Ismat Chughtai:-

Ismat Chughtai was Urdu’s most courageous and controversial woman writer in
the 20th century. Ismat Chughtai was born on 15th August 1911 into a Muslim
family of western Uttar Pradesh, India. She is a courageous and outspoken writer
of Urdu literature and is apt for the title of “a dangerous woman.” A woman who
used her pen as a powerful weapon to interrogate the oppression of women and
the patriarchal set-up of Indian society at a time when such themes on which she
was writing were pushed under the carpet thereby, causing danger to the social
structure of a repressive society. She surely posed a threat to the traditional
established structure of society which expected women to sit silently, performing
their stereotypical roles without questioning any regions of the established social
paradigm.Through her writings, Chughtai sees the issues of society in all
complexity and does not present women as mere victims and men as
oppressors. She presents the real face of society where women can be as
oppressive as men and even as ones who internalize patriarchal mores and
values.

Analysis of Tiny's Granny:-

“Tiny’s Granny” was originally published in Urdu as “Nanhi ki Naani” in the

famous Urdu journal Naqoosh, in its special issue devoted to Urdu short story
that appeared in January 1954. It is an immortal creation of Ismat Chughtai that
can compare with the best in world literature, and can be found in many popular
anthologies. The English translation is done by Ralph Russell. “Tiny’s Granny”
brings out the hypocrisy and false religiosity of the upper class people. The
society’s truth is brought to the fore where it is difficult for girls of lower classes to
lead a respectable life. It also brings to light poor Granny’s pitiable condition who
lives a lonely life and is denied identity throughout her life.

IDENTITY:-

Identity and occupation go hand in hand. Women have been deemed as a

recessive gender in the work function of the society, often plunged into jobs that
were looked down upon by men. This gender bias creates low self-esteem in a
human and endangers the psyche of female populace who are not able to
function in the society with all cylinders firing. This inequality and loneliness can
lead women into a sense of loneliness and depression.In the story, Ismat has
used the word ‘odd jobs’ for the work that women did.The text of the story and its
support for feminism is inconsistent with evolution of feminism. The patrons of
feminism in east and west seems incoherent with the current issues spanning the
Muslim and thethird world. Feminism has failed women in the east. To resolve
the proverbial ‘women’s problem’ it is crucial that men must help. The story does
not address how to make men a part of the solution and put an end to this
contention. There are no normative conclusions on the issue in the story but it
presents some images of reality in our society.

SEXUAL VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN:-

Sexual violence inflicted upon women is a long standing social stigma. Ismat in
very simple words has described one of the most ground-shaking moments of
the story.
“Tiny who was supposed to be pulling the rope of the ceiling fan, was dozing with
the rope in her hand. The fan stopped moving. The lord and the master woke up,
his sexual appetite was whetted, and “ Tiny’s fate was sealed”. Tiny should not
be an alien character to us. Society is filled with people like deputy sahib who are
more than ready and happy to destroy innocent life to flaunt their misguided male
supremacy. Although granny always stuck to Tiny “like a shadow” but “a pair of
old hands cannot wipe out what is inscribed in a person’s fate”. Even ‘fate’ is
cruel towards the poor as Tiny’s chastity is violated by Deputy Sahib, the
grandfather of three children. Tiny felt victim to his rage and lust for not fanning
him properly. This is how poverty and circumstances can change people and
how poor girls are sexually exploited by upper class men and how it is difficult for
lower strata of society to live a decent life. Ismat has described a very interesting
paradox here. Deputy Sahib who she describes as highly religious, prays five
times a day (Namazi), has provided water vessels to the mosque and has no
issue molesting a tender soul. He certainly does not have any identity issues to
bother. On the contrary, Tiny had to turn recluse and leave the place to live in
anonymity. The question of identity is what bothers her.Her identity is tainted any
way. Child abuse, female victimization, prostitution, sexual assaults, sexual
harassment are few of the terms often experienced by women in the society.
An excerpt from the story sums it all “When a rag is all dirty and greasy, no one
minds too much if someone wipes his nose on it”. The boys would pinch her
playfully in the open street and give her sweets to eat. Tiny’s eyes began to
dance with evil light”.

ECONOMIC CRISIS:-
Ismat in ‘Tiny’s granny’ has shown class disparity based on economy through a
woman’s perspective. Rarely do we see a woman as a protagonist in these
subjects. Granny has lived her whole life in utter poverty and despair. She has
tried all trades in her life but eventually had no choice but to turn into a thief.
According to the story, it is the society, which draws poor people to the edges
and corrupts them deep within themselves that they come in agreement with their
conscience to steal and beg. The consequences of these problems are illustrated
in the excerpt from the story:-
“Everybody knew about her stealing things but nobody questioned as she would
threaten to take an oath on the Holy Quran. And who would disgrace himself in
the next world by directly
inviting her to swear a false oath on the Quran?” This shows that even religion
became meaningless to her since her primary concern is meeting the basic
necessities of her life. This brings us back to square one, i.e., identity crisis. How
does granny see herself in the various images as a thief, beggar, commodity,
poor, old, liar, senile and eccentric. Ismat is not interested in attributing these
traits to granny but the traits that women are seen in the society which she has
seen and understood. In fact, identity crises are so severe, that after that even as
an alleged prostitute Tiny did not have a name of her own, but was more known
for the male partners she was associated with. Tiny’s promiscuity made her
notorious and misfit. Skillfully homogenized within the main plot, Tiny's case
vividly portrays the plight of many girls in the Indian subcontinent. Tiny is not able
to live with herself after that fateful event. She finds refuge in prayers and
silence. It was her only space where she was not judged. Many girls turn recluse
after such incidents and become non-participative in the social circle. Ismat has
completely removed her character from the story after her granny scolds and
abuses her. It a symbolic representation of female
a child who is abused and gets lost in the hustle and bustle of life. “The most
important point is She loses her identity but the deputy sahib does not.”

DISPARITY IN EDUCATION:-
In the story, the characters of Granny and Tiny are uneducated women. This
contrast represents the discrimination and distribution in power and wealth. In
society one draws power from the office he/she holds. Women held no office,
primarily because they were not educated and specifically a practice that was
common in the Muslim society of the time. As Ismat writes that all work granny
did was labor. Domestic works such as cooking, looking after the children,
washing clothes , keeping the house neat and clean, serving family members like
a nurse on all days and especially when they fall sick, etc., are branded as
“women’s work”. This work alone is enough to dumb any individual. All this
intense labor has taken away her beauty and health. She contracted chicken pox
and has marks on her hand. There is always an unsettling emotion in the readers
of Ismat’s work. Her characters often can’t find peace and are particularly
pessimistic about the androcentric society. However, there is an enigma
here.The very absence of men in granny’s life, be her husband, son or grandson
can be a possible cause of their misery. Their economic and social standards
could have been different, possibly better. Granny and Tiny were used by
society because they had no men to take care of them. The ‘other’ women
mocking and teasing Tiny
are possibly those who have a male support in their family. This spells out the
importance of men as understood from the story.

The story concludes with the mischievous monkey tears away the pillow, spilling
out knick- knacks granny stole over years from the houses of people. People
gather around her, mock and abuse the old woman. The old woman sits on her
haunches, mourns and rails all night. Next morning she is found dead in the
same position. It's ended with an imagery of ‘Judgment Day’,which suggests that
the whole story was indeed a binary of the last paragraph. From this subtle
binary, contrast the hardships and discrimination that Granny faced at the hands
of humanity with, “the red poppies” that her grave receives at the hands of God
this contrasting of the inequality in the human realm with the egalitarian world of
God brings out the essence of social inequity in the mohalla and the society at
large.
As it is evident, Chughtai’s omniscient narrator’s succeeds in weaving through
binary stories and helps Chughtai bring to life the complex social space of the
mohalla to discuss facets of social inequality.The story “Tiny’s Granny” (Nanhi ki
Nani) brings to light the social and religious hypocrisy of the society. It shows
how poverty and circumstances can change people and how the poor girls are
sexually exploited by the upper class men and how difficult it is for girls of lower
strata of society to live a decent life.