IJELLH Volume V, Issue XI, November 2017 1013

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 IJELLH Volume V, Issue XI, November 2017 1014

Dr Surbhi Saraswat
Assistant Professor
Amity Institute of English Studies & Research
Amity University, Noida

Personal is Political: A Critical Reading of Ismat Chugati's “Lihaaf” and “Gainda”

Abstract
Ismat Chugtai is one of the most accomplished Indian writers. She is known for her

progressive, feminist, bold writing style. Chugtai’s short stories revolve around the odds

faced by women. In most of her works she raises a serious concern towards the unjust

treatment of women. The phrase personal is political is a clear hint towards the social

concerns she explored in her writing. Chugtai’s writing reflects her ideology of female body

as a site of women’s oppression and that every aspect of female identity and struggle is

controlled by female sexuality. She sensitively highlights the politics of the private sphere

such as home marriage and sexuality apart from social evils like ignorance, illiteracy,

orthodoxy and abuse of women.

Key Words
Marriage, Identity, Female Sexuality, Oppressive Domesticity

Introduction

One of the most radical writers of 20th century India, Ismat Chughtai was an early

representative of the Progressive Writer’s Movement in Urdu literature. In her stories she

discusses the ideological function of public/private concept. Through her stories she

establishes differential virtue and function for the two sexes. Ismat Chugtai is an uninhibited

writer who honed the art of storytelling by lifting the veil over the concealed woman world

around her. She skillfully dealt with the female sexuality and boldly portrayed their sexual

identity before they were theorised by the masters of feminism like Simone de Beauvoir. A

taboo in Indian society Chugtai handles these issues very deftly in her stories.
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For Ismat Chugtai personal is political that is the reason why very often she used to derive the

subject matter for her short stories from the authentic facts of everyday life. Chugtai’s work is

laid down with simplicity and power and encompasses social truth in it. A close study reveals

that she exposes the hidden social evils like ignorance, illiteracy, orthodoxy and above all

oppression and abuse of women. Among her notable subjects of Short stories are

psychological illness, sexual problems, equality, equality of women, human rights , women

rights, backward section of the society, illiteracy, backwardness of the society, illiteracy of

women, despotic system of governance, conservatism, superstition, orthodoxy, problems of

conjugal life, sexual problems of women.

Political Theory

The idea of personal is political became a cry during the second wave of feminism in 1960s

and 1970s. The phrase was popularized by feminist Carol Hanisch. The term basically

highlights that many personal problems women experience in their lives are not their fault but

are the result of systematic oppression. The idea of privacy and politics can coexist. The very

notion challenges the liberal conception of private sphere as power free. Writing about the

same private sphere not only gives voice to the voiceless but also highlight the seriousness of

domestic oppression that is mostly ignored by the women writers. Even Helen Cixous in her

book mentions:

“Woman must write herself; must write about women and bring women to writing, from

which they have been driven away as violently as from their bodies – for the same reasons,

by the same law, with the same fatal goal. Woman must put herself into the text – as into the

world and into history – by her own movement.” (Cixous 334)

This statement by Helene Cixous aptly goes with the writings of Ismat Chughtai that are very

close to the author’s life. This paper deals with two very poignant tales, “Gainda” and
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“Lihaaf” by the Ismat Chugtai that present the political discourse with the help of personal

space shared by women.

Discussion

Ismat Chugtai in “Gainda” highlights the hypocrisy and injustice associated with sexual

morality prevalent in the society. The story deals with sexual awakening in young girls. In a

frank and outspoken style Chugtai explores the inquisitiveness of the young minds probing

the adult world sometimes in their secret games like playing bride-groom, lifting the veil of

coquettish bride and exploring the first gaze of the husband. The story deals with the

friendship of lower caste servant-girl Gainda with the upper caste narrator and explicitly

highlights the issue of child marriage, child widowhood, caste class discrimination and child

sexual abuse.

Chugtai as a narrator brings out a story of Gainda who is a playmate and a maid in the

narrator’s house. She is a young widow and has seen the adult world quite early in her life

due to her child marriage. As the story progresses Gainda is impregnated by narrator’s

brother and when the family comes to know about this they send the boy to Delhi while

tortures Gainda for months. Later Gainda gives birth to a son. Through this story Ismat

Chugati questions at the duality of the social norms who set the boy free while abuses a

women in such a situation. The narrator wonders why only Gainda was punished while

bhaiya went scot free.

The significance of the story lies in a fact that the nuances of innocence and playfulness are

juxtaposed to bring out the irony. The childhood games are used to present a framework for

the oppressive marital realities. The idea of conditioning is quite visible through the child’s

play as these girls had faint ideas about dos and don’ts of marriage. The story also highlights

the convenient male access and abandonment of male counterparts. As after impregnating

Gainda, Bhaiya leaves for higher education leaving her alone to suffer.
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Ismat through the child narrator highlights the hypocrisy of the world when she wonders

about the treatment given to Gainda and her child in contrast to Bahu who also had a child

few months back. “When Bahu had had that coal-black baby who died a few days after birth,

how they had sung and danced! Tons of ghee and jiggery had been forced down her gullet.

And now when Gainda had had such a beautiful baby what did they do? Nothing?” (13)

As a child she wondered why Gainda was beaten to pulp and not given food when she has

given birth to such a beautiful child.

In“Lihaaf” Chughtai skillfully employs euphemism and satire to deal with a serious issue of

zenana lifestyle. It is narrated by a young girl and portrays the circumstances that a living

situation between two women. The story explores the relationship between Begum Jaan and

Rabbu due to complete neglect of Nawab Sahab. With the help of young narrator, the author

has offered the childish ignorance on this adult subject; Chugtai has taken an added

advantage of ignorance to illustrate the reality freely as a writer. The narrative is very subtle,

detached, unknowing description of taboo. The readers are offered the distinct view of an

isolated women space within the confines of a patriarchal household.

The story also critiqued the conservative Muslim community where the gender discrimination

is very stringent. The story is more complicated than it seems. It is beautiful critique of

patriarchal hegemony and its subversive practices. Through the depiction of matriarchal

space, author brings some depth of female opinions and experiences in a larger context.

In an interview Ismat Chughtai disclosed, “I am still labelled as the writer of Lihaaf. The

story brought me so much notoriety that I got sick of life. It became the proverbial stick to

beat me with and whatever I wrote afterwards got crushed under its weight.”(web)

“Lihaaf” is often read as an exemplary work of Ismat Chugtai’s radical feminist stance. The

author highlights the plight of poor begum Jaan who is seen as a commodity first by her

parents who got her married to an old man just for the sake of getting rid of her and then by
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Nawab Sahib who installed her like a furniture in the house. What is so striking about this

story is that rather than focusing on the oppressed identity of begum jaan, Ismat portrayed her

as taking refuge in an alternative way of living. In her autobiography she writes that her mind

was “an ordinary camera that records reality as it is”. Whatever Ismat wrote was because she

was aware that such relationships exist concealed within the four walls of the house that gave

a semblance of normalcy. In her autobiography she had further mentioned the woman on

whom she had modeled the character of Begum Jaan. She notes in her autobiography: “We

stood face to face during a dinner. I felt the ground under my feet receding. She looked at me

with her big eyes that conveyed excitement and joy. Then she cruised through the crowd,

leapt at me and took me in her arms. Drawing me to one side she said, “Do you know, I

divorced the Nawab and married a second time? I have a pearl of a son, by God’s grace.” I

felt like throwing myself into someone’s arms and crying my heart out. I couldn’t restrain my

tears though; and I was laughing loudly.” (web) The excitement and the happiness that

Chughtai experiences on being told that the woman has begun her life anew with another man

again counters the claim that she was in favour of lesbian relationships.

The story “Lihaaf” engages with the sexual politics within the confines of four walls of

domestic lives of the women’s quarters. Though Ismat nowhere supported the lesbian

orientation but by putting forth her strong feminist position and by sexualizing the zenana

space she challenged the hegemony of orthodox patriarchy that supports the oppression of

women on all fronts. Though narrated from a child narrator’s point of view the story can be

seen as a recording of what she saw but more than that the story can largely be seen as a

modernist text on feminist politics concentrating on the female body laid on the gender

matrix of conservative zenana.

What is peculiar in both these stories is that Chugtai never blames or tarnish the women’s

image for desiring. Rather through her work we are able to see the society’s point of view and
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how broad Chughtai’s spectrum was to accept these desires beyond gender. In case of Gainda

while rest of the world holds her responsible for her sexual transgression through the

narrator’s voice Chugtai justifies it in a way beyond the acceptance and understanding of

common people. In this story too we see that narrator has a big role to play in making us

understand the deplorable state of affairs in Gainda’s life. The narrator is a childhood friend

of Gainda that’s why she is aware that Bhaiya too was equally in love with lower caste

wretch. The stories also bring a closer view to the women world and their sakha bhav that is

the backbone of their support system. As Minault highlights, “Young girls and women

without a full complement of sisters or female relatives would readily ‘adopt’ female friends

as their sisters through customs of marrying their dolls, exchanging dupattas (dupatta badal

na bahin), or playing Dulhan-Dulhan. Such vows of fictive sisterhood also survived their

marriages and displacements.” (5-6)

Rather both the stories portray women who confined to the household space. Chugtai has

captured the glimpse of these private spheres of their lived realties. These women spent a

considerable part of their day on their rooftops, courtyards, conversing from one house to

another, frequently visiting relatives, shared food on festive occasions, bound together by

ties of blood, social, personal and economical obligation. While in “Lihaaf” there is a

reference of Begum Jaan being the host of several relatives for fulfilling their winter needs,

“who would come for visits and stay on for months while she remained a prisoner in the

house.” (Chughtai ) Even the child narrator is left at Begam Jaan’s house who is treated as a

mouh boli behen by narrator’s mother. In “Gainda” the narrator was sent to her relatives for

few years to Lahore

Conclusion

In the world of Ismat Chugati’s stories the women are shown with limited options under

oppressive patriarchal environment. In these stories she has presented the dual oppression
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that women face in a personal space. The oppressive power is not only of the men but also of

the women who conspire to undermine the other women’s positions. At the same time the

dual use of quilt as an object and as a metaphor creates the ambiguity and tension that arises

from the calm exteriors and treacherous undercurrents. Similarly the theme of “Gainda” is

twofold: the incipient sexual urges in two young girls and the hypocrisy and injustice

associated with sexual morality prevalent in society. Overall it is clearly seen how personal

becomes political in the small world of the author and how her voice challenges the

hegemony of the patriarchal setup even without contesting.

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Work Cited

Chughtai, Ismat. "Autobiographical Fragments Excerpted from Ismat Chughtai's

Autobiography Kaghazi Hai Pairahan."

Trans.M.Asaduddinn.d.file:///C:/Users/A/Desktop/Tendulkar/Partition/Chugh/Autobiographi

cal%20Fragments.htm. English. 9 June 2014.

Cixous, Helene, “The Laugh of the Medusa”, trans. Keith Cohen and Paula Cohen. Signs

1976, 1.4 (Summer)

Minault, G. (1984) ‘Begamati Zuban: Women’s Language and Culture in Nineteenth-Century

Delhi’, India International Centre Quarterly. India International Centre India International

Centre, 11(2), pp. 155–170. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23001655.

Interview with Ismat Chughtai, Friday Times, Pakistan, 26th October - 1st Nov. 1989, p.11