broken: / the rites are forgotten, /Vice rots the remnant/ Defiling the women, /

And from these corruptions/ Comes the mixing of castes” (Prabhavananda). Thus, whether it

is marriage outside the caste, or disintegration of moral values or weakening of family ethics,

it is a woman who is always held responsible. Though marriage does not happen without the

involvement of another individual but since the guardian and custodian of caste purity rests in

a woman she is always made the scapegoat for all the abnormalities, limitations and

deviations. However, this particular role of a woman that she is burdened with in order to

maintain the Brahmanical social order is not a sudden process. This role has been created,

developed and maintained with utmost care and precision over a period of time.

The declining position of honour and significance of women can be well sketched

through a detailed study of the changing role of women in different eras. In prehistoric times

women’s constructive and productive role besides their reproductive role that was exclusive

of them, earned them a position of social and economic significance and value. Though not

much detailed study of gender was possible in Harappan civilisation, “the existence of

numerous mother goddess icons and the bronze statue of the dancing girl could be interpreted

as the continued importance of women’s special relationship with reproduction, and may also

be seen as the acceptance of their sexuality” (Chakravarti 580).

48
In contrast to Harrapan civilization, the Rig Vedic period does not show any explicit

evidence of the position of women during that time. The Rig Vedic times had been the

witness of several Aryan invasions. The indigenous people were defeated and subjugated by

the Aryan invaders and were taken as captives, either as dasis (female subjugates used as

servants) or dasas (male subjugates used as bonded labours), though the latter were killed

while their female counterparts were exploited to meet several conveniences of the ruling

clans. The prevalence of the concept of dasis and dasas during Rig Vedic time do hint at the

exploitation of the dasis for labour and sexuality under the control of the males of the

conquering and ruling class. A well defined stratification between the women of conqueror

class and captive dasis also convey the varying roles that they had. While an Aryan woman’s

significance was in the household work and performing rituals, the captive dasis’ labour was

directed towards agriculture (Chakravarti 580).

During the Vedic period as agriculture started taking prominence, division of labour

became an important feature of the society to extract the labour of the subjugated dasis as

much as possible. In addition, in order to control women labour, they were engaged in some

peripheral work agricultural land like “water- regulation, transplanting, weeding, but not in

ploughing” (Desai and Krishnaraj, 303-4). The upward mobility of groups coupled with the

increasing significance of labour in agricultural fields, the productive women were barred

from agricultural work and were restricted to their reproductive roles only. This sudden shift

of role and restriction to one particular type that of reproductive, gave birth to discontent and

tension between men and women. Rig Vedic literature also provides references that suggest

that attempts were made to render women absolutely powerless and turn them into obedient

and dependent beings.

With the growing significance of agriculture, emerged the concept of class and caste and

led to stratification of society on the basis of caste and class. These changes in the form of

49
stratification of society and establishment of control over property further led to patrilineal

system and succession which required close observation and restriction on female sexuality.

Thus, physical mobility of woman was restricted. Husbands were endowed with the control

of their wives and reference of the same can be traced in chapter II of Apastambha Dharma

Sutra that enjoins a husband to ensure that no other man goes near his wife lest his seed get

into her (cited in Chakravarti 581).

The symbolic low position of women was evident in the way women were exploited,

especially the low caste women. Though the upper caste men had easy access to lower caste

women, the lower caste men were subjected to severe punishments if they dared to make any

advances towards an upper caste woman. In this graded system of punishment, not only the

position of women is implied but caste discrimination is also very clearly visible. (Das 143-

44)

The custom of ritual purity was a significant feature of patrilineal society. Observing the

important role of maintaining ‘purity of group’ with which women were assigned in

patrilineal society, Veena Noble Das in Indian Women: Work, Power and Status remarks:

Women were literally seen as points of entrance, as ‘gateways’ to the caste

system. If men of ritually low status were to get sexual access to women of higher

status, then not only the purity of women but that of the entire group would be

endangered. Since the main threat to the purity of the group came from female

sexuality, it becomes vital to guard it. Most groups solved this problem by the

custom of pre puberty marriage. (135)

In this context Uma Chakravarti also observes that with the emergence of patrilineal

social order a sharp distinction between motherhood and female sexuality was made with the

latter being channelized only into legitimate motherhood within a tightly controlled structure

of reproduction which ensured caste purity and patrilineal succession (581).

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Besides the ritual practices, the Hindu texts, both religious and cultural ones, attest to the

fact that women by nature are full of flaws and therefore, should be kept under strong

observation and control, resulting in women caged in a male dominated society. According to

one such text, women have been sinful right from the beginning when the creator first made

the five gross elements, the three worlds, and he gave shape to men and women (Leslie 248).

Manu in chapter IX, verse xvii-xviii of Manusmriti conceived the character of women as one

that consists of the habit of lying, sitting around and an indiscriminate love for ornaments,

anger, meanness, treachery and bad conduct. Hence, Manu allotted to women a love of their

bed, of their seat and of their ornament, impure desires, wrath, dishonesty, malice and bad

conduct (qtd. in Buhler 330). Satapatha Brahmana, too perceives the image of women as an

embodiment of negatives, “a woman, a Sudra, a dog, and a crow are the embodiments of

untruth, sin and darkness” (qtd. in Bose 82).

The basic picture of women that consisted of everything that is vile and evil was so

strong that it permeated into Buddhist culture and scriptures and even in Hindu epics like

Ramayana and Mahabharata. In Sastrigal’s Ramayana, Kaushalya’s opinion on the character

of women is drawn in the similar line as she observes, “women do not care for a good family,

good deeds, or wisdom, and their hearts are never inconstant” (qtd. in Chakravarti 581).

Besides the general notion of women as one on whom no one can really trust, Sukhtankar

quotes verses from Mahabharata that asserts women are difficult to control, “The cunning

tricks of the demons are known to be common to women” (qtd. in Chakravarti 581).

The eminent Agashthya Muni in Ramayana edited by Sastrigal had given vent to a very

mean picture of women as he says, “it had been a woman’s nature ever since creation began

to cling to a man only when he prospers, and desert him in difficulty; their fickle natures are

modelled on the flashes of lightning” (Sastrigal). All these notions of women as put forth by

different schools of thought find an amalgamation in Tryambaka’s version of Manu’s

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Stripumdharma that categorically defines the nature of women as “innately promiscuous,

fickle minded, lacking in love, and unfaithful to their husbands even when closely guarded”

(qtd. in Chakravarti 581). Therefore, it is an established fact that of all the blemishes that

characterise a woman, a woman’s fickle mindedness becomes the major issue that can be

regarded as the source of her overt uncontrollable sexuality.

Besides this, menstruation (usually considered as a consequence of women’s

involvement with Brahmanic murder) is another significant factor that gives rise to the

impure nature of women. Julia Leslie in her attempt to trace the innate impurity of women,

concludes that though women were not to be blamed for Vishwamitra’s death in the hands of

Indra, yet they were subjected to as Indra transferred it to them (251).

Of all the sages who regarded women as custodians of culture and purity and advocated

in many different ways of safeguarding a woman’s sexuality, it is Manu who remains the

most vocal and very logically defends his stand for controlling the sexuality of a woman. He

strongly believes that it is the mean, fickle nature of women that has the high probability of

inviting danger and observes in Chapter IX, verse 14-15:

Women do not care for beauty, nor is their attention fixed on age; thinking it is

enough that he is man, they give themselves to the handsome and to the ugly.

Through their passion for men, through their mutable temper, through their

natural heartlessness, they become disloyal towards their husbands, however

carefully they may be guarded. (qtd. in Buhler 330)

Emphasising on the uncontrollable quality of women’s sexuality, Manu bestows on men

power to command and control their women in these given lines , “Knowing their disposition,

which the lord of creatures laid on them at creation (i.e., their reproductive power, their

sexuality, their essential nature) every man should most strenuously exert himself to guard

them”(qtd. in Buhler 330).

52
Manu further argues to defend his opinion on women and observes that the sole reason

for maintaining and controlling the sexuality of women is to “preserve the purity of his

offspring” (qtd. in Buhler 329). Being aware of a woman’s fickle nature, Manu even advices

and warns a husband to carefully guard his wife. According to Manu the purity of an

offspring is of utmost importance to maintain the purity of caste. Thus, though he had

severely criticised women of their infidelity and fickle nature, yet he endows on them the

responsibility of rearing up and moulding the offspring in the best possible way:

The production of children, the nurture of those born and the daily life of men, of

these matters the wife is visible the cause. Offspring, the due performance of

religious rites, faithful service and heavenly bliss for the ancestors and for oneself

depend on the wife alone”. (qtd. in Buhler 407)

From the fact that women’s sexuality is closely linked with the purity of the offspring and its

succession, it is understood that the women whose sexuality is constantly regulated and

controlled belong to either the dominant ruling class, or to the priestly class. Thus it can be

concluded that the obsession of controlling the sexuality of women was more in the higher

castes. Women’s innate nature as opposed to her inherent nature further clarifies the need to

keep the sexuality of a woman under control. According to some myths a woman’s

strisabhava (innate nature) as of maternal heritage against stridharma, (duties of a woman)

the duty of a woman was of paternal heritage (Leslie 266). Therefore it became an obligatory

duty of paternal power of class based societies to control a woman’s essential nature.

Since in a Brahmanical society a woman’s sexuality is directly linked with preserving

purity of her family, clan and caste, ideological constructs are regarded as intelligent

mechanisms to regulate and keep the female sexuality under control. Stridharma operated at

different levels, starting from a woman’s girlhood through her wifehood and motherhood that

was regarded as the most significant phase of a woman and was applicable even in her

53
widowhood. The main objective of designing stridharma and expecting women to follow that

was obviously to regulate and control their sexuality, which as discussed before was always

regarded as the points of entrance, ‘gateways’ to the caste system.

Leela Dube, an eminent Indian sociologist, in her seminal essay, “On the Construction of

Gender: Hindu Girls in Patrilineal India”, observes that in the socialisation of a Hindu girl

there are certain “cultural ideas and values that shape the images and inform the visions” (11)

of Indian women that perpetuate their secondary position in the society. In a patriarchal

society men subjugate women and also control them in a systematic manner to assert their

superiority over women. Dube further enlists various mechanisms that the patriarchal society

takes the help of to express and enforce the relation of power relegate them to a secondary

position compared to men. According to Dube, family, kinship, religion and caste have an

intertwining effect on the socialisation of a girl. She observes, “The very process of

socialisation of Hindu girls through rituals and ceremonies, the use of language, and practices

within and in relation to the family” (Dube 11) instil in them a sense of carrying a less

significant social role compared to their male counterpart.

Uma Chakravarty in her essay, “Conceptualising Brahmanical Patriarchy in Early India”

(1993), shows how the ideological constructs of Brahmanical Patriarchy helps to keep

women sexuality under control. The Stridharma (Duty of women) that constitute an integral

part of Brahmanical discourse defines the expected role of a woman as a daughter, wife and

mother in a patriarchal society. Girlhood in Brahmanical society is perceived as a preparatory

stage for the next stage, i.e., wifehood. As a daughter, a girl is expected to be obedient to her

parents and other kinsmen and maintain her chastity till she is married and becomes a part of

her marital or conjugal family. As a wife, she is expected to devote herself to the services of

her husband and his family sincerely and without any complaints. As a mother the

expectations from her are doubled. She is expected to sacrifice her life for her children and

54
family; her children’s happiness is hers. In all these roles as a daughter, wife and mother, a

woman survives as the ‘other’ to male power.

According to Uma Chakravarti, as she puts in Gendering Caste , female sexuality started

to be controlled through different devices for extracting best expected results at different

levels. The objective of obtaining complete submissiveness of women was made possible

through the ideological construct of pativrata. Gradually, the pativrata became a symbolic

representation of an ideal woman of a patriarchal society and was eulogised for her chastity,

submissiveness and wifely devotion for her husband. The pativrata equated her husband with

God and therefore accepted him as her Lord at the household level. She showed no objection

to the fact that her sexuality was controlled by her Lord-like husband. The second mechanism

entrusted male kinsmen, especially the husband and father-in-law to exercise their

authoritative power on their wives to ensure their complete submission to their husband and

other kinsmen. Coercion and physical chastisement formed an integral part of this

mechanism. The third mechanism was the state control in which the king exercised his power

to regulate and control female sexuality. In case of any violation of sexual norms by women

they were subjected to the agencies of the king (147-51).

Chakravarti’s observation on construction of patriarchal ideologies to control women

sexuality is not exclusive of Indian scenario. Rather it is universal in nature. Even J. S. Mill

shared a similar opinion on the conditioning of women in a patriarchal society and remarked

that it clearly highlights identity construction of women. This can be best summed in his

words as, “All women are brought up from the very earliest in the belief that their ideal of

character is the very opposite to that of men, not self-will and government by self control, but

submission and yielding to the control of others” (232).

Shalini Shah, a well known sociologist, in her essay, “On Gender, Wives and Pativratas”

(2012), elaborated on the ideal of ‘pativrata’ that women internalised and ultimately locked

55
themselves in their role as a wife to a husband, serving him as her ‘Lord’. She also observes

that ideological constructs like ‘pativrata’ helped the patriarchal society to regulate the

sexuality of women in compliance to patriarchal norms. Thus, it is through these ideologies

of Stridharma that a woman as a daughter, wife and mother unconsciously becomes the

victims of the patriarchal society.

In the discourse of family, marriage and motherhood stand out as the only possible way

of exploring the significance of a woman’s existence in the patriarchal unit of a family. The

function of a woman in marriage lies in performing the rituals with her husband and her

success lies in giving birth to a male heir to carry the family lineage. Mrinalini Sinha

observes that though motherhood in the structure of family has a pivotal role to play, yet it is

actually “glorification without empowerment” (49-57)

Studies in Anthropology also prove that though in the Hindu marriage system,

procreation is of central significance, yet there are strong indications for women to express

their sexuality in ‘safe’ ways. (Selwyn 684-89) Motherhood, therefore, is a crucial institution

in the domination of women. Men control women as their wives, daughters and also as the

mother of their children. Even though the wife is central to the existence of the household,

her function is confined to her role as wife and mother; she is only “the means of attaining

purushartha: the goals of a man’s life, especially dharma and karma” (Roy 5). Given her

importance in the attainment of life’s goals and maintaining the purity of blood, the husbands

received coercive power from the state to ensure complete control on the impulsive nature of

women. Thus the purity of a caste that was of utmost significance to retain the purity of the

offspring as well as estate was deftly managed through coercive control of women sexuality.

A woman’s life that from her birth till death is defined and regulated by the male

hegemonic power has its inception in Manav Dharma Shashtra. Manu, the architect of

Manav Dharma Shashtra believes women are inherently corrupt, malicious, and prone to

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violation of code of conducts that might rob them off their honour. Therefore, in chapter IX,

verse iii he opines that women should be under the control of men throughout her life, “Her

father protects her in childhood, her husband protects her in youth and her sons protect her in

old age; a woman is never fit for independence” (qtd. in Buhler 328).

Thus in a Brahmanical patriarchy the essence of womanhood is the outcome of social

and psychological processes that confine a woman within the domestic space, diligently

carrying out her duties and responsibilities as a daughter, sister, wife, daughter-in-law and

mother. Vedic myths and patriarchal ideologies construct the discourse of Indian femininity.

IV

Resistance to Marginalization

The coercive control of women’s sexuality to protect the purity of the patriarchal

lineage and state estate led to a frustrating experience of the female gender. However, not for

very long that this silent domination of female gender could take place. There were men as

well as women with heightened sense of female consciousness who came forward to express

their rebel against this condition. The anti caste and anti gender movement that started as a

result of this reaction took its form and shape in the revolutionary struggles in the province of

Maharashtra. The objective of this anti caste and gender movement was, no doubt, to

interrogate the cause and effect relation amongst caste, gender and patriarchy in a

Brahmanical society. The revolution that started with socio-cultural and political movements

had in its struggle eminent social and political reformers like Jyotiba Phule, Shahu Maharaj

and Babasaheb Ambedkar in Maharashtra. SavitriBai Phule, Pandita Ramabai and Tarabai

Shinde are a set of very courageous and liberal minded women, who at that time raised their

voice against the indiscrimination that was practise against female gender. Through their

social work and fiery writings that set the tone of women empowerment.

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According to Gail Omvedt, as she puts in Violence against Women, the women’s

movement that started taking place was strikingly different in nature:

The most powerful pro-women themes and actions have come not so much from

the ranks of the nationalist movement or upper- caste moderate social reformers

as from those of the radical anti-caste leaders who often found themselves in

confrontation with the non-brahmins and the new dalit leaders - like Jotibha

Phule, Dr. B. R Ambedkar, E. V. Ramaswami Periyar. (16)

Thus, the efforts of the early leaders like Jotirao Phule, Dr. Ambedkar, E. V. Ramaswami

helped to intellectualize the women's movement and mobilised the Indian women by

touching their inner core of consciousness.

O' Han’on, a renowned scholar in dalit studies observes that the state of Maharashtra

that was a witness to an epoch making social as well as political transformation gave birth to

several social and political organisations like Brahmo Samaj, Arya Samaj, Prarathana Samaj

etc., under the rubric of Hinduism. The society was divided into Progressive and

Conservative groups; while the former organisation took up burning social issues of the time

like child marriage, age of consent for marriage, sati, widowhood and women’s education,

the latter remained within the social space of Hinduism (88-102).

It was under the leadership of Jyotirao Phule, a social revolutionary and feminist by

nature, that the reform movements in the state of Maharashtra gained an unparallel

momentum. The Christian Missionaries that played a crucial role in addressing social

concerns and drew an elaborate distinction between Hinduism and Christianity accelerated

his concerns for the social problems that had the seeds in the anomalies of the Hindu religion

and caste stratified society. The influence of the Christian Missionaries further concretised

his belief that Brahminism and its scriptures are “mere ideological tools to govern the

Shudras and Ati- Shudras” (Patil 9, Keer 17). Realising the close link between religion and

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caste with the deplorable condition of women, the condition of the latter became his prime

focus. Phule mobilised his social concerns on the condition of women through his Sastar I

and II in which he criticised the different ways in which a woman’s existence and chastity

was challenged. In Sastar I, through fictitious characters of a Brahmin and Shudras, Phule

brings out the ambivalent but exploitative nature of Brahmins, especially the priestly class

that made use of their knowledge of religion to exploit women. In the second issue of Satsar,

Phule draws link between the misogynistic attitude of Brahmins to their inherent nature and

caste identity.

Pandita Ramabai’s conversion into Christianity opened new avenues of interpreting

the social conditions of the time and as Phule defended Pandita Ramabai’s conversion to

Christianity in his Sastar I and II, he faced internal opposition from his own men. This gave

rise to Gulamgiri, another pioneering book on gender, caste and patriarchy, the objective of

which was to counter attack the response shown by his fellow men in his own organisation,

Satyasodhak Samaj.

Phule, the social revolutionary in his efforts to create a new social history, targeted the

religion of Hinduism and brought out the corruption inherent in it. He firmly believed that it

was the anomalies in the religion that were responsible for giving birth to social corruption

like deceit, chaos and degradation and the victims of these, invariably were, the lower caste

Shudras, Ati Shudras and women.

In order to bring a social change and better the degraded condition of women, the

Phule couple attacked the socio-religious practices especially shaving off a widow’s hair (Bal

and Parajale 63) and polygamy (Narke 448). The couple, therefore, organised structured

protest movements and founded spaces to give the widows shelter (Bal and Parajale 243-54)

as well to deliver babies (O'Hanlon 119). He also strongly advocated against infant marriage

as it endangers a woman’s sexuality (Keer et al 348-52)

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Phule as a social reformist had a deep insight into the intricacies of the Brahmanical

society as well as the objectives of the British rulers. To meet his objective as a social

reformer to better the conditions of the lower castes and women, he pointed out very

categorically that education is the only solution to solve almost all the issues of their lives. He

hailed primary education as the only solution to curb and consequently eliminate social evils.

He strove towards inclusive education to minimise the Brahmanic hold on education and

make it uniformly accessible to all irrespective of caste and gender.

Countering the education system, Phule formulated an inclusive education system that

would include all children irrespective of their castes and have teachers who have just

knowledge of the society. In order to motivate children from lower and deprived castes Phule

also introduced free scholarship and separate schools for Mahars and Mangs. He also

believed that such an education would be successful provided a change in the curriculum was

possible that would incorporate more practical subjects like vocational education, ethics,

agrarian ethos and applied arts.

Yeshwantrao Ghatge, the eldest son of Appasaheb Ghatge who was later adopted by

Anandibai, widow of Maharaja Shivaji IV of Kolhapur, also known as Shahu Maharaj, was

another social reformer in the state of Maharashtra who brought significant change in the

society. A staunch follower of Phule, Shahu Maharaj, after assuming the responsibility of the

state as king in 1894, took forward the legacy of Satyasodhak movement of Jyotiba Phule and

worked towards removing social and gender discrimination of all other caste and classes by

the Brahmin caste (Omvedt 137).

Shahu Maharaj, as a part of his reformist agenda, provided the untouchables,

especially the Mahars and the Mangs, with dignified posts in the state army. This served him

to minimise the gap between the touchables and untouchables and helped the Mahars and

Mangs feel little dignified and also helped them to gain self esteem. The most revolutionary

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action that Shahu Maharaj took as his reformist agenda besides inclusive education was his

anti-touchability movement in 1919. In his open challenge to Brahminical social order of

Hindu society, he financially helped B. R. Ambedkar to start a newspaper, Mooknayak ,which

meant 'leader of the silenced' and aimed at including the untouchables in the mainstream

society to boost their self confidence.

In 1820, Shahu Maharaj reconstituted the Hindu Code Bill that consist of inheritance

of property by women, conjugal rights of husband and wife, adaptation laws, adaptation

process, rules and definition of joint families, and equal distribution of property. The law

amended by Shahu stated that every child, even the ones born out of different castes should

have access to property. Shahu Maharaj legalised inter caste marriage and supported 'Patel

Bill' of 1917 proposed by Vittalbhai Patel.

Maharaj also established very explicitly the fact that family is the most oppressive

system that sanctioned and supported oppression and subjugation of women. He further

connected this issue with lack of education and awareness. In order to bring out women from

oppressive physical and mental subjugation, he stressed on the freedom of choice that a girl

child should be given immediately as she turned eighteen

A true follower of Phule and Shahu Maharaj, who played a vital role in the

emancipation of caste and gender was, B.R. Ambedkar (1891-1956). He was influenced by

multiple forces that consisted of reformist ideas of Jyotiba Phule, Savitribai Phule, Shahu

Maharaj, Sant Kabir, Buddhist philosophy and even western education that helped him

visualise his plans in a more democratic line addressing the question of liberty, equality and

fraternity. These ideologies from different schools of thought that he absorbed helped him

develop his profound vision on caste, gender and patriarchy.

The immediate influence of Sant poets like Eknath, Choka Mela and Thukaram and

Bhakti Movement that he drew from his father turned Ambedkar’s interest into other parallel

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movements that were taking place at different places in the early 1920s under the leadership

of men of socio religious significance. Following his father’s footsteps as Ambedkar started

taking interest in Sant poets he realised that the line of philosophy on which the Sant poets

were working would help him materialise his dream of anti Brahmanical society. Thus, the

Bhakti movement, led by Ramanand and Raidas in the North, Chaitanya and Chandidasa in

the East, Eknath, Choka Mela, Thukaram and Narsinh Mehta in the West and Ramanuja,

Nimbaraka and Basava in the South, opposed caste distinctions, the basic premises on which

Brahminism was established and aimed at establishing equality of all before God. It is this

series of anti caste movements that inspired and helped B. R. Ambedkar concretise his

movement against Brahminism.

During the Bhakti movement and immediately after it there were several other

movements across the country headed by different leaders under different banner that

cropped up to restore the lost position and identity of the original inhabitants and therefore

had a common tag ‘Adi’. Gail Omvedt, a leading critic scholar and critic on Anti Caste

movements in India observes:

It was in the 1920s, however, that Dalits began to organize strongly and

independently throughout many regions of India. The most important of the early

Dalit movements were the Ad-Dharm movement in the Punjab (organized in

1926); the movement under Ambedkar in Maharastra, mainly based among

Mahars which had its organizational beginnings in 1924; the Namashudra

movement in Bengal; the Adi-Dravida movement in Tamilnadu; the Adi-

Karnataka movement; the Adi-Hindu movement mainly centered around Kanpur

in U.P; and the organizing of the pulayas and Cherumans in Kerala. (Patankar and

Omvedt 13)

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In Bengal it was the Namasudhra Movement that marked the first protest against the

social authority of the higher castes by the untouchable castes, also known as Chandals. The

untouchables of Bengal commonly known as Namasudras or chandals, originally belonged to

tribal community living in the Eastern Bengal of the then undivided Bengal. Under the

Colonial rule as the high caste showed their allegiance towards the elite British and non

British, it automatically gave rise to backward class politics in Bengal. It was then that the

dormant Chandal Movement of 1872-73 gave rise to Namasudra movement under the

leadership of Shri Harichand Thakur of Faridpur and his son Shri Guruchand Thakur, in the

subsequent period. The movement believed in education and self-respect and vigorously

protested against the oppressive caste domination. When the caste stigmatization became

oppressive, the Namasudras embraced Islam or Christianity to avoid their original caste

identity. Regarding the origin and development of the Namasudhra movement in Bengal,

Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, an eminent scholar opines:

The Namasudhra movement in Bengal is the story of an antyaja or untouchable

caste, transforming itself from an amphibious peripheral multitude into a settled

agricultural community, protesting against the age-old social disabilities and

economic exploitation it suffered from, entering the vortex of institutional politics

and trying to derive benefit out of it through an essentially loyalist political

strategy. (Bandyopadhyay 3)

Next to Namasudra movement, Ad-Dharm movement of 1926, led by Mangoo Ram in

Punjab, worked towards the upliftment of the socially downtrodden. The movement however

was split into two groups, the other influenced by Arya Samaj (Manguo Ram 9).

Adi-Hindu movement, under the leadership of Swami Acchutanand, in Utter Pradesh

is another significant movement that contributed to the construction of the Dalit identity in

the 1920s. The Adi-Hindu movement provided not only “an ideology of radical equality” and

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“a strategy for doing better in everyday life”, but also “a political culture for civil rights and

organized protest” (Khare 8). The Adi Hindu movement was anti Arya Samaj as it felt that

the latter, in spite of all its work for the socially downtrodden, aimed at enslaving

untouchables to Hinduism. Swami Acchutanand claimed in a speech, “The Samaj aimed to

make all Hindus slaves of the Vedas and the Brahmins” (Goopt 13). The Adi-Hindu

movement provided not only “an ideology of radical equality” and “a strategy for doing

better in everyday life”, but also “a political culture for civil rights and organized protest”

(Khare 8).

Parallel to the Adi movements in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and the Namasudra

movement in Bengal, the Adi movements in South India had their resonance in constructing

Dalit identity. The untouchable movements in Nagpur, Adi-Dravida movement in Tamilnadu,

Adi-Karnataka movement in Mysore, Adi-Andhra movement in Andhra Pradesh under

Madras Presidency and Adi-Hindu movement under the Nizam reign had paved the way for

constructing the Dalit identity in South India.

Like Acchutanand in Uttar Pradesh and Mangoo Ram in Punjab, E.V.Rama Swamy

(1879-1973) popularly known as Periyar led the Self-Respect movement in Tamil Nadu. One

of the greatest anti-Brahman movements in India, self-respect movement targeted the

Brahmin dominance criticizing the idol worship. Aloysius comments on Periyar, “His focus

was not God and religion in general or in the philosophical sense but religion in particular–

the Brahminical religion – taken in its practical – social dimension of buttressing up social

iniquity and in humanity” (4). Aloysius further recounts the clarifications that Periyar made

on the objectives of the Self Respect Movement to distinguish it from other parallel

movements:

The Self Respect Movement was started with the objective of instilling a sense of

self-respect in the people of this country and to unify them. The self-respect

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movement really endeavours in transparency, to explain why and how the people

of our country had lost their self- pride, to assert that the obstacles in their way

should be abolished and indeed to abolish such obstacles. (5)

Soon cultural revolt became Periyar’s primary agenda. In order to bring a cultural revolt and

materialise his objective of making society casteless and egalitarian, Periyar aimed at

educating the Dravidians and Adi-Dravidians. Regarding a casteless society that Periyar

envisioned, Braj Ranjan Mani observes:

Stressing egalitarian social relations across caste, community and gender lines,

Periyar advocated the overthrow of caste and instituted non-Brahmanic forms of

marriage celebrating the equality of women and her right to choose life-partner

and other such practices designed to give a death blow to the Brahmanical order.

Presenting a radical critique of the religious beliefs and practices in a variety of

ways, Periyar wanted to demolish the whole Brahmanic structure of society

which he saw as the root cause of the degradation and subordination of Women

and the non-brahman populace. (Mani 348-49)

Eventually all these reform movements culminated in Ambedkarite Movement. Following the

early Dalit movements, Ambedkar, organized Dalits socially, politically and intellectually to

champion for the human rights of the Dalits and give them an access to their civil rights.

Ambedkar at a very initial stage of his reformist activities realised the potentials of a

democracy to eradicate caste and gender inequalities. He attended several conferences on

caste that helped him to give a proper shape to his reformist vision. He also sensitised the

Mahar and Mang Dalit women about their degraded position in the society and channelized

the Mahar women solidarity for eradication of caste discrimination as well as to give women

a space, which they were often denied, in the male dominated society. He urged them to

come out of the stigmatized dress code, consisting of wristlets, Nose pins and heavy anklets,

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as well as occupations they were assigned to, to protest against caste ideologies. In order to

stop the untouchables sticking to the menial jobs that were assigned to them and that became

their caste identity, he demanded the abolition of Mahar Watan Act. He further challenged

the caste discriminations by entering into temples that led to two very significant Satyagraha

movements in 1927 and 1930 respectively. Apart from social activism, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar

also worked towards political activism to bring political rights for depressed classes. Hence,

he stipulated separate electorates as well as reserved seats for the depressed classes according

to their population.

Ambedkar emphasised the interrelation among three major stratifications that was

exclusive of Indian culture. His argument in Castes in India concluded that caste is an

intricate part of Indian culture and therefore to separate it is not an easy task (Ambedkar 5-

22). However, he believed that a unity of the same can create a homogenous identity of the

country. Ambedkar also observes that Caste that is so unique of Indian socio-cultural system

is maintained by strict prohibition of inter caste marriage. He believed that Indians were

fragmented in an unnatural manner through endogamy and it was maintained by prohibiting

exogamy.

Ambedkar attacked Manu for codifying the Brahmanical ideology for creating a more

organised and hierarchical social order. Another pioneering work by Ambedkar in the context

of gender is The Rise and Fall of the Hindu Women: who was responsible for it? He criticised

the Brahmin trend of treating women and Shudras as inferiors and ripping the former off their

position of honour as was practised in Pre Manu age (Ambedkar 109-29).

Ambedkar’s attack against the Brahmanical codes found expression in his Hindu

Code Bill passed in 1950. It dealt on marriage, divorce and succession of parental properties,

he proposed the abolition of polygamy and also the right of divorce to Hindu women and a

share in the husband’s and father’s property. The bill that consisted of Hindu code, replaced

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the rule of Mritiksha and was composed in the lines of Dayabhaga rule, according to which

the heir has complete right over the personal property. It also has in it the scope for the heir to

either hand over it as a gift or by will if chooses to do so (Khairmodey 4-67). The Hindu

Code Bill had a very inclusive approach. It gave the daughters, widows and widows of pre-

deceased sons to inherit property. The bill advocated equality of both the genders and gave

autonomy to women. Hence, it introduced equal opportunity for property for both son and

daughter. It abolished the right of the reversioners to a widow’s property and treated dowry as

a trust property that can be returned to the woman when she reached the age of eighteen. It

also allowed a divorced woman to demand maintenance from those who inherit both

sacramental marriage as well as civil one. The bill also gave right to the dependents of the

deceased to claim maintenance from those who inherit the property under will (Khairmodey

4-67).

Dr. B. R. Ambedkar’s reformist activities ranged from mere protests to movements to

legal actions. The boldness, with which he challenged the Hindu Brahmanic order and

brought both the genders on equal footing, made him the hero of anti caste and gender

movement. His main agenda was to attack the Hindu Brahminical social order and it was best

expressed when he embraced Buddhism as a counter culture to challenge the exploitative

Hindu religion (Zelliot 220).

Women like Tarabai Shinde (1850-1910) and Pandita Ramabai (1858-1922)

effectively articulated the question of Brahmanical patriarchy. Stree Purusha Tulana (1882)

by Tarabai Shinde, The High-Caste Hindu Woman (1887) by Pandita Ramabai and letters

written to her husband by Anadibai Joshi (1865-1889) lay bare the evils of patriarchal

practices in their feminist discourse. Besides these writers, there were other women who

boldly emphasized women’s subjugation in their works. Simantini Updesh (A Tract for A

Married Woman) was anonymously written and published in 1882 attacked the practice of

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dowry and women’s love for jewellery. The tract worked towards taking out women from the

image of ‘other’ that they had developed for themselves. Shevantibai Nikambe’s Ratanbai: A

Sketch of a Bombay High Caste Hindu Young Wife (1895) exposed the patriarchal prejudices

against women’s education, with the main objective of stunting their self confidence and

social development.

It is Tarabai Shinde way back in an era when women had essentially no right to

express their mind boldly interrogated the binaries of gender that form the bedrock of a

patriarchal society and result into discriminatory practices beyond imagination. In her

seminal book, Stri Purush Tulana (A Comparison between Men and Women), that attacked

the patriarchal Hindu society she puts a rhetorical question to God with the objective of

tracing the root cause of gender binaries and consequent differential treatment of men and

women, “(But) wasn’t it you who created both men and women? Then why did you grant

happiness only to men and brand women with nothing but agony? Your will was done! But

poor women have had to suffer for it down the ages” (Tharu and Lalitha 223).

The concern that Tarabai raises is not one of Indian origin, but it is universal in

nature. It has been voiced by others like Mary Astel, “If all men are born free, how is it that

all women are born slaves?” (Astel) Some Reflections upon Marriage (1706 ed.) and in

Simon de Beauvoir in The Second Sex, “One is not born, but becomes a woman” (Beauvoir),

the society as a whole manipulates this very process of ‘becoming’. Marriage and

motherhood shape the lives of women and bring connotative significance to their existence.

In spite of such bold works and tracts written for reformation of the social systems

and the condition of women, total change had not been possible. The repression, subjugation

and exploitation of women persist to be grave social issues camouflaged under sham civilized

urban, educated middle class families.

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The research aims to examine and assess the impact of these caste and gender reform

movements in the Indian subcontinent. A close study of the select plays attempts to evaluate

how these playwrights have reflected in their plays caste and gender marginalization still

prevalent in a Brahmanical society and trace its roots to the Indian social and cultural systems

and values. The research further engages to appraise how the playwrights have also attempted

to resist marginalization in urban societies.

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Chapter Two

Tracing the Socially Marginalized in the Plays of Vijay Tendulkar

Vijay Tendulkar’s career as a playwright is one that is committed towards creating

social awareness and change. Writing at a time when 19th century Social Reformation

Movement was making its impact felt in Hindu Brahmanical society, Tendulkar’s plays echo

the main concerns of the movement like social injustice and hypocrisy, immorality embedded

within the social political systems of the time, gender politics and consequent contradictory

nature of gender representation. The corpus of his dramatic creation consists of an array of

women from different socio-economic background represents the social status and condition

of women in a Brahmanical patriarchal society in general. The modern enslaved wife, Sarita,

in Kamala, the wronged woman, Ms. Leela Benare in Silence! The Court is in Session, the

abandoned and destitute women like Laxmi and Champa in Sakharam Binder, the desperate

Rama craving to prove her fertility and welcome motherhood in The Vultures, the helpless

victim of caste and gender intersectionality, Jyoti in Kanyadaan and the sacrificial heifer,

Gauri in Ghashiram Kotwal are not just some women characters that crowd his creative

world, rather they are the unheard voices of silenced women in a patriarchal society.

As a man with strong feminist consciousness, thrusting women against selfish,

insensitive and ambitious men Tendulkar uses his plays as vehicles to bring out the

exploitative nature of a male dominated hierarchical society. Regarding Tendulkar’s interest

in gender issues, N.S. Dharan in his book, The Plays of Vijay Tendulkar, observes “…though

not a self-acknowledged feminist [Tendulkar] treats his women characters with understanding

and compassion, while pitting them against men who are selfish, hypocritical and brutally

ambitious” (Dharan 28). However, a committed writer as he is, he does not believe in mere

representation of social reality in his creative work. Rather, he believes that his contribution

to the literary world will be justified only if he can direct his creative abilities in sensitising

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his readers on the exploitative nature of the patriarchal institutions that perpetuate caste and

gender subordination and marginalisation in the society. The following lines encapsulate his

sense of social responsibility as a writer:

As an individual- or rather as a social being- I feel deeply involved in the existing state

of my society (because I am affected by it though no immediately in some cases or not as

much as other are) and in my own way brood over it... As a writer I feel fascinated by the

violent exploited- exploiter relationship and obsessively deep into it instead of taking a

position against it. This takes me to point where I feel that this relationship is eternal, a fact of

life, however cruel and will never end. Nor that I relish this thought while it grips me but I

cannot shake it off. ... I have not written about hypothetical pain or created an imaginary

world of sorrow. I am from a middle class family and I have seen the brutal ways of life by

keeping my eyes open. My work has come from within me, as an outcome of my observation

of the world in which I live. If they want to entertain and make merry, time go ahead, but I

can’t do it, I have to speak the truth. (Tendulkar 92)

Hence, Tendulkar’s concerns with the social system that very subtly perpetuate gender

inequity and exploitation urge him to probe into those very social institutions, practises and

social setups that serve as the vehicle for practising and spreading the social evils. Gender,

marriage, family, motherhood, caste and class are the factors that perpetuate subjugation and

domination of women. Gender discrimination and consequent inequality through division of

labour starts with the birth of a girl and gradually gains prominence as she enters womanhood

and marriage. Thus marriage and motherhood, though often glorified, actually entail within

them oppression and abuse that usually go unheard and unseen by the family and the society

and many a times by the victim and the victimizer too.

This chapter analyses Tendulkar’s major plays like Silence! The Court is in Session

(1967), Ghashiram Kotwal (1972), Sakharam Binder (1972), Kamala (1981) and Kanyadaan

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(1983) and the patriarchal institutions of marriage, motherhood, family and caste form the

main corpus of thematic concerns. In Indian society, the institution of marriage is generally

believed to be one of the most sacred ceremonies in one’s life. It is a sacred institution that

brings together not only two individuals together but also two souls. According to Hindu

Dharmashashtras this institution is actually a union of two individuals for life with the

objective of pursuing dharma (duty), artha (possessions), kama (physical desires) and

moksha (ultimate spiritual release) together. However, in a caste stratified Hindu society the

institution of marriage becomes the site where gender binaries are fortified to perpetuate

women subjugation and oppression.

This chapter investigates into the patriarchal institutions of marriage and family to

explore the subjugation and exploitation of women at different levels under different

circumstances in their lives. Thus, the first section of this chapter, titled The Sacred

Institution of Marriage and the Pativratas, focuses on marriage and wifehood in Kamala, The

Vultures, Kanyadaan, Ghashiram Kotwal and Sakharam Binder to examine how the

institution of marriage emerges as one of the strongest agencies to perpetuate subjugation and

exploitation of women. This section makes a sincere attempt to investigate how the

patriarchal ideology of stridharma (duties of a woman) and the patriarchal construct of

pativrata (devoted to husband) as “a rhetorical device to ensure the social control of women;

it was an ideological mechanism for controlling the biological aspects of women”

(Chakravarti, 74). Besides this, the study also explores how under the pressure to conform to

the ideals of a pativrata woman, these women sometimes voluntarily but most of the time

with sweet coercion, slip into a life of humiliation and unparallel mental torture and

indignation in the hands of male chauvinists.

Marriage as a sacrament and legalised institution authorises men with a commanding power

over women as their subordinates. The plays like Kamala, The Vultures, Kanyadaan depict

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how often the sacred institution of marriage fails to keep its sacred vows of love, care and

affection and leads to inexpressible emotional repression that creates a vacuum in a husband

wife relation. It also explores the various strategies that the patriarchy employs in the

institution of marriage to enslave women and exploit them as tools to realise their selfish

goals.

The ideology of stridharma rules the life of a woman from her girlhood to womanhood.

Conforming to the ideology of stridharma is an essential prerequisite that a woman should

meet for her social acceptance as an ideal woman. The notion of pativrata thus becomes an

imperative milestone for a woman to claim her position of an ideal wife. However, this

initiates her into a life of confinement, repression and subjugation in the institution of

marriage.

The women protagonists in these plays like Sarita, Rama, Jyoti and even the abandoned

Laxmi as part of a patriarchal society firmly believe in the institution of marriage and try to

follow all the vows taken during their marriage. Their belief on their roles as wife to their

respective husbands helps them internalise the ideology of an ideal wife or pativrata. Thus,

in order to do justice to their roles as ideal wives, they voluntarily accept and follow the

ideologies of stridharma.

The second section of the chapter attempts to explore the notion of motherhood that is

inextricably linked with marriage. This section that is titled as The Trap of Motherhood

and Property Rights of Women investigates the various nuances of motherhood,

especially the dreams and hopes that are associated with it in a patriarchal society and how

motherhood that ultimately defines the femininity of women actually becomes a curse in a

woman’s life, especially when an unmarried woman attains motherhood. Motherhood that is

regarded as one of the many ways that defines the femininity of women has been depicted

in different shades of light. It becomes a curse in the life of Leela Benare in Silence! The

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Court is in Session as she tries to materialise motherhood without the wedlock. In The

Vultures, on the other hand, Rama undergoes a turbulent marriage because of her inability

to become a mother. In both these plays an attempt has been made to investigate how the

presence or absence of motherhood in marriage and without marriage lead to exploitation of

women in a stringent patriarchal set up.

If Ms Benare and Rama are rebuked, condemned and marginalised because of carrying

the symbol of their illegitimate relations with Prof Damle and Rajaninath respectively,

Manik’s unwed motherhood is exploited by her property monger brothers to blackmail her

fiancé as well as her to seize her rightful share in their father’s property. The study identifies

the close association of a woman’s sexuality with the purity of blood and caste and hence

how it regulates the sexuality of women by keeping them at the mercy of men in a male

dominated society and denying her the right over her womb as well as her property in a

caste based Brahmanical society.

The third section of the chapter, “Intersection of Caste and Gender” deals with the

problem of caste discrimination in a Brahmanical society. Ghashiram Kotwal depicts the

bartering of a daughter by her father to take revenge on intra caste discrimination in a Hindu

society. Kanydaan explores the plight of a Brahmin girl, Jyoti, in the hands of her Dalit

husband, Arun Athavale. Based on Uma Chakravarti’s observation in Genderig Caste that

caste and class play a significant role in determining the position of gender, this section

attempts to study and trace the predicament of the two women characters, Jyoti and Gauri to

caste and class consciousness in a Brahmanical society. Drawing a close link among the

three: caste, class and women the chapter attempts to trace how both the women in these

plays, Jyoti and Gauri become the sites where their fathers and husbands try to materialise

their dreams and objectives. In both these plays the women are the subject on whom the

caste and gender exploitations are contested.

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I

The Sacred Institution of Marriage and the Pativratas

The history of Hindu marriage can be traced back a few millennia. H. N. Chatterjee, the

Sanskrit scholar, states:

Marriage to the Hindus is a religious institution to which the famous definition of

maniage in Roman Law is fully applicable. It is indeed, as in ancient Rome, an

association for life and productive of full partnership, both in human and divine

rights and duties. To them marriage involves sacred and onerous duties. In order

to acquire competence for discharge of religious duties associated with it, there is

a necessity for preparatory discipline. (Chatterjee 4)

According to the social anthropologist, D. N. Majumdar, the essence of marriage lies in

satisfying physical and psychological needs. Therefore, he emphasised, “the relationship of

one man or several men with one woman or several women has to be recognised by customs

or statute. That relationship (which later came to be known as marriage) should not only

govern rights and duties of the parties but also those of their children” (qtd. in Subbamma

35). Since recognition of progeny happened through the identity of mother, it was matriarchy

that prevailed at the beginning of human history. However, with the transition of the society

from matriarchal to that of a patriarchal society, the father gained prominence and the

children inherited property through their father. This marked the beginning of women as

subject to husband’s superior position in the marriage.

The institution of marriage arose out of political need during Vedic period. Later its

existence was justified to enable the master of the household discharge his debts towards the

manes (Subbamma 37). The samaskaras or rituals involved in marriage reiterate the

significance of both the husband and wife to carry out the duties of a married life. In fact a

man is considered incomplete without a woman. It is the sacred institution of marriage that

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makes a man complete. The mantras that are chanted during the rituals of a Hindu marriage

evoke the vows and promises of lifelong commitment and togetherness. Besides the mantras,

the ritual of seven steps that the couple takes around the fire during the marriage ceremony

emphasise on the concept of the wife as ardhangini (the other half) and friend:

By taking seven steps with me do thou become my friend,

By taking seven steps together we become friends.

I shall become thy friend,

I shall never give up thy friendship:

Let us live together and take counsel of one another. (Padfield 109)

It promises a life of perpetual togetherness, sharing friendship, being the greatest confidante

of each other and holding each other’s hand in the most challenging situation to tide over all

adverse situations in life. The ritual of saptapad, or the seven steps taken around the fire,

keeping the Fire God as a witness signifies the lifelong commitment and togetherness of the

husband and wife irrespective of all the odds in their marital life.

According to the beliefs of Hinduism, marriage is a sacred institution devised by gods

for the welfare of human beings. Thus, its primary purpose is procreation and continuation of

life upon earth. Its secondary purpose is upholding of the social order and the Hindu dharma,

while its ultimate aim is spiritual union with the inmost self, which is possible when a couple

perform their obligatory duties and earn the grace of God through their good karma. Hence, a

structured marriage system became a “fundamental prerequisite for the Brahmanical social

order” (Chakravarti 51).

The Laws of Manu or Manav Dharmashastra also emphasises on the significance of

mrriage and procreation as one of the main responsibilities that the married couple should

take up in the smallest social unit called family. The link between marriage and continuation

of family line with the maintenance of the social order by observing the principles of caste

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that Manu perceived as the bedrock of the Brahmanical society is best summarised by an

anthropologist, Tambiah. According to Tambiah, as he observes in “From Varna to Caste

through Mixed Unions”:

Marriage is at the heart of Hindu society. It is... the most important event in a

man’s life; it is in the forefront of Hindu ‘consciousness’; and it is the focal point

of the social system. Marriage is directly integrated with caste which is at the

basis of a Hindu’s primary status position in the society. A man’s caste is first of

all decided by the status of his parents, and subsequently maintained or modified

by his own marriage and sexual encounters. (223)

Hence, the institution of marriage that is closely linked with caste and control on the

sexuality of women in a Brahmanical society achieves prime importance. Manu perceived

women as greedy and wicked creatures whose innate nature can easily tempt men and

therefore, dangerous and posed a threat for the maintenance of the social order. In order to

control and tame women’s innate nature, strisvabhana, stridharma or duty of an ideal woman

was conceived. A girl from her childhood was brought up to be a kind, polite, self sacrificing,

caring and nurturing, showering love and keeping the family united so that as a woman she

remains submissive and subservient to her male partner. As a woman she was also expected

to be her husband’s good counsel, a fortress of patience and forgiveness and bear a heart that

can accommodate all in spite of their wrongs and misdeeds.

A woman as a wife is called Jaya that signifies that “the husband is born again in wife”

(Subbamma 46). Hence, a woman was expected to possess certain characteristics that would

enable her to become an ideal woman and wife. Aastamba Grihya Sutra highlights the

significance of the bride’s “heredity, education, health and other good features” (Subbamma

46). Yama’s list of qualities that a prospective bride should have is learning, good looks, and

wealth and abundance kinsmen. Brihat Parasara Smriti specified eight characteristics of a

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desirable bride consisting of “good caste, learning, strength, youth, health, support, wealth

and other desirable” (Subbamma 46). These qualities and virtues were emphasised in a

woman’s life and constituted the patriarchal ideology of a good woman called the stridharma.

However, as Uma Chakravarti puts in her book, Gendering Caste: Through a Feminist

Lens, stridharma or pativratadharma became “a rhetorical device used by the patriarchy to

ensure social control on women; it was an ideological mechanism for controlling the

biological aspects of women” (74). According to her, stridharama was in fact more than just

‘taming women’s innate nature to that of an orderly world of culture’ (73), it turned out to be

a strategic measure of the patriarchal society to keep the women in a subjugated state, curbing

their sense of independence and individuality.

Initially the duties of a housewife evolved to meet the social necessity. Rig Veda in

chapter V emphasises on the duty of the housewife to tend the sacrificial fire and keep it

burning (qtd. in Subbamma 63). Further, in chapter X of Rig Veda, she was expected to

attend all the ceremonies and become the mother of ten heroes (Subbamma 63). Later on as

religion and dharma was incorporated along with her social duty, she was then described as

Griha Patni (Mistress of the house). Her main responsibility then centred on griha or house

and she assumed the power of management of the home and family. She was enjoined to look

after the welfare of the parents-in-law, brothers and sisters-in-law. She was expected to serve

her husband as her Lord and it was assumed that only by a faithful service to her husband that

a wife can attain a higher and noble position.

The idea of a wife’s complete submission to her husband is voiced in Manu’s Manav

Dharmashashtra, Sankha Smriti, Vishnu Dharmashashtra and Padmapurana Sristikanada

too. Manu’s Manav Dharmashashtra which is regarded as the law book of social behaviour

clearly lays down social behavioural codes for women to discipline her life from her

childhood till death. Since he believed women’s stribhavana or innate nature can invite

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problems he ordained a woman’s life to be dependent on the men in her life, “In childhood a

female must be subject to her father, in youth to her husband, when her lord is dead to her

sons; a woman must never be independent” (qtd. in Buhler 195). After conditioning a woman

for lifelong dependence, Manu in Chapter V of Manusmriti enjoins a wife to blindly follow

her husband as her lord, “Though destitute of virtue, or seeking pleasure (elsewhere), or

devoid of good qualities, (yet) a husband must be constantly worshipped as a God by a

faithful wife” (qtd. in Buhler 196). Further, in the same chapter, Manu clarifies the type of

women who can be called pativratas, “She who controlling her thoughts, words and deeds,

never slights her lord, resides (after her death) with her husband (in heaven), and is called a

virtuous (wife)” (qtd. in Buhler . 197)

On disciplining a woman to become a perfect housewife and accept total submission to

her husband, Sankha Smriti too has prescribed certain injunctions on the behaviour of women

as housewife. Hence, a special emphasis has been put on barring the housewife from meeting

other men who are not relatives of the family as well as female ascetics, fortune tellers and

other women who know tricks, magical and secret rites as these women can spoil the

character of the housewife and bring dishonour for both the family and herself. (Subbamma

68). The definition of Pativrata attends its clear picture in Chapter 47, verse 55 of

Padmapurana Sristikanada, “A wife is a pativrata who in doing work is a slave, like a mother

in offering food and like a counsellor in adversity” (Subbamma 69).

Hence, the wife as ardhangini and sahadharmini of her husband was enjoined to be a

pativrata and hold his hand tightly through all the crises that come in their way, even if the

man tries to let it loose. She should follow her husband as her Lord, without trying to

challenge or interrogate his authority on her life and matters of household. It is the

responsibility of the wife to keep the marriage sparkling besides accepting slavish

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submission. Evident in this one sided responsibility is the inequality of power practiced in the

institution of marriage.

Closely linked with marriage is the smaller patriarchal unit called ‘family’ that

accentuates a women’s oppression post marriage. In both these units a woman is expected to

withstand all the storms of ups and downs, love and hatred, misunderstandings and

disillusionment unquestioningly and voluntarily serve as a fortress of patience and servitude.

Her condition, therefore, becomes that of a selfless provider and supporter, nothing less than

a slave. Though human slavery is illegal and banned in many parts of the world, it still exists

in the institution of marriage as a legalised form to meet the role of a woman as ‘ardhangini’

and ‘sahadharmini’. Therefore, slavery as a consequence of the sacred institution of marriage

has never raised any eyebrows. It is around these sugar coated poisonous institutions of

marriage and motherhood within the family structure and caste in a bigger social set up that

the plays of Viajy Tendulkar revolve.

Time has changed, man has seen the light of education but man’s tendency to exploit and

enslave women has not changed. In some form or the other women are still caged in the

whims and fancies of the patriarchal society. Tendulkar’s The Vultures (1961) Kamala (1981)

and Kanyadaan (1983) focus on the social institution of marriage and family that expect a

woman to be a devoted, committed, loving and self sacrificing for her husband and family

and in turn to be reduced to the level of a slave. A woman’s identity as a wife, daughter-in-

law and mother rest on such values as love, affection, selflessness, dutifulness and obedience

and the lack of these qualities define a woman as ‘unwomanly’ and affect her status in

patriarchal society. These plays portray how the ideals of stridharma transform a woman into

a pativrata post marriage and pave the way towards oppression and subjugation, inequality

and even enslavement of the woman.

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Tendulkar conceived the idea of his play, Kamala, after reading a newspaper report

about an incident in Delhi about the selling of a woman. However, instead of commenting on

this issue, Tendulkar uses it as a context to depict the oppression of female gender in a

patriarchal Indian society. Tendulkar gives a twist to the incident to highlight on the

disturbing social issue of exploitation of women in a patriarchal society. Kamala stresses how

the vows of inseparable togetherness, love and concern for each other, to be the lighting lamp

in each other’s life taken during marriage keeping the Fire God a witness fall apart in the rat

race for professional success and social recognition. In Kaanyadaan, however, the promise of

loving togetherness gets overshadowed and eventually crushed under evils of caste

discrimination and inequalities. Thus, in both the plays the sacredness attached with marriage

is lost and the women in the plays, viz., Sarita, Kamala and Jyoti become the subjects on

whom the patriarchal heads show their authority.

The play, Kamala, centres round Jaisingh Jadav, a modern busy and committed

journalist who wants to serve the society as an emancipator of women and his wife Sarita

who with her sincere devotedness helps her husband materialise his dream. Jaisingh is a self

made man, who has earned reputation and success as a journalist in few years time, so much

so that from a small house adjacent to a garage, Jaisingh Jadav has managed to buy a two

storied bungalow at Neeti Baug, a posh locality in the main city Delhi.

Jaisingh is an important part of his newspaper house. He is an Associate Editor of an

English newspaper. His commitment to and sincerity in work makes him an integral and

happening journalist of his newspaper house. However, most of his busy professional life is

supported by his wife Sarita. Sarita as an ideal wife carries out the assigned role of a personal

assistant to her husband, Jaisingh. As per his orders, she attends to each and every phone call

personally, pens down all the details of the callers, and even manages his diary, taking down

date and timing of important meetings and agenda. However, Sarita has no qualms against it.

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Rather she executes his orders in full submission to such an extent that it becomes an

obsession with her. Though her sense of commitment that verges on to a level of obsession

irritates people around her, for her it is her duty to serve her husband in the best possible way.

Conditioned from childhood to the ideology of stridharma in a patriarchal society, Sarita

as a dedicated and obedient wife carries out her husband’s order without any compromise.

She is a doting wife for whom husband’s needs and wants are the first priority of her life. She

is not only her husband’s personal assistant of professional life but also is a caring wife at

domestic level. The loving and caring aspect of Sarita is visible in her daily chores. Hence,

even before her husband arrives from work, she keeps all his requirements ranging from bath

to food ready. She is well aware of the items that provide her husband comfort and happiness.

Therefore, she arranges for him warm water for bath, starched and pressed white pajama to

wear post bath, chilled bear for relaxing and chicken and cauliflower for dinner. Ironically,

her husband fails to notice and appreciate her loving and caring approach towards him.

Sarita exemplifies the true characteristics of a housewife and a devout pativrata.

However, her efficiency as a housewife in keeping her home in order as well as providing her

husband the much needed assistance in professional and personal needs curbs her

independence. Anne Oakley, a radical feminist, observes on the notion and role of housewife:

The creation of the housewife is a social construct and is not inevitably linked to

the female role. This housewife role ensures that women stay subordinate to men,

making it difficult for them to pursue careers and this role which is exclusively

allocated to women, has no status, is unpaid and alienating and yet it takes

precedence over all other roles. (Oakley)

In contrast to the characteristics that an ideal Hindu pativrata woman like Sarita

embodies is Jaisingh, the egoistic and selfish career oriented young man. Though for Sarita

her husband and his needs are the first priority, in Jaisingh’s life, however, Sarita holds no

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such significance. In fact she even fails to bag the confidence of her husband. It is

professional commitment that Jaisingh focuses on and he is totally oblivious of his duties and

responsibilities as Sarita’s husband. So much so that Jaisingh keeps Sarita in total darkness

about his official trips and schedule for other assignments. She gets information on simple

things like the arrival and scheduled tours of her husband from secondary sources like his

office colleagues and friends.

Jaisingh’s selfish and authoritative nature pulls down Sarita from the prestigious position

as his wife to that of an organizer, a quiet home maker and a personal secretary to himself,

without any authority to speak her mind or involve into anything in and around him. She has

been reduced to the role of a supplier of the basic things that her husband requires for a

decent and comfortable living at his personal and professional levels. Her only role in his life

is to serve as a tool for his personal gratification and professional success. Sarita’s condition

in Jaisingh’s household can be best summarised in Virginia Woolf’s words in A Room of

One’s Own as she tries to mirror the position of women in society:

Imaginatively she is of the highest importance; practically she is completely

insufficient. She pervades poetry from cover to cover; she is all but absent from

history. She dominates lives of kings and conquerors in fiction; in fact she was

the slave of any boy whose parents forced a ring upon her finger... (and) in real

life she could hardly read, could scarcely spell, and was the property of her

husband. (45-6)

Marriage in Hinduism is a sacred bond that not only unites two hearts but also two souls.

The seven rounds that the couple take around the fire, keeping the Fire God a witness to their

oaths, signify the importance of being together as friend and partner, sharing all the joys and

happiness, ups and downs in their life. The mantras recited during the seven steps capture the

essence of marriage:

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May the first step lead to food that is both nourishing and pure

May the second step lead to strength (at the physical, emotional and spiritual

levels)

May the third step lead to prosperity May the fourth step lead to all round

happiness

May the fifth step lead to progeny (noble and virtuous children)

May the sixth step lead to long life May the seventh step lead to friendship

through harmony. ((qtd. in Pande 8)

After the seven steps taken by the bride and the bride groom, the groom declares, “By

taking seven steps with me do thou become my friend, By taking seven steps together we

become friends (Padfield 109).

However, for the couple Sarita- Jaisingh, all the seven vows that they had taken during

their marriage, fail to hold its significance. Though Jaisingh has attained professional success

and manages to earn well to sustain his family, yet he ignores the woman whose contribution

in his life is worth mentioning. He does not even want to acknowledge Sarita’s presence in

his life as his wife. Jaisingh as a husband fails to understand Sarita and her requirements. He

has reduced her to a personal assistant, with no decision making powers of her own. Her

status in his life as a wife stands only in joining him in office parties. Through the character

of Jaisingh as a hard core chauvinist male soaked in sensational journalism, Tendulkar

deconstructs the whole concept of marriage and family. His presence in the play is like a

typical patriarch, who exploits marriage as a space for developing master-slave relation for

his personal comfort and professional success.

Unlike Sarita in Kamala, Jyoti’s relation with her husband, Arun Athavale in Kanyadaan

is not one that completely lacks love and concern. Rather, their relation is marked by Arun’s

ambiguous nature of love that oscillates between his affection for Jyoti but hatred for the

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upper caste to which she belongs. In the husband-wife relation between Jyoti and Arun all the

vows of marriage had been turned upside down from the very beginning. Jyoti’s marital life

is marked by inexplicable mental oppression and physical torture. She is the victim of her

husband, Arun Athawle’s angst against caste discrimination. Her dalit husband subverts the

religious sanctity attached with the institution of marriage and the vows of loving

togetherness that a marriage promises. Arun also destabilizes the socio religious significance

attached with marriage by making it a site where he vents out his anger and frustration for

age old to which he and his ancestors were subjected to by the upper caste Brahmins.

Though some critics are of the opinion that the character of Arun Athavale has been

drawn in the lines of a villain, the truth is that Tendulkar has moulded the character of Arun

as a victim of his socio-economic conditions in which he has grown up. His mixed emotions

of love and ruthless physical and verbal abuse that he hurls on Jyoti are the manifestations of

the natural tendencies of his caste identity that unconsciously pervade into his relation with

his wife, Jyoti.

However, it is Jyoti who bears the brunt of Arun’s socio-economically deprived life. Her

life undergoes a complete change after her marriage. Both spatial and cultural differences hit

Jyoti’s life immediately after marriage. Post marriage she moves from her father’s Mumbai

based big house where she owned a room of her own to a small one roomed dingy place.

Unfortunately, instead of enjoying marital bliss at her husband’s home, very soon after her

marriage, Jyoti realises her Dalit husband’s hidden agenda of avenging the oppressive nature

of the upper caste Brahmins through his marriage with her, whom he perceives more as a

representative of the upper caste exploitative and hypocrite Brahmins rather than his wife.

Marriage proves to be a trap where all the anger, hatred and frustration of caste differences

start peeping out. Her married status brings a series of problems. She gets caught on one hand

in a space where the masculine, authoritative power tries to assert itself on the woman and on

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the other hand in a more complex web of conflicting demands. Hers was not that normal

demand of fitting into the roles of ‘ideal wife’ and ‘ideal mother’ but demands that were very

difficult to meet and switch from one to another. She tried to maintain a fine balance

between her identities as a dalit wife, always keeping herself available for sudden torrents of

love and beatings and a daughter of a Brahmin social reformer and leader, Nath Devlalikar.

Thus, her marriage initiates her into a journey full of new challenges that gauge her

endurance level as a wife of a Dalit man, a daughter of a Brahmin idealist and ultimately to

wait and watch the consequences of an inter caste marriage.

The love marriage between Arun and Jyoti that once showed Jyoti promises of loving

togetherness soon became a repressive agent. At Athalave household, Jyoti is subjected to

inexplicable mental and physical abuse. Her husband verbally abuses her and lives a parasitic

life on her earnings. Even during her pregnancy he does not spare torturing her physically. He

demarcates her body and her existence as the site where he can relentlessly avenge the upper

castes and their ugly ways of betraying the untouchables. He pukes out his seething anger and

frustration on her for being a part of a Brahmin family.

Rama in the Vultures is also another woman whose life as a housewife runs parallel to

Sarita. Her character is drawn on the lines of an ideal housewife, busy attending to the needs

and demands of her husband, Ramakant Pitale, father-in-law, Hari Pitale and sister-in-law,

Manik. She is an indispensible being in Pitale household, busy arranging for warm water,

towel and other household stuff. Devoted as she is in her domestic chores, she hardly gets

time for herself. But whenever she steals time and energy to think about herself, it is her

loneliness that grips her tight. Her desolate condition in the Pitale family is best captured

through Rama’s illegitimate brother-in-law:

A Living corpse,

a watchful Stone.

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Like a worm,

I watched and watched her.

For twenty-two long years.

All her hopes, her expectations

Were scorched, uprooted where they grew.

But she only knew One longing

Only one. (Tendulkar 205)

Yet a fortress of patience as described by Rajaninath, Rama embraces this loneliness without

any complains.

Rama’s goodness, her kind disposition towards each and every member of the family

remains overshadowed because of her one limitation, her inability to beget a child. In a

family of cruel vultures where each one tries to outdo the other one for the sake of money and

property, Rama is the only one who showers love and affection, care and concern for the

family members. She remains unmoved by the jittery behaviour of her unmarried sister-in-

law and tries to fulfil all their demands, ranging from warm water for bath to ironed dress and

good food. But she fails to get the respect and love from the Pitale family, excepting her

father-in-law, who values her goddess like presence in the family. Instead of respecting and

loving his wife for her dutiful nature, Ramakant manifests disgruntlement towards Rama for

her inability to give birth to an heir to the family. For Ramakant, though the wife is central to

the existence of the household her function is confined to her role as wife and mother; she is a

means to an end, “the means of attaining purushartha: the goals of a man’s life, especially

dharma and kama” (Roy 5).

The irony of Rama’s life is that though her womb is fertile enough to give birth to a

child, Ramakant continuously blames her for their childless life. However, it is Ramakant

with whom the problem of infertility lays. He is a sterile man but he fails to introspect and

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accept that it is his limitation that is the main source of all their problems. Instead he leaves

no stones unturned to make Rama a mother. Ramakant’s inability to accept his problem and

accusing and even belittling Rama for the same, gradually creates a gap in their marital

relationship and ultimately completely destabilises her marriage. Ramakant ends up in

drinking and wasting his time and life and Rama lurks in utter disappointment and frustration

unless and until she meets Rajaninath who really understands her hidden pain.

Hindu marriage through the ideologies of sahadharmini and ardhangini advocates

equality, love and friendship between the couples. However, in real sense it is inequality that

forms the bedrock of a marital relation. The marital relations discussed in Kamala, The

Vultures and Kanyadaan encapsulate the hollowness of the sacred institution of marriage. It

is not defined by mutual understanding, friendship and companionship. Rather, it is

inequality and indifference that form the crux of the husband-wife relationship in Kamala,

The Vultures and Kanyadaan. Though both the man and woman take the marriage vows, it is

a woman in patriarchal society who is burdened to keep the vows of togetherness, love and

respect and preserve the sanctity of marriage against all odds. In the context of slavish

dependence on husband and blindly following him as her Lord, Manu in chapter V of Manav

Dharmashashtra observes, “Though destitute of virtue, or seeking pleasure (elsewhere), or

devoid of good qualities, (yet) a husband must be constantly worshipped as a God by a

faithful wife (qtd. in Buhler 196). Born and brought up in a patriarchal society Sarita, Jyoti

and Rama are strongly conditioned to follow the ideology of stridharma. Consequently, they

silently accept all the odds of their marital life instead of challenging the indifferences and

torturous treatments in the hands of their husbands. For them their marriage is a sacred bond

and to challenge it or dissolve it is inauspicious as well as a social crime. Hence, each of them

accepts their marriages and husbands as true pativratas.

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An ideal pativrata as Manu puts it in chapter V of Manusmriti should be in possession of

the most exalting qualities like chastity, submissiveness and wifely devotion to her husband,

irrespective of his deeds and thoughts. Manu enjoins women to follow their husband even if

he goes astray. It is a woman’s duty to stay beside her husband and support him in all his

endeavours. An ideal woman suffers with her husband, it is expected that she should

accompany her husband in his grief. In Hindu mythology this notion of pativrata is embodied

in the ideal images of Sita, Savitri, Arundhati, Anasuya and Damayanti. Tendulkar’s women

characters like Sarita, Jyoti and Rama who are born and brought up in a Brahmanical society

follow the tradition of pativratas like Sita and Savitri.

Hence, in Kamala, as the unpleasant truth of her husband as a real hypocrite dawns onto

her, the wronged Sarita displays a strong determination to avenge her husband who exploited

her and enslaved her for his success. However, when the crisis befalls on her husband and he

is sacked from his job by his employers for his outrageous coverage of human trafficking,

which involved a few big shot politicians as well; Sarita as a dutiful and responsible wife,

decides to stay back with her husband to extend physical and mental support for him. She

consciously refrains herself from taking that ultimate step of challenging her husband’s

authority and exposing the real Jaisingh, the success monger, selfish man who enslaved

women at home and outside. Consequently, she postpones her decision of calling a press

conference to unmask the self proclaimed crusader against women exploitation, her husband,

Jaisingh Jadav. Though the newly awakened Sarita clarifies her position as an emancipator of

women, she prioritises her duty and role as a supportive wife, an ideal pativrata and observes,

“I’ll go on feeling it. But at present I am going to lock all that up in a corner of my mind and

forget about it” (Tendulkar 52) and continues with submission, “let me stay here. I’ll stay

here with him” (Tendulkar 52).

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In Jyoti’s case too as the brutal, inhuman tortures and abuses continue growing out of

proportion she tried to revolt against those very ideals that, she realised, were actually

bubbles in the air instead of abandoning her husband and dissolving the marriage. She boldly

stands against her father, Nath Devlalikar, for instilling in them a false ideology of socialism.

She realises the bitter truth, “man and his inherent nature are never really two different

things” (Tendulkar 563). Consequently, she accepts Arun’s dual nature that consists of

violence, hatred, savagery, beastliness on one hand and on the other hand intense love for his

wife. Her acceptance of Arun in spite of all his limitations is surfaces out when Jyoti displays

the strong determination to stay back with him, “Arun is made of all these things bound

together and I have to accept him as he is, because I cannot reject him” (Tendulkar 563).

Jyoti is a fine blend of the Vedic image of a Sati Savitri and modern educated woman.

Yet she does not allow her education and modern perspective of life to rule over her Vedic

image. Instead she sacrifices her material comforts to which she was used to at her father’s

home. She even gives up all the cultural refinements that constituted her world and took up

the savage way of living with a savage man who in spite of having education is still soaked in

the raw, unpolished uncivilized lifestyle of Mahars, continuously hurling at her verbal and

physical abuses.

The sincerity and devotion of a married woman for her husband and marital family is

best exemplified through Jyoti’s decision to stay back at her abusive husband’s house and

endure forever the tortures of her marital life. Thus, when the disturbed father, Nath

Devlalikar, tries to help his daughter by advising her to walk out of the abusive marriage and

take shelter in his home, the confident Jyoti retorts, “When I come here I begin to hate my

world. I want to ignore that truth which I have come to perceive, though rather late in

life...Hereafter I have to live in that world., which is mine” (Tendulkar 566).

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The pride that a married woman takes to be with her family is once again reflected when

Jyoti vehemently declines her father’s request to return to his home, if not for ever, at least

for delivering the baby. With confidence and pride she embraces her husband’s identity as

hers and strongly retorts, “I have my husband. I am not a widow. Even if I become one I

shan’t knock at your door. I am not Jyoti Jadunath Devlalikar now. I am Jyoti Arun Athavle,

a scanvenger” (Tendulkar 566). Though Jyoti is full of repulsion for Arun’s ways of living,

she silently suppresses her feelings for the man who oppressed her the most and accepts him

as her husband and his lifestyle as her own. Like a devoted wife, she embarks into a new

journey as a dalit wife, ready to make all the adjustments and sacrifices. However, it must be

mentioned that Tendulkar’s portrayal of Arun, according to some critics, is said to be biased

and therefore, Tendulkar has tried to create Jyoti a heroine of a type that exists in his other

plays, Kamala and The Vultures, without understanding the different socio cultural contexts

of dalit life which cannot be equated with non-dalit reality.

The social implications of marriage in a patriarchal society are numerous. It ensures

protection of a woman from anti social elements and provides her with socio economic

securities. The fear of social defilement as well as absence of security outside marriage does

not allow women to challenge the institution of marriage. The ideology and practice of

Stridharma ensure a better secured life. Therefore, women accept their domestic and

household duties as dharma of their married life and silently learn to endure mental and

physical oppression. Sarita in Kamala, Jyoti in Kanyadaan and Rama in The Vultures

exemplify this particular trend that women are forced to accept and practice. However, men

take advantage of their situation and perpetuate their confinement in domestic spaces as a

strategic measure to ensure their silent subordination and marginalization at home.

In contrast to the typical characteristics of an ideal wife and extraordinary devotion to

their husband that the pativratas like Sarita, Rama and Jyoti display, the men in Tendulkar’s

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play are free, independent and careless individuals who exploit the institution of marriage for

their convenience. Jaisingh and Ramakant are self centred men who exploit the sacred

institution of marriage and the goodness of their respective wives to meet their narrow selfish

ends. If Jaisingh exploits the institution of marriage for climbing up the stairs of professional

success, for Ramakant the institution of marriage is the necessary step for procreation and

furthering the family tree. The Dalit young man, Arun uses marriage to vent out his anger and

frustration and avenge the upper caste Brahmins for subjecting his ancestors to caste

discriminations and inexplicable humiliation, pain and suffering. None of these men displays

a sense of responsibility towards their wife and family.

The four stages of an individual’s life in a Brahmanical Hindu society constitute the

ancient Hindu concept called Chaturashrama. The 9th chapter of the third part of Viṣṇu

Purāṇa provide a detailed description of each of the Ashrams is available. It identifies four

stages of a human life, with distinct differences based on natural human needs and drives, as

well as how these stages integrated with fulfilling, joyful four goals of life called

Purushartha –Dharma (piety, morality, duties), Artha (wealth, health, means of life),Kama

(love, relationships, emotions) and Moksha (liberation, freedom, self-realization). Grihastha

stage refers to a man’s married life and his commitments to the duties of maintain a

household, raising and rearing a family and leading a family centric and a religious social

life. However, the Grihastha phase of an individual that the Hindu religion lays down is

absolutely violated by men like Jaisingh and Arun.

Tendulkar presents his men, Jaisingh, Ramakant and Arun in their Grihastha stages but

for Jaisingh and Arun this stage holds no significance. Both Jaisingh and Arun fail to meet

their responsibilities and duties as husbands towards their wives. If the former remains

soaked in his professional commitments and social work and basks in the glory of his

professional success the latter sulks in a state of perpetual abhorrence, disappointment and

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humiliation and hatches opportunities for taking revenge on upper castes for subjecting his

people to abject condition and negating their identities as human beings. However, Arun’s

indifference to his commitment to the marital vows can be realised as an outcome of his dalit

identity, an outcaste who is relentlessly trying to bring out the hypocrisy embedded in the

Brahmanical society. Therefore, the significance of grihastha phase of life have altogether

different implications in Jaisingh and Arun’s lives. Though for Jaisingh Jadav, the upper

caste educated man, it is mandatory to follow the grihastha phase of life, for Arun, a dalit

man, it holds no true significance. Hence, unlike an upper caste man, he is definitely not

expected to follow the Hindu stages of life at their respective face vales. Therefore, even

when Jaisingh is criticised for his failure to meet all the responsibilities of this phase of his

life, Arun enjoys the life of an irresponsible husband, so typical of his caste.

Jaisingh exploits the ideal qualities of wife in Sarita to attain his dream objectives of

professional success and social recognition that would allow him to assert his masculinity

both at home and outside. Thus, the hardships and challenges that he takes in his obsession

with sensational news that demands hectic and erratic work schedule are his strategies to win

popularity as a sincere, committed, risk taking and hardworking journalist that would easily

establish his superiority over his colleagues at work place and over Sarita at home. He turns

blind eyes to his wife’s emotional and physical needs and demands. Jai Singh is a male

chauvinist in a real sense. He is proud of the new assignment he has taken of proving the

existence of human trafficking as a social evil in remote places near Lohardanga and tries to

justify his good intention and commitment to the cause of the down trodden and the

marginalized gender. He takes immense pride in announcing the humanistic appeal of his

new assignment and proclaims himself a self assigned social activist who has initiated the

movement against exploitation of women and pledges to open the eyes of the innocent

victims of social exploitation and save them from such inhuman conditions.

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Jaisingh beautifully carves out an image of himself as a social activist and a rebel against

the social evils. He defends his mission as social commitment and further discusses its

significance in the society as:

There’s a commitment behind it, there’s a social purpose. So what if you don’t

recognize it? What I’m doing- what we are doing- there’s a great need today for

somebody to do just that. In the moral rot that’s set in- in this country, someone is

got to uphold moral principles, moral norms and moral values. Someone has got

to hold back the uncontrollable licence of those who have the machinery of power

in their hands. The weak and backward sections of the society are under attack.

We need someone to make a noise against it. The common man is living in a –

kind of unconscious haze today. He needs to be shocked into looking at the truth

now and then. We need to force that will raise his consciousness, prepare him to

struggle for social and political change. (Tendulkar 24)

Ironically Jaisingh is not the same person as he presents himself and desires to be

visualized by others in his professional circle. In reality, he is actually a man who is

completely ignorant, negligent and indifferent to woman’s condition at home, especially of

his own wife. He takes pride in his commitment for the society but fails to acknowledge

Sarita’s commitment for his comfort and silent support for his professional success. Rather he

uses Sarita as a tool for his professional success and personal comfort. The real Jaisingh who

subjects his wife to a deplorable condition is best portrayed through the words of his close

friend Jai:

Hi, Bhabhiji, I mean, English “hi” to him, and a Marathi “hai” to you. This

warrior against exploitation in the country is exploiting you. He’s made a drudge

out of a horse riding independent girl from a princely house. hai-hai! Shame on

you! Hero of anti exploitation campaigns makes slave of wife! (Tendulkar 17)

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However, Sarita has no qualms against the role of a personal secretary assigned to her by

her husband. She tries to find her happiness in that unless and until Kamala, the woman

whom Jaisingh bought for only two hundred and fifty rupees from Lohardanga flesh market

to prove human trafficking in practice, opens her eyes to her status in her husband’s home. It

is Kamala, by her sheer innocence and blind faithfulness to Jaisingh, whom she regards her

saviour, opens Sarita’s eyes to the bitter reality of which she too is a victim like many other

women.

Kamala through her series of questions on Sarita’s role in Jaisingh’s household, her face

value in his life, absence of children in the family and the new role that she desires to take up

in their household opens up Sarita’s eyes to the mere sophisticated slavish life to which she

had been subjected to by her husband. Thus when Kakasaheb condemns Jaisingh for buying

Kamala to prove the prevalence of trafficking of women and that Kamala is just a pawn in

Jaisingh’s game of chess, Sarita says, “Not just Kamala, Kakasaheb. Not just Kamala,

Kakasaheb, Me too…me too” (Tendulkar 43).

The confidential talk that Kamala has with Sarita introduces her to a series of ephiphanic

moments. For the first time Sarita realises that not only Jaisingh has failed to do his

responsibilities as the grihakarta (master of the house) but is also accountable for her

inability to assume the role of a mother. On the role of man and woman in marriage, Manu in

chapter IX, verse xcvi of Manusmriti declared, "To be mothers were women created and to be

father men, the Vedas ordain the dharma must be practiced by man together with his wife. He

only is a perfect man who consists of his wife, himself and his offspring” (qtd. in Buhler

344). However, Jaisingh’s lack of commitment for his family life has left them without a

child. As a success oriented man the absence of a child hardly affects him, but Sarita as a

woman, realises the significance of a child in her life to relive her life as a mother. She

realises the best possible way of putting her motherly instincts to use is by raising a child in

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the best possible way rather than wasting time taking phone calls and arranging meetings as

Jaisingh’s assistant.

Kamala’s insistence on her bearing a child for Jaisingh and Sarita opens her eyes to her

position as a ‘barren’ woman in the society. A woman’s life is considered complete only

when she gives birth to a child. The significance of marriage lies in procreation. A couple is

expected to meet one of the most significant obligations of marriage, i.e. procreation. A

woman’s position in her husband’s life, in the family as well as in the society is secured with

a woman bearing the progeny for her husband. Thus Sarita realises her position in Jaisingh’s

life without a child. Though she is certain that a child for their future is not Jaisingh’s priority

in life but she is scared, though does not allow it to surface, of the disadvantageous position

to which Jaisingh has subjected her through his negligence and irresponsibility towards her

and family commitments.

Sarita realises the strategies that the men in a patriarchal society take to assert their

hegemonic power to subjugate and exploit women. Gradually the contradiction in Jaisingh’s

personality, to which Jain referred to but she turned deaf ears, becomes crystal clear in front

of her. She realises her husband as the greatest fraud, cheating on both his wife and the

society. She also recognises the real identity of her husband as one who projects himself as a

man committed to emancipation of women, advocates the philosophy of equality and

freedom for women, but at domestic level, is the exploiter of his wife.

It is the responsibility of a man to provide his wife with the three primary needs of artha

(money), dharma (religion) and kama (desire) which in turn earn a man a superior position in

his married life. However, a non Hindu, Mahar by caste as he is, Arun shows complete

disregard for the dharma, artha and kama that a Hindu man would be obliged to adhere to.

Rather, like an irresponsible man he makes his survival possible on the earnings of his wife

and manifests a love which is as unpolished as his background and is beyond Jyoti as well as

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her family’s comprehension. He verbally abuses her and physically tortures her even when

she is pregnant. A complex person as he is he tries to punish himself for inflicting pain on

Jyoti and confesses:

Never can I be forgiven. I am a great scoundrel, rascal, motherfucker, ...I...I beat

her with these very hands...I make her suffer. I behave worse than an animal. She

will never forgive me, I know it. Jyoti you are not destined for me, this is the

truth, Jyoti. After all scavangers like us are condemned to rot in the shit. But Jyoti

I love you. My love is not false, it is true. (Tendulkar 538)

Both Sarita and Jyoti turn out to be the victims of marriage as much as patriarchy. If Sarita

becomes the victim of patriarchal authority and insensitivity of her husband, Jyoti is

influenced by the principles and ideologies of her father, self proclaimed socialist reformer,

before marriage and post marriage subjected to Arun’s oppression rising from his sense of

being wronged generations after generations by the upper castes.

Unlike Jaisingh and Arun, Ramakant does not neglect the grihastha stage of his life

altogether. He rightly perceives procreation and continuing the family tree as one of the many

duties of his grihastha life. However, in his zeal to realise the significance of the grihastha

phase of his life, he fails to realise that he could be a viable reason for their childless marital

life. Instead he emotionally torments Rama, accuses her of infertility and pushes her for

several medical checkups and visits to soothsayers and astrologers expecting some miracles

to happen in her life.

Sakharam in Sakharam Binder is yet another example who altogether flouts the

sacredness and commitment attached with marriage. He sees it as an unnecessary

commitment, even without which life can have its share of happiness and pleasures. Hence,

the significance attached with the institution of marriage is challenged by Sakharam’s

perspective of life.

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According to Sakharam, marriage is not the union of two souls and commitment for

lifelong togetherness but it is a contract that allows him to enjoy women without any

commitment. His perspective of life that endorses a concept of a carefree life without

marriage can be summed up in the following lines:

It’s good thing I’m not a husband. Things are fine the way they are. You get

everything you want and you’re not tied down. If you’ve had enough, if she’s

had enough you can always part. The game is over. Nothing to bother you after

that while it lasts, she has a roof over her head and you get home cooked food.

That’s a cheap way of fixing all your appetites. And on top of it, the woman stays

docile, she works well, she behaves herself. She knows that one wrong move and

out she goes. (Tendulkar 129)

Sakharam condemns marriage as a social construct of a hypocritical and tradition-bound

society to meet its needs. Rather, he believes in live-in relation and honestly speaks his mind

as one who does not like to take responsibilities. Marriage, according to Sakharam, is not

about commitments but rather a game.

Ironically, the irresponsible but intelligent pleasure seeking Sakharam who does not

believe in the institution of marriage does not leave a single opportunity to exploit the

benefits of this institution and the ideology of a pativrata woman that is inextricably linked

with marriage. In order to satiate his sexual demands, he frequently provides shelter to

neglected and deserted wives and utilizes them for his sexual pleasure. However, he remains

totally ignorant of the moral and emotional connotations of his unconventional, rather

unsocial, actions. The priority of his life is to fulfil his carnal desires and live a carefree life

outside the limits of conventions set by society. Sakharam justifies all the acts through his

unconventional arguments, modern thinking and comes up with void argument that is clear of

his intensions of enslaving women, “We are not saints. We’r men. I tell you, worship and

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prayer can’t satisfy the itch. If you want a thing, well, you’ve got to have it. What’s there to

hide? (Tendulkar 127) Though Sakharam beautifully justifies his perspective of life,

efficiently camouflages his carnal desire for women and establishes himself as a Good

Samaritan for the helpless and destitute women but the women who come in Sakharam’s life

become the victim of his carefree and opportunistic attitude towards life.

Sakharam displays a skilful assimilation of different ways of asserting his masculinity to

define his position as a superior boss to the women in his life. Thus his aim in providing

women shelter who are fallen out of marriage is not only for improving their condition but

also to emerge as a superior being besides satisfying his selfish requirements that cannot be

ethically, morally and legally possible in the institution of marriage. His contractual

relationship, therefore, are based on the convenience of both and is completely devoid of

emotional bonds. This symbiotic relation helps him develop master-slave relationship where

the woman has no say in the cohabitation.

Sakharam is a crude womanizer who though adopts the role of a woman saviour is

actually just an egoistic epicure. He exploits the institution of marriage to establish his

superior powers over the women in his life. Thus he adopts an authoritative voice that can

earn him the desired role full of power and influence that he fails to achieve in the society as

a binder. Sakharam makes it clear to the women he saves about his expectations from them.

Though he does not believe in the institution of marriage, he wants the women in his life to

behave like his wife and hence imposes on them strong terms and conditions that they have to

follow as long as they are under his shelter.

Sakharam believes in the ideal image of a woman as wife. The conventional Hindu

image of a woman as wife expects her to be efficient with daily chores, take up the role of a

counsellor, beautiful like goddess Lakshmi, patient like Mother Earth and like heavenly

damsel, Rambah on bed. Like all the other women under his shelter, Sakharam urges Laxmi

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to labour throughout the day and night for him, satisfy his sexual appetite and respect him as

their master. Elaborating on the rules of his home, Sakharam draws out a well structured

behavioural expectations from Laxmi and clarifies his immediate requirement, “I like

everything in order here. Won’t put up with slipshod ways. If you are careless, I shall show

the door, ... I am the master here...a house must be a home, you understand? (Tendulkar 126)

He also insists on Purdah, the system of division of public and private space for women and

covering of the head and strictly instructs Laxmi, “If someone calls, you are not supposed to

look up and talk. If it is a stranger, you have to cover your head and answer him briefly”

(Tendulkar 126).

Implicit in Sakharam’s words is his dominant urge to establish his superiority over the

women whom he gives shelter and confine the woman within the four walls of the house. The

irony of Sakharam’s perspective of life is that though he adopts an unconventional life and

ignores the social norms, challenges the institution of marriage and subverts the role of an

ideal husband and deliberately does not commit himself as a responsible life partner; yet he

desires the women in his life to be traditional in approach and religiously follow the ideal

image of women as pativratas. This one sided expectation thus gives rise to master-slave

relation in Sakharam’s household.

Sakharam deconstructs the institution of marriage. This institution holds no significance

for his life. Marriage is actually a symbiotic relation in Sakharam’s opinion. It is the space

where he tries to offer help to destitute women to establish his masculine superiority.

Marrraige is the site where his carnal desires can be pampered. As a crude womanizer,

Sakharam cares a fig for the women in his life. He engages himself in violent sexual

exploitation of the women whom he gives shelter, not only to appease his sexual appetite but

also to establish his superiority over them. He sexually exploits his women to satisfy his

indomitable carnal desires. His vicious selfishness and insatiable hunger for sex come to the

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forefront when he asks Laxmi to be always prepared to sexually satisfy him, “Mine is no

ordinary appetite. And I won’t hear any complaints later” (Tendulkar135). He also strategizes

to traumatise his women by comparing his existing woman with his previous ones and forces

his women to produce the best possible performance on his bed and in his life. Instead of

realising Laxmi’s mental and physical condition that prevents her from sexually satisfying

him, he scares her to perform well on bed by giving example of his previous mistress, “Well,

she wasn’t much in bed. She just seemed to dry up. She just wasted away. No flesh, just

bones she was. But very devoted. She never raised her eyes, not once” (Tendulkar 134). His

women had no respite from his sexual demands and if ever any woman refused to obey him,

as Laxmi did out of detestation for his insensitive nature, Sakharam would physically assault

and beat her.

Laxmi at Sakharam’s household becomes a prey to his physical and sexual abuses. As

the master of his household, Sakharam does not care about anyone’s opinions, decisions or

suggestions. He is devoid of any kind words, closed to anyone’s wishes, wants and desires or

pleading. He is the dictator and as Laxmi puts it in Sakharam’s house, “I‘ve never heard a

kind word here. Always barking, orders, curses, oaths” (Tendulkar148). Sakharam’s violent

nature is complemented with his unusual sexual appetite. His indomitable sexual desires fail

to respect or consider the body of a woman as a human body. He desires his woman to serve

him on the bed relentlessly. However, as Laxmi turns out to be a sexually cold on the bed and

fails to arouse him at night, Sakharam demands her to come out of her silent, reticent

housewife image and warns her, “No, you can sleep later. Get up and laugh. Laugh or I‘ll

choke the life out of you. Laugh! Laugh” (Tendulkar 141). He goes to the extent of beating

Laxmi for her bad performance on the bed and demands, “Laugh this minute, or I‘ll twist

your arm. I will. I‘ll get the belt (Tendulkar 145).

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The significance of marriage in Sakharam’s life and that of Laxmi is worth comparing.

Though marriage has no sacred implication in Sakharam’s life, for Laxmi it is the relation

that expects her to remain devoted to her husband. In spite of her realisation that Sakharam is

a womanizer, Laxmi tries to be the traditional wife as Sakharam desires her to be. She like

Sati Savitri remains calm and quiet, generous in her dealings and remain tender hearted and

submissive towards her violent lord. She devotes herself in the kitchen and on the bed for

Sakharam’s satisfaction. Not only does she perform all her duties like a responsible wife but

also never raises her voice against him, rather satisfies him like his mistress. Being thrown

away by her previous husband for not being able to bear a child, she clutches on to Sakharam

and bears all the pains and tortures as her fate. She consciously never ever raises her voice

against his torturous dealings only because of the fear that she might lose the shelter given by

Sakharam and starts worshiping him as her ‘Saviour’.

In the case of both Laxmi and Champa, marriage instead of materialising the vows of

companionship, love and care, providing shelter and security, render them shelter less. While

Laxmi has been thrown out of her house by her husband; Champa had chosen to walk out of

their marriage. The exploitative nature of marriage is best understood through Laxmi and

champa’s lived experiences. Both of them are the victims of the patriarchal society but in two

different ways. If it is the problem of not having any child that makes Laxmi’s position as a

woman and wife vulnerable, Champa’s experience in her husband’s home forces her to leave

it and take shelter in Sakharam’s arms.

Champa is another creation of Tendulkar, who represents exploitation of women in

marriage. Champa was married off quite early in her life, as she recounts, ‘even before I’d

become a woman...when I didn’t even know what marriage meant (Tendulkar 167). At her

husband’s house, Champa had a torturous married life. She was subjected to physical as well

as mental abuse by her husband, whom she remembers as ‘son of a bitch’ (Tendulkar 158).

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The description of the physical agony that she suffered in the hands of her sadist husband

captures the fate of women in abusive marriage:

He tortured me at night. He branded me, and stuck needles into me and made me

do awful, filthy things. I ran away. He brought me back and stuffed chilly powder

into that god-awful place, where it hurts the most. That bloody pimp! What is left

of heart now? He tore lumps out of it, he did. He drank my blood. (Tendulkar

167)

However, Champa, a woman gifted with both brain and sensuous beauty, manages to

combat the abuses that she encounters in her marital life. Instead of becoming a victim of

men’s sexual exploitation, she uses her sexuality to dominate men in her life and challenges

his authority by refusing an access to her body and later abandons him.

If it is the fear of the society that forces Laxmi to look for a male partner for security and

to depend on him, in the case of Champa, it is the inner most desire of a woman to tear apart

the viciousness of men in the society that makes her seek shelter at Sakharam’s home. The

essence of a wife’s presence in the household, as evident in the chapter V of Rig Veda to

“tend the sacrificial fire and keep it burning” (Upadhya 137) becomes evident as Sakharam,

Champa’s new master, tries to domesticate her with the responsibilities of a dutiful wife. She

is asked to cook, since ‘that’s a woman’s job’ (Tendulkar 161) and keep the house clean. She

is further vested with a specific duty of converting the house to a home with her warmth and

sincerity, “but a house must be like a home, you understand?” (Tendulkar 155)

Champa, unlike Laxmi, fits perfect in the scathing, ugly picture of a woman drawn by

Manu. She is completely opposite to Laxmi. She hates domestic chores, indulges in drinking,

has a foul mouth and instead of being subject to Sakharam’s verbal, physical and sexual

abuses, she resists with a daunting determination. Her enticing character like Medusa helps

her to pull Sakharam towards herself and churns out the slave out of the inhuman torturous

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beast like Sakharam. In the power struggle between Sakharam and Champa, Champa

showcases an edge over the latter and challenges his authorial power over a woman’s body.

She challenges Sakharam’s authority in his own home and refuses to be available at

Sakharam’s beck and call. Champa, by virtue of her charismatic personality and

sensuousness, becomes the ruler of Sakharam’s life. Instead of dominating Champa,

Sakharam is attracted by her uncanny charm. Champa’s sensuous appeal dominates over

Sakharam’s masculinity and turns him into her subordinate who fails to do justice to his

masculine duties and responsibilities both inside the house and outside.

However, unlike Laxmi, Champa uses her charismatic personality not to serve Sakharam

as Sati and Savitri. Rather, she uses her intelligence and sensuous physical appeal to punish

the men in the society who are ever ready to exploit women either as wife or mistress.

However, the irony of a woman’s life is that she is subjected to and expected to follow

patriarchal ideology of an ideal woman. Consequently, she falls prey to Laxmi, the

embodiment of an ideal woman that patriarchy has constructed. It is Champa who convinces

Sakharam to provide the destitute Laxmi shelter at his home. However, when Laxmi finds

Champa challenging the authority of Sakharam, whom she considers her as well as Champa’s

husband and wears mangalsutra in his name, fails to control her rage and convinces

Sakharam to bring an end to the life of a woman who defies patriarchal authority.

It is quite obvious that women, who are conditioned to live a life of dependence right

from their childhood, will harbour the desire for shelter when they are divorced or fallen out

of marriage. Hence, for a woman like Laxmi, who have neither the family support nor

economic sustainability, the need for shelter becomes a pressing need. Laxmi and Champa in

Sakharam Binder and Kamala in Kamala show the same tendency and eagerness to have a

shelter. Whereas the former two are driven by the anxiety of securing a shelter after their

marriages fail, Kamala tries to secure a shelter in her marriage of enslavement. Also, it is not

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only fear but a strong sense of competitiveness that drive Champa and Kamala to secure a

position of significance in the life and household of Sakharam and Jaisingh respectively.

Thus, both of them after examining the most important driving influence and lack in their

master’s life, sexual pleasure in Sakharam’s life and the lack of an heir in Jaisingh’s family

decide on their role in their masters’ households. Thus, Champa takes the responsibility of

satisfying Sakharam’s sexual appetite, “she can help me in the house. Anyway I can’t cope

with the house and with you. She will look after the house” (Tendulkar 184) and Kamala

embarks on the new journey as Jaisingh’s mistress to beget a child and look after the

household and clearly puts down the division of labour, “[t]he master will have children. I’ll

do the hard work, and I will bring forth the children, I will bring them up. You are an

educated woman. You keep the accounts and run the house (Tendulkar 35).

Kamala, the bonded slave whom Jaisingh bought from the flesh market at Lohardunga,

embodies the ideal woman that the patriarchal society desires to have in a marriage. Through

her volley of innocent but thought provoking questions and suggestions on the same, Kamala

exemplifies the essence of true pativrata who without even being asked is ready to have a life

of total submissiveness at her master’s place, to work day and night to keep the master happy,

sexually satisfied and serve as a baby producing machine to perpetuate the family line. The

nicely camouflaged reality of marriage that is evoked through Kamala’s example is best

summarised by Margaret Carmach in her book, Hindu Woman:

But marriage is not the end in itself but the means--and the only means--by which

the family is perpetuated. It is the family that is important that must be kept

alive...she is both the queen and the slave in either aspect being indispensable.

She exists because of the family and for the family. She does not resent her

economic dependence, nor does she become grasping in that dependence. ‘......’

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He is her gurudev (God and Teacher) ‘......’ It is the wife’s role to sacrifice herself

for the family. (178)

Sarita’s bonded labour in her married life, Jyoti’s bitter experiences in her violent and

abusive marriage and Rama’s disturbed marital life justify the observation of Margaret

Carmach on the lives of Indian married pativratas.

All the three women, Sarita, Jyoti and Kamala, are the victims of subjugation and

emotional and physical oppression in the institution of marriage. Marriage that is constituted

and run by the custodians of patriarchal authorities exploit the deep faith that the innocent

souls of women manifest and eventually torment their lives. Though all of them are the

victims of this institution, Jyoti’s case of victimization throws enough light on the role of a

father in jeopardizing the condition of women in a patriarchal society.tle different. Jyoti is a

dual victim of her idealist father’s socialist ideologies and her husband’s inhuman brutality

and physical abuse at home.

Apart from targeting the subordination and enslavement of women through the

institution of marriage, to control the sexuality of women by confining her into domestic

responsibilities post marriage lest she should ‘go to other men’ (qtd. in Chakravarti 44) was

another very important objective implied to be met through the institution of marriage. Uma

Chakravarti, feminist historian, while analysing the different ways in which the control on

women sexuality was achieved, draws upon three main strategies that were widely used for

the same. Ideology, physical control and punishments meted out by kings were the three

different strategies that were frequently used by Brahmanical society to keep their women

under control. According to this, the men in a woman’s life play a significant role. Not to

forget Manu’s injunction on the same, from birth a woman should be kept under control

However, two very important plays of Tendulkar, Kanyadaan and Ghashiram Kotwal

interrogate the role of the father in controlling the sexuality of his daughter. Instead of being

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the custodian of his daughter’s purity and sexuality, it is the father figure in both these plays

who endangers the life of his daughter in her marriage. These two plays examine the

vulnerability of women’s position that starts early in their lives, even before their marriage,

reaches its peak in the institution of marriage.

Since the father figure has been invested with all the powers of decision making and his

words are considered as the last words in a smaller patriarchal set up called family, other

family members who are subservient to him are expected to follow him unquestioningly.

Thus in the household of Nath Devalikar where sweet harmony existed amongst all its family

members, Nath’s decision to marry off her daughter as per her wish with Arun was accepted

without much resistance. The over ambitious ideal social reformer that Nath Devlalikar

assumed himself to be in his zealous enthusiasm to materialise Jyoti’s infatuation turned love

marriage with Arun reflects Manu’s belief that a man tries to recreate himself through his

own children. In this case, Devlalikar grabs this inter caste marriage to materialise his socio-

political ideologies. With Nath’s hidden agenda in the kanyadaan, the ritual itself loses its

significance. In Nath’s case the kanyadaan proves the failure of Nath as a responsible father.

Sacrificing his daughter for the sake of political gains, popularity and success that he

intended to gain can be traced in the father figure in Tendulkar’s another major play,

Ghashiram Kotwal.

The caring but dominating influence of the father figure that ruins a daughter’s life can

be traced in Tendulakar’s another very famous play Ghashiram Kotwal. It depicts the plight

of a young girl called Gauri in the marriage of convenience decided and executed by her

shrewd father to meet his selfish objective. The marriage that Ghashiram plans for his

daughter is the outcome of two very ugly facets of patriarchy; power and carnal lust.

Ghashiram’s desire for power to meet his narrow objective of avenging the Poona Brahmins

who subjected him to intra caste discrimination combined with the carnal lust of Nana, the

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womanizer, for Ghashiram’s young daughter lead both Ghashiram and Nana to use the

institution of marriage as a tool to meet their objectives. Consequently it is Gauri,

Ghashiram’s only daughter, who becomes the victim of the marriage of convenience that her

father and Nana Phadnavis hatch for her.

Like a shrewd Machiavelli Ghashiram calculates each and every step before sacrificing

his daughter for securing a prestigious post that would guarantee him power and through

which he can take revenge on the Poona Brahmins. Ghashiram, after realising Nana’s

madness and irresistible desire for Gauri, barters his daughter for his power and position in

the form of a Kotwal of the state. In doing that Ghashiram, the father figure, not only

violates the institution of family and subverts the role of a father but also fails to provide

protection and security to his daughter that a father should give but also mars the sanctity

attached with the sacred institution of marriage.

The ritual of kanyadaan in marriage that has a special significance in Hindu marriages is

echoed time and again in Tendulkar’s plays, especially in Ghashiram Kotwal and

Kanyadaan. Ironically, Kanyadaan which means giving away the bride to a groom who can

take care of the bride, can meet all her expectations, honour her and give her the protection

and safeguard her dignity is flouted by the patriarchal father figures in both these plays. In

Kanyadaan , Nath Devlalikar was highly hopeful of his would-be Dalit son-in-law, Arun, of

his responsibilities as a husband of his daughter, Jyoti. However, in Ghashiram Kotwal,

Ghashiram does not show any respect for this ritual significance and in spite of knowing

Nana’s character as a womanizer, he does not think twice before committing his daughter,

Gauri, to Nana. Rather he turns blind eyes and deaf ears to the safety requirements of his

daughter and sacrificed her personal dignity for his greediness for power.

Thus in both the plays, Kanyadaan and Ghashiram Kotwal women are used as

commodity in the institution of marriage. Both the men in Kanyadaan, Nath Devlalikar,

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Jyoti’s father, and Arun, her Dalit husband, use Jyoti to meet their objectives. If Nath uses her

to materialise his dream of exogamy as a gateway to caste annihilation, Arun uses her to

avenge the pain of humiliation and subjugation that they were subjected to generations after

generations by the upper castes. In Ghasiram Kotwal too, Nana Phadnavis and Ghasiram use

Gauri for either seeking power, as done by her father, or for personal gratification of carnal

desires like Nana. In these two plays the main objective of the gender sensitive playwright,

Tendulkar, was to depict the many different ways in which women are exploited in the name

of the sacred institution of marriage.

Nana like Sakharam in Sakharam Binder does not believe in the sacred institution of

marriage. He flouts monogamy and defends as well as practises polygamy. In a patriarchal

society the power lies with the men and with full authority. When it comes to men in power,

no one can question their relation with power, its use and misuse. Tendulkar through the

Sutradhar in the play gives us an access into Nana’s character and his misuse of power. He

uses power to satisfy the womanizer in him and exploits girl as young as those who have just

entered into their puberty. The cruelty and selfishness of men like Nana reduces the body of

women as a site to contest their masculinity and power. The body of a woman thus becomes a

battleground which has to be won at any cost to establish his power and reputation as the

‘Peshwa’.

The plight of young and beautiful women as brides in an insensitive male dominated

society is best portrayed through the sensuous description of the new bride whom Nana is

going to marry also proves that men irrespective of their class have an access to the body of a

woman and can subject her body to male gaze, “My Nana’s wedding! The bride is a young

one! My nana’s wedding! A tender blossoming bride. A slender willowy bride. A slay lily–

white bride. A just – this – year ripened bride, My Nana’s wedding (Tendulkar 400)!

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The description of the bride as a tender, mature and young one drives home the point

that young girls immediately after attending puberty are pushed into marriages. The

custodians of female children hardly ever allow the young women to understand their

emotions and body and even before they get familiarised with the changes happening with

their bodies, in their minds and in them as a woman, they are given in the hands of men,

much older than them, as their new custodians. The body thus never remains with a young

woman and before she owns her own body her husband, and in most cases old lecherous men,

becomes the owner. In Ghashiram Kotwal, Gauri’s young mature body is not meant for her to

enjoy but it becomes a site of male gaze where Nana would materialise his lecherous needs.

In the hands of Nana Phadnavis marriage loses its sacredness and becomes a profane

one, one that is based on the theory of use and throw. For Nana, it is not age, caste or class

that matter for getting married; his only priority in marriage is young and beautiful woman.

Commitment and sense of duty and responsibility towards his wife dies in the concept of

marriage that Nana embraces. Thus, the selfish desire of carnal gratification that rules his

polygamy programme is best articulated by the Sutradhar in the following lines, “Let’s go to

the wedding./The Peshwa’s chief minister Still young enough to marry!/His moustache’s

turned grey./Not all of them are gone/He’s got six wives Look – that’s not enough! /So he’s

got a new one” (Tendulkar 401).

The outcomes of such marriages that are ruled by carnal lust than commitment result in

severing the young body, mind and soul of the young helpless woman. Thus, Gauri becomes

one such victim who in the name of marriage is actually pushed to repeated sexual

exploitation, which her body fails to withstand. As a young bride, Gauri fails to cope with old

Nana’s sexual exploitation of her body and the resultant emotional and mental torture that

marriage had in stock for her. The selfish marriage of convenience between Nana and Gauri

reaches its peak of torture and results in Gauri conceiving a new life. But because her young

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body was hardly mature enough to handle the changes occurring in her, besides the repeated

sexual assault and trauma associated with it, Gauri dies while giving birth to the foetus.

Thus, the promises and vows of good companionship, understanding and support

through all crises that a marriage upholds are never realised in Gauri’s marriage with Nana

and buried forever with her emaciated and betrayed dead body. Tendulkar’s Ghashram

Kotwal that is often regarded as a famous historical play has powerful subtext that depicts

marriage as an exploitative social structure that preys on young women to perpetuate its

superiority.

Tendulkar relentlessly puts his unparallel dramatic skills in probing the dark recesses in

one of the major social institutions called marriage. In Kamala, The Vultures and Kanyadaan

he successfully depicts marriage as the site of establishing male supremacy over the female

by subjugating, repressing and subjecting the women folks to mental and physical oppression.

In doing so marriage loses its sacred significance and assumes the role of meeting patriarchal

convenience for promoting and securing their hegemonic power. The profanity of marriage is

crystal clear as the desire for ascertaining male superiority over the female and the carnal lust

for a female body become the bedrocks of this sacred institution.

II

The Trap of Motherhood and Women’s Right to Property

Motherhood has been marked by the patriarchal societies as a milestone in a woman’s

life that completes her feminine self. It is the motherly instincts in women that differentiate

her from a man. Motherhood is a celebrated glorification and involves a huge responsibility

of shaping mankind. Marriage in Pre Vedic age had a social commitment; procreation was a

part of an individual’s social duty. Hence, the woman as mother and the process of mothering

attained a lofty position in human civilization. Hence, women as mothers are still regarded as

Mother of Mankind and they are placed next to God. However, the reality with motherhood is

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not that lofty as it sounds to be. As procreation assumed the primary objective in a woman’s

life, women were confined to their duties of mothering. They were restricted to the much

unappreciated duties of child rearing, and care giving. This gradually led to her limited social

interaction and domestic confinement forever. However, patriarchal society garbs this

strategic confinement of women into domestic spaces for child rearing and caring as one of

the most glorifying job that only women are gifted with. Consequently, people like

Sukhatme, who endorses motherhood as a weapon to restrict and confine a woman into her

domestic spaces, valorises motherhood to hide the malicious intentions of a patriarchal

society and proclaims it as:

Motherhood is pure. Moreover, there is great nobility in our concept of

motherhood. We have woman as the mother of mankind. Our culture enjoins us

to perpetual worship of her. ‘Be thy mother as a God’ is what we teach our

children from infancy. There is a great responsibility devolving upon a mother.

She weaves a magic circle with her whole existence in order to protect and

preserve her little one. (Tendulkar 79)

Kashikar too is of the same opinion and he seconds Sukhatme’s observation on motherhood

and adds “Janani Janmabhumishcha svargadapi gariyasi: Mother and the Motherland both

are even higher than Heaven” (Tendulkar 79).

However, a close observation of the experiences of mothering and motherhood

demystifies the glorious light attached with it. In fact it is highly conditional. Motherhood

without marriage is condemned. It is a sin. It is the violation of the sacred law of marriage. It

is marriage that sanctions conjugal togetherness for procreation and therefore procreation and

motherhood outside the wedlock are highly condemned. Sheela Raval in Three’s a Crowd

comments “Reproduction is seen as a woman’s primary contribution...society takes a dim

view of those who abandon the chosen path and the repercussions are startling” (Raval). The

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cornering and stigmatizing of a woman who chooses not to have a baby is equally applicable

for women who choose to have a baby and become a mother without entering the institution

of marriage as in the case of Leela Benare.

The primary function of a marriage as a sacred social institution is procreation.

Motherhood is essentially a direct consequence of marriage and it entails in it the

responsibility of a woman to carry forward the family tree. Ironically, the bitter truth of a

patriarchal society is that neither the identity of mother nor motherhood is valued and held in

high esteem. However, the functional identity of motherhood is honoured and respected but

that too is conditional to its functional value. A woman’s significance in her family and in the

extended society lies in her ability to procreate, but her position of significance starts falling

with her inability to continue with reproduction. Consequently, it became a patriarchal tool of

subordinating a woman in the family as well as in society. Regarding the procreative role of a

woman as a patriarchal tool of subordinating a woman in the family as well as in society,

Atrey and Kirpal claim:

The woman is often regarded as a sex-object and a means of procreation. She is

known and recognized only through her relationship with man and is unexpected

to have an independent identity. Even in modern times, we have achieved

economic independence and high educational standards, they are still regarded as

inferior to men. (104)

Tendulkar in his play, Silence! The Court is in Session!, interrogates the norms and

conditions of a patriarchal society that in one hand glorifies motherhood and on the other,

uses it as a tool for her subjugation and oppression. The play sprang from a real life story of

an amateur group that was on its way to stage a mock trial in a village near Mumbai. It

attacks the philosophy of exaltation of motherhood by laying exposed the sexual politics in

gender relations and patriarchal norms of the family. It also interrogates the primary concerns

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of caste, class and society that are closely associated with the institutions of marriage and

motherhood.

Miss Benare, the protagonist of the play, is a teacher by profession and lives her life with

an unparallel boldness, exuberance and independence. She is indifferent to social

expectations and vehemently refuses to observe social taboos. Benare is an independent and

successful school teacher. She conveys her wish to be surrounded by innocent children who

are not yet touched by the selfish motives of a patriarchal society. She exhibits an endless and

unbounded passion for life by leading a life that is non-conformist in its approach and defies

the well defined convention and practice of a predictable society. She boldly asserts her

individuality, “my life is my own…my will is my own…I’ll do what I like with myself and

my life! I’ll decide…” (Tendulkar 58).

However, Ms. Benare’s sense of independence and enthusiasm for leading her life in her

own way threatens the patriarchal society. Her professional success and charismatic

personality too arouse envy in her theatre group. Besides this, her strong motherly instinct

arouses fear and insecurity in the men folks who envy her. They also envisage her success in

the teaching fraternity and popularity amongst her students as viable threat and a

reconfirmation of her motherly instincts. As the spinster Ms. Benare channelizes her strong

motherly instincts of love, concern, affection by nurturing the young minds and souls of her

students, the male custodians of the social norms, Mr. Kashikar and other males in the theatre

group feel threatened and challenged. They also perceive in her rapport with students a

hidden strength to nurture and support her child as a single parent. Consequently, the

custodians of patriarchal values, Kashikar and Sukhatme, see in her the potential to pull apart

the very fabric of a Brahmanical society, where the purity of a caste based society is directly

linked with the sexuality of a woman. Hence, when the co-actors get a chance to reveal her

illegal relationship with Professor Damle, a married man with five kids, mainly the fact that

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Miss Benare carries Damle's child, they do it deftly and with lots of enthusiasm. To conceive

without wedlock is such a social sin that it over shadows her professional success and makes

her feel insignificant in spite of social recognition that she enjoyed in her professional field.

Benare’s unmarried motherhood is an outcome of her approach to an unconventional

lifestyle. The Hindu patriarchal society that has created the image of woman on the line of

Sati, Savitri and Parvati and expects both the society and women to follow this image, any

woman trying to challenge this image is bound to invite trouble for her. Ms. Benare out

rightly defies the conventional image of a woman as submissive, obedient, dependent and

blind follower of patriarchal values. The Hindu patriarchal society expects both the society

and women to follow this image with utmost sincerity. However, Leela Benare’s financial

independence and her unconventional approach to life enable her to challenge the patriarchal

image of an ideal woman. Her sense of independence which is a direct outcome of her

education and intelligence makes her an eyesore for the men in the society. Hence, the men in

her theatre group, most of whom are professional failures, get intimidated by her

independence and plan the mock trial where she is charged for two grave reasons-- unwed

motherhood and attempt to female foeticide. Therefore, they bank on mock trial as one of

their many strategies to suppress the visibility of women like Benare.

According to Hinduism, the female was created by Brahma as a part of the duality in

creation, to provide company to men and facilitate procreation, progeny and continuation of

family lineage. The essence of the role of a woman lies in her role as a mother. In a caste

conscious society, the purity of blood and caste is directly linked with the purity of a

woman’s sexuality. In this context, the views of Veena Noble Das are pertinent who writes,

“woman as the gateways of caste” (Das 135). Manu too approves of the urgent need to

control women sexuality. Thus, in Chapter V, verse 148 of Manusmriti, he defends this

prerequisite and firmly commands, “In childhood a female must be subject to her father, in

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youth to her husband, when her lord is dead to her sons; a woman must never be

independent” (qtd. in Buhler 195). Hence, the need to control the sexuality of women

emerges as one of the main prerequisites of caste stratified Hindu society.

A significant insight on the condition of women’s sexuality in a Brahmanical patriarchy

has been provided by Dr. Ambedkar in his article “The Rise and Fall of Hindu Women”.

Critiquing the sexuality of women as perceived by Brahmanical patriarchy, Dr. Ambedkar

argues that it is the sexual independence of women in Brahmanical patriarchy that is always

regarded as dangerous and destabilizing for the society. The fact that religion has deeply

affected and grievously damaged the image of woman in Indian society is argued by many

other scholars on the condition of women in Hindu Society. Preeti Mishra in her book

Domestic Violence against Women: Legal Control and Judicial Response and M. G. Chitkara

in Women and Social Transformation cite Adishankaracharya, the great founder of Hindu

Philosophy, degrading woman as “the gateway to hell and poison in the shape of nectar”

(Mishra xiv and Chitkara 99).

Leela Benare’s illicit pregnancy fortifies the apprehensions that the old sages and

philosophers like Adishankaracharya have expressed. Leela Benare challenges the ideal

image of women that the patriarchy envisages to have for maintaining the purity of the

society. Contrary to the ideal image of a woman that the patriarchy envisages, Leela Benare

carrying the symbol of her illicit affair with Prof Damle threatens to pull apart the very fabric

of the Brahmanic patriarchal tradition. Such outright violation of women’s codes of

behaviour enrages Kashikar and he expresses his faith on the old customs of Hindu society.

Therefore, he urges all to heartily welcome the old custom of child marriage so that a woman

never gets an opportunity to enjoy independence of her sexuality, when he says, “[m]arry off

the girls before puberty. All this promiscuity will come to a full stop” (Tendulkar 98).

However, since Ms. Benare’s unbridled independence and promiscuity flout the expectations

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of a virgin woman, he retorts her saying, “a sinful canker on the body of society…”

(Tendulkar 112) and the best way to unplug such weeds is to socially marginalize her by

snatching away all that give her a sense of happiness, satisfaction and independence.

Therefore, the judge announces the verdict of aborting her foetus. The Chairman of the

school, Nanasaheb Shinde of Bombay, as was overheard having a telephonic conversation,

angrily remarks, “It is a sin to be pregnant before marriage. It would be still more immoral to

let such a woman teach in such a condition! There is no alternative - this woman must be

dismissed” (Tendulkar 113). The punishment reaches its height with Mr. Kashikar’s

pronouncement of the verdict, “no memento of your sin should remain for future

generations…the child in your womb shall be destroyed” (Tendulkar 119).

However, while drawing conclusions on Ms. Benare’s character and passing judgements

for her gross misbehaviour and challenging the social norms, nobody even attempts to

consider the culpability of her close associate, Prof Damle, the man behind Benare’s unwed

motherhood. Instead the representatives of patriarchal society like Mr. and Mrs. Kashikar, Mr

Ponkshe and others of the theatre group blame her for her socially unacceptable condition.

Mr. Kashikar sees the roots of such unacceptable anti social activities in the society’s

growing liberal attitude and in order to register such antisocial elements like Ms. Benare, he

observes, “Our society should revive the old custom of child marriage. Marry off the girls

before puberty. All this promiscuity will come to an end” (Tendulkar 98).

Leela Benare’s education and financial independence entraps her in patriarchal power

politics. The four phases of man’s life explicate the patriarchal society’s manipulation of the

feminine gender to keep them in perpetual subjugation, dependence and enslavement. In a

Brahmanical society the system of four ashramas speaks volumes about the role and

responsibilities of a man as the superior one and the woman as a mere follower. The four

phases (ashramas) that consist of Brahmacharya, Gryhastha Vanaprastha and Sanyasa

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correspond to four goals of Kama, Artha, Dharma and Moksha respectively, exclusively

mention the roles of men, however, mention of the role of women goes unmentioned. Women

are denied access to education. Instead Manu equates a woman’s marriage to a man’s thread

ceremony, implying a woman’s responsibility confined to domestic space, without practical

any power.

Uma Chakravarti in the book, Gendering Caste: Through a Feminist Lens, traces a

woman’s fickle minded nature coupled with uncontrollable sexuality to her stribhava, or the

innate nature of women. It is contradictory to her ideological nature known as stridharma,

which entails fidelity to her family in her maidenhood and to her husband after her marriage.

Chakravarti, further elucidates that to keep women’s sexuality under control, mechanism of

control operates at several levels: ideological as well as coercion. In this context, Leela

Benare, an independent, educated woman, carrying with her the symbol of her uncontrollable

sexuality, therefore manifests her indomitable stribhava. Hence, the need of the patriarchal

society, represented by Kashikar, Sukhatme, Ponkshe and other men in the play, is to punish

Leela Benare for committing a sin of transgressing her limits.

Kate Millet in her Sexual Politics argues that patriarchy rules over the woman and

constructs a type for woman ─ an icon that serves its ends and the subservience to which

feeds and perpetuates the sway of patriarchy. The character of Leela Benare is one of

contradictions. On one hand she defies the expectations of an ideal woman that regulate and

control her sexuality. She is a woman of strong opinions. Though she has conceived out of

wedlock yet she fights bravely to retain the child. However, on the other hand, she is

unconsciously trapped in the patriarchal ideology of motherhood. As she pleads to be allowed

to retain the foetus, she manifests the need of a father to parent the child, “he (the foetus)

must have a mother...a father to call his own – a house- to be looked after- he must have a

good name” (Tendulkar118). Probably, for a self reliant woman like Ms. Benare, the need of

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a man as a father figure stems out of the need to guarantee social recognition and to avoid

social stigmatization. However, by showing the need for man in her life to father her child,

Ms. Benare confirms her unconscious internalisation of patriarchal ideologies and

unwittingly accepts man made significance of a male partner in establishing a family. The

legal system too is a male construct and therefore, it nicely protects Prof. Damle throughout

the mock trial. Instead of blaming Prof. Damle and punishing him for initiating a relationship

and violating her virginity, the mock trial incites on her to accept that her present state of

curse is the outcome of her hypersexual character. Ultimately, the intelligent and independent

Ms. Benare under the pressure breaks down and publicly admits that her condition is a

consequence of her untameable desire for men in her life:

It’s true, I did commit a sin. I was in love with my mother’s brother. ...he gave me

love...I insisted on marriage. So I could live my beautiful lovely dream openly...but

my brave man turned tail and ran away. Again I fell in love. As a grown woman. I

threw all my heart into it; I thought, this will be different. This love is intelligent...I

offered my body on the altar of my worship...he wasn’t god. He was a man. For

whom everything was of the body, for the body! This body is a traitor! (Tendulkar

118)

However, evident in Ms. Benare’s confession is her naive honesty who readily accepts

her mistake of developing an incestuous relation with her uncle. She also demonstrates her

awareness of the social injunctions that expect a woman to follow a certain moral code of

social behaviour. Her deeply felt words, “I insisted on marriage” (Tendulkar 118) also

manifest her desire for a man in her life, whom she can marry and start a family. Ironically,

her naivety is exploited by the men in her life who have used her body to meet their selfish

desires. Eventually, her last few words shows her ultimate realisation that it is the body of a

woman more than her heart that is important for a man, “I offered my body on the altar of my

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worship...he wasn’t god. He was a man. For whom everything was of the body, for the body!

(Tendulkar118).

Leela Benare’s experiences certainly hint at the vulnerability of women in all stages of

her life in a patriarchal society. A woman in a male dominated society is perceived as a toy in

the hands of men, an object to be controlled and kept under his dependence forever and Ms.

Benare had not been an exception of this notion. She had been sexually exploited by her

uncle in her adolescence and by Prof. Damle in her maturity. However, when she realises her

own situation and tries to challenge it, she is again reminded that a woman should always be

dependent on men and cannot claim control on her own body. Ms. Benare along with other

women, like Mrs. Kashikar, the barren woman in Silence! and Rama, the so called barren

woman who actually bears the brunt of her husband’s sterility, in the play, The Vultures,

symbolise the ironical situation of women in Brahmanical patriarchy. These women whether

they are fertile enough to be blessed with a foetus like Ms. Benare has no right to protect and

give birth to her child as much as women who are barren, like Mrs. Kashikar and Rama, who

spend their life fretting and mourning for their inability to bear a child. They reflect a

woman’s perpetual state of distress because of their incomplete womanhood. When Ms.

Benare is attacked by Mrs Kashikar for her unwed motherhood and is dumped on the grounds

of her insolence, she points out, though sarcastically, the same fate that both of them share in

a patriarchal society. With admiration she congratulates her for being ‘an excellent

housewife’ (Tendulkar 59) but sarcastically brings out her emptiness and social

marginalization as a barren women as she remarks, “and poor hands that rocks the cradle has

no cradle to rock” (Tendulkar 59)! Mrs. Kashikar who bears the curse of infertility, spends

her motherly instincts over her adopted child. However, her adoption reinforces the insecurity

that a couple develops as they grow old and therefore to ensure their old age care and

security, they adopt a boy.

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Tendulkar draws the character of Mrs. Kashikar’s as a typical perpetrator of patriarchal

oppression. Instead of trying to support and defend Leela Benare in her times of mental

agony, she joins in hands with her husband and other men to punish her for transgressing her

limits in a patriarchal society. Mrs. Kashikar’s oppressive nature, however, stems from her

jealousy of Leela Benare’s professional success and the gift of bearing a child. Therefore, she

tries to damage her blessed condition of motherhood by joining the males in the theatre group

who blame and accuse Leela of unwed motherhood.

Nilanjan Chatterjee, a reputed scholar n Tendulkar’s plays, in her observation on Leela

Benare’s fate mentions:

Benare is therefore a victim of a revengeful and myopic society that does not

tolerate deviance from its mores…the system does not tolerate her efforts to be an

individual. She does not commit any sin by aspiring not to be conventional.

Rather convention is at fault for dogmatically following crusty rules and for

giving tradition a primacy over life and its desires. (56-7)

Thus, Ms. Benare’s desire and courage to challenge the patriarchal society locks her in

its partial principles and ideologies and make her a prey to the authorities of the patriarchal

society. The cruel authorities of the patriarchal society label Leela Benare’s action as

immoral and subjects her to the punishment of aborting her child in her womb but remain

silent about Prof Damle. Therefore, the punishment falls on Benare for an act which is

accomplished by two. Mr Kashikar, therefore as the caretaker and representative of a pure

society, sees Benare’s act not only as immoral but as a threat for others in the society and

therefore passes the verdict that she should be punished for transgressing her limits as an

unwed female. He says, “No memento of your sin should remain for future generations…the

child in your womb shall be destroyed” (Tendulkar 119).

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It is evident from the mock trial and the harsh verdict that is passed against Leela, “No

memento of your sin should remain for future generations…the child in your womb shall be

destroyed” (Tendulkar 119), that the patriarchal society leaves no stones unturned to punish

Leela for her audacity to challenge the patriarchal ideologies. The punishment also targets to

crush her dignity and her belief on herself and reinforces the patriarchal belief that a woman

because of her indomitable sexual nature or stribhava, should always be in the custody of a

male partner and if any violation is done on her part, punishment is inevitable.

Hence, the society that regards women as Shakti, the creator of the living force and

Lakshmi, the preserver, also perceives her as a gateway to caste pollution. Hence, it responds

to Miss Benare with unimaginable ruthlessness. She is accused, betrayed and insulted. The

wound that Leela receives is irreparable; it is the symbol of the unsympathetic patriarchy. It

symbolises women’s powerlessness in a male dominated society, “And the wound that’s born

to bleed, Bleeds on forever, faithfully. There is a battle sometimes, where Defeat is destined

as the end. Some experiences are meant. No taste, then just to waste and spend…” (Tendulkar

63).

The last few lines that the wronged Leela utters are heavily loaded with the references to

the ways of patriarchal dominance and hegemonic use of power to subjugate, oppress and

marginalize the female gender:

The parrot to the sparrow said,

‘Why, oh why, are your eyes so red?’

‘Oh my dear friend, what shall I say?/

Someone has stolen my nest away.’

Sparrow, sparrow, poor little sparrow.

‘Oh, brother crow, oh, brother crow,

Were you there? Did you see it go?’

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‘No, I don’t know. I didn’t see.

What are your troubles to do with me?’

O sparrow, sparrow, poor little sparrow. (Tendulkar121)

The monologue that has an allegorical implication reflects the condition of women like

Leela Benare. A small helpless bird, sparrow, is wronged by its big brother, the crow. Yet the

crow remains indifferent to the helplessness of the sparrow, whose nest it has crushed. It is

this nest, the home, for which a woman craves for and in this case, Leela is betrayed in her

efforts to set her new home and start her family only because she has challenged the norms of

the society and desires to continue with the foetus in her womb that she has conceived out of

wedlock. Her unwed motherhood invites her fall in the society.

While it is Leela Benare’s unmarried status that leads to her humiliation in public and

mental oppression, Rama in The Vultures, in spite of two decades of marriage, is subjected to

emotional and mental unrest for her inability to bear a child, though it is not she to be blamed

but her husband’s sterility. Her anxiety over unfulfilled motherhood verges onto an uncanny

emptiness that seems to engulf her presence. She goes through a hellish mental anxiety as she

fails to convey it to her husband that it is not because of her that they are childless. Rather, it

is her husband’s sexual limitation that acts as an obstacle in materialising her journey from a

wife to a mother and confines her to a state of barrenness. Tendulkar, in his depiction of

Rama as a woman engulfed in her failure to materialise her dream of mothering a child,

makes it very explicit that it is the patriarchal set up, consisting of her husband Ramakant, his

family and the society, is mainly responsible for her plight.

In a male dominated society, the institution of marriage gives license to motherhood.

While Leela in Silence! is a sad prey of a patriarchal society for trying to assert and protect

her motherhood without wedlock, Rama is another example of how in spite of decades of

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marriage fails to attend motherhood and therefore, subjected to mental oppression at Pitale

household.

Rama is a meek, docile, dutiful woman in the family of money mongers, where each one

is against the other. She is the only person with a human heart in a family of fearful vultures.

Her presence itself exudes warmth, love and care but even her husband is indifferent to her

feelings. The only concern of her chauvinist husband is property and an heir to maintain that.

His narrow vision thus blinds him from realising his wife’s emptiness, her desires and wants.

The only person who understands Rama’s condition and gives expression in the following

poetic lines is Rajaninath, Ramakant’s illegitimate brother, “A statue of emotions chilled to

stone. /Alive, she followed after /That living death, her master, /With that dogged loyalty

Of a barren beast” (Tendulkar 201).

Rama is the epitome of an ideal woman drawn along the lines of Sita and Savitri.

Rama,as described by Rajaninath, is an embodiment of the feminine qualities of kindness,

patience, love and affection. Her dove like nature makes her the Lakshmi, (Goddess of

Prosperity and Wealth) of Pitale household. Because of her sweet nature, kindness and

responsible behaviour she earns a loving place in her father-in-law, Hari Pitale’s heart.

However, her husband’s indifferent attitude to her emptiness and subjecting her to all the

blames for their childless life drive her crazy. Unable to endure the pain that Rama

experiences, that is poetically expressed by Rajaninath as, “like a million needles stuck in

your heart. Blinding you, maddening you with pain. You can’t endure them. But you can’t

pull them out” (Tendulkar 240), she sets on to prove that she is not barren and hence,

establishes an illegitimate affair with her foster brother-in-law.

While Silence! presents the helpless plight of women who suffer from complete lack of

control over her body, The Vultures reflects the absence of a significant social existence of a

woman other than in her role as an ideal, dutiful wife and mother. In her role as a wife, a

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woman’s primary function, therefore, is to assist her husband in rituals and give birth to his

sons. A woman’s social conditioning helps her to internalise this without resistance and

hence, a woman voluntarily takes up and tries to fulfil the responsibility of carrying forward

the family lineage.

Marriage and motherhood is not only a social responsibility for a woman, it is the duty

of a woman to give birth to a son, an heir to the family. Manu while emphasising on marriage

as an inevitable part of a woman’s life also makes them aware of the consequences of their

failure to live by the expectations of marriage, “A barren wife may be superseded in eighth

year, she whose children all die in the tenth, she who bears only daughters in the eleventh...”

(qtd. in Buhler 342). Thus, it is the fear of losing her husband to another fertile woman as

well as the anxiety of being a social cast away that pushes Rama to prove her fertility by

procreating through Rajaninath, an illegitimate son of papa Pitale.

Rama’s distress is also rooted in the stigma attached to an infertile woman. Though she

is not infertile, in the eyes of her family and the outer world she is an infertile barren woman.

The life of an infertile woman is always at risk of being thrown out from social circles.

Sukumari Bhattacharya, on the marginalised position of infertile women, observes that an

infertile woman in Vedic ages was a bad omen and was cast away from family and society as

she was perceived as possessed by ‘nirrti’, an evil spirit responsible of destroying everything

good and therefore kills the germ of new life in such women (51). Hence, as the pressures of

patriarchal expectations keep building up in Rama, she is compelled to shed off her image as

an ideal woman, meek and “innocent as a doe” (Tendulkar 203) and gathers courage to

confront the patriarchal system that constantly tries to label her as a barren woman. It is the

joint forces of her family and the society that ultimately drives her to take the most daring

step of challenging the authority of her husband and the society at large to prove her fertility

as well as quench her own thirst for motherhood. Gradually Rama musters the mental

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strength to come out of the ideal image of a meek, docile daughter-in-law and wife and

develop a sexual relation with her step brother-in-law, Rajaninath, to prove her fertility.

Both Leela and Rama are not barren women but are blessed like many other women to

give birth to their babies and enjoy motherhood. However, both of them fail to enjoy the

blessings and happiness of motherhood for their personal reasons. In the case of Ms. Benare,

motherhood remains a distant dream. In spite of carrying the foetus in her womb, she lives a

life of despair because of a lack of a male person as a legal husband and consequently, the

orders of the court that demands her to abort her foetus, a symbol of illicit affair. Rama, on

the other hand, is a victim in the hands of her chauvinistic husband who failed to accept his

impotency. Though Rama has often tried to explain her despair and helplessness, Ramakant

had turned deaf ear to her pleadings, leaving her distraught as always. Ultimately, when she

bears the child, the symbol of her illicit affair with Rajaninath, she loses the child because of

the malicious and revengeful acts of her sister-in-law, Manik, who in order to take revenge on

her brother, wrongs Rama.

In the context of Leela and Rama’s situation in a male dominated society, Shoma

Chatterjee’s observation on the condition of women seems apt. In The Indian Women’s

Search for an Identity (1988), she argues that women’s fertility works against her liberation

and rightly points out , “for a woman, her fertility and her infertility are converted into a

powerful instrument of socio-economic and political control in the hands of a male

dominated system” (217). Thus, Leela’s eagerness to give birth to her child without wedlock

and Rama’s falsified case of infertility subject them to inherent cruelty of the chauvinistic

patriarchal society.Leela Benare and Rama’s examples reinforce the significance of marriage

as a social institution that marks the beginning of gender oppression. Hence, the institution of

marriage, in the hands of Tendulkar, becomes a double edged tool for gender oppression. It

is one such institutionalised tool that has the potential of both sanctioning as well as

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snatching away the joy of motherhood Therefore, the patriarchal society that labels Leela as

a canker, a weed that must be plucked off for the betterment of others, labels Rama as a

barren woman.

The natural cycles of birth and death are inevitable and significant parts of a society. In

fact the survival of a society and its civilization is dependent on it. An individual bears a high

responsibility in contributing to the sustenance of the society and his failure is usually

considered as a matter of irresponsibility and shame. The stigma attached with infertility

becomes a social problem that needs to be suppressed immediately as it surfaces in a couple’s

life. Families which are suffering because of infertility prefer to deal with it at individual

level and often seek medical help and religious intervention. The patriarchal order of a male

dominated society has its own prescriptions to alleviate a couple of the curse of infertility. By

regarding infertility as a curse and therefore prescribing ways of getting out of it, the

patriarchy establishes its power and authority on a woman’s body and her existence.

Rama’s husband, Ramakant, is a typical example of an anxious husband looking forward

to father their progeny but fails to accept his limitation in begetting a child. Thus, he leaves

no stones unturned to cure his wife’s inability to bear a child. In fact, in order to justify his

medical fitness he takes Rama for medical treatment and visits astrologers and saints for

seeking remedy for her infertility. “…Rama dear, that Achalanand Swami or what you call'im

from Kandivali’s coming this evening.to the Rajadhyaksha,’ at Linking road. Let’s drop in

there” (Tendulkar 212). This not only reinforces the orthodox mentality and chauvinistic

attitude of Ramakant, but also hints at his male chauvinism that does not allow him to accept

his own sterility.as the reason behind their inability to have a child. Ramakant’s approach to

this whole situation blatantly brings out male dominance over the female body and mind to

assert his superiority.

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The social conditioning of a woman from her very childhood makes her feel that the

gateway to her ideal womanhood lies in taking up the roles of wife and mother. Thus, though

Rama has been successful in taking up the role as an ideal daughter-in-law of the family, she

fails to realise the other one. Therefore, Rama’s frustrated unheard voice that tries to justify

herself is reflected in the given lines:

It’s not the fault of doctors, of learned men, of saints and sages! It’s not even my

fault! This womb’s healthy and sound, I swear it! I was born to become a mother.

This soil’s rich, it’s hungry. But the seed won’t take root. If the seed’s soaked in

poison, if it’s weak, feeble, and lifeless devoid of virtue-then why blame the soil?

(Tendulkar 241)

Tendulkar through Rama’s pitiable situation hints at the wickedness of the patriarchal

society. It is the patriarchal society that constructs a type of belief, a sort of universal truth,

that it is only the woman who is responsible for becoming or not becoming mother. It

blissfully puts all the possible blame on the woman for being issueless. Sukumari

Bhattacharji in "Motherhood in Ancient India" (1990) points out: "Male infertility was dimly

known as the custom of levitate indicates, but no stigma ever attached to an impotent male.

We hear of impotent kings both in Brahmanical and Buddhist literature but never with any

aspersion of inauspiciousness [...] It was always the woman who got blamed for failing to

procreate" (Bhattacharya 51).

It is the patriarchal pressure on a woman to prove her essence as a mother that drives

Rama to cast away her ideal image as an obedient and honest wife and indulge in other means

like an illicit relation to have a child. Rama’s illicit relation with Rajaninath did fulfil her

dream of becoming a mother but it pushes her into a series of problems and consequent

humiliation and oppression at Pitale household. Given the vile nature that a woman is

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supposed to be in possession of it is the duty of a man to protect her wife and keep her in

control. However, Ramakant fails to do his duty as a husband and his wife slips off his hands.

Rama’s secret liaison with Rajaninath proves the total failure of Ramakant as a husband.

He not only fails to complete their marital life by having a child, he also refuses to give Rama

the space as his wife. As she feels suffocated in that house of ‘vultures’ and begs Ramakant

to consider the change of their residence, she pleads to her husband for an alternative choice:

Take a job somewhere. Whatever you can get. Never mind if it doesn’t pay well.

We’ll live in poverty…But let’s finish this death by imprisonment. Let’s end this

dreadful play- acting. Stop this murderous deceit honestly! Put an end to it. Let’s

get out from this overpowering house….(Tendulkar 250)

But he rejects her request due to his male chauvinism and cupidity and reprimands Rama for

daring to advice him when he says:

Look here, Rama! In this house, we’re not accustomed to listening to any

smartness from women! No man in our family’s been a bloody hen pecked

husband, what? I know very well indeed what to do, what not to do. No need for a

woman to teach me sense. (Tendulkar 251)

Ramakant, is the authorial head of the family. He is the sole decision maker, who hardly

takes his wife’s advice into account. The arrogance and narrow mentality of Ramakant

relegates Rama to the fringes of his family. A woman’s fate as evident in Rama’s case is to

stick to the ideal image of an obedient and docile woman, consequently accept silence forever

and provide the man in her life to dominate over her.

The longing for motherhood is so strongly felt by Rama that for her to defy the ideal

image of a wife is a better option than wallowing in perpetual emptiness as a childless mother

and remains subjected to the criticism of the society. Unable to control her desire to give

shape to her longing for motherhood, she rises up like a phoenix from her oppressive

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condition and challenges the patriarchy that labelled her as barren and refused to listen to her

pleadings that tried to prove her fertility. Through the character of Rama, Vijay Tendulkar

reemphasises the fact that when a woman like Rama goes unheard, uncared for, she collects

the mental and physical strength to write her own story, a story that counters the hegemonic

power of a chauvinistic society.

Thus, the wronged Rama in her desperation to mother a baby breaks the shackles of her

husband’s control over her womb and turns to Rajininath to materialise her dream of holding

a baby in her arms. Her sense of loneliness and emptiness that stemmed from her inability to

prove her fertility to her husband and the society is best captured by Rajaninath in these lines:

Like a worm, I watched and watched her.

For twenty-two long years.

All her hopes, her expectations

Were scorched, uprooted where they grew.

But she only knew

One longing...

Threw of her chains in her need.

The need to swell with fruit.

A soft fulfillment.

Each womb-bearing woman’s right by birth.

Empty of pain

And empty of desires.

And, on the swinging branch

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Of her rotten hopes,

Five vultures. (Tendulkar 205-6).

Rajaninath extends his helping hand, understanding mind and affectionate heart and

reciprocates to her unsaid love for him.

As Rama finds human compassion and affection in Rajaninath, she too extends helping

hand towards him and secretly feeds her step brother-in-law, who has never been accepted by

the Pitale brothers for his illegitimate birth and was given shelter in the old garage. Gradually

their mutual understanding, considerateness for each other and dependency makes way to

physical intimacy that though gives Rama momentary satisfaction and happiness of bearing a

child, actually invites humiliation and abuse in the Pitale household. However, the

clandestine relation of Rama and Rajaninath, though immoral and not acceptable by the

patriarchal society, is the only one relation that has the germ of love in it and allows Rama to

prove her fertility against the perception that the society had of her as a barren woman.

Once Rama’s latent hopes of mothering a child sees the light of the day, her position in

her husband’s life too undergoes a change. The sudden change in Rama’s position in her

husband’s life captures the role and essence of womanhood. Sudhir Kakar discussing the

change in the status of an Indian woman once she becomes a mother observes:

For an Indian woman, imminent motherhood is not only the personal fulfilment

of an old wish and the biological consummation of a lifelong promise, but an

event in which culture confirms her status as a renewer of the race and extends to

her the respect and consideration which were not accorded to her as a mere wife.

(79)

Rama is no exception to it. Ramakant becomes extra cautious of her health and showers

love and affection on her for healthy growth and development of his child. He reminds Rama

to apply “the sacred ash from Shirdi” (Tendulkar 249), to take the daily doses of injections

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and pills without forgetting to protect the heir to his family from any unwanted danger and to

ensure a good and healthy growth of the foetus. He weaves a web of dreams round the child

growing in Rama’s womb. Also latent in Ramakant’s affectionate behaviour towards his wife

is the significance of a rightful heir to his property, lest it should go to his brother, Umakant

in his absence.

However, the good days of loving togetherness for Rama and Ramakant come to an end

when Umakant, Ramakant’s money monger brother, spills the beans of Rama’s clandestine

affair with Rajaninath and her consequent illicit pregnancy. Umakant, who feels he is being

cheated while trying to settle a better deal with his elder brother Ramakant, tries to take a

revenge on his elder brother by unsettling his happiness on the much awaited arrival of an

heir to his property. Hence, he divulges the secret of an illicit affair between Rama and

Rajaninath and the fruit of the relationship that she is bearing.

The news wrecks havoc on Rama- Ramakant’s relation. The betrayed Ramakant feels

cheated by his wife and becomes violent towards Rama for having an illicit affair with

Rajaninath. He even decides to kill the illegitimate child growing in Rama’s womb, “I’ll

abort him. He’s not mine. He’s my enemy’s bloody son... I’ll finish off the bastard. Push him

out of her belly. Tear him out!” (Tendulkar 264) and reaches out to Rama with hatred and

anger to kill the last sign of betrayal.

In a Brahmanical society, a man’s primary duty is to control the sexuality of women.

Time and again Manu has emphasised on the “fickleness of women’s nature” (Chakravarti )

and the consequent “problem of dealing with the innately overflowing and uncontrollable

sexuality of women” (Chakravarti). Tracing the ancient texts and scriptures on women nature

it is evident that women nature had always intrigued men to the extent of unsettling their

sense of security over their caste purity. For instance, a Jataka story compares the nature of

women to that of a greedy cow “As greedy cows seek pasture anew, women unsated yearn

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for mate on mate” (The Jataka: 1.155). Manu, who had always been doubtful of the essential

nature of women had always advised men to keep women under their control throughout of

their lives. Defending his argument on controlling the sexuality of women Manu in the Xth

chapter of Manusmriti observes, “He who carefully guards his wife, preserves (the purity of)

his offspring, virtuous conduct, his family, himself and his (means of acquiring) merit” (qtd.

in Buhler 328). Clearly evident in Manu’s words is the responsibility of a man to control his

wife lest she brings dishonour to him and his family. In this context Ramakant’s failure to

control his wife and family honour stems from his failure to accept his infertility and

continuously blaming Rama for their childless state. However, when the dejected Rama turns

towards Rajaninath, a more compassionate man compared to her husband, hoping to

materialise her dream of bearing a child through him, it is she who is abused as a fallen,

immoral woman, a woman who fails to keep the vows of marriage of staying loyal to her

husband forever. The custodian of her married life, Ramakant, therefore, is totally convinced

that she should be punished by destroying the foetus, the symbol of her illicit affair with

Rajaninath.

Ironically, the man who tries to carry out his responsibility as a custodian of his wife’s

sexuality fails to carry out his duties as a husband, trying to develop a more understanding

and compassionate relation with his wife rather than continuously blaming her for their

childless condition. Yet, he manages to take an upper hand on the situation and Rama and

hurls abuses on her. Interestingly, as Ramakant decides to punish Rama for transgressing her

limits as a wife, he punishes himself as well, though unconsciously. His punishment,

however, comes as a ruthless bursting of his dream of having a child of theirs. Ramakant, by

killing the symbol of Rama’s illicit relation with Rajaninath brings an end to his newly

developed hope of having a son, an heir to his property and family name. Hence, as

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Rajaninath observes, “For they have no other future left to them. There is no hope”

(Tendulakar 265) the Pitale couple remains deprived of any heir to the family forever.

The cruelty and hypocrisy of the patriarchal society is once more evident when in her

crisis Rama is not even supported by the man who was always so full of sympathy, kindness,

affection and love for her, the only human being in the family of vultures. Rajininath’s cold

silence when Rama becomes the victim of the cruelty of the Pitale family for her immorality

in a way hints at the biases against women. Though both Rajaninath and Rama are equally

responsible, it is Rama who is blamed for her indomitable sexuality and consequently

punished.

The ugly fact of a scheming patriarchal society is once more exposed by Tendulkar

through the subtle characterization of rajaninath. Rajininath, who should be equally blamed

and made responsible for Rama’s condition however keeps silent. No doubt he was already a

marginalised one in Pitale household but instead of standing by Rama and accepting equal

responsibility for the child in her womb, he maintains absolute silence. However, hidden in

his silence are the strategic measures of a patriarchy to subjugate women. Rajaninath by

keeping silent refuses to share the onus of Rama’s plight and also it directs to the strong

patriarchal norms that once violated cannot be mended, and if at all possible to mend then

against heavy charges. His silence actually reflects his passive support for the Pitale family

and the patriarchal society in general for punishing a woman for violating the sacredness of

the institution of marriage and bearing an illegitimate child.

The condition of women like Rama and Leela Benare who have no claims on their own

womb can be traced in another woman character created by Tendulkar, Manik. Manik, the

only daughter of Hari Pitale, like Leela Benare, is a woman who carries a foetus without

wedlock. She is the fiancée of Raja of Hondour and is bearing the child of Raja of Hondour.

If in Leela Benare’s case her unmarried motherhood is a matter of tension and the society

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wants her to abort the child, in Manik’s case, her brothers exploit her unwed pregnancy to

extract money from her fiancé, Raja of Hondour.

Manik belongs to a family of money mongers. Both of her brothers are against her as she

is one of the rightful share holders of their father, Hari Pitale’s property. The brothers want

their father to divide his property between them. However, as per Hindu property laws after

independence, an unmarried daughter is a rightful heir to her father’s property, Manik is one

of the share holders of their father’s assets. Hence, as they miss on the property share because

of Manik, they plan to blackmail her fiancé of his illicit affair with their sister and squeeze

money out him.

The Pitale brothers’ angst against their sister, Manik, for being a shareholder of their

father’s property can be traced back to the status of women in Hindu culture and their

succession rights. Women from ages have never been conceived as independent beings. A

woman’s sexuality is always seen as a threat for the patriarchal society. Therefore, a strong

desire and need to control the sexuality of a woman has been felt and practised since ages.

Hence, Manu observes, “Day and night women must be kept in dependence by the males (of)

their (families), and if they attach themselves to sensual enjoyments, they must be kept under

one’s control” (qtd. in Buhler 328). A woman, therefore, should be passed from one guardian

to another guardian at the right time, to carry out her socio-cultural obligation of procreation.

Her days at her father’s place are counted and she is considered paraya dhan (wealth of

others). This concept of woman as gift for others never considered woman as an owner of her

father’s property. Thus men never felt the need of sharing the family property with their

female family members since she would be always under the control of a male person, a

father, a brother, a husband or her son. In a way a women’s right to property also highlights

her position in a patriarchal society.

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The impression that Manu developed about the nature of women was mostly based on

their innate nature. Though, every human being is constituted of some good and favourable

qualities and some unfavourable one, Manu, however, picked on the bad and adverse ones,

especially, what he assumed as women’s ‘congenital fickleness’ (Chakravarti) and outlined a

critical opinion about them that led to their gradual social degradation. Hence, because of

their inherent capricious nature and indomitable sexuality they should be have no access to

independent life and should be kept under the control of men forever. Thus, he instructs men

to keep their women under control forever, “Day and night women should be kept in

dependence by the males of their families, and, if they attach themselves to sensual

enjoyments, they must be kept under one’s control” (qtd. in Buhler 327-28). He further

elaborates on this by specifying the role of various male family members in a woman’s life,

“her father protects her in childhood, her husband protects her in youth, her sons protect her

in old age; a woman is never fir for independence” (qtd. in Buhler 328). Manu’s view on the

nature of women is also expressed in the chapter VIII of Manusmriti, where he remarks with

contempt, “three persons, a wife, a son and a slave are declared to have in general no wealth

exclusively their own, regularly acquired for the man to whom they belong” (qtd. in Buhler

327). As a result of Manu’s observation on women’s inherent nature and consequent

injunctions on them, women had been automatically cut her off from family possessions.

Apart from Manu’s examination and conclusion drawn on the inherent nature of woman,

there is another very strong socio-religious law that worked against women and was

responsible for keeping them away from property rights. Women because of their biological

constitution is regarded as ‘impure’ and it is this impurity that deny them right to practice

religious rituals. The right to education has been denied to them since ages and Manu equates

a woman’s marriage to her upanayan (thread ceremony) to domestic responsibilities. Their

social significance has always been ignored and therefore, the right to education that could

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have given women access to religion and better knowledge of their position in religion was

systematically denied to confine them to a subordinate position compared to men. Thus the

clever, selfish patriarchy stunts all the possibilities of threat by deliberately keeping women

from education and performance of religious rituals. Women’s lack of access in religious rites

is closely linked with their denial in family property.

Property in Vedic age was closely linked to religious rites. It was obligatory on a person

holding property to perform religious rituals and he was regarded as a trustee of the property.

Since women had no rights to religious rites automatically her right to property was never

addressed. Rather women were entitled to enjoy ‘stridhan’ (woman’s property). The word

‘stridhan’ is a compound word consisting of two separate words; ‘stri’ means woman and

‘dhan’ means property. The property of a Hindu woman which was known as stridhan

included all those properties over which she had absolute ownership. Though the famous

Smritikars like Manu, Narada, Vishnu, Katyana, Devla and Yagnavalkya had different

connotation of stridhana, yet they were of the opinion that stridhana consisted of any gift that

a woman was given during her maidenhood, or before marriage, during the marriage or when

she left her home for her husband’s home. Besides these the gifts that were bestowed on a

newly married bride when she stepped into her new home or the gifts that the elders blessed

her with also formed a part of her stridhana.

Vishnu Dharmashashtra added a few more categories to the concept of stridhana. Those

were adhivedanika, gift or property given to a woman by his husband when he takes another

wife, anwadheyaka, gifts to her after marriage by the relatives of her parents or her parents-

in-law and sulka, dowry given to her by bridegroom or his parents. Katyana opined that the

property that a woman acquired “by her skills say by weaving or learning was her absolute

property” (Subbamma 124). Yaganavalkya Smriti, written by Yaganavalkya, included in

stridhana “presents and gifts by mother, father, husband and brothers, presents that she gets

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when she sat before the sacred fire at the time of marriage, property given to her as

consolation when he married again and others constituted Stridhana” (Sabbamma 124).

Though the definition of a woman’s property was clear enough to follow, a new concern

crept up which was pertaining to the right of a woman on her property. According to

Kautilya’s Arthashashtra, stridhana was manifold in nature and included all the ornaments

and articles that a woman received during her marriage and post marriage. The stridhana,

according to Kautilya, consisted of Swasura, gifts given by a bride’s father and Patidatta,

gifts given by her husband. It also included maintenance called Adhivedanika that a wife

received from her husband and Vriti that consisted of an amount of money given to her

additionally for a specific object. A woman had absolute right over her property. However, a

woman was denied access to these if she had a relation with another man.

However, with Manu the condition of a woman degenerated. Since Manu had a very low

opinion on the intrinsic nature of women, he deliberately reduced their independence to keep

them under the control of men and observed, “A wife, a son and a slave, these three are

declared to have no property; the wealth which they earn is acquired for him to whom they

belong” (qtd. in Buhler 36). Consequently, the sources of her property and the size of her

property underwent diminution. In the hands of Manu stridhana, though, retained its sacred

value, its intrinsic worth was reduced to a large extent. He gave property rights to a

daughter’s son but deprived the daughter of her share in her father’s property. It is this aspect

of a woman’s diminished right to her property that the Pitale brothers attempt to hold high

and execute in their household to deprive their sister, Manik, from her share in her father’s

property and hence, increase the size of their property.

However, with the social reformation movements and growing awareness to minimise

gender discrimination prevalent in Hindu society, an equitable distribution of property

between male and female heirs was proposed and women had an absolute ownership over

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stridhan. Besides, a Hindu woman’s access to limited estate was also enlarged. With the

enforcement of the new Hindu Succession Act, 1956 females were also included in the

succession to property. However, for the money monger Pitale brothers the existence of their

unmarried sister as well as the foetus growing in her womb posed a greater threat in terms of

property distribution and acquisition. According to the new Hindu Succession Act, 1956,

legally they cannot stop Manik from having a share in their father’s property. Hence, in order

to fit into Manu’s property laws, they judiciously make a series of plans to seize Pitale’s

property and deprive Manik from their father’s property. Unable to control their rage over the

property distribution that their father had planned, they vent out their seething anger through

their inhuman physical and mental abuses on Manik. As a result the heartless brothers leave

no opportunity to abuse their sister by getting into her personal life and her love affair with

the Raja of Hondur.

Consequently, the outraged Pitale brothers subject Manik to a series of verbal abuse and

humiliations that would crush her confidence and integrity and ultimately pushing her to

believe in her wretched condition, “Business in the bloody dumps! If anyone keeps you, at

least you’ve escaped beggary for the time being …” (Tendulkar 235). Manu enjoins on men

to control the sexuality of women. However, the Pitale brothers, Ramakant and Umakant,

subvert their roles as moral custodians of women. In fact as seen in The Vultures they are the

ones who violate the privacy and dignity of their sister at home. So much so that the Pitale

brothers frankly discuss about Manik's love affairs. They do not even hesitate to discuss

about her private life and dig into her love affairs with many other men before Raja of

Hondour, “Good victim she’s spied out this time! Before this…that cycle-shopowner. The

film-company cameraman. And in between, that stall- keeper from market. Used to roam

round town with him. On his motorbike. Arms round his waist!”(Tendulkar 216). The

vicious brothers, Ramakant and Umakant, even devise a plan to exploit her unwed pregnancy

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to blackmail her fiancé, the Raja of Hondour to extract money from him. Ironically, when

the Raja of Hondour dies before they get the ransom, they plan for aborting Manik’s foetus,

as a gesture of erasing all the signs of her moral laxity.

However, greedy and violent by nature that the brothers are, they fail to take up their

sudden roles as moral custodians of Manik and succumb to their inherent exploitative and

oppressive nature. The inherent cruelty of the brothers is surfaced as they plan to break her

legs and inflict physical abuse to kill her foetus. They even engage in filthy jokes on Manik

with her broken legs and Umakant says, “Bash, How'd she commit sati, after her leg was

broken? Couldn't sit down …on the funeral pyre’’ (Tendulkar 247). Umakant completes the

crude joke by adding, ''She’ll sit on the baby. The one in her belly” (Tendulkar 247).

It is evident from the analysis of the plays Silence!The Court is in Session and The

Vultures that though motherhood is a primary function of women, it is accepted only when it

is attained through marriage. Motherhood is denied to those women who fail to control their

indomitable sexuality and succumb to illicit relationships and consequently illegitimate

children. However, from the social pressures that a woman goes through since marriage to

become a mother, it is understood that a woman has no choice of her own, she is a puppet in

the hands of the men in her lives, especially her husband.

In The Second Stage (1981), Betty Freidan on the right of women to decide on their

motherhood observes:

The right to choose has to mean not only the right to choose not to bring a child

into the world against one's will, but also the right to have a child, joyously,

responsibly, without paying a terrible price of isolation from the world and its

rewarded occupations, its decisions and actions. (86)

However, in a patriarchal society it is a fact that women are denied this right. It is the

masculine control on the wombs of women that subject women like Leela Benare, Rama

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and Manik to inexplicable tortures and mental agony. Interesting to note here is the

patriarchal society’s overwhelming obsession with controlling the sexuality of women,

so much so that it upholds this responsibility at the highest order and makes conscious

efforts to creep into wielding power and control over a woman’s womb.

III
Intersection of Caste and Gender

Gerda Lerner in her explorations on the relationship between class and gender, observes

that though women belonging to different classes, enjoyed “economic independence, their

sexuality was nevertheless controlled by men” (qtd. in Chakravarti 26). In Indian context too,

production and reproduction that were linked with class and caste were organized by

controlling female sexuality. Consequently, it crippled the life of a woman. It aims at total

disempowerment and effacement of a woman’s identity. In addition, the patriarchal control

on a woman’s body and sexuality has its roots in the notions of pure and impure. Hence, the

sexuality of women is managed and directed to maintain caste purity.

Uma Chakravarti, in Genderig Caste, observes caste and class play a significant role in

determining the position of gender. Drawing a close link among the three, Chakravarti

observes:

Class, caste and gender are inextricably linked; they interact with and shape each

other: the structure of marriage, sexuality, and reproduction is the fundamental

basis of the caste system. It is also fundamental to the way inequality is sustained:

the structures of marriage reproduce both class and caste inequality and thus the

entire production system through its tightly controlled system of reproduction.

(27)

According to Dr. B. R. Ambedkar’s observation in his book, Annihilation of Caste “[t]he

real remedy for breaking Caste is inter-marriage. Nothing else will serve as the solvent of

Caste” (46). Nath Devlalikar, the father of Tendulkar’s protagonist, Jyoti in Kanyadaan, is a

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staunch believer of the Gandhian philosophy of dissolving caste boundaries. Hence, he shows

his happiness in his daughter, Jyoti’s decision to marry a young budding poet outside their

caste. Nath takes pride in her decision and revels in joy that ultimately as a Social Reformist

he has been able to practise the principles he preaches to the society outside to bring in a

social change.

Ironically, through the twists and turns that take place in Jyoti’s life immediately after

their hypogamous marriage, Vijay Tendulkar, the sensitive and radical reformist of his time,

depicts that the ‘mythical dystopia’(Chakravarti 35) that Jyoti and her family experience is a

natural consequence of her exogamous marriage. Joyti’s condition in her husband’s house

brings home the point that for any kind of exogamous marriage it is the female gender that

becomes its worst victim.

While drawing the linkage between gender and caste, and the vulnerable position of

women, Uma Chakravarti observes:

Under Brahmanical patriarchy women of the upper castes are regarded as

gateways ---literally points of entry into the caste system. The lower caste male

whose sexuality is a threat to upper caste purity of blood has to be institutionally

prevented from having sexual access to women of the higher castes, so such

women have to be carefully guarded. (35)

However, failing to guard the sexuality of upper caste women and lower caste men will give

rise to an unpleasant situation that would be marked by absence of social order and purity. To

put it in the words of Chakravarti:

Micegeny, or pratilomic varnasamkara (the mixing of castes) or hypogamous

relationships, represents the breakdown of the elaborate edifice of social order,

epitomized in the anxiety of kalyuga- a time when families are broken, rites are

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forgotten and women are defiled...this mythical dystopia represents the ultimate

degeneration and inversion of the moral order. (35)

Vijay Tendulkar’s Kanyadaan and Ghashiram Kotwal reflect this typical mythical

dystopia. Ideologically, mythical dystopia reflects a revolt, a change. However, the change is

not an easy process. It is a difficult journey that leads to unfathomable chaos. The intricate

weaving of caste and gender in the plots of both the plays reflects that the gap between the

upper and lower castes is so wide that it is difficult to bridge the gap and dissolve the caste

boundaries. Incidentally, it is the women who turn out to be the worst victims of such

mythical dystopia as they are perceived as the agents of “degeneration and inversion of moral

order” (Chakravarti 35). Against this negative image of women, is the more positive and

constructive aspect of women’s existence that Nath Devlalikar highlights on. He perceives in

women, through the example of his daughter, Jyoti, a potential force to bring in a new

change. Nath Devlalikar sees in Jyoti’s words and decision to marry outside their upper caste,

a determination, a ray of new hope to dissolve the boundaries and give birth to a casteless

society. However, disguised beneath his apparently magnanimous intention, is his narrow

political objectives that he wanted to reach through his daughter’s decision to have an inter

caste marriage. Hence, the hypocrite Nath Devlalikar, who claims to be a staunch social

reformist, keeps oscillating between his socialist dreams of a casteless society and the

concerns of a Brahmin father for his upper caste daughter married to a dalit boy.

Kanyadaan is Tendulkar’s beautiful rendition of the existence of caste conflicts that

define Hindu stratified society. Against the manipulative Nath Devlalikar, is the more honest

depiction of Arun Athavale, a first generation graduate belonging to Mahar caste. The

emotional flux and inconsistency that Arun Athavale manifests is a reflection of his caste

identity. He is happy about his unpolished and uncouth behaviour and shows no interest in

change. Rather, with pride he traces it to his low socio economic background, “because that’s

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my manner. A scavenger’s manner” (Tendulkar 513). Though Tendulkar had been severely

criticised for depicting Arun in the light of dalit anti hero, his character is actually the

playwright’s true understanding of the sufferings and agony that a dalit has undergone and is

still experiencing in a Brahmanical society. The common concerns of suffering and

humiliation that have left deep scars in the lives of dalits have been emphatically brought out

by the sensitive dalit young man, Arunas he recounts the suffering and agony that his

ancestors have gone through:

Our grandfathers and great grandfathers used to roam bare foot, miles and miles,

in the heat, in the rain, day and night...till the rags of their butt fell apart...used to

wander shouting ‘johaar, Maayi- baap! Sir-Madam, sweeper!’and their calls

polluted the Brahmins’ ears. (Tendulkar 513)

The social rejection of the Dalits had affected their lives in a numerous manners. One of

the most significant one is the development of psychosis and counter rejection of the

Brahmanic life and existence. In the play this tendency has been surfaced in the form of fear

and discomfort that Arun experiences with urban spaces, “My heart shudders when walls of

cement and concrete surround me” (Tendulkar 512). Drawing on the differences between

comfortable life style of urban people in big houses and a dalit’s life in a small dingy room,

he gives a vivid picture of their household that reflects abject poverty and suffering that they

are subjected to, “Ten of us, big and small, lived in that eight feet by ten feet. The heat of our

bodies to warm us in winter. No clothes on our back, no food in our stomach, but we felt very

safe” (Tendulkar 512). Therefore, he feels that the city houses are like the “bellies of shark

and crocodiles, each one alone in them” (Tendulkar 512).

The description that Arun gives not only projects his fear of city life but implied in it is

his critique of urban educated people and their life style. The caste conscious educated,

cultured city dwellers are narrow minded lot, confined in their own caste groups and driven

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by the hunger to engage themselves in systemic oppression of the poor dalits, “bellies of

shark and crocodiles, each one alone in them” (Tendulkar 512).

The Brahmanical system of perpetuating caste hierarchy by perpetrating discrimination

of the grounds of caste identities severely affected the dalit unconscious, instances of fearful

and humiliating memories that constantly disturb sensitive minds like that of Arun. Hence, by

vocalising the sufferings that Dalits are subjected to, Arun tries to awaken the dead

conscience of the upper caste Brahmans. However, his efforts turn futile as the gap between

the upper and lower castes, especially those of the dalits, can never be bridged. Rather, the

practice that continued for generations after generations led to a feeling of mutual animosity

and aversion, a resistance to change and accept the other. This is evident as Arun narrates

some of the heard and observed experiences of his ancestors, “generation after generation,

their stomachs used to the stale, stinking bread they have begged...tongues always tasting the

flesh of dead animals” (Tendulkar 513) that do not allow him to fit into the hypocritical

“unwrinkled Tinopal world” (Tendulkar 513) of the upper castes. However, what transpires

from his heavily loaded words is his strong desire to avenge the upper castes who had

systematically exploited dalits like Arun’s ancestors, “At times a fire blazes--I want to set fire

to the whole world. Strangle throats, rape and kill. Drink up the blood of the beasts, your high

caste society” (Tendulkar 514).

The childhood memories of Arun are strongly etched on the walls of his memory,

influencing his present and he sees them as a dalit man’s cultural identity. Therefore, his

love-hate relation with his wife is beyond an upper caste Brahmin woman’s ability to

comprehend. He justifies his volatile mood and torturous behaviour with his wife as a Dalit

man’s exclusive style of love making, “What am I but the son of scavengers. We don’t know

the non violent ways of Brahmins like you. We drink and beat our wives...we make love to

them...but the beating is what gets publicized...” (Tendulkar 540). However, his love is a

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genuine one and this gives him the courage to come out of his anger, hatred and violent

dispute and make love again. He is honest enough to admit his love as a unique combination

of passion and repulsion, a certain pull and push that is so particular of their caste identity.

Against Arun’s Dalit identity is Seva and Jayprakash’s upper caste polished and refined

behaviour. Seva is unable to accept Jyoti’s marriage proposal as a sane decision though she

claims that she and her husband, Nath are fighting tooth and nail against caste. Evident in her

fear is definitely the love and concern of a responsible mother:

My anxiety is not over his being a dalit. You know very well that Nath and I have

been fighting untouchability tooth and nail, god knows since when. So that’s not

the issue... You have been brought up in a specific culture. To erase or change all

this overnight is just not possible. He is different in every way. You may not be

able to handle it. (Tendulkar 509)

Also hidden in Seva’s apprehensions on Arun and Jyoti’s married life is her caste and class

consciousness. Consequently, she refuses to accept and treat Arun at par with other men

because of his Dalit background. In fact the encounter that takes place between Seva and

Arun give an insight into ‘hegemonic power mechanisms of upper castes’ (Agrawal 185). She

not only snubs his educational qualification but also the employment opportunities open for

him with only a graduate degree. After evaluating Arun’s educational and socio-economic

background and his future prospect, Seva draws the conclusion that their caste differences

would affect both Jyoti, an upper caste, city bred, educated girl and her dalit husband, Arun.

As Jyoti would find it difficult to adapt to a dalit household, Arun with his mere qualification

of graduation would find it impossible to get a decent job to support his wife in a house of

their own in the city of Pune.

Jayprakash, Jyoti’s brother too shows a strong resistance to understand the Dalits, their

pitiable condition and consequences of their socio-economic background that affects their

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behavioural disposition. He is disturbed with Arun’s emotional flux and completely fails to

comprehend that a Dalit’s social disposition is the consequence of his socio economic

background. He shows his resistance and hatred for the defence mechanism that Arun adopts

to defend his oppressive behaviour, “It’s possible that gunning down women and children is

essential for one’s defence. But this means that the very victims of violence may go on to

perpetuate the same brutal violence upon others. Perhaps they get a peculiar enjoyment out of

it” (Tendulkar 547). Evident in Jayprakash’s words is his complete failure to understand the

dalit background, their present that is coloured with their past suffering, pain, humiliation,

bitter memories. Therefore, caste conscious apathetic upper caste elite Jayprakash could

easily observe and remark that people like Arun should not be shown any sympathy because

“yesterday’s victim is today’s victimizer” (Tendulkar 547). He also strongly believes,

“there’s no hope of a man’s gaining nobility through experience, he can only become a

greater devil” (Tendulkar 547). Latent in his words is the insecurity of power monger upper

caste Brahmins who in order to keep their social hierarchy safe and sound believe that the

‘other’, because of their closed mentality and inability to show change to adapt with new

situations are completely incapable of owning position of power even if they gain social

power.

Jayprakash fails to understand the differences in approach that Brahmins like him and

his father may have from that of a dalit man like Arun. Unlike the sophisticated but more

rigid control on women that the Brahminical society practices, the Dalits have a more coarse

but honest approach to life. Their relationships are not dictated by any expectations like that

of the Brahmins. In a non Brahmanical society like Arun’s both men and women are equally

free to express themselves and since women are not ruled by any ideology, it poses a threat to

their husbands. Hence, husbands are aggressive but malleable as much as their wives.

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Balancing the anti-dalit lobby represented by Seva and Jayprakash is the Socialist lobby

consisting of Jyoti and Nath Devlalikar. No doubt Jyoti goes through a whirl wheel of

emotions ranging from love at first sight to disgust. But eventually the spinning wheel of

emotions give rise to a realisation of a bitter truth that “man and his inherent nature are never

really two different things” (Tendulkar 563). Hence, in spite of Arun’s dual nature that

consists of violence, hatred, savagery, beastliness on one hand and on the other intense love

for his wife, Jyoti is determined to stay with him, “Arun is made of all these things bound

together and I have to accept him as he is, because I cannot reject him” (Tendulkar 563). She

realises the hard life to which the dalits had been subjected for generations is because of caste

conscious upper caste people like theirs. She recognises the power politics of Brahmanical

hierarchy as the root cause of the gap between upper and lower castes in the society.

Jyoti realises that though Arun displays a behaviour that is quite unacceptable and

reflects his irresponsibility as her husband, yet he is a man of substance, there is a reason for

his weird behaviour, “He is complex. Human beings are complex. It is possible that his

complexity has been generated by his circumstances. I must understand that complexity”

(Tendulkar 525). The enlightenment that she receives for being a part of two different castes

that are culturally, socially and economically at two extremes of a measuring scale enables

her to accept her new place and Arun forever, “Hereafter I have to live in that world, which is

mine...(Pausing) and die there” (Tendulkar 566). As the emptiness of Nath’s socialist

philosophy dawns upon her, she decides to embrace the caste identity of her husband, “I am

not Jyoti Yadunath Devlalikar now, I am Jyoti Arun Athavale, a scavenger. I am one of

them” (Tendulkar 566).

The innumerable instances of physical and emotional tortures and oppression that she

goes through reflect that it is women who are the worst victims of any change. It is a woman

who serves as the agent or catalyst for change. In fact, in Jyoti’s case, her father sacrificed her

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at the altar of exogamous marriage to realise his goal. The very fact that he comes to Jyoti

and begs her to return with him to her parental place, implicitly hints at Nath’s acceptance of

the differences between castes that cannot be practically resolved. He makes his efforts to

draw her out of the hell and restore her in his Brahmin world of affluence and ocial

recognition. Eventually it is the woman who suffers the discomforts and anxieties of change

and ultimately emerge as the ‘changed’.

The exploitation of a woman as an agent for caste dissolution as seen in Kanyadaan can

be traced in another of his play, Ghashiram Kotwal as well. However, unlike Nath Devlalikar

who uses his daughter to materialise his dream of a casteless society, Ghashiram Kotwal

sacrifices his daughter to materialise his dream of becoming a kotwal to take the revenge of

intra caste discrimination to which he was subjected in the Holy city of Poona.

Ghashiram Kotwal as the name of the play signifies is about Ghashiram Savaldas, a

Kanauj Brahmin. It is as much a play about Ghashiram as Nana Phadnavis. Nana Phadnavis

was an astute statesman and a shrewd strategist who managed to keep Maharashtra out of the

grasp of the British for twenty years. His reign was also marked by the purity of Brahmanical

values and Pune under his rule came to be known as the golden age where Brahmins were

awarded their due respect. Though his image of an ideal political icon was highlighted by

nationalist historians and writers an ugly truth about the Peshwas during colonial rule has

been deliberately obliterated from the pages of history. In this context, the picture drawn by

Maya Pandit on the position of Peshwai in colonial India is worth mentioning:

The Peshwai was the rule of the Brahmins who enjoyed political power and

cultural hegemony. This was rudely ended by the British colonial rule. The

Peshwa rule symbolized the exploitative domination of the Brahmins over the rest

of the community. It was characterised by excesses in material pleasure...seeking

activities at the cost of the well being of the toiling masses. (16)

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On the other hand, the rule of Nana Phadnavis that reflects his tremendous weakness

towards women and his lecherous habits that resulted in having nine wives and two

mistresses cannot be left without mention. It is this weakness of a man in power that

Ghashiram, a Brahmin victim of intra caste discrimination and injustice, uses to seek power.

Tendulkar takes stalk of the partners in crime, Nana Phadnavis and Ghashiram, to depict the

symbiotic relation between caste and politics for each other’s complete realisation. However,

in this dirty game of power politics it is a woman, whose sexuality is exploited to meet

individual desires. Hence, Ghahiram Kotwal is as much a story of Nan’s indomitable sexual

longing for women as much as about the immoral and depraved Brahmins. In this context the

observation drawn by P. Reddy, a critic on Tendulkar’s plays, is worth mentioning.

According to him, “Ghashiram Kotwal is landmark in Indian Theatre. The play focuses on

corruption, cruelty and inhuman strategies embedded in the power games where women and

religion are also exploited” (80).

In Ghashiram Kotwal Tendulkar explores gender and class exploitation through the

characters of Nana Phadnavis, Ghashiram Savaldas and Gauri, Ghashiram’s only daughter.

Though the main text of Ghashiram Kotwal focuses on reign of Nana Phadnavis in the holy

city of Poona, the sub text brings out maltreatment of gender and caste by the man in power,

Nana Phadnavis to quench his thirst for young women. Thus the play on one hand registers

the exploitation of a daughter in the hands of her father and later by the Peshwa, the then

powerful ruler of Poona and on the other hand the rigid caste system and its ideology. The

beauty of this ugly issue of caste and gender exploitation in Ghashram Kotwal is evoked by

Tendulkar’s deft positioning of the plot at the intersection of class and gender exploitation in

a patriarchal society.

Historically, the Peshwas were the hereditary prime ministers under Shivaji’s reign in

the Western part of India. They gradually usurped power and took control over Pune. Since

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the Peshwas were Chitpavan Brahmins, with political power they also asserted their position

as religious rulers. Over a period of time, the Peshwas were not only recognised as religious

elites but also as military, political, economic and social elites in Pune region (Chakravarti

107). However, in order to legitimise their position as political and religious heads the

Peshwas were “marked by a strong recourse to brahminism” (Chakravarti 108). They also

aimed at preserving the caste hierarchies and hence played a vital role in ‘regulating sexual

behaviour of women” (Chakravarti 109).

Ironically, during Nana Phadnavis’s reign, the moral and social order that the Peshwas

tried to maintain was under threat. The personal character of Nana Phadnavis was one of

conflicting nature. Though he was a heroic figure in military fields and an astute politician,

the womanizer in him challenged the religious and moral order of the society. It is this aspect

of Nana Phadnavis that Vijay Tendulkar takes up to form the historical background against

which he thrusts the theme of gender and caste exploitation. Tendulkar was severely

criticised for portraying a wrong image of Nana and of Poona, as well as for defiling

Brahmanism of the time. However, it is worth mentioning that Nana and Ghashiram are

representations of both a historical period and an inherent tendency of exploitation of the

weak by the ones who are more powerful. Countering the accusations of misrepresentation

of historical facts and images Tendulkar, according to Vasat Deo, affirms, “In my view

Ghashiram Kotwal indicates a particular situation which is neither old nor new. It is beyond

time and space. Therefore Ghashiram and Nana are also beyond space and time” (qtd. in

Wadikar 106).

The play is an interesting depiction of the condition of political and religious capital of

Poona under Ghashiram Savaldas, a Kanauj Brahmin and Nana Phadnavis, the womanizer.

The play opens with Ghashiram, a Kanauj Brahmin, who tries to earn a living in the holy city

of Poona. As an intelligent and shrewd opportunist Ghashiram wins the heart of nana and a

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place in his court in no time. The pearl necklace that Ghashiram wins from Nana as a token

of appreciation, leads to a feud that endangers his life in the Holy city of Poona. Jealous of an

intruder’s close proximity with Nana, the Poona Brahmins pounce on him to defile his

character. They blame him of stealing the pearl necklace and label him as a thief. However,

when Ghashiram tries to defend himself as a Brahmin from Kanauj, they raise objections to

his claim as a Kanauj Brahmin. The raged Poona Brahmins verbalise their suspicion and

doubt of his identity as a Brahman.

You a Brahman!

Where is your shaven head?

Where is your holy thread?

Where is your pious look?

Where is your holy book?

Recite the hierarchy of caste!

Tell us, when did you last fast? (Tendulkar 373)

The hollow Brahminism of the Poona Brahmins is immediately surfaced as they focus on the

superficial qualities and traits of a Brahmin like a shaven head, thread of initiation around the

chest and the holy book that provide a pious look to a man of Brahmin origin. The lack of

these signs and symbols that superficially establish a Brahmin’s religious identity and social

position drives the Poona Brahmins to identify Ghashiram as one belonging to an inferior

social position compared to the more astute religious Poona Brahmins. It also emphatically

set in the tone of intra caste discrimination in a caste stratified society.

The vertical structure of sub castes within a caste is once more emphasised by the Poona

Brahmins as they subject Ghashiram to humiliation immediately after he is released from the

prison. Ghashiram becomes the victim of the verbal abuses of the Poona Brahmins as they

address him in the name of animals and try to reject his identity as a Brahmin. He is even

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threatened to leave the Holy city, failing which he will be subjected to death, “Get lost, Hey!

Thief, monkey. If you so much as put a foot in the holy city of Poona, you’ll lose your head.

Go away. Take your ugly face far away. Don’t come back to Poona. Not even your shadow

fall on the city of Poona. Get lost. Go” (Tendulkar 376).

Ghashiram’s humiliation amidst the city of Brahmins gives rise to counter attack and

power struggle between the two sets of Brahmins, Kanauj Brahmins against Poona Brahmins.

Hence intra caste exploitation and power struggle. The dejected Kanauj Brahmin’s promise

of returning to the city to avenge the Poona Brahmins for treating him like a Shudra and

defaming him marks the beginning of the rise and fall of Ghashiram:

But I’ll come back. I’ll come back to Poona. I’ll show my strength. It will cost

you! Your good days are gone! I am a Kanauj Brahman. But I’ve become a

shudra, a criminal, a useless animal. There is no one to stop me now, to mock

me, to make me bend, to cheat me. Now I am a devil. You’ve made me an

animal. I’ll be a devil inside. I’ll come back like a boar and I’ll stay as a devil.

I’ll make pigs of all of you. I’ll make this Poona a kingdom of pigs. Then I’ll be

Ghashiram again, the son of Savaldas once more. (Tendulkar 377)

Ghashiram’s return marks a turning point in his life. He decides to take revenge on the

Poona Brahmins for the dual reasons of staining his moral image as well as for suspecting his

caste. Ghashiram’s humiliation in the hands of the Poona Brahmins stirs the ego in him and

as a respected Kanauj Brahmin plans similar tortures for his oppressors. Thus Ghashiram sets

on the horizontal matrix of exploitation through his promise of undertaking intra caste

exploitation. Consequently, he targets the position of kotwal under Nana to wield power and

upper hand over the local Brahmins.

In his struggle to achieve the position of power as kotwal of Poona to avenge his wrong

doers, the shrewd Ghashiram plunges into shameless exploitation of gender. Gauging the

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womanizer in Nana Phadnavis, the first step that Ghashiram takes to materialise his dream is

to sacrifice his own daughter, Gauri, to gratify Nana’s love for women. Manu while

discussing the responsibility of a father and other male members in a woman’s life observes

that safeguarding the honour and respect of a woman is a man’s primary duty. He strongly

believes, “day and night a woman must be kept in dependence by the males of their families,

and, if they attach themselves to sensual enjoyments, they must be kept under one’s control”

(qtd. in Buhler 327-28). He further observes, “her father protects her in childhood, her

husband protects her in youth, her sons protect her in her old age; a woman is never fit for

independence” (qtd. in B uhler 328). Hence, it is quite evident that the only objective behind

keeping a woman under close observation is to safeguard the purity of her blood and caste

order. However, Ghashiram without any hesitation relinquishes his primary duty as a

responsible father of protecting the sexuality of his daughter, Gauri. Rather, he pushes her to

the old Nana in order to become one of his favourites and eventually to gain the most desired

position of kotwal of Poona.

However, Ghashiram does not show any remorse and dejection for exploiting the

sexuality of his own daughter to materialise his dream of achieving the position of power to

avenge the Poona Brahmins for belittling him and his caste identity. Instead he revels in joy

and satisfaction after becoming the Kotwal under the reign of Nana as his newly earned

power opens the door to take revenge on the Poona Brahmins. Ghashiram’s subsequent plan

of action to reinforce his social position of power and authority over the Poona Brahmins at

the cost of his daughter’s sexuality echoes the irony of his life as a Brahmin father. As he

prioritises political position over safe guarding the sexuality of his daughter, Tendulkar

interrogates the basic premises on which the Brahmanical society is constructed. Though

Brahmanical society lays down immense value on the sexuality of women to retain the purity

of their caste order, it is not the only agenda behind the control. In fact patriarchal control on

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the sexuality of women creates a nexus between caste order and political power and

Ghashiram’s situation establishes the power play that is achieved through the patriarchal

control on women sexuality. Power corrupts man and so it happens with Ghashiram. As a

kotwal, instead of prioritising his moral and ethical duty to maintain law and order in the

society, he launches on creating total anarchy. He starts weaving vicious plans to oppress the

Poona Brahmins and avenge them for humiliating him in public.

A calculative person as he is, Ghashiram did not plunge into taking revenge immediately

after taking his post as kotwal. Rather, he steps into his new office as the moral custodian of

the fallen city. Trying to compensate for the heinous crime of sacrificing his daughter for the

sake of power, he pledges to bring order and peace in the city of Poona. As a true

Machiavellian, he prioritises the significance of religion over his daughter and promises to

bring back the holy city of Poona its lost piety by freeing it from the spell of Bhavannakhani,

where the Poona Brahmins would flock around.

In the name of protecting religion and restoring its lost value, Ghashiram sacrifices his

duty and dharma as a responsible father. However, the irreligious, immoral and licentious

Poona Brahmins who regularly indulged in immoral acts could hardly recognise the corrupt

intentions of their newly appointed Kotwal and become easy victims of his oppressions. In

order to clean the sinful minds of the Poona Brahmins, he takes recourse to such measures

that spread darkness of fear, anxiety and hatred in the pious city of Poona. By thrusting the

Kanauj Brahmin against the Poona Brahmins, Tendulkar reflects on the moral and religious

depravity and ethical emptiness that define the Brahmin caste irrespective of its origin.

Ghashiram as kotwal assumes the role of law maker of the land and enforces the laws

strictly. He also formulates strict punishments for its transgressors. The positive impact of his

strict code of conduct is seen in the reduced crime rates. He restricts the mobility of men,

especially the Brahmins to the red light areas by making the system of permit compulsory.

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However, his autocracy as the moral police of Poona becomes evident as he tightens the

permit system and makes its application compulsory for both legal and illegal matters. The

sadistic and impractical aspect of his rules become glaring as he makes permit compulsory

even for necessary and genuine cases like medical requirements and cremation.

The height of fake brahminism comes to the fore when the morally depraved Kanauj

Brahmin makes endless efforts to restore the lost significance of religious and ethical values

of the Poona Brahmin. He curbs their immoral aspect of their lives by restricting their visits

to Bavannakhani and insisted, even forced, on their stay at their homes with their wives. His

despotic set of new laws enforced on the licentious Poona Brahmins helped him to

reintroduce moral values in the debauched Brahmins. Instead of allowing frequent visits to

prostitutes and abortions, he compelled the men to restrict themselves to their own wives at

home.

The extensive power that Ghashiram enjoyed and misused over the city is best

enumerated by the Sutradhar:

Ghashiram Kotwal says to kill a pig, to do an abortion, to be a pimp, to commit a

misdemeanour, to steal, to live with one’s divorced wife, to remarry if one’s

husband is alive, to hide one’s caste, to use counterfeit coins, to commit suicide,

without a permit is a sin. A good man may not prostitute himself; a Brahman may

not sin, without a permit. (Tendulkar 387)

The immediate success blinded Ghashiram. Deeply soaked into constituting laws and

enforcing them, Ghashiram became sadistic in approach. It is not only success that made him

complacent but the fact that he was able to use his newly earned power to take revenge on the

Poona Brahmis who publicly humiliated him brought him biggest happiness and satisfaction

and gradually he crossed the limits and became tyrannical in his dealings. Poona, in his hands

as Kotwal, thus journeyed from one type of anarchy to a brief period of justice and morality

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to even more anarchic period. Gradually as his reign as Kotwal spread the darkness of fear,

anxiety and hatred in the pious city of Poona more than bringing stability and order, the

Poona Brahmins come together to collectively resist his anarchy.

Ghashiram’s behaviour as a Brahmin and Kotwal has its roots in the Hindu scriptures

that vest a Brahmin with immense responsibilities to formulate and safeguard moral and

ethical actions of other Brahmins and non Brahmins. According to Manu, the law maker, a

Brahmin was an incarnation of dharma (sacred tradition), born to serve and protect the

dharma. He belonged to the excellent of the human race, endowed with intelligence and

knowledge to attain Brahman. He justifies the obligations of his Brahmin caste by bringing in

order in an otherwise unruly, immoral city where religion was given a back foot.

Ironically, though Ghashiram carries out his caste duty by taking up the responsibility of

restoring and safeguarding the religious ethos of the Brahmins, he proves his total failure in

carrying out his duty as a responsible father. Instead of protecting the honour and dignity of

his young daughter, he barters his daughter for securing the new office of kotwal.

The play, Ghashiram Kotwal, is not just about intra caste conflict and power politics but

also about the exploitation of women by the men in power to materialise their dreams and

attain their narrow objectives. Women like Gauri, Ghashiram’s daughter and Gulabi are

mere objects in a male dominated society of power mongers. Both Gauri and Gulabi are the

means for gratifying sexual appetite of the womanizer, Nana. Gauri is also the tool that her

father utilises to climb the social ladder of prestige and power. Besides Gauri and Gulabi are

other women mentioned in the play who are either the objects of male gaze like the young

women in the religious gathering or marginalised sad women like Nana’s series of wives.

The position of women in patriarchal society is one that is devoid of power. Subjugation

of women aims at forcing them to accept their oppressive condition without protest.

Conveniently women are silenced either by the enforcement of male power or by instilling

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them a fear, a fear that leads to psychological and emotional damage. The women characters

in Ghashiram are the silenced women both in the private space in the household of Nana and

in the public space in the holy city of Poona.

The fact that women’s sexuality should be controlled to maintain the purity of caste and

social order lest it should lead to mythical dystopia has been given an interesting twist by

Tendulkar in the play, Ghashiram Kotwal. Here the men are not the moral custodians of the

honour and sexuality of women rather they are the exploiters of the women’s sexuality and

innocence. The character of Nana Phadnavis exemplifies the sexual oppression of women in

a male dominated society.

Nana is a licentious and lecherous man. This trait of his character has been developed as

a trope for asserting his masculinity. Nana’s playful tendency of preying on beautiful women

is evident when the Sutradhar observes, “Nana looks unblinkingly at a pretty girl. She is

beautiful, shy, innocent Nana walks towards the girl. Nana steps towards her like a cat”

(Tendulkar 377). He dominates on the young women and in order to possess them he even

goes to the extent of bribing them with material comforts, “All your dreams this Nana will

fulfil..... No one in Poona today has the audacity to watch the great Nana Phadnavis!”

(Tendulkar 378).

Tendulkar deftly but with sensitivity depicts the helplessness of young women like Gauri

as they become the victims of hegemonic power of men like Nana. In the eyes of Nana, it is

the beauty and sexuality of a woman that matters. The difference in age is not his concern,

not even is he scared of religion, rather he continues with his licentious nature even in the

presence of the idol of Lord Ganapati. The first meeting of Nana and Gauri during the festival

of Ganapati captures how Nana deconstructs religion and its sacred values only to win the

heart of Gauri, the young daughter of Ghashiram. Hence, as Gauri tries to avoid Nana’s

sexual advances by taking recourse to God and religion, the womanizer Nana defends himself

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saying, “That idol of holiness? That all holy Ganpati? The maker of Good? Look, he has two

wives .One on this side. One on that side. If you sit on our lap, he won’t say anything!”

(Tendulkar 378). The intense sexual hunger in Nana becomes evident when he retorts Gauri

for citing their age difference as a limitation and tries to influence her with sweet tongue,

“Only in age. But our devotion is only to this graceful image… Don’t lose any more time.

Youth will not come again, the bloom will not last. My dear. You are like a daughter to us –

someone else’s” (Tendulkar 378).

Nana’s coarse sexuality surfaces throughout the play. Nana’s desperation for beautiful

young girls is uncontrollable and once his eyes fall on a girl, she is becomes the victim of his

irresistible lust. She has to be hounded and dragged to his court. Thus he orders, “Can we find

her? How beautifully formed! What a lovely figure! Did you see? Erect! Young! Tender! Ah!

Ho, ho! We’ve seen so many, handled so many but none like that one” (Tendulkar 379).

Closely linked with Nana’s sensuousness and moral depravity is his urge to establish his

masculinity and masculine superiority both over the female body and in the society. He

objectifies women as his prized possession, trophies to be exhibited and as measuring stick of

his success as an aggressive ruler. He equates winning over women with expansion of

dynasty borders, “We tell you, if she is found, than this Nine court Nana will conquer

Hindustan! What a bosom! Buds just blossoming…… we’ll squeeze them like this!

(Tendulkar 380).

However, the women that he possesses have no right to raise their voice against him.

Nor are they allowed to argue with him for their welfare. They are typical silenced objects

who are thrown at the mercy of their master. The situation of Gauri is the same after she is

sacrificed by her father. She is one of the many wives of Nana who is sexually exploited and

used as a means to bear him a son. Ironically, Nana shows no signs of bearing any

responsibility as Gauri’s husband. Rather, as she dies while giving birth to the child and her

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bemoaned father comes to claim her body, the indifferent Nana orders his men to destroy her

body into pieces that no traces of her is found any more. The condition of Nana’s other wives

are the same. The fact that their presence in Nana’s life are just some number, devoid of their

names, speak volumes on their role and significance in Nana’s life as his wives.

Tendulkar’s depiction of caste and gender marginalisation in Kanyadaan and Ghashiram

Kotwal are probably the best examples of women’s position as commodities in patriarchal

society. The analysis of caste and gender issues in these two plays deconstructs the myth that

women are the agents of pollution of caste and moral order. Though Manu, the law giver,

insists on the duty of men to keep the sexuality of women under control for a better

tomorrow, where purity of blood and caste order would be intact, it is not women always but

men too act as the agents of corruption and threaten the purity of caste and blood. However,

because of their superior position in a male dominated society, men go scot free in spite of all

their wrongs and women are blamed and punished.

IV

Conclusion

The detailed analysis of Tendulkar’s plays drive home the bitter truth of a patriarchal

society that women emancipation, in spite of their education and development, rights and

liberties, is still a dream to come true. Tendulkar’s women characters, like Sarita, Ms. Leela

Benare, Jyoti and Rama, in his plays Kamala, Silence, Kanyadaan and The Vultures

respectively, are educated, city bred women but their lives are restricted in the patriarchal

claptrap. The agony and frustration, the helplessness and perpetual silence to which

Tendulkar’s women characters are subjected to strongly emphasise on the secondary position

of women in a patriarchal society. The binaries of gender that forms the bedrock of a

patriarchal society and results into discriminatory practices find an inquisitive expression in

Tarabai Shinde’s rhetorical question to God on the difference between men and women in her

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seminal book Stri Purush Tulana: A Comparison between Men and Women , “(But) wasn’t it

you who created both men and women? Then why did you grant happiness only to men and

brand women with nothing but agony? Your will was done! But poor women have had to

suffer for it down the ages. (Stri Purush Tulana: A Comparison between Men and Women)

This concern is not unique of the Indian subcontinent; Western critics like Mary Astel,

Simon de Beauvoir have voiced similar concerns. Mary Astel in Some Reflections upon

Marriage reflects, “If all men are born free, how is it that all women are born slaves?” (Astel)

and Simon de Beauvoir in The Second Sex (1949), “One is not born, but becomes a woman”

(Beauvoir), the society as a whole manipulates this very process of ‘becoming’. Marriage and

motherhood shape the lives of women and bring connotative significance to their existence.

The construction of gender and the subjugated lives of women though no more identified as

an area of enigma, yet it is a truth that the ways to puncture the system of gender

discrimination has not yet been well defined to attain a society without any discrimination.

Marriage and motherhood shape the lives of women and bring connotative significance to

their existence.

Tendulkar’s plays depict the struggle of the subjugated and silenced women who try to

rebel against the oppressive social order but are so intricately confined in the age old

institutions of marriage and motherhood that they cannot break free themselves from these

social institutions and challenge the obligations, responsibilities and duties expected of them

in these social institutions. Marriage and motherhood, two very important phases of a

woman’s life, can be regarded as the tools of patriarchal society to curb the independence of a

woman. Sarita, Jyoti and Rama are the typical images of women a patriarchal society would

love to have. They are drawn in the lines of Sati-Savitri. They are the epitomes of love,

dedication and affection. Sacrificing themselves to prioritise the needs and demands of their

husbands is the key element in Tendulkar’s women. Yet they are the most neglected,

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exploited and silenced by the male members, either by their husbands or fathers; in Jyoti and

Gauri’s cases exploitation of women is carried out by both the male members in their lives.

However, it is the ideology of stridharma that confines a woman in her domestic cage.

Even though they realise the wrongs done to them, the pressures and expectations of the

patriarchal set up force them to maintain silence forever. The significance of ideology to

which a woman should adhere to is so strong in Tendulkar’s women that they are conditioned

to internalise and accept their ideal roles as daughters, and wives. However, a literary and

social activist as he is, Tendulkar’s plays are always known for his deft handlings of themes

and techniques. The twists that he introduces in his women character like Sarita, Champa,

Jyoti and Rama add another layer of significance to his plays. The Sita-Savitri type of docile

and suffering women that he has projected are also shown to be in possession of a strong

determination and an urge to challenge the society. Tendulkar portrays his women

protagonists as women who are full of energy to challenge the forces that dominate and

oppress them. Leela Benare in Silence! condemns the institution of social justice that convicts

her for bearing a child without the wedlock but remains indifferent and passes no judgement

onto the men who betrayed her. Sarita in Kamala, after realising how she is enslaved by her

husband, refuses to live a life of indignation and promises to unveil his chauvinistic

husband’s hypocrisy and Champa in Sakharam Binder dies in her efforts to resist the male

dominated society and its different ways of exploiting and suppressing women. Nonetheless,

she stands out as a brilliant creation of Tendulkar in her struggle to create a world amicable

for women to lead an independent life.

Ironically, none of the women characters of Tendulkar takes steps to challenge the

patriarchal authority by contesting their image as an ideal woman. Rather they succumb to

the strong influence that the patriarchal ideologies of stridharma and pativrata carry in their

lives. Jyoti does challenge her father’s empty socialist values but she decides to stay back

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with Arun as Jyoti Arun Athavale and bear the physical and mental oppression at Athavale

household. Sarita and Laxmi prove that the only objective that rules a woman’s life is to

serve in silence their husbands and to stand beside them like a pillar of strength in their crisis.

Therefore, Sarita stays back and postpones her decision to expose her husband’s true identity

as an exploiter of women. Laxmi brings an end to the life of the woman who challenges her

husband’s authority.

Tendulkar sees women as essentially the victims of the patriarchal social order, which

has suffocated their individuality and forced to embrace a life of humiliation and indignation,

which in the words of Candy can be best summed as, “Thus far women have been mere

echoes of men. Our laws and constitution, our creeds and codes and customs of social life are

all of masculine origin. The true woman is yet a dream for future…” (14). Yet through his

plays Tendulkar leaves a strong message for the women in a male dominated society that

though it is not easy to break free from the shackles of patriarchal subjugation, yet it is not

altogether impossible.

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Chapter Three
Revisiting Marginalization: Expression of Gender and Caste Marginalization in the
plays of Raju Das
The corpus of Raju Das’s literary work, influenced by his varied experiences as a

refugee and dalit existence at the fringes of a caste based society, depicts the pains and

humiliation, frustrations and traumas of people who constitute the lowest rung of social

existence: women, untouchables and other underprivileged outcasts.

The selected plays of Raju Das’s that consist of Surjo Tonoy (Son of the Sun) written in

1996, Neel Selam (Blue Salute) written 1997, Ragging (1996), Kolonko (Stigma) written in

1997 and Mahesh (1988) have a wide spectrum of issues and themes ranging from caste and

gender discrimination to exploitative feudal system, socially forbidden exogamous marriage

and unwed motherhood. His plays also address the problem of discriminatory systems

prevalent in higher education and matrimony. This vast array of themes that Raju Das deals

with includes a gamut of characters spread over all social castes and classes. His characters

include upper caste men and women as well as people from other lower castes who are

relegated to the margins of the society and forced to have a silent fringe existence for the rest

of their lives.

Raju Das in an interview in October 2017 with the researcher that has been included in

the Appendix I, mentions that for him Dalits do not mean only shudras or other deprived

people who belong to the lower rung of the caste based society. Rather it includes all those

people who are the victims of oppression of any kind. Manohar Mouli Biswas, a Bengali

Dalit activist, writer and critic, like Raju Das observes, “Anybody in the society, oppressed in

any manner whatsoever, may be called a dalit” (qtd. in Sarangi 37). But Baburao Bagul,

noted short story writer and critic, has a different perception of Dalit and he defines the term

Dalit as “the one who fights against injustice of all kind-economic, social, political and

religious” (qtd in Bhagat 14). Raju Das’s notion of the term Dalit encompasses both the

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views and therefore, in his portrayal of Dalit existence, he engages in the depiction of both

the suffering as well as rebellious Dalit characters that mark the uniqueness of his plays and

establishes his charm of as a Dalit writer.

Raju Das’s plays are situated at an interesting intersection of caste, class and gender. In a

Brahmanical patriarchal society caste is an important feature. Closely linked with caste is

women’s sexuality. In her pioneering work on brahmanical patriarchy, Uma Chakravarti in

her article, “Conceptualising Brahmanical Patriarchy in Early India Gender, Caste, Class and

State”, argues that women’s sexuality was sought to be protected to “maintain not only

patrilineal succession but also caste purity, the institution unique to Hindu society” (579).

Women are considered as “‘gateways’ to the caste system” (Das 135) that has to be policed to

protect the purity of caste. Raju Das focuses on the condition of women in such caste

conscious society, where in order to control the caste hierarchy and purity, women are

subjugated, kept under the control of male power from birth till death. In such cases the

sexuality of women belonging to upper castes is always under the scanner and therefore, their

situation becomes vulnerable, even worse than their counterparts existing at the margins of

the society.

While dealing with Dalit identities and their issues in a patriarchal caste conscious

society, Raju Das’s commitment with the deplorable condition of women is really worth

mentioning. As a writer Raju Das’s conscience is extremely touched with exploitation of

women for the sake of caste purity. He focuses on the exploitation and oppression of women

and other social outcasts either in their family or in the society. He touches upon

marginalization of women in different social contexts. His women are doubly marginalized.

They are as much a victim of their caste as gender. Two of his major plays, Surjo Tonoy and

Neel Selam, from his early phase of writing career, deal with women of upper caste origin.

While Alok’s mother in Surjo Tonoy belongs to upper caste Brahmin family, Alodebi in Neel

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Selam is a shudra by caste and is married to a Brahmin man. Yet the condition and position of

women, irrespective of their caste is one of oppression and exploitation. A major chunk of

Raju Das’s plays depicts double marginalisation of young women in the field of education

and matrimony because of their lower socio-economic position. Reema in the play Ragging

depicts the discriminations that people belonging to lower castes are subjected to in the fields

of education. Sanchari, also known as Khenti in another of his play, Kolonko, depict the

commoditization of women in marriage and consequent inexplicable humiliation that often a

prospective bride and her family face. Raju Das depicts the condition of Reema and Khenti as

doubly marginalised women in a caste based society.

As a Dalit playwright Raju Das’s themes and characters are brewed from his experiences

of living at the margins. His close observation of the oppressive condition of his family

members and neighbours, especially women charged him with the inspiration to protest

against their marginalized existence. He depicts his women characters as the worst victim of

exploitation in a patriarchal society. But he places them in such challenging situations that

they transcend the image of women as shudrani as conceived and drawn by Manu and carves

a niche for themselves as women with a heightened sense of respect, dignity and ethical

values. Thus, exploitation of women, either in the institution of marriage or in the smaller

unit of patriarchal society called family, besides many other social issues, forms the major

thematic concern of his early plays Neel Selam (Blue Salute) and Surjo Tonoy (Son of Sun).

The present chapter that highlights caste and gender marginalization and the intersection

of caste and gender in Raju Das’s select plays, like Surjo Tonoy (Son of the Sun), Neel Selam,

Ragging, Kolonko (Stigma) and Mahesh is divided into four sections, each of them dealing

with the manifold ways in which caste and gender exploitation is perpetrated in a

Brahmanical patriarchy. The first section of the chapter, titled Endogamy: A Gateway to

Caste Purity and Women Sexuality, investigates the principle of endogamy as an important

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principle of caste is evident in two of his early plays Surjo Tonoy and Neel Selam. The textual

analysis of these two plays attempts to depict the significance of endogmous marriage as the

only acceptable form of marriage in a Brahmanical society and the injunctions of Manu

enforced on exogamous marriage to preserve homogeneity and purity of caste order. Both

these plays also attempt to explore how the lines of caste inheritance have been manipulated

by the Brahmanical society to restrict the off springs of exogamous marriages to lower caste

order. Besides these, this section also emphasises on the consequences of violation of cultural

norms and customary practices of the society through inter-caste marriages.

The next section explores how the principles of purity and pollution extend its shadow

even in the field of higher education. Through the play Ragging, this section explores how

the age old notion of keeping the untouchables away from the light of education dictates the

present society as well. This section is a study of the complex socio cultural system engaged

in matrimonial alliances. Implicit in this system is the objectification of women. The section

also attempts to study the working of the state machinery towards exploitation of refugee

dalits in West Bengal. The last section of this chapter is a tragic story of a very poor Muslim

peasant caught in the politics of a Hindu landlord and his people. It exemplifies physical and

mental oppression that the untouchables in a Hindu village were subjected to. Based on the

premises that dominant castes, especially the upper ones that wield economic and political

power, the play examines how a poor Muslim farmer Gafur is economically and socially

exploited by the Brahmin feudal lord of the village.

I
Endogamy: A Gateway to Caste Purity and Women Sexuality
Caste system is characterized by hierarchy or gradations according to occupational

status. The evaluative standard that places a caste higher than others or lower compared to the

rest is rooted in the Dharmashashtras. The high and the low are opposed to each other

because of their associations with notions of purity and impurity in terms of the nature of

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their occupation. Since each caste is regarded as a closed group, special emphasis is put on

eating, physical contact and marriage. Out of these three the institution of marriage plays a

significant role in the preservation of caste order and hierarchy.

Endogamy or marrying within a caste is central to the maintenance of caste purity. Dr. B

R Ambedkar in the Annihilation of Caste saw endogamy at the heart of caste and stressed that

inter-caste marriage was one way of ridding India of caste. Ghurye, Srinivas, Karve and

Dumont perceive endogamy (and hypergamy) as the defining features of caste. Brahmanical

patriarchy and endogamy are two important systems which perpetuate caste and gender

abuse. Indian society that is structured around Brahmanical patriarchy has power scheme that

is based on caste and gender and is perpetuated through marriages between similar caste

families. The purity and pollution of a caste is based on a woman’s sexual conduct.

Endogamy or marriage within the same caste, in that sense, functions as the most significant

part of caste system. Hence, a woman is expected to play a vital role in safeguarding the

purity of her caste. She is considered as the custodian of caste and family honour. Since she

has the greatest responsibility of safeguarding the purity of caste order, her sexuality is

always kept under strict vigil.

At the crux of caste lies the structure of marriage, sexuality and reproduction. This also

plays a fundamental role in creating and maintaining inequality. The chapter further examines

Brahmanical patriarchy and endogamy as two important systems which perpetuate caste and

gender abuse and how the purity and pollution of a caste is based on a woman’s sexual

conduct. Uma Chakravarti while drawing a link between caste and marriage in her book,

Gendering Caste: Through a Feminist Lens, cites Manu Dharmashastra and observes:

The terms used in the Manu Dharmashastra for the two different types of

violations of endogamy are significant. Anuloma, going with the direction of the

hair, is acceptable —men from higher castes can have wives from the lower

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castes; this is the natural order. In contrast, when a woman from a higher caste

has a union with a lower caste male, it is pratiloma—against the direction of the

hair, it is unnatural; it is not only reprehensible but it is in the inverse order. The

true confusion of castes is a consequence of pratiloma marriages/unions. (54)

The main crux of the play Surjo Tonoy is hypogamous marriage. Since women are

considered “the ‘gateways’ of caste” (Das 135), any woman engaging in hypogamous

marriage meets a devastating end as happens with Alok’s mother in Surjo Tonoy (Son of

Sun). The couple in both these plays are the victims of exogamous marriage. Surjo Tonoy

depicts hypogamous marriage and its consequences, whereas Neel Selam deals with

hypergamous marriage. Though hypergamous marriage is considered to be less harmful for a

caste stratified society and therefore comparatively a more acceptable form of marriage,

women become victims of hypergamous marriages as much as in hypogamous one. Neel

Selam depicts how Alodebi as a victim of hypergamous marriage lives a life at the mercy of

men.

Both these plays that exemplify two different types of exogamous marriages highlight

the endorsement of endogamous marriage by Brahmanical society to retain caste hierarchy.

In order to fortify and preserve the homogeneity and purity of caste order, Manu enforces

injunctions on both the types of exogamous marriages. In addition to emphasising on the

significance of endogamous marriages in Brahmanical society, these plays also attempt to

explore how the lines of caste inheritance have been manipulated by the Brahmanical society

to restrict the off springs of exogamous marriages to lower caste order. The plays under this

section also highlight on the consequences of violation of cultural norms and customary

practices of the society through inter-caste marriages. The inexplicable humiliation, inhuman

treatment and abuse that these victims face for daring to break the Brahminical code of

endogamous marriage and for engaging exogamous marriage of hypergamous or hypogamus

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nature not only destroy their lives but also leave a deep scar in the lives of their children.

Through the interplay of caste and marriage Raju Das brings out the patriarchal control on

women sexuality and marginalization of women who transgress caste boundaries.

Brahmanical patriarchy and its power play to achieve complete control on the sexuality

of woman form the essence of Surjo Tonoy. In addition to this the play also portrays the

social stigma attached with unmarried motherhood that victimises unwed mothers like Alok’s

mother and illegitimate children born out of wedlock, the deplorable social conditions to

which they are pushed and rigidity of caste conscious Brahmin families. The play in a way is

Raju Das’s indictment on the caste conscious upper class Brahmins and attacks their

ideological belief in Brahminism as the main root cause of all the discrimination and

oppression in the society.

In a Hindu society both exogamy and unwed motherhood is against the social order.

Unwed motherhood is even considered sinful. A woman, as perceived by Manu, is always of

evil nature, a seductress who is always brimming with evil and damaging thoughts. As a

consequence, Manu in chapter IX, verse v, Manu enjoins, “Women must particularly be

guarded against evil inclinations, however, trifling they may appear, for if they are not

guarded, they will bring sorrow on two families” (qtd. in Buhler 328). Under such strict

social code any woman who dares to flout the codes of social behaviour, irrespective of her

caste, class and cultural background, is bound to be punished. In a brahmanical patriarchy,

Alok’s mother, a prey of her uncontrollable desire for a man from a lower caste becomes a

vulnerable victim of social criticism and excommunication.

Caste and control over women’s sexuality in a Hindu Brahmanical society are

inextricably linked. As women are considered the “gateways of a caste” (Das 135) and are

held responsible for upholding the honour of the family as well the community, any

transgression of patriarchal codes by a woman is meted with violence against women.

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Consequently, in Surjo Tonoy the inter caste love between Alok’s mother and a twenty five

year old handsome artist, photographer and a professional in an advertising company in that

gradually turns into a passionate relation leading to her conception of a new life without the

wedlock is not received harmoniously by Alok’s maternal grandfather and his sons. In order

to secure his position as a true Brahmin and also to punish his daughter for violating the

social decorum a young woman should observe, Mr. Rasaraj Chakraborty, ‘excommunicates

the young man’ (Das, Surjo Tonoy 22) and ‘throws out his own daughter from their home’

(Das 22). Through Alok’s mother’s love with a Kshatriya man and consequent marriage that

his maternal uncle and aunt tries to arrange but could not materialise because of Mr.

Chakraborty’s opposition, Raju Das brings out the complex relationship of gender and caste

where upper caste women’s compliance with patriarchal order is considered mandatory.

The relationship of a higher caste woman with a man of lower caste draws a web of

troubles for Alok’s parents. The double trouble of inter caste alliance coupled with unwed

motherhood, introduces Alok’s mother to a host of hostilities in the hands of the patriarchal,

caste conscious society, headed by her own father, Mr. Chakraborty. Alok’s father too

becomes a victim for transgressing the caste boundaries and daring to establish a relation with

an upper caste woman. Both of them, as victims of caste order, are separated and subjected to

a life of humiliation, pain and suffering.

Within upper caste patriarchal society, honour and shame are ideological concepts that

are closely linked with the sexuality of a woman. A woman’s transgression of caste

boundaries is internalized as a matter of shame. Therefore, in order to stop the news of an

upper caste woman’s physical and sexual relation with a man of a lower caste spreading like

wild fire in the society, the girl’s father and brother target the man and accuse him for

tarnishing the repute of a Brahmin woman. As a punishment for violating the chastity of their

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daughter, the father-son duo lynches him in public and ultimately excommunicates him so

that he is never able to meet his beloved.

Honour killing is a prevalent way of achieving control over a woman’s sexuality and her

right to choose her partner. Though in Indian context, honour of a family as well as of caste is

deeply determined by the conduct of women, both men and women embody notions of

honour, but quite differently. According to P. Chowdhury, the woman is the repository of

honour and the man is the regulator of this honour (197-237). Alok’s mother by engaging in a

hypogamous relationship with a Kshatriya man challenges the role of a woman as a

repository of honour. However, since hypogamy is a threat severe than hypergamous

marriage, his maternal kinsmen take up the role of regulators of her honour. Hence, her

brothers who shared close nexus with a local political party attempt to murder him to remove

the last sign of a man who brought social disrepute to their family.

According to Manu, it is the sexuality of women that is the root cause of everything that

is evil. It is evident in the derogatory observation that he draws on the character of women

and links it with the necessity to control women sexuality, “A woman must particularly be

guarded against her evil inclinations, however trifling (they may appear); for, if they are not

guarded, they will bring sorrow onto two families” (qtd. in Buhler 328). The role of male

family members as regulators of honour is strengthened by Manu’s expectations on the role

of male family members. He argues that male family members are as much responsible in

protecting the chastity of a woman as much a woman herself. In fact Manu in chapter IX,

verse iv, puts significant stress on the duty of men as father, husband and son in maintaining

the honour of women. According to him, “Reprehensible is the father who gives not (his

daughter in marriage) at the proper time; reprehensible is the husband who approaches not

(his wife in due season), and reprehensible is the son who does not protect his mother after

husband has died qtd. in Buhler 328 ).

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Consequently, the custodians of caste, community and family honour, the Chakravartis

leave no stones unturned to smother the inter caste love affair and punish the ‘erring’ couple.

The love affair that was a bone of contention because of caste difference, takes political turn

in the hands of the regulators of honour, Alok’s maternal grandfather and uncle. His uncle, an

active party man, gathers goons to murder the man for violating the caste order as well as the

chastity of an upper caste woman. If violators of caste order are condemned, the regulators of

caste order and women’s honour are celebrated. The society congratulates and appreciates

Mr. Chakraborty as ‘a true Brahmin’ (Das 22) for his chivalrous actions that endorse his

sincerity and faithfulness towards his religion. The strict actions taken by Alok’s maternal

grandfather and uncle against the lower caste man reinforce their position as custodians of

social norms and codes of behaviour, especially when caste is at stake, earns them

appreciation and respect from their neighbours.

Raju Das as a strong critic of Brahminical ideologies have time and again attacked

Brahminism through his spokespersons. In Surjo Tonoy, it is through Panu Master that Raju

Das speaks out his mind against Brahmanism, “I respect true Brahmin; but I detest spurious

Brahminism” (Das, Surjo Tonoy 12). A measure of how strong his belief is in his observation

is borne by his critique of the hypocrisy of Brahmins through Mr. Chakraborty’s actions. The

superficial Brahmanical ideologies that Brahmins like Mr. Chakraborty embrace to identify

themselves as true Brahmins is evident when he vouches to be a true Brahmin by shaving off

his head as a penance for his sinful act and retains his image of an ‘ideal Brahmin’ (Das Surjo

Tonoy 22) in the society. Thereafter, in order to live up to the expectations of the society as a

true Brahmin, he even goes to the extent of disowning his own daughter and excommunicates

her, with her growing foetus. They are applauded for their courageous action for protecting

the sanctity associated with caste.

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The upper caste Brahmins not only have a heightened caste consciousness but also have

discriminatory punishment for people belonging to different castes. The concession of

punishment in upper caste people is evident in the following conversation between old

rickshaw puller, Hari and Panu Master in Surjo Tonoy:

HARI: What are you saying master moshai? Religious Rasaraj Chakraborty

murdered an innocent man?

PANU: Yes Thakurmoshai. In your shashtras only it is written that if any rahmin

murders a man and then shaves off his hair, he is cleaned off all his sins. But if

a person from any other varna does the same, will be punished- death is his

punishment then. (Das 26-7)

The conversation between Panu Master and Hari highlights the significance of maintaining

caste order and purity in a Brahmanical society.

The power politics of a male dominated society that is closely associated with male ego

and sense of superiority over females surfaces as the Chakraborty family, especially as the

Chakraborty patriarch, instead of introspecting on their limitations and failures to protect the

virginity of their young daughter hold her responsible for everything and blames her for

losing her dignity. Alok’s maternal grandfather fails to observe his duty as a responsible

father protecting the chastity and dignity of her unmarried daughter. However, he

camouflages his failure as a responsible father protecting the honour of his virgin daughter by

projecting himself as a custodian of religion and caste. Instead of blaming himself and his

inability to live up to the expectations of the society as a father of a maiden woman, he

targets the erring couple for violating the caste norms of a Brahmanical society

The caste fixation of the Brahmin Chakraborty patriarch comes to the fore once more

when his religious piety and honesty towards religion weighs down the human values of love

and affection, especially humanity towards a new born baby. The significance of caste and

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class over filial love becomes more glaring when Alok’s mother returns home after a couple

of months with the new born baby in her arms asking for help, the hard hearted old patriarch

instead of getting overwhelmed with the innocence of a new born infant, makes him the

victim of caste. He refuses to accept the baby, snatches him from his daughter’s arms and

hurls him down on the courtyard with detestation and annoyance. Bereft of help and financial

security, Alok’s mother with the child becomes the victim of a life long suffering and

exploitation because of her chauvinistic and caste conscious family.

Alok’s predicament as an illegitimate child registers the fate of a child born out of

exogamous marriage. His life, like his parents, is one of anxiety, tension and oppression.

Alok is a social outcaste. Born out of the union of a Brahmin unwed mother and Kshatriya

father, Alok was neither received by the dead father’s family nor by his mother’s orthodox,

caste conscious Brahmin family. When Alok’s mother returns home after a couple of months

with the new born baby in her arms asking for help, Mr. Chakraborty instead of extending his

helping hand and carrying out the responsibilities of a dutiful father, sticks to his caste

conscious orthodox ideologies and refuses to accept her daughter for committing the sin of

transgressing the caste boundaries. In fact, the hard hearted old Brahmin hurls down his

grandson and makes it clear to his family that a son born out of the union of a Brahmin

woman and a Kshatriya man without marriage is a sinful creation, and therefore, cannot be

welcomed by him. Since his birth, Alok has suffered social rejection, which has a deep

impact on his personality. Though as an infant of only six months age he did not feel the pain

of familial rejection when his paternal grandfather hurled him down on the ground, yet the

consequences of this unsympathetic act of his grandfather and later to be repeated by the

society left him disillusioned forever. The trauma of social rejection can be best understood

when Alok vocalises his feelings in the given lines:

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But I did not die that day when my maternal grandfather hurled me down onto the

courtyard. In fact from that day I am burdened with a heart full of emotions; I am

still living with the pain of dejection and disillusionment. But is that how a person

can live? Is that called a life? (Das 22)

According to Gautama Sutras (28:33-34), “the son of an unmarried damsel, the son of a

pregnant bride, the son of a twice-married woman, the son of an appointed daughter, a son

self-given, and a son bought belong to the family of their fathers” (Jayaram par 6). Thus, as a

pure Brahmin he strongly vouches on the shashtras and smritis and refuses to accept the son

born of a maiden woman as an heir to his family. However, Manavdharmashastra has

altogether a different opinion on children born of inter caste marriages. Manu dictates, “From

a Sudra man and a Vaisya, Kshatriya, and Brahmana woman are born Ayogava, a Kshattri,

and a Chandala respectively, the lowest of men (sons who owe their origin to) a confusion of

the castes” (qtd. in Buhler 276).

The child born to a maiden, according to the sastras can be claimed by the father’s

family. But in Alok’s case, since the father is dead, his father’s family never claims him as

their heir. Therefore, he grows up with no family name and identity. This complicates the

situation in his life and he blames and traces the roots of his identity crisis to the

discriminating caste system that confines man to its limited boundaries and punishes him for

transgressing its norms. Raju Das also interrogates the validity of Brahminical ideologies

which in order to uphold its beliefs, practices and expectations in the society strangulates

human values of love and affection. His attitude towards Brahmins has been put forth through

spokesperson, Alok, who says, “I am not against Brahmins but I detest spurious Brahminism”

(Das 12).

The social stigma attached to Alok’s life as an illegitimate son of an unmarried mother

makes his life a suffocating one. He is socially marginalized because of the absence of a

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father’s identity in his life. The social stigma attached with unmarried motherhood shadows

Alok’s life as well. Raju Das effectively depicts the marginalized condition of Alok by

drawing a parallel story of social outcast Karna from the epic Mahabharata. Karna had been

the victim of caste discrimination as well as of his birth as an illegitimate son of Kunti. Thus,

when Alok receives the role of Karna for the drama Karna Kuntir Sambad, he identifies

himself with Karna and breaks down as he realises his life an exact mirror image of Karna; a

socially marginalised like Karna living with the burden of illegitimate son of an unwed

mother.

Karna’s birth is the outcome of divine intervention but born to a maiden woman.

According to the narrative in the epic Mahabharata, Kunti used a magical formula given to

her by a sage to summon the sun-god, Surya. As Surya met her he was compelled to give her

a child. Fearful that a child conceived before marriage might ruin her reputation, Kunti placed

the child born with natural armour and divine earrings in a wicker basket and left him afloat

in a river. The river decided the journey of the child’s life. It took Karna, the son of a

princess, into the house of a charioteer transforming a Kshatriya, member of the ruling varna,

into a Shudra varna.

Rejected by his natural mother, this foundling, Karna, refused to submit to his enforced

destiny. In his heart he was a warrior. He was at war with himself as well as with the society,

trying to find his true identity, his caste and his role in the society. Because Karna’s real

lineage was untraceable, he was given the shudra caste of his adopted father, a charioteer by

occupation.

Alok’s life symbolises the curse of illegitimate birth and consequent identity crisis and

social marginalization in a patriarchal society. The pain of a life lived like an orphan has

always forced him to live in a state of conflict. The conflict too is very idealistic in nature. It

is a conflict between his present state of unemployment and unfulfilled love that is a result of

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orthodox and superstitious Hindu religion and the one he is striving to see, free from all caste,

class and religious distinctions. His life that is constituted of personal failures and social

victimisation can be best summed in the words of Rabindranath Tagore in Karna Kuntir

Sangbad, “Let me remain, as ever with those who yield no fruit, nor know success”

(nimikhrabindranath, par. 2). Raju Das introduces the technique of play within a play to

address the social marginalization of children of unwed mothers. The selection of Karna-

Kuntir Sangbad by his theatre group creates the right opportunity for Alok to vent out his

frustrated emotions over his identity crisis and social marginalisation.

Karna-Kuntir Sangbad is an episode composed by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore

based on Mahabharata’s scene where before the epic war between the Kauravas and

Pandavas, Kunti, the mother of the Pandavas, pleads and tries to convince the great warrior

Karna not to fight against the Pandavas, his real brothers born out of the same mother.

Ultimately Karna decides, though reluctantly, to sacrifice his life to keep the request of his

real mother. In heroic words, Karna forfeits his winning position in the war to keep the

request of his natural mother. Karna’s words of sacrifice, “Joy houk amar houk pandobo

sontan, Ami robo nishfoler hotasher dole” (Let the son of Pandu be victorious and live

forever, I choose to stay with the hopeless desperate one)” symbolise the dejection and

hopelessness of his life that he has internalised.

Alok’s lineage like that of Karna is one of conflict. His stigmatised existence as the son

of an unmarried mother has an adverse effect on his life. His caste attached to him is that of

his adopted father, a shudra. His life as a social recluse marginalizes him in spite of his good

educational background. Like Karna who was always subjected to humiliation because of his

caste identity, Alok too faces caste discrimination in society. Raju Das draws similarities

between Karna and Alok to emphasise on the age old discriminations made on the grounds of

one’s birth. Like Karna, Alok’s life is one of rejection and dejection. Karna was rejected by

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the great archer and teacher of Kshatriya Pandavas, Dronacharya. Dronacharya refused to

accept Karna as his student because of his caste identity. Dronacharya reminded him of his

caste and warned him to restrict his desires within the limit of his caste. Karna as a Shudra

was reminded that he had no rights to learn the art of the Kshatriyas. His caste identity again

played a key role in his personal life. He was spurned by Draupadi, the bride herself for his

low origin at the archery contest organized by the king of Panchala for the hand of his

daughter, Draupadi.

Alok’s life even after centuries is similar to that of Karna. Alok’s life, like Karna, is one

of humiliation, pain and suffering. Through the similarities between Karna and Alok, Raju

Das emphasises the impact of caste identity on one’s life. Time has changed but caste

discrimination still continues in the society that divides human beings on the grounds of their

birth and their profession. Alok’s stigmatised life can be traced back to two main factors:

illegitimate birth and caste of his adopted parents. However, according to him, the main

reasons for his present state are not only these two factors, but it is spurious Brahminism.

Accusing Brahminism as the root cause of all the social injustice he remarks, “Brahminism is

the religion embraced by a handful of literate, witty people who in order to meet their selfish

demands cheat the ignorant lot in the name of religion” (Das12). According to Alok, it is

Brahminacal ideology that plays a key role in the construction of one’s identity. Hence,

Alok’s social position as a victim of exogamous relationship explicates the significance and

the sincerity with which Brahmanical ideologies on marriage and inheritance of caste identity

are observed and practised in the society.

Raju Das’s another play Neel Selam, gives another very interesting picture of exogamous

marriage, in which the victimisation of a woman in the institution of marriage that is

hypergamous in nature gains prominence. In addition to it, the play also pinpoints the social

position of the children who are born out of inter caste marriage especially that of

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hypergamous marriage, also known as anuloma type of marriage. The inter caste marriage

between an upper caste Brahmin man, Mr. Chatterjee and a Shudra woman, Alodebi is

another instance of exogamous marriage, but not as threatening as pratiloma or hypogamous

marriage. Through the instance of a form of marriage that enjoys moderate social acceptance,

Raju Das interrogates and contests the position of women in the institution of marriage.

The Chatterjee couple in the play Neel Selam had a peaceful married life till the peace

and happiness of the family is disrupted by the birth of two consecutive blind children.

Though the couple patiently and calmly withstood the sudden misfortune in their family in

the birth of their partially blind daughter, Bani; the birth of a completely blind son shattered

all the hopes and aspirations of the family. The hope of gaining back the sight of their

partially blind daughter that kept the family going comes to a standstill with the birth of a

completely blind son.

The birth of a son is a significant milestone for a family in a patriarchal society. The son

is regarded as a promise for a better future, one who can shoulder all the responsibilities of

his aging parents and through him the branching of the family seems possible. It is an age old

belief that son helps his parents to gain moksha and is the gateway to their place in heaven

(Jayaram Par 5). Ironically the birth of their second child, a male blind child shatters Mr.

Chatterjee’s hopes of an ideal complete future and out of frustration, anger and sadness he

accuses his wife, Alodebi, for his tragic fate. He holds her responsible for his and children’s

fate and hurls abuses on her, “You are an unlucky woman. You are only responsible for my

blind children” (Das 16). Instead of taking the responsibility of his family and giving

financial support for the medical treatment of his children, he abandons the family to escape

the crisis and remains untraceable forever.

Marriage, in Hindu religion has a deep significant meaning. It is considered more of a

sacrament that adheres to the principles of caste and religion than as a contract of human

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relationship. Sociologists too, have proclaimed that social order rests on strong conservative

elements. According to Hindu mythology, vivaha or marriage is not merely a holy union or a

communion, but it is more or less a sareera sanskara i.e. a sacrament sanctifying the body.

Hindu marriage joins two individuals for life, so that they can pursue together dharma (duty),

artha (material possessions), kama (physical desires) and moksha (ultimate spiritual release).

The union of two individuals as husband and wife in the institution of marriage is recognized

by law. It is not just a contract between two individuals or relationship of convenience but a

moral expediency, in which the couple agrees to live together and share their lives, doing

their respective duties, to keep the divine order and the institution of family.

Ironically, a man’s responsibility towards his family does not always form a part of his

moral integrity. Thus, in Neel Selam Mr. Chattterjee’s sudden decision to flee from his

responsibilities towards his family not only proves his failure to keep his familial obligations

but also his moral degeneration. However, the irony of a patriarchal society lies in the fact

that for all the moral and ethical lapses of a man, it is the woman who ultimately suffers.

Thus, it is Alodebi as an abandoned woman with two very young and handicapped children

bears the consequences of her husband’s callousness.

Mr. Chatterjee is a typical example of a chauvinist and selfish man who ignores the

dharma of grhastha phase as well as the vows of marriage. As the head of a family, he is

supposed to carry out his role as the provider and protector of his family. In a traditional set

up, the man as a head of the family bears all the responsibilities of the family and this in turn

gives him a position of authority. The couple shares the responsibility of keeping the

marriage vows of treading the paths of life together in all its ups and downs as husband and

wife and of bringing up two blind children. However, the financial independence that earns a

man a superior position in the family often works towards taking advantage of the other

subordinate and financially dependent members of the family. Ironically, Mr. Chatterjee fails

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to take the responsibility of bringing up two blind children. In turn he also fails to keep the

marriage vows of treading the paths of ups and downs of life together as husband and wife.

The seven steps taken during marriage keeping the Fire God a witness, captures the

essence of marriage. After completing the seven steps the bridegroom proclaims “Having

completed the seven steps be thou my lifelong companion. May thou be my associate and

helper in the successful performance of the duties that now devolve upon me as householder”

(qtd. in Pande 8). However, in Neel Selam, Mr. Chatterjee fails to do justice to the seven

vows of marriage. Through Mr. Chatterjee’s decision to run away from familial

responsibilities, Raju Das challenges the principle of togetherness that forms the main crux of

the social institution of marriage. He interrogates the superiority of man over woman in a

husband-wife relation that allows him to be the sole decision maker of the family. Bani’s

father not only fails to do his duty as a husband and father, he also destabilizes the concept of

patriarchal head of the family. For him marriage is not a social contract of mutual

understanding rather it is a union of two bodies for convenience. Thus, the moment he is

burdened with two handicapped children, he fails to conduct his familial and social duties as

father and patriarchal head and like a coward runs away from it. His callousness brings out

his insensitivity towards the institution of marriage as “(marriage is) not a plain and simple

contract but is part of a larger human relationship. . . something more than desire, a feeling of

understanding, of acceptance and belongingness, of a shared experience” (Jain 79).

The superiority of male over female is also established through the process of biological

reproduction that is often expressed in metaphorical terms as the ‘seed’ and the ‘earth’.

According to Dube, “The seed symbolizes the father’s contribution and the field represents

the part of the mother. Man provides the seed-the essence-for the creation of the offspring.

The seed determines the kind: the child’s identity is derived, thus, from the father in so far as

group placement is concerned (22). The symbolic significance of the seed and the earth in a

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way highlights the sexual asymmetry evident in biological reproduction. Leela Dube further

links this sexual asymmetry to “structural rules which govern ownership control and use of

productive resources and in the structure and functioning of domestic organizations” (23).

Procreation with a distinct emphasis on reproduction of a male progeny is considered as

the main objective of marriage in any human civilization. Its emphasis on the special

significance of male seed is noteworthy. The prerequisites for a male progeny is given a

detailed expression in Narada Smriti too, “Women are created for off springs; a woman is the

field and a man is the processor of the seed; a man without the seed does not deserve a girl”

(quoted in Pandey 197).

The symbolic significance of seed and earth in human reproduction is also found in

Hindu law books. Manu in chapter IX, verse 34 of Manusmriti observes, “In some cases the

seed is more distinguished, and in some the womb of the female; but when both are equal, the

offspring is most highly esteemed” (qtd. in Buhler 333). Further, in his discourse on the

function of seed and soil in the same chapter of Manusmriti, he establishes the relative

significance of the seed over the soil and observes, “On comparing the seed and the

receptacle (of the seed), the seed is declared to be more important for the offspring of all

created beings is marked by the characteristics of the seed”(qtd. in Buhler 333). Manu’s

reiteration on the significance of seed is further evident when he says, “Whatever kind on

seed is sown in a field, prepared in due season, (a plant) of that same kind, marked with the

peculiar qualities of the seed, springs up in it” (qtd. in Buhler 333).

However, the seed loses its exact significance in off springs of inter caste marriages that

include both hypergamous as well as hypogamous types. In such cases the male superiority in

the seed is tainted by the characteristics of the earth in which it is planted. Thus, in Chapter

X, verse 6 of Manusmriti, he categorically identifies the types as follows:

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Sons begotten by twice born men on wives of the next lower castes, they declare

to be similar (to their fathers, but) blamed on account of the fault (inherent) in

their mothers. Such is the eternal law concerning children born of wives one

degree lower than their husbands... (qtd. in Buhler 403).

Interestingly, the twist that Manu incorporates in anuloma or hypergamous marriage by

combining this form of marriage with matra-savarnya (inheritance of the mother’s varna)

instead of the prevalent system of inheriting the father’s caste “serves to reveal the

differential rules of mating and lineage for men and women of different castes” (Rege 145).

It also reflects Manu’s sole intention of restricting the off spring to the lower caste.

Tambiah, an eminent social anthropologist, in this context argues that though some

critics give the progeny the social status of his father, some refuse to do so. Though the

offspring of a hypergamous or pratiloma marriage is socially accepted as a part of their

father’s caste, the offspring of hypogamous marriage is received neither by the father’s

family nor by the mother’s family. Hence, he attempts to explain the paradox existing in

hypogamous and hypergamous marriages in the given words:

It seems to me that pratiloma is a convenient intellectual device for generating

various disapproved categories, assigning them degraded positions and

ideologically explaining, and rationalizing, why so many groups in the caste

hierarchy are placed in low or downtrodden positions...though caste society may

or may not in its actual demographic composition constitute a pyramid, its

evaluation of statuses, ritual and occupational roles must necessarily be

pyramidal. The pure statuses are few, the impure are legion. The [political]

economy of purity and pollution makes this inevitable. (207)

Consequently, the sufferings of the off springs of inter caste marriages start with the

discriminatory practices perpetrated by their own families. Unfortunately, it is the child who

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bears the brunt of seed and earth dichotomy of exogamous marriages and he is oppressed as a

social outcast.

Birth and lineage play a key role in Brahmanical patriarchy. It is evident in the

stigmatised lives of Alok in Surjo Tonoy and Bani and her brother in Neel Selam. His identity

as the son of an unmarried mother is a matter of disgrace for him. Hence, he is a social

outcast. In spite of his good educational background, he lives a life of social recluse, neither

he is accepted in social circles like in his work place nor in his private life one of happiness

and peace. Like Karna who was always subjected to humiliation because of his lower caste

identity, Alok too faces caste discrimination in society. He is neither accepted well at his

workplace nor by his fiancée. In Neel Selam, the blind children in spite of their uncontrollable

desire for education and heightened optimism are not allowed to prosper by the various

apparatuses of state machinery.

In Neel Selam Raju Das not only emphasises on the significance of family lineage but

also challenges the patriarchal image and role of man as the head of the family. The

Chatterjee family bereft of family head goes through all kinds of stress; financial, emotional

as well as socio-cultural. Alodebi, however turns out to be a strong woman. She is accused by

her husband as the source of all their misfortune, a wretched woman that she is, she is held

responsible for the birth of her blind son. Hence, she is blamed for her failure to meet the

primary duty of an ideal wife; to give birth to a son who can be the rightful heir to the family

and carry it further. As a punishment for her carrying bad luck for their family, she is

abandoned by her husband. However, after a few months’ of initial distress and helplessness,

with no alternative to support her family, gradually Alodebi gathers courage to challenge the

ideal image of a woman as a submissive, docile homemaker. She takes up a job to fend for

herself and her family. By taking up a job to financially support her family, Alodebi also

challenges the traditional role of a father as a breadwinner and manages, though with all

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difficulties, to strike a balance between her role as a mother, a caregiver and nurturer,

showering affection and love and father, as an earning member of the family.

In this whole process, that marks the beginning of a new phase for Alodebi she also

challenges and even subverts the orthodox patriarchal ideals of wifehood or pativrata. A

pativrata woman in a patriarchal society is expected to be loyal to her husband, never to

speak ill of him, whether during his lifetime or post death. Manusmriti strongly holds,

“Though destitute of virtue, or seeking pleasure (elsewhere), or devoid of good qualities, yet

a husband must be constantly worshipped as a God by a faithful wife” (qtd. in Buhler 196).

Also “A faithful wife, who desires to dwell (after death) with her husband, must never do

anything that might displease him who took her hand, whether he be alive or dead” (qtd. in

Buhler 196). However, Raju Das, through the character of Alodebi interrogates the validity of

such parameters in a patriarchal society, especially when the upholders of such codes of

conduct blatantly flout them. Alodebi turns away from moral injunctions thrust upon women

and liberates herself from such claustrophobic, self denial for the sake of her family’s

survival. The play subtly hints at “the importance of institutional support” (Baber 61) and

how its absence forces a woman to transgress her role as an ideal wife, serving the family

from within the four walls of her home. Unlike an ideal wife, as expected by the patriarchal

society, Alodebi liberates herself from the patriarchal ideology of a pativrata and sets herself

as an example of a liberated woman, not touched ever by the infidelity of her husband. The

driving force behind her new life, obviously, had been her responsibility to give her blind

children a better future.

However the road chosen by Alodebi did not turn out to be a smooth one. It was full of

unexpected bends and potholes. As she takes up a job in the nursing home run by Dr.

Banerjee, she becomes a victim of workplace harassment and abuses. As an abandoned and

separated woman her life becomes more vulnerable. Her presence in a man’s world is

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exploited by her employee. Dr. Banerjee, Alodebi’s employer, takes full advantage of her

financial and emotional crisis and subjects her to sexual harassments. In Neel Selam,

Alodebi’s recollection of painful memories that forced her to live a life of a mistress of Dr.

Banerjee, bring to the fore her helplessness that forced her to bear her sexual exploitation at

the workplace:

After six months of surviving on the existing savings, when I was frantically

looking for a job, Dr. Banerjee gave me a job in his nursing home. However, as

long as the widower Dr. Banerjee was alive, I was forced to live as his mistress.

Only because of my two helpless children; to provide financial support to my

family that consisted of two innocent children. (Das 18)

The social conditioning of a woman, from very childhood teaches her to sacrifice herself for

others. Hence, Alodebi does not break down or feel defeated in a man’s world. Instead of

being cowed down by her condition, she keeps herself emotionally and mentally strong to

fight her desolation and exploitation to give her children a better life. Alodebi’s condition

signifies the condition of deserted women, who under the pressures of their situation become

“silently labouring beast(s)” (Baker 247). Nevertheless, her experience from her exploitation

and oppressed situation makes her a strong woman to challenge the empty ego of patriarchal

society that is by large responsible for her plight.

Gautam Bhadra, while discussing the primary elements that define a Dalit observes,

“Submissiveness to authority in one context is as frequent as defiance in another. It is these

two elements that together constitute subaltern mentality” (63). Raju Das’s Alodebi

prominently manifests defiance as the only way to seek independence from the clutches of

gender based oppression in a patriarchal society. She defies the patriarchal image of an ideal

woman, devoting her life as a wife and mother and takes up a job in a man’s world.

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A woman’s chastity is regarded as her greatest virtue. Hence, when Bani’s mother takes

up a job, her life does not become without miseries, rather it make her life more pathetic as

she becomes a prey to sexual exploitation at work place. In fact under such circumstances,

the burden of proving her integrity of character doubles. As per Manavdharmashshtra a

woman’s integrity is of prime importance. Manu believes and therefore recommends, “Until

death let her be patient (of hardships), self-controlled, and chaste, and strive (to fulfil) that

most excellent duty which (is prescribed) for wives who have one husband only” (qtd. in

Buhler 196). He also lays down a set of strict actions as punishments for women who violate

the expected behavioural norms. In this context Manu observes, “By violating her duty

towards her husband, a wife is disgraced in this world, (after death) she enters the womb of a

jackal, and is tormented by diseases (the punishment of) her sin” (qtd. in Buhler 197).

However, a patriarchal society is based on the premises of gender inequity; the punishments

for men are comparatively lenient than that of women. A man can go scot free even after

violating his social responsibility of providing emotional and financial support to his family.

Therefore, Mr. Chatterjee, ignores his duties and obligations towards his family but Alodebi,

in spite of no fault of hers, has to bear the consequences of her husband’s callousness and

lack of courage to support a family consisting of two blind children.

A bold woman as Alodebi is, she is not intimidated by such helpless and unfair situation.

Rather, she upholds her decision to work as a nurse in Dr. Banerjee’s nursing home and

defending it as a response to the humane instinct of a mother and says, “That man, even after

being a father, could be heartless so easily. But, I am a mother. I cannot deny my

handicapped children a living” (Das 17). Torn between social expectations and her personal

requirements to help her family, Alodebi takes up the job as a nurse at Dr. Banerjee’s

hospital, where she becomes more of her employee’s mistress than his employee.

Conditioned to the social values that a woman is expected to follow and observe in a

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patriarchal society, Alodebi is compelled to hide from the society as well as from her children

her position as a mistress of Dr. Banerjee and yet strive to support the family. The pressure of

providing financial support to the family compels her to confide within her the pain of regular

sexual systematic sexual exploitation in the hands of her employer.

However, the conflict in her as an abandoned, socially marginalized woman and her

decision to work against the social expectations of a woman is evident when on one hand she

defends her decision to work but is torn apart for not being able to keep up to the image of an

ideal woman and mother. Eventually, she vents out, to her daughter and her friend, Shanto,

her pent up emotions of dejection and pain for choosing such an obnoxious path to provide

the much needed financial support to her children and cries out, “Now you tell me Bani, will

you address me as your Ma? Won’t you feel ashamed to recognise me as your Ma” (Das 18)?

Clearly evident in her volley of questions to her daughter, Bani, is her helplessness but a

strong sense of shame for taking up a job that her conscience probably did not approve of but

as a victim of unimaginable circumstances had to take up. The path of life chosen by Alodebi

can be easily debated as one that shows the death of her moral conscience. However, given

the hard situation that she had to go through to financially support her family, it is clear that it

is the motherly instinct of protecting her children that gained priority over any other concern.

The tenderness coupled with desperateness of a mother to save her children enabled her to

sale her body for the sake of money.

On the role and ideals that a woman is expected to perform, motherhood proves to be

one of the most challenging and demanding one. Regarding the significance attached with the

institution of motherhood, Mrinalini Sinha observes, ‘motherhood is a glorification without

empowerment” (49-57). However, Raju Das courageously challenges this notion through the

character of Alodebi. Alodebi through her determination to work against all odds to support

her family proves that a woman’s emancipation does not depend on any external agent but it

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lies within. A woman herself has to force herself out of the cocoon of submissive, docile

image of a homemaker to support herself for a better emancipated life. In fact Raju Das

upholds the position of a woman as a mother. Alodebi is a perfect blend of a rebellious

woman who challenges the patriarchal ideal of a pativrata woman to sacrifice herself for the

future of her children. However, all her sacrifices and hard work are overshadowed by the

apathetic patriarchal institutions of the society.

Besides the patriarchal society, Alodebi and her family is victimised by the state

machineries as well. The state apparatus marginalises Alodebi’s children as the ‘other’ for

their physical disability. It is because of partial and complete blindness of Bani and her

brother and unavailability of proper state help for the physically disabled that the family

continues to live under the dark shadow of poverty and social marginalization. In spite of

their mother’s relentless efforts to give her blind children higher education, it is far from

getting completely materialised. Lack of sufficient provisions in the state higher education

system and employment of the visually challenged, both Bani and her brother had to settle

down with a paltry income generated through giving music lessons to the children in the

neighbourhood or selling small stationary items in local trains.

However, Alodebi is a strong and undefeatable woman. She exploits the lessons she

learnt from her hardship and bitter experiences and develops her conviction to change their

state through hard work and honesty. This in turn brings an inextinguishable new light in

their life; a vision in her blind children. Undeterred by the ineffective and partial state

machinery that adds to the woes of Alodebi and her children, the mother daughter duo pursue

their desire for higher education but could not reach their ultimate objective of getting a job

for their self empowerment. By focusing on the double marginalization of Alodebi as a

victim of gender and exogamous marriage and on Bani as a product of exogamous marriage

coupled with her physical disability, Raju Das critiques the Brahmanical society and its strict

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adherence to its narrow ideology of keeping women under strict control to preserve its caste

purity. Also evident in his plays is his sharp appraisal of the state authorities and its various

apparatuses that deliberately make unattainable provisions to keep the underprivileged from

getting the benefits of higher education.

II

Caste and the Monopoly of Knowledge

The monopoly of the upper castes, especially the Brahmins over knowledge is an age old

phenomenon. The superiority of the upper castes over the lower ones were preserved through

“the monopoly of the upper castes’ ‘sacred knowledge’, ‘book knowledge’, ‘intellectual

enquiries’’ (Chakravarti 17). Other skill based knowledge compared to the knowledge of

scriptures was considered inferior. These skill based knowledge was meant for the Shudras

and untouchables. Like the Shudras, the women were also restricted from acquiring

knowledge of the sacred scriptures. There was a strict provision of punishment for violating

the ban on knowledge acquisition. Raju Das’s another very significant play, Ragging, is a

symbolic representation of the Brahmanical monopoly over learning and knowledge. Though

education is no more restricted only for boys, yet the play brings home the fact that women

are yet not welcomed into advanced fields of knowledge and learning.

Set at the backdrop of the suicide story of the first tribal graduate woman, Chuni Kotal

of Lodha tribe, Ragging exemplifies the consequences of violating the knowledge boundaries

marked for each caste. The play is the story of a brilliant girl, Reema, whose parents commit

the sin of dreaming to educate their daughter and give her higher education. The play depicts

how Reema’s caste identity becomes the greatest obstacle in her student life. Belonging to a

Shudra caste, Reema is exposed to an ugly situation on the very first day of her college to

make her realise the consequences of transgressing the boundary lines of knowledge

acquisition drawn for each caste. Implicit in Reema’s ragging in the college is the working of

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the state machinery in a Brahmanical society to create a gap between the socially and

economically privileged and under privileged classes of people.

Ragging also meets the objective of tracing the far reaching impact of caste

discrimination that without any excuse engulfs education system. Through this play Raju Das

also aimed at activating the dormant Dalit community in West Bengal to wake it up from its

dormant state, stand against caste discrimination, and work together towards its eradication.

The main corpus of the play consists of a plea for equal opportunities to higher studies for all

irrespective of caste, class and gender.

The practise of ragging in higher educational institutions is not a new phenomenon. New

entrants for advanced studies in medical and engineering streams often become the subject of

the oppression meted out by their senior students. The real objectives of ragging in

educational institutions are varied. Sometimes the new entrants are targeted for ragging by

the senior students just for fun, as an ice breaking session, though often it becomes violent

and life threatening. Besides this, many a times ragging is also triggered by socio-political

and communal issues. Caste too plays a vital role in catalysing ragging in educational

institutions. In such situations Dalit students are the primary targets since Dalit children’s

intelligence is always undervalued and the Dalits’ “prospect of assimilation... is fraught with

potential failure, shame and humiliation, not to mention the threatening indictment of self-

denial and self-beratement” (Cheng 69). The play under consideration depicts how caste

discrimination intrudes in the field of higher education and stands as an obstacle for the

socially underprivileged.

Implicit in the play, Ragging, is the power politics in Education Reformation in West

Bengal and its consequences on the culturally deprived and lower income groups of the

society. It also throws light on the reception of Education Reformation in the state by the Left

Government. The anti Dalit Leftist government of West Bengal played a heinous trick with

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the socially aspiring backward classes of the state, especially the scheduled castes and tribes.

The reformation that was initiated with an apparently positive objective of mass literacy and

overall betterment of the socially backward classes made the state language, Bengali,

mandatory in the primary, secondary as well as in the higher secondary levels of the state

education system. But very soon the socio-culturally underprivileged section of the society

realised that more than a positive development they were pushed into a darkness of

ignorance. The lack of knowledge of English deprived the students from socio-culturally

under privileged background from opportunities to higher education, as the medium of

instruction in higher education, irrespective of stream and specialisation, has been always

English. Thus, very subtly the government managed to keep the under privileged backward

classes in a state of ignorance and through their lack of access to higher education ensured

their state of perpetual subservience to the upper classes. (Biswas par. 5)

Raju Das’s Ragging is the story of a scheduled caste family that is driven by the

unbeatable desire to give the light of higher education to their daughter, Reema. Reema too is

a hardworking, intelligent, sincere girl who leaves no stones unturned to materialise her poor

parents’ dream of achieving higher education, that too technical education in one of the

vocational courses. However, because of her low socio-economic and cultural position in the

society, the road to success was not very smooth. Besides, her caste and class standing as big

obstacles in her higher education, her gender too brings a couple of problems in her way to

technical education in a vocational course.

The play opens with the arrival of a poor child Reema at her hostel and how immediately

after her arrival she becomes the prey to her senior student Nirupama’s ragging. Through the

conversation of Reema, her mother, aunt Nirupama and other hostel colleagues Krishna and

Jhuma Raju Das hints at the wide spectrum of mental temperament that people of different

sections of the society exhibit. Such strong detestation of upper class people toward those

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who belong to the lower or weaker socio economic classes, often lead to metal and emotional

uneasiness, pain and humiliation. Ragging addresses this unbridgeable gap between the

advantaged sections of the society and the disadvantaged ones.

The chief protagonist of the play, Reema, goes through a subtle but ugly and unexpected

ragging session in her first few days of her engineering college. She is mentally harassed by

one of her seniors, Neerupama, from the moment she steps into the college premises. She is

picked up for small and silly things to irritate Reema. First in the series of such irritatingly

foolish things was Reema’s use of English words in while speaking in her mother tongue.

Nirupama chastises Reema for her ignorance of an efficient use of her mother tongue, “Ta

Janbi keno? English school e porechis bujhi ?” (You don’t know Bengali? Of course why will

you know? Must have been educated in an English medium school!) (Das 2) and abuses her

for neglecting her mother tongue in public places. She orders her to use pure Bengali in the

college premises and puts up an open challenge to Reema of replying only in Bangla, even if

that required translating technical terms to Bangla. Reema, in order to please her for

comfortable living in the hostel tries her best to accommodate all her demands, though at

times she faces it extremely difficult to control her anger for such stupid questions.

Gautam Bhadra while analysing the characteristics that define Dalits observes that it is

not only defiance, disobedience and willingness to resist that always create Dalit identity but

the oppressed are also identified by their submissiveness to their superior, “Submissiveness to

authority in one context is as frequent as defiance in another. It is these two elements that

together constitute subaltern mentality” (63). Reema explicates this typical identity of a

subaltern that Gautam Bhadra observes. Being a victim of Neerupama’s constant humiliating

words and gestures, Reema feels the urge to retaliate against her. Yet she refrains from

raising her voice against her senior. Rather with her sheer presence of mind, integrity of

character and honesty beautifully handles the challenges that she faces and emerges as a

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confident fighter who battled the inhuman humiliations and mental and physical tortures to

assert her social class and position in her college.

Ragging is a disturbing reality in the higher education system of our country. Despite the

fact that over the years ragging has claimed hundreds of innocent lives and has ruined careers

of thousands of bright students, the practice is still perceived by many as a way of

‘familiarization’ and an ‘initiation into the real world’ for young college- going students. The

etymological meaning of ragging indicates it as a practice in educational institutions that

involves existing students baiting or bullying new students. It often takes a malignant form

wherein the newcomers may be subjected to psychological or physical torture that adversely

affect the physique or psyche of a fresher or a junior student. (Ragging: Humiliation, rivalry

or icebreaking? Par. 5).

In the play, Ragging, the meaning and objective of ragging is best drawn out through the

character of Reema’s senior, Neerupama. According to her ragging plays a formative role

that immensely benefits the students. She observes:

In the fields of science and technology ragging has the objective of transforming

the new brilliant, intelligent, studious, promising but dependent and emotionally

weak candidates to more dependent, hard working and emotionally strong

individuals. Most of the students have led a secure, protected and dependent life,

where all the major decisions of life were taken by their parents. Thus as they

come to stay in hostel, their attitude and approach towards life should undergo a

radical change to adjust and adapt themselves to the new environment where

majority of their work and decisions have to be done or taken independently.

Therefore to make the newcomers more self reliant and independent ragging is

deliberately organized. (Das 3)

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Neerupama even adds that such ragging actually acts as tough training that enables them

to become ‘able administrator and decision makers of their own life’ (Das 3). She thinks that

even the state and educationists of the state too support such informal training programme to

meet their own objectives of churning out able, independent individuals which mere

education system cannot achieve.

No doubt Neerupama defends the practise of ragging in college premises. Yet the hard

core truth is that it is not easy for a new comer to withstand the emotional and physical

abuses carried out in this process. Consequently, ragging leaves such a deep impact on the

psyche of an individual that the person carries the baggage of humiliation forever. Also often

ragging proves fatal, so much so that it leads to suicides. Instances of deaths during ragging

sessions are also not uncommon. Students like Reema are the worst victims of ragging mostly

because of their caste and class. However, because of her mental strength and strong desire to

fulfil her poor parents’ desire to see their daughter successfully completing and acquiring the

degree of higher education that she patiently and silently withstands the torturous phase of

her college life. Gradually she gathers courage to stand against the malicious practice of

ragging to stop it forever.

Neerupama’s series of questions to Reema and like her to other new comers, as a part of

her ragging session reflect her resistance towards women’s education and emancipation. She

is a typical perpetrator of patriarchal ideology that perceives woman’s emancipation through

education absolutely needless. Her ideological belief reflects her internalisation of the

popular patriarchal idea that education and emancipation of women might lead them astray.

By ragging she tries to mentally and emotionally break down the confidence of those girls

who desire to enlighten themselves through education and work towards their liberation.

However, Reema is Raju Das’s heroic woman. Like Bani in Neel Selam and Khenti in

Kolonko, and unlike Chuni Kotal, she does not succumb to the humiliations associated with

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caste discriminations practised in educational institutions. Raju Das sketches her character

with utmost care and precision to set her as a role model for other exploited and under

privileged classes. She is an example for others to gather courage and mental strength to rebel

against any evil system, especially caste discrimination to liberate all from the shackles of

caste, class and gender discriminations.

In all his major plays, Raju Das relentlessly fights against the Brahmanical patriarchy of

a caste stratified Hindu society. The play Ragging is not an exception to it. Through the

character of Pishima (Reema’s paternal aunt), Raju Das attacks Brahminism that is mainly

responsible in creating the gulf between the socially and economically privileged and

underprivileged sections of the society. Ragging as a phenomenon of observing socio-

cultural, religious, educational and ethical differences amongst individuals had been prevalent

in Hindu society since ages. The discrimination, subjugation and oppression that caste

stratified Hindu society practices to maintain caste hierarchy and celebrate their superiority

over other lower castes are nothing less than ragging. Since ancient times ragging exists as a

weapon to maintain caste stratification. Pishima equates present day ragging in higher

educational institutions with age old practise of caste based discrimination. Subjected to such

discriminations since childhood Pishima launches into a tirade against the Brahminical

system that deliberately always kept the shudras and atishudras from education system and

observes:

Brahmin and Khastriya children only had access to education. The Vaishyas and

Shudras were never given the right to education and that is why the great archer

Dronacharya had cut off the thumb of Eklavya as his punishment for secretly

learning this art. It is also because of this that Lord Ram dared to cut off the head

of Shambhu. The Brahminical system of education and running the society was

existing till 18th century, even would have continued for some centuries had not

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reformers like Mahatma Jyotiba Phule, E.V. Ramasami Periyaar, Harichand

Thakur, Dr.Babasaheb Ambedkar, Ram Lohia Manohar and Guruchand Thakur

had not contributed to Dalit cause. (Das 5)

The play, Ragging, is an interesting study of the playwright’s intention of bringing out

the hidden agenda behind ragging. According to ragging expert Neeru, Reema’s senior in

college, ragging is a way of enhancing the mental and emotional strength of the new comers.

Also it has the objective of making the students more independent and mature. But according

to Reema’s aunt, “ragging is a strategic step meted out at different stages of life on the

powerless and disadvantaged by the comparatively more powerful in the area” (Das 6).

Hence, Reema as a new comer is subjected to ragging by her seniors in the hostel and her

caste adds to her woe.

Reema is the victim of caste discrimination practised by caste conscious upper caste

Neeru. While probing into Reema’s background, her family history and financial condition,

to gauge the urgency of her higher education, she subjects her to nasty verbal and physical

abuse to maintain and keep the jurisdiction of higher education in the hands of creamy upper

caste people. But Reema’s life had not been always so rosy like many of her privileged

friends thus she patiently bears with all physical and mental tortures only to come out

victorious and is able to befriend Neeru. Raju Das hints at oppression that an individual faces

as an outcome of a series of other oppressions perpetuated in the society. This oppression

definitely is the offshoot of an unbridgeable gap between caste, class or gender but the result

is same uncouth oppression and subjugation of the less advantaged people. It also hints at the

failure of the constitutional laws and rights of individuals. In this context the words of Uma

Chakravorti bring out the reality behind the constitutional laws:

The constitution has formally ended caste-based discrimination in public spaces,

but it has neither broken the hold of the upper castes on material resources, nor

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their hold over the state machinery. Consequently, the enforcement of the non

discriminatory provisions in public spaces remains a dead letter because the

enforcers themselves, in many cases, subscribe to the ideology of caste. (207)

In fact, Raju Das sketches the character of Neeru as a representative of the Brahminical

thoughts and ways of living. Implicit in her ragging is the typical Brahmanical tendency of

reserving education and knowledge only in the hands of upper caste and thereby keep the

lower castes away from the light of knowledge. In order to confine the opportunities of higher

education only to the socially privileged groups of people, she cites financial crisis as one of

the main issues behind why lower caste people do not get access to higher education.

Indirectly drawing the inevitable link between caste and economy, she establishes the fact

that poor economic conditions become one of the main obstacles to higher education for

people belonging to lower castes.

Neeru, like the ancient Brahmin Gurus, shows her preference to keep higher education

reserved for the upper castes with sound financial background. According to Neeru, people

belonging to the upper castes have monopoly on the right to education. However, she defends

her selfish motive by camouflaging it with other issues like financial problems of the

economically deprived sections of the society. She scares Reema by citing examples of

students who fail to complete the course either because of financial crisis or for their inability

to stand ragging. In fact Neeru tries to kill two birds with one stone through her discourse on

ragging. She not only makes it clear that poor students should abstain from pursuing

engineering but also manages to maintain the gap between the rich and the poor in

educational institutions.

Neeru’s dialogic engagement does prove that ragging is a systematic and strategic way

of humiliating, embarrassing and inflicting physical and mental pain to create, develop and

maintain the gap between the powerful and powerless. It is a strategic exercise to widen the

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gap between the oppressor and the oppressed, subjugator and subjugated. The desire and

necessity to humiliate, embarrass and inflict pain on the subalterns can be traced back to

Hindu caste system and the notion of untouchability that it harboured within itself.

According to the Varna system each varna has been designated specific profession to

practise. The categorisation was aimed at meeting specific requirements of the society, like

education, warfare, trade and commerce and since did not want to mess with their assigned

job or profession, categorization was strictly followed. This classification on the basis of

profession gradually gave rise to casting away the menial job holders to the outskirts of the

village to avoid any possibility of getting polluted and eventually gave rise to the avarnas as

the ‘other’.

In Raju Das’s Ragging the new comers in medical and engineering colleges are the

‘others’, who do not know the ways of life and hardships one has to go through in a hostel

life. Having conditioned to a very comfortable life, children at the age of eighteen and

nineteen have no idea of the real life outside the secured cocoon of their family life. So

people like Neerupama identify such candidates as the ‘others’ as opposed to their own lives

which they find more mature and trained to experience and handle any crisis in their life.

Also like the varna system through this difference they try to secure respect and honour as

seniors in the eyes of their juniors.

The apathy of people like Neeru can be perceived in the way she tries to defend her

practise of ragging without the ability to understand the consequences of ragging. Neeru

belonging to a snob, upper class section of the society fails to realise the mental and physical

torture which give rise to a huge number of students’ suicides and drop outs. Reema’s mother

brings out the tension and disturbance that ragging and its consequences on the family

members of the victims of ragging. She represents total acceptance of their oppression, in

spite of being aware of its consequences. Her timid desire to rebel against their hapless

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situation by providing education to her daughter is lost in the fear of losing her life. She is the

victim of artificial fear created by upper caste people like Reema to keep higher education in

the pockets of only a few; people belonging to the rich upper class. She exemplifies those

subjugated subalterns who are ready to accept their subjugated position instead of challenging

it. As a result she is ready to denounce her dream of educating her daughter in the latest

technology that would bring her new rays of light for better future, rather reports on ragging

has made her believe, “these kind of education in engineering and medical field is not meant

for girls of poor families. We should not even dream of these” (Das 23).

However Jhuma, Neeru’s classmate, idealises ragging and tries to make Roma debi,

Reema’s mother, understand the need for better, higher and job oriented education for people

from poor, backward families. Instead of abandoning dreams of better future, she supports

suffering that promises new beginning. She puts forward the opinions of her father who

always defended suffering of the lower and under privileged sections of the society,

consequent rebel and counter suffering for a new change. Thus she quotes her father and

says, “You know aunt, my father says one section of the society for ages has been ragging

another bigger section of the society, and the only way to liberate one from this is to have

good higher education” (Das 23).

Reema, too is a bold and confident woman. She does not want to write the story of

another underprivileged sufferer. Rather her confidence and enlightenment that she gained in

few hours in college pushes her to fight against ragging and create a new world for herself

and for other women like her. Thus she resists her mother who insists her to return home and

promises saying, “No, no. I will fight against ragging. In the fear of ragging I don’t want to

prove myself a defeated person. Rather I will fight against it. Myself. Jhuma and many others

will rebel against it and change the society” (Das 3).

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The pain of living at the margins, the agony of constantly becoming the victims of

humiliation weaves all his major plays. Humiliation and embarrassment are common motifs

that link all the characters in Raju Das’s plays. However, Raju Das’s characters are subjected

to a humiliating and mortifying life for different reasons. If in Mahesh it is because of the

minority religion of Islam that Gafur and Amina profess in a Hindu Brahmin village that they

are discriminated and are constantly subjected to physical and verbal abuses, for Alok it is his

illegitimate birth that makes him the ‘other’ in the society. Alodebi and Alok’s mother are

doubly marginalized because of their gender and caste whereas Bani is subjected to triple

layered marginalisation based on gender, caste and physical disability.

In Ragging, it is the same humiliation and the life of a deprived that drive Reema’s

determination to pursue higher education against all odds to carve out a space for themselves,

for people who are constantly the victims of the class conscious society. Her fight is also

against the patriarchal society that has always confines in the four walls of their houses. In

the name of giving a better and secured life to the women, the more powerful men have

always denied them the rays of light. She is all determined to fight not only ragging but also

the patriarchal system that has strategized in many different ways to keep the women from

enlightenment and liberty. She sees the necessity for higher education only to liberate the

society from its several mal practises like caste and gender discriminations for a better future.

Nirupama, in Ragging, is the representative of Brahminic tradition that scorns the lower

castes pursuing education and would do all that is necessary to dissuade and ultimately stop

them from having institutionalised education which is the first step towards self

enlightenment. However, Reema, her aunt and mother uphold Ramabai’s views on the

importance of education to resist the Brahminic tradition that scorns the lower castes and

women from acquiring education to further their targets of suppressing and oppressing what

they called the weaker section of the society.

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Pandita Ramabai in her significant book, Stree Purush Tula observes that the only way

of resisting the traditional upper-caste Hindu society which mandated pre-pubertal marriage

and immediate post-pubertal consummation of marriage for girls and which denied education

to women, both to stress their unprivileged status and to curb their freedom of

communication was through female education. Reema’s stoic patience to bear the mental and

physical torture and humiliation and Pishima’s fiery arguments against calculated moves of

the brahmanical society to deprive the Shudras from education echo Pandita Ramabai’s belief

that education of women is the key to their emancipation.

Nicely merged with the main text of emotional, physical and verbal abuse in the form of

ragging of fresh college students, especially of the under privileged and downtrodden ones,

Raju Das weaves in the subtext of exploitation of socio-economically and culturally upper

middle class girls in the confines of their home by their family members. The personal life of

Neerupama within the confines of her rich, upper class family is no less abusive than that of

Reema in college. Both of them are helpless victims of their class and caste. If Reema is the

victim of her situation because of her low social caste and economic position in the society,

Neerupama’s upper class lineage with educated, cultured, affluent working parents subject

her to an oppressive life that cannot even be perceived by an outsider in his/her wildest

dreams. Through these two women characters, Reema and Neerupama, belonging to different

social and economic class, Raju Das depicts exploitation of women in numerable ways that

often lead to frustration and loneliness, feelings of dejection and insignificance as in

Neerupama or humiliation and angst against socially rich upper caste people evident in

Reema.

Raju Das makes a very beautiful but poignant observation that isolation, seclusion,

loneliness, humiliation and dejection are some experiences that people irrespective of social

position suffer from and ragging is nothing but an outcome of this psychological discomfort.

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However, because class difference gives rise to powerful and powerless individuals, ragging

that exists as a game between powerful and the powerless, often ends in subjugation of the

powerless by the people in power. Surprisingly, Ragging does not fall in the beaten tracks;

rather it depicts the rise of a rebel trying to protest against the set tradition of ragging of the

newcomers by their seniors and vehemently establishes the fact that the oppressed are the

greatest oppressors in the society.

Raju Das’s creation of the character of Neerupama is one of close observation of the

psychological workings of the oppressed people. Neerupama is a well known figure when it

comes to ragging the new entrants. She has an unnatural record of ragging highest number of

students. She takes ragging as a game and rags students to break the drab monotonous hostel

life. However, deftly hidden under Neerupama’s image of an arrogant and violent oppressor

is the silent victim of domestic abuses and violence. Ragging, thus, in Nirupama’s life

becomes an avenue of achieving new experience and new taste of life. However, behind her

newly found engagement as an entertainment there lies a deep seated lack in Nirupama’s life

that leads her to seek self satisfaction and gratification through ragging.

In socio- psychological terms ragging is a manifestation of the sadistic and even

masochistic nature of its practisers. The desire to achieve the most sought after position of

authority, camouflaging weaknesses or suppression and substitution of emotions can be some

reasons of exercising ragging on others. In short, it aims at creating a position of domination

and authority by the superior over the inferior. In post modern context it also gives rise to

binaries like dominant-subservient, advantaged-disadvantaged, strong-weak. Neerupama’s

habit of ragging and the expertise that she has achieved over a period of time, does prove her

objective of ragging. Therefore, ragging for Neerupama, is not only teasing the newcomers or

scaring and discouraging the under privileged children, but it is also a medium that provides a

scope to satisfy her sadistic desires of hurting others to compensate for her hurt ego.

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Ragging besides depicting the negative impact of Education Reformation and far

reaching effects of caste system, also throws light on the negative impact of urban middle

class working families. Neerupama is the only child of an urban educated, cultured and

working couple. The highly stressed life of working couples in cities might lead to financial

security but emotionally they are ruined. Neerupama’s childhood had been that of a loner,

with no company of family or friends. The only thing that gave her company from time to

time was the nasty fights between her father and mother, their series of accusations and blame

game. The disputes between the couples that would often become violent have left deep scars

in the mind of Neerupama. Unconsciously hatred and disgust start developing in her sub

conscious mind for all the educated, cultured and financially stable people who call

themselves civilized. Devoid of love, affection and family ties she becomes the ‘other’ in her

own family.

Through the context of ragging in colleges and universities, Raju Das makes a deliberate

attempt to bring out ragging in human life that takes place at every stage of human life.

Neerupama’s present life is a consequence of her deprived childhood. Constantly been

exposed to cruelty, humiliation and verbal abuses from a very tender age, Neerupama has

grown up with a thirst for inflicting pain, humiliation and pain onto others. Thus, the sight of

any new girl in the hostel reminds her of her busy working mother. The image of a mother in

Neerupama’s mind because of her childhood experiences is not a pleasant one. Rather, it is

the image of a monstrous mother that rules her mind. Neerupama’s abhorrence for a self

centric and busy working mother reflects the demand for an ideal mother as a loving,

sacrificing, always available and stay-at-home that the patriarchy has constructed. Hence,

ambitious and promising young girls remind her of monstrous mothers like her mother, who

after giving birth to children will subject them to loneliness and a life devoid of love,

affection, care and sibling bonds. This in turn creates in her angst against the young women

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entrants and therefore deliberately subjects them to ragging to break their confidence and clip

their wings of emancipation.

The condition of women that Raju Das depicts in his plays is an honest portrayal of the

bare truth prevailing in a patriarchal society but often goes unnoticed. Women have always

been doubly marginalized in a patriarchal society. The impact of caste and gender in a

stratified society like India has hardly allowed women to enjoy her life as a woman. Her life

is always pitched against measuring rods and yardsticks of ideal images and virtues. Raju

Das, a sensitive Dalit as he is reaches out to those very subtle issues that often go unnoticed

but leave undeniable mark in the subjects’ lives.

III

Kolonko: A Rejection of Brahmanical Patriarchy and Assertion of the Self

The play Kolonko is a very sensitive and a multilayered play that serves as a vehicle to

interrogate the practice of match making as one of the mechanisms of the Brahminical

patriarchy to preserve land, women and ritual quality within it. The play also provides a

glimpse into the workings of the apathetic state machinery against the Dalit refugees of East

Bengal that ultimately led to Marchijjhapi massacre. Also hidden within the narrative of the

play is the slow but steady process of Sanskritization that engulfs Dalit consciousness of

opportunist Dalits. The plot of the play also hints at the cold war that exists since the time of

partition of Bengal between the original residents of West Bengal and the immigrated people

of East Bengal who are commonly known as refugees.

Though the story line of the play Kolonko is quite scattered and digressive, touching

different issues, yet the main storyline revolves around the undue significance given to

Brahmanical practice of fixing matrimonial alliances. The humiliating and insulting sessions

of match making where a woman is constantly weighed against different parameters that help

to establish her suitability as a wife, daughter-in-law and mother is nothing new in a

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brahmanical society that functions according to the codes of behaviour laid down by the

Hindu shashtras (Hindu law books). However, it is interesting to note that it has its impact

felt even in the lower castes like shudras; probably where the stringency with which it is

observed is more nerve wrecking than in the upper caste Brahmin families.

The play under consideration is an indictment on the customary practise of match

making in Indian societies based on the superficial physical qualities like complexion, height

and weight of the prospective brides and grooms. The importance of the family, educational

and cultural background of the bride has been emphasised since ages. Since Vedic times, the

need to have good natured and meritorious women as wives have been reiterated for the

better functioning of the household. During the Vedic Age young men entertained hopes of

marrying women with abilities and talents that would enable them to “gain knowledge and

skill regarding administration of domestic matters in her parental home earlier” (Subbamma

46). Also, the woman as wife of her husband was called ‘jaya’ that signifies that the husband

is born again in the wife. Therefore, the bride should possess healthy and good features.

Yama’s list of qualifications that a prospective bride should meet consisted of “good

character, physical beauty, learning, wealth and abundant number of relative son the part of

the bride” (Subbamma 46). Manu, the Hindu Law giver, besides emphasising on the physical

features, health and merit of the bride, strongly emphasised on the need of a ‘good family’ as

one of the chief prerequisites of a marriage alliance (Subbamma 46). Hence, in a brahmanical

society, the much sought after alliances are those that fit appropriately into these parameters.

However, the young girl, Sanchari in Kolonko is an unfortunate black sheep in the

matrimonial alliance list who is neither blessed with upper caste birth nor is in possession of

good facial and physical features . Through this play, Raju Das makes a clarion call to bring

an end to the system of match making that leaves a human soul humiliated and dejected

forever.

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Women are considered as the repositories of caste identity and purity; marriage is the

tool employed to achieve it. Since the primary function of marriage is procreation, children

born of normative marriages “maintain and reproduce the social order” (Chakravarti 32).

Hence, it is the responsibility of the family and the Brahmanical society to select women who

would be able to keep up to the expectations of the Brahmanical patriarchy. Therefore, a

disciplined, docile and submissive woman who fits into the model of an ideal woman is

sought for. Subsequently, match making or judicious selection of a woman to be the bride of

a man forms the ruling principle of an endogamous marriage.

However, the whole process of meeting families for fixing matrimonial alliances

involves interaction with the bride’s family interrogating the prospective bride and her family

on their family background to gauge their socio-economic status in the society quite often

become a pain staking task; nevertheless giving rise to a sense of humiliation and

disappointment. At the backdrop of seeking appropriate matrimonial alliances, where

Mahandranath Mandal and his friend Kumaresh Basu visit Bordakanto with a marriage

proposal for the former’s younger brother with Bordakanto’s niece, Sanchari, also known as

Khenti, Raju Das brings to the fore the age old cold war between the East Bengal refugees

and the original residents of West Bengal. This conflict, however, can be traced back to the

refugee status of the people who emigrated from East Bengal to West Bengal during the

partition of Bengal leaving their property, cattle, farm lands and all other property.

Historically, post partition of Bengal, the migrants from East Bengal who moved into the

newly formed state of West Bengal found themselves in the refugee camps organised by the

state government. Most of them, especially the poor ones had to literally beg for work and

food to survive. Eventually, they found their shelter, one of utter humiliation in refugee

camps; and were relegated to the margins because of their economic degradation. The Adi

(original) residents of Bengal who mostly failed to comprehend and hence, empathize with

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their fellow brothers and sisters from the other side of the border, developed a notion of

detestation and abhorrence for these refugees. These refugees who were marginalized

because of their economic position also became the victims of double marginalization

because of their lower caste identity. However, in order to make a living in the foreign land,

these refugees tried their hands in every odd thing; they successfully managed to meet their

daily requirements, but could hardly reach the socio-economic standards of the natives of the

land. The socio-economic gap that defined the identities of the people across the border, gave

birth to a cold wave between the two communities; the pulsating impact of which can still be

felt in the lives of its people.

The heated conversation between Kumaresh and Mahendranath on politics and social

issues bring out the latent tension between the residents of West Bengal (commonly known as

‘ghati’) and the East Bengal (commonly known as ‘bati’). Mahendranath, though a native of

West Bengal, while defending their status and position in erstwhile Bengal, acknowledges the

contribution of eminent scientists, politicians and writers from East Bengal for their present

socio-cultural, literary and scientific heritage of Bengal, but condescends the condition of its

people. Bordakanto interferes in this ghati-bati conflict and while trying to mitigate their

tension, observes, “In this country the policy of divide and rule was not introduced by the

British rulers. In fact since last five thousand years the system of divide and rule is existing in

our country and it is the contribution of the Brahmins” (Das 40).

Implicit in the ignorance of Mahendranath and his friend Kumaresh about the condition

of the Dalit refugees and state machinery is the impact of sanskritisation of dalits. The play

registers Raju Das’s abhorrence for sanskritisation. He attacks sanskritization of Dalits as an

attempt to voluntarily erase cultural history of social humiliation of Dalit existence.

According to M. N. Srinivas, Sanskritization is a process by which “a “low” Hindu caste, or

tribal or other group, changes its customs, ritual, ideology, and way of life in the direction of

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a high, and frequently, “twice-born” caste” (Srinivas 6). In the play, Kolonko, this aspect has

been represented by Kumaresh and Mahendranath. Though Mahendranath Mondal is a

Shudra by caste, he is a classic example of all those Shudra Dalits who are the beneficiaries

of educational and job opportunities made by the Government as a result of Dr. Ambedkar’s

revolution against dalit condition and reforms for the same. Hence, he is in possession of

good education and job. He has even managed to secure a job in reserved category. However,

he feels ashamed of revealing his actual caste identity. Therefore, he tries to hide his caste

that has actually helped him to earn a position of professional success, which in the words of

his friend Kumaresh, “he has received a number of promotions because of reservation” (Das

42). Also evident in his efforts to climb the social ladder is his attempt to erase the cultural

history of his caste. Therefore, he does not know great revolutionary leaders and reformers of

the Dalit Movement like Jogendranath Mondal and asks with great inquisitiveness, “By the

by whose photo is that mounted on the wall” (Das 42).

It is a lived experience of the oppressed that erasure of unpleasant truths brings a

promise of better and peaceful life. The urban, educated group of people belonging to

schedule caste and tribes who have been able to make some kind of space within the socially

recognised groups believe that painful memories of caste discrimination and marginalization

is yesteryear’s experience, the baggage of which should be left behind for a better future.

Hence, it becomes a deliberate attempt on the part of people like Mahendranath Mondal to

erase his Dalit identity for a better assimilation in the mainstream cultural group.

Consequently, he is an uprooted dalit, with no knowledge of the leaders and reformers who

endeavoured towards an egalitarian society. On the contrary his inclination for the socially

and culturally upward moving section of the society is evident in his knowledge of Marx,

Lenin, Jyoti Basu can be regarded as a deliberate move towards cultural assimilation. Though

Mahendranath and Kumaresh are content with their newly adopted ideologies of the Left

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Government, Bardakanto and his family are quite shocked on realising the death of dalit

consciousness in them and hence their ignorance of dalit experience. It is evident when with

utter disgust he observes, “People who in spite of belonging to shudra caste fail to recognise

the contributions made by Guruchand Thakur, Jogen Mondal and Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, but

instead are aware of Marx, Lenin and Jyoti Basu are stigma in the name of shudra caste” (Das

49). Sunil, Bardakanto’s younger brother, further points out that he feels ashamed of

identifying themselves with such people in whom dalit consciousness has dried up and has

met its early death, “Shame! Shame! To identify ourselves with you and include you in us

makes me feel really wretched” (Das 49). Hence, Bordakanto accuses them as “man eaters of

Shudra caste” (Das 49) for showing tendencies of sanskritization that has ultimately made

them individuals belonging to ‘nowhere’; neither do they belong to upper castes whom they

are imitating nor to their own shudra castes that they have tried to relinquish forever in search

for a better social life.

In their confrontation over political exploitation of the refugee Dalits in West Bengal,

especially the Dalit refugees at Dandakaranya and Marichjhapi, Bordakanto unveils the

hidden atrocities and inexplicable tortures that the comrades of the Left Government carried

out on the Dalit refugees, including the children and women in Marichjhapi. Bordakanto and

his younger brother, Sunil, serve as the main spokespersons of Raju Das in Kolonko. They

have been employed as the vehicles to spread the hidden truths about government sponsored

unspeakable tortures and exploitation on the people in the refugee camps. The trauma that

they have survived and the injustice that they had faced are best brought out through

Bordakanto’s narrative of the pain and hardship that they faced. Bordakanto’s vivid

description of the situation that is quoted below aptly brings out the hardships and tortures

that the Bengali Dalit refugees had experienced post partition of Bengal:

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The refugees from East Bengal were given rehabilitation in the inhabitable areas

of Dandyakarnya hills and in the dense forests and jungles where existence of life

was unimaginable. In spite of such situation, the refugees worked hard day and

night and turned the barren rocky lands into lands where some crops can be

grown, which in turn aided them in improving their living condition. However,

they had to leave behind all the fruits of their hard work when the Left

government of West Bengal once more evicted them from there and tried to

resettle them at Marichjhappi in the Sunderban areas. (Das 48)

In Kolonko Raju Das also provides a rare but true picture of the sexual exploitation

and mass rape of women irrespective of their age in the hands of communist comrades at

Dandakaranya. The refugee women at Dandyakarnya hills were triple marginalized; firstly

because of their refugee condition, secondly because of their low caste identity and lastly

because of their gender. The pathetic condition that these women were subjected to and the

impending fear and trauma that the incident gave rise to can be best comprehended from the

description that Sunil, a witness to the eviction and brutality, gives:

It was not just eviction. It would be wrong to use the word eviction. It was not

just eviction. In the light of the day as the comrades of the Left government

started attacking the refugees at Dandyakarnya they not only tortured the refugees

and tried evicting them from their settlements. Also sexually assaulted the women

and even brutally raped many of the women in the presence of their family

members; a sight which no one can ever forget. (Das 48)

With heavy heart and uncontrollable grief Sunil describes the wretched condition of refugee

women at Dandyakarnya hills that clearly pinpoints how women are always the worst victim

of any situation, whether it is politically or socially motivated:

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Since that day many young women, wives and mothers went missing from the

land of Marichjapi. They cannot be traced even today. Some of them unable to

bear the shame of physical and sexual assault have committed suicide. My

pregnant elder sister, mother of Sanchari whom you have come to see as a

prospective bride of your younger brother, was one amongst many such women

who was sexually assaulted. Unable to stand the pain and shame of sexual abuse

in the hands of the comrades, she committed suicide by hanging herself from the

branches of the tree. (Das 49)

The unforgettable memories of Marichjapi massacre, the abject and stirring conditions of the

refugee camps, the agitated and vehement slogans, slaughtering human beings in the name of

caste and origin haunt the existence of people like Bardakanto and his family.

Raju Das in this play interrogates the Left government’s Rehabilitation schemes and

politicises it to give an insight into the ruling political party’s apathetic treatment of helpless

lower caste Hindu East Bengal refugees in the early 1970s in the forests of Sunderban region

as prospective vote catching agencies. Through Sanchari’s elder and younger maternal

uncles, Bordakanto and Sunil respectively that Raju Das also reveals the changing strategies

of the government’s rehabilitation policies that resulted in the pathetic condition of the lower

caste Hindu East Bengal refugees in the early 1970s in the forests of Sunderban region. The

early migrants were able to settle them well in their new land but the lower caste Hindu

migrants had a tough time countering resistance from the upper class refugees. Gradually

they were forcibly relocated to "rocky inhospitable land" of Dandakaranya (parts of then

Orissa and Madhya Pradesh). (Chowdhury 664-82). However, the changes in the

government’s rehabilitation schemes left these migrants from Dandakaranya to settle at

Marichjapi in Sunderban region, only to be evicted from the place under Act 144 on the

grounds of endangering forest land and life of Sunderban.

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The inhuman treatment at refugee camps left a deep scar in the minds of the victims of

Marichjapi massacre. Bordakanta’s family including his niece Sanchari cannot forget such

uncouth, barbarous exploitations meted out to women by hired goons of the political party in

power. The memories of such heinous days had affected thousands of families, including

Bordakanto’s family and his niece who fail to come out of the trauma of violence. This

grossly wronged lot of people want justice for women and are against any kind of

exploitation of women.

The discussion over Marichjhapi politics soon opens the Pandora’s Box over Sanchari’s

parental lineage and her mother’s suicide after she was raped by the Left comrades. Since a

woman is assumed to be the custodian of the hierarchical order of the caste system, her

lineage holds utmost significance in her marriage. However, in Sanchari’s case her family

background is one of disrepute. She is the daughter of an unmarried mother, an offspring of a

rape victim, who after giving birth to her child commits suicide. Yet neither she nor her

maternal uncle tries to hide this incident. Rather Bordakanto interrogates the system that on

one hand assumes women as the greatest custodians of purity of caste and Brahminical

patriarchal. He uninhibitedly discusses the exploitation of women in Marichjhapi massacre

and traces the tragic end of her sister to the brutality of the newly elected government. The

groom’s party is shocked to know about Sanchari’s background but before they could express

their astonishment, the bold Sanchari barges into their room and attacks them for their

complete ignorance on the state politics.

Sanchari’s unexpected and unconventional behaviour with strangers, especially when the

strangers are their guests, is rooted in the seething anger of the physically and mentally

abused refugees against the state apparatus and social systems. The agony and humiliation

that she is subjected to because of her mother’s sexual abuse and consequent suicide coupled

with the embarrassment that an unmarried woman like her goes through as a commodity in

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marriage market stir the rebellion in her. Consequently, she is determined to stand against the

patriarchal society that degrades women’s position. Sanchari’s grit to challenge the male

dominated society is further strengthened when she overhears the conversation of the guests

with her maternal uncles and is shell shocked to know about the sanskritized dalits’ ignorance

of government schemes and artificiality that actually undermine their privileges and rights.

She is so full of abhorrence for such ignorant sanskritized people that when she is introduced

to the relatives of her prospective alliance, she throws away the socially refined, decent

behaviour expected of a woman like her. Instead she shows the urgency to reply to their

staple interrogatory session and cuts them short as she does not find them suitable enough to

match her sensibilities.

Sanchari’s bold rejection of the conventional question answer session that takes place

during a match making meetings reflects her desire to challenge the system of marriage in a

patriarchal society. Marriage which signifies coming together of two souls, does not however,

in a patriarchal society always ensure love, respect and equal treatment of both. Rather it

serves as a tool to subordinate women and cage her in the family responsibilities and duties.

As Khenti retaliates against the question and answer session where a girl is measured against

the value of her family’s caste, socio-cultural position, bank balance and her complexion,

height, weight, her skills in household chores, she right away rejects a match that is based on

superficial contours and neglects most important qualities like human love, solidarity and

respect. She shoes her desire to terminate the topic of match making by her deliberate

interference. Even before she is asked to introduce herself, she speaks out vehemently:

Namaskar! My name is Khenti Boral. (Sits on a chair) see my palm. See my feet.

See my hair. I have no makeup on my face. If you can’t believe that, you can

touch and see. (Translation: Nnamaskar. Amar naam Khenti Boral. Ei dekhun

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amar haath, amar paa, amaar chul. Ami kono make up diyni mukhe. Jadi

bishshash na hoi, haath diye dekhun) (Das 50).

The traumatic historical experience of her family that Sanchari has been hearing since her

birth has given rise to an inexplicable detestation for the government and brought unparallel

maturity in her. She rejects social customs and rituals and stands against exploitation of

women. She is not even scared in voicing out her opinions on commoditisation of women in

marriage market. She stands against the system where a woman, like a commodity, is

examined from different angles to determine her suitability in marriage market. She attacks

the dowry system prevalent in our society and argues that it is one of the techniques of

extracting money and other valuables from the bride’s family in the name of accepting an

unsuitable bride for marriage. Criticising the system of dowry practised by both literate and

illiterate she observes:

What you people want is that all marriageable girls in the best of their attire and

make up silently and submissively sit before you to answer a series of very

foolish but insulting questions? After that you show preference for those women

who are either working or their families are ready to pay a good dowry, take them

home after marriage with a new promise of a happy married life but reduce them

to the state of slaves. Tortures, physical and mental abuse remain as their only

share in their new family. Please forget such days. New days will come when

women will assess and choose their own life partner. Please remember that. (Das

51)

Thus like the Dalit autobiographies which are often known as narratives of pain and

humiliation, Raju Das’s plays focus on the abject condition of his protagonists and other

untouchables and marginalized individuals. In his involvement with and treatment of the

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ostracised isolation, he tries to focus on the manmade lack in the lives of the underdogs that

prevent them to be “fully integrated with the bhadralok (cultured) society” (Das 5).

IV

Feudalism: An Oppressive System of the Landed Rich

The height of subjugation and oppression, inexplicable human pain and suffering that the

Dalits experience find its beautiful but touching artistic revelation in the depiction of Gafur

and his pet bull, Mahesh in Raju Das’s adapted play of the same name Mahesh. A wretched

life of hopelessness and disillusionment that deny Alodebi, Bani, Reema and Khenti a

beautiful, peaceful and integrated social life become one of unbearable humiliation and

oppression that ultimately result in uprooting poor Muslim Peasant Gafur and her little

daughter Ameena from their Hindu dominated village.

The play, Mahesh, is an adaptation of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhya’s short story of the

same name. Through the abject poverty of its protagonist, Gafur Mia and his family, the play

explores the interweaving of the dynamics of rural poverty that is escalated by the

machinations of feudal system, represented by the feudal land lord, Shibu Babu and his

associates in a caste based Hindu society. It addresses the double trouble of exploitative

feudal system and the stigma of untouchable in a typical Hindu village. Mahesh is essentially

a social play in which Raju Das attempts to give an artistic expression to the sufferings of the

under privileged in their confrontation with the powerful exploitative mechanism, which

according to Samik Bandyopadhyay:

Operates beyond the law and with the tacit acquiescence of an exploited class

held in thrall by a load of conventional role obligations. Legal reforms or legal

defences or the exploited have rarely affected the exploitative mechanism

sustained by the illiteracy/ ignorance of the exploited. (xv)

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The original story that was written at the backdrop of great famine that struck the land of

Bengal, in the year 1943. Raju Das restructures it in the form of a street theatre to address the

extensive exploitation that Operation Barga or Land Reformation in West Bengal in had

resulted in. as a street theatre to address the extensive exploitation that Operation Barga or

Land Reformation in West Bengal had resulted in. Operation Barga was a land reform

movement throughout rural West Bengal or recording the names of sharecroppers (bargadars)

while avoiding the time-consuming method of recording through the settlement machinery. It

bestowed on the bargadars the legal protection against eviction by the landlords, and entitled

them to the due share of the produce. Operation Barga was launched in 1978 and concluded

by the mid-1980s. It received legal backing in 1979 and 1980 and became a popular but

controversial measure for land reforms. The ultimate aim of these land reforms was to

facilitate the conversion of the state's bargadars into landowners. (Biswas par. 4)

Mahesh reflects the pathetic situation of the victims of the Reformation, caught in a web

of helpless resentment that had no means of expression but only widened the difference in the

society as the rich grew richer and the poor poorer. Cast against such a reformative

background, the play centres round a more empathetic than sympathetic bond between

Mahesh, the bull and its poor owner, Gafur Mia. As it mirrors the exploitative feudal system

prevalent in the society, it also reflects how the ideology of purity-pollution that produces a

kind of total rejection and forms the crux of the discriminatory caste system, push the

untouchables to the margins of social framework and render them “unseeable,

unapproachable and untouchable” (Guru 212).

The story that reels round Mahesh and Gafur Mia takes place in a village that is strongly

feudal and stratified in its structure with Hindu Brahmin, Shibu Babu as the zamindar. It is a

complex social as well as rural reality which is uttered through the sufferings of Gafur under

unbearable oppression of the zamindar’s people in the village. The abject condition to which

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Gafur and his family consisting of his stoic daughter Ameena and his old but shockingly

assertive and rebellious bull Mahesh are subjected to is the consequence of artificially created

famine by the jotedars (wealthy peasants who formed a layer of social strata in the early 19th

century agrarian Bengal) under a feudal zamidar head. The exploitative feudal system that

extorts money from the poor farmers and endlessly makes them work under them to pay off

the loans that they had taken from the zamindars’ stands out as one of the major reasons for

Gofur’s suffering.

Gafur is only an example of many such poor peasants who were oppressed by calamities

that were actually manmade than natural. These poor peasants lived their life under the

burden of high debts that not only snatched away their peace of mind but also the humiliation

and pain that they are inflicted to. The oppressed life of the socially under privileged people

under exploitative feudal system forms the crux of Raju Das’s play Mahesh.

Gyanendra Pandey in his Subaltern Citizens mentions that differences in gender and

dominant classes are emphasised to construct subalternity. Thus “Men are not ‘different’; it is

women who are. Foreign colonisers are not ‘different’; the colonised are. Caste Hindus are

not ‘different’ in India, it is tribals and Dalits who are” (Pandey 34). In Mahesh Gafur is a

subaltern. He has intersecting social identities. He is a subaltern in a Hindu Village because

of his religious minority as well class. He is also a subaltern peasant compared to the rich

feudal landlord. It is his religion as well his class that decide his social position. The social

identity of the subaltern Gafur is highlighted through the following description:

The margins of the village where the draught affected lands end is the mud house

of Gafur. The mud wall of the hut has fallen down, the interiors of the hut lay

bare opening onto the road and merges with the main road outside, the honour

and respect that symbolise the interior is compromised and lies open on the road.

(Das 16)

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Mahesh is a startling picture of the crippling effects of poverty, misery and

untouchability on the long suffering and socially excluded section of the society. Gafur’s

unbearable poverty coupled with his religious minority in the Hindu village doubles his

oppression in the village of Kashipur.

The discriminatory practices of a caste based stratified society in a feudal set up is best

captured through the miserable life of Gafur. The decision of Gafur, who is by religion a

Muslim, professing and practicing Islam, to have a shelter in a Hindu village, Kashipur, under

the control of Brahmin feudal landlord becomes one of the most significant reasons for his

pathetic plight. People of other religions are never treated at par with the Hindu peasants.

Gafur like many other ati shudras is regarded as untouchable and therefore, his touch, even

shadow is polluting. Hence, he is forced to have his residence at the outskirts of the village.

Full of detestation against the lowest of the lowest, Gafur, Tarakaratna warns him for his

maltreatment of the holy animal, “This in a Hindu village. The zaminder is a Hindu. Do you

remember that? ... you bastard do you know that if your bull dies, the landlord will punish

you. He is a hardcore Hindu” (Das 16).

Coupled with Gafur’s religious minority, his decision to keep a bull for ploughing his

small agricultural plot, but inability to feed it because of his poverty adds to his wretched

condition. Though Gafur loves his pet bull, probably even little more than his daughter, yet

his inability to provide its share of food at proper time becomes a heinous crime that can

never avoid the eyes of the autocratic, Hindu zaminder and the equally exploitative men

under him. He accuses Gafur of torturing the bull and warns him of the consequences if the

bull dies of starvation. Therefore he advises Gafur to take money from the zamindar’s aid

fund as loan to feed the bull. However, when he asks some help from Tarkaratna as a loan to

feed his bull he completely refuses to give it as Gafur does not have the means to repay.

Instead, Tarkaratna, Zaminder’s confidante, out of anger, calls Gafur as an ‘atheist’ and

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‘savage’ and warns him for inflicting pain on the bull, a religious symbol associated with

Lord Shiva and gives him the ultimatum, “Take care of Mahesh. Don’t starve the innocent

bull. Don’t forget you are living in a Hindu village!” (Das 3)

Both cow and bull are considered sacred animals in the Hindu religious system. Besides

the utilitarian value of bulls in the field of agriculture, it is also revered for the principle of

living it signifies. It functions on the principle of “Maximum work minimum profit”

(Parthasarathy). The activities of a bull that are driven by no desires to extract fruits of its toil

for itself also epitomises the culture of the country. According to Hinduism, a cow too is a

pious animal that is revered and worshipped. It is a symbol of the Earth, the nourisher, the

ever-giving, undemanding provider. It signifies the principle of selfless giving. Cow’s milk is

considered as heavenly potion and is consumed universally by all irrespective of their age,

gender, class, caste and religion. Veneration of the cow instils in Hindus the virtues of

gentleness, receptivity and connectedness with nature. In the Vedas, cows represent wealth

and joyous Earthly life. Both these animals that are known for their service and sacrifice

embody the culture of the country and there lies the significance of cow and bull.

(Parthasarathy)

In this context the opinions of Balaji Vishwanathan too needs to be mentioned to

establish the significance of cows and bulls over centuries. His argument defending the

significance of cows and bulls since the Vedic times is in the lines of the utilitarian value. He

says:

People in the Vedic period were primarily pastoral. They relied on the COW or

milk and dung. Cow dung is one of the main fuels in rural India And also served

as a fertilizer. Cow dung and cow urine is also thought to be a disinfectant among

ancient Indians and used to clean up home. Thus, cow provided the food fuel,

disinfectant and fertilizer for the Vedic period. (Vishwanath par. 3)

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Thus, cows and even bulls should never be killed in any type of sacrifice or slaughtered in

any way for food as the killing of cows constitutes the most heinous of all sins in existence.

Also, according to Hindu religious belief, cows should not be owned by one who is

unrighteous, by one who is sinful, by one who is untruthful in speech, and by one who is

outside of the Vedic culture. (Bhagvad Gita https://www.scoopwhoop.com/news/cow-

bhagavad-gita/#.i3xrnkjy) Gafur who is a non Hindu resident in a Hindu village, therefore, is

the eye sore of the villagers including Tarkaratna and the landlord. His presence anyway is

unacceptable and owning a bull makes his position even more vulnerable. Hindu religion also

believes that cows should never be given unto those whose residence they are likely to suffer

from fire or sun. Cows should always be given away accompanied by their calves. (Swami

Vedanta Varaha) Therefore, Tarakaratna alleges Gafur of attempting to kill Mahesh by

starving it in the parched land in the heat of summer days. He feels it is his responsibility to

rescue Mahesh from its abuser at the earliest and punish Gafur for his laxity in taking proper

care of Mahesh. The clever Brahmin, Tarakanath, by putting Gafur under the pressure of

committing an unpardonable sin in Hindu village, exploits his helplessness to take the bull in

his custody. His decision though motivated by his greediness, however, is not unacceptable in

a Hindu society. Rather, it is well defended by the Hindu Holy Scriptures that observes,

“Those cows which have been rescued from situations of distress or have been received from

humble farmers unable to continue to take care of them properly are considered to be most

auspicious” (https://www.scoopwhoop.com/news/cow-bhagavad-gita/). Hence, the greedy

Tarakaratna draws the inference that at least for the sake of religion Gafur should relinquish

his desire of keeping Mahesh.

Ironically, the man who really loves Mahesh is accused of torturing and even killing it

by keeping it away from its primary requirement, that is, a handful of fodder. The perpetual

silence to which subjugated people like Gafur are pushed to do not even allow them to defend

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their position and therefore, though Gafur tries to explain to the authorities that the reason

behind his failure to provide Mahesh with food and shelter, was his long sickness go unheard.

Rather he is warned for his audacity of trying to defend himself before the higher authorities.

The power politics of caste and religion that is embedded in the silencing of the

downtrodden is what Raju Das tries to focus in this play through the depiction of muted love

and interdependence of Gafur and Mahesh. Though Tarakaratna blames Gafur for ill treating

his Mahesh, he is very much aware of his unconditional love for Mahesh. Yet he turns a deaf

ear and blind eye to their mutual love and understanding only to fan his hurt religious

sentiment that a Muslim peasant should not even think of keeping a Hindu pious animal to

serve his life as a peasant. In order to prove the irresponsibility of Gafur towards his Mahesh,

the despotic Tarakaratna seizes Gafur’s plan of striking a deal with the village butcher as a

breach of religious belief and produces him to the Zaminder to be punished.

The politics of caste and religion becomes glaring when Tarakaratna tries to capitalise on

Gafur’s decision to handover Mahesh to a local butcher and deliberately misinterprets his

meek and benign decision of providing Mahesh a better caretaker who can provide him with

fodder as a malicious hidden agenda and exploits it further to uproot him from their Hindu

village. Tarakaratna’s words are pregnant with his intensions of capitalising religion to instill

fear in Gafur and exploit him as much as possible, “You bastard Muslim! You are secretly

trying to sell the bull to a Muslim butcher in a Hindu village? Do you know the consequences

of such actions?” (Das 23)

However, Gafur’s social class, caste and religion make his position in the Hindu village

more vulnerable and victimise him in the land of Hindu Brahmin landlord. Though he tries

his best to explain his good intention, his pleadings go unheard. Instead the Hindu Zaminder

and his associates take advantage of his situation to subject him to mental and physical

torture to ultimately evict him from a predominantly Hindu village. The irony of religious

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discriminations that the guardians of religion delve into is that though the high caste Hindu

people try to maintain a distance from non Hindus and complain of their shadow as sinful

leave no opportunity to physically assault him. Rather physically touching an untouchable

and beating him to death is completely pardonable and justified on the grounds of seeking

justice for an untouchable Hindu who defies religious ethos and domesticates a pious animal.

Caste discrimination that is completely based on the concepts of ‘purity’ and ‘pollution’

takes a more intensified picture as the villagers victimise Gafur and his daughter, Ameena,

for being untouchables in a Hindu village. So much so that when Gafur is badly gasping for

breath and Ameena strives to fetch some water for her almost dying father, the cruel,

inhuman upper caste men and women at the well keep her waiting because of her polluting

touch. Ameena is ordered to wait patiently at a distance till all of them finish fetching their

quota of water so that her polluting shadow does not pollute their life saving water. Ameena,

a meek, young girl, however, could show no resistance and followed their instructions

obediently. The cruelty and hard hearted inhuman nature of the villagers become more

appalling when in spite of seeing the girl almost fainting while waiting in the scorching sun,

did not feel pity for the girl. Ironically, when she manages to fetch water for her badly beaten

father, Gafur, their bull, attacks her with its horn, breaks the pitcher and spills the water to

quench its own thirst.

Gafur’s predicament as a victim of his fate, religion and class is also a testimony of the

oppression that the exploitative feudal system breeds over its subjects. Raju Das’s bold

depiction of the cruel treatment of the untouchables by the upper castes also brings home the

chain effect of torture and humiliation that the oppressed are subjected to. Gafur who was

already a victim of injustice and cruelty of upper caste Zaminder’s men could not control his

rage over his Mahesh when he comes to know that Mahesh had attacked Amina to quench his

thirst for water. Out of uncontrollable rage he screams at Mahesh, “You unfaithful bull! You

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attacked my Amina to quench your thirst? Was it so unbearable?” (Das 23) and takes the

wooden plough in his hands and starts hitting Mahesh at his head. Unable to bear the pain, in

few minutes time Mahesh succumbs to death. An already existing victim of feudal

oppression, Gafur, in spite of his ability to empathise with the deplorable condition of

Mahesh, makes him the victim of his frustration, humiliation and rage. Mahesh’s death adds

another point to the list of charges that the Zamidar has enlisted against Gafur. His

uncontrollable rage digs his own grave and as a punishment for killing the pious animal he is

finally excommunicated and ostracised from the village.

Through the case of Gafur, Sarat Chandra and later Raju Das present the unfortunate

peasants who are always mysteriously trapped in a vicious circle of inescapable and ever-

increasing debt, so much so that they do not even have the food to eat and to feed their pets.

People like Tarakaratna and the Zamindar who are in position of power in society depend

wholly on their subject, live a parasitic life; but in time of their need, nobody even pays pay

attention to them. Religion and caste become the reasons for cornering them.

Gofur is a victim of his religion, caste and class in a Hindu village under a Brahmin

feudal lord. According to Gopal Guru, “In Indian context, the ideology of purity-pollution

helps the socially dominant elite to reduce some human beings to the level of an animal”

(211). Hence, Gafur is ignored as a human and reduced to inhuman state of living; sometimes

even to that of things. His identity is at threat as people like him are not even addressed by

their names. Throughout the story, Gafur is called by different names like ‘scoundrel’, ‘ape’,

‘callous’ etc. Gafur’s pitiable condition is not of any concern for his oppressors, because his

existence is deliberately made invisible by the elite upper class people. Thus, even when the

emaciated Gafur, because of his prolonged sickness, fails to catch the attention of his

oppressors, the Holy animal of the Hindus, Mahesh, becomes a matter of prime concern.

Though the Hindu upper caste people in Shibu Babu’s village manage to show fake sympathy

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for Mahesh, they remain completely oblivious of Gafur’s wretched condition. The Hindu

zamindar and his consorts, in spite of being in a position to help Gafur by waiving off his

debt or reducing its rate, deliberately refrains from doing so. Rather he exploits illiterate and

poor people like Gofur for his convenience and selfish ends.and forces him to continue with

his debt. Ironically for a hypocite Brahmin like Tarakanath, the wretched condition of the bull

is more grave a concern than the miserable plight of the marginalized like Gafur. Instead he is

constantly reminded by Tarakaratna and very religious Manik Ghosh that he should take it as

a priority to feed his Mahesh before feeding themselves.

Ameena too is the victim of religion, caste and class like her father. But in addition to it

she is the victim of her gender too. Her life as an untouchable Muslim girl is doubly

marginalized and she is prey to all forms of oppression both at home and in the society. In the

absence of her mother, as a girl child she is thrust with all the responsibilities of Gafur’s

household. Ameena is the victim of her father’s wrath and frustration as well. When after

returning from work, he finds no water and rice to eat, her body becomes the site for Gafur to

vent his frustration stemming from their poverty. He blames and beats her for not cooking

anything for him but immediately repents for his cruel behaviour towards his daughter.

In Gafur’s interaction with Ameena, Gafur unconsciously tries to assert his supremacy

over Ameena, though he is a subaltern in the village. Gafur represents what Connell calls the

hegemonic masculinity and it is reflected in the dominant position of men and the

subordination of women, and furthermore, the dominant position of certain men over other

men. Connell defines such marginalisation as “the relations between the masculinities in

dominant and subordinated classes or ethnic groups” (80-1). As a subaltern he is a kind and

loving father who blames himself as an inefficient father who failed to give the primary

requirements of food, clothing and shelter to his daughter Ameena and his ‘son’, Mahesh. But

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as a representative of hegemonic masculinity, the other facade of Gafur comes out in his ill

treatment of his daughter and later on even in killing his subordinate companion, Mahesh.

Ameena had been an indirect victim of gender discrimination by her mother as well.

Though Ameena was immensely loved by her mother, she had been the reason of her

mother’s depression and distress after her birth. Listening to their pet bird that continuously

assured Ameena’s mother that she would have a son, her birth brought failed to bring any joy

in her mother’s life. Though Ameena’s mother was well aware of her responsibilities as a

mother of Ameena and was never devoid of love and concern for the well being of her

daughter, yet the burden of a girl child along with their abject poverty introduced into her life

lifelong companies of frustration and depression.

Such is the plight of the poor and untouchables in feudalistic caste conscious villages

that many a times these poor people like Gafur and his family would die out of hunger or

unavailability of medicines and care. Ameena’s mother was subjected to same apathetic

treatment by the society when she was suffering from ‘kalajaar’, an epidemic fever that

claimed many lives. She had not only failed to have treatment because of their utter poverty

but also had nothing to eat during her illness. Gafur’s helplessness and guilt for his failure to

support his wife during her last few days show how the farmers like Gafur had to survive.

Though he had a few small patches of land and a couple of cows as his property, yet he failed

to provide treatment to his wife for the sole reason that all his lands and cattle were

mortgaged with the zamindar to pay off his loans that he had taken from the Zamindar.

Oppression always gives birth to protestation. Both Gafur and Mahesh rebel against their

oppressor to protest against their exploitation. Gafur silently reacts to the inhuman ways of

the zaminder and his feudal system. For once, Gafur gathers all courage to break the silence

and protests against the punishment pronounced against him. Gafur’s retaliation to

Shibcharan babu and Tarakaratna’s punishment of excommunication however shows the

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sincere courage and commitment of Gafur, a dalit, to assert his right to live in the village.

Gafur’s search of justice gives him the strength to bear inhuman lynching in the hands of the

feudal lord and his people but not to submit to their demand of leaving the Hindu village for

his allegedly impious act of torturing a bull by not feeding it.

Even Mahesh stands against all those Hindu villagers who claim to revere and safeguard

it as a Holy animal. Mahesh rebels against the Zamindar’s pet, Manik Ghosh and all those

who in a famine struck Hindu village left not a single patch of land for it to graze. Mahesh as

a protest move forced itself into others’ cultivated lands and ate their vegetables and fruits to

satisfy its long unbearable hunger. Mahesh even gores Manik Ghosh for complaining against

him to Gafur. Like Gafur, his master, Mahesh not only boldly stands against his tormentors

but it even goes an extra mile to challenge its own master by attacking Amina with its horns

to quench its thirst. Through their combined efforts to show complete disapproval of their

inexplicable oppression and exploitation, Raju Das depicts an organised assertion of the

oppressed to mobilise themselves out of the vicious atmosphere of systematic and structured

inhuman treatment and abuse by the privileged sections of the society, what can be

recognised as “shared democratization of oppression” (Sandoval 33).

The unfathomable suffering, mild resistance and even a slow rebel that is visible in the

play, however, do not give rise to the victory of the sufferers against their tormentors. Raju

Das does show that sometimes the burden of caste and religion is too heavy to find justice

and poor Gafur’s case is an apt example of the same. Therefore, the relentless fight of the

socially marginalised is often forced to silent acceptance of their fate.

In the play Gafur and his Mahesh did fight boldly against the exploitative feudal system

yet one’s life, yet they lose in this perpetual game of power. Mahesh succumbing to his

injuries loses the battle by dying and Gafur accepts his defeat by leaving the village with his

daughter. But the pain with which he leaves the village at the dead of night can be understood

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through his loud scream and his last few words that he uttered addressing Allah, “Punish me

as much as you can- but remember,Mahesh died with his hunger and thirst. Not a tinniest bit

of land was left for him to graze. Pray, never forgive those, who denied Mahesh the grass to

eat, water to drink, which you provided for all on this earth” (Das 24).

Raju Das as a Dalit playwright definitely deals with Dalit concerns, their pathetic

situation and living conditions in their inhuman world. But it is the physical state of dalits

that he deals with. Mentally, his characters are far from being dalits. The greatness of his

characters lies in their self awareness as in Bani in Neel Selam and Alok in Surjo Tonoy, in

their desire to move out of their wretched condition as in Reema in Ragging and the relentless

fight against their lost self esteem and dignity of their existence is a universal presence in all

his characters.

Gafur as a dalit character transcends his physical and economical position as a dalit and

manifests his broad mindedness in accepting his greatest mistake of his life, unintended of

killing Mahesh, as a sin. As soon as he realises the heinous crime that he committed by

killing Mahesh, he accepts his sin. As an act of atonement he does not even take his

belongings that consisted of few utensils and household things that he had in his small hut.

Rather, repenting for his impulsive act that took away the life of his loving, Mahesh, he says:

Let us not take those household things as a penance for the crime I committed by

killing my Mahesh. (Turns back while walking out of their courtyard and breaks

down crying) he screams and cries out to Allah, Give me punishment as much as

you want. But my Mahesh has died with his thirst. All those who have always

resisted him from quenching his thirst let them be punished forever. Never

forgive them, never, never! (Das 24)

The playwright Raju Das through his spokesperson Gafur successfully depicts the horrendous

systemic oppression and humiliation that the socially under privileged go through in a society

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that is based on the social structures of caste, class and religion. Through the play Raju Das

also attempts to move the ignorant lot to challenge the feudal exploitative system that

becomes even more appalling when it follows caste and class discrimination.

Conclusion

The richness of Raju Das’s plays lies in his depiction of Dalit condition. Dalit

consciousness that is reflected in the above discussed play is the outcome of Raju Das’s lived

experience. As a victim of caste discrimination in a rigid Hindu society, the playwright, both

in his practical life as well as literary world, advocates resistance to discrimination as the key

to equality. His plays aim at creating self-assertion, self-respect and building Dalit

consciousness amongst all those who are reduced to a state of Dalit existence. His sole

motive of writing plays and dramatising them in the form of street plays is to create

awareness among those who over several decades had been the victims of caste

marginalization in the state and thereby accentuate a movement for the untouchables to get

their due credit as individuals.

Raju Das’s plays are not meant for the intelligentsia to be enjoyed in an air condition

auditorium. Rather they have emerged as vehicles that carry the message of the time; the

urgent need to come out of their subjugated selves and series of inequalities that inflicted

them to unbearable pain and humiliation and throw themselves against the Brahminical social

system that only survived by creating a divide in the society on the grounds of caste and

class. His characters, therefore, in this context, manifest their own frustration, disappointment

and even disgust at the treatment dispensed on them, but slowly and successfully their

awareness of their position help them to merge with pan Indian movement.

The wide range of the subjects in his plays successfully depicts humiliation in the lives

of his characters that take place in different forms, contexts and discourses. The tension

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between the private and the public that subjected the helpless characters to a life of

humiliation and pain can be traced back to the complex system of caste and gender

construction by the Brahmin patriarchal society. The scarred lives of his major characters,

like Alok, Bani, Alodebi, Reema and Neerupama act as a window through which the complex

relationship between the savarnas and avarnas have been contested.

Raju Das’s plays present caste as a constantly negotiated reality. His characters vibrate

with the enthusiasm for a new life, which they have realised through a series of insult,

humiliation and pain can be possible by ‘rejection of rejection’ (Gopal Guru 219). Raju Das

believes that the Dalits can ring in a new life through self respect and a strong moral courage

to stand up to an oppressor.

Self respect, according to Raju Das, like most of his other Dalit leaders and writers, can

be achieved through education. It is education that ultimately brings in the new light of

awareness and social inclusion. Therefore the need for education has received a special

importance in all his plays. The strong influence of the Namasudra movement led by Sri

Harichand Thakur and later on by his son Sri Guruchand Thakur that believed in education

and self-respect can be seen in his plays.

Probably no other Dalit playwrights have so beautifully but strategically used the stage

to spread his words and mission. His stage serves a double purpose: it becomes a platform

from where he launches his protest against the ills inflected upon the social underdogs by

those who enjoy the hegemonic power, as well as a space where Dalit life can be duplicated

and recreated in its proper scope and depth. The theatre, therefore, in the hands of Raju Das

offer and legitimize new images of Dalit people in reaction to the stereotypes that still exist in

the Brahmin psyche and often been revitalized by the main stream dramatists.

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Chapter Four

Stunted Women and the Invisibilized Third Gender: Marginalization of

Gender in Mahesh Dattani’s Plays

The medium of theatre in the hands of one of the greatest playwright of contemporary

India, Mahesh Dattani, is the space that he devotes to manifest the cause of the marginalized

segments of Indian society like the victims of gender discrimination, sexually abused, same

sex love and even men who try to challenge the traditional gender roles. The dramatic canvas

of Mahesh Dattani is etched with social issues that are usually regarded as ‘closet’ themes.

Gender marginalization that forms the theme of the dramatic output of many contemporary

playwrights like Polie Sengupta (English), Gitanjali Shree (Hindi), Shanoli Mitra (Bengali)

has gained special form and shape in the hands of Dattani. His dramatic world that consists of

some of his major plays like Tara, Bravely Fought the Queen, Final Solutions, Dance Like a

Man, Where there is a Will, Do the Needful, A Muggy Night in Mumbai and Seven Steps

around the Fire, deals with gender discrimination, exploitation of women, subjugation of

men who challenge the normative gender roles and other closet issues like child sexual abuse

and exploitation of homosexuals and transgenders in a hetero normative society.

Gilbert in Two Careers/One Family described threefold theoretical structure of gender.

Gender as difference, gender as structure and gender as process are the three ways that gender

difference is cited in society. While ‘gender as difference’ emphasises on general behavioural

trend of gender in social context, ‘gender as structure’ refers to the way in which attitudes

towards men and women become institutionalized within societal structures. ‘Gender as

process’ refers to the patterns of interactions among men and women based on assumptions

about gender roles. Women are seen as nurturer the provider of emotional caretaking,

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whereas men provide economic support. This difference in gender roles are achieved through

ideological constructs that women are conditioned to accept, internalise and follow.

Uma Chakravarty in her essay, Conceptualising Brahmanical Patriarchy in Early India

(1993), shows how the ideological constructs of Brahmanical patriarchy help to keep

women’s sexuality under control. The Stridharma (Duty of women) that constitute an integral

part of Brahmanical discourse defines the expected role of a woman as a daughter, wife and

mother in a patriarchal society. Girlhood in Brahmanical society is perceived as a preparatory

stage for the next stage, i.e., wifehood. As a daughter, a girl is expected to be obedient to her

parents and other kinsmen and maintain her chastity till she is married and becomes a part of

her marital or conjugal family. As a wife, she is expected to devote herself to the service of

her husband and his family sincerely and without any complaints. As a mother the

expectations from her are doubled. She is expected to sacrifice her life for her children and

family; her children’s happiness is hers. In all these roles as a daughter, wife and mother, a

woman survives as the ‘other’ to male power.

Shalini Shah, a well known social scientist, in On Gender, Wives and Pativratas (2012),

elaborated on the ideal of ‘pativrata’ that women internalised and ultimately locked

themselves in their role as a wife to a husband, serving him as her ‘Lord’. She also observes

that ideological constructs like ‘pativrata’ helped the patriarchal society to regulate the

sexuality of women in compliance to patriarchal norms. Thus, it is through these ideologies

of Stridharma that a woman as a daughter, wife and mother unconsciously becomes the

victims of the patriarchal society.

A woman’s role that from birth till her death is defined and regulated by the male

hegemonic power has its inception in Manav Dharma Shashtra. Manu, the architect of

Manav Dharma Shashtra states that women are inherently corrupt, malicious, and prone to

violation of code of conducts that might rob them off their honour. Therefore, he dictates that

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a woman should be under the control of men throughout her life, “Her father protects (her) in

childhood, her husband protects (her) in her youth, and her sons protect (her) in old age; a

woman is never fit for independence” (Buhler 229).

In a Brahmanical patriarchal society like India, women are subjected to the control of

male hegemonic power. It is a life of subjugation and dependence that a woman lives in a

patriarchal society. Right from birth a woman is put in the mould of gender specific roles that

lock her in the shackles of slavery and subjugation. Gender discrimination and oppression,

that become a part and parcel of her life and take different shape and form with varying

intensity at different phases of her life, find a true representation in the plays of Mahesh

Dattani.

The patriarchal constructs of ideologies that easily subject women to a state of perpetual

subjugation and oppression are reflected in the women characters in Bravely Fought the

Queen, Final Solutions, Where There is a Will and Tara. However, Dattani does not only

show women as the ‘other’ in a patriarchal society subjected to verbal and physical abuse but

also engages in the depiction of the pitiable condition of men who do not conform to gender

specific roles as visible in Jairaj in Dance Like a Man and sexually deviant individuals like

the homosexuals and the hijras who are pushed to the margins of a hetero normative

patriarchal society.

Dattani chooses the space of a family to bring out the inhuman subjugation of women in

modern urban families. Most of the plays have family as their locale where gender specific

roles are fortified to maintain the gender difference. They are dealing with the stories or tales

of various families. The complicated dynamics of family set up that Dattani attempts to

present is best summarised in the observation drawn by a well known critic of Dattani, Bijay

Kumar Das in the following lines:

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Mahesh Dattani frequently takes as his subject the complicated dynamics of the modern

urban family. His characters struggle for some kind of freedom and happiness

under the weight of tradition, cultural constructions of gender and repressed

desire. Their dramas are played out on multi-level sets where exterior and interior

become one and geographical locations are collapsed-in short, his setting are as

fragmented as the families who inhabit them. (7)

The analysis of Dattani’s plays in this chapter is divided into four sections addressing the

various issues of marginalization. The first section of the chapter: Unsafe in Safe Haven

deals with the plays Tara, Final Solutions and 30 days in September focusing on the issues

like gender discrimination from the moment of birth, inequity and exploitation of girls in

their natal families. The second section of the chapter called Stunted Women:

Marginalization of Women in Domestic Spaces, explores how patriarchal institutions,

practices and ideologies like streedharma are espoused, subtly and with coercion, to

subordinate and control women. In the plays in this section, like Bravely Fought the Queen,

Final Solutions, Where There is a Will and Tara a dominating presence of the patriarchal

hierarchy is evident that tries to confine the women to the domestic realm, subordinated to the

male authority in the household. The third section of the chapter titled as Man to Man:

Marginalization of the Modern Man interrogates the significance of gender specific roles

even for men and traces its importance to the four goals of human life. It investigates the

marginalization of men who either fail to carry out or challenge gender specific roles as

prescribed by the society or expected to be followed both by the society and their parents.

The young generation of men in Where There is a Will and Dance Like a Man are the victims

of their authoritative fathers. The last section of the chapter, titled as From Pride to

Prejudice deals with the predicament of individuals with alternate sexualities. This section

investigates how the marginalisation of individuals belonging to ‘tritiya prakriti’ or third

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gender is achieved in hetero normative society in spite of rich historical evidences of their

existence in Indian religious myths and in the courts of Mughal emperors.

Unsafe in Safe Haven

Home is the oft repeated arena of battle in his dramatic universe. The unrest eats up the

happy and joyous atmosphere of the family curbing the personal development in them. It is

observed that dattani’s plays are necessarily “embedded within the mechanisms of the middle

class Indian family and this is the context from which he operates” (Choudhuri 24).

Tara deals with the issue of gender discrimination and marginalization of the female

gender in an educated Gujarati Patel family. The play centres on Siamese twins, Tara and

Chandan, “conjoined from the chest down” (Dattani 331). Though Siamese twins is not such

a rare case in the history of medical science, but what is rarer in this case is that an educated

family engages in gender discrimination to provide a normal life to the male child. Bharati,

the twin’s mother, supported by her rich and influential father takes the decision to separate

the conjoined twins and give the joined leg to the son.

The medical reports, however, signalled the condition unfavourable for the operation as

the blood flow to the joined leg was from the daughter’s body and therefore would prove

more viable in the girl child, Tara’s body. However, Bharati was well aware that “Tara has

too many complications to be completely out of danger” (Dattani 356), she overtly shows her

preference for the male child over the daughter and welcomes the “complications” (Dattani

356) that were ‘expected” (Dattani 356). Consequently, the operated leg which proved

medically and physiologically unfit for the male child had to be amputated, leaving both the

children physically challenged. Bharati, an educated urban woman, by turning deaf ears to the

medical warnings and advice, sows the seeds of gender discrimination and inequity in the

family set up.

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It is not only Bharati, Tara’s mother who decides on this discrimination, two other men

—Bharati’s father and Tara’s father— are equally responsible for such a devastating decision

that crippled Tara’s life forever. In spite of the knowledge that the operation is against the

laws of nature and medical science, Bharati’s father, in order to meet the demand of a boy in

a Gujrati Patel family, uses his social position and political influence to bribe and convince

Dr. Thakkar for manipulating the operation. However, the doctor too showed reluctance to

undertake the risky surgery. In fact he observed the operation on the twins as “unethical”

(Dattani 378) and warned about the grave consequences of the operation, saying, “there is a

risk giving both the legs to the boy” (Dattani 378) and “our greatest challenge would be to

keep the girl alive” (Dattani 376). But Bharati’s father manages to change the doctor’s stand

on the surgery and keeps the surgery as a lucrative deal by bribing him “three acres of prime

land in the heart of the city” (Dattani 378). Soon the “God-like” (Dattani 323) life saver, Dr.

Thakkar, too became an accomplice to Bharati’s father’s initiative towards gender

discrimination for favouring a male child.

Like Tara’s grandfather and Dr. Thakkar, her father also contributes, though silently, to

her sad suffering. In this crucial decision making process, though Mr. Patel was hardly

consulted, he owes quite a big responsibility for the consequences of the operation. His

manipulative silence about this life changing operation does speak volumes about his silent

support of the decision taken by Bharati and her father. His silence is not the silence showing

his incapability to take decisions rather it is a calculated move on his part to maintain silence,

to take his own sweet time to ponder on the options of operation so that by then the major

decisions are taken. Thus, gender discrimination that though seemed to be the brainchild of

Bharati, was well supported by two other male family members and the doctor.

However, when the matter of gender discrimination is concerned it is Bharati whose

name remains inextricably linked with its execution and consequences. Though preference

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for a male child might have been a wish of all the family members, it is Bharati who boldly

gives vent to her desire, discusses about it, arranges for the operation and materialises it to

give the male child a life that she dreams of, though unfortunately the male child too becomes

an indirect victim of gender discrimination. Quite surprisingly, it is a woman, a mother who

has borne both the foetuses, in spite of knowing the vulnerability of a girl child, decides to

favour a male child over a female one. It has been often observed that it is a woman who

takes up the role of the perpetuator of patriarchal values and engages in subjugation and

exploitation of other females. In the play Tara, Bharati steps into the shoes of this category of

women and perpetrates injustice against her own female child. Observing on this role of

Bharati as the perpetrator of injustice, Asha K. Chaudhuri, an eminent critic of Dattani’s

plays comments:

That the injustice that is perpetuated by Tara’s own mother who professes to

belong to the more ‘liberal’ community, rather than the father, who actually

belongs to the more rigidly patriarchal social milieu, gives immense power to

play. It suggests that it is a woman who continues to be willing instrument in the

vicious cycle. (38)

Bharati’s decision of separating the Siamese twins and giving the leg to the boy child

marks the turning point in the lives of the twins. It initiates the sad story of gender

discrimination and the complex web of guilt and sufferings in which the mother, father and

both the children get entangled in their own ways. As the play depicts the age old practise of

gender discrimination in a patrilineal society that blindly prefers a male child over a female,

its roots can be traced to the fact that a male child is considered as the archetypal successor

and the prototype of cultural progeny.

According to Hindu beliefs, children are the result of one’s karma. A Hindu sees his

children as an incarnation of his ancestors and a blessing from God. The son has been the

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preferred choice for centuries because a son in Hindu family is considered to be the

vanshaudarak that means one who will save the family link and he will carry it and pass to

next generation through his male offspring. Altekar argues that gender discrimination

practiced in was because of a son’s socio-economic roles:

In ancient times, in all patriarchal societies, the birth of a girl gradually became

an unwelcome event. Almost everywhere the son was valued more than the

daughter. He was a permanent economic asset of the family. He perpetuated the

name of the father's family ... As he grew old, he offered valuable support to his

people either to defend itself or attack an enemy. The daughter, on the other hand,

had no fighting value. (qtd. in Chakravarti and Roy, WS 4)

A son also has exclusive powers to perform certain customs and rituals, as indicated by

the Vedas. Manusmriti emphasises the significance of a son in Chapter 3, verse 37 as, "The

son of a wife wedded according to Brahma rite, if he performs meritorious acts, liberates

from sin ten ancestors, ten descendents, and himself, as the twenty first" (qtd. in Buhler 82).

He further enjoins the importance ofhaving a son as follows: “Through a son he conquers the

world, through a son’s son, he obtains immortality but through his great grandson, he gains

the world of the sun. Because a son delivers his father from hell called ‘Put’. He was,

therefore, called ‘Put-tra’ (deliverer from ‘Put’) by the Self-existent (Swambhu) himself”

(qtd. in Buhler 354). Yajnavalkaya in chapter 1, verse 79 of Yajnavalkya-Smrti stresses on the

significance of protecting and showering love on a woman as she is the begetter of a son, the

one who carries with him the promise of continuity of the family in this world. The birth of

the son meant that he could continue the family offspring as well as was able to make the

offerings to the ancestors. Therefore, a male child’s significance lies in steering ahead the

vansh (family), helping parents attain moksha (salvation) and in performing the kapaal kriya

(breaking of the skull while being cremated) helps him attain a more significant position

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compared to a girl child. Thus it is the religious and cultural history that establishes the

significance of a male child in the family as an inevitable one.

Leela Dube in her seminal essay, “On the Construction of Gender of Hindu girls in

Patrilineal India” (1988), argues that religion and rituals play a significant role in constructing

the gender of a Hindu girl in a Brahmanical society (Dube WS 11-18). The right to some

specific rituals that conventionally a male child has an access to, like the last rites of a

deceased person, kapaal kriya (breaking of the skull while being cremated), undoubtedly

mark his significance in a Hindu family compared to a girl child.

Nevertheless, if a male child is considered as Krishna, a female child is seen as Lakshmi.

But her number of days in her natal family is limited, she is expected to be married, where

she takes up the image, role and responsibilities of Lakshmi for the rest of her life. The fact

that a daughter brings her own beauty and joy to her natal family, that she possesses a grace

that perhaps a son usually lacks, is completely undervalued. Her role as a daughter has

always remained insignificant. However, her function and obligations as a wife, daughter-in-

law and mother is reiterated.

The image and position of women in patriarchal society had been always controversial.

However, if on one hand she is put up on the high pedestal as Lakshmi, Saraswati and Durga

and worshipped; she lives a life of unwanted and neglected being on the other hand. Actually,

from her birth, a girl child lives a gendered life and becomes the symbol of neglect and

rejection. This image of a girl as an object of unhappiness and rejection is often seen as curse

and therefore attempts are made to get rid off as soon as possible. This attitude is evident in

Roopa’s, curious remark on discriminatory practises of the Patels, “The Patels in the old days

were unhappy with getting girl babies-you know dowry and things like that-so they used to

drown them in milk...so when people asked about how the baby died, they could say that she

choked while drinking her milk” (Dattani 349).

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Roopa’s acquired information on the typical tendencies of Patel families throws enough

light on gender discrimination practised by the Patels and many other such families and in a

way helps to justify Bharati’s inclination to favour a male child over a female one and

provide him with a normal life. However, such gender discrimination and atrocity towards a

girl child are not the stories of Tara, or of Patel families only. Such incidences are quite

common in patriarchal Hindu families across the Indian subcontinent. Therefore, Tara’s

predicament is not only hers. Rather, she is the representative of many other girls born in

middle class Indian patriarchal families driven by the desire for sons and reduces their

daughters to a life of deprivation and subjugation. Taking a note on the universal problem of

feminine gender, Pramod Singh observes, “Tara is not only a girl of our society but it is a

glimpse into the modern society which claims to be liberal and advanced in its thought and

action. But still in the world, the action confirms that male chauvinism prevails in the present

society” (118). G.J.V. Prasad too makes an observation on gender discrimination and the

predicament of its victims in a similar line. He states, “If the nation seems to have been

inserted by force here in this beginning of a reading of Mahesh Dattani’s Tara, then perhaps

one must point out that the play seems to stage a large part of our nation, particularly our

attitude to gender” (156).

The operation of the Siamese twins symbolically lays bare the ultimate truth of gender

conscious society. Tara becomes prey not only of gender discrimination but also of a series of

medical complicacies and remains forever a physically challenged girl. Her gender coupled

with her physical disability makes her a doubly marginalized girl in an inhuman,

unsympathetic patriarchal society. Her doubly marginalized condition is best understood

through the cold, cruel and indifferent attitude of her friends in school and in the

neighbourhood. This aspect of the society is depicted by Dattani through the character of

Roopa, Tara’s friend in the neighbourhood.

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Dattani artistically creates the character of Roopa as a representative of the apathetic

society that instead of being compassionate and tolerant towards physically handicapped

people like Tara irritate them and make their life miserable by putting some irrelevant queries

about their life. Roopa regards Tara and Chanda as ‘freak’ (Dattani 378) and shows awful

intolerance towards them and other such people. However, when society subjects people like

Tara to social oppression and humiliation, it also gifts them with the patience to either bear it

silently or an unparallel intelligence to return such criticism with light hearted jokes. Thus,

Tara defends herself against Roopa’s cruel joke on her with an outburst to Roopa that she

would “sooner be one eyed , one armed and one legged than an imbecile with uneven tits”

(Dattani 369).

Tara, as a doubly marginalised girl lives a life of loneliness without any compassionate

company. Though she has adapted loneliness as a part of her life yet this makes Bharati quite

uncomfortable. Post operation as she realises her mistake and tries to shower on Tara the

happiness of a normal life, she strives to bring her daughter’s social life at par with other

children of her age. It suffocates her to see girls of Tara’s age teasig her or refusing to

befriend her. Bharati, leaves no stone unturned to give Tara some friends. Thus, she begs and

pleads, coaxes and cajoles them, even bribes them with books, lipsticks to be friends with her

daughter. Bharati’s anxiousness and helplessness is evident when she begs and requests

Roopa “be my Tara’s friend” (Dattani 341). However, when girls of Tara’s age show

indifference to her efforts, she becomes angry and demands assurance from them that they

will not ditch her or her daughter. The below given conversation between Bharati and Roopa

successfully brings out her insecurity and consequent pressure that she puts on her to get her

confirmation on the same:

BHARATI: First promise me that you will be her friend.

ROOPA: I don’t know. Can I think about it?

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BHARATI (hissing): Promise me now! (Dattani 341)

The vulnerability of a crippled adult woman becomes conspicuous as Bharati, a

person who initiated gender discrimination, shows her anxiety over Tara’s womanhood.

Bharati exemplifies all those mothers who are the greatest custodian of patriarchal beliefs and

expectations but at the same time are torn apart by the consequences of gender

discrimination. She is quite aware of the ugly form that gender discrimination takes with

growing age, especially of handicapped girls like Tara. Her maturity and experience as a

woman in a patriarchal society also enables her to understand that her present condition of

being subjected to other’s criticism and indifference is nothing compared to her position at a

more mature, marriageable age. The reality and her sense of fear on the insecure world which

surrounds Tara is evident when she observes:

It’s all right while she is young. It’s every cute and comfortable when she makes

witty remarks. But let her grow up. Yes, Chandan. The world will tolerate you.

The world will accept you----but her! Oh, the pain she is going to feel when she

sees herself at eighteen or twenty. Thirty is unthinkable. And what about forty

and fifty! Oh God! (Dattani 348-49)

The incident of her childhood that leaves Tara physically crippled gradually stunts her

emotional and intellectual abilities. It results in emotional draining of the bright, little chirpy

child and gives birth to a germ of hatred for everything in her. She remains antagonistic to the

world around her and confines herself in her close knit family consisting of her father, mother

and her twin, Chandan. In her physically handicapped condition, Tara’s yearning for a

company who can match her emotional quotient and understand her emotional and

intellectual needs remains forever unfulfilled. Her desire to go out and venture into the world,

to see it, experience it and experiment with it proved almost impossible. The emptiness of her

life and the series of unfulfilled desires that become the essence of her life often surface in

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her interaction with her brother, probably the only one with whom she shared her feelings.

Her desire for a normal life that was denied by her mother and then by her father as well is

best expressed in her conversation with her brother:

TARA: I would wish for both…I would wish for two of them.

CHANDAN: Two Jaipur Legs?

TARA: No, silly, the real ones. (Dattani 362)

Tara’s words echo the unfulfilled desires with which a woman lives and dies. Thus the

prevalent gender discrimination in a patriarchal society smothers Tara’s desires for two legs

and by none but her own mother. The fate of two women that have been depicted by the

playwright in this play does emphasise on the fact that it is not only the patriarchal society

that is oppressive in its dealing with the female gender.

The hope of light in Tara’s life that is stolen by her own mother pushes Tara to a bleak

dark morose world, where nothing but suffering is the only return. This darkness is even

more aggravated by her father, who chooses to shower his favours onto his son only,

relegating Tara into a dark world that is deprived of education, public life and happiness and

satisfaction.

If it is the mother who favours the boy child by giving him the third leg post operation, it

is the father who abstains from giving all those opportunities and facilities that would make

Tara’s life happy in spite of her physical disabilities. Though Mr. Patel realises Tara’s

unparallel intellectual capacities, her smartness and wit to survive in the harsh, hostile world

that is otherwise indifferent to females and especially the handicapped ones, he does not

show much interest in Tara’s higher education.

The gender discrimination practised by Mr. Patel is evident in his partial treatment of his

children and the way he strongly advocates specific gender roles at home. He has big dreams

for his son’s intellectual development and therefore he wants him to provide a proper

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ambience that would facilitate Chandan’s development into a responsible man with a

prestigious social position. His association with his mother and sister is a big concern for his

father. He is scared that Chandan would turn into a ‘sissy’ (Dattani 351) in the company of

his sister and mother at home. He hates Chandan’s love for domestic chores and finds Bharati

responsible for pampering such aberrant interests in Chandan. He strongly disapproves of his

son’s engagement in domestic work and yells at his wife for her callousness, “But you

can think of turning him into a sissy – teaching him to knit! … I am disappointed in you.

From now on you are coming to the office with me. I can’t see you rotting at home” (Dattani

351).

Leela Dube in “On the Construction of Gender of Hindu Girls in Patrilineal India”

(1988) observes that there is a gendered division in the opportunities of education, labour and

technical skills in Indian patriarchal families, irrespective of socio-economic background of

families. While in a girl values of service to others are inculcated, in boys they are

conditioned to a life outside the home, to become a future bread winner (11-13). However,

this is not restricted to Indian context; rather has a universal appeal. Simon de Beauvoir

argues “One is not born, but rather becomes, woman” (283). She claims that one is not born

but rather becomes a woman- females become women through a process whereby they

acquire feminine traits and learn feminine behaviour. Masculinity and femininity of an

individual is a product of his or hers bringing up. The society and the family play an

important role in making an individual a male or a female.

Mr. Patel, in his eagerness to give Chandan a better life neglects Tara, the one who is

actually endowed with brilliance and intelligence to hold a position of repute. The gender

discrimination that Mr. Patel practices in providing Tara and Chandan with opportunities for

life is best expressed in Tara’s words, “The men in the house were deciding on whether they

were going hunting while the women looked after the cave” (Dattani 328). The society and

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the family play an important role in making an individual a male or a female. In the play,

Tara, it is Mr. Patel who plays a significant role in designing the future of Tara as a female,

highlighting and strongly emphasising on cultivating feminine qualities by working within

the four walls of the house. Thus, even though Chanda finds it pretty comfortable to help his

mother and sister in domestic chores but Mr Patel finds it ‘disappointing’ (Dattani 351) and

decides, “From now on you are coming with me to the office” (Dattani 351). However, he is

least bothered with Tara’s life confined within the four walls of home.

By relegating Tara to domestic responsibilities, Mr. Patel not only refuses to give her the

opportunity of putting her intelligence to a constructive use, but also indirectly subjects her to

oppressive powers of the patriarchy. Mr. Patel actually uses domesticity, what according to

Betty Friedman, is the main vehicle of gender oppression (Friedman 219). Tara, who is a very

intelligent and sharp girl very well, understands her father’s objective in neglecting her

intellectual attributes. Though she wants to fight this oppression, her physical handicapped

state does not allow her to challenge her father’s rigid perspective on gender roles. Her

disappointment and disgust on the patriarchal society is evident in her satirical remark, “The

men in the house were deciding on whether they were going hunting while the women looked

after the cave” (Dattani 328). Tara’s sarcastic statement highlights the plight of women over

the ages.

Women since pre historic times are presumed to be suitable for the domestic domain

only. With changing scenario from a matriarchal society to patriarchal one, women’s role

also had undergone a sea change from labourers in the agricultural fields to domestic

labourers. Though all the roles played by women are of utmost significance, they had been

deliberately kept unappreciated only to keep them subjugated and dependent on males of a

patriarchal society. Mr. Patel, reiterates the same ideology by pushing Tara into domestic

chores in spite of knowing her unparallel intellectual capacity. If it is Bharati who initiated

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gender discrimination in her family, it is Mr. Patel who gets actively involved in maintaining

this difference and constructs a specific gender role for Tara by confining her within the four

walls of their house, much against her brother whose world, as defined by Mr. Patel, consists

of colleges for higher education and offices.

The consequence of such cultural construction of gender preference is to make space and

scope of developing a feeling of resentment against the society, as is seen in the case of Tara.

The incident of her childhood that leaves her crippled, though she is unaware of it, gives birth

to hatred in her. She remains antagonistic to the world around her and confines herself in her

close knit family consisting of her father, mother and her twin, Chandan. She too wants to see

her life complete as any other normal girl of her age and her secret longing for two legs is

surfaced when in a conversation with her brother she says:

TARA: I would wish for both…I would wish for two of them. CHANDAN: Two

Jaipur Legs? TARA: No, silly, the real ones. (Dattani 362)

Tara’s words echo the unfulfilled desires with which a woman lives and dies. The darkness to

which Tara is pushed by her own parents and also obliquely by the society is best

summarised in Dan’s words, “She never got a fair deal. Not even from nature. Neither of us

did. May be God never wanted us separated. Destiny desires strange things---But even God

does not always get what he wants. Conflict is the crux of life” (Dattani 330).

Gender discrimination and exploitation of one gender for the benefit of the other that

forms the crux of Tara, is also visible in Dattani’s another very successful play, 30 Days in

September. In this play gender exploitation takes even more vulgar form of child sexual

abuse in the set up of family. Both the plays depict child abuse and exploitation in the safe

haven of their homes by their family members yet they are different in the way they are made

silent victims of gender exploitation. The social construction of two distinct spaces, the

private and the public, the former exclusively for women and the latter for men accounts for

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gender discrimination and violence within the safe haven of family. Hence, the family space,

the very site where gender construction takes its birth becomes, in the words of Ahmed and

Ghosh, “breeding ground of violence” (94-118). Both Tara and 30 Days in September reflect

the dynamics of gender exploitation of two innocent girls within the space of their respective

families.

A significant feature of a patriarchal society that gives men an immense power over

women, both at the domestic space as well as public space, is its control on women’s

sexuality. A girl from birth is expected to be kept under the control of a male person.

According to Manavdharma Shashtra of Manu, since a woman’s innate nature is passionate

and disloyal, a woman should be kept in dependency. However, it is this dependency of

women on male that is often exploited as per the convenience of a patriarchal society to

perpetuate gender discrimination and oppression. If it is in the custody of males that women’s

security and honour lies safe, then it is the first and foremost duty of the chauvinist males to

protect the honour and dignity of women. However, the irony of a male dominated society is

that men turn out to be the first violator of women’s dignity and honour.

Having been placed at the most advantageous position by religion and the patriarchal

society, men take advantage of their role as ‘guardian and protector of women’. Coupled with

this is women’s blind belief on men as their protectors and providers that complicate the

man-woman power relation in a male dominated society. In Mala’s case in 30 Days in

September, it is her uncle Vinay, since her father and mother’s separation, is her as well as

her mother’s guardian. He is their male support and provides financial assistance as well.

This role of uncle Vinay as a financial supporter of his sister and niece coupled with his

patriarchal responsibility of controlling the sexuality of women in the family, gives him an

added advantage to subjugate Mala and sexually exploit her.

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A woman in a patriarchal society is expected to be a chaste woman. Chastity of a woman

is considered as her merit. Also closely linked with her chaste image is her responsibility to

maintain the purity of her caste, class or group. A woman who violates this is subjected to

punishment. Though married woman for this purpose are rigorously controlled, unmarried

women are not an exception. Yet, the punishment of unmarried women on violation of moral

codes is relatively flexible. However, in both the cases women are considered responsible for

both maintaining and disparaging the reputation of a clan or community.

30 Days in September is a complicated combination of a woman’s primary requirement

in a patriarchal society to maintain the conventional image of a chaste woman. Chastity and

virginity are the two essential virtues that define the character of a woman. Closely linked

with these two virtues in a woman is her responsibility in maintaining family reputation. A

woman’s chaste character and family reputation are the two driving forces that emerge as the

main determinants of the actions of Shanta and Vinay and ultimately silence both the women.

Uncle Vinay takes multiple advantages of the two women and successfully continues to

sexually abuse Mala. Apart from his significant role as a provider for her sister’s family,

Vinay takes the advantage of his superior position as a male on one hand and on the other

hand exploits Mala’s innocence as well as Shanta’s fear that Mala should not violate the

conventional image of a chaste woman. Shanta, the custodian of patriarchal norms and

values, in spite of knowing the horrible truth of sexual exploitation of her daughter maintains

silence, lest she should bring her family to disrepute.

It is difficult for an innocent teenage girl like Mala to comprehend the intricacies of her

uncle Vinay’s actions. The lovely relation of an uncle and niece is browbeaten by her uncle

and gradually she falls prey to her uncle’s paedophilic nature. In order to take the young child

Mala in his confidence before exploiting her, Vinay resorts to bribing, coaxing and cajoling.

As a first step towards conditioning Mala to his exploitative ways, he manages to build in her

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a sense of inferiority complex, “Nobody will tell you how ugly you are...but you are good

only for this...only for this” (Dattani 44). He also instils in her a feeling of being wanted, to

be loved so that he can continue sexually assaulting her. Sometimes he would force her into

believing herself as a whore, not worth of a normal social life.

Uncle Vinay’s calculative measures build in Mala a sense of self detestation, she loses

integrity, becomes totally confused of her state and fails to make any efforts to trace back to a

healthy and happy life. Gradually he forces Mala to accept complete submission to his

paedophilic tendencies and manages her to surrender by the combined influence of sweet talk

and coercion, “You like it! You enjoy it! After four years you have become a whore! At

thirteen you are a whore” (Dattani 44)!

Uncle Vinay subjects Mala to a series of sexual abuses that damage her childhood days

with scary and bitter memories so much so that gradually she loses her confidence and starts

believing on herself as a whore. To reduce her state to a professional sex worker, he even

recommends her name to other men and expects her to keep herself available to them. Thus

when Mala’s father’s nephew, i.e. her cousin visited them he made advances towards her

using uncle, “Your uncle Vinay has given me your reference” (Dattani 28)! The uncle in the

name of giving financial security to Mala and her mother gradually turns their safe haven into

a space where she becomes the victim of continuous sexual abuse and incest.

V. Geeta in her famous work, Gender, argues that a man’s superior positions in a family

set up give them an upper hand to exploit women. She observes, “Men tend to control and

regulate the sexuality of those women who are within the familial network, while remaining

appreciative and lustful of female promiscuity directed at them from outside the family”

(133). In this context Uncle Vinay’s superior power positions reduces Mala to a sex object

that not only gives rise to physical pain but also mental trauma in her. The dark shadow of

unequal power relations that leads to Mala’s oppressed state of existence becomes more

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dominant in the absence of any one to pull her out of the vicious exploitation inside the four

walls of her house. She becomes a vessel in which all the terrible memories of sexual

violence are stored and leads to far reaching effects on her psyche. She becomes a victim of

emotional, moral and spiritual crisis. Her childhood experiences even changed her perception

of family and society. She develops a cynical attitude towards human relations and familial

relationships, like the ones between mother and daughter and with other male members of the

family.

Mala’s childhood experiences of sexual abuses affect her adult life too. As a result of

such regular sexual abuse in her childhood she turns into an embittered and hardened adult.

She is traumatised by the haunted memories of her molestation so badly that she even fails to

develop and nurture any kind of relation with any man in her life thereafter. Because of her

emotional imbalance she resorts to unnatural things like seeking attention of strangers and

telling lies just to evade the truth that constantly disturbs her life. Mala develops and

manifests a strong and unnatural desire for being loved. Though she manages to fall in love

with men of her age and older to her, yet she fails to develop their relation and voluntarily

distances herself from men immediately after thirty days of friendship and love. Her sexual

dysfunctional tendencies are evident when she admits at the therapeutic centre, “In fact I like

it best when I can time it so it lasts for thirty days. I even mark it on my calendar. After that, I

have to-move on, if you know what I mean...well it means no longer satisfying to me”

(Dattani 18).

The distressing memories of child sexual abuse also lower her esteem level and leave her

disoriented. As a result she fails to accept appreciation and justifies that she is not worth of

anything good. Also because of social marginalization, she keeps silent and distances herself

from the appreciator as it happened in the case with Deepak. Thus, when Deepak appreciating

her, observes that he has never met any other woman as intelligent, sensitive and dynamic as

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her, she stares at him, and with a blank look says, “I have something to tell you. It is over. I

don’t want to continue with our relation” (Dattani 14). It is the fear of being attractive and

consequently falling in love and end up in another sexually abusive relation that thwarts Mala

from receiving appreciation and continuing with any long term affair. The disgust and angst

that she develops against the male-dominated society is evident in her resistance towards

nurturing her relation with Deepak:

MALA: ... It won’t work between us. DEEPAK: For God’s sake give me a

chance and it will.

For your own sake. MALA: For your own sake forget me. SHANTA: Go,

Mala. Just go with him. MALA: You know I can’t! DEEPAK: Why not? MALA:

You don’t understand! YOU JUST DON’T UNDERSTAND!! I cannot love.

(Dattani 54)

Patriarchal control on a woman’s sexuality that unfortunately leads to Mala’s sexual

exploitation changes the matrices of her life in such a way that in contrary to her tendency of

bringing an end to her affair with Deepak, she also shows a strong tendency of attracting

strangers and asking for favours. She does not even spare married men to entrap in her

seductive ways. This trait of hers is visible as she goes up to the man she met in the

restaurant, requests him to dance with her and then shamelessly makes sexual advances to the

man, “Take me to your room with you” (Dattani 21) and insists, “Do whatever you want with

me, but take me with you now” (Dattani 21). The moral compass of her life had turned so

badly upside down that she starts believing in the need of physical intimacy with other men

for her survival and manifests combined emotions of comfort and fear in their presence.

Uncle Vinay destroys the most precious years of Mala. The formative years of her life

are blackened with the scary experiences of sexual abuse at home. She develops psychosis

because of such sexual and emotional violence. The fear of getting molested by her uncle

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makes her restless and ruins her childhood and adulthood as well. Susan Brownmiller in her

classic early feminist work on rape and incest states that early on in human history, "rape

became man's basic weapon of force against woman" and ultimately proved "triumph of

manhood" (21). Furthermore, she argues that from prehistoric times to the present, "rape has

played a critical function. It is nothing more or less than a conscious process by which all

men keep all women in a state of fear" (Brownmiller 22). It is this state of fear that forces

Mala and Shanta silently accept the wrong doings of Vinay at the cost of their emotional,

physical, mental peace.

The image of uncle keeps haunting Mala even in her adulthood. She is disturbed by his

scary sexual advances even in his absence in public places and also when she is with her boy

friend, Deepak. The consequences of such fear, as Brownmiller puts, is that Uncle Vinay

successfully imposes his superior authority and powers on his victim and subjugates her for

years. Therefore, when Deepak, unlike other men in her life who have only betrayed her, tries

to help her to come out of that stressful emotional condition and restore confidence and self

worth in her, she is haunted by the dark shadows of her uncle. The ruthless exploiter uncle

and the all pervasive experiences of sexual abuse associated with him haunt her with the most

heinous crime against her:

Man. Shhh! Don’t cry… This is your seventh birthday, no? You are seven now.

Ready for a real birthday present. Lie down. Come on, quietly...hold your frock

up. Up over your face! Shut up!... If they hear you they will say you are a

bad girl. This is our secret…You like it. You enjoy it. After four years, you have

become a whore! At thirteen you are a whore! (Dattani 43)

By invading the mind of Mala and pushing both the mother and daughter to perpetual silence,

Vinay proves his superiority over the women, Shanta and Mala. The two women living in a

state of constant fear or psychosis brings a victory for Vinay who successfully establishes his

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male supremacy over these women. A similar concern is reflected by Polie Sengupta in her

play Mangalam, where the playwright attempting to give poetic touch to patriarchal

domination writes, “In a woman’s mind, small is significant/ The life is made up of threads/

When a man knows this, her fragile its secret/ He holds the power to tear it to shreds” (107).

The conventions of a traditional society expect women to be in possession of chaste

character and to be dutiful to the family and society. This in a way enforces on women to

maintain complete silence in spite of injustice and ill treatment. Accordingly, Mala and

Shanta become puppets in the hands of the male patriarch of the family, Vinay. Shanta’s

social conditioning forces her to internalise women as sinners and manipulators, thus, instead

of raising voice against her daughter’s abuser, she accuses her of her tendencies of making

sexual advances to her cousins as well as strangers, “I have seen it with my own eyes. You

enjoyed it. You were an average child but you had my brother and your cousins dancing

around you. That is what you wanted” (Dattani 28).

Dattani draws the character of Shanta as the epitome of patriarchal values. Mala’s

mother perceives Mala as the agent of her sexual abuse and therefore, she has become the

symbol of a sinful woman, no more chaste and pure as a woman is expected to be. Chastity of

a woman is her greatest asset. Closely associated with the chaste woman is the family

reputation and honour. Thus, Shanta in order to portray her daughter as a chaste woman as

well as to protect the honour and reputation of her family prefers to maintain silence instead

of protesting against her daughter’s abuser.

However, in this whole unpleasant situation, as Shanta adheres to the patriarchal

expectations and refuses to protest against her daughter’s sexual abuse and give her

protection, Mala becomes a lone fighter in her battle against this gross violation of her sexual

dignity for years:

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I am not talking about a bad dream! I am talking about the time when Uncle

Vinay would molest me. When I was seven. Then eight. Nine. Ten. Every

vacation when we went to visit him or when he came to stay with us. You were

busy in either the pooja or the kitchen. (Dattani 26)

Rejected and silenced by her own mother, sexually abused and helpless Mala finds no

other option but to force herself into a silence that kills her integrity of character. As a

battered soul, post sexual assault, whenever Mala goes to her mother for help, she fails to

have the comforting presence of her mother as a patient listener of her sad and unfortunate

experience. Her mother’s insensitivity to her pain gradually crumples her moral integrity and

affects the sacred relation of a mother and daughter. Accusing her mother, Mala points out

her mother’s irresponsibility:

Oh yes, you would remember that I always like alu parathas because that’s what I

got whenever I came to you, hurt and crying. Instead of listening to what I had to

say, you stuffed me with food. I couldn’t speak because I was being fed all the

time, and you know what? I began to like them. I thought that was the cure for

my pain. That if I ate till I was stuffed, the pain would go away. Every time I

came to you mummy, you were ready with something to feed me. You knew.

Otherwise you wouldn’t have been so prepared. You knew all along that was

happening to me... (Dattani 24).

Mala’s embittered state also results in her loss of faith on God and His divine

intervention in human lives to protect the humanity from the jaws of the monsters.

Denouncing the supernatural powers of God, she demands from her mother an explanation of

her failure to perform the role of a mother, “No don’t look at your God, look at me, look me

in the eye and tell me—‘yes, that is all that you are talking about” (Dattani 225). Rather than

blindly welcoming her mother’s concern for her, Mala pushes her mother to accept her

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silence and forces her to explain the reasons for her stoic silence. As Shanta breaks her

silence confessing to her daughter the reason behind being what her husband would say ‘a

frozen woman’ (Dattani 36), she cries out, “Yes. Yes! I only remained silent ... I remained

silent not because I wanted to, but I didn’t know how to speak ... My tongue was cut off years

ago ... How could I save her when I could not save Myself? ... (Dattani 54). Gradually she

recounts the horrible story that silenced her forever:

I was six, Mala. I was six. And he was thirteen ... and it wasn’t only summer

holidays. For ten years! For ten years!! (Pointing to the picture of God) I looked

to Him. I didn’t feel anything. I didn’t feel pain, I didn’t feel pleasure. I lost

myself in Him. He helped me. By taking away all feelings. No pain no pleasure,

only silence. Silence means Shanti. Shanti. But my tongue is cut off. No. No. It

just fell off somewhere. I didn’t use it, no. I cannot shout for help, I cannot say

words of comfort, I cannot even speak about it. No, I can’t. I am dumb. (Dattani

55)

Shanta’s outburst is a testimony to her forced silence to which she was subjected in her

childhood. The consequences of it damaged her marital life too. Both Shanta and her

daughter failed to develop trust on men and hence they could never develop any relation with

any man. Shanta, though married, had a loveless cold relation with her husband. According to

Asha Kuthari Chaudhuri, an eminent critic on Dattani, it is family that is the epicentre of

women exploitation and she observes, “Child sexual abuse spans a range of problems, but it

is this complicity of the family through silence and a lack of protest that is the ultimate

betrayal for the abused” (73).

Through the daughter-mother’s series of accusations, confessions and atonement, as the

truth of her mother’s silence dawns upon Mala, she tries to mend the misunderstandings that

they have developed. She regrets for accusing her mother and seeks forgiveness, “While I

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accused you of not recognizing my pain, you never felt any anger at me for not recognizing

yours. We were both struggling to survive but – I never acknowledge your struggle ... It’s not

your fault, mother. Just as it wasn’t my fault” (Dattani 58) and they unite together to take off

the mask of Vinay who in the name of their guardian and financial supporter took the

advantage of their situation and continued committing the heinous crime of incest.

Though many critics believe that a woman’s emancipation lies in them; to break free

from their shackles of oppression and exploitation, it is women who have to take cudgels

against age old malpractices of stigmatizing the victims and pushing them into a dead shell

only to hide the guilt of their perpetrators’ violence. 30 Days in September proves that though

victims of gender exploitation are aware of their vulnerability, they are so badly handcuffed

by their situations that often they cannot even dare to raise their voice against their abusers.

In this context it is worth mentioning a critic on Polie Sengupta’s plays, Anita Singh’s

observation on her plays, “Instead of hiding the dirty linens, women have to book the

perpetrators of these crimes, because unless they fight their own battles, nobody is going to

do it for them” (12). Such an opinion is equally applicable for Dattani’s 30 Days in

September. Contrary to this observation is Shanta’s voluntary silence towards her daughter’s

sexual violence. Her silence speaks of the ways that a patriarchal society and its state

mechanism impair women to raise voice against their abusers.

30 Days in September is actually based on the premises of kinship contract and sexual

contract that are of significant influence in a patriarchal society. The play is an apt example

of how gender and kinship are arranged and interlinked in a patriarchal society, deciding the

actions of men and women and giving rise to unequal distribution of power. Kinship contract,

V. Geetha states, “grants men authority and power in familial and extended kin relationships”

(116) and thus “acquires public sanction” (Geetha 116). The significance of kinship contract

on women in patriarchal society is immense, so much so that they prioritise kin arrangements

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and familial relationships over their own democratic rights. Shanta’s passive silence can be

explained as a consequence of this influence of kinship arrangement and familial

relationships in her life.

Though it might be argued that because her brother was her primary financial provider

that she did not want to raise voice against him or protest against his actions, but actually it is

the contract of kinship that influences and determines her actions. Shanta is also conditioned

by patriarchal rituals and customs that sanctify a brother’s position in a sister’s life as

protector and provider. The ceremonial observation of the rituals during the festival of

Rakhshabandhan codifies the role and responsibility of a brother in a sister’s life, even after

her marriage. Though Vinay clearly and shamelessly flouts the religious significance attached

to the brother-sister bond of love, Shanta is so conditioned to such patriarchal and ritual

significance of brother’s position in family and sister’s life that she resists herself from

raising voice against her erring brother.

Closely associated with kinship contact is sexual contact in a patriarchal society that too

plays a vital role in 30 Days in September. While discussing the influence of sexual contract

in the patriarchal society like India, V. Geetha opines that the “sexual contract is most vividly

present in the social value placed on women’s fertility on the one hand and on the unmarried

woman’s virginity on the other” (117). Though for the violation of a woman’s virginity by

coercion a man should be punishable, under the contract of kinship and sexuality this is

grossly ignored and a woman is always accused. Rather, in the discourse of sexual contract it

is a woman’s moral nature that is interrogated, a woman’s reputation is invariably at stake.

As Geetha puts it, “sexual assault is seldom viewed as a violation of a woman’s being and

integrity. Instead it is consistently linked to her chastity, rather her virginal or non virginal

status” (118).

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Even legal actions against sexual abuse is coloured by moral attitude towards women.

Since implicit in such assumptions is a woman’s character rather than the actions of the

abuser, it is understood that a ‘good woman’ would try to resist from being a victim of sexual

violation unlike a ‘bad woman’ who would be a party to it. Thus, quite aware of how sexual

abuse and its victim are perceived in a patriarchal society, Shanta prefers to hide the dirty

linens rather than seek justice for it.

Girlhood in a Brahmanical society is deemed as a preparatory stage for wifehood.

Kanya, kumari, putri and duhitr are few terms that are used for unmarried girls. The term

‘kanya’ specifically is used for daughters, usually for young and unmarried ones. Kumari is

used to denote virgin girls between the age of ten and twelve, a maiden, and a daughter. The

term kanya emphasises the chief concerns of a girl’s virginity, youth and marriage. Thus

Shanta’s silence can be interpreted as a deliberate strategy to save the image of her unmarried

and young daughter as well as the honour of her family. Virginity of an unmarried daughter is

considered to be her asset. Loss of her virginity makes a girl vulnerable in a society that

regards virginity as the greatest gift during marriage. Since, a girl who has lost her virginity

before marriage is considered not an ideal woman, Shanta tries to silence Mala of her sexual

abuse so that she is not marked and rejected as a woman who has failed to observe her

stridharma as an unmarried girl.

The significance of observing the stridharma of a girl is evident in Dattani’s another

play, Final Solutions. Aruna, the mother of a young college girl, Smita is the prototype of a

typical mother who loves to live and mould the life of others around her by the set social

standards. She is obsessed with religious observations at home and puts in her best efforts to

mould her daughter as an ideal woman who as a matured woman can realise the significance

of religion and appreciate its value in nurturing a family. Aruna tries to instil in her the

religious values that a woman as the home maker should possess and pass it to further

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generations. However, Smita is a young girl who does not conform to religious beliefs and

rituals and challenges the significance of religious rituals in daily life. Evident in Aruna’s

chastisement of her daughter who challenges the idea of an ideal girl conforming to the

religious rituals, is her anxiousness that Smita as a young married woman would fail to carry

out the stridharma of a married woman. Hence, inside the four walls of their household,

Aruna, the second generation woman of the Patel family, tries to control her daughter,

Smita’s sexuality by compelling her to observe religious rituals and thereby tame her nature

and make it apt for her future role as a wife and mother.

Explicit in this is Aruna’s efforts to make Smita conform to the ideals of Stridharma and

become a perfect woman, carrying efficiently the role of a mother. However, implicit in this

is her fear that if Smita’s independence is not bridled at the right time, she might fail to

become an ideal woman. Susan Sered in her insightful essay, Woman as Symbol and Women

as Agents (1999), makes a distinction between ‘women as agents’ and ‘women as symbols’.

According to her, the difference between the two lies as, “Women as agents can demand

rights, enter negotiations, and protest unfair treatment...The second set of issues centres on

Woman—a symbolic construct conflate gender, sex and sexuality, and comprises of allegory,

ideology, metaphor, and fantasy” (10).

In Final Solutions, Aruna, the mother, perceives Smita as woman as agent, potent

enough to threaten, divert and challenge Hindu religious rituals and practices. She sees in her

the threatening agent that tries to dissolve the margin that distinguishes two different

religions; Hinduism and Islam. Therefore, Aruna tries to enforce on her the idealised image

of a girl who has deep roots in Hindu sanskaras (practices). Leela Dube has emphasised the

significance of ritual observation in Hindu families that help in the construction of gender in

Hindu girls. Aruna by enforcing Smita to observe religious rituals endeavours to convert

Smita from the image of ‘women as agent’ to the image of ‘women as symbol’. In addition,

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ideal motherhood is looked up with reverence woman’s success as an ideal mother measures

her social status. Aruna believes that if Smita has a good acculturation of religious values and

is able to pass it on to her children; she will be successful in her dharma as a woman.

The stifling conditions in which a Hindu girl grows up in a Brahmanical society is best

voiced by frustrated Smita as she breaks down and pleads:

Don’t please, mummy, don’t try so hard! You are breaking me. Ever since I was

small you have been at me to go to the temple, make garlands, listen to you

reading from the Gita. I love you, mummy, that’s why I did that. I listened to you

and I obeyed you. I tolerated your prejudices only because you are my mother.

May be I should have told you earlier, but I’m telling you now, I can’t bear it!

Please don’t burden me anymore! I can’t take it! (Dattani 213)

II

Stunted Women: Marginalization of Women in Domestic Spaces

The streedharma of a young girl that teaches her ideals of sacrifice and servitude from a

very tender age takes a more serious turn in her adulthood as a wife, daughter-in-law and

mother. Marriage as a social institution is regarded as the most significant way to socialise

women and control female sexuality by restricting them to a central domain, domesticity.

Wifehood and motherhood are the two phases that dictate the life of a woman post marriage.

Streedharma that becomes an essence of a woman’s existence in a patriarchal society

inculcates in them wifely values like chastity, submissiveness and complete devotion to her

husband. This section attempts to explore how the ideological constructs of stridharma and

pativratadharma are enforced both implicitly as well as explicitly with coercion on women to

keep them under patriarchal control even in urban educated families in the plays like Bravely

Fought the Queen, Final Solutions, Where There’s a Will, Tara and Dance Like a Man.

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The institution of marriage has an unparallel significance in human civilization.

According to Manu marriage is a girl's upanyana (thread ceremony that initiates a man into

the study of the Vedas). In Chapter II, verse 67, of Manusmriti Manu decrees, “The nuptial

ceremony is stated to be the Vedic sacrament for women (and to be equal to the initiation),

serving the husband (equivalent to) the residence in (the house of the) teacher, and the

household duties (the same) as the (daily) worship of the sacred fire” (qtd. in Buhler 42).

Equating a woman’s rites of marriage to Vedic Sacrament, Manu emphasises on the

significance of the household duties and responsibilities in a woman’s life. In Hindu religious

tradition the institution of marriage is regarded as a sacred social institution that not only

brings two souls together but also promises a life time of togetherness, love and care.

Procreation is perceived as the main objective of marriage. The married couple, especially the

woman is burdened with the responsibility of giving birth to a son who would provide

oblation to his forefathers. Hence, the primary duties of a woman post marriage that consisted

of attending to the domestic chores of the household and procreation essentially restricted

women to a central domain of domesticity.

Though women have a significant role to play in the perpetuation of the human race, she

is subjected to a series of doubts and suspicions. Women’s sexuality is often regarded as the

gateway to pollution. In addition to this the disparaging image of a woman that the architect

of Manav Dharma Shashtra, Manu, draws is directly responsible for women’s enslavement in

a Brahminical patriarchal society. Observing on the vile and flirtatious nature of women,

Manu in chapter IX, verse 2-3 draws a warning dictum on a woman’s freedom as, “Her father

protects (her) in childhood, her husband protects (her) in youth, and her sons protect (her) in

old age; a woman is never fit for independence” (qtd. in Buhler 327-28). It is this state of

perpetual subjection of women in the control of a male member that gives rise to unequal

power relations in man woman relation and ultimately enslavement of women in marriage.

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However, the enslavement of women is judiciously camouflaged under the patriarchal

ideologies of streedharma.

Two main phases of a woman’s life post marriage; wifehood, motherhood, and the

ideologies associated with them are the deliberate patriarchal constructs to ensure total

control on women sexuality in a patriarchal society. Streedharma of a married woman

becomes the essence of her existence in a patriarchal society. It inculcates in them wifely

values like chastity, submissiveness and complete devotion to her husband. On the role,

responsibilities and duties of a woman as a wife, Manu in chapter V, elucidates a series of

actions that helps to define the dharma of a wife. First and foremost he believes that a woman

as the wife should be able to keep the family united, happy and manage the finances of the

family well. Therefore, on the characteristics of the woman, he observes, “She must always

be cheerful, clever in (the management of her) household affairs, careful in cleaning her

utensils, and economical in expenditure” (qtd. in Buhler 195). Manu also believes that a

woman should be always obedient to the man whom she is married to, “Him to whom her

father may give her, or her brother with the father’s permission, she shall obey as long as he

lives, and when he is dead, she must not insult (his memory)” (qtd. in Buhler 195). He further

adds, “Though destitute of virtue, or seeking pleasure (elsewhere), or devoid of good

qualities, (yet) a husband must be constantly worshipped as a god by a faithful wife” (qtd. in

Buhler 196).

Ironically the conjugal roles that a woman takes up in her family life mark the beginning

of her oppression. The patriarchal construct of a woman drawn in the lines of Sita-Savitri are

deliberate attempts to subjugate a woman in her varied roles in the married family. Thus,

caught in the web of relationships, as a dutiful wife and daughter-in-law, as a care giver and

nurturer of her new family, a woman struggles to meet all the expectations, often sacrificing

her likes and dislikes, her life’s goals and even her own identity.

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The plays Bravely Fought the Queen and Final Solutions explore the manifold ways that

the patriarchal society and family adopt to dominate women. A woman’s main role in her

marital family is to serve the family and keep it integrated, showering love, affection and

spreading happiness. On the expected role of a bride in her marital family Atharvaveda

observes, “The bride may please everyone at her husband’s home through her knowledge and

noble qualities” (Newar 660) and is vested with a very significant role as is mentioned in

Atharvaveda, “O groom! This bride is protector of your entire family. May she dwell in your

home for a period and sow seeds of intellect (Newar 80-1). Though a woman is given a

position of importance and a very crucial and vital role to play in her new family, yet the kind

of treatment she gets there shows the deteriorating position of women in the smallest

patriarchal unit called family.

Dattani’s portrayal of his women characters through the clues provided by his stage

props depict how women have been pulled down from a position of significance as

mentioned in Atharvaveda to that of servitude. Since marriage entails unquestioned

subordination of women to the patriarchal authorities of the family, it is best achieved by

stifling of a woman’s emotions and stunting her personality. This particular facet of marriage

is best depicted through the metaphor of bonsai in Bravely Fought the Queen. Lalitha, the

wife of Trivedi brothers’ employee, Sridhar, in her conversation with the Trivedi sisters on

her hobby aptly summarizes the repression of the emotions and expressive powers of women

in general and of Dolly and Alka by their respective husbands. In a conversation with Alka

about their hobbies, Lalitha, Shridhar’s wife mentions:

ALKA: You said you make bonsai? LALITHA: Yes. I’ve got a whole collection.

ALKA: How do you make them? LALITHA: You stunt their growth. You keep

trimming the root and

bind their branches with wire and . . . stunt them. (Dattani 244)

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It is this ‘trimming’ of abilities, desires and wishes and ‘stunting’ of their growth and

development as individuals that Dattani focuses in this play. The sole objective of curbing

these women’s rights to expression and thought is to reduce them to a robotic life to carry out

their assigned work without any manifestation of their emotional and physical requirements.

According to Aristotle, males are active and females passive. For him females are

‘mutilated males’, someone who does not have a soul. In his view, the biological inferiority

of woman makes her inferior also in her capacities, her ability to reason and therefore her

inability to make decisions. Because man is always considered as superior and woman

inferior, he is born to rule and she to be ruled. He said, “The courage of man is shown in

commanding of a woman in obeying” (qtd. in Learner 8-11). The Trivedi brothers in

Aristotle’s definition are ‘active beings’ and in order to achieve full obedience of the women

they dominate and manipulate their intellectual, emotional and mental abilities.

In order to achieve full obedience of the weaker sex and to control their lives, the men in

Bravely Fought the Queen and Final Solutions and the bigoted patriarchy in general, resort to

stunting and arresting the emotional, social and intellectual growth of the women like the

bonsais. The output of such conscious efforts of suppressing their emotions and curbing of

their basic rights is a calculated one. Such forced control and vigil on the women not only

stop their ability to spread their roots of self awareness and development but also the shoots

of resistance and vocalising their position and power. Thus the women are reduced to a

robotic life in their marital families so that they meet the ideals of Stridharma easily and

serve the family forever.

According to the ideals of Stridharma, a woman as a wife and daughter-in-law of her

marital family is expected to regard her husband as God. She should unquestioningly submit

her life in his service, pray for his well being and eat after he eats. It also expects selfless

devotion and sacrifice as the key to a successful and ideal wife. Though a woman is always

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ready to prove herself as a selfless woman, born to be at the service of others, yet in return

she gets nothing, not even verbal acknowledgement of her service. Bravely Fought the Queen

and Final Solutions resonate with this age old notion of a woman’s duties and responsibilities

towards her marital family, without expecting anything in return.

The opening scene of Bravely Fought the Queen that takes place in the drawing room of

educated, cultured, urban middle class family of Trivedi brothers depicts Dolly and Alka

engaged in a not so comfortable drawing room conversation with their neighbour’s wife,

Lalitha, is all of a sudden disturbed by the sound of a bell coming from first floor. The bell

that Baa, Trivedi brothers’ mother, uses is a marker of Dolly and Alka’s role in Trivedi

household.

The bell is a catalyst that pushes Dolly and Alka to take up the job of nurse involuntarily.

It is a constant reminder to the two sisters of their duties and responsibilities in their new

family as daughters-in-law as well as their parallel role as a nurse to their mother-in-law. Baa

uses the bell to establish her authorial position over them and to demand their constant

presence to serve her. In a way its constant nagging presence actually oppresses the sisters by

restricting their mobility and interfering into their conjugal lives.

The diary of Daksha in Final Solutions is another such stage prop that registers the

landmark events in Daksha’s life both before and after her marriage speaks volumes, though

very subtly, on the suppression of women in their marital families. Through her diary the

playwright, Dattani, brings out the hard core truth of Indian society that in spite of many

changes in terms of national independence and social reform, the position of women has not

undergone much change. Daksha feels even if changes had happened, the society’s

perception of gender and freedom has not changed. She is shocked to find that forty years is

not enough time to change the country though it has changed her life forever, “After forty

years ... I opened my diary again. And I wrote. A dozen pages before. A dozen pages now. A

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young girl’s childish scribble. An old women’s shaky scrawl. Yes, things have not changed

much” (Dattani 167).

In general, diary is a personal space in which an individual records, with date and time,

the important events that either changed his/ her life or is a witness to it. It also records with

the written document the person’s lines of thought, emotions, fears, secrets, frustrations,

ambitions and lost hopes. Daksha’s diary reveals her journey from young Daksha to a

married woman, Hardika and the series of ups and downs in her life that changed her

perception of her life, society and the world surrounding her. At the backdrop of Hindu

Muslim communal disturbances Hardika, as a married woman, weighs the difference that

marriage has brought in her life and tries to negotiate her space as a married woman realises

that though not much change has taken place in the socio-cultural history of the country, her

life has undergone a sea change. Dattani through the lens of Daksha/ Hardika depicts the

religious and gender issues that have always been difficult to comprehend and give it a

meaningful end.

Parallel to Alka and Dolly, Daksha’s life in Final Solution undergoes a change

immediately after she steps into her marital family. Her marriage is her initiation into the

world of subjugation and oppression. The very first thing that comes as a shock to Daksha

and opens up the gate for many more in the future, is her change of name. Daksha’s parents-

in- laws renamed her as Hardika to match with her husband Hari’s name. They defended this

as a ritual that they follow in their family since ages.

The ritual of renaming a newlywed bride can be interpreted as a calculated move on the

part of the marital family to introduce the bride to a new identity as well as the role associated

with her new identity. The ritual also implies the erasure of the maiden identity of a woman

to initiate her into a more dutiful role that expects her to sacrifice her wishes and desires for

the sake of her new family. Thus, the name Hardika was cautiously chosen, not only because

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it was very close to their son, Hari’s name but to introduce her to a more dutiful but limited

life as a daughter-in-law of Gandhi family. As the name Hardika means happiness or

goodness of heart, Gandhi family by naming Daksha as Hardika enforces on her their

expectation from her. The name ensures that she too like her name spreads happiness in the

family, accepts all the family members with love and affection and serves all from the depth

of her heart.

The ritual of renaming a bride without even once consulting her preference for the same

is quite paradoxical in nature. Though it initiates a newlywed bride to a significant role that

she has to play in the married family, yet implied in this ritual is her position of insignificance

to which she is pushed. The ritual also assumes the importance of role over one’s own

identity. Though Daksha accepted the name, of course she had no other choice; it was

received with reluctance and resentment. With the new name Daksha is introduced into a new

life where she is constantly in search of a new meaning of her existence. Thus, like many

other strategies, Gandhi family adopts naming ceremony to exploit women folks that

culminate into negation and annihilation of their existence.

The chirpy, carefree Daksha undergoes sea change with her new name. Her new identity

as Hardika expected her to behave and act as a more mature person, sacrificing her likes,

hopes and dreams and devoting herself for the family. Forceful repression of emotions of

women is the most common way that the patriarchy tries to instil a sense of fear and

helplessness in docile women in patriarchal societies. Thus as a first step towards

subjugating Daksha to their hegemonic power, her in-laws restrict her physical mobility to

crush on the first place her social intimacy with a neighbouring Muslim family, especially

Zarine, their eldest daughter of her age and secondly her love for Noor Jahan’s songs,

primarily for which she used to visit the Muslim family. By putting an injunction on her

regular visits to Zarine’s family, the conservative Hindu Gandhi family imposes their

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detestation for the Muslim family on Daksha and successfully builds in her too a detestation

for the religion.

Barring Daksha from visiting the only family with daughters of her age the Gandhis

successfully control Daksh’a free social communication that would invariably include

venting out emotion and thoughts that are otherwise restricted by her parents-in-law. They

also violate her sense of dignity and integrity by accusing her of eating meat at their place.

Though her exploitation at this stage of her life was very subtle but the consequences had a

far reaching effect on the psyche of Daksha.

The calculated move of the Gandhis slow poisons Daksha to secretly harbour repulsion

for Zarine and her family and their religious background and consequently they manage to

activate and develop the dormant abhorrence and detestation that Daksha had for the

Muslims. Dattani, the master craftsman effortlessly weaves gender discrimination with

religious one and through Daksha’s example proves one type of discrimination breeds

another type. Thus the discriminated Daksha vents out her angst on her newly developed

abhorrence for Zarine’s family. In one of her restricted visits to Zarine’s home during their

lunch time, Daksha, a Gujrati Hindu woman, born and brought up in a family that always had

a pure vegetarian diet could hardly bear the awful smell of meat and vomits then and there.

Her vomiting signifies her repulsion of their lifestyle and food habits that are conditioned by

the religion they profess. The imposed restrictions on her that once seemed to her weird and

gross violation of human existence gives birth in her religious discrimination which keeps her

locked in it forever.

According to Hindu notion of marriage, a wife is ardhagini and sahadharmini of her

husband and therefore, her significance in her husband’s life is immense. It is the mutual

understanding, love, affection and respect for each other that forms the bedrock of a husband

wife relation. However, the women in Trivedi family and Daksha in Final Solution fail to

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receive a position of importance, of love and affection and honour in their respective

husband’s lives. The married lives of all the women characters in Bravely Fought the Queen

and Final Solutions, as well as that of Bharati in Tara and Sonal in Where There’s a Will are

marked with unequal power relations and oppressive stories that threaten their existence and

annihilate their identities. The married life of Dolly and Jiten is one that is characterised by

lack of concern, warmth and affection. Rather violence in the form of physical and verbal

abuse shapes her married life. Jiten, like his father, is a wife beater, never cares to feel for his

wife and reduces her to a slave who is meant to carry on his commands and wait on him. The

husband therefore, is no more a friend and company but one who dominates ruthlessly over

the other. Their equation as husband and wife is miserably weak and reflect not mutual

understanding but that of unequal power distribution. The conversation between Lalitha and

Dolly is a testimony of their severed relations:

LALITHA (bursts out): Your husband asked me to come and meet you!

DOLLY: Oh! You mean tonight? (Lalitha nods.) Come in. Come in.

LALITHA (enters): I’m sorry if you didn’t expect me.

DOLLY: Oh, I did. Not tonight though. There must be some mix up. Er-sit down.

(Dattani 234)

In order to compensate for the lack that her marriage has created in her life, Dolly takes

interest in routine self grooming regime and visiting parties. The facial mask that is

mentioned at the very beginning of the play and mask employed in the party at the end of the

play do inform about the expectations of women like Dolly in a family set up and how these

expectations are gradually crushed under the pressures of patriarchy. Since marriage in

Dolly’s case does not guarantee any happiness rather seems like a mere social contract in

which not even productive labour is appreciated but only her physical labour is exploited,

mask plays a vital role in her life. More than a beauty regime mask, in Dolly’s case, is used to

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cover up all the discrepancies, frustrations and unfulfilled desires of her life as a wife and

mother of a spastic daughter.

Women’s subjugation that has its roots in the control of women sexuality in a patriarchal

society informs the subjugated and oppressed condition of the women in Bravely Fought the

Queen. However, Dolly and Alka’s degraded condition in their marital family is coupled with

the historical background of their family. Even though Dolly and Alka’s mother was unaware

of her husband’s first wife, she is broadly regarded as her husband’s ‘keep’ by Baa and as

daughters of keep, their position in their marital family becomes one of detestation and kept

under rigid control. Baa not only taunts them as daughter of keep and repents “My sons have

married the daughters of a whore” (Dattani 311) but also subjects them to periodic mental

torture by reminding this half truth fact and incited her sons to control their wives, lest they

should step into the footsteps of their mother.

Dolly, the elder daughter-in-law, a more level headed woman compared to her younger

sister, Alka had tried time and again to clarify her mother’s position to her new family.

Though Dolly tries to explain to the Trivedis that her mother was ‘deceived’ (Dattani 311)

that she too “didn’t know about his first wife till later” (Dattani 311), do not help the sisters

to come out of the image of daughters of sinners. It is this label in their life that adds to their

suffering in their married lives. The notion of a woman’s sexuality as a matter of control,

which if not bridled well leads to disrepute of both the concerned woman as well her family

forever, is reiterated by the attitude of Baa. The impact of Baa’s notion on women sexuality

has a deeper impact on Jiten, Dolly’s husband. This jeopardises Dolly’s life to such an extent

that even in her pregnancy she was subjected to Jiten’s physical abuse that ultimately leads to

the birth of a spastic child.

In the institution of marriage that is overtly marked by unequal distribution of power and

control on women sexuality result in a woman’s loss of dignity and her second class

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treatment in her marital life. The Gandhis and the Trivedis, as they repress the emotions and

restrict the mobility of the women in their family, they achieve the dual goals of subjugating

and subordinating the women in their families on one hand and on the other hand establish

their supremacy over them.

The husband wife relationship in Dattani’s plays is a space where egos clash,

incompatible mentalities confront each other, but no justice is ever seen nor expected. All the

men characters, ranging from Baa’s husband to his sons, Jiten and Nitin, in Bravely Fought

the Queen to Hari and Ramnik in Final Solutions manage to maintain a fine blend of

discrimination, injustice and insincerity that engulf their most intimate relation of husband

and wife. It is a lopsided combat in which the victory of the man is written on the wall. The

humiliating and abusive relations that Baa and Dolly experience in their marriage can be seen

in Daksha’s life as well.

Daksha’s relation with her husband, Hari is one of unspoken compromises. Though the

intelligent Daksha feels that literacy might broaden her husband’s approach to life and bring

better days for her, by saving their marriage from a devastating end, to her utter surprise, she

realises that even education fails to change the intrinsic nature of man that is ruled by a strong

desire to enslave women for their convenience and comfort. Her presence in her husband’s

life is of no value, rather like the women in Bravely Fought the Queen Daksha’s relation with

her husband lacks mutual understanding, love and respect. The dominating self of Hari

surfaces as he becomes the sole decision maker of their life and pays no importance to his

wife’s words. In one such incident when Daksha requests him to help her friend, Zarine’s,

father by offering him a job, Hari not only ignores her request but also violently abuses her.

She becomes the victim of her husband’s verbal abuse that silenced her forever, “He called

me names. Names that is too shameful to mention to you. My cheeks went red. We were

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silent for a long time and I forgot about Zarine’s problems. I was too confused. And yet I

wanted to please Hari” (Dattani 216).

Dattani through this incident focuses on the lot of women in the hands of chauvinistic

men in society. Such incidences reduce the women to a position where they are left with no

alternatives other than making compromises at the cost of their self esteem. ‘Compromise’ is

the only meaningful word that rules the world of women and in order to avoid social

ostracism, she compromises her dignity for a life of servitude and humiliation. Daksha is no

exception of such compromising relation. Though Hari’s superior position as a husband

allows him to behave in a rude and aggressive way, Daksha’s social and economic

dependence on her husband forces her to take the initiative to put everything to normal.

The social norms of a patriarchal society always force a woman to sacrifice her ego to

fan the masculine sense of superiority. Therefore, being born and brought up in a

conventional patriarchal society, it has unconsciously seeped into Daksha/Hardika that it is

her responsibility and duty to bridge the gap between her and her husband. Thus, Daksha,

much against her wish, takes the first step to mend their severed and strained relation. To do

so she like the nautch girls in the Mughal courts drapes brocade dupatta embroidered by

Zarine’s mother and presents herself in front of Hari. It is at the cost of her ego and self

esteem that Daksha tries to smoothen her relation with her husband. However, her sacrifice of

her ego and burial of her self esteem leaves her with hurt ego and crushed her dignity that she

can never forget, “He beckoned me to lie beside him on the bed. And I did. And my cheeks

went red again. Not with shame but with anger at myself” (Dattani 216).

Humiliation and compromises in conjugal relationships are a recurring theme in

Dattani’s plays. Uma, the protagonist of Seven Steps around the Fire, also leads a life of

humiliation in her conjugal relationship with her husband, Suresh. Though an educated

woman, working on a paper on caste and gender- based violence, Uma is reduced to a sex

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object by her husband. Her scholarly pursuits hold no significance in her household. As a

wife of Superintendent of Police, Suresh, she is forced to shelve off her intelligence and

rationality to fit into her role of a docile wife. She is subjected to Suresh’s whims that decides

and dictates her life, as much as what lingerie she should wear to please him. The standards

that a woman is expected to meet as a wife and daughter-in-law is best exemplified by Uma’s

swift transition from an assertive research scholar in her field work to one of submissive and

docile wife and daughter-in-law at home. Though she exploits her power as the wife of

Superintendent of police to extract information for her research work and endeavours for the

hijras’ emancipation that earned her the dual image of a bold researcher and detective, at

home she lives a life of a marginalized one, more specifically one that of a ‘barren woman’.

She adorns her wifely duties and responsibilities with utmost care and meekness. So much so

that she even fails to assertively convince her husband that she is not an infertile woman and

request him for his sperm count. In fact Uma with all submission, though reluctantly, goes

with her mother-in-law for her treatment. Besides Uma, Sonal in Where There is a Will and

Bharati in Tara are other marginalized women who are the victims of unequal power

distribution in the institution of marriage.

The decision making authority in a family lies with its male members. This in a way

serves to establish the superiority of a man over his female counterparts. Contrary to men,

women are expected to be silent observers of the decisions taken or act in compliance to

those decisions. However, Bharati in Tara subverts the masculine role of her husband as the

sole decision maker. She challenges the system by taking the crucial life-changing decision

regarding the operation of the Patel twins. Nevertheless, Mr. Patel by virtue of his gender and

subsequent superior power turns round the table and makes Bharati the victim of his vicious

plans. Post operation when Bharati tries to atone for the damage inflicted upon Tara, Mr.

Patel reclaims his patriarchal role and stands as a barrier. He intervenes to jeopardise her

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plans of providing Tara with the best medical facilities, nutrition, education and a social

circle with good friends to survive the pressures of the society as a handicapped child and

thereby torments Bharati mentally. Implicit in Mr. Patel’s behaviour is not to allow Bharati to

assuage her guilt of being the main architect of Tara’s plight.

Mr. Patel charts out a plan to subjugate her by reducing her presence from a doting

mother and homemaker to a state of nothingness. He grabs her guilt conscious mind and

caring and affectionate mother in her to severe the developing bonds between mother and

daughter. So much so that when Bharati wants to donate her kidney to Tara, Mr. Patel not

only tries to dissuade her from doing that but also tries to convince the doctor against it. He

subjects Bharati to mental oppression by not allowing her to donate her kidneys as a gesture

of atonement for all the wrong done to her. Mr. Patel turns deaf ears to her and cruelly puts it,

“You have to face it. You want her to believe you are the only one who loves her” (Dattani

352) .Thus by subjecting her to unspeakable mental torture and pain on issues related to Tara,

he victimizes her to mental and emotional oppression.

Mr. Patel successfully exploits his gender superiority over Bharati to pull her down from

the role of a decision maker. He takes an extra step to damage her image of an ideal mother in

the eyes of her children, especially Tara. Thus, the opportunist as he is, he takes the

adavantage of Bharati’s hospitalisation and reveals to his children the secret of their life and

death situation. Besides, divulging the secret to Tara and Chandan about the reality of their

mother and her preferance for a male child, implicit in this step is Mr. Patel’s hidden agenda

of earning respect and love from his children, especially Tara by belittling their mother.

Mr. Patel reaches the height of inflicting emotional oppression on his wife when he does

not allow Bharati on her death bed to meet her son, Chandan. As a punishment for surpassing

his authority early in life, Mr. Patel crushes his wife’s dreams regardig her children and

brings an incomplete end to her life. He did not even inform Chandan about her mother’s

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death, who was then abroad at his uncle’s place trying to establish himself as a writer. The

worst part of Mr. Patel’s vindictive natures comes out when he keeps away their son,

Chandan, from performing the last rites of her mother. Thus, in spite of having a son, Bharati

meets a lonely death with no dreams of her fulfilled. She dies a lonely death with no one to

understand her real intension behind the critical operation.

In a patriarchal society sacrificing and self effacing oneself is the destiny of a woman as

a wife and a mother. In a male dominated society, a woman’s role as an ideal wife, daughter-

in-law and mother, expects her to prioritise others’ needs and desires over her. The concept of

sacrifice rules a woman’s life and often it is forced upon her either in the name of family’s

reputation, as in Daksha’s case, or to enable her to achieve the ideal image of a perfect

woman. Such idealisations are, however, deliberate constructs of the patriarchy to dominate,

repress the desires of women to control their passions and dreams. In both the plays, Final

Solutions and Bravely Fought the Queen Dattani emphasises on how the women are forced to

sacrifice their love for music. Baa and Dolly’s love for thumris of Naina Devi in Bravely

Fought the Queen and Daksha/ Hardika’s passion for the music tracks of Shamsad Begum,

Noor Jahan and Suraiya in Final Solutions are controlled by their respective families. The

Gandhis’ manipulative decision to restrict Daksha’s communication with Zarine’s family has

another hidden agenda of curbing her inclination for Noor Jahan’s songs, which only the

latter had in the whole neighbourhood. Bydenying Daksha/Hardika the permission to visit the

neighbouring Muslim family on the grounds that art and music of Noor Jahan is not meant for

woman from respectable families to enjoy, the Gandhis meet their objective of restricting

their daughter-in-law’s friendship with a Muslim family. Baa and Dolly too, like their

favourite singer Naina Devi, were never allowed to enjoy the music in their marital homes.

However, as human nature is, Daksha’s love for Noor Jahan’s songs compels her to challenge

the authority of her father-in-law. Consequently, as Daksha starts paying secret visits to

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Zarine’s house to fan the embers of her love for Noor Jahan’s songs and even gathers courage

to hum the tunes to entertain her husband at night, she embraces the wrath of the male family

members. She is punished for violating the authority of her elders and putting the fame of the

family at stake. Soon her parents-in-law speak to their son and stopped her from listening to

songs and humming forever, “All my dreams are shattered…I can never be a singer, like

Noor Jahan. Hari’s family is against my singing film songs. His parents heard me humming a

love song to Hari last night. And this morning they told him to tell me...” (Dattani 166).

A Brahmanical society authorises a man complete control over a woman’s sexuality. A

promiscuous woman is society’s eye sore. She is highly condemned for her loose character.

Manu’s observation on the vile nature of women in chapter II, verse 213 and 214, reflects

their social image, “it is the nature of women to seduce men in this (world); for that reason

the wise are never unguarded in the company of females” (qtd. in Buhler 69). He further

adds, “for women are able to lead astray in (this) world not only a fool, but even a learned

man, and (to make) him a slave of desire and anger (qtd. in Buhler 69). Therefore, in chapter

IX, verse 2 he suggests a strict control of women throughout their lives, “Day and night

women must be kept in dependence by the male (of) their families, and, if they attach

themselves to sensual enjoyments, they must be kept under one’s control” (qtd. in Buhler

328). Therefore, Manu strictly ordains that a woman should be always controlled, “Her father

protects (her) in childhood, her husband protects (her) in youth, and her sons protect (her) in

old age; a woman is never fit for independence (qtd. in Buhler 328).

Alka is a sad example of all those women who are controlled and dominated by male

figures throughout their lives. She is a victim of promiscuous husband and self seeking

guardian brother. She is reduced to a puppet in the hands of her brother in the name of her

well being and brother’s responsibilities towards his sister. When Alka’s affair with a

neighbouring boy came into notice by her brother, Praful, he not only chides and counsels her

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for calling it off but also subjected her to physical violence and emotional trauma. Though it

was kept under cover for a long time, post marriage the wronged Alka ultimately vents out

her anger, sadness and frustration against Praful’s brutality in her account of the torturous

days:

He dragged me into the kitchen. He lit the stove and pushed my face in front of it!

I thought he was going to burn my face! He burnt my hair. I can still smell my

hair on fiire. Nitin was right behind us. Watching! Just...Praful said, ‘Don’t you

even look at any man. Ever! (Dattani 257)

Like the brothers in Tendulkar’s The Vultures, Praful too thinks that it is his moral

obligation to safe guard the honour of his family and chastity of his sister. In the guise of a

responsible brother, Praful exploits this situation to get his sister married to his friend Nitin to

serve his homosexual love for the latter. Unfortunately, Alka becomes the victim of Nitin and

Praful’s homosexual relation. She is marginalized in her relation with her husband, Nitin,

who finds pleasure in the company of Praful. Praful-Nitin’s homosexual relation not only

robs her of the love and pleasures of a married life but also deprives her from enjoying the

experience of mothering a child. In the context of the treacherous brother-sister relation of

Praful-Alka that changes Alka’s life forever, Mandal observes, “The brother-sister

relationship in the play is one such area where in the guise of safeguarding the female honour

the male is able to rein in the female sibling” (49).

Alka’s body and character becomes a space where the men in her life, her brother as well

as her husband, try to prove their masculine superiority. In a patriarchal society she is treated

like a small child who has to be constantly protected from worldly temptations and therefore

she is transferred from one moral guardian to another one to keep a close vigil on her. As she

moves from one household to the other, with the moral policing following her like her

shadow, her oppression takes new forms and her emotions are repressed forever.

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Motherhood is another phase of a woman that directs women to a life of sacrifice and

servitude. Motherhood in a patriarchal society completes the image of a woman. Its absence

in a woman’s life subjects her to social discrimination that invariably results in her emotional

stress. Lalitha, Dolly and Alka’s neighbour as well as their employee’s wife is one such

woman whose life is subjected to social marginalisation because of her barrenness. Her

voluntary barrenness subjects her on the point scale determined by the patriarchal society and

reduces her to a topic of discussion for some idle women.

In order to counter her marginalisation and at the same time to engage herself she creates

a fantasy world for herself. Her world of fantasy consists of activities like making bonsai and

creative writing not only to explore her creativity and to financially help her husband but also

to develop and prove her nurturing qualities. She counters the pruned and stunted emotions of

her married life and her strong instincts for nurturing and caring through making, growing

and caring bonsais at home. In a way by nurturing the bonsai she also tries to fulfil her desire

of entering into the phase of motherhood that would make her complete and give her a sense

of satisfaction. Motherhood, for Lalitha is a door to complete realisation of her womanhood.

Her repressed emotions for spending quality time with her husband and motherhood is

surfaced in her conversation with Dolly and Alka, “That’s what he talks about at home. Even

my bonsais know about ReVaTee. But I don’t really mind... it gives me... something to... do”

(Dattani 251).

Lalitha’s social marginalization because of lack of a child in their married life speaks

volumes about both her husband and society. His busy office works keeps him away from

realising Lalitha’s growing social marginalization and ultimately it is Lalitha who becomes

the victim of the blind and partial patriarchal society and its values. It is her production value

that is thrust against her husband’s production value and Lalitha’s emotional and physical

emptiness mark the victory of Sridhar’s over Lalitha.

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Friedrich Engles in The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State observes

two implications of the word ‘production’. The production value of women is consumable

and reproductive in nature. In contrast to women, men produce for exchange and therefore

produce surplus wealth, which guarantees social power as well as and power at domestic

level too. Sridhar’s social power as a successful employee of the Trivedi brothers earns him

more power at home. His superiority at home compared to Lalita makes him the decision

maker. For him it is his professional success that is more important and therefore he remains

oblivious of his responsibilities of grihastha phase of his life. Though he is very caring and

has a very affectionate nature, yet he fails to realise Lalitha’s emptiness and her strong desire

to mother a child of her own.

V. Geetha in her discussion on Brahminical Patriarchy cites the example of E.V.

Ramaswamy Periyar who is considered the first emancipator of women. According to

Periyar, the institution of marriage not only denies women an access to develop their

emotions and desires but also is one of the strongest means of regulating and disciplining

women’s familial and reproductive labour (102-03). Sridhars’s decision to postpone Lalitha’s

motherhood till he is financially stable embodies Periyar’s opinion that reproductive capacity

of a woman as well as its norms, ideas and practices which govern it is determined by a

man’s authority (Geetha 102-03).

A man’s authority over the productive and reproductive labour of a woman is reflected

in Dattani’s Where There’s a Will. According to Periyar, who critiqued the general distinction

between masculinity and femininity, women’s subordinate position is a consequence of

man’s possession of private property. He argues, “...after man had successfully established

his rights to private property, he took woman as a wife into the household. This enabled him

both to enlist her services to protect his property and supply him with progeny, and to lay

exclusive sexual claims to her person” (101).

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Thus, according to Periyar, it is a man’s need for a progeny that initiates a woman into

yet another phase of sacrifice and subordination, called motherhood. While establishing the

link between property and motherhood, Periyar quotes Viduthalai to justify the close link

between religion and a woman’s position in the society as a mother:

After it had become the norm for people to want children to safeguard property,

Brahmins who had invented fictions of heaven and hell to keep the poor from

robbing the rich and to amass some of this wealth for themselves now argued that

a man must have a [male] child who would keep alive his name after death and

perform his yearly obsequies. (qtd. in Geetha 101)

Periyar’s line of argument establishes the link between a man’s authority over his wife’s

sexuality and motherhood. A woman’s sexuality as well as her motherhood determines her

position in a caste based society. Her ability to produce a male heir confirms her social

position. This notion is reflected in Hasmukh Mehta’s obsession for an eligible male heir,

who will be a carbon copy of his nature, ability and eligibility and consequently his relation

with his wife, Sonal.

The protagonist of the play, Where There’s a Will, Mr. Hasmukh Mehta, is a man who

basks in the glory of his success. His sense of superiority can be best summarised in his own

words, “I, Hasmukh Mehta, am one of the richest men in this city. All by my efforts. Forty

five years old and I am a success in capital letters” (Dattani 464). Hasmukh exploits the

institution of marriage for subjugating Sonal to his authoritative power to beget him a male

child who would be the rightful heir to his property. According to him, the institution of

marriage is not for starting a caring and friendly family unit or for sheer pleasure but for

begetting heir for his property according to his notion of the institution of marriage, he

reflects the Brahminical notion of marriage and the need to control a woman’s sexuality. His

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argument on the objective of marriage gives a picture of his narrow minded patriarchal

concern:

Why does a man marry? So that he can have a woman to himself? No. There’s

more to it than that. What? Maybe he needs a faithful companion? No. If that was

it, all men would keep dogs. No. No, I think the important reason anyone should

marry at all is to get a son. Why is it so important to get a son? Because the son

will carry on the family name? (Dattani 475)

A practical man, as he thinks of himself, he does not believe in wasting time and effort

to develop a caring and friendly relationship with his wife, rather he exploits the institution of

marriage to beget heir for his property. However, unfortunately Mr. Hasmukh fails to achieve

his objective of marrying as his son altogether rejects his concept of an eligible heir to his

property. Consequently, he dumps his wife and vents out his frustration on his wife for

having such an irresponsible son.

Failing to understand his son’s modern approach and business acumen to expand his

business, he criticises him for his approach to life, which according to him is nothing but

simply wastage of time, “No matter what you do, you will remain a zero. Over the years you

will just keep adding zeroes to your zero” (Dattani 461). He openly draws a comparison of

his success with his son, Ajit’s, failure, “I, Hasmukh Mehta, am one of the richest men in this

city. All by my efforts. Forty five years old and I am a success in capital letters. Twenty-three

years old and he is on the road to failure, in bold capital letters!” (Dattani 464). His

condescending attitude has no limits and is evident as he makes him a butt of his insulting

jokes, “the company needs his talent like I need another heart attack” (Dattani 457).

However, as a son has immense significance in the family as an heir to his father’s

property as well as religious, Hasmukh endeavours to bring in a positive change as he

wanted, “I am not trying to humiliate you. I am trying to put some sense into you” (Dattani

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458). Thus, he tries to explain Ajit his responsibility towards his business, “I will retire one

day, either from the company or from this world. What will become of you then? I have to

season you now. You need seasoning” (Dattani 460).

In fact, as Hasmukh Mehta finds in his son an absence of that promise in his life that will

ensure a distinctive position in the society, Hasmukh repents for having such a careless and

ignorant son. The coupled effect of his frustration and repentance is visible in his prayer to

God, “…I actually prayed to get him. Oh God! I regret it all. Please let him drop dead. No,

no. What a terrible thing to say about one’s own son. I take it back. Dear God, don’t let him

drop dead” (Dattani 455).

Ironically, Hasmukh traces the root of his frustration and son’s emptiness to his wife,

Sonal. He even accuses Sonal for Ajit’s failure and his misfortune, “I am sure his mother has

something to do with his failure” (Dattani 472). The falling significance of Sonal in his life

becomes crystal clear as he draws a comparison of present Sonal with the one in their early

married life:

Sonal. My wife. My son’s mother. Do you know what Sonal means? No? ‘Gold’.

When we were newly married, I used to joke with her and she was as good as

gold. But that was when she was newly married. I soon found out what a good for

nothing she was. As good as mud. (Dattani 473)

Sonal is not the only one whose value drops from ‘gold’ to ‘mud’. In fact it is the fate of all

women in a patriarchal society. A woman’s value lies in her ability to give birth to a son.

Sonal too had given birth to a son but her value in Hasmukh’s life depreciated because his

son is not a son as he wanted. Rather, as he observes, Ajit is:

...just a boy who spends my money and lives in my house. He doesn’t behave

like my son. A son should make me happy. Like I made my father...happy...but he

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failed! He has made my entire life worthless! He is going to destroy me! It won’t

belong before everything I worked for and achieved will be destroyed. (Dattani 4)

Evident in Hasmukh’s words is his emptiness in spite of having a male child. Nevertheless,

what is worth noting here is that instead of taking onus for his spoilt brat, he accuses his wife

for his son’s irresponsible and carefree nature.

Procreation demands equal involvement of both man and woman is not a one man

show. It involves equal contribution of both masculine as well as feminine energy. Yet, it is a

man who takes pride in declaring his heir and blames his wife if anything wrong happens to

the heir, as it happens in the Mehta household. The problem in Mr. Hasmukh Mehta’s life is

his failure to get a desirable heir as he wanted and therefore, he blames his wife for it. It

reflects the age old symbolic significance of ‘seed’ (the masculine energy) and field (the

feminine energy) in procreation. Though, the womb has a significant role to play in the

making of the foetus, the qualities of the seed are emphasised. However, in Hasmukh

Mehta’s case, he believes that the field in which the seeds were sown was not fertile enough

to give proper nourishment to the seed and hence his son fails to meet the essential purpose of

his life as the only son of Hasmukh Mehta, the heir of the business tycoon’s empire.

However, Sonal is happy with her role as the provider for the insensitive, thankless egoist

husband, Mr. Mehta. She finds her salvation and happiness, as put by Maithreyi Krishnarajan

and Neera Desai, in her role as a wife and mother of Hasmukh and Ajit respectively:

Man provides the seed, the essence for the creation of the offspring; the seed

determines the kind; the child’s identity is derived from the father for the group

placement. The role of the woman is just to receive the seed and through her own

blood provide warmth and nourishment and help it grow. (300)

Leela Dube sees in it the implications of power politic in a patriarchal society and

observes, “...the two partners are not at par with one another in so far as the process of

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reproduction is concerned. The offspring belongs to one to whom the seed belongs. In fact he

also owns the field” (8).

Hasmukh Mehta, in Where There’s a Will, however, proves that though a man is the

owner of both the seed and the field, the seed might not grow well if the womb fails to

provide an optimum condition for the seed. Thus, it is not he who should be blamed for Ajit’s

unexpected behaviour as the only heir to his huge property but it is Sonal who is actually

responsible. This also proves the reason for his severed relation with his wife.

Most of the women characters in Dattani’s plays lead a life of indignity, subjugation and

marginalisation in their family, mostly by their own husbands. Though the ideal constructs of

a pativrata locks them into a life of enslavement without any honour, they devote themselves

for the family in the best possible way. Krishnaraj observes, “Salvation and happiness of

women revolve around their virtue and chastity as daughter, wives and widows” (106). Sonal

is an ideal example of the women who try to find happiness irrespective of all odds in her

family.

Sonal leaves no scope to be an ideal wife in carrying out her duties and responsibilities

towards her husband. However, Hasmukh’s sense of pride in himself and belittling others

relegate her to the kitchen. Yet, she dispenses her duties from the kitchen space

immaculately; lest any limitation on her part should anger her husband. Her husband’s health

is her main concern. “If anything happens to you they’ll say I neglected my duty” (Dattani

465). She is so particular of her husband’s health that she keeps him in strong observation

lest he smokes and takes rich food but he insists, “I want some real food” (Dattani 465) and

Alka and Dolly though frustrated carry on their duties as nurse of their mother-in-law, Uma

and Daksha try to behave in compliance with their husbands’ demands.

It is Sonal’s strong sense of stridharma that does not allow her to prioritise her health

over other family matters. Thus, even when she is not well, in the absence of a cook she

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manages to make everything that his husband and family loves, “navratan pulao, malai Kofta,

baigan bharta, patties, not to forget the halwa and salad” (Dattani 465). Ironically her

husbfails to admire her sacrifices, rather Hasmukh accuses her for ‘wasting so much ghee and

oil’ (Dattani 465) on rich food and sarcastically critising her salad that has only “carrot,

cucumber and beetroot” (Dattani 465) and observes, “Make her eat the salad. I guarantee you

she’ll never make it again” (Dattani 465). In spite of being so dutiful, though it lacked

warmth, she is underestimated and condemned by her husband for her inability to realize the

intricacies of business and her failure to provide him a happy and healthy married life.

Hasmukh’s fixation with power is never ending and his love for power gives him that

extra mileage to inflict pain on his wife. Instead of harbouring love and respect for each

other, Hasmukh develops a cold, indifferent equation with his wife. His relationship with his

wife becomes devoid of adoration, concern and support for each other. Though he is

primarily responsible for this end to their marriage, yet he puts the whole onus on Sonal and

complains of a married life without any marital bliss, “Twenty-five years of marriage and I

don’t think she has ever enjoyed sex…. And I haven’t enjoyed sex with her” (Dattani 473).

Post marriage, as ghost, his abusive remark on his wife “transformed from stupid incapable

housewife to a clever incapable housewife” (Dattani 496) vents his sense of utter disgust and

hatred that he has for his wife.

Hasmukh Mehta is the symbolic representation of the exploitative society. As the

patriarchal head of his family he subjects all the family members to an utter oppressive state

by curbing their individuality. Outside home, he is equally exploitative. In order to

compensate for his cold married life that has never developed into a warm and loving

relationship, he gets into an extra marital life with his secretary, Kiran Zaveri. The

womanizer in him, however, is safely kept away from his wife till his death.

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Hasmukh Mehta exploits Kiran’s economic crisis for serving his purposes. He exploits

her at two levels. Firstly, he uses her as his secretary, more for his sexual gratification rather

than official assistance. Later on as he realises Kiran’s brilliant acumen with managing

finances of his office, he makes her the trustee of his will to keep his family consisting of

Ajit, whom he considers an irresponsible and immature son, Sonal his insipid wife, Preeti, his

daughter-in-law, “an intelligent girl...she has her eye on my money” (Dattani 456) under

control. However, as the will loses its significance as a controlling agent, it opens up

opportunity for the Mehta family to express their pent up emotions against the tyrant,

Hasmukh.

Sonal is absolutely disillusioned when she comes to know Kiran as her husband’s

mistress. The fact that her husband, Hasmukh, is a womanizer comes both as a shock and

desecration of the sanctity of marriage. For the first time Sonal challenges her husband’s

authority and gives vent to her contempt for him, “If I’d known, he had a mistress, I would

have left him” (Dattani 481). It is quite ironical that in a patriarchal society the baggage of an

ideal wife that a woman carries allows her to vent her disappointment but never allows her to

quit the marriage. Therefore, such words of disappointment that Sonal utters lose its

significance immediately after they are uttered.

However, the superior social position that a man allows the husband to flout his

irresponsibility without repentence as Hasmukh reveals in response to Sonal’s

disappointment, “As if I should have told her years ago then” (Dattani 481). His words are

pregnant with social freedom that a man enjoys at the cost of a woman’s chastity. It is his

position of superiority and authority completely supported by religious and social codes

allows Hasmukh to cheat on his wife by keeping his extra marital affair a secret. Instead of

expressing any remorse for the same, he defends his extramarital affair, “Why do I have a

mistress? Because I am unhappy. (Pause) why am I unhappy? Because I don’t have a son.

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Who is Ajit? Is he my son? No” (Dattani 475). Clearly evident in this is his dissatisfaction

with his family life, wife and son. As a man he can find fulfilment outside marriage but Sonal

as a wife is caught in the web of patriarchal ideology of streedharma that defines an ideal

woman.

The section undoubtedly establishes that the ideology of pativrata demands women’s

complete submissiveness to patriarchy without expecting anything in return. In this context

the observation made by Shalini Shah summarises the fate of an Indian woman as a

‘pativrata’ woman:

What pativrati symbolizes so well is really the 'service-role' of women. Indeed,

pati vrata dharma is meant to provide the ideology to school women in this role.

It was an ingenious ideology, which eschewed the necessity of applying physical

coercion over women in an oppressive patriarchal household, which would have

been more difficult to establish and maintain. Instead, this ideology was used to

elicit conformity with the oppressive norms on a psychological plane. (82-8)

III

Man to Man: Marginalization of the Modern Man

The success of Mahesh Dattani as a playwright lies in his ability to focus on the

intricacies of gender exploitation and marginalization. His commitment to gender issues does

not allow him to treat the area with any reservations, rather committed as he is; he uses his

keen observation to study the manifold gender exploitation that exists in the society. His

plays are evidences of the fact that women are not the only ones who are subordinated and

oppressed by the patriarchal society. In fact his plays like Where There’s a Will and Dance

Like a Man depict that even young men are victims of gender oppression.

The place of a male child in Hindu patriarchal culture is one of immense significance.

The desire for a male off spring is visible across all cultures and religions in human

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civilization. The significance of a male off spring is also reiterated in Hindu religion, like

many other religions for a prosperous and happy family life. The Baudhya Shastras

emphasises, “Through a son he conquers the worlds, through a grandson he obtains

immortality, but through his son's grandson he ascends to the (highest) heaven” (Baudhayana

Sutras 2-9-16.3). Chapter III, verse 37 of Manusmriti also explicitly defines the role of a son,

“The son of a wife wedded according to the Brahma rite, if he performs meritorious acts,

liberates from sin ten ancestors, ten descendants and himself as the twenty-first” (qtd. in

Buhler 82).

A male offspring, therefore, in a Hindu family is a new promise for a better life. He is

the inheritor of family wealth, protector of parents in their old age and is a gateway to the

Heaven. In a traditional set up of a family, since the male member is invested with the

responsibility of the whole family therefore, from his birth the family as well as society

moulds him to meet his gender specific social role. Any deviance from it could lead to his

failure to perform his gender specific duties, responsibilities and obligations and hence

unexpected. However, any deviation from specific gender roles is often seen as threat to the

sustenance and development of a patriarchal society that presumably, conceives man as a

ruling authority over both social as well as domestic matters and therefore, is rigorously

discouraged.

Moreover, Brahminical society that consists of four phases, grhastha phase plays a very

significant role. In this phase of life marriage and procreation are two milestones that an

individual is expected to achieve to maintain the social order of hierarchy. However, both the

purposes of Grhastha stage are challenged if a male person does not conform to his gender

specific role.

Where There’s a Will and Dance Like a Man highlight the crisis that individuals face as

they challenge their gender roles specific of grhastha stage and fail to do justice to their

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responsibilities and duties of carrying out the family commitments in the best possible way.

Amritlal, the patriarchal head of Parekh family in Dance Like a Man feels that his son in a

dancer’s role will not be able to do justice to his role as a breadwinner of the family as dance,

according to Amritlal, is a woman’s art and “a man in a woman’s is pathetic”(Dattani 426).

Hasmukh Mehta, the autocratic father of Ajit in Where There’s a Will, thinks that his son who

is continuously adding zeroes to his life will fail to carry the burden of his successful

business. The fathers’ sense of fear that their sons will not be able to do justice to their roles

as men become the ruling criteria governing their relationships with their sons.

A unique character of a conventional patriarchal family unit is its unequal power

distribution of power. The patriarchal head decides and determines the life, career and future

of the male members of the family since they are the future patriarchs of the society. A man’s

life is moulded by the patriarchal ideology that has been indoctrinated right from the

childhood by reinforcing the socio culturally defined male and female characteristics,

aptitudes, abilities, desires, personality traits, roles and responsibilities and behaviour

patterns. Therefore, society with its rigid codes of conduct expects and often enforces male

future generation to step into the footprints of his father and forefathers that often lead to

unpleasant situation in the family

In Where There’s a Will and Dance Like a Man the behavioural characters of the

younger generations do not fit into the ideal mould of a responsible man, a future patriarch.

Jairaj, Amritlal’s son, wants to take up dance as his profession and Ajit, Hasmukh’s son,

wants to try innovative and scientific methods to expand his father’s business. Both the sons’

future plans are totally unacceptable by their conservative fathers. Such non conformist

behaviour subjects them to oppression and marginalization in the hands of their own family

members.

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Through the plays under consideration, Dattani endeavours to establish his point that in a

patriarchal society women are not the only ones who are the victims of gender

marginalization. Even men in a patriarchal society are marginalized if they fail to walk the

narrow paths of patriarchal order by conforming to the patriarchal ideology that define

masculinity as opposed to femininity or decide to challenge the patriarchal system.

Hasmukh Mehta is a self made man. He boasts of his unimaginative business success. At

the age of forty-five he categorically describes himself as, “One of the richest men in this

city. All by my own efforts. Forty five years old and I am a success in capital letters. Twenty

-three years old and he is on the road to failure, in bold capital letters...” (Dattani 464).

The father-son verbal exchanges that are heavily loaded with disappointment, annoyance

and rejection of each othet indicate at Hasmukh’s main concern that his modern son with his

so called modern and scientific acumen will not be able to handle his vast business empire.

According to Hasmukh, he is wasting money and is on his way to bankruptcy. He makes a

very satirical statement that God has just forgotten to open an account for Ajit. He does not

even allow his son to take a scientific approach and experiment with modern technologies.

Though Ajit is the Managing Director of his father’s company, he has no freedom to make

financial decisions. The quoted telephonic conversation of Ajit which his father over hears,

sums up Ajit’s pigmy status in his family, especially in his father’s eyes.

AJIT: (on the phone) Five lakhs. That’s all. Give me five lakhs and I’ll modernize

the bloody plant. That’s what I tell my dad. I mean, come on, five lakhs is

nothing! HASMUKH: (to the audience) My son, the business man. Just listen to

him. (Dattani 455)

Under Hasmukh’s authoritative presence, Ajit is expected only to execute his father’s

orders and command, sacrificing his vision and mission for the business. The conversation

quoted below sums up Ajit’s crippled condition under Hasmukh’s rule in the company.

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AJIT: Don’t I have any rights at all? HASMUKH: You have the right to listen to

my advice and obey my orders. (Dattani 458)

Hasmukh repents for his son who according to him fails to match his business acumen and

success, “Twenty -three years old and he is on the road to failure, in bold capital letters...”

(Dattani 464). However, the truth is that Hasmukh does not want his son to become his

business partner, rather he wants a slave to follow him unquestioningly and as he fails to get

that in his rebellious son, he takes calculated measures to subjugate him and mould him as

per his dream.

In Dance like a Man, it is the vast difference between the son, Jairaj’s, love for dance

and the father’s anxiety to make him a man that builds up the tension and ultimate oppression

of Jairaj at his own home. Jairaj’s love for dance and his keen desire to pursue dance as his

main profession, transforms his father, the social reformer, Mr. Amritlal’s house into a dance

studio. In order to meet his dream, he arranges rehearsal classes at his home where his guru

with his troupe of instrumentalists comes to train Jairaj and his dancer wife, Ratna. However,

Amritlal, the social reformist does not approve of his son’s passion for dance and repents for

converting ‘the library into a practice hall’ (Dattani 414) for his son. He condemns his son’s

obsession for dance and denounces it as ‘antics’ (Dattani 415). Amritlal even challenges his

son, “I would like to see what kind of independence you gain with your antics” (Dattani 415).

Nevertheless, a tensed father as he is, he tries to explain Jairaj the role of a man, “I have

always allowed you to do what you have wanted to do. But there comes a time when you

have to do what is expected of you. Why must you dance? It doesn’t give you any income”

(Dattani 415).

The father’s concern to see his son financially settled and independent to support his

family gives rise to the Hitler in him. Amritlal, becomes hell bent to take off Jairaj from his

chosen profession. As he fails to realise his son’s dreams of becoming a dancer, he also stops

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financial support to his son and openly insults his guru and dance troupe. He even tries to

reprimand him and makes him realise his role as a man, “Do you know where a man’s

happiness lies? In being a Man…” (Dattani 425) and draws a comparison between male and

female spaces that give them identity and social recognition and observes, “a woman in a

man’s world may be considered as being progressive. But a man in a woman’s world is

pathetic” (Dattani 427).

In this context of enforcing gender roles on individuals, Multani says “gender is

constituted by some acts which when repeated come to form and give shape to a ‘coherent’

gender identity” (238). Trying to push Jairaj to the outside world, which he considers is a

man’s world, to take up a job, Amritlal is thrusting on him the conventional role of masculine

gender as the breadwinner of the family who takes up an office job and works from morning

till evening. Besides the fear of seeing his son stepping into the shoes of a female, is the

embarrassment that Jairaj, his son wants to take up as his profession the traditional dance

form, Bharatnatyam, which is usually regarded as Devdasi’s only profession for livelihood.

Devdasi (servant of God) or jogini is a girl "dedicated" to worship and service of a deity

or a temple for the rest of her life. These women came to be known as Devdasis, a Sanskrit

term that actually means ‘slaves of God’, a woman thus ritualized was entitled to freedom

from widowhood by means of marrying the Gods and thereby devoting her entire life in the

service of God and the temple. It was easily accepted by women folk as it was regarded as a

ritualised means of freeing a woman from torturous widowhood (Anandhi 739).

A close observation on the historical perspective of dance reveals that Bharatnatyam

dance has its roots in the Devdasi system, the existence of which can be traced back to

apparently pre-Aryan times. Though there is no mention of it in Vedic Sanskrit literature, but

Tamil Sangam literature, which dates back to 200-300 BC, describes a class of dancing

women called parattaiyar. They were courtesans who performed some ritual function, lived

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in a separate part of the city, and eventually came to be associated with temples. Later, in the

post Vedic and post Buddhist age, the system seems to have spread through India, though it

remained the strongest in the south. Young girls were usually dedicated to their clan Goddess,

or occasionally to Gods, very often after the appearance of matted hair called jath which is

taken to be a sign of the call of the goddess. The dedicated girl was forbidden to marry

(Omvedt 16-19).

Implicit in Devdasi system is caste and gender exploitation of the underprivileged

sections of the society. The young girls who were turned into devdasis were usually from

very low caste and low income background. They were often dedicated by their parents in the

service of Gods for some sort of economic independence. The girls were assigned to jobs in

the temple premises that involved cleaning washing the temple premises and vessels and

preparing the flower garlands. But with the laxity of morals in the priestly class and

corruption in temple administration, they were forced to take up dancing and music and

eventually were exploited by the patrons of the temples for sexual pleasures (Singh 3).

The socio cultural perception on the social status of the devdasis is a mixed one. While

some critics like Srinivasan is of the opinion that the Devdasis enjoyed a privileged position

because of their temple association and earned economic benefits from their patrons which in

return ensured them social honour (Srinivasan1869-71), there are many others who believed

that it brought moral degradation as their lives were strongly based on tradition and social

stigma. However, a fact that nobody could deny that once the girls were dedicated to God and

married off to Him, it became extremely difficult for them to dissociate themselves from the

temple complex.

The system of Devdasi had grave socio-economic implications. Women from

economically deprived background women found in this age old form of Devdasi, a chance to

earn their livelihood. Though it involved exploitation of the body, it was heartily welcomed

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because of its religious implications. It was a social practice of claiming that not all women

got a chance to serve the God, but only a chosen few had and therefore, they should not deny

the call of the God to serve him. However, the young and innocent girls before they could

actually realise their body, were married to the God and were confined within the temple

premises only to be exploited by rich patrons of the temple. Thus, Devdasi system was

interpreted as a means of controlling the sexuality of women from economically deprived

class by the socially rich and hence powerful men (Singh 17).

Gail Pheterson in The Prostitution Prism highlights the underlying gender hierarchies

that are reflected in the system. Regardless of religious sanction and economic independence,

devdasi system interrogated a woman’s morality and sexuality (30-6). According to upper

caste Amritlal Parekh, therefore, any dance form that centres round women sexuality is

highly unacceptable. He shudders thinking that Jairaj in Bharatnatyam profession and attire

would engage in feminine body movements and facial expression like his guru. Moreover,

when a man can be the king of his own world controlling and regulating the sexuality of the

woman he is married to, there is no point to slog in a woman’s world. Unable to accept

emasculation of his son, he dismisses it as “anyone who learnt such a craft could not be a

man” (Dattani 406). As Jairaj boldly tries to argue and rebel against ‘such logic’ (Dattani

406), Amritlal kills his confidence step by step.

Amritlal’s first target, therefore, is his son’s dance guru and troupe. Gradually as

Amritlal’s insulting of his dance, dance guru and troupe reaches an unbearable limit, the

enraged Jairaj takes an ‘impulsive decision’ (Dattani 411) to leave his father’s house, only to

realise the limitation of it because of his economic dependence on his father. The turning

point in his life takes place as he decides to return home within forty-eight hours. His

decision reduces him to just a ‘spineless boy’ (Dattani 406) in the eyes of Ratna and provided

his father ample scope to subject him to his hegemonic power. The incident marks his

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initiation into a life of a caged bird, whose wings of fancy and desire for dance is gradually

curbed. He becomes the victim of emotional oppression, gradually silenced by the

authoritative, calculative, malign and vicious male power coupled with another calculative,

ambitious and witty feminine power of Ratna.

Jairaj is Dattani’s best example of how men also suffer under gender stereotypes

constructed by the patriarchal forces and systems. Though the society has invested them with

superior position and powers, yet the same society does not allow them the freedom to go

astray. The male gender is allowed to exercise their freedom of choice as long as they follow

the norms set by the society. As they go astray from what is expected of them to be and do,

they are susceptible to the forces of the patriarchy that then write their destiny. Therefore,

when Jairaj chooses to subvert the set role of a male by taking dance as his profession, he

becomes the victim of his orthodox, revengeful father who is hell bent to “make his son an

adult” (Dattani 427).

Amritlal’s anxiousness to settle down his son in the society erases the thin line between

an affectionate and doting father and an obsessive, egoistic one. Thus under the guise of a

compassionate father, Amritlal exploits very safely and subtly the ambitious Ratna to seek the

most desired man’s world for his son. He lays before her two very lucrative options, both of

which any women would like to possess in her life. The first one is the freedom to pursue her

dream, i.e. dance and the second is to see her husband, like any other man, as a successful

bread winner for the family rather than waste his life dancing. He hits two birds by one stone.

By giving Ratna the freedom to dance, he tries to buy son’s happiness by settling him in a

man’s world. Emphasising on the making of Jairaj as a complete and successful man Amritlal

emotionally blackmails Ratna to achieve his objective.

AMRITLAL: Do you know where a man’s happiness lies?

RATNA: No

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AMRITLAL: In being a man… I have no intension of Stopping you. I will let

you dance.

RATNA: And Jairaj?

AMRITLAL: A woman in a man’s world may be considered as being

progressive. But a man in a woman’s pathetic. RATNA: May be we aren’t

progressive enough. AMRITLAL: That isn’t being progressive, that

is…sick…help me make him an adult. Help Me to help him grow up (I will)

make him worthy of you. (Dattani 426-27)

As Amritlal strikes a deal with Ratna giving her the space to practise and excel in her

dance, Ratna deviates from the ideal image of wife as friend and company, sahadharmini and

steps into the shoes of her father-in-law. Ratna becomes the scheming mistress working

against Jairaj. The ambitious and overconfident Ratna with no hesitation becomes an

accomplice to her father-in-law to destroy her husband’s passion and talent. This in turn

introduces Jairaj into another episode of oppression, betrayal and frustration, now in the

hands of female gender. She starts undermining Jairaj’s self esteem that serves the purpose of

both the patriarchal father and his daughter-in-law. Gradually she reduces Jairaj to drunken

impotency and she keeps on delivering brilliant and extra ordinary performances one after

another. She cold bloodedly misguides Jairaj, keeps on curbing his artistic creativity and

abilities and ultimately successfully destroys his artistic finesses and reduces him to a shadow

of hers.

Dattani, the master of stage crafts, brilliantly depicts Ratna playing a pivotal role in

marginalizing Jairaj both at home and outside. Through a beautiful stage direction in which

Ratna dazzles in her brilliant dance performance at the centre of the stage, Dattani focuses on

how she pushes Jairaj to the periphery of the stage, where in the dim light, he struggles to

shine with his not so important role and steps. Jairaj’s marginal space on the stage reflects his

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marginalization at home too. Ratna becomes the decision maker both at home and in their

professional life, reducing him to a state of nothingness. Jairaj too admits:

Bit by bit. You took it when you insisted on top billing in all our programmes.

You took it when you made me dance my weakest items. You took it when you

arranged the lighting so that I was literally dancing in your shadow. And when

you called me names in front of other people. Names I feel ashamed to repeat

even in private and you call me disgusting (Dattani 443).

It is the support of patriarchal head coupled with economic independence that bring Ratna a

temporary phase with superior powers compared to her husband.

If Amritlal uses his daughter-in-law to achieve his objective of changing his only son to

an adult, Hasmukh uses his secretary, Kiran, to teach his son the business professionalism.

Hasmukh is probably one of the shrewdest creations of Dattani. Hasmukh, the self made man

fails to understand the scientific spirit that his son possess to take his business to a newer

height. Rather the conventional father feels he requires a seasoning before he dies and when

he fails to do that instead of leaving the property in his hand, he entrusts the will with Kiran,

his office secretary. Kiran’s intelligence and acumen to manage finance and related situation

have always earned her brownie points. Since he finds her more intelligent, clever and

practical than his own family members, he makes her a legal governor of his property and

family till his son meets all the conditions put by him in the will.

Thus, Hasmukh uses the will as a tool and Kiran as an agent to continue the subjugation

of his son after his death. He manages to exercise his authorial power even after his death by

putting the terms and conditions for Ajit to own the will in his name. Like Ratna in Dance

Like a Man, Kiran Javeri in Where There is a Will takes the role of a female tyrant.

Appointed by a male patriarch these two women use their authority in a patriarchal family to

subordinate and subjugate the male members of the family. Initially as the trustee of late

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Mehta’s property and assigned with the responsibility “to run the Mehta Group of Industries

on behalf of Ajit Mehta” (Dattani 41), Kiran is subjected to lots of unpleasant bickering.

Nevertheless, as she manages to win the hearts of the family members, the hidden truths

about the tyrant father come to the fore. The tyranny of the patriarchal head and the shameful

consequences that the family had to face can be best summed in Preeti’s words:

The will has left us all naked. The whole world is saying, ‘Hasmukh Mehta

didn’t have faith in his own family. He didn’t get along with his wife. His son is a

spendthrift. His daughter-in-law is a scheming little witch. That’s why he left all

his wealth in the hands of an outsider. (Dattani 493)

The coupled effect of authoritative father figures and the consequences of challenging

gender specific roles in a Brahmanical society lead to the marginalisation of Ajit and Jairaj in

their respective families as well as in the society. However, gender marginalisation takes

even worse form in the case of individuals who do not conform to the hetero normative

sexualities in a Brahmanical society as in the gay group of friends in A Muggy Night in

Mumbai, Alpesh in Do the Needful and the hijras in Seven Steps Around the Fire.

IV

From Pride to Prejudice

“What Makes a Man a Man?” (Dattani 55) is a potent question that surfaces the

frustration and helplessness of many such individuals who challenge the normative standards

of gender roles and sexuality in a rigid caste, class and gender based Brahmanical society.

Any lifestyle that fails to conform to this Brahmanical tradition is an object of condemnation

and rejection. The strong, rather stubborn, insistence on assuming specific gender role that

dwarfed Jairaj’s existence, both in the Parekh household and in the world of Bharatnatyam

dance, takes a more vicious form of subjugation, oppression and marginalization of people

with alternate sexuality and put together under an umbrella term ‘third gender’. Homosexuals

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like Kamlesh, Sharad and Prakash in A Muggy Night in Mumbai, Nitin and Praful in Bravely

Fought the Queen, Alpesh in Do the Needful and the group of hijras in Seven Steps around

the Fire are the sxsexually marginalized men because of their sexual orientation.

Dattani as one of the most daring and innovative playwright delves deep into this grey

areas of concern which are otherwise considered as closet themes. Regarding the ease with

which Dattani deals with the invisible themes of social concern with the sole objective of

creating gender sensitivity in the society, Vijay Kumar Das, a renowned critic on Dattani

observes:

The branching out of feminism into same sex love relationship like

homosexuality and lesbianism which are unacceptable to the Indian society even

today, find a proper place in Dattani’s plays. Gender relationship and the plight of

hijras (eunuchs), who are neither male nor female, but wanting to be both, are

artistically as well as realistically presented in his plays. (Das 8-9)

A Muggy Night in Mumbai, Do the Needful, Bravely fought the Queen and Seven Steps

around the Fire are the plays that deal with the plight of the individuals who are either

generally considered sexually deviant or with unnatural sexuality. These plays provide a very

insightful but pathetic picture of social apathy expressed against homosexuals and

transgender, the humiliation and emotional trauma with which they exist in a Brahmanical

society. Their existence, however, is not at the centre stage but at the peripheral margins of

the society.

Vedic Literature identifies three broad categories of gender according to prakriti or

“nature” into which humans can be divided. The nature that includes both physical and

psychological aspects of an individual and their procreative capacity can be divided into three

categories: pums-prakriti (male), stri-prakriti (female), and tritiya-prakriti (third nature). The

third nature is the broadest one that includes people of various natures either physically,

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psychologically or both. They may be who are physically male (kliba) or female (svairni) but

experience same-sex desires, transgender men and women (shandha and shandhi) who

completely identify as the opposite sex, and intersex individuals (napumsa) who are non-

reproductive—including those with ambiguous genitals, hermaphrodites, or impotency—who

may be heterosexual or homosexual in their desires (Shafi 2). The sexualities covered under

the umbrella tritiya-prakriti (third nature), were considered as not natural and therefore,

individuals with sexual orientation or sexual abnormalities that did not conform to the

conventional pattern had a mixed reception in a Brahmanical patriarchal society.

The wide range of types of sexualities that is defined and given a place of significance in

Indian culture and tradition may be viewed as ‘error or transgression’ (Shafi 3) for other

nationalities but as Serena Nanda observes, given the wide horizon of Indian culture these

various nature of sexualities have specific role to play in the society:

Whereas Westerners feel uncomfortable with the ambiguities and contradictions

inherent in such in-between categories as transvestism, homosexuality,

hermaphroditism and transgenderism and make strenuous attempts to resolve

them, Hinduism not only accommodates such ambiguities, but also views them as

meaningful and even powerful. (Nanda 20)

However, the rich religious and socio-cultural history of India has ample prove that third

gender was a part of Indian civilisation, though not very well received, had no history of

brutality or aggressive resistance to their existence. In fact there are strong historical

evidences that suggest that both types of alternate sexual orientation; homosexuals and

transgenders were common in India. Vedic medical texts like the Sushruta Samhita declare

homosexuality to be inborn (discussing it only in chapters on embryological development)

and texts concerned with human sexuality (the Kama Shastra) refer to homosexuals as a

“third sex” (tritiya-prakriti) with both masculine and feminine natures. In Hindu texts there is

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a clear mention of homosexual practises but under strong regulation. A well known

Indologist, A L. Bashan remarks, “The erotic life of ancient India was generally heterosexual.

Homo-sexualism (sic) of both sexes was not wholly unknown; it is condemned briefly in the

law books, and the Kama Sutra treats of it, but cursorily, and with little enthusiasm”(172).

Of all the evidences that endorse the existence of different sexualities of tritiya prakriti

in the Indian civilization, the best are Hindu mythologies and architecture that speak volumes

about the existence of third type of sexuality. There are many Hindu mythological tales that

abound in stories about Gods and mortals who can change gender. Shiva is the most cited

example of Hindu God who is represented with a dual nature of male and female,

Ardhanarisvara (Nanda 20-22). Ayyappa is another example of a God born from the sacred

unison of Brahma and Mohini, a female incarnation of Vishnu. (Penrose 9) The erotic

sculptures and rich stone carvings on the walls of revered temples of Khajuraho and Konark

depicting copulation between same sex individuals are irrefutable witness of the existence of

a whole range of sexual behaviour that was not according to prakriti or the laws of nature.

In the Mahabharata, Arjuna’s well-known stint as the crossdressing transgender,

Brihannala, serves as a particularly notable example of the acceptance of third-gender people

in ancient Hindu or Vedic society (Nanda 20). Brihannala’s traditional role as a skilled

teacher of the fine arts and her acceptance by Maharaja Virata into his kingdom are all truly

exemplary (Bhagavad Gita). In the same light, Lord Krsna stresses throughout the Bhagavad

Gita that everyone should work for God according to their respective nature (svadharma),

even if performed imperfectly. “To follow another’s path or to artificially suppress one’s

nature,” He says, “is dangerous and ill advised” (Bhagavad Gita 3.33) The Holy Book of

Hindus, Bhagavad Gita, also teaches that a person’s character is determined by individual

behaviour, not body-type, and that all kinds of men can attain the supreme destination. It

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affirms that God does not hate anyone and that spiritually advanced persons view all living

entities equally, treating everyone with friendship and kindness. (Bhagavad Gita 9.32)

The bhakti or devotional scriptures include the most popular and well-known Hindu

texts such as Bhagavad Gita, Srimad Bhagavatam, Sri Isopanisad, Ramayana, Mahabharata,

etc. While these texts do not explicitly address homosexuality, their important teachings are

equally applicable to all classes of men. The third gender appears briefly throughout these

texts but is never explicitly defined or described in much detail.

The issues of sexuality in Hindu religious texts form a part of larger area of discussion

related to gender. In this context Arvind Sharma has outlined different perspectives of

Hinduism on homosexuality and observes:

In Dharma-shastras, punishments are outlined for sexual transgressions that

differ between varna caste distinctions as well as gender; with regard to the latter,

due to greater concern for female virtue and propriety, lesbian relationships

carried a more severe penalty than those between men—although the reverse is

true in the arthashtras. With these texts considered alongside the values promoted

by popular Hindu literature such as the Mahabharata, Ramayana, and the Puranas,

homosexuality is clearly presented as a vice. (50)

However, according to Sharma, Kama Sutra and Moksha Sastra show a more pleasant

acceptance of homosexuality and regard it as valid sexual expression but restrained by

dharma values. (Sharma 52-58) The homosexual relation that a woman nurtures with other

women, is even more condemned in a patriarchal society as it poses greater danger to the

perpetuation of generations.

Whereas Brahminical and Buddhist positions assigned gender on procreative abilities (as

purush, stri, and napunsaka), the Jain system also assigned a psychological gender or

bhavalinga, i.e., the mental sexual makeup. Jainism thus tried to separate the biological from

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individual sexual preference. Vatsyayana, too, tried to provide a balance between one’s

sexual preference and the laws of the land by saying that in all things connected with love

everybody should act according to the custom of his country and his own inclination (Burton

127). Regarding the Jain perspective on tritiya prakriti, Reddy observes, “It is among the

Jains, a minority religious community with an ancient history and a distinct corpus of

literature, that speculation on the nature of third-sexed individuals were the most elaborated

since the ancient times to the medieval era” (19).

Unlike the series of debates that have taken and are still taking place on the androgynous

state of the homosexual behaviour in Hindu Brahmanical society, the hijras, though at the

margins and marked by long drawn disagreement and debates, they share a social space that

has earned religious significance because of their association with Bahucharamata. The

hijras, according to Serena Nanda, are neither ‘men nor women’ (Nanda ix) but identifies

them as “culturally significant ritual performers” (Nanda ix) and certifies “third gender roles

and gender transformations as important mythological themes and real-life possibilities”

(Nanda x).

It is interesting to note that the social acceptance of the hijras have gone through many

ups and downs in the hands of foreign invaders. However, the importance and social

acceptance of the hijras increased dramatically with the advent of the Muslim rulers in India,

especially the Moghuls. Gayatri Reddy in her book, With Respect To Sex: Negotiating Hijra

Identity in South India, maps the increasing significance of the role of the eunuchs in Indian

subcontinent:

Medieval European travellers and recent social historians alike have been

fascinated by the vibrancy and longevity of the eunuch’s presence and their

increasingly prominent role in the court systems of various empires as political

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advisors, powerful administrators and chamberlains, as well as trusted generals

and guardians of the harim, or inner/female domain (22).

It was only during the rule of the British colonisers two very significant approaches

gradually pulled down the social significance of the eunuchs. The British perceived the third

gender identities as a deviation from traditional concepts of masculinity and femininity. The

absence or exclusion of the male genitals in them was seen by the British as a failure to prove

their masculinity and therefore, represented ‘a special abomination to Europeans as failures

of masculinity (Ganon 20).

The British notions of gender binary that refused to accommodate the third gender

influenced the Hindu ideology of gender behaviour. The third gender became a matter of

concern for the Hindu nationalists who were trying to counter the British idea of effeminate

masculinity of Indian men. Thus, the third gender that was already established as ‘neither

male nor female’ (Nanda ix) became a threat to the idea of Indian masculinity as well as

femininity and became objects of social exclusion and marginalization. Even the

homosexuals were regarded as threat to India’s socio-political and cultural scenario as their

effeminate nature fortified British idea of effeminates masculinity of Indian men.

After the Indian Rebellion of 1859 as the Europeans became obsessed with maintaining

purity and social order in public space, which was regarded as ‘masculine’ against the

domestic space that was perceived as ‘feminine’ (Hinchy 281), all those people who were

regarded as ‘threat’ to the social order and purity were put under the strict control of the

newly formed British Criminal Tribes Act, (CTA) (Reddy 27). On one hand, it was English

puritanical approach that did not approve of the social presence of the eunuchs and on the

other hand the stratified patriarchal society reduced them to a criminal class. In 1860s, during

the British rule, Chapter XVI, Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code criminalised sexual

activities "against the, order of nature", arguably including homo sexual activities. Thus, in

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the colonial period the “hijra body,” again, became the subject of misrepresentation,

regulation and surveillance. They were accused of crime against the State by virtue of

sodomy (Article 377 of the Indian Penal Code).

Later, in 1879, the act was revised and because of their lack of basic hygiene, as the

British conceived of the hijras, they were included in this category. However, according to

Hinchy, the hijra identity was legitimized because of the reiteration of their common

mythology, daily worship of associated deities and visits to the shrine that helped them to

subvert the colonial ideology of hijras. (285-6) However, the homosexuals could not legally

establish their social space until 2014.

The British Puritanism in the colonised India gained immense significance with the rise

of nationalist discourses in the late 19th and 20th century India. The discourse that was

basically rooted in “glorious Aryan heritage” and aimed at drawing the difference between

the glorious East and the flamboyant West emphasised on the masculinity of Hindu men

against the sexuality of Hindu women. According to Giti Thandani, as summarised by

Penrose, it was at this time that the Indian subcontinent in its attempt to emphasise the

indigenous values unconsciously started banking on reemphasised the puritan gender

ideology of the West (32-33). The gender ideology of the West that moulded the Indian

notion was further moulded by the Brahmanic tradition of stratified society based on caste

and class. It brought a different perspective to the existence of individuals under third nature

that looked upon them with abhorrence and detestation and stripped them off from their

position of glory. Hindu Brahmanic tradition that rests heavily on marriage and procreation

for maintenance of its caste and class stratification rejects any carnal lust that is not

procreative in nature. Caste and class are integral part of Hindu Brahmanical society. Family

and kinship play vital role in retaining the caste purity which is again dependent on

procreative sex. Any sex that is non procreative in nature is condemned and strongly

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discouraged. Thus, as the individuals covered under third nature were regarded as unnatural

beings, the society started hating and avoiding them. The debasement and marginalization of

eunuchs can be traced back to Manusmriti as well where Manu in chapter IX, verse

201expresses his strong abhorrence for them, “Eunuchs and outcasts, those born blind or

deaf, idiots and the dumb, as well as those deficient in any organ, are entitled to no

shares” (qtd. in Buhler 372).

Hindu society is also characterised by four stages which are corresponding to four goals

or purushartha: dharma (considerations of righteousness and duty), artha (activities for

material gain), kama (acts of love or pleasure), and moksa (spiritual activities aimed at

liberation from worldly life) of life. Marriage and procreation are regarded as the most

significant objectives of human life. In fact marriage and procreation play a vital role in

realising the true essence of the four stages and four goals of life and in turn help to maintain

the stratification of the society into four divisions. Time and period also have vital

significance in Hinduism as it considers the past determines the present as much as the

present determines the future. In that sense the stages of life are inextricably linked with the

goals of life so much so that the past karma can give birth to the type of sexual orientation in

the present time.

The presence of the individuals under third nature of sexuality is forcefully made

invisible to protest against their unnatural sexuality. Legally too third gender poses even more

problems, especially with inheritance of ancestral property. In the absence of off spring the

property is passed to other relatives or kinsmen that disturb the scope of class arrangement

without fail. With such factors that are potent enough to disintegrate the binding forces of the

Brahmanical society, it is quite well understood why the individuals under tritiya-prakriti

face marginalization in the civil society.

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Unlike the homosexuals in a brahmanical society, the hijras have an institutionalised

existence in the society. They are known by their own set of culture and religion. They

embrace and worship Bahuchara Mata, a Goddess under whose divine powers they have

formal initiation to their hijra community. According to Nanda, “This identification with the

Mother Goddess is the source both of the hijras’ claim for their special place in Indian society

and the traditional belief in their power to curse or confer blessings on male infants” (1).

This fear and prejudice that the hetero normative society lives with is evident in Uma’s

research project on thought as she tries to figure out the authenticity of their curse:

Is it true? Could it be true what my mother used to say about them? Did they

really put a curse on her because they did not allow them to sing and dance at

their wedding? Or was that their explanation for not being able to have children

of their own? Or a reason to give to people for wanting to adopt me? (Dattani17)

The ritual process of the sacred Thread Ceremony that marks the official acceptance of

the boys of the upper three castes into their varnas and initiates a Brahmin boy into the life of

Brahmachari, the ritual of castration of hijras marks the formal adoption of a hijra in a

particular gharana. The process of emasculation is the dharm (caste duty) of the hijras, and

the chief source of their uniqueness (Nanda 5). According to Nanda, emasculation certainly

brings the hijra devotee in to a closer identification with the female object of devotion.

Identification of the hijras with Bahuchara specifically and through her, with the creative

powers of the Mother Goddess worshipped in many different forms in India, is clearly related

to their major cultural function, that of performing at homes where a male child has been

born. The hijras confer fertility, prosperity, and health on the infant and family. At both

weddings and births, hijras hold the power to bless and to curse, and families regard them

ambivalently (5-7).

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The power to bless or curse that is often regarded as a unique power that the hijras

possess because of their association with Bahucharamata and the creative asceticism of Lord

Shiva. The coming together of the power of Shiv and Shakti gives them a power to bless

people with infertility. Uma who was totally disillusioned about their cultural significance

and social marginalization of hijras, in spite of their cultural and religious significance,

becomes more sensitive about their social role when one of them happy with her true

intensions of helping them to have a better social place blesses her with an amulet that would

make her a mother. The socio cultural significance of the hijras is evident in the gesture of

blessing Uma with fertility, “May you have a hundred sons!” (Dattani 25). In spite of social

marginalization, their powers to bless and curse have kept them still visible, though with

detestation.

Family and kinship forms the base on which the Brahmanical structure stands. The chief

role of a family is to control the sexuality of a woman and thereby provide optimum

conditions for procreation and continuation of lineage and maintain familial as well as social

hierarchy. However, since the hijras fail to conform to normal sexuality, they are devoid of

family structure that identifies the hetero sexual crowd as kin to others. They are in fact

refused a coexistence with their natal families and the hetero normative society and deprived

of having, maintaining and nourishing any kind of human relationships. This refusal

definitely serves another purpose that further reduces them to ‘it’. The negation of familial

bonds also never allow the hijras to enjoy the status of someone’s ‘husband’ or ‘wife’ or

‘brother’ or ‘sister’. Lack of support by their natal families creates a void in them which in

turn creates a strong desire for a family that leaves them to develop an imaginary family

system.

The family system that the hijras have is their own construct to counter Brahmanic

system of living and also it allows a cohesive existence of the hijras. They adopt themselves

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into guru-chela structure that serves them to contest the battle with the hetero normative

society that negates them any kind of familial bonds. Dattani has left several instances in the

play that reflect that though the hijras have their own family structures, they have a deep

longing for the more conventional form of family. The lack creates a desire but the hijras are

far from materialising their desire of a more conventional family life. Although, the hijra

community tries quite bravely to negotiate their space in the hetero normative society, they

are ultimately the victims of society.

The photograph of Kamla and Subbu, with “Kamla as a beautiful bride smiling at Subbu

with the wedding garland around him” (Dattani 41), symbolizes Kamala’s desire to become a

part of the hetero normative society with a proper family and sharing familial and social

bonds of love, affection, care and concern. It is a very significant step on the part of a hijra to

come out of the closet in search of an identity and social recognition. However, their bold

step towards negotiating their space in the hetero normative space prove futile as they

continue to remains as victims of the Brahmanical social order. Kamala’s murder and the

destruction of their wedding photograph symbolize the politics of devoicing the people with a

deviant sexuality.

Champa, the guru hijra, who bears the responsibility of maintaining the purity of their

gharana (the family) also surfaces the desire of entering into conventional family structure of

a heterosexual society by developing a bond of sisterhood with Uma. However, her

awareness of her existence as someone alien to the society stops her from accepting and

nurturing a relation with a heterosexual person. Thus, when Uma shows her concern and

humane kindness to Champa in one of her meetings with the latter, Champa is overwhelmed

by the warmth and affection shown to her but she manages to keep safe distance from her. In

fact she even doubts Uma of having a secret agenda behind being so sensitive for the cause of

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hijrasa and therefore, she strongly opposes and chastises Uma’s kind behaviour and retorts

her as “you are an innocent fool” (Dattani 14).

The establishment of a pseudo family structure by the hijras gives them a space to

establish and nurture the familial bonds of love, care, concern and kindness which the hetero

normative society denies them to have. The love and concern also enables all the members to

remain united away from the society that has marginalized them. This love and concern is

evident in the interaction between Champa and Kamala as Kamala tried to enter into the

hetero normative society. Like a mother, Champa tries to counsel and stop her from taking

the step that would bring her imminent end and when the obstinate Kamala refuses to listen to

her, she takes a harsh action against her, “So many times I warned her… I tried to stop them.

I fought with her. I scratched her face, hoping she will become ugly and Subbu will forget

her…I was there at their wedding…” (Dattani 41).

The above mentioned incident also registers the Guru’s authority in Guru-Chela relation.

In the relation of Guru-chela, any chela challenging the authority of the Guru is considered as

a non conformist and is subjected to grave punishment. In this context, Champa’s scratching

of Kamala’s face, besides the gesture of love and concern is actually a punishment for trying

to be a nonconformist.

This particular incident has a significance that runs parallel to Hindu Brahmanical

society. In a Brahmanical patriarchal society women are considered as the custodians of the

caste and class boundaries. Since women are perceived as custodians of caste and class

boundaries and also as active agents who can permeate the boundaries, their sexuality is kept

under strict vigil by the watchdogs of the Brahmanical society. Likewise the hijra gurus

control the emasculated hijra chelas and stop them from associating and entering into sexual

relationship with heterosexual men. Thus, when Kamala falls in love with Subbu, the son of

an influential politician, Champa warned her to maintain distance from Subbu, so that

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because of her hijra identity she does not fall prey in the hands of those rich and power who

are always antagonistic to hijra community.

The family structure, kinship and ritual system are the structures through which a

Brahmanical society perpetuates its lineage and control sexuality of its women are also

present in the hijra community. However, it is the absence of the male organs or female

organs that ensure the procreative power in heterosexuals that mark their difference from the

former. The Brahmanic society distinguishes them on their sexuality and renders them a

marginalized existence. The ambivalent identity of the hijras and their potential powers of

blessing and cursing give rise to a relation of abhorrence and animosity with the hetero

normative society.

The hetero normative society takes advantage of the hijras’ ambiguous sexuality and

amorphous identity and often subjects them to uncouth verbal abuse and physical

maltreatment. They are forced to live in a deplorable condition in a hetero sexual society. The

scene in the jail in Seven Steps around the Fire where Uma discusses about Anarkali, the

hijra, who is detained in the jail and accused of the murder of another beautiful hijra Kamal,

speaks volume about how they are denied of an identity of their own. Most of the Hijras have

an affinity for female body and they dress and emulate females. Nanda in her extensive

research on the hijra community have come across hijras who would assert themselves as

females, “We hijras are like women,” then enumerated “the ways in which they felt and

behaved like women” (Nanda xix). The cultural role that they perform in the society also

demands them to dress like females and emulate feminine behaviour. However, in order to

counter their oppression the hijras often turn to aggressive emulation of female dressing that

in its obscenity help them to subvert the ideal image of a woman. This kind of violent and

aggressive nature often leads to equating hijras with the aggressive nature of hetero sexual

males.

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However, Anarkali, unlike other hijras is a docile and quite reticent who loves to dress in

a female’s costume, yet she is kept amongst the male accused in the lock up. She is

physically assaulted and ill treated. She is constantly subjected to abusive words and physical

torture and is reduced to a state of nothingness. The fact that she is addressed as ‘it’ and ‘this

thing’ (Tendulkar16) shows the kind of abusive life that they live in hetero normative society.

Her conversation with Munswamy on Anarkali captures how the police in specific and people

in general treat the hijras:

UMA: Will she talk to me?

MUNNASWAMY (chuckling): She! Of course it will talk to you.We will beat it

up if it doesn’t. (Dattani 7)

Dehumanizing the hijras to ‘it’ is not only the society’s way of showing its abhorrence for the

hijra community but it is also a trope that the hetero normative society employs to victimize

them to a state of emotional oppression by refusing them human qualities like love, desire,

human bonds and relations. It is a calculative measure taken by the patriarchal society to

condition them to a life devoid of feelings and relations and gradually push them to the

periphery of the society.

In the course of her research work, Uma realises that the society does not only reject the

identity and existence of the hijras but also shows legal apathy towards their condition. The

legal system is a construct of the patriarchal society and therefore it is also indifferent and

unsympathetic as the society. The apathy of the State law is evident in the way the police

system works and in spite of not having any proof against Anarkali, as Suresh,

Superintendent of Police says, “we only arrested her because there was no one else. There is

no real proof against her. It could be any one of them” (Dattani 33).

It is obvious from the words of the Superintendent of Police, Suresh, that the legal

system of the Brahmanical society does not wish to accommodate the hijras with any special

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provisions and laws that would protect their condition. Instead of providing them with justice

and protecting their rights, the judicial system too turns deaf ears to their pleadings. By

repeated rejection of their pleadings the state forces the hijras to permanent silence, where

they too accept their fate and find it a better option to maintain silence about their situation.

It was only Champa who knew the hidden truth behind Kamala’s murder. Yet when

Uma requests Champa to divulge the truth to the police and the law, she refuses to do so

because she knew that her truth would invariably fail to change the verdict of the court

against Anarkali. The absence of a transparent and impartial legal system fails to encourage

Champa to tell the real story behind Kamala’s murder. She is sure that there is no guarantee

of justice even if she tells the hidden truth of the murder case. Thus the legal apathy leaves

the hijra community with no choice other than accepting their inhuman condition and

maintains silence forever. Uma’s disillusionment on legal apathy towards third gender that

silences and forces them to bear with their inhuman condition of living grows stronger as in

the course of her research she realises the truth behind it, “They knew. Anarkali, Champa and

all the hijra people knew who was behind the killing of Kamla. They have no voice. The case

was hushed up and not even reported in the newspaper. Champa was right. The people made

no arrest…” (Dattani 42).

Suresh is Dattani’s spokesperson reflecting the undeniable disgust that the society

harbours against the hijras. Suresh, who is the jail Superintendent and son of a Deputy Police

Commissioner firmly, believes that the hijras are ‘all just castrated degenerate men’ (Dattani

10) and ‘all liars’ (Dattani 9) who never speak the truth. The way they are addressed and

discussed by others not only transpires hatred and abomination for them but is also a strategy

of making them invisible in the society. They are poor souls about whom “Nobody seems to

know anything about them. Neither do they” (Dattani16). The gloom and darkness that

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spreads around them and covers them even confuses Uma who tries to find some more

logical meaning of their existence as she thinks:

Did they come to this country with Islam, or are they a part of our glorious Hindu

tradition? Why are they so obsessed with weddings and ceremonies of childbirth?

How do they come to know of these weddings? Why do they just show up

without being invited? Are they just extortionists? And why do they not take

singing lessons? (Dattani 16-17)

The only way that they are heard is through their claps. Their claps are their strategic ways of

asserting their presence in the society that tries to negate their presence. Yet in the constant

battle with the hetero normative society, their claps are unheard and bear no meaning other

than alerting and scaring the hetero normative people of their presence.

Munnaswami like his officer Superintendent Police Suresh reflects the heterosexual

society’s aversion towards the hijras. During the course of her fieldwork, as Uma makes

several visits to the office of the Superintendent of Police and schedules a meeting with

Anakarli, the hijra convict, Constable Munnaswami, warns her not to involve in the life of the

hijras. Rather, he requests Uma to take a better, more relevant and an ‘interesting story’

(Dattani 8) like that of man cutting his wife’s nose. Munswamy puts in his best efforts to

convince Uma and divert her attention to ‘other cases’ or cases involving ‘man killing man,

wife killing man’s lover, brother killing brother’ (Dattani 7). Munnaswami’s sincere efforts to

control Uma’s research requirements reflect the hetero sexual conservative Brahmanicl

biased attitude towards non conformist sexualities. There is a constant battle between the

hetero normative society and the hijras in terms of their sexual orientation and performance

and the sexually privileged class neither wants to talk to them nor talk about them.

The watchman in A Muggy Night in Mumbai and the gardener in Do the Needful are

Dattani’s are sober but special creations through whose minor roles Dattni depicts the major

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concerns of the homophobic world. If the Constable Munnaswami depicts the hetero sexual

society’s detestation for the sexually deviant hijras, the watchman in A Muggy Night in

Mumbai is fully of sympathy for the homosexual men around him. Instead of abusing and

shamelessly exposing the photograph that showcases the very intimate homoerotic relation

between Kamlesh and Prakash, the watchman warns the educated civilized and urban group

of gay friends to carefully pursue their likes and dislikes and keep it away from the normative

society to avoid severe consequences:

Aap log apna kam sari duniya ko batana chahte hain kya? … Aapka woh photo!

Baraat wale ke compound me gira! … Sab bache dekh rahe the! Sab hans rahe

the...Aur phir badon ne bhi dekh liya. Sab ne dekh liya! … Mujhe pooch rahe the,

yahaan kaun kaun aate hain.…Society waalo ko sab complaint karne wale hain!

(Dattani105).

Homosexuality is a matter of shame, ridicule and the homosexuals are often objects of

others’ abhorrence, fear as well as laughter. To be in the company of homosexuals is a matter

of shame as it might lead to a person’s social ostracism. The gardener in the Do the Needful is

the representative of typically homophobic hetero sexual people who are constantly haunted

by the fear of publicly caught in the company of homosexuals and a partner to their sinful

crime. Therefore, when he is caught by Lata, his employer’s daughter, he pleads and begs not

to make the news of his sexual partnership with the homosexual guest public. The gardener is

scared that such news will lead to his social condemnation and might be dismissed from his

job, “if the villagers come to know, I will not be able to go to the market” (Dattani 153). He

also repents for the sin that he has committed and is ready to pay for it, “If appa doesn’t kill

me, I will kill myself...” (Dattani 153).

In contrast to Suresh amd Munnaswami who regard the sexual deviants as objects of

detestation, or the watchman who politely requests the homosexuals to refrain themselves

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from public display of their homosexual love and the fearful gardener, is the empathetic

Kiran, the sister of homosexual Kamlesh in A Muggy Night in Mumbai. As a marginalised

woman, because of her unsuccessful marriage, Kiran had been subject matter of public

discussion of her private life and the object of inquisitive stares that singles her even in the

crowd as “that’s Kiran. The one whose husband dumped her” (Dattani 21). Her marginalized

state therefore, enables her to empathize with the other socially stigmatized ones. Her ability

to realise her homosexual friends’ craving for a stable relationship allows her to extend

herself as a sympathetic well wisher and friend. Like a good counsellor she advices her group

of homosexual friends, “Don’t let people know about you. You will spend your whole life

defending yourself” (Dattani 22).

The social stigma attached to the homosexuals in Hindu Brahmanical society is worse

than hijras. The hijras because of their religious association have been given a space though

at the margins. But the homosexuals are constant struggling to make a space for their

existence. Even the hijras do not approve of such “men who are men and can have children

but who join their community out of the desire to have sexual relations with men” (Nanda 2).

The detestation and abuse to which the homosexuals are subjected in a heterosexual and

homophobic society result in identity crisis, alienation, loneliness and a longing for social

inclusion. Their life is nothing but a constant fight between their desire for same sex love and

social recognition. In their negotiations between personal desires and social expectations the

homosexuals are often left distraught, helpless and many a times they succumb to the societal

pressures.

Prakash in A Muggy Night in Mumbai is one such homosexual who succumbs to the

societal pressures. His need for social inclusion drives him to take the drastic decision of

withdrawing himself from his homosexual relationship with Kamlesh. Born and brought up

in a society that is ruled by the dictums of Manavdharma Shashtra, Prakash too believes

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hetero sexuality as the only acceptable form of sexuality. His socio-cultural and religious

conditioning instils in him that homosexuality is a sin. Scared of going against religion, and

consequent social exclusion, he takes the help of a psychiatrist to drive away the devil’s

influence that resulted in homosexual longings in him.

The discrimination based on sexual orientation that the gays face is seen in both

Kamlesh and Prakash. The agony and pain that Kamlesh experiences as his homosexual

partner, Prakash dumps him for a hetero normative life, becomes evident in his emotional

outburst, “...for the first time in my life I wished I wasn’t a gay” (Dattani 69.) In order to

come to terms with the situation he too opts for medical help. However, there is a stark

difference in the ways Kamlesh and Prakash approach and use the medical science for their

help. Whereas Prakash seeks medical help and treatment to change his sexual orientation,

Kamlesh seeks medical help and counselling to help him cope with his loneliness, fear and

anxiety. He finds the doctor’s recommendation for a reorientation of his sexuality completely

unacceptable and therefore denounces the doctor as well as his advice. The doctor’s

prescription for Kamlesh’s problem as well his path of treatment is a direct testimony of the

way the hetero sexual society sees the gays as a threat to their society that aims to maintain

purity and order.

The plight of the homosexuals in a hetero normative society is under such a threat that in

order to have an acknowledged existence they sacrifice their true identities and sexual

orientation. Since they live in a society where their standards of living, codes of conduct and

expectations of the society do not match with the hetero normative, their existence is shaped

by their calculative moves. A world that is full of threats, it is the fittest who survive. The

homosexuals, therefore, because of their unacceptable sexual orientation adopt a ‘forced

harmony’ (Choudhury 47).

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Homosexuality is a mental makeup and has psychological effects on an individual that is

not so easy to overcome its feelings. The victims of same sex love, in search of a happy and

peaceful life and at the same time to enjoy some kind of social inclusion bank on several

strategies to hide their sexual orientation. The institution of marriage then is exploited by the

homosexuals expecting social inclusion. Marriage is considered to be one of the most

significant milestones in a Brahmanic society that allows an individual to realise the different

goals of life. The sexually deviant homosexuals and hijras who are generally categorised

under the umbrella of tritiya prakriti or individuals with third nature sexuality are socially

marginalised because of their inability to meet the greatest dharma of life, to procreate and

continue the family lineage.

However, the smarter lot of the homosexuals in order to strike a balance between

intrinsic homosexual desire and social expectation of a hetero normative life enter into

marriage. His desire to be a part of hetero normative society coupled with his maturity and

deep understanding of homophobic society enables him to meet smoothly and successfully

the responsibilities of a conventional husband and father figure. Bunny Singh, the successful

TV actor and family person is one such homosexual person who uses marriage to give him

the required security and peace of mind in a hetero normative society.

Bunny Singh is an actor in a true sense and puts up the image of a macho man for easy

social acceptance. He successfully contests the cultural image of a man as a caring husband

and responsible and loving father by effectively camouflaging his sexuality beneath his TV

image as a successful actor in Yeh hai Hamari Parivar and as a macho newsreader. Even

Kiran, in her observation finds Bunny Singh an ideal husband and father who successfully

switches over from one role to another without raising any eyebrow, “You are the ideal

husband and father I can’t imagine anyone else in that part” (Dattani 18). However under

such a confident approach that Bunny Singh shows, is his real concern of being identified as

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a man with alternate sexuality. His fear of this is reflected when he tells Sharad: “Do you

think I will be accepted by the millions if I screamed from the roof tops that I am gay?”

(Dattani16)

Both Kamlesha and Bunny Singh touch upon the fact that their sexual orientation stands

against their social acceptance. It is understood from the stand that Bunny has taken that both

public display of his gay nature and social inclusion is not possible unless and until it is

camouflaged as he does. Thus, for social inclusion, the one and only solution is to control

one’s unnatural and socially unacceptable sexual preferences.

Controlling the sexuality of a woman which is one of the most significant principles of a

Brahmanical society that helps to retain the purity of its caste and class often drives its

custodians to control the sexuality of males too. Kusumben Patel, mother of homosexual

Alpesh in Do the Needful, exemplifies the tension and anxiety of a Brahmanical society to

retain the purity of caste by controlling the sexuality of her son, Alpesh. Though Alpesh has

the history of a failed marriage and the family is apprehensive that if he is remarried ‘it might

happen again’ (Dattani126) because of his homosexual tendencies, his mother emotionally

blackmails him to submit to their hetero normative ways of life and marriage and warns him,

“No. I will not let it happen again. It can never happen again. I might as well take poison and

die if it happens again” (Dattani 126).

The Patels see in hetero sexual matrimonial alliances a new promise to bring a change in

Alpeh’s mentality and sexual preferences and therefore leave no stones unturned to grab the

opportunity of meeting, discussing and finalising the prospective alliance from Bangalore.

The Patels take the help of the same institution of marriage, which their son tries to avoid,

covering up his alternate sexuality. Also for the Patels, the institution of marriage of their

only son is a means to perpetuate his Brahmanic lineage and preserve his caste purity. To

meet this objective the helpless parents leave no stones unturned to bring back their son to

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normal hetero normative life. They take the help of religion to get a bride for their son hoping

that might bring him back to normal life. Thus, before leaving for Bangalore for meeting the

prospective bride’s family, Mr. Patel offers special prayers for Alpesh, “Poojariji...over here!

...put fifty-one, no, hundred and one rupees for a special prayer for my son.(Louder)A special

prayer! For my son! Alpesh Patel! (Dattani124).

However, since a homosexual like Alpesh is far from taking this responsibility, his

mother is ready to hide his sexual orientation to get him remarried. The conservative mother

in order to continue the family lineage is ready to get a girl from lower class for his

homosexual son, “ If not, we will find some poor Patel girl...who will be grateful to enter our

Patel household...who will not expect too much from you” (Dattani 126). Hence, the

institution of marriage when used as a tool to hide the sexuality of a homosexual, as in the

case of Bunny Singh, Ed and Alpesh, it loses its sanctity and becomes a marriage of

convenience. Unable to withstand the pressure and emotional blackmailing of his mother,

Alpesh gets into a marriage of mutual understanding, “Teri bhi Chup, meri bhi chup” (Dattani

142) with Lata Gowda, a marriage where though both decide to remain under the same roof

as husband and wife and pursue their own dreams without the society knowing about it.

Nitin and Praful in Bravely Fought the Queen like Prakash/Ed in A Muggy Night in

Mumbai exploit the institution of marriage to pamper their homosexual love. Nitin’s

homosexual love for Praful, however, proves that homosexual tendency does not always have

its origin in hereditary problems as was suggested by the 19th century psychologist Richard

von Kraft Ebing, whose Psychopathia Sexualis (1886) included masturbation, sado-

masochism and lust-murder in its list of sexual perversions, saw it as originating in heredity.

Rather, Nitin’s case can be interpreted in the line of Sigmund Freud who traces

homosexuality to psychosexual development.

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Nitin’s unpleasant childhood memories because of their abusive father left him with a

perpetual quest for a strong man on whom he can depend and rely for emotional support.

Praful, a little older by age and homosexual by orientation exploits this weakness of Nitin and

entraps him into his homosexual life. His timid and docile nature allows Praful to exploit him

for his selfish desires. As Nitin gets conditioned to his warm support and loving nature, he

gradually starts exhibiting committed and sincere homosexual love for Praful. In a

confrontation with Alka, he admits his sexual desire for Praful that is coloured with lust and

passion:

Those time when I used to spend the night at your place. And he would sleep on a

mattress on the floor, beside me…. When all lights were out, I would lie on the

cot. Waiting for at least as hour … And I would go back to Praful’s room… and

kneel…And at times he would wake up immediately. At other times I would lean

forward to look at him. Close enough for my breath to fall gently on his face. And

he would open his eyes…I loved him too. He is …was attractive. And he

responded…the office is not a good idea… too many people passing by…. But

here the outhouse perfect. (Dattani 99)

Nitin’s docile and timid nature besides his blind love for Praful made him a puppet in Praful’s

hands. Praful exploits his sincere love to get him married to his sister Alka. Nitin, however,

blinded by his intense love for him, fails to understand Praful’s trick in getting him married to

Alka. His sense of betrayal comes to the fore in one of his monologues.

That was a game he played. And I-I was caught in it…He told me to get

married… How could I? And to whom?... He told me that you knew. And he had

told you... about me. And that it didn’t matter to you. You only wanted the

security of a marriage. He… told me everything would work out fine…But you

didn’t know! He tricked you! I-I…am sorry. It wasn’t fault. (Dattani 101)

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The ultimate regulating agency, the Manav Dashastra ,that specifies same sex love as

crime and therefore tries to control unnatural same sex love by either restraining people from

it or subjecting them to severe punishment if found practising, is exploited by Praful for

enriching his homosexual love experience with Nitin. Ntin capitalises the authority that the

Manav Dharmashashtra gives to men to regulate women sexuality (a woman shud be kept

under control of father in their maidenhood) and arranges her marriage with Nitin to continue

his homosexual love an unobjectionable way with him so that he remains in Nitin’s close

vicinity of his lover.

In a homophobic hetero sexual space, marriage that otherwise is regarded as a sacred

sacrament becomes a mere convenience contract in the hands of sexually deviant people. The

marriages of Bunny Singh, Ed, Nitin and Alpesh are not the rituals of Brahmanic society that

are carried out with the objective of procreation. However, it is only Bunny Singh who meets

both the objectives of marriage: procreation and continuation of his homosexual love. Yet the

consequences of such marriages of convenience are never fully satisfying. It subjects them to

a killing silence. Though on one hand by hiding his pain Bunny Singh is able to enjoy social

acceptance and leads a normal life, yet on the other hand he has to deal with his real self very

cautiously which forbids him to have a normal life as other hetero sexual men. The vast gulf

existing between Bunny Singh’s real and apparent self comes out when he surfaces his

emotions in the presence of his friends:

Just as the man whom my wife loves does not exist, I have denied a lot of things.

The people who know me- the real me- are present here in this room. And you all

hate me for such a hypocrite. I have tried to survive. In both worlds. And it

seems I do not exist in either … Everyone believes me to be the model middle-

class Indian man. I was chosen for the part in the serial because I fit into common

perceptions of what a family man ought to look like. I believe in it myself. I lied –

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to myself first. And I continue to lie to millions of people every week on

Thursday nights. There is no such person. (Dattani 103)

Alpesh’s marriage with Lata Gowda in the eyes of the hetero sexual society though a

marriage outside the caste is yet a successful one. However, the objective with which

Kusumben Patel and Mr. Patel arranged the marriage was far from materialising into reality.

Alpesh continues to be a homosexual in spite of sharing same roof with another woman as his

wife. The Patel couple’s dream of continuing their family lineage through Alpesh is also

doomed forever. In Bravely Fought the Queen the consequences of such marriage that seeks

to nurture homosexual love, are damaging too. Nitin’s relationship with Alka, his wife, is

based on lies, pretence never develops into a relation of care, and love and mutual

understanding that form the bedrock of a true love remains absent forever.

The people under trytiya prakriti, whether they be homosexuals or hijras, like other

marginalized characters Baa, Dolly, Alka, Tara, Jairaj and Amit sail the same boat, collapsed

between their inner most desires that the society finds unacceptable and the social

expectations. Though the individuals of tritiya prakriti had a glorious past and took pride of

their social significance, with the prominence of Brahmanical patriarchy their social existence

became one of gloomy hopelessness and utter helplessness. Their inability to procreate

became the bench mark that differentiated them from other heterosexual people in hetero

normative society. The overshadowing stringent principles of Brahmanical patriarchy thus

dwarfed the eunuchs’ present status to one of prejudice, where they are conceived as ‘bad

omen’, and ‘unlucky’ because of their sexual inability to procreate. Like the hijras, under

Brahmanical patriarchy, the homosexuals too failed to hold back the halo of their

mythological existence. Their socially unacceptable sexual behaviour in a hetero normative

society led to their social marginalization. An in depth study of the root causes of gender

marginalization in a caste based Brahmanical society, establishes the fact that there is no

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space for an individual to shape his or her own identity. The very existence of an individual is

formed and shaped by the social demands of the stratified Brahmanical society.

Dattani’s plays are an eye opener for his educated, urban readers and audience. His plays

avoid the typical sermonizing tone but aptly mirror the malfunctions of the society that is

steeped in gender inequity both in the private space as well as in the public domain.

Chapter Five

Conclusion

The conclusion tries to forge a common ground on which the plays of Vijay Tendulkar,

Raju Das and Mahesh Dattani can be compared to form a composite idea of caste and gender

marginalization that is still a concern of Indian playwrights; both in its urban sophisticated

pockets as well as in remote rural spaces. The three playwrights under scrutiny have reflected

different political and social milieu in their plays that provide a better opportunity to explore

the cultural and socio-political matrices of gender and caste marginalization. Further, the

scrutiny helps to establish marginalization of caste and gender as a continuum, as agents that

on which the Brahmanical parochialism and patriarchy survive.

The plays of Vijay Tendulkar, Raju Das and Mahesh Dattani address and reflect upon

the various issues related with caste and gender exploitation and marginalization. However,

no comprehensive study of these three dramatists has yet been taken to analyse and

understand the intricacies of gender exploitation and its inextricable link with caste in a

Brahmanical patriarchal society. This study therefore, as mentioned in the introduction, has

attempted to provide an insight into subjugation and exploitation of women, men who either

challenge the conventional gender role and expectations or belong to lower castes and other

marginalized groups, like homosexuals and eunuchs in the set up of their families and in its

extension in the society. The detailed study of the selected plays shows that though the nature

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of marginalization is overlapping to a large extent, the socio-cultural implications implicit in

them mark their distinctiveness. Also evident in the portrayal of caste and gender

marginalization, is the varied degree to which each of these playwrights has responded to the

socio cultural practices and expectations of their time.

Tendulkar’s plays reflect the country in the 1970s when India was fighting tooth and nail

with social evils like trafficking of women and the problem of caste discriminations. His play

Kanyadaan, written post Emergency period, reflects the ideals of casteless society that the

then Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, was trying to build. His plays capture the time when

the nation was moving towards the new image of modern India, yet struggling to shed off the

baggage of its cultural past. The themes of enslavement of women, oppression and

subordination of women in marriage, trafficking of woman, denouncing of unwed

motherhood and caste discrimination depicted through his characters like Sarita, Jyoti,

Kamala, Leela Benare speak volumes about this state. In addition to this, the onset of feminist

movement and its gradual development also had an impact on Tendulkar’s plays. The new

woman types with promises to challenge the stereotypical male hegemony became visible in

his characters like Ms. Benare, Jyoti and Sarita. These women are educated urban women but

born and brought up with values that are deeply rooted in Indian culture. Hence, in spite of

realising their exploitation at the hands of their husbands, both Sarita and Jyoti cling to their

role as ideal wives to serve their husbands as pativrata. In addition to her efforts to establish

herself as an ideal wife, Jyoti also challenges her father’s reformist ideas that though intends

to bridge the gap between castes, actually create a never bridgeable gap between the upper

castes and the Dalits. Leela Benare, a bold, confident school teacher challenges the

patriarchal notion of motherhood, tries to give birth to her child without entering into a

conventional wedlock but ultimately falls prey to the conventional social conditioning of

giving the child a name and an identity of his father. Since Tendulkar’s writing career was at

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a time when the cultural roots were tightly gripped in tradition and religious beliefs, evident

in his plays is his attempt to take the modest path of showing the awareness for a change in

his women characters but not convinced enough to really throw them away.

Raju Das, on the other hand, started writing in 1990s. However, his plays are situated in

the backdrop of Partition of Bengal in 1972 when his family was uprooted from the present

East Bengal. His plays are unique in the way they expose the hidden caste discrimination that

is practiced in the Left ruled state of West Bengal. The dejected condition of the refugee

Dalits, the disillusionment that crept into their lives with the promises broken by the newly

formed government and consequent policies made and executed by the Left government that

deprived them from several opportunities and pushed them to the fringes of the society. The

condition of Alok’s mother, Bani, Alodebi, Reema and Alok, as instances, reflect the distress

that marked Raju Das’s experiences in the newly formed West Bengal.

Dattani is another bold and assertive spokesperson of the unprivileged section of Indian

society. His plays span from late 1980s to 90s. His plays reveal those issues that were highly

stigmatised and were consciously swept under the carpet. Dattani captures in his plays the

time that was strongly hit by globalization and consumerism. The consumerism devoured

families and relationships, people endeavoured towards more liberal life but was caught in

the web of familial and social expectations and responsibilities, leading to an unruly life,

trying to dominate and subjugate the other for their own growth and development. His plays

that exclusively deal with gender marginalization in urban, sophisticated, cultured and

educated families are crowded mainly by minors, women and men, homosexuals and

transgenders.

In spite of writing in different time periods under different socio political and cultural

conditions, one common factor that binds all the plays of these three playwrights into one

cohesive unit is their heightened awareness of gender and caste marginalization that is

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perpetuated by Brahmanical and patriarchial modes. The inference that can be drawn from

the detailed analysis carried out in the preceding chapters is that it is through the social

institutions of marriage and family and Brahmanical ideologies that gender marginalization is

perpetuated. The study proves that marriage has been approved of as a legalised form of

enslavement. The role of a woman as a daughter before marriage and post marriage as wife,

daughter-in-law, sister-in-law and mother bear immense responsibility. Political thinkers,

sociologists and historians like Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Gandhiji, Uma Chakravarti, Veena

Noble Das, Leela Dube to name a few have shown how women play a significant role in the

maintenance of purity and hierarchy of caste order. The plays under scrutiny help in deducing

how in a caste stratified patriarchal society both marriage and women in marriage have

significant subserviant roles to play.

A woman’s life had been one of socio-cultural conditioning since ages. This

conditioning had inculcated in women qualities like self-effacement, submissiveness and

subordination to men, to sacrifice one self and suffer endlessly for the sake of the family and

the patriarchal hegemony in silence. Women have not only embraced these qualities

voluntarily but have also internalised and upheld them as the primary principles of their lives.

A detailed study of the select plays helps one to comprehend how women have been

conditioned by these qualities, how these qualities have been propagated as the driving force

of their existence and how women irrespective of their socio-cultural and economic

background, compelled to accept them with sweet coercion.

The study has opened up the rich heritage of Indian plays that depict the inextricable link

between caste and gender and how caste and gender marginalization operates in a

Brahmanical society. The select plays taken for this research reflect the playwrights’ concern

and preoccupation with familial, social, political, historical and mythical issues that have

played influential role on the position of women and their existence. All the three playwrights

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have focussed on the social institutions like marriage, family and the idologies that direct the

lives of men and women to depict exploitation and marginalization of gender has its inception

in and perpetuated by these institutions.

Marriage in a patriarchal/orthodox system is one of the most accepted ways of

continuing and maintaining caste order and purity. According to Dr. Ambedkar, it is

endogamous marriage that perpetuates caste order. His ideology aims towards prevalence of

exogamous marriage to bring a halt to the process of maintaining caste order through

marriage. However, the custodians of Brahmanical society have their own set rules and

punishments for the violators of marriage principles to maintain their claim on the superior

position in caste hierarchy. Raju Das’s plays like Surjo Tonoy is an apt example of how the

custodians of Brahmanical patriarchy manage to retain their caste identity and purity.

The institution of marriage functions as a double edged tool to serve twin purposes of

safeguarding caste order and its purity on one hand and keep women confined under the

control of patriarchal domination on the other hand. This is, however, achieved through

patriarchal constructs of ideologies like stridharma and pativrata. Tendulkar’s plays like

Kamala, Sakharam Binder, Vultures and Kanyadaan and Dattani’s plays like Where There’s

a Will, Tara, Final Solutions and Bravely Fought the Queen depict the manifold ways of

stunting women’s emotions and restricting them to the confines of household responsibilities.

Women characters of these plays like Sarita, Laxmi, Jyoti, Rama, Sonal, Bharati, Dolly,

Alka, Baa, Daksha/Hardika and Smita all endeavour in their roles as either wife or daughter-

in-law to reach the position of an ideal woman. However, in this process they are so burdened

with a series of duties, responsibilities and social obligations that they start forgetting

themselves, so much so that they happily sacrifice their desires, dreams, even their own

identity and existence. Alodebi in Raju Das’s play, Neel Selam, is one such example who

establishes herself as an ideal woman – a committed wife and responsible mother. In spite of

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being abandoned by her snobbish and egoistic husband, she manages to earn a living for

herself and her two blind children to give them a better future.

In a patriarchal society a woman is fraught with another expectation of giving birth to a

son, the heir to the family. It indirectly determines her position in the family and society. A

son’s birth is a matter of pride, a moment to celebrate in a family. His significance lies in his

ability to carry forward the family legacy. However, a girl’s birth brings with it a pile of

responsibilities. A daughter in Indian families is regarded as a ‘padaya dhan’, a gift for the

girl’s marital family but for which her natal family has to spend a lot on her. Though a girl is

perceived as Lakshmi, the very fact that her stay in her marital family is short lived, her

significance in her own family starts diminishing. Ironically, that does not mean she earns the

position of a queen in her marital family. There too she goes through tests and tribulations to

reach her position of an ideal wife and mother. The women characters of the selected plays

are the victims of patriarchal conspiracies.

Sonal, Bharati and Alodebi embody the plight of women as mothers. Manu in the Xth

chapter of his book, Manusmriti, draws a parallel between a field and a woman’s womb in

which the seeds of her man are sowed. By doing so he naturalizes and silences women’s

opinion in the matters of getting pregnant and giving birth. It is in this passive womb that the

seed grows into seedlings and later develops into crops, but the quality of the crop heavily

depends on the type of the seed, though the field in which it is sowed has little or almost no

influence on the crop harvested. Implicit in this hypothesis is Manu’s emphasis on the

significance of the role of the man on the off spring. He further scales down the position and

significance of women by comparing her with other animals that give birth to their respective

babies but do not claim any hold on them. The man is the rightful owner of the seeds and the

seeds carry the qualities of their respective donor. Though the mother’s womb provides the

seed with blood and all the required nutrients, she has no claim on the seed. Consequently,

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the above mentioned women are either directly or indirectly blamed by their respective

husbands for any shortcoming in their children. Sonal is blamed by her husband for giving

birth to a son who is exactly a copy of his mother. Her husband cribs after having a son who,

he thinks, is passive and dull like his mother. Mr. Patel too possesses a similar mentality and

regards Bharati as the sole responsible person for his Siamese twins. However, he does not

put it so explicitly like Mr. Hasmukh. Rather, he takes out his angst on Bharati for this as a

quiet revenge for surpassing his authority and becoming the sole decision maker for the

surgery to separate the Siamese twins. Alodebi’s husband abandons her for giving birth to

two consecutive blind children. Though he is an educated man, he feels it is the sole

responsibility of his wife’s dormant genes and out of disgust for a life with blind children, he

abandons his family forever.

Tara is discriminated from her birth. She is discriminated against her brother not only

because of her gender but also because of the ugly truth that to get a handicapped girl married

is a real challenge and can never be materialised. Since a woman in Brahmanical patriarchy is

a gateway to caste and therefore, should abide by ideal stridharma, she has to meet certain

criteria to prove her suitability as a perfect woman for her new family. Her purity and family

background are not the only criteria. She is also supposed to possess charming physical

attributes, good intelligence to manage a family and amicable behavioural disposition to be

the best choice of any household. However, for Tara her physical disability was a real

concern for her mother and therefore, clever as she is, she tried to invest time and money on

Chandan, to give a normal life to her male child, the light of the family. Raju Das’s Sanchari,

also known by her pet name, Khenti, is another example of a young woman’s vulnerable

position in marriage market.

Ironically, the harsh reality that women face is not only created by men, women also

work hand in hand to perpetuate patriarchal ideologies. Baa, Bharati, Shanta, Aruna, Laxmi,

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are women who are both victims and victimiser in a male dominated society. Each of them

had experienced oppression, physical and mental abuse at the hands of their husbands, yet as

the matriarchs or elderly women of their families, they do not deter themselves from

repeating their past in the lives of the younger women. Rather they consciously insist on

accepting and following the patriarchal ideologies in different ways. They are the worst

perpetrators of patriarchal values and ideologies. Hence, Baa, the old matriarch of the family,

repeats the same episodes of physical and mental abuses on her daughters-in-law that she was

subjected to in her youth, by instigating her sons. Bharati discriminates her daughter in spite

of experiencing discrimination and oppression by her husband. Aruna too insists her daughter

to follow certain rituals that she believes will enable her to become an ideal mother in future.

Mrs. Kashikar, the childless barren woman does not defend Ms. Leela Benare’s situation of

unwed motherhood. Instead she incites and fuels the fire by castigating her for her

misconduct and setting a wrong precedent for other women. Laxmi advices Sakharam to

murder Champa against his will, because she fails to remain loyal in the name of her saviour,

the womanizer Sakharam. As these women become the perpetrators of patriarchal ideologies,

they develop hostile relation with other young women. Hence there are many instances of

women solidarity being challenged in the plays under scrutiny.

However, the gender marginalization that these women face does not blind them from

realising their real situation. Though most of them are confined within their domestic spaces

they manifest a positive urge to come out of their restricted spaces and claim their

emancipation. However, it is also true that not all of them are able to achieve their aim. Yet

most of these strong women characters like Sarita, Jyoti, Rama, Daksha/ Hardik, Baa,

Bharati, Sonal, Alodebi, Pishima and Alok’s mother very well realise how the aims of their

lives been denied, their desires been curbed and their dreams been chopped forever by the

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patriarchal forces of their respective families. However, some of them, like Dolly and Alka,

Sarita, Jyoti, Champa,Tara, Bani, Smita and Uma strive to bring a change to their conditions.

In fact, the women characters in the select plays can be categorised into three main

heads. The first group of rigid perpetrators of patriarchal values consisting of women like

Baa, Aruna, Bharati, Laxmi, and obscurely mentioned Alok’s grandmother. An interesting

characteristic of this group is their obsession with and over emphasis on the patriarchal

ideology of stridharma of women and the construct of pativrata. Baa is one such woman who

in spite of her torturous and abusive experiences in her marriage repeats the same in the lives

of her daughters-in-laws by manipulating his sons. The position of Aruna in the Gandhi

family of Final Solutions is relatively insignificant. She neither tries to assert her presence by

participating in any major discussion nor is she allowed in doing so. Quite silently she has

been subjugated in her family and therefore, the only space where she tries to make her

presence felt is in her mother-daughter relation with her daughter, Smita.

The second group consisting of soft and docile women who have internalised the

ideology of stridharma and willingly sacrifice themselves for the sake of their families.

Women like Sarita, Jyoti, Bharati, Shanta, Daksha/Hardika and Sonal belong to this group.

Dolly and Alka are forced to accept and internalise their roles as wives and daughters-in-law.

Tendulkar’s brilliant women characters like Sarita and Jyoti and Dattani’s Sonal not only

sacrifice their likes and dislikes, their desires, hopes and dreams to accommodate the

demands of their family members, especially of their respective husbands but also devote

themselves completely to support and defend their husbands in their respective situations.

They embody the notion of wife as sahadharmini and refuse to budge from their role as silent

sufferers with their husbands. Hardika and Sonal like Sarita and Jyoti are also pushed into

mute robotic mode where they are supposed to receive the commands of their masters and act

accordingly without showing any reluctance. Dolly and Alka make yet another set of women

333
who are forced to accept their roles as wives and daughters-in-law in Trivedi family as

trained nurse for Baa and ideal, obedient and subservient wives to respective Trivdi brothers.

However, the last set of women, unlike the other women, do not take everything at its face

value and gradually muster courage to challenge the patriarchal hegemony. This group

consists of silent challengers who relentlessly endeavour towards retaining the sparks of

feminine energy symbolised through the image of Durga, the powerful Goddess of Hindu

religion. These women are at polar distance with those women who passively accept

subjugation and oppression at the hands of the male patriarchs. This group of women are

rebellious in nature and are eager enough to challenge the patriarchy that plays a substantial

role in women’s subjugation and marginalization. This group can be further sub divided into

two smaller groups: the silent challengers and the loudly rebellious ones. Women who

constitute the first type consists of the quiet but determined women like Rama, Champa, the

sociologist Uma, Dolly, Alka, clever Preeti and the Bharatnatyam dancer, Ratna. Ratna in

Dance Like a Man is an ambitious woman who liberates herself from the patriarchal authority

of Amritlal Parekh with her ambition and cleverness. Smita in Final Solutions refuses to be

bound in religious prejudices. Lata in Do the Needful defies the conventional system of

marriage. Rather she convinces Alpesh to marry her and exploit the institution to continue

with their respective desires and dreams. Mala comes out of the fear of the man who sexually

exploited her since her childhood. She gathers all the courage to confront the man and

publicly divulges the name of her abuser.

The other sub type however, consists of the more logical, rational and overtly

determined women like Kiran Zaveri of Where There is a Will, the lesbian happy go lucky

Deepali, the liberal and more tolerant Smita, Lata and the handicapped Tara who attempt to

define their own existence and carve a niche for them. Evident in Kiran’s words, "I managed.

I managed my work, I managed my house, I managed my husband" (Dattani 505) and deeds

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as a custodian of Mr. Hasmukh’s will is her ability to challenge and break free from the

shackles of patriarchal domination and manage the men in her life to bring happiness and

satisfaction in her own life. Tara, though handicapped shows that mental strength to live a

pitiful life. Sanchari arrogantly, but with all her confidence, challenges the conventional

system of marriage that fails to give woman the desired status of prestige and honour.

This wide array of women characters as victims of patriarchal hegemony offer an

enlightening insight into the manifold ways of caste and gender marginalization prevalent in

caste stratified Hindu society. Vijay Tendulkar, Raju Das and Mahesh Dattani, through their

protagonists, establish the idea that suppression of individual freedom can never last long; it

will definitely find its release from its oppressors one day. Some of the strong women, that

the study has identified, like Kiran Zaveri, Tara, Mala and Bani have struck chords of love,

affection, dependence and intimacy with women who are relatively meek, helpless, hopeless

and lack direction in their lives but enraging with the fire to revenge their oppressors. The

solidarity that these two groups of women share help to fortify the belief that women’s

energy and power when culled together can fearlessly break all shackles and that day is not a

distant dream.

The close link between caste and gender marginalization is evident in Tendulkar’s

Kanyadaan and Raju Das’s plays like Surjo Tonoy, Kolonko and Ragging. The playwrights

emphasize this through the miserable plights of their characters. The oppressive and

humiliating lives of Jyoti in Kanyadaan, Alok’s mother in Surjo Tonoy and Khenti in

Kolonko manifest that women irrespective of their socio cultural backgrounds are the direct

victims of male centric caste based society. Women like Jyoti, Alok’s mother, Khenti,

Alodebi and her daughter Bani share a common fate of being the victims of patriarchal

society governed by the dual forces of caste and class. This developmnent is in tune with

what Jyoti Lanjewar observes, “Dalit women are also Dalits in relation to Dalit men within

335
the Dalit community. They are, thus, Dalits twice over in so far as they bear the burden of

both gender and caste oppression” (qtd. in Basu 195).

However, these playwrights also redirect some of their women characters towards a re-

evaluation of their position in the society and take necessary steps to make their presence felt.

Women like Jyoti, Bani, Khenti and Alodebi exemplify women’s awareness of their

subjugated position in a patriarchal society and the need to challenge it with due respect to

the male and female dyad and the cultural spaces of private and public dictated by this dyad.

In this contestation of the private and the public, one thing that emerges quite clearly is that

the women belonging to upper caste order face a tremendous pressure to abide by the caste

expectations and hence keep themselves restricted to those actions that would allow them to

have a safe space within their caste order. However, women belonging to lower caste order

enjoy comparatively more freedom to contest the patriarchal ideologies; a woman is expected

to conform and it is best represented by Raju Das’s women characters like Sanchari/Khenti

and Alodebi.

The success of Raju Das lies in his bold portrayal of his women characters. The

irresponsibility of Alodebi’s husband did not leave the women in a state of darkness forever.

His women characters are honest and courageous, who dauntlessly challenge the patriarchal

order for a brighter future that would have no discriminatory practises based on gender, caste

or class. In contrast to coward Mr. Chatterjee, it is Alodebi and Bani, who actually become

the torch bearers of the family and the society and as well spread light and knowledge and

attempt to break the silence of subjugation forever. Like their names, Alo (light) and Bani

(word/speech), they, through their examples, spread the light and voice of awareness.

Through the lived experiences of these women Raju Das exemplifies that nothing is so easy

and comfortable in the lives of women in a patriarchal set up, especially if they are under

privileged like Alodebi and her children.

336
In Neel Selam, the blind girl’s efforts to secure a more independent and honourable

position for herself and other women who in spite of belonging to upper castes are

marginalised echo Rokeya Shakhawat’s belief that the gateway to true emancipation of

women is through financial independence. Shakhawat knew that women’s true welfare was

impossible without their financial self-reliance, which was perhaps one of the most important

prerequisites to get rid of their misfortune. But the society of her time considered education

important only for men, and regarded it as a ‘passport to gainful employment’. Rokeya

opposed it and argued in favour of women’s employment beyond their domestic chores. She

questioned the tradition bound society for their backdated view:

Why should we not have access to gainful employment? What do we lack? Are

we not able-bodied and endowed with intelligence? In fact, why should we not

employ the labour and energy that we expand on domestic chores in our

husband’s home to run our own enterprises? (Hossain 20)

Begum Rokeya’s deep probing into the system of employment for economic

independence of women across all castes had proved advantageous for women like Bani and

Alodebi. Though Bani is definitely not able bodied as Begaum Rokeya puts in her attack

against stopping women from employment, she draws inspiration from such women social

activists and reformers and tries to bring a positive change in the world of physically

handicapped like her and her brother. Raju Das too in portraying Bani as a strong and

intelligent woman daring to challenge the social system that subjugates and oppresses the

weaker sections of the society, shows the influence of significant women reformists like

Begum Rokeya, Tarabai Shinde and Pandita Ramabai in his life and work.

The study is unique in that it also brings out the not so common fact about

marginalization of men in hetero sexual patriarchal society. Alok exemplifies the typical case

of caste marginalization in a Brahmanical society, where illegitimate birth equates him to

337
those born in the lowest caste. By depicting the plight of Alok because of his illegitimate

birth and that of Alodebi’s blind children who are abandoned by their Brahmin father, Raju

Das brilliantly exposes the manipulative agencies of Manu to promote endogamy and secure

the hierarchical order of caste. The appropriate application of Seed and the Earth theory with

patrilinial line of inheritance in pratiloma type of marriage on one hand whereas an inversion

of the same theory in marriages of upper caste women with a lower caste man is one of the

many ways that Manu has tried to restrict women to their caste boundaries. Thus, the

existence and social position of Alok in Surjo Tonoy is determined by his father’s lower caste

identity but in the case of Bani and her brother, it is the lower caste identity of her mother that

they inherit, irrespective of their father belonging to Brahmin caste.

The integrity of their character and the path of honesty that the women characters,

Alodebi and Bani, in the play have adopted in their struggling life make them noble beings.

Thus when Mr. Shanto places before Bani his marriage proposal, Bani gently but confidently

refuses it. Bani declines his marriage proposal not because that he belongs to a lower caste as

compared to Bani whose father is a Brahmin but because Bani does not want to become a

burden as a blind wife in his life. She definitely also does not want to be blamed for the

possible birth of blind children like her mother was. The inhuman behaviour of her father has

left such a strong mark in her psyche that she cannot even think in the wildest of her dream to

be a partner of someone like Shanto who is not a handicapped person like her but rather

blessed with proper eye sight. Therefore she rejects such an offer that carries with it the

promise of a better future. Her conscious rejection of a marriage proposal from an eligible

bachelor is her rejection of class, caste and humiliation which she and her family have

experienced.

Bani and her family may be blind but their blindness is not an obstacle in their road to

success but rather they have a divine light that allows them to see within. Her mother’s social,

338
physical and sexual exploitation have taught her a lesson that does not allow her to submit to

any kind of gender exploitation and marginalization. Unlike Henrik Ibsen’s Nora, Bani

refuses to be a doll for the men in their society. In A Doll’s House Nora observes “Our house

has been nothing but a playroom. Here I have been your doll-wife, just as at home I used to

be papa’s doll-child” (Ibsen 117). However, in Neel Selam the women protagonists do not

step into the shoes of Nora. In fact Bani has a “greater awareness of potential identity” and

has the “heightened sense of the concrete socio-politico cultural differences between self and

other” (Abdul 93). Consequently, they are more rebellious and courageously challenge the

patriarchal society and the hegemonic power that subjugates women to the men.

If it is the caste that is ultimate indicator of a man’s social position and determines his

existence, in Dattani it is the sexual orientation of a man that allows him a life of social

significance. It is this troubling facet of marginalization of men in a hetero sexual society that

Dattani explores so magnificently in some of his plays. His group of homosexual men like

Kamlesh and his gang of gay friends, Nitin, Praful and Alpesh are those who consistently

battle against the heterosexual-homosexual dyad and manipulate their private and public

spaces to buy few moments of pleasure for themselves.

Dattani’s out of the box themes of same sex love in A Muggy Night in Mumbai, Do the

Needful and Bravely Fought the Queen and the plight of hijras presented in Seven Steps

Around the Fire motivate us to re-examine the constitutional laws on individual rights and

freedom of expression. Certainly, a series of amendments have been made to provide the

individuals falling under third gender with social and cultural inclusion. However, the ordeals

that Dattani’s sexually different men undergo prove that though much has been put on paper

and subsequently has been put into action. It is quite evident that through these plays Dattani

makes a heartfelt plea to the hetero normative society to be more accommodating and accept

the sexually deviants in their normal course of life.

339
The marginalized status of women and other subalterns has been further reiterated by the

brilliant use of innovative stage techniques and styles that consist of play-within-a play,

flashbacks, stage set ups and stage props. Vijay Tendulkar, writing and staging his plays

since the late 1950s have made fruitful use of the stage space. However, more than stage

props and set ups, it is through his dramatic techniques and dialogues that he has made his

themes so interesting for his audience. Plays in the hands of Mahesh Dattani achieve

altogether a new dimension because of his brilliant use of stage props, set ups and lights to

create the right ambience and mood for the play. However, in the plays of Raju Das, stage is

only a space where a number of characters enact their roles through their assigned dialogues.

No stage props, light set ups or costume been employed in his plays. They are bare

representation of his mind and heart through some actors on the stage. However, stage

techniques like play-with-in-a play and flashbacks that function without the aid of any

elaborate and ostentatious stage props and set ups have been employed by Raju Das as well.

The technique of play-within-a-play employed by Tendulkar in Silence! The Court is in

Session effectively brings out the cruelty of a male dominated society on a woman. The fact

that the courtroom scene was an impromptu arrangement highlights the vulnerability of

women in a predominantly patriarchal society. Karna-Kuntir Sangbad is yet another example

of a play-within-a play used by Raju Das to depict the age old tradition of marginalization of

individuals based on their birth. The misery that Karna faced in Mahabhaarata centuries ago

is not a thing of the past. Alok’s predicament because of his illegitimate birth reflects the

discriminatory practices prevalent in India have not undergone any change. Rather it is

fortified in a Brahmanical society as is depicted in the play, Surjo Tonoy. Dattani also

effectively employs this technique in Bravely Fought the Queen to depict the hidden desire of

women to challenge their oppressors. The third act of Bravely Fought the Queen in which the

drama performance takes place is one that is marked by free flow of emotions and passion,

340
anger and hatred, blaming and counter blaming. The scene can be equated with that of a trial

scene in a court as the women in this scene charge their men for their failures as husbands

and dismiss them as careless, unfaithful male chauvinists calculating and manipulating the

lives of their wives to entertain their homosexual inclinations.

Gendered violence or exploitation of women on the basis of gender binaries and

distinctions is quite a common phenomenon that exists across the world. The experiences that

the marginalized genders suffer and share give them a common identity and unite them into a

homogenous unit. However, caste marginalization is a unique type of discrimination and

exploitation that only exists in Indian sub continent. Racial discrimination that is prevalent in

Western part of the globe can be regarded as the nearest parallel to caste marginalization

practiced in India. The choice of these three playwrights who depict caste and gender

marginalization and the inter section of these two thus becomes a unique study where both

caste and gender marginalization can be examined and traced to the socio-cultural and

historical roots of the Indian society. Caste and gender are the cross-cutting issues depicted in

these plays. The research also points to the scope for further studies in the genre of drama as

Resistance plays and Protest plays.

The study drives home the undeniable fact that cultural myths, social structures and the

caste factors mould the significance and existence of female gender and the other

marginalised subjects. The status of women in caste stratified Hindu society is governed by

the sole criteria of maintaining the purity and hierarchical order of castes. However, in all

these plays, it is mainly the institutions of caste, marriage, family that are interrogated and the

concepts of ideal woman as pativrata is contested. Also the analysis challenges the notion of

heterosexuality as the only form of acceptable sexual orientation, as seen in Dattani. Though

patriarchy has achieved historical significance and not much can be done to change its

approach towards women and preservation of caste through absolute control on women’s

341
sexuality; the playwrights have attempted to suggest that the vicious cycle of gender and

caste oppression can he countered by fortifying the desire to explore and construct positive

attitude towards caste and gender.

In short, the selected playwrights challenge the otherwise pre conceived ideas of

compulsory homogeneity and gender marginalization. A unique feature that characterises the

depiction of marginalization in all these playwrights is that they highlight the hardships faced

by women and other subaltern men like the unconventional Jairaj and Ajit from upper caste

elite families and the socially unrecognised homosexuals and eunuchs who are forced to live

“deeply in shadow” (Spivak 28).

The work of these playwrights strike a perfect balance as in their efforts to depict

marginalization of caste and gender in Indian society, they silently march towards bringing

status quo with respect to these two factors. The playwrights by bringing on the stage

manifold ways of marginalization of caste and gender prevalent in Indian societies, have not

only successfully sensitized the audience about it but have also left ample scope to think and

trace the roots of marginalization and if possible to stem it forever from the society. Though

the institutions of castes and patriarchy have managed to attend a position of

uncompromising significance in a Brahmanical/hegemonic set up, the playwrights’ attempts

to surface these issues, talk boldly about them and subtly present ways to challenge them

have undoubtedly scaled their positions to new heights in this genre as modern playwrights

with social commitments. In spite of presenting a heart rending reality of caste and gender

marginalization in their plays, these playwrights also offer a ray of hope from marginalization

to empowerment. However, this positive change would be possible only when the socio-

cultural structures of the Brahmanical patriarchy that perpetuate caste and gender

marginalization undergo an overwhelming change.

342
The above analysis also leads to certain specific inferences and findings. Firstly, drama

provides a discursive space for marginalized subjects like women, children born of

exogamous marriage and even otherwise, men from lower castes and homosexuals who are

considered the ‘other’ in a caste stratified society. Secondly, theatre of these playwrights

provides an alternative space that compensates the characters’ social and cultural invisibility.

Thirdly, these plays explore the interiority and subjectivity of individuals who are

marginalized. Hence, they help the playwrights to sensitize the readers and spectators about

the issues of the marginalized. Fourthly, all these writers made drama an inclusive space

which is marked with heavy margins. Fifthly, all three playwrights under scrutiny are

progressive playwrights who have converted the medium of drama as platform for debate on

issues such as the life of widows, single mothers, homosexuality and casteism. From vijay

Tendulkar to Mahesh Dattani one can see the klanguage of Indian drama changing with the

terminologies of women’s liberation and gay and lesbian rights getting discussed.

343
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