Freedom from fear is the freedom

I claim for you my motherland!

Freedom from the burden of the ages, bending your head,
breaking your back, blinding your eyes to the beckoning
call of the future;
Freedom from the shackles of slumber wherewith
you fasten yourself in night's stillness,
mistrusting the star that speaks of truth's adventurous paths;
freedom from the anarchy of destiny
whole sails are weakly yielded to the blind uncertain winds,
and the helm to a hand ever rigid and cold as death.
Freedom from the insult of dwelling in a puppet's world,
where movements are started through brainless wires,
repeated through mindless habits,
where figures wait with patience and obedience for the
master of show,
to be stirred into a mimicry of life.

A wife’s letter ( Streer Patra) is one of the short stories written by Tagore for the journal Subujpatra
(The Green Leaf). The story revolves around a woman named Mrinal who writes a letter to her
husband, disclosing her feelings, her thoughts in their 15 years of marriage. Tagore so beautifully
impersonates the voice of a woman and begins the letter with an offering to the “auspicious lotus
feet” of her husband. As a cultural practice, it is considered inappropriate for the wife to take the
name of her husband and also that the wife should touch the feet of her husband as a gesture of
respect. As the letter progresses we understand that Mrinal is the second wife, the Mejo-Bou. Set in
the pre-independence era we find numerous instances of patriarchal oppression, aristocratic values,
social evils like child marriage, dowry etc. Mrinal a beautiful and intelligent girl is married off at the
tender age of 12 into a wealthy household. Tagore highlights that though people wanted a beautiful
bride, the didn’t want her to be intelligent or educated. Instances in the letter tell us that Mrinal was
forced to hide her intelligence by her own mother so that she could be married off. Mrinal in her
letter quotes “In Bengal, no one has to search for jaundice, dysentery, or a bride; they come and
cleave to you on their own, and never want to leave.” this line tells about the living conditions of the
people during the pre-Independence era. Where brides are only selected based on their looks and
the clouds of self-doubt always hover upon the heads of the girl and her family. Daughter is looked
down as a burden which needs to be taken care off as soon as possible. Mrinal never really
understood the importance of beauty in a bride as she was never loved for her beauty. Beauty only
led to jealousy. Mrinal’s intelligence was her affliction. Her husband was constantly reminded of her
intelligence and was always frustrated by it. The woman was required to follow the rules and do the
monotonous household work without raising any question. But Mrinal’s intellectual fire made her
write poems in secrecy. It was her way of getting past the walls of the inner compound, her way of
freedom. Mrinal’s daughter died after birth and she was kept in a confinement room. When the
English doctor came for a check-up he scolds everyone for blaming Mrinal for the death of her
daughter and putting her in confinement. This instance shows the differences in the Western and
Indian ideologies.The woman is considered responsible for everything wrong.

As the story moves on a hapless girl named Bindu, elder sister in law’s sister, comes into the life of
Mejo Bou. She was abandoned by her cousins and came to Mrinal’s house to seek shelter. Bindu was
treated as a misfortune. Her own sister couldn’t show any affection for the poor girl. To impress
one’s husband and family is depicted as the supreme task of the wife. At this point, a note defiance
can also be seen in Mejo Bou’s character. She stands with Bindu and seeks what is right for her. In
his research paper, Malashri Lal says

“Tagore had declared, “Woman cannot be pushed back for good into the superficial region of the
merely decorative by man’s aggressive athleticism. For she is not less necessary in civilization than
man, but possibly more so.” (Das 1996: 678) Mrinal in the story presages much the same arguments:
I did not suffer in your household as suffering is commonly understood. In your house, there is no
lack of food or clothes… but I will never again return to your house…. I have seen Bindu. I have learnt
what it means to be a woman in this domestic world. I need no more of it.”

Mrinal's life changes completely with Bindu as her companion. She finds a new found love in Bindu,
like that of a mother and daughter. She protects Bindu from the oppression the patriarchal family
has. But when Bindu is married to a person whom she hasn’t ever seen, Mejo Bou is unable to stop
it. As it turns out Bindu’s husband is mentally unstable. When Bindu escapes from her in-law’s house
and comes back to Mrinal to seek refuge, everyone in the family is against Mejo Bou. Mrinal shows
her courage and is ready to go to court to fight for Bindu. But Bindu upon seeing the problems of
Mejo Bou leaves quietly for her in law’s home. After a few days, the news comes that Bindu
committed suicide by setting herself on fire. Even the way of Bindu’s death is a topic of scrutiny. Her
act of setting herself on fire is considered as dramatics.

Mrinal raises a very important question

“But shouldn’t we ask why the dramatics take place only with Bengali women’s sarees and not with
the so-brave Bengali men’s dhutis?”

In the research paper published by Research Scholar, Mrinal’s beauty and intelligence are neglected
in the large joint family. But on her visit to Puri, she finds a bond with the God and finally breaks free
from the tyranny of the oppressive society. Thus vowing that she’ll never return back. She assures
her husband that she wouldn’t kill herself, but devote herself in the worship of God and becoming a
follower of Meera Bai. With these final words, she bids adieu to her husband.

Rabindranath Tagore through the characters of Mrinal and Bindu has shown the face of the Indian
Society. The nang and namoos (honour and pride) are the most important aspect. To please the
husband and his family is the wife’s duty. Her own wishes and thoughts are of no concern. In his
research account, Malashri Lal praises the ability of Tagore to be able to understand the emotions of
an oppressed woman with such sympathy.

“Can a male writer successfully inhabit the female mindscape is a question often asked. Virginia
Woolf famously declared that “the great mind is androgynous”, but fell into the trap of identifying
the creative artist as male gendered. Closer to our time, Judith Butler called her book Gender
Trouble and questioned the very basis of defining ‘sex’ as biological and ‘gender’ as sociological.
Rabindranath, astutely able to enter the woman’s consciousness through his acts of extended
sympathy, relied more on Hindu traditions for a cross-gendered perspective”

In the concluding remarks, Tagore through the characters of Mrinal and Bindu has brought the
image of the plight of the Indian woman in a patriarchal and oppressive society, where she has no
rights, she is considered as a burden by her own parents, and for her, in-laws she is as good as a
servant. She is not allowed to make her own decisions and is expected to follow the rules of the
hypocritical society. The final line of the letter says it all about the feelings of Mrinal as she informs
her husband that she is never coming back “Removed from the Shelter of Your Feet”.