Arundhathi, Bhakthi poetry

Analysis

Give me a home
that isn’t mine,
where I can slip in and out of rooms
without a trace,
never worrying
about the plumbing,
the colour of the curtains,
the cacophony of books by the bedside.

A home that I can wear lightly,

where the rooms aren’t clogged
with yesterday’s conversations,
where the self doesn’t bloat
to fill in the crevices.

A home, like this body,

so alien when I try to belong,
so hospitable
when I decide I’m just visiting.

Themes

Woman’s Identity in India as Homemakers..

When God is a traveller – short listed for T. S. Eliot prize

Writing style Metaphors, and sound composition.

Themes- feminism, post-colonialism, socio political , Indian English, post independent, feminism
humanity, post colonial , diasporic. Metaphysical

Main themes of the poem – feminine existentialism, identity, individual freedom, Urge, feminism,
Contradicts the Pindaric concept of home, Woman’s freedom.

Poem begins with the description of a home. Responsibilities of a woman. Unwanted talk.

Themes

Feminine extentialism, radical freedom, individual freedom, dreams and desires, Loss of Identity,
Love, Loss , Family. A Room of poetry, financial and educational disadvantage of woman,

Questions, feminism? portrayal of woman’s emotional status of women in the society

Quest for a universal identity. 'Home' has been a recurring motif in your work. Tell me, as a poet,
what is 'Home' for you, not in a geographical or physical sense but in a way which is metaphorical
and speaks of an inner belonging.

Open Minded Approach to life and Ideologies

Open-mindedness involves being receptive to a wide variety of ideas, arguments, and information.
Being open-minded is generally considered a positive quality. It is a necessary ability in order to think
critically and rationally.

If you are not open to other ideas and perspectives, it is difficult to see all of the factors that
contribute to problems or come up with effective solutions. In an increasingly polarized world, being
able to step outside your comfort zone and consider other perspectives and ideas is important.

This doesn’t mean that being open-minded is necessarily easy. Being open to new ideas and
experiences can sometimes lead to confusion and cognitive dissonance when we learn new things
that conflict with existing beliefs. However, being able to change and revise outdated or incorrect
beliefs is an important part of learning and personal growth.

People who are open-minded are willing to change their views when presented with new facts and
evidence. Those who are not, and are resistant to change will find life less rewarding and satisfying,
not to mention very dull.

If we limit ourselves to what we knew and were more comfortable with in the past, we will become
increasingly frustrated and less able to navigate inevitable, ongoing global changes.

Indeed, even society as a whole has changed dramatically over the last several years. As a whole, we
have become more liberal, accepting, and tolerant whereby; circumstances that were not acceptable
years ago are now accepted.

If we choose to approach life in the same way day after day, as well as becoming bored and
uninspired, we will reduce our intellectual aptitude, become less interesting to others, and put
ourselves at risk for mentally degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's.

If, on the other hand, we seek new ways of doing and looking at things, we will expand our
intellectual capability, find life more exciting, and significantly broaden our experiences. The poet
has decided to take an open-minded approach in choosing ideologies and sociocultural identities.

Individualist Feminism.

Individualist feminism, sometimes also grouped with libertarian feminism, is a feminist tradition that

emphasize individualism, personal autonomy, choice, consent, freedom from state-sanctioned
discrimination on the basis of sex or gender, and equality under the law. [1]

Individualist feminists attempt to change legal systems to eliminate sex and/or gender privileges and
to ensure that individuals have equal rights, including an equal claim under the law to their own
persons and property, regardless of their gender, sex, or sexual orientation. Individualist feminism
encourages women to take full responsibility for their own lives and opposes any government
interference into the choices adults make with their own bodies. [2] Individualist or libertarian
feminism is sometimes grouped as one of many branches of liberal feminism, but tends to diverge
significantly from mainstream liberal feminism in the 21st Century. [3][4]

The Association of Libertarian Feminists (ALF), founded by Tonie Nathan in 1973, is one of a number
of individualist or libertarian feminist organizations in the U.S. [1] "Libertarian feminists resent and
reject all legislation which attempts to provide us with special treatment by the law," said the
group's initial mission statement. "We also resent and reject legislation which attempts to 'equalize'
our social or economic position. [...] However, recognizing that bigotry and unjust legal
discrimination do exist presently, we support the efforts of all concerned individuals to change this
situation by non-coercive means." ALF takes a strong anti-government and pro-choice stand. The
poem can be connected to Individualistic Feminism as the poet is trying to make sense of her
identity and her position in society from a purely subjective and emotive stand.

Post-Independence Feminism

There is a distinction between pre-independence and post-Independence women’s movements in

India. The pre-independence movements were essentially about social reforms and initiated by men.
In comparison, the post-independence movement demanded gender equality, questioned gender-
based division of labor and highlighted the oppressive nature of the existing patriarchal structure.

In the euphoria of post-independence, it was believed that women’s status would dramatically
improve along with other marginalized groups because they were now the masters of their destiny.

However, when this was not achieved there was an upsurge of various movements which raised a
number of issues around diverse subjects such as land rights, wages, security of employment,
equality, etc. Some of the issues on which women got together were work, population policies,
atrocities on women, including rape and liquor.

After India gained independence from British rule in 1947, it was the Congress party that came to
power and formed the Government. The government made certain attempts to fulfill the promises it
had made to women during the pre-independence period, and also in the initial period after
independence. In the two decades that followed, 1950s and 1960s, there was a lull in the activities
of feminists and in the women’s movements in India. Women, however, started realizing that the
constitutional promise of equality did not by itself resolve the equality questions, especially in a
country as diverse as India, which comprises different religions and cultures. The poet as part of
post- independence feminist movement declares a new quest to differ from the conventional norms.
The quest mandates the creation of a new ideological shelter that is egalitarian in nature, while
opposing conventional norms and patriarchy.

The poem is a challenge posed to the conventional narrative that identifies women as just tools for
housekeeping.

Domestic work and women in India

Unpaid domestic work is an important aspect of productive activities and an indispensable factor
that contributes to the well-being of household and economy. However, the predominance of
women in domestic work and keeping them out of ‘economic activities’ put unpaid domestic work
under the shadow of invisibility, outside the production boundaries, and further outside the purview
of economic policy. The nature of women’s work has endured substantial alterations during the neo-
liberal paradigm of Indian economy, and women’s participation in the labour force and workforce
has declined significantly. To understand the status of women in the labour market, it is necessary
to comprehend the nature of their unpaid work, which has significant impact on their work
participation rate in the economy. As they are not well employed they lack economic and social
independence.
Women are engaged in unpaid domestic work because of three factors—Constraints (social and
religious), Choices (failure of market and states to provide essential provisioning), and Career (low
opportunity cost of unpaid work in the market).

Defining unpaid work (womam’s identity in India as Homemakers.)

Unpaid work can be distinguished into a range of activities (Kabeer, 2008; Antonopoulos, 2009).

Unpaid services provided for the maintenance and care of households are considered as unpaid
domestic work. Unpaid household work has three components: (i) household maintenance including
cooking, cleaning, and shopping; (ii) care of persons living in the house, such as looking after
children, the elderly, sick, disabled, or simply other adults requiring care; and (iii) voluntary services
or services rendered free to other households or the community. Despite its critical role in the
sustenance of society, unpaid household work is considered Non-System of National Accounts (SNA)
or Extended SNA (ESNA) work (SNA, 1993). Unpaid household work performed mainly by unpaid
workers, overwhelmingly women, are thus rendered invisible in the official statistical systems; and,
consequently out of the ambit, until the recent change of the national and international
development policy (Antonopoulos and Hirway, 2010; Hirway, 2015).

Introduction

The discourse on women’s unpaid work is exclusively pertinent in the Indian context because
women’s labor force participation rate is very low and has seen a declining trend over the last
decade probably because majority of them are moving into the domain of domestic duties. In a
country like India, merely 22 percent of women are engaged in workforce, and out of them, 70
percent are associated with the farm activities that are informal in nature with little or no economic
remuneration or social recognition and almost zero access to social protection.

Most of women’s unpaid work is characterized as informal, invisible, and unrecognized in the
economy. Further, the marginalization of women in workforce is intensified because of their
socioeconomic position in society to carry out unpaid household activities in the family in the form
of cooking, cleaning, fetching food, water, and firewood and giving care. Furthermore, the burden of
unpaid work is fortified by the lack of adequate public provisioning in critical sectors, such as
energy, health, water and sanitation, food security, and livelihoods. On an average, across the globe,
men spent 83 min in unpaid domestic work while women spent 265 min, i.e., more than three
times the time spent by men. However, in India, women spend around 297 min, whereas only 31 
min are spend by men in domestic work. This gender segregation in unpaid domestic duties reflects
a set of social norms and perceptions regarding a “natural” household division of labor and the
macroeconomic policies and strategies that do not acknowledge the existence of unpaid domestic
work, rather intensify the increase of the burden in the economy (Dong and An, 2015).

Unpaid domestic work: women’s constraints, choices, and career

Most of the unpaid work is not a matter of choice for women; rather, it is a constraint by society
and patriarchal norms that women are expected to carry responsibility for work at home. It impedes
entry into the labor market and restricts women’s income and earning potential. Therefore, it costs
the loss of income and financial independence for women. Further, the inadequate decent
employment opportunity in paid work for women increases the incidence of unpaid works and
reduces the opportunity cost. Therefore, low female participation acts as disincentives for the
uptake of education and skill and augments their disadvantages in the labor market and reinforces
the gender division of labor.
The demographic factors, mainly fertility rates and family structure and composition, play crucial
role in determining the status of women as unpaid workers. However, access to the basic
infrastructure, especially safe water, sanitation, energy for lighting and fuel, transport and childcare
have strong influence on the time spent for unpaid work.

Moreover, the failure of state to provide alternatives for care and domestic assistance increases the
burden of unpaid work, which leads to restraining women’s choices for paid work, as it is expected
that they have to provide this unpaid work. Further, the endorsed roles in unpaid work constrain
their choice of paid works, such as self-employment, home-based or part-time; casual, irregular,
seasonal, and in the informal sector because these types of work provide poor remuneration
without any kind of social security Furthermore, the low opportunity cost for unpaid work is
reflected in the market, and paid domestic workers have experiences low status, low wages without
any social security.

Conceptual framework on women in domestic work—constraints, choices, and career:

interconnection among macro, meso, and micro determinants. It has been observed that the sexual
division of labor pushes women to their domestic duties and undervalued household work.
Therefore, categorically women are laid into margins of the society through the lemmatization of
their role within the household. The social margins always haunted women in the economic and
political sphere. Hence, in Indian social system, there are lack of agencies for women to access the
labor market. The prohibition of women in politics also leads to exclusion from productive work and
property rights in society. The women representation in parliament is very much limited and the
chances of the women contestants depends on the circumstantial win of the political organization.
Thus, there is a systematic exclusion of women from the parliament has restricted their political
agency to bring any protective labor legislation for unpaid workers.

Further, societal norms play a crucial role in women’s work status and reduce participation in paid
work which is further interceded through religion and caste. According to the concept of
intersectionality, which is used to describe the way in which caste, class, religion, social stigmas, and
patriarchal norms generate discrimination, inequalities, and disempowerment. On the one hand,
Indian households often require women to prioritize domestic work and they are also explicitly
constrained by marriage, religion, caste, and economic class. However, on the other hand, they face
legal, normative, and economic constraints to get paid work. The predominance of gender-biased
views regarding women’s roles in the household, economy, society, and political landscape of the
country are the major impediments in changing the working status of women.

This poem can also be seen from the point of and Indian woman who wants to break away from the
tediousness of housework and its maintenance.

Feminine Existentialism.

Alienation and Othering in Existential Feminism Existentialism is a “doctrine that makes human life
possible and also affirms that every truth and every action imply an environment and a human
subjectivity”. The existential philosophy by Sartre convinces the existential beings to avail
themselves the opportunity of the free choice given to human beings and define their existence
subjectively as they have no preordained essence or nature and make our lives and existence
meaningful and significant.
 Existential Feminism, inaugurated by Simone De Beauvoir, examines the meaningfulness of the
existence of women; posing the general concern of what it means to be a woman as an individual.
Although women are equally free to control their lives, certain socially constructed structures in
society link ‘woman’ as only the ‘other’; counterpart of ‘man’. In this way, a ‘woman’ is merely a
socio-cultural construct who is associated with an identity carved out for her by the roles assigned to
her by society (Lorber & Farrell, 1991; Quinan, 2016).

In other words, women are only seen as ‘non-men’ focusing on the dominant position/role of men in
the society which undermines women’s freedom to choose for themselves. This perception of
women is oppressive and it ultimately leads to confused feminine identities and a fragmented sense
of meaning in life. This othering causes existential alienation in women when they fail to create a
balance between their perceived identities, affiliated with stereotyped gender roles, and their sense
of fulfillment and happiness.

In Patriarchal society, the gender position/roles of a ‘husband’ and a ‘wife’ are predetermined based
on the patriarchal structures which make men assume the roles of women as housewives and child-
bearers as natural in a marriage. Women are generally believed to take care of the household chores
and child nurturing after marriage and these are not deemed as important tasks where husbands
can support their wives. Marriage and childbearing can thus become institutions to alienate women,
where the husband dominates the relationship as a typical patriarch. Alongside many socio-cultural
patriarchal practices/structures, men in the roles of ‘husbands’ play a crucial role in isolating women
as mere passive ‘objects’ to the active ‘subjects’.

Stereotypical familial gender roles, therefore, erupt because of social institutions and fixed socially
constructed roles for both genders in the family, where men are made to think that their natural
responsibility is to protect and control women in the family. An important social marker for men to
isolate women in marriage through patriarchal control is the understanding that women do not
contribute to the economic empowerment of the family and men are solely responsible for
breadwinning. Another important reason for the isolation of women in marriage is the stereotypical
role assigned to women as housewives where they are considered only good enough for domestic
labour. Unfortunately, religion also at times becomes a source to justify the male domination and
control of women in marriage.

Türkkan (2010) suggests that “Other” and “alterity” are two interrelated concepts. As a condition of
“otherness,” alterity is defined as “the state of being other or different; diversity”.

The construction of the subject is inseparable from the construction of its other. The other is not
something outside or beyond the self, as the traditional Cartesian perspective would have it; rather,
it is deeply implicated in and with the self. Thus one is inclined to ask: “What is my relationship to
‘the other’?” and “How should I act towards ‘the other’?” The term “alterity” suggests that the other
involved in these questions is neither an abstract proposition nor unrelated and therefore irrelevant
to considerations of the self. Self-understanding is not grounded in subjective self-awareness.
“Identity is something all people have, or ought to have or are searching for…Identity is something
people (and groups) can have without being aware of it. A stable sense of ‘self’ or personal identity
in domestic relationships is Humanities & Social Sciences.

Social identities are influenced by the individual’s interaction with other members of society and a
failure to achieve a balanced relationship as per social norms may lead to an identity crisis. In a
patriarchal society, girls from an early age are made to internalize patriarchy through various socio-
cultural norms/practices which are re-socialized after marriage. This re-socialization includes
influences of elder women alongside the husband in marriage to gain control over women’s
behavior and attitudes. It is primarily for this reason that the role/support of the husband is one of
the most important factors for a woman to achieve a harmonious balance between ‘self’ and ‘other’
in a marriage just as a woman’s support is for her husband. Alienation refers to the sense of
disaffection and estrangement between people, their relationships, and their environment leading
to meaninglessness, isolation, and self-estrangement in life.

(The term first got popularity in the nineteenth century from Hegel’s school of thought. Hegelian
concept of alienation is based on the concept of separation of the human spirit from the objective
world around it, as a result, it feels alienated from the self. Leopold (2018, p.3) holds that “alienation
obtains when a separation between a subject and object that properly belong together, frustrates or
conflicts with that baseline connectedness or harmony”)

This existential alienation renders an individual powerless to control one’s life, to identify with the
social roles to such an extent that one’s desires feel alien to one’s self (Jaeggi 2014). Humans have
an innate longing of getting their consciousness recognized by others without reciprocating the
same. (Debnath, 2020). One reason for female alienation and confused identity in marriage is when
women blame themselves for the unhappiness of their husbands and family since they are taught to
be responsible for the said. Even though the concept of alienation is vital in the understanding of
human existence. The term alienation is often misrepresented and is often used in erroneous
contexts but that doesn’t deprive it of its importance. Understanding of alienation paves the path for
the understanding of existential truth about self. Hence, comprehending alienation leads towards
the understanding actual self. Any model that endeavors to pronounce accurately events in
women’s lives must acknowledge the prejudice and discrimination that are a significant part of their
life experiences.

Author’s concept of Home.

Let me start by speaking of 'home' geographically. There's a poem of mine called 'Where I Live'
which talks about Bombay, and I often preface that by saying that it explores the gap between
where I live and where I belong. I was never quite sure where I belonged but I knew where I lived.
Today the situation is somewhat reversed!

Both 'Where I Live' and 'Home' were written at the same time -- around 2003. And I often think of
'Home' as an oddly prescient poem. It intuited what was later to become part of a personal
worldview, a way of life, as it were. At the time, Bombay, the city I inherited and kept seeking to
reinvent for myself, was beginning to seem inadequate. Gradually, this relationship of 'exasperated
intimacy' with the city, and indeed, with my cultural and spiritual context, grew increasingly fraught.
And in 2010 when I moved to an ashram in Coimbatore, it was in fact an attempt to deepen and
reinvigorate my understanding of belonging. Without repudiating one home and validating the
other, I wanted to deepen my journey, my quest for anchorage.

The ashram helped, and it continues to be a very important place personally. But it also helped me
realize that I didn't need to have one single home, that belonging would never be singular or unitary
-- and that a certain condition of mendicancy or vagabondage was not an unpleasant or unwelcome
thing.

So, if you were to ask me 'where I am based', I've realized that isn't just the ashram, it isn't just
Bombay, it isn't just one set of friends, one circle of litterateurs, one band of seekers. I actually
belong, as I suspect many of us do, in a much more complex way. There needs to be some time of
exile to recognize home for what it is.

The concept of Home in “When the God is a Traveller”

Subramaniam continues to contemplate the perennial tension between eros and emptiness, and the
pull of elusive homelands. “Home seems to be a place where innocence and experience—nirvana
and samsara, longing and nostalgia, Eden and the fallen world, if you will—are no longer
oppositional," she says. In an interview she speaks about her poetry, and her new book in particular.
Edited excerpts:

I think he’ll get home, eventually. But he’ll be different at the end of it, and consequently, so will be
home!

The travelling god in the title poem is Kartikeya, who journeys the world to claim the fruit of
knowledge. Unfortunately, his cannier brother, Ganesha, simply circles his parents and claims it first.
Kartikeya is slower, more literal, but he needs to make that journey, and I think is wiser at the end of
it. So, home does exist—at least, as a promise—in these poems. But some period of exile seems
necessary to recognize that home for what it is. At the same time, it isn’t a simple journey from exile
to sanctuary. Because home itself is transfigured on one’s return.

Her approach to Feminism is also different. Its is better if worn loose.

Have I personally seen femaleness as a weakness? Not in the least! I’m grateful to feminism as a tool
that allowed me to explore the ways in which gender is constructed. That’s helped me to wear
gender more lightly — as a more fluid mantle rather than an armour. As I say in my poem, ‘Home,’ I
find most identities ‘alien, when I try to belong,’ but quite ‘hospitable, when I decide I’m just
visiting’!

Feminist Approach to the Poem.

Multiple socio-political changes have always created a powerful influence on creative writing.
Within the massive, universal corpus of literary creativity, Indian English writing spans across from
the pre-colonial, colonial to the post-colonial era. It is a complex interweaving of the Indian
experience, with its regional involvements and international affiliations made possible through
English, and enriched by the diasporic experiences of writers not confined geographically to India.
Post-independent Indian English poetry, embraces variety of modern themes and ideas especially
women subjectivity. After 1980s, India’s poetic circle became flooded with remarkable women poets
and Arundhati Subramaniam occupies a prestigious place in this field. Her creations are an outpour
of the various simple and complicated experiences of her life. Her poems cover the various physical,
metaphysical and spiritual stages of human existence and experience. This paper intends to highlight
a feminist’s observation of the multiple facets of humanity. Keywords: socio-political, Indian English,
post-colonial, diasporic, post-independent, metaphysical, feminist, humanity

Release from household and exploration of the female experience

The massive canon of world’s literature is a result of the patriarchal monopoly (A Room of Poems)
which has developed and permeated to every crack and fissures of the human society. Women have
always been a victim of male autocracy and even the historical periodization has appeared to be
biased. If we draw our attention towards the English literary history, we find that during the
Renaissance or Romantic period there exist no records of women’s writing despite the fact, women
have been producing towering works under insurmountable difficulties. But the periodization
bypasses them leaving such writings deeply buried in the sands of anonymity. Recent investigations
have unearthed a startling fact that the so called dull literary period between Richardson’s death
and Sir Walter Scott’s emergence is indeed richly strewn with writings of women. The Victorian
culture was enchained with multiple boundaries and limitations of human existence.

The women were as usual the primary victims of this irrationality. According to Shirley and Enid
Ardener, women’s sphere exists as a separate area of cultural experience apart from the largely
shared experiences with men. Certain aspects are largely outside male experiences and this is what
Shirley and Ardener calls as ‘wild area’. They built a model of two circles, one representing the
dominant male group and the other ‘muted group’. The term ‘muted’ is pregnant with meanings and
suggests ‘problems of both language and power’. Besides being a political revolution the Women’s
movement that began in 1960s also became a major literary force to eradicate this ‘muted’
existence of women and extract their true voice, a counter canon of the patriarchal literary order.

According to Elaine Showalter, feminist criticism can prosper in two solid modes: 1) Evolving an
ideological base in the role of women as a reader in order to give a woman a specific interpretation
to texts. 2) Feminist or women as writers which is also called gynocritique enabling to create
experiences, categories and structures of writing which have been deliberately supported by
patriarchal enterprises. This parallel issue of texuality and sexuality has been further developed and
discussed by Sandra Gilbert and later on by Helen Cixous through the concept of ecriture feminine.
But Sandra Gilbert’s concept established women as mere revisionists of men’s works and has been
condemned by Elaine Showalter. Showalter was of the view that rather than becoming as mere
revisionist it is important for the feminists to build up a viable revolutionary framework that would
truly facilitate articulation of women’s expression. French feminists like Helen Cixous established the
idea of female body as a meaningful sign ecriture feminine to suggest the point of departure for a
leap into the vast area of female difference which governs women’s treatment in patriarchal
literature and it’s privileging in feminist critical writings.

Indian Feminism and its exploration

Women's role in Pre-colonial social structures reveals that feminism was visualized differently in
India as compared to the west. Indian feminists were influenced by the Western debates being
conducted about violence against women. Historical circumstances and values in India have caused
feminists to develop a feminism that differs from Western feminism. For example, the idea of
women as "powerful" is accommodated into patriarchal culture through religion, which has retained
visibility in all sections of society. This has provided women with traditional "cultural spaces."

Moreover, in the Western notion of "self" relies in competitive individualism where people are
described as "born free yet everywhere in chains." In India the individual is usually considered to be
just one part of the larger social collective. This is also why the poet considers a larger identity
rather than a singular one that shelters her permanently.

The heterogeneity of the Indian experience reveals that there are multiple patriarchies, contributing
to the existence of multiple feminisms. Hence, feminism in India is not a singular theoretical
orientation; it has changed over time in relation to historical and cultural realities, consciousness,
perceptions and actions of individual women, and women as a group. The multifariously oppressed
Indian women, a typical characteristic feature of the ‘third-world’ societies has been described as
‘gendered subaltern’ a term coined by Gayatri Spivack.
Gendered Subalternity binds the issues of feminism and post-colonialism as co-existing aspects.
Spivack is of the view that, in order to be heard and known, the oppressed subaltern must adopt
Western ways of knowing, of thought, reasoning, and language. Because of such Westernization, a
subaltern can never express their ways of knowing (thought, reasoning, and language) and instead
must conform expression of their non–Western knowledge of colonial life to Western ways of
knowing the world.

Women’s writing in India dates back to the Vedic age.During the Vedic age, more than 3,000 years
ago, women were assigned an honorable place in society. They shared an equal status with their
men folk and enjoyed a kind of liberty that actually had societal sanctions. Inspite of matrilineal
heritage in several parts of India, no written records of women’s literary prowess exists before 6th
century BC. The emergence of the first body of poetry by women in India could be attributed to the
advent of Buddhism.

Buddhism offered women the opportunity to break away from the restrictions of home life, a major
factor in the rise of Indian women's literature in the early 6th century BC. The earliest known
anthology of women's literature in India has been identified as those belonging to the Therigatha
nuns, contemporaries of Buddha. Amongst them, Mutta, expresses: ‘So free am I, so gloriously free,
free from three petty things - from mortar, from pestle and from my twisted lord’.

In order to escape from the frustrations and monotonicity of domestic traditions and marriage
women chose to join the Budhhist ‘sangha’. Thus emerged poems and songs about what it meant to
be free from household chores and sexual slavery.Although the early forms of writing addressed the
issue of personal freedom, the poetry that followed later was a celebration of womanhood and
sexuality. The Sangam poets that dominated the era between ca. 100 BC-AD 250 wrote extensively
about what it meant to have a female body.

Feminist Alignment of the author

Arundhati Subramaniam commands a venerating position. Her poetic creations are a breakaway
from the thematic and ideological limitations of her predecessors. Her poetry covers a wide field of
various physical, metaphysical and spiritual aspects of human existence and experience. In 5:46,
Andheri Local, Subramaniam speaks of an individual’s daily experience in the women’s compartment
of a ‘Bombay local’. She associates the suffocation of women in the compartment with their real life
disasters. Every travelling woman in the compartment has their own separate dreams, destinies,
sufferings and disasters. They have their own respective physical appearances with unique physical
features but they are bounded by the same string of agony of patriarchal domination. She uses the
organic imageries of ‘flesh’, ‘organza’, ‘odours’, and ‘ovaries ’not as sexual innuendoes but
highlighting the female physical consciousness which demands respect from the “patriarchal
methodolatry”( term of contempt coined by Elaine Showalter). Towards the concluding part of the
poem she invokes the mystical image of Goddess Kali, who physically appears to be wild and nude.
Woman’s organs are not the food for men’s limitless sexual hunger

Subramaniam’s usage of the imagery of Goddess Kali symbolically demands to worship and respect
every female figure in the form of divinity. She relates the power and energy of the Andheri local
with the divine strength and power of femininity. So, she describes it as ‘Kali on wheels. After
descending from the train the lady chooses to fulfil her own wish over the wish of her lover. She
says: ‘When I descend I could choose To dice carrots Or a lover I postpone the latter

In this way the poem concludes in a mild language of protest. This mildness takes a violent turn in
Demand where Subramaniam openly disrupts the greedy, lustful male social order. Sketching a very
negative and dull picture, she goes on to claim that the males lead purposeless life of lust and
greed. All forms of male affection, love, care and compassion towards their female counterpart are
just to meet their sole purpose of appeasing their endless physical thirst. Women are treated as
‘rice-starched, dhoop-soaked’, crumbled clothes ‘in a family cupboard’. She expresses her extreme
hatred towards the male ‘breath’ around her. The male figure always remains attached to the
female with false assurances and promises. He always has his own selfish motives to satisfy. Women
are like the play dolls for the patriarchy. Subramaniam highlights this tradition of women’s
subjugation and suffering since her ‘foremothers’ who might not be so much aware of it. They
survive like the worn out, crumbled linen used and then thrown away behind the cupboard doors.
This poem along with its theme holds a massive significance in terms of its diction as well. The
language reveals the indigenous feminine conscience of the poet. The usage of words like ‘dhoop-
soaked’, ‘foremothers’ is a celebration of Helen Cixous’ concept of ‘ecriture feminine’. Her violent
attitude continues till the end of her poem as she concludes: ‘….reminding you That this This
uncensored wilderness Of greed Is simplyOr not so simplyBody’. (Demand) Her outright violent
attitude towards the male-centered society gradually turns towards the search of feminine
existence.

The poem Home and Feminism

The poem,Home,is a revelation of the angst of Feminine existentialism. Though, Sartre’s theory of
existentialism spread the realization of the futility of human existence and bringing an end to the
essence-existence conflict, but feminists feel alienated from this theory. They are of the view that
women’s existential crisis occupies a separate area and its existence lies outside the male social
order.

This poem contradicts the Pinteresque concept of ‘home’ which was believed to be a secured,
harmless and peaceful place, far away from the menace of the outside world. For women, the
home is a place of complete suppression and subjugation. It appears as a prison trap for them. They
rot and suffer throughout their life within these four walls. The very introductory lines reveal her
urgent search for freedom from the shackles of domestic life. She wants to ‘slip in and out of rooms
without a trace’. This slipping out is a way to escape from the burdens of the household chores.
Subramaniam wishes that she never belonged to any home and she could have wondered freely
according to her own whims and fancies. For her the home is a place for endless controversies and
cacophonies of family life. Within such a confused state of existence a woman’s self-identity
remains ignored and slowly fades away into the dark cracks and ‘crevices’ of human existence. So
Subramaniam concludes by saying: “A home, like this body,So alien when I try to belong,So
hospitable. When I decide I’m just visiting”. (Home)

Another well discussed work of Arundhati Subramaniam that once again reveal the width and the
depth of her poetic themes is Recycled. The underlying theme of the poem is the problems of
displacement and identity crisis in diaspora. But Subramaniam’s uniqueness the process of drawing a
co-relation between the issues of femininity and diaspora.

Both suffer from partial or complete uprootedness and existential anxiety. This poem captures the
feminine diasporic experiences of Subramaniam herself who has undergone this double oppression
throughout her life. According to Salman Rushdie: ‘Our lives disconnect and reconnect, we move on,
and later we may again touch one another, again bounce away. This is the felt shape of a human life,
neither simply linear nor wholly disjunctive nor endlessly bifurcating, but rather this bouncey-castle
sequence of bumpings-into and tumblings apart.
’This disconnecting and reconnecting is the core issue of diaspora which pushes and individual
towards a barren, deserted existence. This barren, deserted experience is also associated with the
life of the women as well. All the dreams and aspirations of the individuals exist in dreams and
fancies. Its fulfillment happens only in the virtual state. So she says: ‘....what we are so often told,
That fancy has wings And dreams come true, Even if it takes years……’ (Recycled) As Subramaniam
travels through the Trossachs in Scotland, she remembers her sweet cherishing memories of her
childhood in Bombay, where she was born. But with the passage of time these memories have been
poisoned with a bitter taste.

Similar to a diasporic individual the constraints of time strip a woman of her original identity and she
survives as a crumble of flesh and blood, completely displaced and ignored A meticulous analysis of
the poetic creations of Arundhati Subramaniam exposes the exploration of multifarious
ambivalences – around human intimacy with its bottlenecks and surprises, life in a Third World
megalopolis, myth, the politics of culture and gender, and the persistent trope of the existential
journey.