The Hindu Widow in Indian Literature

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The Hindu Widow in Indian Literature

The Hindu

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In'--ian Literature

Rajul Sogani ,,..

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

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OXFORD VNIVBRSITY PaBSS

YMCA Library Building, Jai Singh Road, New Delhi 110 001 Oxford Univenity Press is a department of the Univenity of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholanhip, ~d education by publishing worldwide in f

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Oxford New York Allckland Bangkok Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata K11a]a Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi Sao Paulo Shanghai Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto with an associated company in Berlin Oxford is a registered trade mart of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other .countries Published in India By Oxford Univenity Press, New Delhi

0 Oxford Univenity Press 2002 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford Univenity Press (maker) Pint published 2002 .

All rights ttserVed. No part of this publication may be reproduced, or transmitted in any form or by any means, el,:ctroilic or mechanical, · including photocopying,. recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Oxford University Press. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford Univenity Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer ISBN 019 565844 2

Typeset in Pratap (Baskerville) 10.5/12 by Excellent laser Typesetten, Pitampura, Delhi 110 034 Printed by Rashtriya Printers, New Delhi 110032 Published by Manzar Khan. Oxford University Press YMCA Library Buil~. Jai Singh Road, New Delhi 110 001

For Archana Jaba

Preface Story-telling as an art was widely practised in India when I was a child. It was the chief form of entertainment for us at a time when there was no television and going to a movie was a rare treat. On long summer or winter evenings, someone in the family would recount or read to us stories from the vast storehouse of Indian narratives: the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Puranic tales, folk tales, fables and the heroic chronicles of antiquity. Soon, I was able to read these myself, which I did, over and over again, and retold them, in my own way, to other children younger than myself. These stories, fabulous, didactic, heroic or comic, stimulated our imagination and transmitted to us the beliefs, values and wisdom of our society. To satisfy my ever-growing appetite for stories, my mother introduced me to the classics of modern Indian literature, translated into my mother-tongue, Hindi. Initially, I read them in the same spirit as the myths and fairy tales of my childhood: as exotic and wonderful stories, far removed from my own mundane concerns. Later, I became more critical in my approach even as my love of Indian literature became strong and a part of my psyche. I learnt English at the age of eight, and a new world, equally fascinating, opened up for me. In college, I opted to study English literature, a privileged subject, taught by dedicated and competent teachers, and went on to _teach it myself. However, much as I admired the great thinkers and writers of the West, many aspects of their history, culture and lifestyle remained alien to me. Even

viii Preface the location of their narratives, the landscape, the climate and the little details of their daily existence could only be vaguely imagined. At times I felt like Tennyson's Ulysses, in pursuit of an linfamiliar world whose margin faded forever and forever as I moved forward. English was for me an enchanting but stern mistress who could not be propitiated without the active intervention of mediators and who refused to yield all her secrets, however hard I tried to serve her. Indian literature, on the other hand, was like an old and familiar friend one could understand and question, and feel comfortable with. Leaming other Indian languages and reading Indian literature became for me, a subversive activity and a private pleasure, because for a long time English departments ignored the presence of Indian writing unless it was in English, and any serious discussion of· 'vernacular'- literature was unthinkable. Hence, it was a liberating experience for me to join the Department of Modem Indian Languages and Literary Studies, University of Delhi, as a researcher. Here I could interact with Assarr1ese, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Kannada, Oriya, Tamil and Telugu scholars. Though our medium of communication wa~ English, it was wonderful to realize the vastness and variety of o~ liter~ture, and the commonalties as well as the differences among the cultures of various linguistic and social groups in India. What I learnt was new and yet familiar, and the further I travel~ed, the more things seemed to fall. iQ place. This book is the outcome of my research, and an attempt to link texts in various Indian languages on the basis of common or related themes. I started with five nineteenth-century novels on ·wi·dowhood, indicating a newly emerging concern about the problems of women outside ·male/familial ·protection. However, over time, the corpus of texts became almost ten times larger. My fascination with the subject also grew in intensity as I learnt new languages, talked to people about the treatment of widows 'in their communities, went in search of rare or forgotten books, and tried to uncover the genesis of ideas and their flowering, the similarities of thematic patterns, the differences 1n attitudes on account of gender, class and community. ~ the process, I found myself shifting my attention from texts to contexts, from literature to culture. Ultimately, I had to use an eclectic approach to make sense of so many narratives, each one of them offering _a wealth of material for analysis and comment. Regretfully, I have not been

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able to accommodate all of these within the parameters of my inquiry. Also, since I could not make any significant inferences about widows from other communities for want of sufficient textual evidence, the cultural context of the study is limited to upper-caste Hindu society. I am deeply grateful to all my colleagues and friends who have taken interest in my work, shared their ideas with me, and helped me access little known texts from libraries or personal collections. They include Jayanti Chattopadhyaya-Annapumar Mandir, Jeebandola and Kali Bohu; Nandita Basu-Dui Meru; Madhuri Gupta, Haimanty Dattagupta, Pashupati Sasmal and Supriya RoySnehalata ba Palita; Vinod Karan Sethi-Pia; Chandra Nisha SinghMee-, and Indira Gupta-Sheikh Andu and Prayashchitta. Special thanks are d~e to S. K. Das,Jayanti Chattopadhyaya, N. D. Mirajkar, Indira Goswami, Nandita Basu, and T. Satyanath of the Department of Modem Indian I .anguages and Literary Studies, for their suggestions and invaluable guidance. I do not have adequate words to express my appreciation of the help and encouragement I received from my friend Indira Gupta at every stage of my work. She gave me her time generously, accompanied me in my search for material, read several of the longer Bengali texts with me, looked through all my drafts and suggested improvements. Sl1e helped me keep my morale l1igh ·whenever I got discouraged and made it possible for me to complete my work. Prem Kumar Katarmal prepared the typescript and Ishani Dattagupta put in the final corrections. I am deeply grateful to both. It needs to be mentioned that I have read the Hindi and Bengali novels as well as Yamuna Paryatan and Kali Bohu in the original, and the others in their Hindi or English translations. I have translated all the quotations from tl1e texts myself except those which were available in English, namely Gora, and Binodini ( Cliokher Bali) by Rabindranath Tagore, Phaniyamma by M. K. l11dira, and the novels of Indira Goswami. Rt\JUL SOGANI

Delhi 2002

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Contents Preface Introduction

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Widow Remarriage

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The Widow in Love

61

The Transgressing Widow

91

The Fallen Widow

123

The Older Widow

149

The Widow in Women's Novels

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The Widow in Post-Independence Novels

209

Bibliography Primary Sources

249

Secondary Sources

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Index

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Introduction The little white lilies, poor things, gave me tender leaf _to wear, when I was young. Now my great husband is dead, I eat at untimely evening· hours and the lilies give me lily seed, a widow's rice. Okkur Macattanar, Wulow's Rice (From Sangam literature) 1 ·

India is a vast multilingual and multicultural subcontinent, where literary exchanges have taken place perpetually down the ages, and literary and cultural movements have never been confined to a single geographical region or a single linguistic group. The history of Indian literature extends over many centuries, during the course of which certain languages like Sanskrit acquired great prestige as the language of the ruling Hindu elite, priests and scholars, while many vernaculars spoken by the common -peo-p\e_ fell into disuse and became obsolete. New languages have evolved, and foreign languages like Persian in medieval times and Eng\~sh in the modem period have made a considerable impact on Indian

2 The Hindu Widow writing. A substantial body of texts in these languages have been produced by_Indian writers. Since ancient times there has been a continuous interaction between various Indian languages. There have been bilingual and even trilingual authors writing in different languages for different readers. 2 There are multilingual texts like the classical Sanskrit plays in which the characters speak in more than one language, 3 and mixed styles like mar,,ipravala which combine words from different languages. 4 Important literary movemen~s like the Bhakti movement have stretched beyond the regions in which they originally appeared. Texts in one language have influenced those in . other Indian languages. I ,arge bodies of religious literature such as the Buddhist and Jain writings composed in different languages are united by a common system of beliefs and attitudes. The Granth Sahib (c. fifteenth to eighteenth century), the sacred book of the Sikhs, is a compilation of verses written in languages ranging from Sanskrit to Avadhi, Braj and Persian by various religious leaders. There is a remarkable similarity in the response to socio-political changes and literary innovations all over the country. A common core of metaphors .a nd symbols, myths and legends, conventions and norms has evolved over the last one thousand years despite linguistic and non-linguistic diversities, and the literatures produced in different Indian languages tend to converge, as do the language families, at several points. The Indian literary establishment, as represented by singlelanguage departments in various universities, has failed to come to terms with the multilingual nature of Indian literature and so remains parochial in its outlook. The departments of English, more privileged in terms of having access to the work being done on Indian literature in English in India and abroad, have been bogged down by their adherence to curricula developed in colonial times and their interest in Indian writing has been confined to wha~ is produced in the English language. After a long drawn out debate, the Department of English in Delhi University has expanded its curriculum to include a few texts translated from Indian languages, along with other post-colonial literatures. The recently established departme-nts of comparative literature have just begun to emerge from the shadow of the European and American schools of comparative literature. They have beg1.1n to recognize the uniqueness of the Indian literary context, and the necessity of creating new

Introduction

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models of comparative studies, which would not only underscore the common features in our cultural diversity but also highlight the interrelationships between languages an~ literatures and the tre-mendous variety offered by our plur~listic literary heritage. The Sahitya Akademi, a State-spQnsored institution, has initi-ated a few projects to promote the ,tudy of literatures in Indian languages. Several scholars and criti(:s have, under its patronage, worked singly or in teams to trace tpe history and developments of various Indian literatures, compiled an encyclopaedia of Indian literature and brought out an integrated history of Indian literature. Translators have made available significant texts in different languages to readers who are not familiar with them, and anthologists have collected and linked together texts from different languages as well as from different periods of history. Broad surveys have been made of literary movements across various regions of the country which have given an impetus to the idea of a national literature. Shorter and more intensive studies of literary texts grouped together on the basis of for1n or content or sharing a common ground, either periodic, gepgraphic or thematic, are now being undertaken to investigate the interrelationships among them. I have used an integrated approach to nineteenth and twentiethcentury Indian fiction in several languages5 to highlight the condition of widows in Hindu society and the changing attitudes towards them. In other words, I have treated Indian literature as 'one, though written in many languages,' albeit in this context the term 'Indian literature' is confined to upper-caste Hindu literature and does not include a vast variety of other literatures available in India. However, I have done my best to bring into focus the rich diversity of our culture by giving space to texts which have not been consid-ered a part of our literary canon, for instance, those written by women or by non-Hindus. I have giv~n special attention to the texts which aroused violent opposition or created a controversy when they were written and tl1ose which were simply pushed into the background by mainstream scholars. I have traced the patterns that were formulated in literary texis around the theme of widowhood and shown how these patterns were modified ·by various authors across the country. I have sought to bring out the relation.. ships among the texts, highlighting their similarities and differ-ences, the continuity of the tradition and the conscious changes introduced within the tradition by individual authors. An attempt

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has been made to keep a balance between the ·study of-literature as art, and also as a reflection of our cultural history. The texts have been examined not as individual structures but · as structures together in relation to the environment that produced them. lh relating the texts to each other and to their context, I hope to evolve a model for thematic studies in the Indian context and also arrive at a better understanding of some of the common concerns of Indian literature. It is well known that Hindu·society was organized on the basis of vamashram dharma which divided the people into a hierarchy of castes, each with its separate duties and distinctive way of life, and structured the lives of individuals according to a prescribed patten1. Theoretically, all Aryans belonged to one of the four vamas: brahmin, the priests and scholars; kshatriya, the warriors;· vaishya, the traders; and shudra, the workers. However, small children, ascetics and widows were considered outside the system (Basl1am, 1996: 158). The highest status was given to brahmins, whose duty was to study, teach and conduct religious rituals. Their specialized knowledge enabled them to exercise hegemony over the other castes. The conventions of brahminism were codified in the Dhannasliastras or the sacred law-books of the Hindus, according to which the lives of men and women.had to be organized according to their place in society, determined at birth and dependent on their caste and sex. Brahmins had the highest place in the caste hierarchy and were obliged to maintain their social position by scrupulously observing the prescribed rituals governing every aspect of their lives and following the rules regarding purity and pollution (Srinivas, 1985: 11). Caste purity had to be guarded by strictly avoiding inter-dining and intermarriage with mem hers of other castes or religions. A brahmin was supposed to lead a dis Sulochana tells Gunindra that

The Widow in Love 83

since she is his adopted mother, he should look upon Hemnalini as his sister and help in arranging her marriage ( Pathanirdesh, Ch. 2). Amritrai declares that Puma, who has taken shelter in his ashram is his sister and he has no intention of marrying her (Pratigya, Ch. 15). -Widows as romantic heroines share certain features in common. Hone sees t~em as a ·group, one may construct an image of new Indian womanhood which middle class, educated Indian men were attempting to fashion. In fiction, their beauty is presented as being refined and ethereal, like that of the heroines of Victorian romances. Kunda is the little kunda flower 'that withered away before it could bloom' ( Vishavriksha, ·Ch. 49). Nagendra describes the beauty of_her large blue eyes-with their far-away look and amazing innocence-as making her appear a creature of anoth~r world. To him she appears the incarnation of something as beautiful and intangible as the moonlight or the fragrance of flowers, rather than a person of flesh and blood. Snehalata, seemingly modelled after Kunda, is described as a ~uhi flower, laden with dust' which does not draw one's attention 'at the first glance' ( Snehalata, I, Ch. 2). At the age of twenty-two· she looks like a girl of fourteen, slim and delicate like a flower with a long stem. In Bibasini, Kalawati captivates Raghunath with her 'austere beauty.' Kumud is fair, delicate and so~-spoken and her personality is 'gentle and soothing like the moonlight' (Saraswati,chandra, Ch. 2). She is a tender and . innocent child-woman who needs to be protected and cherished. In Bada Didi, the sixteen-year old Madhavi is like the river Ganges in the monsoon, overflowing with beauty, love, tenderness and compassion and, like the tree of paradise, showers her bounty on everyone. _ The heroine of Parakhis referred to as Katto (a squirrel) because of her girlish innocence and liveliness. Satyadhan is fascinated by her eyes which are tender and full of intensity, and to him they seem to be the essence of.her femininity, impassioned and vulnerable. She is the sort of woman he has been fantasizing about. Not a heroine of Shakespeare, but a timid, young village girl who has not picked up the needless affectations of educated and polite society; who is simple, honest, innocent and neglected; who needs him and by making her happy he can have a sense ~f personal achievement. 18

Kunda, Kalawati, Kumudsundari, Snehalata, Nanibala and Katto are like the gentle and submissive mugdha nayi~s of classical

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literature. Their wlnerability is underscored by the fact that most of them are orphans and are dependent on the kindness of others. Katto has lost her father; Nanibala has no parents and is abandoned by her brothers; Binodini and Damini have no relatives to protect them. Kunda is the most inarticulate ofBankimchandra's heroines. All the crucial decisions in her life are taken by others, including that of her remarriage. She merely submits to them, just as· she submits to Nagendra's rejection of her and Hira's suggestion that she should take poison. Like Snehalata and Nanibala, she is merely the victim of a cruel destiny. 19 Kalawati and Kumudsundari are loving and compliant women who are uprooted from their homes against their will but meekly adapt in the new environment. When they are called upon to sacrifice their happiness for the sake of others, they do so without regret or bitterness. In short, these heroines arouse tender, protective sentiments in the readers since they do not assert themselves or challenge the power of the patriarchal order. Binodini and Damini are more complex characters, for they combine in themselves the boldness and audacity of a siren ·and the meekness of a woman in love. In Mahendra's house, Binodini is a 'gay butterfly'; but deep inside her bums the austere light of a pure and devoted woman. As Bihari observes: Behind the glamour of her beauty, a heart still throbbed with chaste feelings. The woman in her had not yet dried up in the insatiable heat of frivolous gaiety ... the glamorous actress on the stage had vanished, revealing the woman in her simple homely. setting. 20

Damini is like 'lightning in clouds' whose beauty dazzles Shachish as well as Sribilas ( Chaturanga, II, Ch. 6). Both women are dissatisfied with their situation and rebel against it. Binodini flirts with Mahendra, much to the annoyance of Bihari, and Damini defies Lilananda, refusing to submit to his authority. Both of them offer themselves boldly to the men they love, entering their private space · and making overt sexual advances; but they accept their · rejection with abject humility expressing gratitude even for the wounds inflicted on them by the men. 21 · Eventually, they learn to sublimate their passions and are transformed into models of patience and. self-sacrifice. K. M. Munshi (1887-1971) deliberately inverted the romantic pattern in Prith~ivallabh (The Monarch, 1921) to show the confrontation between two attitudes to life: the repressive and the

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The Widow in Love 85

liberal, the Spartan and the Athenian. Mrinalvati, the female protagonist, has none of the characteristics of romantic heroines. She is middle-aged, hard-featured and ruthless. Widowed at a tender age, she has lived an austere and disciplined life, groomed her }'Ounger brother to be a capable ruler, and governed the kingdom of Telangana with an iron hand. She imposes her way of life on her subjects and _the royal household. She banishes poets an.d artists from the kingdom, bans festivals and celebrations, and frowns upon the expression of any kind of emotion, eve,1 grief. At the age of forty-seven, she encounters the universally admired king Munja of Avantika who is brought to Telangana as a vanquished enemy. She is irresistibly drawn to his charismatic personality, his strength, and his calm self-assurance that is µndisturbed by defeat or adversity. She starts visiting . him every night in his dungeon ostensibly to mortify him; but her stern nature is softened by his influence and.she falls in love with him. 1beir affair is discovered and Munja is publicly humiliated and put to death by the king's order before Mrinalvati' s • ·eyes. However, his spirit r~mains unvanquished till the very end and-Mrinalvati feels that her life has been sanctified by her association with him. Prithvivallabh echoes Bankimchandra' s Durgeshnandini ( 1865), another historical romance in.which Ayesha, a Muslim noblewoman, falls in love with the Rajput captive Jagat Singh and makes a bold declaration of her feelings. Prithvivallabh is conceived not as a sentimental tragedy but as a philosophical argument about the right way of living. True power is achleved through self-awareness, and not through the domination of others. Mrinalvati' s moment of self-real~za~ion comes in the arms of Munja when she learns to accept herself as a woman instead of battling against her basic instincts. Unlike other romantic novels which glorify asceticism and condemn passion, Prithvivallabh makes a strong plea for the healthy expression of sexuality and creativity. However, Mrinalvati is also punished for her transgression by the forces of patriarchy represented by her brother who stands for the family as well as the state, and assumes control over the widow's sexuality. The subdued sexuality ~f the widow had a special appeal for the middle class sensibilities of the period. Binodini gains moral stature when she emaciates herself in her effort to keep Mahendra at bay, much like the captive Sita in the Ramayana. She gives up every comfort and 'her pale face is. aglow with a light from within' . .

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(Chokher Bali, Ch. 45). In Premchand's novel Vartlaan (The Boon, 1921), Pratap, full of passion for Vrrjan, sneaks into her house like a thief in the dead of night; but when he has a glimpse of her engrossed in writing, wearing a white sari with her hair loose and a sublime expression on her face, he beats a hasty retreat, ashamed of his impetuosity (Ch. 20). In Parakh, when Katto learns of Satyadhan's treachery, she takes off her red glass bangles and sends them as a gift for Garima, Satyadhan's future bride. Satyadhan's friend Bihari is overwhelmed by this 'rustic maiden with beautiful eyes, dressed in white, like a widow, like the mothergoddess, with loose hair and a lovely smile' (Ch. 20). Family ties in India have always been strong, particularly the bond between a mother and son. Devotional literature, both Shakta and Vaishnava, praised the close tie between the mother goddess ·a nd her devotees and that between Yashoda and Krishna. All manwoman relationships were influenced by -t his attitude (Mukherjee, S. N. 1990: 164) and the maternal element in a woman's love for a man has always been extolled in Indian literature. Saraswatichandra sees Kumud as his mother in a dream ( Sara.swatichandra, Ch. 44) and, when she bids farewell to him after his marriage with Kusum, she tells him that she has now become the mother ofhiswakingdreams (Ch. 47). Not only does she arrange Saraswatichandra's marriage like a mother, but becomes a surrogate mother to her infant brother-in-law, renouncing her sexuality for maternity. Binodini's sympathy for Bihari is also expressed in maternal · tel 111S.

As a mother rocks the sick child in her arms, so Binodini rocked the unhappy

image (of Bihari) in her heart. She knew she would have no peace till she had restored liveliness to those stricken limbs, colour to that a~hen face, smile to those benumbed lips.22 I

In the climactic scene in which Binodini pays a nocturnal visit · to Bihari's house seeking protection from Mahendra, Bihari is e·n gaged in teaching Basant, the eight-year-old son of a poor compositor. When Binodini enters the room, Bihari sends Basant off to bed. However, at the conclusion of this highly charged scene in which Binodini declares her love for Bihari and he declines lier offer of a kiss, Basant comes into the room once again and walks into Binodini' s empty arms. She breaks into sobs, hugging the child. Not only does the gesture show Binodini's latent maternal

The Widow in Looe 87

feelings, it also suggests closure, for as a widow Binodini is denied · access to adult love and is only per111itted to substitute a child as the object of her affections. The scene marks a turning point in Binodini 's life, whence her lively pleasure-seeking nature is transfo1111ed into a self-denying one. When Damini's passionate advances are repudiated by Shachish (Chaturanga, IV, Ch. 2), she requests that he let her seive him and look after his physical needs since she cannot reach his mirid or soul. 'I am a woman,' she says, 'my nature is to look afttr people physically. I cannot bear to see anyone suffer physically.' After her marriage with Sribilas, she works hard to support her nephews and nieces as well as Shachish, changing her role as a passionate woman to that of a nurturing mother. In Bada Didi, Madhavi treats Surendranath with the tender indulgence of a mother but also punishes him when he oversteps the limits set by her. Her rejection wrecks his life: like a child lost in the dark he loses his sense of direction, until he makes his peace with her on his deathbed, his head supported in her -lap, and· his wife sitting at his feet (Ch. -10). Kusum's maternal feelings are aroused by Brindaban's son Charan, on whom she showers her affection in Brindaban's absence. She is profoundly shaken when Charan dies of cholera as a consequence of her refusal to take charge of him when Brindaban's village is ravaged by the epidemic (Pandit Moshai, Ch. 15). It transforms her personality and she mortifies herself, regarding the loss of the child as a punishment for her pride. 23 The oedipal nature of a man's love is apparent in Satyadhan's rhapsody, when, after making love to Katto, he leaves the charged atmosphere of the room and comes to the canal carrying the water of the Ganges. He felt that he was in the lap of the mother-the sky was like the mother's sari; the breeze was like the mother patting the child to sleep; the flowing water was like the tears of the mother for the child. He felt soothed by the maternal touch of nature and experienced the exhaustion of descending from the highest emotional peak of his life. He returned home and fell asleep. 24

Indian male writ~rs visualized sexuality and maternity as twin aspects of the feminine nature, of which they feared the former and glorified the latter. While they saw a woman's sexuality as a dangerous, disruptive force which had to be controlled and

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channelled, maternity was venerated as being essential for the continuance and nurture of the race. By being made to renounce her sexuality, the widow is frrst enclosed and then elevated to a superhuman level where she is no longer subject to the pleasures and pains of ordinary human existence. She is transfor111ed into a benign, sustaining, archetypal mother. The male protagonists in these romantic novels embody the individualism as well as the emerging national consciousness of educated middle class Indians. They are idealists and dreamers, searching for a more meaningful existence through love, patriotism, self-sacrifice and community leadership. They do not have strong family ties but have inherited enough wealth to eliminate the necessity of working for a living. Bihari in Chokher Bali, Gunindra in Pathanirdesh, and Ramesh in Pallisamaj are orphans; Bada Didi's Surendranath is a runaway from home; Saraswatichandra (Saraswatichandra) and Bihari (Parakh) voluntarily reject the enormous wealth available to them. They are highly educated: scholars, doctors, lawyers and engineers. However, none of them pursue a profession. Working for underprivileged and marginalized groups, particularly in villages, is a matter of high priority with these young men. Being in love with a widow or wishing to marry a widow indicates their idealism and social conscience. None of them, however, takes the initiative to strike at the system which oppresses widows or the lower classes. They are products of the brahminical ideology of detachment and self-restraint, not fighters for social justice. Sometimes they are caught between knowledge and action, between the desire to improve the world and a natural antipathy to all that is sordid and ugly. Their sense of propriety and their preoccupation with their own ideals makes them treat women with the same callousness as Rama treated Sita · in the Ramayana. They seem to need a love which is more maternal than sexual. Any hint of passion makes them withdraw into themselves. The emotional needs of these young men are wellsexved by the chaste young widows who adore them from a distance, suffer for their sake, and inspire them in their enterprise of the reconstruction of society. For this purpose, the widows are shown as evolving into tender-hearted mother figures whose love is unconditional, undemanding, ideal and constant. The love between an innocent child-widow and a high-minded young man in which the widow eventually renounces her aspirations

The Widow in Love 89

and accepts her tragic destiny became a powerful theme in nineteenth and early twentieth-century literature. It was a time when social conventions and taboos were being questioned and more freedom for the individual was being demanded. At the same time, in the wake of the resurgence of nationalism, young men and women were being asked to rise above their personal interests and sacrifice themselves for the good of society and the nation. Though these romances appeared to be radical at the time when they were written-because they focussed on widows who were entirely· marginalized in Indian society-their radicalism was more like that of the Bhakti movement which gave a voice to the oppressed and the downtrodden but did not change the structure of society. Indian writers, particularly the male ones, could not rise above the deeply ingrained upper-caste, patriarchal mindset of the Indian intelligentsia. Moreover, the widow, whether she appears as an incarnation of the impassioned Radha or as a saint in search of salvation, is always subordinated to the man she loves, even made to obliterate herself to the extent of choosing exile or death for his sake. She is the epitome of womanhood as defined by uppercaste Indian males, the founders of a new patriarchal order which recognized the individuality and potential of women but kept them under subjection. ,

Endnotes

1. For instance, the historical novels of Bankimchandra Chattopadhyaya in Bengal, Harl Narayan ~pte in Maharashtra and the romances of Devakinandan Khatri ( 1861-1913) and Kishorilal Goswami (1865-1932) in the Hindi-speaking regions. 2. Pathanirdesh, Ch. 7. 3. Cf. Bankimchandra's Kapalakundala (1866), Indira (1873) and Chandrashekhar ( 1875). 4. Rai Binodini as an epithet for Radha occurs frequently in Vaishnava poetry and Bihari or Rasbihari is an epithet for Krishna. 5. Chokher Bali, Ch. 51. 6. Pathanirdesh, Ch. 7. 7. Ibid., Ch. 5. 8. ]alwa-e-lsar, the Urdu version of Vardaan, was written in 1912, prior to the publication of Saratchandra' s novels. 9. This theme is repeated in Saratchandra's Darpachuma (1915) and Swami (1918).

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10. Bihari is the name of the male protagonists of Rabindranath · Tagore's Chokher Bali and Jainendra Kumar's Parakh. 11. See the discussion on Sheikh Andu in Ch. VII: The Widow in Women's Novels. 12. Chokher Bali, Ch. 37. 13. Pallisamaj, Ch. 10. 14. Bada Didi, Ch. 3. 15. /Ind., Ch. 6. 16. Parakh, Ch. 12. 17. The nineteenth-century Gujarati revivalist, Manilal Nanubhai, sanctioned 'advaita' or platonic marriage but vehemently opposed widow remarriage Uoshi, S., 1986). 18. Parakh, Ch. 1. 19. For a detailed comparison between Kunda and Snehalata, see Chapter VII, "'The Widow in Women's Novels.' 20. Chokher Bali, Ch. 16. 21. Chokher Bali, Ch. 55, and Chaturanga, ~k. IV, Ch. 5. 22. Chokher Bali, Ch. 24. 23. Bimala, the transgressing heroine of Tagore 's Ghare Baire ( 1916), gets over her infatuation for Sandeep when Amulya touches the maternal chord in her nature. His tragic death changes her from being an impulsive, self-centred individual to a mature and compassionate one. 24. Parakh, Ch. 12.

The Transgressing Widow A CASE HISTORY Widowed at nineteen, at twenty nine she slipped And got with child. Excruciating shame Shook her body like a candle flame And the very winds seemed to spy on her Until at last her blood cried out in pain ... Her struggle she gave up wearily, with many a sigh and groan, She had followed all the rules, had a photo of her half-unknown Husband by her bedside, and yet through her conch-shell breasts Rang out a hymn to the gods of night and silence. Wrung dry of tears, she has now surrendered The strings of her heart to my shifty hands, But as the storm subsided, the poison seed in her womb Grew to a flower, foreboding doom. Brave lion of the past, can you come to her aid? Her body grown plump on vegetarian food Is nursing death. Will _it be poison? F'tre? Or will she choose to be saved by that other god, Jesus? •

Sunil Gangopadhyaya (1971) Tr. Jyotirmay Datta and Buddhadeva Bose 1

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The young widow in love is a tragic, romantic heroine who sublimates her desires and obliterates herself to preserve the social order, while her lover h~s the freedom to marry and integrate into mainstream society. In a sense, she is comparable to the faithful wife, celebrated in literature, who willingly sacrifices herself for the sake of her husband and the family. Both embody the qualities demanded of women by patriarchy-as supportive but subordinate counterparts of men. The institution of marriage and the role of women within and outside marriage is the major preoccupation of the domestic novels of the nineteenth and early twentieth century, wherein novelists try to redefine the nature of the family and gender relationships in Indian society. But while these novels seem to move towards marriage and the security of geµealogical continuity, they often gain their particular narrative urgency from an energy that threatens to contravene the stability of the family on which the society depends. The novel, thus, becomes a paradoxical object in society, by no means an inert adjunct to the family decor, but a text that may work to subvert what it seems to celebrate (Tanner, 1979: 3). The concept of wifehood as worked out in prescriptive Hindu texts is an attempt to resolve the basic contradiction that is perceive·d to exist between women's nature and their function. The demoniac and innately promiscuous nature ascribed to them is seen as originating from the bad kar111a of their past lives which h~s resulted .in their being born fem ale and which has to be suppressed in favour of their function as wives. Women are regarded as sites of a conflict between their nature ( strisvabhava), which is essentially wicked and lustful, and their duty as wives (stridharma). Their abundant sexual energy has to be channellized in ~arriage or kept suppressed, or else the social order will collapse. This energy may easily lead them into adultery which is severely punishable, with every form of humiliation publicly heaped upon the sinning woman. The surveillance of women within marriage and the family is regarded as necessary and is repeatedly recommended in the Dharmashastras. Parallel to the theme of the good and chaste woman runs the theme of the transgressing one: the wife who breaks or subverts the marital contract,2 and the rebellious widow who refuses to accept the deathlike existence imposed on her and strives for freedom and personal happiness, disrupting social norms by her turbulent energy. These two themes are repeatedly found in the social novels

The Transgressing Widow 93

of the nineteenth and early twentieth century, reflecting male anxiety regarding female sexuality and the desire to control it. As the controls of the older patriarchy were becoming less rigid, and women were being educated and encouraged to come out of their homes to participate in broader social and political activities, there was a fear that they might become too independent, disregard the authority of their .husbands, neglect the duties of the household and become licentious in their conduct. This anxiety was symbolized in the Hindu myth of Ahalya, the archetypal transgressor who was transfor1ned into a rock by her enraged husband and redeemed only in a later age by the compassionate touch of God incarnated as Rama. This myth is a recurrent motif in Indian novels. Educated, upper-caste Indians, conscious of having lost their power in all spheres under colonial rule except within their homes, were supremely preoccupied with the education and conduct of their women (Sarkar, T., 1992: 223). This preoccupation was reflected in the controversy that raged over the Sati Act of 1832, the Widow Remarriage Act of 1856, _the proposals to introduce divorce in the 1880s and the Age of Consent Act of 1891. While there was an attempt to make the conjugal relationship more liberal, and the rights of wives' ~d the obligations of husbands were being increasingly recognized, there were also fears regarding the disintegration of the family. The novels of this period show a fascination with transgression: of men and women, of wives and widows. Transgression dramatizes the conflict between two inevitabilities: the inevitability of rules and the inevitability of breaking them, the conflict between the desires of human beings and the desires of society as a whole (Kaviraj, 1988). The suffering and frustration of the widow is recognized; but her transgression is severely condemned because it threatens the existing power structure in the family and in society. · The theme of the transgressing widow first originated in Bengal where Vaishnava poetry had long celebrated the illicit love of Radha, a trafiition which was disdained by nineteenth-century intellectuals like Bankimchandra (Hein, 1984, 122). In Bengal, the relative economic independence of widows, the rise of individualism, increased mobility due to improved means of transport and communication, and the agitation on behalf of young widows gave rise to an anxiety regarding the untapped sexual energy of these women a.nd the potential danger they presented to the institution

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of the family. In su~h changing conditions, it became necessary to preseive the social system, reiterate moral values and redefine the rules governing conduct. Hence, the themes of sin, punishment and redemption took on a greater significance; and the widow, for whom a strict code of behaviour was laid down, became a symbol of vulnerable human nature, subject to temptation and requiring control. The nature of transgression is to be understood in the context of the code laid down by Indian patriarchy which divided women into two categories, the chaste and the unchaste. A chaste woman, whether married or widowed, had to lead a restricted life, stay within the confines of the inner apartments or antahpur of the house, avoid familiarity with men outside the family and maintain appropriate decorum regarding dress and deportment. Although, in the course of the modernization of Indian society, the old rules were being relaxed, such attitudes did not change fundamentally. Any woman overstepping the prescribed code, either on her own initiative or due to outside pressures, was perceived as laying herself open to the danger of losing her chastity. In Bankimchandra's Vishavriksha, the separate space assigned for women is transgressed when Nagendranath walks through Kunda's crumbling house and reaches the bedroom where her father is dying (Ch. 2), when Taracharan allows Debendranath to enter his house and meet his wife Kunda (Ch. 8) and when Debendranath disguises himself as a Vaishnavi to enter the women's quarters in Nagendranath's house (Ch. 9). Such non-observance of the rules regarding separate spaces leads to complications and the disruption of domestic harmony. In Krishnlcanter Ui~ Haralal enters the antahpur and Rohini 's kitchen with his shoes on, thus breaking both the rules of segregation and of purity (Ch. 3). Gobindalal and Rohini have an encounter in his private pleasure garden (Ch. 7) and Hira is seduced in a garden house ( Vishavriksha, Ch. 26), where there are no rules of segregation (Mukherjee, S. N., 1983: 303). The violation of the rule of private space always leads to a crisis in the Indian novels of transgression. When Binodini starts frequenting Mahendra' s bedroom in the absence of his wife and when he goes into the women's apartments at night, searching for her ( Chokher Bali, Ch. 26), when Kiranmoyi enters Dibakar's room and engages him in a discussion on sex ( Charitraheen, Ch. 31) , or when Puma is lured into Kamalaptasad' s room at night

The Transgressing Widow 95

(Pratigya, Ch. 9), they are disregarding a rule recognized all over India and symbolized by the lalc.shman rekha which was drawn around Sita in the Ramayana to mark the boundary of her space. Otaste women were required to keep a check on their movements, and expected to restrain their thoughts voluntarily and not allow them to stray. They were not to harbour personal ambition, assert their individuality, or take any undue interest in a parapurusha, that is, a man other than their own husband. This was an ideal impossible to achieve and any sensitive writer could not but be conscious that most women, at some time or other felt acutely frustrated by these restrictions. While most women were resigned to suffer in silence, a few dared to defy the harsh discipline imposed on them. Thus, while heroines such as Hira, Rohini, Binodini, Kiranmoyi, Lalana and Suman deliberately transgress the limits .within which their lives have been circumscribed, Kunda, Puma and Gayatri are seduced into doing so. The novels of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century frequently problematize and call into question the norms laid down for women in Hindu scriptures. In the refc,1111ist discourse of the nineteenth century, there is a persistent anxiety about young widows not being able to control their natural instincts and going astray. Early liberal writers-such as Shibnath Shastri (1846--1919) and Debiprasanna Ray Chaudhuri (1854-1920)-who advocated widow remarriage in their fiction also showed transgressing widows being punished very harshly (Basu, 1974: 11). Their attitude towards widows was ambivalent: they had sympathy for the hardships of widows but disapproved of pet 111issiveness. Ishwarachandra Vidyasagar himself sought to promote widow remarriage in order to direct the sexual energy of widows into socially acceptable channels. In his pamphlet, Marriage of Hindu Widows, he said: You perhaps imagine that with the loss of their husbands your females lose their nature as human beings and are subject no longer to the influence of passions. But what instances occur at every step to show how sadly you are mistaken! Alas! What fruits of poison you are gathering from the tree of life, from moral turpitude and a sad want of reflection! How greatly is this to be deplored! 3

It is not a coincidence that Bankimchandra's first novel about transgre~sing widows is called Vishavriksha or The Poison Tree which even echoes Vidyasagar's phrase in the passage quoted above. In Vishavriksha, Nagendra's attempt to legitimize his extra~ marital passion by marrying the young w;dow Kundanandini

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bigamously ends in tragedy. The transgression of Nagendra and Kundanandini is offset by the story of the widowed maidservant Hira whose illicit affair with the debauched landowner Debendranath destroys both of them. Bankimchandra returned to the theme of the transgressing widow in Krishnalwnter Uit in which Gobindalal abandons his young wife Bhramar to abscond to Prasadpur with the widow Rohini who deceives him later, and meets a violent death at his hands. Fictional characters such as Kunda, Hira and Rohini caught the imagination of subsequent writers, particularly those from Bengal, who wrote their own narratives about transgressing widows, alluding repeatedly to Vishavriksha and Knshnakanter Uil and creating ·characters and situations which echoed Bankimchandra's works. Rabindranath Tagore's Chokker Bali, Saratchandra's Charitraheen, Usha Devi Mitra's Pia, Premchand's Pratigya and Premashram are some of the texts written in response to, or marking a departure from, the trend that was initiated by Bankimchandra. In his preface to Chokher Bali, Tagore acknowledges his debt to Bankimchandra and states that he is writing about the same theme of transgression, though in a modem setting. Consciously rebelling against conventions, Binodini calls herself 'the eyesore,' thus echoing the phrase Nagendranath uses for Kunda in Vishavriksha when he feels that Kunda has destroyed his home and his relationship with his wife (Ch. 32). Gayatri, the errant widow in Premchand's Premashram, expresses her remorse by using the same phrase. Alas! my sister must be thinking me to be her rival, an eyesore and a thorn in the flesh. I am the fire that has destroyed her home. I am the bitch that has defiled her food! 4

In Prema, one of the neighbours of Purna, expresses her disapproval of the widow's friendship with Amritrai by calling her 'a bundle of poison' (Ch. 6). When Binodini is installed in Mahendra's house and develops an intimacy with Asha, Bihari calls her 'a second poison tree', thus alluding to a similar situation in Vishavriksha. Mahendra discovers Binodini secretly reading Vishavriksha in Asha's absence (Chokher Bali, Ch. 28). His imagination is set aflame when he reads the book himself and he brushes aside the rules of decorum in his pursuit of Binodini. When Binodini' s afair with Mahendra is discovered and she is disgraced, Bihari tells her:

The Transgressing Widow 97 The mischief you have done today and the words you are uttering now are largely derived-in fact stolen-from the novels you have read. Mostly m~lodramatic, theatrical.... You think that what you are saying is your own, but it is not so. It is an echo of the printing press. Had you been a simpleton, a silly, brainless girl, even then you wouldn't have been denied some love in the world-but the heroine of a play is only attractive on the stage, no one would have her at home! 5

Kunda, in Vishavriksha, is an innocent young widow in love, who becomes a transgressor by marrying another woman's husband. Rohini in Krishnakanter Uil and Binodini in Chokher Bali wilfully seduce married men; but while Rohini is destroyed by her wanton behaviour, Binodini redeems herself by subsequently loving a virtuous man and preserving her chastity. Both Kunda and Binodini combine in themselves the features of the sincere, loving woman as well as those of the Jem,n,e fata/,e who lures a man away from righteousness and endangers the world of chaste women. Kunda is at once a shy, sensitive being in need of protection as well as a sinister creature who cannot be accommodated in a normal household. Binodini is 'a fire which can light up a home as well as set it aflame' (Chokher Bali, Ch. 12). Saratchandra wrote his early novel Shubhada6 in response to Bankimchandra' s Krishnakanter UiL Lalana, a pretty, indigent widow has to support a large family without any regular income. She is like Rohini in Krishnakanter Uil whose only relative, Brahmananda, is extremely poor. Being a high-caste woman, she cannot seek employment and has to depend on the charity of her friends and neighbours. In Bankimchandra's novel, Rohini is persuaded to commit a theft by Haralal who holds out a false promise of marriage to her; in Saratchandra' s Shubhada, Lalana frankly asks her childhood sweetheart Sharadacharan to marry her; but he lacks the courage to take such a bold step. At last, finding herself at the end of her tether, Lalana disappears from home. Her sari is found on the bank of the river and it is assumed that she has drowned. She swims for miles and is finally rescued by a wealthy and whimsicallandowner, Surendranath Chaudhary, who has been cruising down the river in his luxuriously fitted barge. 7 She tells him a c~ncocted story about having survived a wreck and losing all her relatives, gives out her name as Malati and assumes a new identity as an unprotected widow in need of a job. Realizing the danger she would face as a defenceless and alone young woman in a big tity, she

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surrenders herself to Surendranath and becomes his mistress. He installs her in his garden house,. but unlike Bankimchanclra's Rohini, she remains faithful to him and though they do not marry, their relationship is a mutually satisfying one. The intertextuality between Krishnakanter Uil and Shubhada is clear from the following table. Krishnakanter Vil

Shubhada

Haridragram village The widow Rohini Wishes to marry Haralal Frustrated Tries to drown herself Rescued by Gobindalal Gobindalal desires Rohini Wife Bhramar languishes in Haridragram Rohini in Prasadpur Lives like a counesan Sends money home Discovery Seduced by Nishakar Rohini betrays Gobindalal

Haludpur village8 The widow Lalana Wishes to marry Sharadacharan Frustrated Supposedly drowned Rescued by Surendranath Surendranath desires Lalana Mistress Jayavati drowns in a boat accident Lalana in a garden house Lives like a chaste woman Sends money home Discovery Disowned by family Symbolic marriage with Surendranath Fulfilment

Violent death

In all his novels of transgression, Bankimchandra upholds traditional morality and the transgressors are punished for their lapses. In Chokher Bali, Tagore adopts .a more liberal attitude towards Binodini who suffers for her misdemeanour but is redeemed by her self-discipline and strong faith. In his novels, Saratchandra demonstrates that the norms of sexual morality cannot be applied to every situation: an extra-marital relationship may be more gratifying than ma.rriage while an incompatible marriage may oblige a woman to disregard her pativratya. In his well-researched essay entitled Narir Itihas ( 1919), Saratchandra pointed out that eighty per cent of the women who walked out of their homes were married women who took this extreme step not because of lust or greed but to escape a bondage which they could not endure (Prabhakar,

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1979: 117). In Srikanta (Bk. II), Abhaya leaves her cruel and depraved husband to live with a man who loves and needs her, boldly declaring that their relationship is in accordance with the principles of truth and humanity. In her Hindi novel Pia ( 1937), Usha Devi Mitra recreates the transgressing widows of Bankimchandra' s novels in the character of Nilima, a poor and uneducated village girl who is neglected and humiliated on account of her widowhood. She is strikingly beautiful and longs to be appreciated and loved like other women. She is seduced by the wealthy, middle-aged landowner Sukanta Chaudhary, becomes pregnant and is forced to commit suicide because Sukanta refuses to marry her. While not exonerating Nilima for her transgression, Mitra holds her family, her lover and the conventions of Hindu society responsible for her tragedy. The epithet in the title of Saratchandra' s Charitraheer1: (The Reprobate, 1917) is applicable both to Satish, a wayward young man in love with a maid-servant as well as to the beautiful and passionate young woman Kiranmoyi who is a transgressing wife and, later, a transgressing widow. Like Hira in Vishavriksha and Rohini in Krishnakanter Ui~ she is charming but amoral, a primeval force that cannot be repressed by scriptural injunctions. During the terminal illness of her impotent husband Haranchandra, she has an affair with his doctor, neglecting her duties as a housewife and nurse and charges her husband of attempting to dispossess her of his property (Ch. 14). She bec"mes infatuated with Haran's friend Upendra for the kindness and concern he shows her. However, Upendra's failure to respond to her overtures arouses her fury and impels her to seduce Dibakar and secretly migrate with him to Burma, thus alienating herself from Upendra. Charitraheen contains several allusions to Vishavriksha and Krishnakanter Uil and uses Chokher Bali as a pre-theme. The description of Kiranmoyi' s dilapidated house-with the shadow of death hanging over it-is reminiscent of Kunda's house (in Vishavriksha) where Nagendra meets her for the first time. In Charitraheen, Satish warns his friend Upendra against taking pity on Kiranmoyi by citing Vishavriksha: he reminds Upendra of the disruption in Nagendra's domestic life because of his compassion for Kunda ( Charitraheen, Ch. 13). Dibakar, the young student staying in Kiranmoyi 's house, writes a story entitled 'Visher Chhuri' (The Poisoned Knife) apparently influenced by Vishavriksha. Kiranmoyi

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entices Dibakar with her radical views on sex and her defence of Gobindalal's passion for Rohini in Krishnakanter UiL Kiranmoyi feels that Rohini could have transformed Gobindalal' s life with her love. Kiranmoyi stands for the new morality based on the needs and rights of individuals, not for a formal adherence to conventions. Kiranmoyi' s story also closely parallels that of Binodini in Chokher Bali in which the widow Binodini is desperately seeking an outlet for her emotional energy. Binodini develops a great regard for Bihari who appreciates her talents but is too reserved to respond to her liveliness. She diverts herself by flirting with Mahendra in the absence of his wife and is .c rushed by Bihari's disapproval when he arrives unexpectedly and discovers their secret. In her frustration, Binodini entices Mahendra to leave his home and family for her sake although she remains out of his reach, still searching for the elusive Bihari. Kiranmoyi, like Binodini, is capable of feeling deeply but her circumstances do not permit her to channelize her emotions in a socially acceptable manner. Brought up as an orphan in her uncle's • house, she is married off at the age of ten to a pedantic, impotent husband who imposes a harsh discipline on her. She has a keen intellect, but .has grown up without a strong emotional anchor, and is driven in contrary directions by her impulses. Deeply moved by Upendra' s kindness, she ends her illicit affair with the doctor and attends to her sick husband like a pativrata, trying to emulate the simple faith of Upendra's wife, Surabala. After the death of her husband, Kiranmoyi is again faced with a void in her life. She offers her love to Upendra but he is too upright to give her any encouragement. Frustrated· by his indifference, Kiranmoyi starts flirting with his young cousin Dibakar whom Upendra has placed in her care and who is too weak to resist her. Upendra arrives unexpectedly one day and is shocked to discover their clandestine relationship. 'Ungodly, profane viper,' he tells her, 'you cannot love anyone at all, you can only destroy people' ( Charitraheen, Ch. 33). His condemnation of her behaviour echoes Gobindalal's words to Rohini in Kishnakanter Uil (Ch. 9) and Mahendra's to Binodini in . Chokher Bali (Ch. 51). Enraged and mortified by this censure, Kiranmoyi compels Dibakar to go away with her to Burma, the ultimate haven for the outcasts of Bengali Hindu society. Dibakar meekly surrenders to her will, 'like a moth following a beetle,' though he is heartbroken to leave his home and family for a woman

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he hardly understands, and who is pushing him into an unknown world fraught with danger (Ch. 33 4). In Chokher Bali, Tagore showed, perhaps unrealistically, how Binodini is able to preserve her chastity even while living in Mahendra's liouse and travelling from place to place with him. In Charitraheen, Kiranmoyi's travails start from the moment she boards the ship for Bur111a. She is no longer a respectable Hindu widow but a part of a motley crowd which identifies her as a woman eloping with her lover. She is infuriated by Dibakar who is not ready for physical intimacy with her, and tells him that she will not let him remain innocent and take all the blame herself. She is not gentle and affectionate with him like the maternal heroines of Indian romantic fiction. 'Her kiss is· poisoned, her laughter is cruel ... her arm is like a snake on his chest' (Ch. 34). He is frightened and repelled by her passionate energy, which forces him to surrender. Within six months their relationship turns sour. They live in rank poverty in a disreputable neighbourhood where Kiranmoyi has to ward off prospective clients who try to proposition her. She is disgusted by Dibakar' s lust and there are violent quarrels between them. She is rescued from becoming a common prostitute by Satish who arrives to take the runaway couple back to Calcutta. Dibakar is reinstated in his family but Kiranmoyi, like Hira in Vishavriksha, becomes an outcast, wandering about in the streets, lost and insane, an object of pity and ridicule (Ch. 44). Writing for early twentiet~century middle class readers, Saratchandra was compelled to ·show the Hindu widow being punisl1ed for her transgression. However, the sub-text of his novel seems to justify her search for personal happiness and arouses the reader's sympathy for her courage and strength. Although Upendra cannot accept Kiranmoyi because of his narrow view of propriety, Satishwho has seen more of the seamy side of life-adopts her as l1is sister and stands by her even after she becomes an outcast. The motif of runaway lovers in Burma is taken up again by Saratchandra in Srikanta in which Abhaya, an abandoned wife, begins living with Rohini Babu. Their relationship is stable and Abhaya looks forward to future generations building relationships on the basis of humanity and love instead of outdated conventions which have lost their relevance. Saratchandra's novels had a profound influence on a whole new generation of writers who propagated a new morality

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The Hindu Widow

based not on the old principles of chastity and conjugal fidelity but on honesty and truth. 9 It was Premchand who set new trends in the theme of the transgressing widow in his two Hindi novels, Prati,l!Ja and Premashram. His attitude towards erring widows was more charitable than that of the novelists in Bengal who, for all their apparent sympathy, often betrayed an unconscious hostility towards these women and condemned them for being passionate and rebellious. Premchand believed that human beings, both men and women, were. weak and liable to err but had the potential to redeem themselves if they so desired. A transgressing widow was more likely to be a victim of circumstances rather than an agent of evil. As Purna, the widow in Pratil!Ja, exclaims: How easy it is to malign a widow! People are quick to form the worst opinions about her. As though evil desires are the natural outcome of widowhood. As though all the weakness and wickedness erupts in one's heart as soon as one becomes a widow! 10

Premchand puts the responsibility of the widows' lapse squarely on the men who seduce them. The widows in his novels are innocent of the evil designs of their manipulators. They also pay the penalty for their transgression in the form of remorse and social censure though ultimately they are shown redeeming themselves by conscious self-control. In Pratigya and Premashram, Premchand demonstrates that widows are not naturally passionate and rebellious, but being alone and unprotected, they become easy targets for unprincipled men. He warns them against pride, which leads to self-delusion, excessive emotionalism in the garb of religion and alienation from a group. All these make a person wlnerable and prone to errors of judgement. Conversely, when the transgessing widow comes out of her self-impose·d isolation, she is shown to be on the road to recovery. In Pratigya, Premchand reworked the story of Prema, keeping the same names for the main characters but changing some of the situations of his earlier novel. In Prema, the poor brahmin widow Purna is offered protection and financial support by the social reformer Amritrai who intends to marry her. In Pratigya, the poor brahmin widow Purna is given shelter by L~la Badriprasad and seduced by his son, Kamalaprasad, who wins her over with a show of love and sympathy. Kamala's wife Sumitra, a strong-willed woman battling for her right to live with self-respect and dignity,

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has no illusions about Kamala's mean and selfish nature. She warns Puma sincerely about the danger from men like her husband who are in search of poor and innocent women whom they can easily seduce with sweet words and no financial commitment. Despite the warning, Puma in her simplicity accepts Kamala's friendship which she considers har111less until he decoys her to a secluded bung~low and attempts to rape her. Puma escapes after a struggle and takes refuge in Amritrai's Vanita Ashram,.a shelter for widows and abandoned women. As a member of a group which is engaged in many purposeful activities, she once again finds meaning in her existence. Kamala is exposed and humiliated for his misconduct, and ·is banished to their village by his father. Moved by his remorse, Sumitra relents and accompanies him to the village to start a new life. In contrast to the desperately poor widows looking for economic and emotional security, Gayatri in Premcl]and's Premashram stands out as the sole mistress of a large estate. She is an inexperienced and fun-loving young widow, who frankly enjoys all the comforts and privileges a ric:h woman has access to. Since she was married to an elderly and apathetic man, she is ignorant about passion. However, her abundant confidence in her own virtue makes her wlnerable to the wiles of crafty men. As a typica~ member of her class and lacking in social responsibility, she unwittingly becomes an instrument of exploitation at the hands of her unscrupulous and ambitious brother-in-law, Gyanshankar, who succeeds in winning her absolute trust and gaining control over her mind and wealth. Like a cunning opponent, he discovers her weaknesses and gradually breaks through her defences, all the while pretending to be her friend and well-wisher. He alienates her from her sister Vidya, her family and her peasant subjects, taking over the management of her estate and becoming her spiritual guru so that she is completely in his power, even though she considers herself a free agent, fully in control of her life. While romantic novelists often suggest religion as a possible channel for the widow's emotional energy, Premchand.has a more secular approach. In Premashram, he vehemently condemns the hypocrisy of religious practices, in particular the emotionalism of Vaishnavite devotion. He demonstrates how Gayatri, so confident of her moral integrity, is slowly seduced by Gyanshankar into the decadent world ofVaishnavism. She joins the religious congregations

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where people indulge in orgies of devotional enthusiasm, stays for long periods in Vrindavan, leaving the responsibilities of her estate to others and enacts the role of the lovelorn Radha in theatrical perfo, 111ances. Carried away by the eroticism of the Krishna-Radha relationship, Gayatri begins to surrender herself to her fantasy and retreats into an imaginary world where she is Radha, yearning for ~nion with Krishna (Ch. 40). While Tagore and Saratchandra use Vaishnava symbolism to give an ethereal colour to their novels of socially unacceptable love, Premchand regards it as an unhealthy escape from social responsibility even a cover for exploitation and licentiousness. As a manager of Gayatri, s estate, Gyanshankar tyrannizes over the peasants and extorts money from them in the name of religion. Gayatri, on the other hand, retreats into · the twilight world of devotion where the distinction between morality and immorality is blurred. The dam of her wifely devotion, which had been built on the foundation of self-respect and family honour had been washed away in the flood of devotional love. After all, true devotion never gives any importance to social constraints. Now she freely enjoyed those emotions and fancies which she had earlier considered as dangerous as the flames of fire. Now she was not • satisfied with the mere spectacle of the amorous sport of Krishna. She wanted to participate in the sport herself. 11

Directing the full force of his irony against bhakti or the frenzied devotion to a personal god, Premchand shows it up as a means of deception and self-deception, an indulgence that weakens the will and destroys the ability to resist evil; Gayatri is prevented from surrendering to Gyanshankar only by the timely arrival of her sister Vidya who acts as her conscience and holds her back from the brink of the precipice (Ch. .50). She realizes that she has behaved treacherously and irresponsibly, alienated her sister from her husband and destroyed their marriage. She is ready to disengage herself from the relationship; but Gyanshankar once again establishes control over her will and proposes that she could retire to Vrindavan 12 with him after entrusting her estate to his son Mayashankar whom she should adopt and groom for the purpose. Unlike other Indian novelists, Premchand does not glorify maternal sentiment as something that makes a woman selfless and compassionate. Gayatri's attempt.to become a mother by adopting Mayashankar as her heir is a kind of selfishness that makes her

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blind to the feelings of her sister Vidya, who, in a fit of despair, commits suicide. Vidya's death marks a turning point in Gayatri's life. As she reproaches herself for the tragedy and reviews her life, she comes out of her self-imposed isolation. Turning her attention to the people around her, she soon begins to understand Gyanshankar's treachery. The women in the family help her to evaluate her past behaviour and counsel her about the future course of action. After .going through intense remorse, Gayatri sets out on a long journey of self-mortification, giving up her estate ·and all the things that fo11nerly gave her pleasure, to visit holy places in search of peace. Finally she comes face to face with her father, now a great saclhu, who calls her to him. However, overcome with guilt and shame, she is unable to take up the challenge of the new spiritual life he symbolizes. She leaps from the high mountain into the water of a deep pond below 'which hides her bones from the cruel scrutiny of the world' (Ch. 57). She is, thus, simultaneously absolved of her guilt, and punished for it. Gyanshankar's dream of power and prosperity is also shattered when his son M~yashankar renounces his claim to Gayatri's property and returns it to the people who work on the land. Utterly defeated and friendless, he drowns himself in the current of the Ganges with no one to mourn his death. Premchand makes it amply clear that Gayatri's principal weakness is her pride which comes from her being a member of the rich, landowning class. It keeps her out of touch with the common people and makes her forget her responsibility towards them. She wants to be kind and generous to her subjects; but her agents make it impossible for her to reach out to them. Thus, she lives like the other members of her ·c lass, spending lavishly on temples, religious conventions, charity and grand celebrations to enhance her own image. When the shadow of Vidya's suicide falls on her, she realiz~s her alienation from the people and wants to shake off the property she feels she has had no moral right to possess. She does not resolve the problems in her own life; but by transferring her estate to Mayashankar and placing him in the care of Premshankar, the Gandhian leader, she initiates the process which would return the land to its tillers. In this novel, Premchand de-mystifies bhakti, maternal love, and romantic passion-all so greatly celebrated in Bengali novels. He shows that bhakti releases a person's emotional energy but dqes

I 06

The Hindu Widow

not elevate him. Bhakti without knowledge and self-discipline is just a state of emotional excitement, dangerous for the individual as well as for society. 'The path of bhakti is easy but full of thorns. The path of knowledge is difficult but clear' (Prema.shram, Ch. 53). Like bhakti, love is also perceived by Premchand in rational terms. Love is seen as a natural and powerful emotion which seeks an outlet. But for it to be lasting, complete trust between individuals is -n ecessary. Gyanshankar does not love Gayatri but wants her in his power. Gayatri, on the other hand, lo,1es only herself. Her devotion to her husband is not based on any real, shared experience, and Gyanshankar only pampers her pride and encourages her to disregard everything except her own impulses. Her desire to adopt her sister's child is also an expression of her greed rather than any genuine maternal concern. She can only find herself again by coming to ter1ns with reality and accepting her social responsibilities like an adult. Indian novelists described, with acute sensitivity, the frustration and despair of a widow's life: the sense of lost opportunities and unfulfilled desires. These seem to have echoed, at a deeper level, their own frustrations under oppressive colonial rule which gave them few opportunities to express themselves and utilize their potential properly (Poddar, 1977: 66). Confronted with Nagendra's passionate appeal, Kunda cries piteously because she cannot accept his offer; and yet she is unable to tear herself away from him and accept death instead of life ( Vishauriksha, Ch. 16) . The images of fire, burning and thirst are frequently evoked to describe the state of a young widow's frustration. Rohini is reduced to tears when she hears a cuckoo calling out to its mate in spring. She feels that she has been deprived of all 'the beauty and happiness scattered in the world' (Krishnakanter Uil, Ch. 6). 'There is a frre burning in my heart all the time,' she says to Gobindalal. 'It is making my life unbearable~ There is cool water in front of me but I cannot quench my thirst in this life' ( Krishnakanter Ui~ Ch. 17). Binodini expresses her despair in her letter to Mahendra, 'I have no right to love or be loved. That is why I play at love to lighten my sorrow' (Chokher Bali, Ch. 33) . 'All the rivers in the world cannot quench the thirst Qf the .chatak who must yet yearn for the raindrop' ( Chokher Bali, Ch. 22). ·Kiranmoyi tells Dibakar, 'Can a fish in the water.know how one dies of thirst in a desert' ( Charitraheen, Ch. 31). To Gayatri, Gyanshankar' s ardent words are like 'cool water to a person parched

The Transgressing Widow

I 07

with thirst' (Premashram, Ch. 50). Puma is disturbed when she is given shelter in Lala Badriprasad's house. Premchand comments: Destiny was playing a cruel game with her. It was offering toys to her after taking away her life's treasure. It was showing her a beautiful garden after blinding her two eyes. It was pushing her into the ocean to swim after cutting off both her hands. 15 ·

Except for Gayatri, all the other fictional widows are indigent, and one of the reasons for their transgression is their need to escape from poverty or their desire for material security. Hira is forced to work as a· maid but longs to live like her mistress. She is always on the lookout for the opportunity that would relieve her of the necessity to work ( Vishavriksha). Rohini, living with her impoverished uncle, nurses a secret desire to marry a rich man; but as that seems impossible, she becomes Gobindalal's concubine (Krishnakanter Uil). Unable to endure the misery at home, Lalana runs away and becomes the mistress of Surendranath ( Shubhada). Binodini's life in the wilderness of her husband's village is dreary and uncomfortable. When she comes to stay with Rajlakshmi in the affluence of Mahendra' s establishment, she is excited at the thought of what she might have enjoyed, had she been the mistress of so much wealth and luxury ( Chokher Bali). Kiranmoyi lives in a dilapidated old house and has to accept financial help from her husband's doctor in exchange for sexual favours. She is always afraid that she will be thrown out on the streets if her husband deprives her of his property. She falls in love with Upendra because he is sympathetic to her plight and promises to stand by her( Charitraheen). Puma is ~aken in by Kamalaprasad's show of sympathy because she is a penniless young widow who has no means to satisfy her simplest needs (Pratigya). However, economic hardship as a reason for the widow's downfall, though recognized, is underplayed in these novels. The emphasis is on the moral weakness of the widow who cannot come to terms with her poverty and loneliness. While the positive qualities of the transgressing widow are not disregarded, they are presented as being overshadowed by the perceived moral flaw in her characterher assertiveness, rebelliousness and the desire for power and dominance which show through her physical appearance, her demeanour and her relationships with people. Bankimchandra's Hira and Rohini, Tagore's Binodini, and Saratchandra's Kiranmoyi are beautiful and sensuous widows, chafing

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The Hindu Widow

under the bur~en of poverty and longing to taste forbidden pleasures. Their sexuality is apparent in their appearance and movements. Hira has 'a s1nooth complexion, large eyes, a face like the moon framed in clouds, hair like snakes hanging with their hoods raised' (Vishavriksha). 14 Rohini is described as a woman in the full bloom of youth with her beauty 'brimming over like the full moon in autumn.' Her lips are red with betel, there are bangles on her wrists, her sari has a border, her hair is coiled neatly in a long, lovely, snake-like coiffure on her shoulder. The brass pitcher under her arm sways with her swaying gait.... Her two feet tall softly on the ground, one after another like flowers falling from a tree. The beautiful Rohini comes to fetch water, lighting up the pool, swinging, swaying, gliding brightly like a ship with full sails. 15

Even old Krishnakant is bewitched by her moonlike face and her curly snakelike locks, he saw in his opium-induced trance (Ch. 13). Binodini' s personality is described as 'sensuous' and 'provocative.' She is 'a gay butterfly,' an accomplished and dazzling actress. Both Mahendra and Bihari feel the power of her seductive beauty and succumb to her charm. In Charitraheen, Satish and Upendra are dazzled by Kiranmoyi's beauty. To Upendra she appears like 'a fire which should be seen and not touched. One who dares to touch her will die' (Ch. 25). In other words, a widow's sexuality is perceived by the male writers and their protagonists as a great danger to men and to the stability of society. Besides being supremely conscious of their physical attractions, these widows are indifferent to the code regarding dress, food and conduct, and tend to indulge thems~lves in forbidden pleasures. It is this arrogance which leads them towards errors of judgment and sin. In Vishvriksha, Bankimchand~a describes with gentle irony Hira' s habit of dressing like a married woman, stealing her mistress's perfumes, singing in secret, playing pranks on people and 'teaching little girls games about marriage' (Ch. 15). Rohini also takes an inordinate interest in her appearance, in cooking, making ornaments and dressing up brides (Krishnakanter Uit Ch. 3). In Premchand's Prem.ashram, Gayatri is supremely proud of her status and her virtue, and has no hesitation in dressing up, going out, enjoying the pleasures of good living and the company of men who flatter and entertain her. On one occasion, she is persuaded to go to the theatre with her brother-in-law Gyanshankar while her sister Vidya remains at home. She is shocked to realize

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I 09

that the only women present in the hall are prostitutes, and that her escort also loo~ upon her as readily accessible (Ch. 10). In Chokher Bali, Binodini reads novels and dreams of the passionate love described in them. She takes a vicarious pleasure in Asha' s relationship with her husband, dressing up and tutoring the young bride, writing love letters to her husband on her behalf, and virtually directing their intimate scenes. These pleasure-loving widows are piqued to see ordinary women enjoying a life of ease and enjoyment while they have to endure hardships and social restrictions. Hira, who Humayun Kabir ( 1968: 23) feels is the real heroine of Vishauriksha, is vexed by the interest Nagendra and Debendra take in the 'silly little Kunda' (Ch. 20). The consciousness of her inferior social status makes her jealous and discontented. She feels that if she had the privileges enjoyed by Kunda or Suryamukhi, she could outshine both of them by her natural intelligence and good looks. Rationalizing her antipathy towards Suryamukhi, she says: I am angry with Suryamukhi because she is happy and I am unhappy. She is great and I am small; she is the mistress and I am her servant. That is why I am angry with her; that is why I am jealous. 16

Rohini resentfully compares her lot with that of Gobindalal' s wife Bhramar who is plain, without accomplishments and yet enjoys so much happiness (Krishnakanter Ui~ Ch. 7). Her jealousy impels her to seduce Gobindalal and destroy Bhramar' s marriage. Nilima, in Pia, is jealous of her sister Ka\jta who is being educate·d and groomed for marriage, while she is condemned, in spite of her beauty, to a dreary existence. Tagore elaborates this element in the character of Binodini who feels that she has been deprived by · Asha of the privilege that rightfully belonged to her. She says to herself: This happiness, this passionate ardour of the husband was my due and should have been mine. I could have ruled this house like a queen, could have made this husband a slave and transformed both the household and the husband into something wonderful from its present, shabby, silly state. What I was denied and deprived of now belongs to this slip of a girl, this silly little play doll. 17

Resentful of l1aving been rejected in favour of Asha and failing in her attempt to secure the good opinion of Bihari, she gives vent to her frustration.

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Like the enraged black bee which stings whatever comes in its way, so Binodini, mad with rage, prepared to wreak her vengeance on the world around her, a world which seemed bent on thwarting her, spiting her. Were all her longings, all her endeavour doomed to frustration? If all happiness were denied her, if she was condemned to a fruitless, barren existence, then the only course left for her to relieve her frustration was to defeat and drag into dust all those who had cheated her of her right to be happy, distorting the graceful flowering of her womanhood, robbing her of her natural, rightful love. 18 •

From the patriarchal point of view, the supreme flaw in the character of a transgressing widow is the impulse to subdue and dominate others. For this she has to be penalized. In Vishavriksha, Hira uses all her resources to get De bendra in her power. She senses his weakness for Kunda, and tries to seduce and tantalize him by promising to hand Kunda over to him, yet thwarts his expectations every time. A man of low cunning, Debendra gets the better of her and renders her powerless. In Krishnakanter Ui~ Bankimchandra gives a humorous account of Rohini practising the power of her seductive glances on the pet cat (Ch. 3). She seeks to win over Haralal first. But since he is a hard-headed cynic, she has to admit defeat. Gobindalal is a more pliable young man. Rohini prevails upon his sympathy and induces him to run away with her. However, when Nishakar appears in Prasadpur, she cannot resist the urge to test her powers on him. After all, which professional hunter would not aim his arrow at a deer, roaming before his eyes-which woman would not want to conquer a man who is worth conquering? The lion kills its prey but does not consume all of it. A woman too, conquers a man, just to raise her flag of victory. 19

The metaphor of hunting is used, once again, by Tagore to describe Binodini's conflict. She says to herself: 'Was any woman ever in such a predicament? Do I wish to die or to destroy? Am I the hunter or the hunted? I wish I knew.' But whether she wanted to destroy or be destroyed, this much she knew that she desperately needed Mahendra. Her flaming dart must strike him down. There was no escape for him. He must come back to her. 20

In Premashram, Gyanshankar is the hunter and Gayatri the prey. He lays a snare for her and waits patiently to track her down. He enjoyed it in the same way as a hunter enjoys stalking his prey or a player enjoys defeating his opponent. He did not love her but wanted to have her in his power. 21

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In Pratigya as well as in Premashram, the man is the active agent in the transgression: he ferrets out the weakness in the woman's character in order to subjugate her. Puma's simplicity, her gullibility and innocence make her susceptible to Kamalaprasad's duplicity, while Gayatri' s pride and confidence in her unassailable virtue blind her to the evil in Gyanshankar. Neither Purna nor Gayatri are passionate by nature. They are lured away from their dharma by imperceptible degrees because of their gradual alienation from their friends and well-wishers. It takes Gyanshankar more than a decade of patient effort to break through Gayatri' s defences and overpower her will. A widow's isolation makes her liable to misjudge the behaviour of people in relation to herself and be deceived by a predator who appears in the guise of a friend. The relationship of Gayatri and Gyanshankar offers an ironical contrast to Binodini' s devotion for Bihari which is shown as helping her to transcend worldly desires. Gayatri imagines herself as experiencing a mystical emotion while actually succumbing to the passions she had kept in check with the strength of her rationality. Binodini moves from the mundane to the spiritual, Gayatri descends from the sublime to the mundane. She was a simple and honourable woman, but there was a bubbling spring of love in her heart which had so far been buried under a thick layer of pride and not finding an outlet remained in a state of stagnation. This stagnant state was responsible for her chastity. Now that pride had be~n removed by devotional love and the spring was flowing with a strong current. She imagined herself to be a cowherd girl and Gyanshankar to be Krishna. 22

In most of the novels under study, the initial adulterous act is not described. This cannot be simply ascribed to the prudishness of the bourgeois audience. Rather, 'the invisible, inaudible deed becomes a silence and an absence in the text that gradually spreads, effectively negating what is made audible and present' (Tanner, 1979: 13). Kunda's marriage is never consummated; Rohini disappears quietly from Haludpur; Binodini, Puma and Oayatri miraculously retreat from the brink of sexual surrender; Suman remains chaste even in a brothel; and Savitri and Kiranmoyi are able to extricate themselves even from clients who have paid the money and entered their room to molest them. Bankimchandra is more frank in describing Hira's seduction by Debendranath. This was probably because she is a . maidservant and hence an accepted target for illicit sex ( Vishavriksha). In general, however,

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there is a reluctance to acknowledge that the sexual act has taken place, with or without the consent of the woman, for that reifies her in the eyes of a conventional reader as an object which can" be bought, used, robbed or stolen. Saratchandra attempted to come to terms with this contradiction in his early novel Shubhada. In this work he described, in explicit terms, the widow Lalana' s passionate enjoyment of her physical surrender to Surendranath, unclouded by the consciousness of sin. She is not the same person, she is not Lalana, she is not Malati. She is only what she is at the moment: the eternal companion of Surendranath, his beloved forever. She is Sita, she is Savitri. But why name .Sita and Savitri? She is Radha, she is Chandravali. 2~ And what is the harm in that? What is honour or dishonour in the face of such happiness and peace, in the very lap of heaven?24

Saratchandra was frank about the importance of sexual passion in human life. He saw it as a driving force behind human actions and as one of the important ingredients of happiness. However, he did not publish Shubhada in his lifetime, knowing that it would arouse controversy. He gave the novel a happy ending and repeated, though less explicitly, in several subsequent works, his original message t~at personal happiness and personal integrity were not dependent on current notions of sexual morality. While a transgressing wife could be reconciled to her husband25 and reinstated in the family, all doors are usually closed for a transgressing widow wanting to return to nor111al life. She may embrace death like Kunda or Gayatri, lose her sanity like Hira or Kiranmoyi, seek refuge in an ashram like Puma, retire to a holy place like Binodini or become a courtesan, but she is forever cast out from mainstream society or the community of householders. Though suffering is shown to be inevitable for transgressing men, the punishment for their extra-marital adventures is much lighter. Nagendranath is reconciled with Suryamukhi, Gobindalal is forgiven by his wife, Mahendra is reinstated in his household and Dibakar is taken back into the family. Men are punished for crimes other than that of infidelity: Pashupati is killed for betraying his country, Gobindalal is tried for murder, and Debendranath contracts a disease as a result of his promiscuity. Patriarchy lays down different standards of conduct for men and women,• a fact which is assumed by most writers. In Premchand' s works, however, there is a conscious attempt not only to hold the men responsible for leading women •

The Transgressing Wulow 113 astray but also to make them undergo similar punishments. If Puma has to withdraw into an ashram after her molestation, Kamalaprasad is also banished to a village away from the comforts of city life (in Pratigya), and though Gyanshankar gains control of Gayatri 's wealth, he is rejected by his own son for whose sake he had compromised his integrity. His punishment is worse than Gayatri' s for he is driven to suicide without experiencing, unlike her, the recovery of the spirit (Premashram). The emphasis in novels like Cholcher Bali, PratigJa and Premashram is on the redemption of the transgressor through suffering. Binodini, . Puma and Gayatri are transformed by their own efforts into models of patience and self-denial. When Binodini realizes the damage caused by her recklessness, she sets out on a course of expiation, denying herself every comfort and luxury. She observes all the taboos imposed on a Hindu widow. She eats only one meal a day, wears a coarse cotton sari and 'no longer indulges her fertile gift of wit and repartee' ( Chokher Bali, Ch. 50). She subdues her spirit too, renouncing not only her relationship with Mahendra but also with Bihari, asking the forgiveness of her rival Asha, nursing Rajlakshmi and restoring the harmony of her household, and finally giving up all worldly co11cems to accept the life of a recluse. After Vidya' s death, Gayatri too proceeds to mortify herself. She gives up every indulgence: fine clothes, ornaments, good food and even the habit of chewing betel leaves. She starts wearing white saris, eats plain food,. walks barefoot. She even surrenders her claim on Mayashankar as well as the estate which she feels she had received from her husband as a reward for her pativratya. She moves from one holy place to another in search of peace, rejecting the worldliness and hypocrisy of organized · religious groups. Finally, before her death, she is absolved of her sin by her father (Prem.ashram, Ch. 57). At one level, the theme of transgression brings into focus the nature of human weakness, sin, punishment and the possibility of redemption. At another level, it calls into question the rules and social institutions which compel people to rebel against them. A transgressing wife who defies her husband or a transgressing widow who comes between a husband and wife, underscores the many gaps and fissures existing within the institution of marriage itself which is the basis of social and familial organization. While . educated middle class Indians were striving to create a better

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partnership between husbands and wives in the nuclear family and to improve the status of women, they were also becoming increasingly aware of marital incompatibility arising from differences in age, background, temperament, need~ and aspirations. They also realized the inegalitarian nature of the institution of marriage which was skewed in favour of the husband and obliged the wife to depend on him for all her needs. In the novels under consideration, the widow is the outsider, invariably for rning the third point in a triangle, with the husband and the wife fo1111ing the other two. Though the widow is cast out in the end and harmony is once again restored between the couple, the narrative exposes the inadequacy of the husband-wife relationship in the marriage. The following table illustrates the ubiquitous presence of the triangular relationship among the protagonists in many novels. The Text

Husband

Wife

Widow

Vishavriksha

Nagendranath

Suryamukhi

Kunda

Debendranath

Haimavati

Hira, Kunda

Krishnakanter Vil

Gobindalal

Bhramar

Rohini

Chokher Bali

Mahendra

Asha

Binodini

Pia

Sukanta

Kavita

Nilima

Charitraheen

Upendra

Surabala

Kiranmoyi

Pratigya

Kamalaprasad

Sumitra

Puma

Premashram

Gyanshankar

Vidya

Gayatri

Jogajog

Madhusudan

Kumudini

Shyama

26

The transgressing widow, thus, calls into question the basis of conjugal love and the ideal of femininity as enshrined in patriarchal Hindu ideology. The supreme virtue of a wife was supposed to consist of her physical chastity, and her complete subjugation to the will of her husband and his family. Early marriage, confinement within the husband's home, and the complete segregation of the sexes were meant to ensure the purity and subordination of the wife. With the impact of Western education and culture, young Indians aspired for conjugal relationships based on love, respect and compatibility-though without disturbing the system of arranged marriages and the power relationships in the family. The husband

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expected to assume the role of the loving master, and the educated and mature wife was supposed to be his 'willing' and loyal subject (Sarkar, T., 1992: 225). The contradictions inherent in this position gave rise to a profusion of narratives problematizing the question of adjustment in marriage. The novels of this period, while overtly supporting marriage as an institution that was fair about the needs of the essential masculine and feminine natures, actually ended up revealing the incompatibility between individuals married to one another. In Bankimchandra's Vishavri:ksha, the twenty-six-year old Suryamukhi is an educated and mature wife, a good friend and companion of her husband. Still, Nagendranath is powerfully attracted towards the innocent charm of the thirteen-year-old Kunda. He is shown as becoming so obsessed with her that Suryamukhi is compelled to give her consent for his second marriage. 27 Suryamukhi expresses her anguish in a letter to her sister-in-law Kamalmoni and requests that Kunda be taken away. However, Kamalmoni, anxious about her own marital security, · exhorts Suryamukhi to trust her husband and keep her troubles to herself even if it means putting an end to her life (Ch. 11). Unable to bear the humiliation of being rejected, Suryamukhi walks out on Nagendra, rejecting him on moral grounds. She does not return to her parental home, the usual haven for frustrated wives, but takes to the road, indifferent to the dangers lurking beyond the enclosed space of the home. Nagendra has to sacrifice Kunda and surrender his sexuality before he can recall her. The novel concludes with the return of Suryamukhi and · her reconciliation with Nagendra, an impossibility in traditional Hindu society, for Suryamukhi' s departure is in itself a transgression that patriarchy cannot pardon. The episode serves to emphasize the fact that passion has no place in marriage which has to be accepted as a social obligation and as involving compromise. Kunda dies, but her memory is shown lingering in the minds of the couple as a symbol of the romance lacking in their own relationship. Nagendra's cousin Debendra, a promising youth, is married off to a zamindar' s daughter, Haimavati, to salvage the dwindling family fortune. She is ill-favoured, garrulous, .foul-mouthed and selfcentred. There is no compatibility between her and Debendra, and . no possibility of a satisfactory sexual relationship. She is also violent and abusive. In sheer disgust, Debendra goes away to

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Calcutta where he starts sowing his wild oats, drowning his frustration in smoking, drinking, debauchery and all the ways of 'modem' society which ruin his health and character. He returns to his village only on condition that a garden house be built for his use because he does not want to enter the family house while his wife is alive. He becomes a menace for all the unprotected females in the region, particularly young widows like Hira arrd Kunda. Though Bankimchandra calls him 'a sinful beast', he blames his conduct on the unfortunate marriage his family has arranged for him. It is this that has made him an exile from decent society and a moral pariah (Ch. 10). If Suryamukhi is too old to hold Nagendranath 's interest, Bhramar, Gobindalal's wife in Krishnakanter Uit is too young. She is a dark, scrawny child who plays with dolls and runs about the house teasing the seivants. Though Gobindalal is fond of her, she cannot fulfil his adult sexual needs. He is irresistibly drawn towards Rohini, the clever and sensuous widow, and their strong mutual attraction breaks up Gobindalal's marriage. Traumatized by Gobindalal's desertion, Bhramar assumes the role and responsibilities of a mature woman. She seeks her husband out with the help of her father, saves him from a harsh verdict in the court, forgives him for his infidelity and dies with her head in his lap. However, their marriage, for all practical purposes is dissolved and cannot be saved. Bhramar is shown as rejecting him as being 'unworthy of her devotion and her trust' (Ch. 23). The traditional ideal of pativratya is, thus, modified in the case of Bhramar as well as Suryamukhi. They are good wives but also self-respecting individuals who do not meekly accept a violation of the marital contract, protesting against it openly. The wife's devotion is presented as being not unconditional: it can be counted upon only as long as the husband fulfils his obligation towards her. The Indian :writer's disapproval of unrestrained sexuality even within marriage is clearly evident in Tagore's Chokher Bali. The passion of Asha and Mahendra is doomed because it cannot find a place in the workaday world. It becomes an obstacle in Mahenclra's studies, Asha' s duties as a housewife and the smooth functioning of the household. Binodini, excited by its intensity, ·joins in the game: 'Like the waters of the Ganga and the Yamuna, the two women mingled their charms into one overwhelming seduction' (Ch. 15). Asha's realization of the extent of the damage marks a

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turning point in her life. She renounces her sexuality in order to achieve the position of a good wife. As a young bride she had been the object of Mahendra's lust, Bihari's secret passion and Binodini's jealousy. However, as she assumes the role of a mature, responsible woman, she is able to handle these relationships with poise and dignity. Both Binodini and Asha are redeemed when they renounce passion and engage themselves in the disinterested service of others. A variation of the theme of the incompatible marriage and the adulterous widow is to be found in Tagore 's Jogajog (The Coincidence, 1929) . Madhusudan, a rich and coarse-grained businessman, loves his wife Kumudini and desires her physical as well as emotional surrender. However, being temperamentally opposed to him, she is unable to respond to -his advances. As she recoils from him and withdraws into herself, Madhusudan's widowed sister-in-law Shyama steps in her place-for she is coarse and earthy like Madhusudan, and can respond to his needs much better than the refined and sensitive Kumudini. Madhusudan and Shyama are well-matched: they quarrel and make up everyday like an old married couple, while Kumudini gradually becomes the outsider. Her tragedy is that being the mother of Madhusudan's heir, she is compelled to return to her husband. However, the tragedy of Shyama, the widow, is equally significant. She is used and cast aside when Madhusudan' s purpose has been seived. As a forward, opportunistic woman, Shyama has not been presented in a sympathetic light;· but the novel functions as a perceptive critique of the institution of marriage which can tr-a p and destroy people by forcing them into insufferable situations. Premchand's critique of marriage is based on the moral . incompatibility of the partners rather than on the excess or absence of passion. Sumitra in Pratigya and Vidya in Premashram are honest, upright women but are married to unprincipled men for whom they have no respect. Sumitra is openly critical of Kamalacharan' s mean and miserly nature, and his. inability to love anyone but himself. She keeps to her own room and uses her own money for her personal needs, refusing to accept anything from him because she distrusts his manipulative nature. She is reconciled to him only when he is punished for his misconduct and rendered harmless. Like Sumitra, Vidya also keeps aloof from Gyanshankar and his activities (Premashram). She stays on in Benaras with his family

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while he is away in Gorakhpur as a manager of Gayatri's estate, and turns a blind eye to his growing intimacy with Gayatri. She protests vehemently when her father criticizes Gyanshankar in her presence; but in her heart she has no respect for him and tries to warn Gayatri against associating with him. On discovering the truth about him, she cries out 'I cannot have any relationship with such a murderer, traitor and hypocrite. It is a sin to see his face, to live with him and to be called his wife' (Ch. 50). Her suicide is her fmal verdict on his actions: she dissociates herself completely from his plans and condemns him as a villain who has forfeited his own son for the sake of material gain. In Usha Devi Mitra's Pia (19S7), Sa1kanta Chaudhary fraudulently marries the younger sister Kavita while having a clandestine affairs with Kavita' s older, widowed sister Nilima. Both the girls are in his power as they are from a very poor family. Nilima is deluded by self-love and vanity but Kavita, who is more perceptive, is forced into silence for the sake of the family. When a crisis is created on account ofNilima's pregnancy, Kavita speaks up in her widowed sister's defence, and exhorts Sukanta to many her and acknowledge his child. Finally, the widow commits suicide and the husband has to tum to the wife for support. He wants to leave home forever after bequeathing his wealth to his wife; but she persuades him to stay and fulfil his social obligations in a spirit of selfless detachment. Thus, in novel after novel, the wife and the widow are polarized as two aspects of femininity as defined by patriarchy. The wife is well-entrenched within the family and society, and has to pay the price for her security by sacrificing her individuality in the interest of her husband and his kin. She cannot challenge his supreme authority, though her pent-up resentment may find expression in withdr_awal, desertion and even suicide. The widow, on the other hand, is a social pariah, struggling to swvive on her own resources. She is a relatively free agent, particularly if she has no family ties. However, if she defies social conventions, she has to face total ostracism. Ultimately, both the wife and the widow are oppressed by the same rules which demand absolute subjugation the wife enjoys certain obvious compensations for her sacrifice; the widow, none. The 'good', faithful wife is, thus, one who is traditional, homely, domesticated and content within her limited sphere. She obeys

The Transgressing Widow 119 her husband and in-laws, manages the household, and looks after the comfort of the family and guests. She does not ask for fine clothes, jewellery or outings; nor does she spend too much time in reading or conversation. For example, Upendra's wife Surabala in Saratchandra's Charitraheen, is a simple, childlike woman with absolute trust in God, the scriptures and her own husband over whom she fusses like a doting mother. She stands in sharp contrast to the bold and unconventional Kiranmoyi who has supreme confidence in herself and can bend others to her will. Saratchandra did not develop Surabala' s character but let her die early, leaving Upendra disconsolate. Though in her life and death, Surabala is victorious over Kiranmoyi, the latter overshadows the former completely by her brilliant individuality (Sengupta, 1950: 18). Asha, the child-wife in Chokher Bali, is a 'benign planet' in contrast to the 'Saturn' Binodini who has 'scattered to the winds • the devotion of friends, the bonds of wedded love, the peace and sanctity of the family' (Ch. 37). While Asha is timid and docile, Binodini is bold, self-willed and outgoing. Asha gets entrenched in domesticity but Binodini moves ot1t towards freedom and selfdependence. In Premashram, Gyanshankar's wife Vidya prefers staying at home though her father has put a carriage and driver at her disposal. She is neither fond of outings, nor the theatre or music but takes more · pleasure in cooking and needlework. Her face had become pale because of staying indoors and alone. She often had headaches. She was a very beautiful and delicate woman but was untouched by vanity. She had no taste for dressing up and adorning herself. It amazed her how Gayatri spent so much of her time in personal embellishments. 28

Vidya 'pales into insignificance before Gayatri's brilliance as a lamp before an electric light' (Ch. 49). Like Surabala and Asha, she sacrifices her individuality in order to fulfil her role as a wife and mother. In these novels, the wife is projected as plain but wholesome, a swakiya who is comfortable, if not exciting. The widow is a parakiya, the attractive, forbidden fruit leading men into temptation and sin. To quote Bankimchandra: Gobindalal had loved two women in his life: Bhramar and Rohini. Both were gone now. He had been lured by Rohini' s beauty but she could not slake his thirst. Soon after possessing Rohini he had understood that she was not

--------=---· 120

.c;,., . . . . . . .

The Hindu Widow

Bhramar. She was sensuality (bhog), not peace (ianli); she was poison, not nectar. Gobindalal had drunk poison. Like Nilkanth Shiva the poison stayed in his throat: he could neither swallow it nor digest it. Bhramar reigned in liis heart, Rohini reigned outside. He could not get Bhramar for he could not abandon Rohini. That is why Rohini had to die first. 29

Thus, in these novels, the adulterous widow is destroyed; but so also is the faithful wife. The two themes complement each other and are part of the same over-arching ideology: that society is governed by men, and women have to submit to their control. Marriage is the principal site of this control and when a woman enters marriage, which is obligatory for her in upper-caste Hindu society, she must scrupulously observe the rules laid down for her, subordinate her needs to that of her husband, submit to him totally, and give him unconditional emotional support. This old notion of pativratya was somewhat modified later to accommodate the new ideal of reciprocity in marriage. It obliged the husband to be faithful to his wife and gave the married woman the right to protest if her husband failed to keep his contract. In the case of a widow, it was conceded that it was 'natural' for her to develop a new attachment, particularly if she had not known or loved her husband, but the relationship had to be maintained on an ethereal level and not permitted to interfere with the · rules governing society or • marnage. A new puritanism emphasizing self-restraint, sacrifice and service was the other component of.this ideology developed during the pre-Ind~pendence nationalist phase of our history. Both men and women were expected to practise these virtues, but the burden of it rested on women. Sexual transgression was the antithesis of this ideology and countering it was an important aspect of the fictional discourse during this period. This ideology lost its preeminence when the political goal of India's independence was achieved. As the nation entered a newer phase of development, urbanization and industrialization started weakening some of the traditional structures. Social equality as opposed to caste, became the byword for the younger generation of middle class Indians. MarriageI was problematized, women's sexuality was increasingly recognized, and the focus shifted from the community to the individual. The theme of transgression lost its force after the era of Saratchandra and Premchand. A new literature emerged, voicing other ideas and concerns, though the echoes of their

I

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writings continued to appear from time to time in the novels of the later period.

Endnotes

1. Sunil Gangopadhyaya (b. 1934) is a noted Bengali poet and

2.

3. 4. 5. 6.

7.

8. 9.

I O. 11. 12. 13. 14.

15.

16.

novelist. His historical novel Sei, Samay (Those Days, 1985) presents a grim picture of the plight of upper-caste widows in nineteenth-century Bengal and has inspired the controversial film Water by Deepa Mehta. Some novels on the theme of the transgressing wife are Bankimchandra's Chandrashekhar (1875); Tagore's Nashta Need ( 1901) and Ghare Baire ( 1916); Saratchandra' s Biraj Bou ( 1914), Da,pachuma ( 1915), Swami ( 1918) , and Grihadaha ( 1920); Premchand' s Seva Sadan ( 1919); and Jainendra Kumar' s Tyagapatra (1952). Marriage of Hindu Wulows, p. 109. Premashram, Ch. 50. Chokher Bali, Ch. 35. Shubhada was written in 1898; but fearing an adverse response from the public, Saratchandra did not publish it during his lifetime. It was published in 1938, after his death. This is similar to Krishnakanter Uil (Ch. 16) in which Gobindalal rescues Rohini from drowning. Haludpur (literally The Turmeric or Yellow Village) has the same etymology as Haridragram in Krishnakanter UiL See the works of Jainendra Kumar (1905-88), Ilachandra Joshi (1902-82), Vishnu Prabhakar (b. 1912), Mama Warerkar (1883-1964), Vibhavari Shirodkar (b. 1904) and C. T. Khanotkar (1930-76). Pratigya, Ch. 9. Premashram, Ch. 40. This is similar to Gunindra' s proposal to Hemnalini in Pathanirdesh. Pratigya, Ch. 5. This is quite similar to the snake-haired Medusa in Greek mythology. Krishnakanter Uil, Ch. 6. This is quite similar to the description of the arch-seductress Delilah in Milton' s Samson Agonistes (714-19). Vishauriksha, Ch. 20.

122 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23.

24.

25. 26.

27. 28.

29.

The Hindu Widow Chokher Bali, Ch. 11. Ibid., Ch. 24. Krishnakanter Uit II, Ch. 7. Chokher Bali, Ch. 19. Premashram, Ch. 10. Ibid., Ch. 47. Sita and Savitri were venerated as exemplary wives but Radha and Chandravali faced social disapproval for their love of Krishna, and yet were considered sacred. Shubhada, II, Ch. 4. For example, Shaibalini in Bankimchandra's Chandrashekhar and Saudamini in Saratchandra' s Swami. See page, 116. In Tagore's Chaturanga also Navin's wife consents to his marriage with her younger sister and, on the day of the marriage, kills herself (III, Ch. 6). Premashram, Ch. 48. Krishnakanter Uit II, Ch. 15.

The Fallen Widow How can Paradise suit a person who has spent her life in woe? Why should she fear the fires of hell who has borne the pangs of widowhood?

Hali, Manajat-e-Bewa ( 1884)

The fallen woman was a new and important figure in both English and Indian fiction. As a socially displaced individual, she aroused considerable anxiety and guilt among the middle class, compelling them to probe the causes of her· displacement and the possibility of her rehabilitation. In the context of the Indian social novel, the fallen woman is, more often than not, a widow. Belonging originally to a respectable, high-caste or middle class community, she has usually been cast out, either due to her own indiscretion or circumstances beyond her control, and been forced to swvive by adopting a way of life not considered honourable. The broad distinction between a transgressing widow and a falien one is tha:t the transgressing widow revolts against the deprivation forced upon her and commits an indiscretion, while a fallen widow· lives beyond her transgression and loses her respectability on account of it. The focus, in the case of the latter, is not so much on the events and the state of mind leading to the transgression as on the

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consequences of the transgression: the existential problems of a woman who is marginalized by respectable society and treated as an outcast. Having lost the protection of family and community, she is compelled to earn her own living, thereby gaining financial independence as well as a certain degree of freedom from social restrictions. However, the stigma attached to her fallen status makes it almost impossible for her to re-enter the society that has cast her off. She remains isolated and unfulfilled, harbouring feelings of guilt which prevent her even from becoming a part of the community of other fallen women. The responsibility of rehabilitating her, thus, falls on other people: social workers, friends or a lover. Marriage is not an easy option for her, for a man who marries such a woman would lose caste ~ims_e~. No -o ther system in the world maintains such a rigid separation between the wife and the prostitute as orthodox Hinduism. According to its tenets, a young woman is either 'private' or 'public' property. The new novelists attempted to bridge this gap, traditionally maintained between the good woman and the whore. Often, a high-caste widow, expelled from society, is depicted as occupying this middle space. She arouses feelings of guilt in others who perceive her as a fallen angel, as a person who could have been pure and respectable, but has been degraded by the vicissitudes of fortune. The theme of the fallen woman has been favoured in literature all over the world; but in the Indian novel, its nuances are specific to our culture and to particular historical contexts. A high-caste woman, untrained for any profession and in need of money, had limited occupations to choose from. She could work as a cook or a lady's maid, like Hira in Vishavriksha; or ply a craft to. earn her livelihood, like Sati in Annapurnar Mandir. None of these options, however, enabled her to maintain a satisfactory standard of living. As a brahmin, she was permitted to accept charity from respectable people in the form of shelter, protection or financial support. But she could not choose an occupation which would bring her into contact with strangers and low-caste people, or which would involve her in selling her services or labour for money like a shudra, .and expose her to sexual threats and temptations. She could ply her craft at home but not sell her wares in the marketplace. She could render her services to relatives on an honorary basis but not accept payment in cash for them. Hence, in Saratchandra Chattopadhyaya's novels, for instance, educated

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women do not look for jobs even if they are desperately poor, like Kiranmoyi in Charitraheen or Kamal in Shesh Prashna (Murshid, 1983: 99). A woman who worked for wages called into question the rigid distinction between domestic duty and labour that was perfo1111ed for money. In such a case, the figure of the prostitute could be freely invoked to describe any woman who dared to labour ·for money (Armstrong, 1985: 910). In feudal Indian society, lower-caste women who formed a part of the work force, could be sexually exploited by upper-caste men. The upper castes,jealously guarding the purity of their women, did not allow them to do anything that might even remotely identify them with the working or trading castes. Savitri in Charitraheen, is declassed because she works as a maidservant in a boarding house for men and can be propositioned by any of her employers. Entertaining the public with music and dancing and accepting payment for it was also taboo, and was associated with the culture of the tawaifs or courtesans patronized by the Indian elite. 1 Rajlakshmi, in Srikanta, an accomplished artiste with an· independent income, is regarded as a prostitute. Many displaced women found shelter in temples and other religious establishments; but they were frowned upon by respectable society because of the corruption rampant among priests and holy men. Another group of women artists in Bengal in the nineteenth century considered to be semi-prostitutes were the Vaishnavis. Originally followers of Chaitanya, they rejected caste hierarchy and brahminical rituals. One ·of their innovative reforms was to dispense with the formal system of marriage. Professing love to be the central tenet of their faith, they changed partners whenever it suited them. By the nineteenth century, these sects had bifurcated and multiplied, and lived mainly in small settlements called akhras, usually built on donated land (Chatterjee, R., 1993). Over a period of time, conversion to Vaishnavism came to signify not. so much a voluntary withdrawal from the institutions of brahminical Hinduism in favour of a way of life inspired by the mystics but a euphemism for the loss of caste by expulsion rather than abdication. To wear a Vaishnava's habit-that is, to adopt the dress, ornaments and body markings which make up the semiotic ensemble called bhelt-was to move out of caste. A conversion to the Vaishnava faith was often the last refuge of a person excommunicated for the violation of caste codes. It was a measure by

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which local Hindu society sought to defend its hierarchical and sacral structure (Guba, 1987: 157). The akhra was a type of communal settlement of Vaishnavites. It seived not only as the principal site of their residence and ritual activity but also as a state of limbo for all the dead souls of Hindu society. Here, the disenfranchised of all castes gathered into a · secondary parallel society, a large part 'of which was constituted by women excommunicated for their deviation from the approved norms of sexual conduct-a deviation encouraged, and often imposed by male lust and brutality. It was, therefore, not uncommon to find a large congregation of deviant women in an akhra-, and often, the largest group of female outcasts in most akhras was made up of Hindu widows ostracized for defying the controls exercised on their sexuality by local patriarchies (Guba, 1987: 156). The Indian social novel, reflecting the values of the newly emerging, educated, middle class community, showed its concern about women from decent famities going astray and ending up as prostitutes. However, it failed to provide any proper solution to the problem because it did not question the patriarchal values of society. It continued to judge women by the double standards of sexual morality. Attitudes towards women began to change slowly and nove~ists began to portray them as victims of a tragic destiny rather than as hardened sinners. At the same time, in sympathizing with these unfortunate women, they moved further away from the real problems facing them. It fact, they succeeded in turning them into idealized heroines of romance, motivated by feeling rather than by economic exigency (Leighton, 1992: 355), unaffected by their sordid circumstances and chaste in spite of their dependence on men. The earliest novels dealing with the problem of Hindu widows turning to prostitution because of the harsh treatment meted out to them by their families and community were written by Christians: Elokesi Beshyar Katha (Elokesi: The Prostitute's Story, n.d.) in Assamese and translated into Bengali, described the pathetic condition of such women and claimed that conversion to Christianity was a better alternative for them (Das, 1991: 204). In chapters 5-9 of Yamuna Paryatan, the Pandharpur widow unravels the mystery behind the strange double life she is forced to lead: a tonsured widow during the day, and a prostitute by night who visits her

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paramour, a temple priest, wearing a wig to cover her shaven head. She recounts her persistent efforts to lead a no1111al life, each of which has been frustrated by the callousness of the family or community. As a child-widow staying with her parents-in-law, she is enticed into running away from home by her nurse who sells her to a courtesan to be trained as a performer. She elopes with her music teacher to Kashi where she stays with his family as his wedded wife and bears him a son, Shivaram. However, the inhuman treatment she receives from her in-laws after his death compels her to leave home and come to Pune. Here, she tries to make a living by making candle wicks; but she is enticed by a purani'/(' who turns her into a source for earning money by installing her as the goddess Kali and conducting her worship. She is obliged to give up this relatively comfortable way of life when she hears of a big conference of learned brahmins engaged in the trial of two brahmin widows caught in adultery. Fearing a similar fate for herself, she runs away to Pandharpur where, like many other widows in a similar predicament, she finds a 'protector,' a widower priest. He maintains her, conducts her son's thread ceremony and gives her a place in the brahmin community. In Mulay's Yamuna Paryatan, the problem of widows turning to prostitution is given extensive treatment: its causes are analysed and solutions proposed. According to Mulay, the lack of parental protection, the harsh treatment at the hands of in-laws, the inability to support oneself by one's labour, the lure of a comfortable life, exploitation by charlatans in the guise of men of religion, and a flourishing community of courtesans on the look-out for young recruits are responsible for the downfall of honest widows. The novelist argues for a more liberal and sympathetic attitude towards widows, the remarriage of young widows and the eradication of prostitution by boycott of their public performances. The final solution, according to him, is the practice of strict puritan morals, and the acceptance of Christianity which forgives sinners and works for their redemption. The Pandharpur widow and her son Shivaram are also redeemed through the support of Vinayak, Yamuna, and the Christian Mission which takes them into their fold and offers them a new life. In U. R Ananthamurthy' s Ghatashraddha3 a Christian priest comes to the aid of the brahmin widow Yamuna who is excommunicated for her illicit affair and abandoned by her lover after an abortion.

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A similar approach is adopted by Premchand in his novel Seva Sadan (The House of Service, 1917, Urdu, Bazar+Husn, 1919), in which he treats prostitution as a social problem, tries to establish its causes and offers possible solutions. Suman, married to a poor but respectable brahmin, is turned out from home by her husband after a .quarrel. Her friends fail to give her protection and she ultimately lands up in Dalmandi, the prostitutes' quarters in Benaras. She establishes herself there, though the moral values ingrained in her character prevent her from compromising her chastity. 'Although it is very difficult to keep oneself pure in such a murky environment,' she tells the refo1111t!r Vithaldas, 'I have vowed to preserve my honour at any cost. I shall sing and dance but not let myself be degraded' (Ch. 15). Vithaldas persuades her to give up her comfortable way of life and she gleefully bids farewell to her rich clients after mortifying them thoroughly. She is placed in a widows' home along with other widows, and lives like one of them. She is virtually a widow now, as her husband Gajadhar has renounced the world and become an ascetic. 4 She dresses herself in a plain white sari, wears no ornaments, and has her hair cut short like a widow's (Ch. 37). For Suman's moral redemption to be complete, however, she has to pay the price for her transgression by suffering. Her identity is discovered and she is forced to leave the security of the widows' home. She finds refuge for a few months in the house of her sister Shanta and her husband Sadan Singh, an erstwhile admirer. She disciplines and mortifies herself by labouring in the house, reading the sacred texts, and helping the women in the neighbourhood. Yet, she is made to feel unwanted by Shanta, and after the arrival of Sadan Singh' s family, finds it impossible to continue her stay there. Driven by despair, she contemplates suicide; but an encounter with her sage-husband makes her change her mind. He helps her to establish an institution called 'Seva Sadan' for the daughters of fallen women in which they are looked after and trained to lead useful, independent and decent lives. Suman finds her proper mission in life: the task of uplifting the f alien and serving the down-trodden. An ardent believer in Gandhian ideology, Premchand is at pains to emphasize his innate respect for the morality and goodness inherent in all human beings and the possibility of reforming those who have deviated from it. However, he overlooks the real issues

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involved in the prostitution of girls and women: extreme poverty, the patriarchal double standards of sexual morality, widening social gaps, the pressure on rural areas accompanied by urbanization and industrial development (Dang, 1993: 180-1), and the male demand for extra-marital sex which draws women into the flesh market. Premchand does seem to perceive the link between poverty and prostitution; but being weighed down by puritan morality, he restricts his concern to the 'good' girls of respectable families who have been led astray by the glamour of the profession to sell their airs and graces-though not their bodies-and who wish to return to the mainstream of society (Kohli, 1991, 52). Bankimchandra, a cultural revivalist, underscored the importance of traditional moral values such as conjugal fidelity, the sanctity of the family and discipline in society. In Bk II of Knshnakanter Ui~ he traces the moral decline of Gobindalal and Rohini who abscond to Prasadpur, ignoring family and social obligations. They live incognito in a pleasure house built by a debauched indigo-planter who has left many indecent paintings on the walls. The atmosphere of the place is decadent; the hired seivants are not tied by any feudal loyalty to their employer but can cheat and betray him even for the sake of a few rupees. Gobindalal and Rohini spend their days in a dull routine of .sensuous pleasure. Rohini is no longer the charming and vivacious young woman who had aroused romantic longings in Gobindalal. She is now his concubine whose sole occupation is to entertain him and who is paid for her services. She has cast off the restraint that distinguishes a respectable woman from a loose one. 'The master is a gentleman but the mistress is a slut' is the verdict of the servants of the house (Ch. 8). When Nishakar comes to Prasadpur to track her down, he finds her staring at him from the balcony and peering immodestly from. behind the curtain of Gobindalal's room. Initially, he has a twinge of conscience, for he is soon to become the agent of her destruction; but he justifies his move on the ground that 'sinners' like her need to be destroyed. On her part, Rohini accepts his invitation for a clandestine meeting, transgressing the code of a 'kept' woman. Gobindalal is tipped off by a servant about the proposed rendezvous and there is a confrontation. Rohini is forced to admit that she is Gobindalal 's servant and is entitled to stay only as long as he keeps her in his service (Ch. 9). He tells her to kill herself as she

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had attempted to do in the past. However, she no longer has the courage to die for the sake of her honour. She begs him to spare her life, to let her go away somewhere; but, blinded by rage, he shoots her on the spot, like a dangerous animal. Bankimchanclra was convinced that a woman like Rohini who had rebelled against the moral standards of family and community, deserved nothing less than a violent death. However, successive generations of readers and critics, have felt that Bankimchandra has been unfair to Rohini. In Charitraheen, Kiranmoyi asks, 'What would have been the consequence if Rohini were as good as she was beautiful?' (Ch. 31). In Shubhada, Charitraheen and Srikanta, Saratchandra seems to have tried to answer this specific question. In his novels, Saratchandra took care to emphasize that material circumstances and harsh social conventions rather than an inherent moral depravity were the main reasons for driving a widow to concubinage. Hence she deserved sympathetic understanding and compassion rather than punitive judgement. This shift from a strict adherence to rules to a more liberal humanistic attitude is akin to. what, in another context, has been described as a shift from Old Testament law to the morality of the New Testament. 'In the bourgeois novel we can find a strictness that works to maintain the law, and a sympathy and understanding with the adulterous violator that work~ to under111ine it' (Tanner, 1979: 14). If Bankimchandra illustrates the former attitude, Saratchandra illustrates the latter most frequently in his novels. There are two falien widows in Shubhada: Lalana (or Malati as she calls herself after leaving her village), and J ayawati, Surendranath 's mistress accompanying him on his barge. Both are simple and affectionate girls, driven by poverty to compromise themselves for a living. Jayawati is kind and sympathetic to Malati, and there is an aura of respectability about her which makes the innocent Malati believe her to be Surendranath's wedded wife. Jayawati is virtually his wife, and his sin lies in forgetting this while making love to Malati. This results in her accidental death by drowning. Jayawati's death plunges Surendranath into remorse and depression. Like Nagendranath in Vishavriksha and Gobindalal in Krishnakanter Uit he recoils from the 'other' woman and tells Malati to go away to Calcutta for he now has no wish to continue living in sin. As a final insulting gesture, he flings a purse full of money at Malati's feet, treating her like a common prostitute. She

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accepts the humiliation; but at the moment of departure Surendranath 's mood changes and there is a reconciliation (II, Ch. 5). Malati' s status as a fallen widow is fully established when she takes Jayawati's place in the life of Surendranath. He instals her in his garden house and surrounds her with precious objects. But unlike Rohini in Krishnakanter Ui~ she is not corrupted by her changed situation. She turns the garden house into a home and wins Surendranath's love and respect with her modest and affectionate nature. Her appearance is grave and austere-much like Sita' s during her sojourn in the forest (Ch. 16) . She does not wear fine clothes or jewellery and declines Surendranath' s proposal of marriage, not wishing to lower his prestige in the community. 'You can ~arry a widow but you cannot marry a prostitute' she tells him and also, 'It would have been better for you to have married me right at the beginning but now people know me asjaya's successor and it would cause a scandal in the village if you marry me' (Ch. 11). She makes a clean breast of her past. He accepts everything without rancour and tries to establish contact with her family. His love transports her to another sphere where it seems to her that she is indeed 'pure' and 'unsullied' and he, her lover, a divine being, without any flaws or imperfections. He then marries her in and private ceremony which is without any witnesses and which resembles the ritual of a Vaishnava marriage (Ch. 13). Although Malati is not reinstated in her natal family and does not enjoy the status of a wife, it is implied that her relationship with Surendranath is going to be stable and satisfying, unlike that of Rohini and Gobindalal in Krishnakanter UiL• Saratchandra challenged the conventional definition of a good woman as one who was merely chaste. He broadened it to include all those who were honest and benevolent towards others, their fallen status notwithstanding. The 'inner purity' and goodness of fallen women was a favourite theme with Saratchandra, and he dwelt on it repeatedly. In Cliaritraheen, he reworked the sub-plot of Vishavriksha which deals with the relationship between the pleasure-loving De bendranath and the maidservant Hira. Like Debendranath, Satish is the gifted but wayward son of a wealthy father, under no compulsion to take up a profession and given to a life of self-indulgence. However, unlike Debendranath, he has a loving heart and a generous spirit. The epithet charitraheen is applied to Satish maiI1ly because of his involvement with Savitri, the maidservant, who works in a boarding

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house for single men in Calcutta where Satish is staying as a student. He loves her deeply, but in the caste-ridden society of Bengal, it is impossible for a 'gentleman' to marry a servant, whatever her positive qualities might be. 5 Savitri, a kulin brahmin widow driven by circumstances to work as a menial, keeps her past a secret and deliberately projects herself as a woman of easy virtue to prevent his falling in love with her. Satish is mystified by the ambiguity of her personality. She is a maidservant, the housekeeper of the establishment, and also 'a mother to all the homeless young men' who reside there. She is dressed in white but her lips are 'always reddened with the juice of betel and tobacco.' She can talk sweetly 'but also knows the power of her cha1111' (Ch. 2). Her speech and manners are refined though she projects herself as a low-caste woman. In Charitraheen, Srikanta and Shesh Prashna, Saratchandra uses the image of the fallen ,voman's room as an island of purity in an atmosphere of general squalor. In this way, he symbolizes her essential virtue and integrity which has survived even in adverse circumstances. In Charitraheen, Satish instinctively takes off his shoes before entering Savitri' s room in the tenement, othetwise inhabited by women of dubious reputation. He notes the presence of books and the paraphernalia of worship which reveal her high caste and refined tastes (Ch. 9). Rajlakshmi's room in her Patna mansion is simple and austere with whitewashed walls and a minimum of things, though the rest of the house is furnished in a lavish style (Srikanta, I, Ch. 12). The Vaishnavi Kamal Lata's roon:i is cosy and welcoming, though the state of the akhra in which she lives is mean and wretched (Srikanta, IV, Ch. 6). In Shesh Prashna, Kamal keeps her room tidy and presentable even when faced with extreme poverty. The room, which symbolizes the inner life, indicates that, despite their dubious reputation, these women are really honest and loyal, and not treacherous like Bankimchandra' s Rohini. At one level, Charitraheen is just another story of a widow in love. It passes through all the stages of iringara rasa: man, man bhanjan, viraha and bhava-sammilan. Savitri loves Satish but keeps him at bay by pretending to be a woman of easy virtue. She treats him as an intimate friend when he visits her room; but the moment he expresses his love for her she thrusts him away saying that she is a whore and such sentiments have no meaning for her. Satish is

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angry and hurt by her behaviour; but the image of the loving woman returns to his mind when he is separated from her: There was no shadow of the fallen woman on Savitri's face. It beamed with pride, glowed with intelligence, and was tender with love. It was solemn with the dignity of mature years and lively with her playfulness. (He remembered) her face, her smile, her glance, her gentle teasing and above all her genuine caring. 6

Satish and Savitri are separated after a series of misunder·standings. She has to leave her job_because of him while he thinks she has left him for another man. After several months of hardship, a sick and penniless Savitri returns to Satish 's house in his absence. Satish arrives unexpectedly with his friend Upendra, who takes Savitri to be Satish's mistress and leaves at once. His departure is his verdict on Savitri 's character, and she is thoroughly mortified. Regarding himself as a man who has been illused, Satish-like Gobindalal in Krishnakanter Uil-twits Savitri about her status in the house and she replies meekly that she is his serving maid. He flings some money at her, tells her to leave, and stalks out of the house, leaving her in the care of his servant Bihari, but not before betraying his secret love for her. She is deeply agonized by his predicament. She resolves to sacrifice her sexuality,··and begin loving him like a mother without asking for anything in return. As though reinforcing her new position, Bihari requests that she look upon him as her son (Ch. 21). The climax of Savitri 's suffering also marks the beginning of her elevation from her fallen status to that of a saintly widow. The first person to recognize and acknowledge her worth as a human being is Bihari, the illiterate, low-caste servant who, like Ratan in Srikanta, becomes her guardian angel. Next, the unorthodox Kiranmoyi expresses her confidence in Savitri' s goodness and sincerity. Satish himself boldly declares to his friends Jyotish and Sarojini that, 'If Savitri did not leave me, I would have kept her respectfully all my life' (Ch. 38). Though he seems to have forgotten that he had turned her out himself, this is still a public acknowledgement of a relationship which has so far been private and clandestine. In the final stage of the narrative, Savitri is accepted by Upendra who comes to know about her troubled life, her impeccable character and her struggle to preserve her chastity under the most adverse circumstances. There is reconciliation between her and

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Satish when Bihari fetches her from Kashi to look after Satish in his illness. She assumes the role of the mistress of his house for a few days. However, she hast~ relinquish her position and give up Satish forever when the time comes for him to marry Sarojini, a young girl from a well-established family. As a reward for her steadfastness, lJpendra adopts her as his younger sister. He asks her to accompany him to a hill resort and nurse him in his terminal illness, leaving Satish in the care of his future wife, Sarojini. Satish rebels against Upendra's high-handedness. He declares that he wants to marry Savitri but she is not willing, because unlike Upendra, society at large will not give her the respect she deserves. When Satish is not satisfied with her logic, she says that though she has been physically chaste, she has enticed many people with her body and so she cannot offer it to Satis~; as for her heart, it would always belong to him and she will always consider herself his slave (Ch. 41). Upendra too, endorses her decision against . marriage: .

The bondage of desire is over for you, Savitri. When misfortune has driven you out of the family circle, do not attempt to enter it again, dear sister, I beseech you, but guard it (the institution of the family) from the outside. 7

The closure of the nan·ative raises disconcerting questions. Why should Satish be compelled to marry Sarojini instead of Savitri? What will happen to Savitri when Upendra is gone? As a penniless woman, Savitri does not have any other option except to return to the drudgery of being a maidservant. Saratchandra's own uncertainty and ambivalence regarding a proper solution to her problem is clear from the way he returns, again and again, to the possibility of a marriage-or an arrangement between Satish and Savitri. And yet, he backs away from it with one lame reason or another. Savitri is denied the consolation of retiring to a holy place to contemplate on God and her love in peaceful isolation, for she is no middle class woman whose material needs are taken care of. Savitri is poor; and though she is a proud and upright woman, it is difficult for her to maintain herself and preserve her integrity on the wages she earns as a maidservant. Charitraheen is a disturbing novel because it raises certain fundamental problems of sexual and economic inequality. It was sharply criticized by contemporary Bengali society and copies of the novel were publicly burnt (Prabhakar, 1979: 183 4). The

The Fallm Wu.low 135 barrier that separates Savitri from Satish is neither widowhood nor caste; neither community nor the loss of chastity. It is the insurmountable barrier of class. By working as a maidservant, she has cut herself off from the class to which Satish and Upendra belong and which, for all her goodness and her inner strength, she cannot enter again. She can extend her services to them, as an attend~nt or a nurse and be treated with kindness and charity, but she cannot be their equal. They patronize her but do not give her respect. She is harassed, bullied, insulted, used, oropositioned and controlled by turns. She has to suffer undue familiarities or insults calmly, and accept her humiliation without a murn1ur. Saratchandra successfully exposes the indignity a workingclass woman is subjected to not only by the wlgar rich like Bipinwho considers her a commodity-but also by Satish and Upendra who profess to care for her but offer her no protection from the sordid world around her. The latter take her services for granted and expect total commitment from her. Satish lets her down, time and again, wh~n she is in difficulty and needs his support. Upendra prevents her union with Satish and physically separates them, finally deserting her in death. Their love, which is supposed to glorify her, only brings her suffering •and in actual material te1111s, degrades her further. Instead of being an independent wage-earner with some freedom of choice and movement, she becomes their bonded slave, always at their beck and call. 'I don't like you to wander he~e and there,' Satish tells her. 'Upen is like an idol made of stone; I would not let you go with him if he were made of flesh and blood' (Ch. 41). Though he has always assumed proprietary rights over her, he agrees to marry Sarojini, a girl from his own class. In this way he is fi1111ly established in a community from which Savitri is excluded. Similarly, by calling her a sister, Upendra takes control of Savitri' s life, placing restrictions on her movements and her sexuality. Charitraheen, thus, becomes the story of the oppression and marginalization of a working-class female by middle class patriarchs, who deny her subjectivity and tum· her into a slave by imposing their ideology on her. Saratchandra developed the motif of the fallen_widow most elaborately in the character of Rajlakshmi in Srikanta. In this novel, he cast off the influence of Bankimchandra and developed his own patterns which were appropriated by subsequent writers. The detached hero of this novel wanders through life, encountering a

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variety of people. The author juxtaposes these against one another, creating a collage of images which represent the bewildering profusion of life as well as work to subvert conventional standards of conduct. Srikanta's relationship with the widow-courtesan Rajlakshmi is the only thread that runs through the entire narrative, linking the episodes together. Rajlakshmi is a complex character, combining the features of a woman of pleasure, a household manager, an ideal lover, a mothe£, and a chaste widow obsessed with religion and conventions of purity. Saratchandra brings ot1t these different facets of her personality in various episodes, so that the total picture is not of a piece. This disjointed picture has intrigued and fascinated some critics (Majumdar, M., 1971) and annoyed others (Mukherjee, M., 1985). Rajlakshmi exemplifies Saratchandra' s view of the essential feminine nature: enigmatic, seductive, loving, capable of great self-control and sacrifice, lofty as well as mundane, generous as well as possessive, dignified yet submissive. In short, she is what a man dreams of and yet finds difficult to live with. In her relationship with Srikanta, Rajlakshmi is a mugdha, a young adoring girl whose world is lit up by his presence; a pativrata, ever faithful to him; a nurse and caretaker; a jealous mistress; a . prude; a coquette and much more. She loves him and wants to make him a part of her life. He depends on her; but does not surrender his freedom which he values more than her love. Rajlakshmi tells her story to Srikanta in Bk. I, Ch. 8. The daughter of a poor kulin widow in Srikanta' s native village, she had chosen him as a sweetheart at the age of eight. She had made him her own by garlanding him with a string of wild· fruit she had gathered herself, getting pricked with thorns in the process (pii.roa-raga). After this, she even endured his bullying and excesses without a murmur of complaint. Though he has forgotten the scrawny waif who followed him around in childhood, she keeps his image alive through her chequered and troubled youth and remains attached to it. She recognizes him instantly when she encounters him as a member of a prince's hunting party and claims him with an ardour he finds difficult to ignore. However much he tries to withdraw himself from her, he is compelled to return to her again and again for she becomes a point of rest in his otherwise disorganized life. Rajlakshmi and her sister were given in marriage to an unprincipled kulin brahmin who agreed to 'redeem' the two girls for a

The Fallen Widow

137

small fee. However, the marriage rites were not completed because of a quarrel regarding the sum agreed upon. After his death, Rajlakshmi was sold to a Maithili prince who left her a large fortune. She became an accomplished singer and was l-text in the novel. It is made abundantly clear through the narrative and the comments of Vandana' s wellwishers that she does not come up to the ideal of an independent and self-reliant woman. She is too emotional; her response to every adverse situation is hysterical; she gives in easily to the pressures put on her by others. The artist Sudipta, who makes her the subject of a series of paintings, sees her as a young, immature girl, fearful and unsure of herself. It is pointed out that women should become self-reliant and put their lives to good use. At the end of the novel, Vandana endorses this view in her own ·words and action; yet this philosophy of individual enterprise and self-reliance is buried deep in the text which, by and large, sentimentalizes suffering and feminine dependence. Comparing these two novels with those of earlier women writers such as Swarnakumari Debi, Nirupama Debi, Shanta Debi and Usha Devi Mitra, one notices a moving away from the preoccupation with patriarchal oppression and feminine solidarity. The earlier writers, though not feminists in the .modern sense, were writing in the liberal humanist tradition which extended its

The Widow in Post-Independence Fiction 241

sympathy to all those who were oppressed or downtrodden. In time, this tradition died out and, except in the work of writers with leftist leanings, Indian novelists did not show any analytical understanding of social phenomena. They noted the rise of individualism and materialism with dismay but realized that conservative values, which held the feudal and caste structure together, could no longer be justified. However, in the novels and short stories dealing with religious or upper-caste communities, the widow theme is still used very effectively to critique the contradictions in Hindu culture and the gap between lofty ideals and inhuman practices. Tatsam (Like Him, 1983), a Hindi novel by Raji Seth (b. 1935), is a departure from the mainstream Indian novel in which the widow is usually shown as a victim of social oppression or psychological inhibition. Like Jeebandola by Shanta Debi, Tatsam traces a widow's recovery from her personal tragedy and her search for a new meaning in life. The protagonist of Tatsam rt.oes not plunge into an altruistic project but finds consolation in the existential belief that life is in a state of flux and continually offers new possibilities to those who are willing to accept change. The text provides an elaborate argument against the traditional belief that the test of one's strength lies in the capacity to endure suffering and favours a ~ositive approach in the face of the painful inevitabilities of life. 4 Vasudha is a thirty-year-old, highly educated woman, a lecturer in sociology at wcknow University, whose life as a happy and contented housewife has come to an end six years earlier with the death of her husband Nikhil in an accident. She has faced the trauma of a great personal loss culminating in a miscarriage, the inhuman rituals associated with widowhood (like the forced removal of her bangles), and the hostility of her husband's family who consider her an outsider and a usurper of his material ·assets. Her elder brother Sharat and his wife have given her full support in this crisis, encouraged her to pursue her academic career and to take up a profession. When they press her to remarry and start a normal life, she is hurt by their attitude for she sees it as an attempt to annihilate the memory of her beloved husband and to establish their own image in society as a modem and progressive couple. She is also sensitive to the feelings of her conservative mother who does not want her to disregard traditional norms. However, unknown to

242

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Hindu Widow

herself a conflict is generated in her mind about the right course of action. She remembers the fierce arguments she and her friends used to have with Ruth, an- American fellow student, who was investigating attitudes to remarriage in India. Ruth was vehemently critical of what she called the Indian predilection for glorifying suffering. Once Ruth had confronted another student, a widow, who had refused the role of a bride in a play, and told her that this kind of withdrawal showed a lack of life force. Vasudha, who had been steeped in tradition since childhood and had heard accounts of lifelong sacrifices from her parents, had felt hurt and angry with Ruth for her callous remarks about Indian culture and a widow's forced retirement from life. Now, she invoJuntarily recalls Ruth's arguments and marvels at their rationality. She gives in, though reluctantly, to her brother's insistence that a matrimonial advertisement be put in the newspaper for her. She is mildly interested in Vivek, a professor of English from Delhi, whom her brother invites to dinner as a prospective groom for her and feels disappointed when he expresses his inability to consider the proposal for he has set his mind against marriage. Vasudha accompanies a party of students and teachers from Lucknow to attend a youth camp in Delhi. She meets Vivek there and they have occasion to discuss their situations with one another. Vivek has carried the heavy burden of sadness and guilt for seven years ever since the untimely death of his Christian girlfriend Shirin due to a botched-up abortion. He has resolved to remain faithful to her for ever. As Vasudha argues with him about the irrationality of keeping alive a one-sided relationship with a dead partner, she realizes that she herself has also been the victim of the same syndrome. Vivek takes her for a drive around the city and they see the English film The Summer of '42 in which a sailor's widow finds consolation in the arms of a young man who loves her. He also takes her to his house where he has kept Shirin's photograph in a frame. There is a nervous restlessness in his behaviour, a conflict between a natural friendliness and a deliberate withdrawal. 0 .n .her return to Luck.now, Vasudha is irked by the tension in the family regarding the prospect of her remarriage and the frequent clashes between her mother and her sister-in-law. She is also disgusted by the attitµdes of the people who have sent their responses to the advertisement. They seem to be eager_to take

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The Wulow in Post-Independence Fiction 243

advantage of her status as a damaged commodity to gain their own ends: to get a caretaker for their motherless children; an earning partner; a sex object; or a companion in their old age. A lecturer from Ujjain, who has been estranged from his wife, makes her a blatant proposition for a liaison or a secret bigamous marriage. Vasudha declares that she will not entertain such proposals any more but prefers to remain independent. She feels that she can help Vivek come out of his self-imposed exile just as she has emerged from her own. In a dream, she sees herself preparing to go on a trip with her family, leaving her .d ead baby behind in a bag. A few months later Vasudha meets Vivek in Delhi where she has gone to attend a seminar. He tells her how he has been influenced by her views and the protective wall he had built around himself has developed cracks. However, when she waits for him to take her to his house in the evening, he fails to keep the appointment. She postpones her return to Lucknow for a day only to discover that Vivek has departed to Ambala to spend the weekend with his sister. Vasudha realizes that he is not Feady to begin a relationship with her and returns home dejected and ~estless. One day, soon after, she announces her resolve to go on a long trip to south India alone. This journey, away from familiar people and places, is also an inward one, towards the core of her self in which she comes to te1111s with her loneliness and begins to take an interest in the ever-changing nature of her experience. In the Bandipur Forest Resetve, far away from any urban centre, she has a severe attack of gastro-enteritis which renders her totally helpless. One of her fellow tourists, Anand Kapoor, takes charge of her and drives her to Mysore where she is hospitalized. He visits her everyday and takes a personal interest in her physical and psychological recovery. She accepts his invitation to go to Bangalore with him and, in the weeks that follow, they get to know each other intimately. Anand tells her about his troubled childhood, his education in America, and his American friend Jenny who was an ardent feminist and a fierce individualist. He compares Jenny's attitude with that of his fiancee Nimmi, who had broken off her engagement with him on account of his relationship with the American girl. He discusses his attitudes to life with Vasudha, especially his belief in the individual's ability to fight against odds and emerge triumphant. Vasudha tells him about her family, her widowhood

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and her involvement with Vivek. He tells her that Vivek has refused to grow and accept change, which is a necessary condition of life. Vasudha begins to recuperate in the company of Anand who continues to take a protective interest in her. They fall in love, and decide to marry after she has broken the news to her family in Lucknow. On her return home, Vasudha finds three letters from Vivek written within a space of twelve days after her return from Delhi. He gives a frank account of his conflict-his strong attraction towards her at variance with his fear of losing the protective shell he has built around himself. He confesses that he had run away from her to his sister. However, his sister had told him not to resist Vasudha and the opportunity to be happy again. He declares that he is now at peace with himself and eager to resume his relationship with her if she is willing to accept him. Vivek's letters once again create a conflict in Vasudha' s mind. She sends them to Anand and asks for his counsel. He replies promptly, expressing his appreciation of Vivek's personal integrity and concern for Vasudha but refuses to interfere in her final decision. In her subsequent letters to Anand, Vasudha tries to come to te1111s with her feelings for Vivek. She realizes that her relationship with Anand is more relaxed and better for her growth and happiness. The narrative concludes with her letter to Vivek in which she gives him the news of ·her proposed marriage with Anand. At the same time, she expresses her happiness that he has come out of his self-imposed exile and that he will now take life in his stride and welcome any new opportunities and relationships which would enrich his experience. Tatsam, thus, is a triangular love story in which the heroine chooses the man who offers her a stable, fatherly love rather than the man who is self-centred, passive and immature. What is of significance here is that Vasudha is a widow who makes a conscious effort to overcome her feelings of loss and dejection, and helps Vivek to recuperate from his own feelings of guilt and selfblame. Her remarriage is presented not as a defiance of social conventions or a triumph of modernity over tradition, but a culmination of her progress in self-awareness. She is not as fiercely independent as the American girls, Ruth and Jenny; she is sensitive, affectionate and vulnerable and seeks the guidance and approval of her family and friends regarding the important decisions of her

life. Nevertheless, she does not wish to be hemmed in by other people's conventional or 'progressive' attitudes, and desir~s to face life on her own ttt 111s. She seeks fulfilment in work and in personal relationships and, though she faces frequent setbacks and disappointments, she learns to make the most of the opportunities that come her way. In conclusion, it is quite evident that the theme of widowhood has occupied an important place in modem Indian literature. As the most oppressed and marginalized section of upper-caste Hindu society, widows aroused the sympathetic concern of poets, novelists and short story writers for more than a century. Their unhappy plight was seen as a symptom of the backwardness of society, and it was believed that their education, upliftment and rehabilitation would automatically improve it and enhance its strength. The realistic and documentary novels of the first phase of the modem period criticized Hindu social conventions. They stressed the importance of the education and the remarriage of child-widows to put an end to their large-scale exploitation within the family and at religious centres, and prevent their degradation or untimely death. In the idealistic novels of the nationalist period, the widow was often projected as an ideal Indian woman who had renounced her sexuality and dedicated herself to the service of others. She was conceived as a gentle and compassionate being, untouched by desire or personal ambition, a symbol of superior Indian spirituality as opposed to ·W estern materialism. These novels romanticized the silent suffering of young women who were emotionally attached to men whom they could not marry. There could be no public acknowledgement of their relationship, nor could they enjoy a respectable status in society. Their tragic situation compelled the novelists to close their narratives with the widow committing suicide or disappearing into the wilderness, supposedly in quest of spiritual comfort. The predicament of young widows being denied a meaningful role in society raised disturbing questions about the wlnerability of women without financial resources and community support; the double standards of patriarchal morality which allowed men to indulge in polygamy, multiple marriages and extra-marital affairs but punished women severely for any sexual ,~ ransgression and

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The Hindu Widow

drove them to prostitution. Novelists also explored the subjectivity of these women, their rage against a system which thwarted their natural instincts, denied their essential human dignity and treated them as sinners and criminals. Motherhood has always been granted a high distinction in Indian culture. While young widows have been harassed and tormented, older \\jdows in the role of mothers or grandmothers are able to exercise their power and authority in the family. In the novels of the nationalist period, older widows are shown frequently emerging as community leaders, spiritual guides and universal mothers, spreadvig the doctrine of compassion, tolerance and resistance to unjust social practices in a non-violent manner. Women novelists focussed on the theme of widowhood to highlight the suffering of women under patriarchy, both in its conservative and progressive aspects. They directed their irony at male writers, frequently re-writing their stories and creating texts with a feminine bias so as to give their female readers a different view of social institutions and attitudes. They emphasized the solidarity of women against patriarchal tyranny and encouraged them to take pride in their independence and enterprise, their integrity, and their ability to mould their own destiny despite. the restrictions imposed on them. Though some of these concerns and trends survived in the novels of the post-Independence period, the focus of novelists shifted from the hardships of young child-widows to those who had been victims of-communal violence and those who, in spite of being educated, continued to be oppressed by the retrograde practices of feudal society. The nationalist fetvour of early twentieth century Indian literature gave way to a growing interest in the ground realities prevalent in different regions and social groups. Some examples of these are high-caste widows chafing under inhuman restrictions on food, dress and social intercourse; peasant widows compelled to practise levirate; or widows abandoned by their families at pilgrim centres in the name of religion. In the post-Independence · novels of urban India, we get another picture of widows: they stay alone; work for a living; bring up children; and cope with the problems of loneliness, the pressures of urban life and their own sexuality. In the fast-changing Indian society of today-when not only the old institution of the joint _family but also the nuclear family is

Fiction 247 facing a crisis the number of single women is increasing in cities as well as villages. Among them are unmarried women, widows, wome·n separated or divorced from their husbands, and older women whose children have left home, leaving them to their own devices. These conditions call for a change in social perspectives and attitudes. This change is taking place very slowly and the majority of Indian women are still oppressed by the conventions and expectations belonging to bygone eras. In fact, they often find th~mselves at the receiving end of the hostility and frustration of people who cannot cope with new situations and wish to revert to the old order which kept women chained to their homes and families. In this context, it has become ~ery important that we study the social practices of the past, how they have affected women, and which aspects of these are worth preserving and which need to be discarded in order that gender relations be improved and life made more fulfilling for women.

Endnotes 1. In Srikanta (Bk. IV), the Vaishnavi Kamal Lata is excommunicated for her 'sin' of nursing her friend Gauhar, a young Muslim poet. 2. See the discussion about these two novels in Ch. V. 3. A similar predicament is faced by the protagonists of ·Gora by Rabindranath Tagore and ·of Bamuner Meye by Saratchandra. 4. Preface to Ek Chaddar Maili Si. 5. The devotional songs addressed to the mother goddess in Punjab, Bengal, and elsewhere, are often erotic in nature. 6. Neelkanth is another name for Shiva who drank poison for the benefit of his fellow-gods. The poison stuck in his throat anC:{ gave it a blue tint. The author describes Braja as a place which has been poisoned. The English translation of the novel has the title . 'Shadow of the Dark God' which is not quite appropriate. 7. See 'The City of God,' Part III of Indira Goswami' s An Unfinished Autolnography, 1990. B. The Saga of South Kammp in English. 9. See 'Down Memory I.ane,' Part II of Indira Goswami's An Unfinished A utolnography. 10. A feudal-religious establishment in Assam owning large tracts of land and ruled by an adhikar or religious head. · 11. Renuka's husband, the sageJamadagni, had her killed by her own

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son for daring to ~ook at the reflection of another sage in the water. Ahalya was turned into a rock for sleeping with a god who came to her in the guise of her husband. 12. Phaniyamma, pp. 118-19. 13. Traditionally, a widow in Bengal was seived food on a white marble platter. 14. See Chapter VII.

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