Exploring Gender Studies and Feminism Through Literature and Media

Exploring Gender Studies
and Feminism Through

Literature and Media
Gyanabati Khuraijam
National Institute of Technology, Agartala, India
A volume in the Advances in Media,

Entertainment, and the Arts (AMEA)
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Khuraijam, Gyanabati, 1979- editor.

Title: Exploring gender studies and feminism through literature and media /
Gyanabati Khuraijam.
Description: Hershey : Information Science Reference, 2022. | Includes
bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “This book will
contribute significantly to the research areas of gender studies, racial
studies and feminism by analyzing significant literary works of Indian
Writing in English, American literature, African literature and European
texts”-- Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022023426 (print) | LCCN 2022023427 (ebook) | ISBN
9781668465721 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781668465738 (paperback) | ISBN
9781668465745 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Gender identity in literature. | Feminism in literature. |
Women in literature. | LCGFT: Literary criticism. | Essays.
Classification: LCC PN56.G45 E97 2022 (print) | LCC PN56.G45 (ebook) |
DDC 809/.933521--dc23/eng/20220705
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022023426
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022023427
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Arts (AMEA) (ISSN: 2475-6814; eISSN: 2475-6830)
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Table of Contents
Preface................................................................................................................. xxi
Acknowledgment.............................................................................................. xxvi
Chapter 1
Role of a Nineteenth Century Woman’s Divinity in Self-Formation......................1
Anutosh Sinha, Jadavpur University, India
Chapter 2
Global Androgyny and Futurisms: The Performativity of Anima/Animus in
Contemporary Video Games.................................................................................10
Manodip Chakraborty, G. L. Bajaj Group of Institution, Mathura, India
Chapter 3
Structural Domination and Quest for Jewish Identity: A Traumatic Study of
Women’s Characters in the Novels of Imre Kertesz.............................................17
Diksha Gupta, Bhaskar Degree College, Udhampur, India
Chapter 4
Breaking the Silence: Understanding the LGBTQ+ Community – A Study of
Alternative Realities: Love in the Lives of Muslim Women...................................25
Gargee Rawat, Doon University, India
Sakshi Semwal, DIT University, India
Chapter 5
Unlearning Internalized Homophobia With My Brother’s Husband: A
Glimpse Into Mainstream Queer Literature in Japan............................................39
Anushkaa Debnath, Jadavpur University, India

Chapter 6
Subversion of the Dominant Logic of Heteronormativity in Akwaeke Emezi’s
The Death of Vivek Oji: Queering the Society and the State................................50
Guhan Priyadharshan P., Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur,
India
Chapter 7
Portrayal of Helen of Troy in the Select Poems of Sappho and Wislawa
Szymborska: Shattering the Stereotypes...............................................................64
Rushati Dasgupta, Jain University (Deemed), India
Chapter 8
Touching to Transgress and Transgressing to Touch: The Dalit Female
Sexuality in Meena Kandasamy’s Poetry..............................................................72
Sneha Roy, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India
Chapter 9
Foucauldian-Feminist Reading of Mo Yan’s Select Novels..................................79
Aaradhana, Lovely Professional University, India
Chapter 10
There Was No Escape Epiphany: Subversion and Symbolic in Clarice
Lispector’s “Love”................................................................................................96
Malvika Manisha Lobo, The English and Foreign Languages University,
India
Chapter 11
An Ecofeminist Reading of Amitav Ghosh’s Jungle Nama................................106
Sayantani Sengupta, St Xavier’s University, India
Chapter 12
The Women in the Fictions of Arundhati Roy: Forming Solidarity With
Other Marginalities.............................................................................................113
Jagriti Sengupta, Visva-Bharati, India
Chapter 13
Gender and Sexuality in Toni Morrison’s Home................................................121
Anita Devi Ahanthem, Kumbi College, India
Chapter 14
Gender Roles Portrayed in A Room of One’s Own and Orlando........................131
Antara Naha, K. R. Mangalam University, India

Chapter 15
“It’s My Story”: Revisioning of Myth in Thus Spake Shoorpanakha, So Said
Shakuni by Poile Sengupta..................................................................................139
Anusha Ashok, Stella Maris College, India
Chapter 16
An Ode to Woman: Role and Representation of Women in the World of
Literature.............................................................................................................148
Arundhati Patra, Vivekananda Mission Mahavidyalaya, India
Chapter 17
Women in Partition Literature: A Comparative Study of Women’s
Representations in India’s Partition Literature....................................................157
Trisha Bhattacharya, Independent Researcher, India
Chapter 18
A Feminist Reading of Panthoipi Khongkul.......................................................173
Rosy Yumnam, The English and Foreign Languages University, Shillong,
India
Chapter 19
Recognizing Contemporary Tribal Women’s Writings: A Study on Select
Literary Narrators of North East India................................................................182
Raam Kumar T., Bharathiar University, India
Padmanabhan B., Bharathiar University, India
Chapter 20
Nupi-Lal and Women Empowerment: A Study of the Meetei Women of
Manipuri Society.................................................................................................191
Yumnam Yaiphabi Chanu, Manipur University, India
Chapter 21
The Role of Haptics in the Sexual Harassment of Women in Corporate Sector.202
Shraddha Dhal, KIIT University (Deemed), India
Chapter 22
Table, Chair, and the Persistent Patriarchy: A Feminist Critique of Vaidehi’s
“Going by Tables and Chairs”............................................................................213
Kanika Bhalla, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA

Chapter 23
Reading Ishmat Chughtai’s “Lihaaf” From the Perspective of Alternative
Sexuality.............................................................................................................221
Ashmita Bora, Indian Institute of Information Technology, Guwahati,
India
Chapter 24
“Knowledge Is Power, Power Is Also Knowledge”: Revisiting Rokeya
Sakhawat Hossain’s “Sultana’s Dream”..............................................................228
Dolon Sarkar, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India
Compilation of References............................................................................... 234
About the Contributors.................................................................................... 249
Index................................................................................................................... 253
Detailed Table of Contents
Preface................................................................................................................. xxi
Acknowledgment.............................................................................................. xxvi
Chapter 1
Role of a Nineteenth Century Woman’s Divinity in Self-Formation......................1
Anutosh Sinha, Jadavpur University, India
Rashsundari Devi’s autobiography, the first of its kind by any Bengali woman,
Amar Jiban is the testimony of a 19th century Bengali woman’s ordeals. It not only
highlights the theme of women’s education through her yearning for knowledge of
letters; it also calls for equal spiritual status for women as she personally yearns for
God. She chooses to rewrite her life in this autobiography, broadly in alignment
with God’s life. She attributes to God every good or bad thing happening around,
even her life with transgressions. The chapter showcases how the re-presented self
of Rashsundari follows the broad religious codes, yet not in the customary way and
her personalized fantastic experiences, like precognitive dreams, help her mould the
shape of her God. The author invokes the guru-shishya dynamics and looks through
the glass of a few religious texts of Hinduism, especially the Bhagavad Gita, to analyse
whether she transgresses from the whole religious system or actually encodes her
discontent uniquely on the bedrock of religious following, adherence, and devotion.
Chapter 2
Global Androgyny and Futurisms: The Performativity of Anima/Animus in
Contemporary Video Games.................................................................................10
Manodip Chakraborty, G. L. Bajaj Group of Institution, Mathura, India
The derivation of gender superiority is a societal construct that must distribute itself
in a hegemonic axis to produce discursive subjects. With postmodern disillusionment,
the potentiality of a hegemonic habitus has shifted towards the digital platform.
Much has been analyzed about this form, but video games remained outside the
periphery – smoothly constructing the mass ideology. Contemporary video games

with their simulated morphism can not only alter the player’s consciousness but also
can provide a release from their inner taboos. The gamer can exhibit freely his/her
anima/animus, which is a restricted content in society and paid the price by being
under continuous surveillance. This chapter thus proposes to analyse contemporary
video games and how these video games with their augmented enhancements can
alter the gamer’s perception and thereby bring about an entire change in the persona
– leading to a world of global androgyny.
Chapter 3
Structural Domination and Quest for Jewish Identity: A Traumatic Study of
Women’s Characters in the Novels of Imre Kertesz.............................................17
Diksha Gupta, Bhaskar Degree College, Udhampur, India
The most distinct outcome of structural domination can be examined through the major
historical event of the Holocaust that took place against the Jews. Imre Kertesz was
a historical writer who diligently chronicled the injustice and discrimination against
Jewish women in his works to highlight the barbarity that they have encountered. The
study gives a poignant depiction of the deplorable condition of the women characters,
who struggled and quested for their Jewish identity, equality, and liberty. Kertesz’s
Fateless and Kaddish for an Unborn Child depict marginalization, discrimination,
and victimization of the Jewish women. Hence, the chapter will discuss the texts
of Imre Kertesz from the theoretical perspectives of trauma in order to understand
the indelible scars and other traumatic disorders of women characters. Along with
this, the major concern of the study is to depict the dispossessedness of voice of
Jewish women in particular, as a result of which they are at a loss to articulate the
recurrence of discrimination, injustice, and oppression they witness.
Chapter 4
Breaking the Silence: Understanding the LGBTQ+ Community – A Study of
Alternative Realities: Love in the Lives of Muslim Women...................................25
Gargee Rawat, Doon University, India
Sakshi Semwal, DIT University, India
Gender equality has been a can of worms. From the waves of feminism till LGBTQ,
some people, due to their otherness, have endured bigotry and social stigma. We’ve
been fed with heteronormativity for a long time and there exists a void when it comes
to homosexual tolerance. Although a lot has been written about them, transgender
people still have not been legally recognized worldwide. Their demand for identity
and getting rid of the derogatory terms they were labelled with like hijras, chakka,
kinnars, jogappa, aravani, aruvani, etc. is visible everywhere. Recently, LGBTQ is
considered taboo in society because of some stereotypical mindsets. This chapter
focuses on the lives of transgender people in and around Pakistan majorly by dwelling
deep into the kind of behavioural patterns society shows toward them by taking the

text of Alternative Realities (Nighat M. Gandhi, 2013) as a representation of the

LGBTQ community’s voice.
Chapter 5
Unlearning Internalized Homophobia With My Brother’s Husband: A
Glimpse Into Mainstream Queer Literature in Japan............................................39
Anushkaa Debnath, Jadavpur University, India
The manga My Brother’s Husband (2014-2017) talks about a little Japanese

neighborhood, the microcosm representing the country’s general approach to
homosexuality and how the future holds a promise to change for better days.
Homosexual relationships and trans identities are frowned upon in the general
society of modern-day Japan, just like in many other Asian countries. An openly
gay mangaka, Gengoroh Tagame, had so far been a name limited to the gay erotic
manga circuit, but this work, targeted at a more general audience, won him critical
acclaim for depicting the struggles of being queer in Japan. This chapter is an
attempt to understand how Yaichi is a representative of the cis-heterosexual male
who is trying his best to navigate out of the patriarchal maze of heteronormativity
that has been propagated through generations following European imperialism in
Asian countries.
Chapter 6
Subversion of the Dominant Logic of Heteronormativity in Akwaeke Emezi’s
The Death of Vivek Oji: Queering the Society and the State................................50
Guhan Priyadharshan P., Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur,
India
Akwaeke Emezi’s 2020 novel The Death of Vivek Oji narrates the death of the
eponymous non-heterosexual character—as suggested by the title—and the emotional
turmoil faced by people with non-heterosexual orientation. This chapter demonstrates
how his death is the product of dominant logic—the prudishness of the Igbo society,
which manifests heteronormative practices, and the legal system in Nigeria that
castigate persons who diverge from normative sexual behaviour. Further, it examines
the narration in the novel that subverts the heteronormativity perpetuated by the
state and society, opening new avenues of resistance for non-heterosexual people
in Nigeria that might otherwise be obscured in the narrative. The chapter considers
the location of the experiences of the non-heterosexual characters in the novel in
liminality so that the contradiction between the lived experience and the conformity
articulated by the state and the society is apparent, which prepares the ground for
resistance to occur.

Chapter 7
Portrayal of Helen of Troy in the Select Poems of Sappho and Wislawa
Szymborska: Shattering the Stereotypes...............................................................64
Rushati Dasgupta, Jain University (Deemed), India
The Greek society was highly patriarchal; it was a masculine world where war was
glorified. Helen of Troy is one of the most imperative characters in both ancient and
modern literature. For centuries she has been portrayed as the woman whose beauty
sparked the Trojan War. But there are writers whose characterization of Helen and
description of her beauty differ from the stereotypical mainstream narrative. This
chapter investigates how the mythical character of Helen has been explored by such
female writers, through poems of Sappho and Wislawa Szymborska. In Sappho’s
“Fragment 16,” the readers observe how she refashions the character of Helen and
projects her as a “hero” because she had followed her heart. She only mentions
her beauty and does not describe her in an elevated way. But Szymborska is more
effective in describing the consequences of her unsurpassed beauty that becomes her
weapon. In the poem “A Moment in Troy,” Szymborska criticizes the internalization
of patriarchal values. She manipulates patriarchy by using a patriarchal narrative
to empower women.
Chapter 8
Touching to Transgress and Transgressing to Touch: The Dalit Female
Sexuality in Meena Kandasamy’s Poetry..............................................................72
Sneha Roy, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India
Dalit feminist poet and author Meena Kandasamy’s poetry collections Touch (2006)
and Ms. Militancy (2010) are daring explorations of how the flesh can inscribe its
desires in all of its impulsive and unhindered spontaneity in the text – tender and
violent at the same time, with the text treading across wired fences of gendered
and segregated spaces only to return back to the flesh. This chapter acknowledges
Sangari and Vaid’s sociological insight into how women’s sexuality has served as a
pivotal gateway for the maintenance of caste-based and sex-based inequalities and
attempts to critically explore the pathway Kandasamy cuts to overturn the Dalit
female body’s very trajectory of “utility” in a society obsessed with purity and
patriarchal hegemony. Locating Kandasamy in the socio-political matrix to read her
poetry, an inter-disciplinary approach is adopted in scrutinizing the need to study
the language she uses in her poetry, taking into purview its apparently “sexually
provocative” content and its maneuverings around the notion of “touch” in the text.

Chapter 9
Foucauldian-Feminist Reading of Mo Yan’s Select Novels..................................79
Aaradhana, Lovely Professional University, India
With his imaginative and humanistic fiction, Mo Yan has shed light on numerous
social and political issues prevalent in Chinese society during the 20th century.
Alongside his political narratives, he has remarkably represented women’s roles and
treatment, where gender hierarchy is evident. Moreover, to satirise the patriarchal
society, Mo Yan has boldly designed his female characters to overshadow their
male counterparts. The present study explores the systemic subjugation of women
depicted in the novels and how some female characters actively resisted them. The
issue of sexual violence during the war period in China will also be examined as
the selected novels portray the cultural and historical experience during the series
of civil and national wars. To comprehend and examine these issues, the theoretical
framework of Michael Foucault will be applied. His discourse on power relations
will be used as a medium to explore the problems mentioned above.
Chapter 10
There Was No Escape Epiphany: Subversion and Symbolic in Clarice
Lispector’s “Love”................................................................................................96
Malvika Manisha Lobo, The English and Foreign Languages University,
India
Clarice Lispector is one of the most prominent figures of literary modernism in Latin
America. Her oeuvre explores themes of existentialism, narratives of silence, and
various ideas of freedom. Her self-reflexive style of writing and experimentation
with the Portuguese language reflects her attempt to invoke alternate meanings
through her narrative. The characters’ identities in her short stories through their
exploratory nature give rise to a great deal of identity and gender play. They provoke
possibilities and prospects to create new gender roles and subversive practices by
the manifestations of thoughts and actions in various ways. This chapter examines
her use of the epiphany in her short story “Love” from the collection of short stories
entitled Family Ties. The focus rests on the symbolic violence that ensues from this
deviation through thought (language) and action as a response to subversion under
patriarchy. The theoretical approach reads against the grain in the light of Viktor
Shlovsky’s “defamiliarization” and Pierre Bourdieu’s notion of habitus and field.

Chapter 11
An Ecofeminist Reading of Amitav Ghosh’s Jungle Nama................................106
Sayantani Sengupta, St Xavier’s University, India
The relationship between women and nature is powerful. Through various legends and
folktales, women have been projected as the goddesses who would save the forests as
well as save the world from overconsumption and greed. The focus of this chapter is
one of the popular legends of India, the legend of Bonbibi in Amitav Ghosh’s Jungle
Nama. Bonbibi is widely worshipped by the people of the Sundarbans, which has
been mentioned by Ghosh in his novel The Hungry Tide. But the primary focus of
Jungle Nama is on the three central characters, Dukhey, Dhona, and Dokkhin Rai,
and how Bonbibi comes as a saviour of the young boy, Dukhey, and thus becomes
the preserver of the natural order. On the other hand, Manasa, the snake goddess
can also be portrayed as someone who maintains a balance between life and death,
avarice and generosity, as well as good and evil. The chapter intends to critically
study Ghosh’s retelling of the Bonbibi legend through an ecofeminist lens and also
includes the story of Manasa to substantiate the interconnections between women
and nature.
Chapter 12
The Women in the Fictions of Arundhati Roy: Forming Solidarity With
Other Marginalities.............................................................................................113
Jagriti Sengupta, Visva-Bharati, India
Arundhati Roy, the world-renowned novelist and political essayist from India,
is a dominant voice against injustice perpetrated against the marginalized in the
country. For her, the marginalization of women is part of a process through which
social oppression is unleashed upon the weak. Roy got the prestigious Booker
prize for her debut novel, The God of Small Things. The fiction brought out the
unjust politics of caste and gender discrimination inherent in an orthodox society.
However, after her first fiction, Roy shifted gear to non-fictions that she continued
to write for almost two decades. Roy got engaged in more serious political debates
and became a powerful critic of corporate globalization. In 2017, Roy published her
second novel, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. In it, Roy offered a journalistic
review of all the sociopolitical events of the post-Independent India. This chapter
examines that the women protagonists in Roy’s fictions extend solidarity to others
who are in the margins because, according to Roy, feminism should be a powerful
force against oppression in general.

Chapter 13
Gender and Sexuality in Toni Morrison’s Home................................................121
Anita Devi Ahanthem, Kumbi College, India
Before venturing into the term “gender,” the biological differentiation of male
and female as “sex” is inevitable. Moreover, if “sex” is a biological categorization
based primarily on reproductive potential, then “gender” is the social elaboration of
biological sex. Hence, gender gradually builds on biological sex, but it exaggerates
biological difference, and it carries biological difference into domains in which it
is completely irrelevant. For reference, in a heterosexual society, “masculine men”
are seen as sexually dominant, active, and initiating whereas “feminine women”
are sexually passive, receptive, and submissive. In this chapter, the author has taken
up Toni Morrison’s novel Home in order to discuss the dynamics of “gender” and
“sexuality” based on “race,” as it gives false perception of self, identity, and trauma.
It will also analyze how women of any race are always the victims of violence
associated with male sexuality.
Chapter 14
Gender Roles Portrayed in A Room of One’s Own and Orlando........................131
Antara Naha, K. R. Mangalam University, India
Virginia Woolf has raised her voice through her works on the challenges of women
and freedom of thought. This chapter focuses on the gender roles as portrayed in
the works of Virginia Woolf, focusing on A Room of One’s Own and Orlando.
She states through A Room of One’s Own that the strongest creative minds are the
ones with the balance between masculine and feminine components, and through
Orlando, she presents the idea of gender through an androgynous view, using a
character who changes genders in their lifetime of 300 years. The theoretical focus
of the chapter will be through Judith Butler’s theory on gender, which relies on the
action of gender interconnected with the identity of the person. The chapter will aim
to present the idea of gender representation through a broader view for achieving
wider acceptance for different gender identities.
Chapter 15
“It’s My Story”: Revisioning of Myth in Thus Spake Shoorpanakha, So Said
Shakuni by Poile Sengupta..................................................................................139
Anusha Ashok, Stella Maris College, India
The imposing corpus of Indian mythology has long stood uncontested and unquestioned
as a repository of narratives that demarcate the heroes and the villains with the
collective sympathy leaning towards the former. The depiction of the antagonists
in epics like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata were carefully constructed to
cement their positions as figures that would incite hatred and disgust and as foils to

their infallible hero counterparts. The purpose of this chapter is to reconsider the
character of Shoorpanakha as a victim of circumstance and masculine domination
as opposed to the malevolent individual that she is portrayed in the epics, through
the lens of subalternity and feminism, as represented in Sengupta’s play Thus Spake
Shoorpanakha, So Said Shakuni. The conscious decision of giving a voice to those
who were vilified and shunned is an instance of revisioning. It defies conventional
knowledge of the two crucial metanarratives and the dominating discursive practices.
It does not lend itself to the restricting binary of good and evil and allows agency
to own their narrative.
Chapter 16
An Ode to Woman: Role and Representation of Women in the World of
Literature.............................................................................................................148
Arundhati Patra, Vivekananda Mission Mahavidyalaya, India
In this 21st century, the world, as well as societal norms, changes rapidly due to
globalization. The feminist movement is one of the important outcomes of these
societal changes. Nowadays the status or position of women becomes progressed as
we find them in every pace of the world due to the waves of the feminist movement.
This chapter examines how women got their rights to introduce themselves in this
patriarchal society, the history of the world of women’s literature – how women
introduce themselves as writers and the way they are depicted within the world of
literature, and the present scenario of women in the society as portrayed in the world
of literature through selected literary texts as contexts.
Chapter 17
Women in Partition Literature: A Comparative Study of Women’s
Representations in India’s Partition Literature....................................................157
Trisha Bhattacharya, Independent Researcher, India
This chapter is a comparative analysis between partition literature from Bengal and
Punjab showing how even though there is a minor divergence in literature from these
two sides owing to the political realities, for the most part literature from these two
sides shows overwhelming convergence. In order to draw a comparative analysis, the
author uses eight pieces of partition literature—four each from Bengal and Punjab.
The chapter is divided into three sections: The first section discusses the relevance of
Partition literature for studying Partition and how partition was experienced different
by Punjab and Bengal in the political sense. The second section presents the analysis
of the one most significant divergence between literature from the two sides, and
the final section presents a discussion of the overwhelming convergence between
women’s experience of Partition on both sides and how it is not a surprising fact.

Chapter 18
A Feminist Reading of Panthoipi Khongkul.......................................................173
Rosy Yumnam, The English and Foreign Languages University, Shillong,
India
The voices of women are often marginalised and silenced. In modern feminism, Kate
Millett’s Sexual Politics (1970) used the term “patriarchy” (rule of the father) to
describe the cause of women’s oppression. Panthoipi Khongkul is a myth narrative
of Manipur, a state in Northeast India, detailing the rebellion of a legendary woman,
Panthoipi, against the patriarchal society of the early Manipuri. The text details how
Panthoipi bravely defied the social customs and chose to be united forever in bliss
with her paramour. The myth narrative deals with the desire of a woman represented
by Panthoipi to ascertain her dignity and identity in a patriarchal society. This chapter
seeks to examine the feminist perspective of how “woman” has been represented
in Panthoipi Khongkul in the context of the early patriarchal Manipuri society. It
further explores on how the feminist reading of Panthoipi Khongkul will assist in
striving to achieve equality of sexes.
Chapter 19
Recognizing Contemporary Tribal Women’s Writings: A Study on Select
Literary Narrators of North East India................................................................182
Raam Kumar T., Bharathiar University, India
Padmanabhan B., Bharathiar University, India
Northeast India is known for its diverse ethnic traits, natural landscapes, and regional
and political conflicts. These factors were brought to light through diverse literary
narratives. Women’s contribution to English writing plays a prominent role in
protecting the complex multi-ethnic and multi-cultural issues of their regions and
captures the multicoloured historical and collective spaces. Their writing primarily
focuses on the issues of nature, landscape, culture, oppression, conflict, turmoil,
insurgency, and identity. Women’s writings from these regions have attained
visibility and acclaim across the nation. They are deeply concerned about the brutal
violence happening in their society, which acts as a barrier to achieving progress.
This chapter attempts to analyse the select contemporary tribal women’s writings
and their unique contribution to the betterment of their native land. This study also
explores the struggle of indigenous identity and psychosocial experiences undergone
by tribal communities of Northeast India through select tribal writers in English.

Chapter 20
Nupi-Lal and Women Empowerment: A Study of the Meetei Women of
Manipuri Society.................................................................................................191
Yumnam Yaiphabi Chanu, Manipur University, India
Manipur, one of the North-Eastern states of India, has been in an active phase of
turmoil since the British colonial period and its subsequent annexation to the Indian
Union. Insurgency and the resulting implementation of the Armed Forces Special
Powers Act (1958), issues of drug trafficking, unemployment, and gender-related
issues have continually plagued the people of Manipur and women in particular.
Manipuri women living in a conflict-zone region have always involved themselves
in every socio-economic and political situation of the state since historical times,
and Nupi-Lal, which is the first ever women oriented movement, shows the glorious
and painstaking journey of women empowerment. Even in today’s modern society,
these empowered women are still trapped in the dark veil of political conflict and
social dystopia. The chapter is an attempt to study the social constructs of Manipuri
society and to recapture the causes, reasons, and results of the First and Second
Nupi-Lal of Manipur and their accumulative impact on the women of present day
Manipuri society.
Chapter 21
The Role of Haptics in the Sexual Harassment of Women in Corporate Sector.202
Shraddha Dhal, KIIT University (Deemed), India
The quintessence of a woman’s modesty is her sex. The one, intending to outrage a
woman’s modesty, be it in her personal life or at her workplace, shall be punished.
Fortunately enough, women have a powerful sense of differentiating between the
touch that gives solace and the touch that is misleading and is used for sexual
stimulation. Haptics plays a vital role in this regard. As the world is being globalized,
it is onerous to avoid the chance of crossing the line of acceptability. Even so, it is
quite important to learn the proper use of haptics to remain aware of the inappropriate
act of touching as well as to avoid awkward and embarrassing occurrences. The
chapter attempts to emphasize how the proper use of haptics in the corporate sector
can add more productivity to both men and women while at the same time it can
also enhance the efficiency of the organization.

Chapter 22
Table, Chair, and the Persistent Patriarchy: A Feminist Critique of Vaidehi’s
“Going by Tables and Chairs”............................................................................213
Kanika Bhalla, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA
The chapter deals with the short story “Going by Tables and Chairs,” which is in fact
an excerpt from the long essay “Meju Kurchiya Moolaka,” translated into English
by Prakash Belawadi. The essay written by Vaidehi, one of the most significant
names in Kannada literature, is a mixture of the writing styles of a short story and
an essay. It deals with the gender politics revolving around the most common of
the objects in our lives today: a table and a chair. The chapter attempts to analyze
the operation of patriarchal norms in most Indian households; it also provides an
insight into the minds of elder women, who with time have learned to discipline the
younger women and girls into obedience and submission to men.
Chapter 23
Reading Ishmat Chughtai’s “Lihaaf” From the Perspective of Alternative
Sexuality.............................................................................................................221
Ashmita Bora, Indian Institute of Information Technology, Guwahati,
India
Gender binary is a concept that is deeply entrenched into the Indian way of thought
throughout generations. Analyzing Indian life and relationships through history, we
would arrive at an understanding that heterosexuality has come down to become
the preferred sexual orientation, and heterosexual relations are seen as not only the
traditional way of life, but at the same time is considered the only normative way. In
the Indian context, the idea of sexuality has been framed over a period of eras, out
of traditions and a belief structure of society that has come into contact with forces
like modernization, colonization, and globalization. This chapter attempts to raise
queries about the nature of sexuality in relation to portrayal of queer relationship and
traces the individual’s search for alternative sexuality in Ishmat Chughtai’s Lihaaf,
which is a pioneering work in representation of homosexuality. The chapter also deals
with questions raised in relation to sexual orientation, gender crisis, and desired sex.

Chapter 24
“Knowledge Is Power, Power Is Also Knowledge”: Revisiting Rokeya
Sakhawat Hossain’s “Sultana’s Dream”..............................................................228
Dolon Sarkar, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India
The chapter explores the complex intersection of gender, knowledge, and power
as manifested in Rokeya Sakhwat Hossain’s feminist text Sultana’s Dream. In this
story, she imagines a world of women beyond the patriarchy. She reverses the
stereotypical process of gender roles and reclaims women’s space in socio-cultural
and political domination. There is an idea that subverting the performative role
of gender will lead women to autonomy and power. For her, scientific education
and sustainable use of nature are the abundant sources of alternative power. The
tactical use of women’s scientific knowledge displeases and controls the superior
authoritative forces of patriarchy. This decisive role of science is an alternative mode
of organizing society and the exceptional development of the particular category of
alternative apparatus. The chapter delineates Kate Millett’s notion of the reversal
of gender roles by mediating Michel Foucault’s concepts of power and knowledge.
Compilation of References............................................................................... 234
About the Contributors.................................................................................... 249
Index................................................................................................................... 253
xxi
Preface
Feminism is a broad term that began with claims of political equality for women
and now encompasses varied discussions on topics related to women – political,
social, economic, cultural, and even psychological aspects of women. Feminists are
not just females espousing the ideas of feminism, they include people of all sexes
that advocate feminism. Gender studies is even a wider study that includes not just
feminism, but also LGBTQ studies. The present work includes a variety of topics
that deal with feminism and gender studies by varied scholars and academicians.
The collection also includes chapters dealing with androgyny in video games,
LGBTQ+ communities, the role of haptics, and Nupi Lal – one of the first political
engagements in women’s history.
In the opening chapter, “Role of a Nineteenth Century Woman’s Divinity in
Self-Formation”, Anutosh Sinha offers a fresh perspective on the construction of a
coherent and authentic identity vis-à-vis the scriptural texts of Hinduism. He delves
into the autobiography of Rashundari Devi, to foreground the politics of women’s
education, and elucidates the refashioning of the author through the dynamics of
the ‘guru-shishya’ (teacher-disciple) tradition.
The second chapter on “Global Androgyny and Futurisms: The Performativity
of Anima/Animus in Contemporary Video Games” by Manodip Chakraborty is
an intriguing analysis of the subversive potential of video games, which is often
excluded from the mainstream discourse on the ideological contours of digital media.
The Jungian concepts of anima and animus have been delineated to express the free
mobility of gender identities within the virtually augmented spaces.
In “Structural Domination and Quest for Jewish Identity: A Traumatic Study of
Women Characters in the Novels of Imre Kertesz”, Diksha Gupta explores feminist
and Jewish identities in the context of the Holocaust through the depictions of the
Hungarian Nobel laureate Imre Kertesz. She focuses on the traumatized condition
of women, whose identities have been effaced, in the wake of the genocide.
Gargee Rawat and Sakshi Semwal in “Breaking Silence: Understanding LGBTQ+
Community – A Study of Alternative Realities: Love in the Lives of Muslim Women”,
subverts the heterosexual norms and the homophobic tendencies prevalent in
Preface
Pakistani society. They have focused on a seminal text by Nighat M. Gandhi which
reveals the despondent condition of transgender identities, and the urgent need for
recognition and amelioration.
Anushkaa Debnath in “Unlearning Internalized Homophobia With My Brother’s
Husband: A Glimpse Into Mainstream Queer Literature in Japan” foregrounds the
plight of a homosexual community in Tokyo, a microcosmic representative of the
LGBTQ+ milieu in Japan. In this chapter, she has perused the work of Gengoroh
Tagame, a celebrated manga artist whose Otouto no Otto has been translated into
English as My Brother’s Husband by Anne Ishii.
“Subversion of Heteronormativity in Akwaeke Emezi’s The Death of Vivek Oji:
Queering the Society and the State” by Guhan Priyadharshan P. explores the modes
of resistance against heteronormative practices in a postcolonial political context.
He delineates the liminal spaces of non-conformity against the hegemonic cultural
constructs that emerge from the cross-pollination of Igbo societal norms and the
Nigerian state.
Rushati Dasgupta in “Portrayal of Helen of Troy in the Poetry of Sappho and
Wislawa Szymborska: Shattering the Stereotypes” presents a comparative analysis
of the treatment of the mythological character of Helen of Troy by the ancient Greek
poet Sappho and the Polish Nobel Laureate Wislawa Szymborska. She delves into
the aesthetics of female subjectivity and sexuality, focusing on Sappho’s Fragment
16: “Some There Are Who Say That the Fairest Thing Seen” and Szymborska’s
poem “A Moment in Troy”.
In the next chapter, “Touching to Transgress and Transgressing to Touch: The
Dalit Female Sexuality in Meena Kandasamy’s Poetry”, Sneha Roy explains how
Kandasamy establishes the convergence of the social and the sexual trajectories of
desire to be touched by the Dalit women. In using a language which is consciously and
deliberately fleshly, the author deduces that Kandasamy attempts at an overturning
of the Dalit-female body’s very trajectory of ‘utility’ in society. She analyses
Kandasamy’s intent on destabilizing certain core principles which consolidate the
functioning of the caste-system by controlling the bodies of women.
In the chapter, “A Foucauldian-Feminist Reading of Mo Yan’s Select Novels”,
Aaradhana and Dr. Gowher Ahmad Naik interpret the political narratives of the
Chinese Nobel laureate Mo Yan through the theoretical framework of Michel
Foucault. They highlight the predicament of the victimized women during the times
of civil strife and war.
In the next chapter, Malvika Manisha Lobo dexterously evokes the subliminal
traces of existential ennui in a short story by the celebrated Brazilian author Clarice
Lispector. She engages with the theoretical notions of Victor Shklovsky and Pierre
Bourdieu to probe the ineffable epiphanies and symbolic psychic interstices, that
subtly reveal the immanent antagonisms within politicised gendered spaces.
xxii
Preface
“An Ecofeminist Reading of Amitav Ghosh’s Jungle Nama” by Sayantani

Sengupta delineates the folk legends of the Sundarbans. The goddesses Bon Bibi
and Manasa symbolize the feminine potential to resist the patriarchal hegemony
and protect nature from anthropocentric exploitation.
“The Women in the Fictions of Arundhati Roy: Forming Solidarity With Other
Marginalities” by Jagriti Sengupta argues for a more inclusive form of feminism
that encompasses communities marginalized – socio-politically, economically,
and across the gender spectrum. She focalises on the two novels The God of Small
Things and The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, and contextualizes them with the
socio-political, polemical commentary drawn from non-fictional works of Roy.
“Gender and Sexuality in Toni Morrison’s Home” by Dr. Ahanthem Anita
Devi interprets the novel Home through the lens of trauma fiction. The racialized
violence is rendered susceptible to reconfigurations of self-identity of the traumatized
characters portrayed in the novel.
In the next chapter “Gender Roles Portrayed in A Room of One’s Own and
Orlando”, Antara Naha explores the fluidity and complexity of gender identity
in Virginia Woolf’s seminal texts. She reiterates the precarious balance between
masculinity and femininity, to assert the androgynous perspective exhibited by
Woolf’s characterisation of Orlando. The paper is enriched by the theoretical notions
of Judith Butler.
Chapter 15 is Anusha Ashok’s take on Indian mythology dealing with Poile
Sengupta’s play Thus Spake Shoorpanakha, So Said Shakuni. The depictions of
the antagonists in epics like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata were carefully
constructed in order to cement their positions as figures that invited hatred and
disgust and as foils to their infallible heroes. This chapter reconsiders Sengupta’s
Shoorpanakha as a victim of circumstance and masculine domination, rather than
the malevolent individual that she is portrayed in the epics, through the lens of
subalternity and feminism.
In Chapter 16, Arundhati Patra examines the patriarchal society beginning with
Indian Vedic literature dealing with male writers and their views on woman as
subordinate to man. She then shifts her discussion in the history of English literature
when women published their writings not by their original name but by pseudonym.
Finally, she discusses the present scenario of women in the society as portrayed in
the world of literature, both by men and women.
In the next chapter, “Women in Partition Literature: A Comparative Study of
Women’s Representation in India’s Partition Literature”, Trisha Bhattacharya makes
a comparative study of eight pieces of Partition literature – four each from Bengal
and Punjab. The chapter is divided into three sections – the first section discusses
the relevance of Partition literature for studying Partition and how Partition was
experienced differently by Punjab and Bengal in the political sense. The second section
xxiii
Preface
presents the analysis of the most significant divergence literature from the two sides.
The final section presents a discussion of the overwhelming convergence between
In Chapter 18, Rosy Yumnam gives a feminist reading of Panthoipi Khongkul, a
Manipuri puya believed to be written in the 12th century. She discusses the narrative
against the patriarchal society of the early Manipuri society. Panthoipi Khongkul
details how Panthoipi bravely defied the social customs and chose to be united
forever in bliss with her paramour. The social norms and values oriented in the
patriarchal society of early Manipur are challenged with the desire of a woman to
ascertain her dignity and identity in a patriarchal society. The author examines the
feminist perspective of how ‘woman’ has been represented in Panthoipi Khongkul
in the context of the early patriarchal Manipuri society. It further explores how the
feminist reading of Panthoipi Khongkul will assist in striving to achieve equality
of sexes at present.
In Chapter 19, Raam Kumar T. and B. Padmanabhan construe a selective study
of literary narrations of northeast India. This chapter attempts to analyse the select
contemporary tribal women writings and their unique contribution for the betterment
of their native land in northeast India. It also explores the struggle for identity and
psychosocial experiences undergone by tribal women through the literary narrations.
The next chapter, “Nupi-Lal and Women Empowerment: A Study of the Meitei
Women of Manipuri Society”, focuses on Nupi-Lal, one of the first political
engagements in women’s history. Yumnam Yaiphabi Chanu studies the First Nupi-
Lal (1904) and the Second Nupi-Lal (1939), two mass protests initiated by Manipuri
women against the excessive and unjust policies of the then British government as
examples of Manipuri women as distinct from their sisters in the rest of the Indian
subcontinent. She further highlights the role of Manipuri women in the present
society – politically, socially, and economically.
In Chapter 21, Shraddha Dhal analyses the role of haptics in the corporate sector.
She opines that the embodiment of a woman’s modesty is her sex. The one, intending
to outrage a woman’s modesty, be it in her personal life or at her workplace should be
punished. She deduces that haptics play a vital role in this regard and that it is quite
important to learn the proper use of haptics to remain aware of the inappropriate
act of touching as well as to avoid awkward and embarrassing occurrences. She
concludes that proper use of haptics can add productivity to both men and women
while at the same time enhance the efficiency of the organization.
In Chapter 22, Kanika Bhalla deals with a short story “Table, Chair, and
the Persistent Patriarchy”, which is, in fact, excerpts from the long essay “Meju
Kurchiya Moolaka” ,translated into English by Prakash Belawadi. Through the
chapter, she attempts to analyse the operation of patriarchal norms in most of the
Indian households; it also provides an insight into the minds of older women, who
xxiv
Preface
with time, have learned to discipline the younger women and girls into obedience
and submission to men.
In the penultimate chapter, “Reading Ishmat Chughtai’s Lihaaf From the
Perspective of Alternative Sexuality”, Ashmita Bora observes that sexual identities in
the Indian context have been constructed over a period of eras, out of traditions and a
belief structure of society that has come into contact with forces like modernization,
colonization and globalization. The author attempts to raise queries about the nature
of sexuality in relation to portrayal of queer relationship and trace the individual’s
search for alternative sexuality in Ishmat Chughtai’s Lihaaf (1942). The paper
also deals with questions raised in relation to sexual orientation, gender crisis, and
desired sex.
The final chapter, “Knowledge Is Power, Power Is Also Knowledge”, is Dolon
Sarkar’s exploration of the complex intersection of gender, knowledge and power
as manifested in Rokeya Sakhwat Hossain’s feminist text Sultana’s Dream (1905).
Here, the author examines a world of women beyond the patriarchy, reversing
the stereotyping process of gender role and reclaims of women’s space in socio-
cultural and political dominations. The author states that scientific education and
sustainable use of nature are the abundant sources of alternative power sources.
The study delineates Kate Millett’s notion of reversal of gender role in mediating
Michel Foucault’s power and knowledge concept.
The book is a combination of views that deal with feminism and gender studies
from varied scholars and academicians that include diverse approaches and views.
Most of the contributions deal with literature; still, the literature discussed is of
diverse genre dealing with different histories and cultural settings. I sincerely believe
that the work would be of interest to different sections of the academia in dealing
with feminism and its myriad approaches in theory and life.
Gyanabati Khuraijam
National Institute of Technology, Agartala, India
Agartala, June 2022
xxv
xxvi
Acknowledgment
The concept of this book came from a conference organised on the theme “Gender
Studies and Women Empowerment” in April 2021 at National Institute of Technology
(NIT) Agartala, India. The overwhelming response to our invitation resulted in a
healthy debate of over a hundred and fifty participants. Our reviewers had to undergo
rigorous and harsh selection process to pick only twenty-four research papers to be
included in this book.
I express my gratitude and heartfelt congratulations to all the authors without whose
contribution this work would not have seen the light. My gratitude also goes to Dr.
Yumnam Oken Singh and Dr. Reena Sanasam for taking pains to review the papers.
I would also like to acknowledge the support of my institute, NIT Agartala, India,
and particularly my department that made the conference a success. My sincere
thanks also goes to Dr. Kaju Nath and Mr. Atri Majumder for their active support
and help throughout the process. And I express my profound gratitude to IGI Global
for bringing out this volume.
1
Chapter 1
Role of a Nineteenth
Century Woman’s Divinity
in Self-Formation
Anutosh Sinha
Jadavpur University, India
ABSTRACT
Rashsundari Devi’s autobiography, the first of its kind by any Bengali woman,
Amar Jiban is the testimony of a 19th century Bengali woman’s ordeals. It not only
highlights the theme of women’s education through her yearning for knowledge of
letters; it also calls for equal spiritual status for women as she personally yearns
for God. She chooses to rewrite her life in this autobiography, broadly in alignment
with God’s life. She attributes to God every good or bad thing happening around,
even her life with transgressions. The chapter showcases how the re-presented self
of Rashsundari follows the broad religious codes, yet not in the customary way and
her personalized fantastic experiences, like precognitive dreams, help her mould the
shape of her God. The author invokes the guru-shishya dynamics and looks through
the glass of a few religious texts of Hinduism, especially the Bhagavad Gita, to analyse
whether she transgresses from the whole religious system or actually encodes her
discontent uniquely on the bedrock of religious following, adherence, and devotion.
INTRODUCTION
In her autobiography Amar Jiban (Devi, 1897), the only text that she would ever
write, Rashsundari Devi moulds her own life with that of the god’s. She first writes
this text at an age of fifty-nine and then revises and extends it at an age of eighty-
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch001
Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.
Role of a Nineteenth Century Woman’s Divinity in Self-Formation
eight as she looks back at her life in retrospection through this text. And when she
does so, she does it from her subjective view point. As she revisits the past and
restructures it in the present, we cannot expect to learn about her lived experiences
from the text. The changes, if there at all have been made, to present these selected
memories are not bound to be conscious decisions either. The 1897 text, (second and
enlarged edition, that we shall refer here) thus, gets enough colouring owing to the
unavoidable impact of the author’s present (the time when she writes) beliefs. God
and divinity become a major theme and shapes the structure of the text accordingly.
The life of the devotee and that of the god get intertwined to produce this nineteenth
century text. When Rashsundari is writing, the contemporary society is already
talking about ‘the question of woman’⸻ their social status, their education, they
stepping out of the andarmahal. In such a milieu Amar Jiban comes out. It is
unfortunate that superficial and propagandist reading of the text at that time absorbed
and categorized it under their respective corpus of Hindu revivalism, nationalism
and liberal rationalism.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Rashsundari (the protagonist of the text; henceforth used as the same if not mentioned
otherwise) is introduced to the idea of god by her mother in the context of fear. She
is suggested to chant his name so that the god, Dayamadhav can hear her and come
and save her. Next time when we hear about her ordeal with god, Dayamadhav listens
to the prayer and saves her along with her brother from the graveyard. This is when
she is told by her mother about the non-conflicting relationship of Dayamadhav with
the Parameshwara. The god is invoked for the third time when she is being married
off and her mother sends with Rashsundari the treasure of god⸻ that she would
hold close to her heart all her life⸻ that she would build up a very personal relation
with. The protagonist does not get exposed to any customary god. Rather she gets
the idea and aid of god from her mother. Though the names of god bear gendered
connotations, her and her mother’s approach is a non-gendered, individualistic one.
Rashsundari herself approaches the god in a “cerebral way” (Sarkar, 2014) and
presents it in a non-gendered language. Their idea of these gods⸻ first Dayamadhav
and then Parameshwara⸻ silently indicates the knowledge, she must have acquired
through the popular religious tales and folktales.
Rashsundari builds up the narrated self on principles from that sacrosanct text that
was and still is revered highly and followed by not just different sects of Hinduism,
including Vaishnavism that Rashsundari’s family followed, but also orthodox ones⸻
Shrimad Bhagavad Gita. This can be a conscious or unconscious attempt, given her
devotion to follow the ways of god. She might not have been aware of this parallel
2
while having the experience, but it can be expected that the author Rashsundari could
have had some sort of direct or indirect knowledge about Bhagavad Gita and other
sacred texts. She approaches the religion and religious instructions as an individual
and not a woman. The Gita clearly states which kind of devotee the Lord likes most:
Chatur-vidhā bhajante māṁ janāḥ sukṛitino ’rjuna
Arto jijñāsur arthārthī jñānī cha bharatarṣhabha
Teṣhāṁ jñānī nitya-yukta eka-bhaktir viśhiṣhyate
Priyo hi jñānino ’tyartham ahaṁ sa cha mama priyaḥ
(Bhagavad Gita, Verses 7.16-7.17)
Translation: O Arjuna, scion of the Bharataas, four types of pious people worship
me⸻ the distressed, the inquisitive, the profit-minded and the wise. Among them
the wise ones who are steadfastly and exclusively devoted to me are special; for I
am very dear to them and they are dear to me.
And Rashsundari chooses this supreme path of wisdom to reach god. In the next
two verses of this seventh chapter, it is pointed that those “who have made me (god)
alone as their supreme goal” knowing “Vasudeva is everything” are the rarest souls
and liked by god most (Ramasukhadas, 2012).
Though most of the verses are addressed in male gender in Sanskrit, Rashsundari
breaks this constraint and appropriates the religious utterances in accordance with
the changing time. She attributes these social changes too to following god’s will,
because after all everything in the world runs according to his will. She mentions
in the text: “We happily accept what the Great Lord decrees at a particular time.”
She does not criticize all that happens around like the contemporary conservatives,
rather accepts it and acts accordingly. The household work may have exhausted her
physical self, but her mind is never content with this. From the very beginning of her
sansar-life, she has this absurd feeling towards her situation and feels an uncommon
sense of extraordinary life growing in her: “But somehow my mind kept telling
me, “you are wasting your time, nothing worthwhile is happening to you. All this
pleasure is mere foolishness.””
That sense of lack results in her quest on divinity. From the age of fourteen, she
starts thinking about god and yearns to read about him through Chaitanya Bhagvat.
At that time, women were prescribed by the contemporary religious norms to search
for god through sansar-dharma. And the Vaishnav bhakti tradition had recently
brought the left-out sects like women and lower caste people under the mainstream
3
religious banner. But Rashsundari’s family was an orthodox one. She cannot join
the quest like all others. She has to devise a way remaining inside the boundaries so
that it does not affect her daily living. She proves her competence through staying
unconsumed by sansar, showing capability of equal footing in man’s world (if need
arises) and above all by proving to have divine grace on herself (Chandra, 2014).
There is a famous trope given by Ramakrishna Paramahamsa Dev regarding
the path of dharma in sansar itself. He says, one has to turn the self from milk to
cheese so that if it be kept in the water of sansar, it doesn’t get mixed (Gupta, 1902).
Rashsundari follows this path. She does all the work of sansar, still she addresses
her house as ‘that’ house and her husband as ‘lord of that house’ and ‘that karta’.
In the song from Seventh Composition of Part Two, she laments that her self stays
consumed in false illusory things of the world, which is like makal phol. She keeps
reminding this to herself time and again so that she does not fall for the illusion.
Nobody would have known about her separate and distinct identity from the sansar
if she had not written this text, because all through her life she has played the role
of an ideal housewife. In spite of not being consumed by her sansar, she never gets
any criticism for her handling of the sansar, nobody ever spoke a bitter word to
her. She even pacified an age-old dispute in absence of the karta with the gomosta.
These characteristics of being sanga-varjitah (free from attachment) and nirvairah
(without enemy) in the verse 11.55 (Ramasukhadas, 2012) of the Gita aligns her
with the devotee who is worth of getting god’s grace.
The pacification of the zamindari dispute bears testimony that she is capable
enough of going out of the ‘andarmahal’ and handling ‘manly’ issues and challenges
at hand craftly enough, if not better than karta. She debunks the contemporary
conception that women cannot do ‘man’s work’ and also puts forth the proposition
that men should not be left with the exclusive possession of divinity. This opposition
to the separate sphere ideology in both the physical sense as well as the spiritual
sense is unique and commendable of Rashsundari. Women were already coming out
of the ‘andarmahal’ and having education when she writes this. But the deprived
religious status was not addressed yet. I find Rashsundari’s narrated life hitting a
significant blow at that polished structure of religious exclusivity. It is unfortunate
that different types of ideological followers interpreted and consumed the text in
their own way, neglecting and robbing it of its radical implication.
The narrated self of Rashsundari Devi is not like any other woman. Her very act
of learning how to read, the strangely foretelling dreams, vision of a ghost, getting
back lost item⸻ all these bear testimony to divine intervention in her life. She
visualizes herself in a dream reading Chaitanya Bhagvat. In Hindu culture, dreams
of gods or god-related things are revered highly and considered as swapnadesha
(order through dream). There are many such instances around us of dreams, behind
establishing temples or initiating puja of an idol. Such divine order cannot be turned
4
down or neglected by a human being. Rashsundari’s dream of reading that holy text
also fetches similar connotation and she starts her attempt in realizing the dream
from the very next day. This dream can also be seen as an instance of Freudian “wish
fulfilment” as she had been thinking about this for a while. As she comes by the
Chaitanya Bhagvat next day, it could be a matter of chance facilitated by her mind
that had traces of the dreams left from last night. Nevertheless, being incorporated
in the autobiography, this dream plays a crucial role in shaping the reader’s opinion
as this dream is where the first seed of writing the autobiography was hidden. This
is where her divine quest begins.
The idea of god is primarily instilled in her by her mother. Tanika Sarkar (2014)
reads the nature of divinity in her life to be transforming from a polytheistic one
to a monotheistic one. I differ here on the basis of my interpretation of the text.
Rashsundari goes beyond the Vaishnavite concept of god and puts forth a broader
divinity addressing more and more sects of readers. Though Rashsundari is exposed
to the polytheistic system by her mother as god being Dayamadhav, this is never
contradicted when the concept of Parameshwara is introduced to her, again by her
mother: “Then I asked her, “Ma! How could Dayamadhav hear our cries from inside
the shrine?” Mother said, “He is the Parameshwara, he is everywhere, so he can hear
everything. He listens to everyone.”” This coexistence of many deities along with
the supreme Parameshwara has been characteristic to Hindu religion for ages. In
Brihadaranyakopanishad, it has been asked⸻ what is the number of ‘devatas’? The
answer is given⸻ trayaśca trī ca śatā, trayaśca trī ca sahasreti(3|9|1)⸻ three hundred
three and three thousand three. This means, gods are innumerable. Ramakrishna
Paramahamsa would say, the ‘devatas’ are like steps of the stair to reach the roof,
which is the Parameshwara, the Akshara. Once one reaches the roof, it does not
matter if the steps are taken away (Gupta, 1902). In Gita too, the many ‘devatas’
are described as but a part of the whole, which is the Parameshwara:
Arjuna uvācha
Paśhyāmi devāns tava deva dehe
Sarvāns tathā bhūta-viśheṣha-saṅghān
Brahmāṇam īśhaṁ kamalāsana-stham
Riṣhīnśh cha sarvān uragānśh cha divyān (Bhagavad Gita, Verse 11.15)
5
Translation: Arjun said: O Shree Krishna, I witness in your body all the gods and
hosts of different kinds of beings. I see Brahma seated on the lotus flower; I see
Shiva, all the sages, and the celestial serpents
In Upanishad, it has been stated thus, Eka deva-iti prana-iti sa brahma tyaditya-
chakśate (translated as ‘It is considered that there is one god, one life, one Brahma’).
This hierarchy is also seen in Rashsundari’s writing: “No one can change the
writings of Fate/ It doesn’t matter if it’s Brahma or Vishnu or Maheshwara/ What
the Parameshwara wants must happen”. In Part Two, Fifth Composition, she prays
to god that she should have his name in her mind when she dies, which resembles
the Gita verse:
Anta-kāle cha mām eva smaran muktvā kalevaram
Yaḥ prayāti sa mad-bhāvaṁ yāti nāstyatra sanśhayaḥ (Verse 8.5)
Translation: Those who relinquish the body while remembering Me (Krishna) at the
moment of death will come to Me (Krishna). There is certainly no doubt about this
Worshipping the Parameshwara or knowing and understanding his actions can

fetch relief from the vicious cycle of rebirth as is mentioned in the 9th Sloka of Gita’s
4th Chapter (Ramasukhadas, 2012). And Rashsundari does the same and possesses
the desire to achieve the same, as she reiterates in Part Two again and again. She only
waits for her last days and prays to god that she be given space at his feet after death.
She has witnessed so many deaths in her life. She has endured immense pain and
sorrow due to death, yet she has not turned mad (Part 1, Comp. 8). She invokes the
symbol of Yatra to invoke god’s playful nature regarding birth and death. She not
only brings parallel to god’s lives with human lives in the play, but also criticizes
god’s action: “Adhikari, you have deserted your mother Sachithakurani and wife
Vishnupriya to become the saint”. Though she seemingly praises god for this action,
she can instantly relate to the two women (mother and wife). Here I can recall a
popular Yatra-pala that a Murshidabad based Yatra company BBD Sangha has
been presenting across the state of West Bengal in the recent years, named “Ogo
Vishnupriya”. There the episode of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s leaving home is portrayed
from these two women’s view point, highlighting the afflictions, curses, misfortune,
social stigma they had to face for an action of the godman. They ask god what their
sin is that they had to suffer like this. Rashsundari does not wail like Vishnupriya,
but her pain resounds that loud cry. Here Rashsundari suffers all the loss caused
by death, all by herself. If she has any support to lean on, it is the god. She gets
strength from him and gets done huge burdensome household works and runs the
6
sansar all by herself. She has invested all her faith in the god like a true devotee, in
spite of all the reasons she has to despise god’s actions. That is why she deserves
his grace⸻ the place at his feet⸻ where her gender should not become a barrier.
In Hinduism, guru has a distinct role in every individual’s life. ‘Guru’ literally
means ‘one who drives away darkness’ (gu=darkness, ru=who drives that away)
(Chaitanyananda, 2018). In Jajnabalka Samhita, guru has been described as of five
kinds: father, acharya, upadhyay, ritvik/priest, and mother. Among these, mother
has been given the superior most position, because this guru creates the base how
the person would fare in future life (Chaitanyananda, 2018). In absence of all
others, Rashsundari’s only guru is her mother till the age of twelve. But then she is
married off, so her mother cannot be her guru anymore. From this time onwards,
she holds the cue her mother had given in the last moment of departure and accepts
the supreme god as her guru. To her, guru and god or Parameshwara do not remain
different anymore (Chaitanyananda, 2018)⸻ Gururviśveāśvaraḥ sākṣāt tārakaṁ
brahma niścitam (translated as ‘It is certain that guru is the Brahma itself, Supreme
of the World’).
Therefore, she is not just the devotee of god, but is also his disciple. The knowledge
of letter is given to her by this guru, the Parameshwara. Apart from a god and a
guru, she seeks in him a father figure as well. She had lost her father very early
in her life and had no memory of him. She chooses to refer to Krishna (she would
often use Krishna’s different names and Parameshwara interchangeably as she was a
Vaishnav and was aware of the layered approach to divinity, as discussed already) as
her father and not as son or lover, as is the convention. She is tired of being the source
of nurture, and needs to create a source of stable nurture for herself (Sarkar, 1993).
After going through all the worldly despair due to constant loss of own people,
in a poetry from Sixteenth Composition of Part One, Rashsundari makes farce of
death and teases its inability to act on her:
Go back, O Death, you cannot decree your power here
…Why do you make such a fuss, I don’t care about your summon.
This can also be read as her win over death as she has been immortalized by
being encoded in her own text. Citing the reason of her immortality, she says, “I
have laid my heart to his feet”. Apart from this, throughout the text, she has so
many times devoted herself to the feet of god. This tells how exactly she wants to
live henceforth⸻ through the text, as a devotee to god. She has repented more than
once the way she has lived her life. But she does not want to continue the same life,
nor can she change her lived experiences; that is why she writes, that is why she
prays to god.
7
She has attempted to maintain dual position simultaneously⸻ “she accepts his
will, she also understands that such is the unscrutable, unaccountable nature of
God” (Sarkar, 2014). But he does not hold unquestioning position for her. She learnt
reading to learn more about god, and at the same time question god’s way which
would not have been possible without the knowledge. She has attributed this process
of learning to god and this attribution might have been to shield public criticism,
just like she might have done it to praise the act of god, to pay her devotion to god
and thus to prove divine role in her life (Dasi, 1998). Only once she denies the
godly aid: “he never actually did teach me”. This does not limit the role of divinity,
rather it exemplifies the expression of power of divinity through human agency.
This crystalizes the role of divinity on life of the subject Rashsundari, penned by
author Rashsundari. The idea that there was a pre-existing self takes away the focus
from the subject and its constitution (Anderson, 2001). Rather this constructed
subject is all that we have and can know about here. Her individual quest is what
at the same time follows and breaks away from the traditional way of approaching
god. This distinction between what she follows and what she discards give way to
her sense of divinity, her path of knowledge to achieve him. In the preface to the
autobiography, Jyotirindranath Tagore talked of divinity and education being two
separate principal themes. But the subject’s following the prescribed scriptural path
and then using the same to constitute a life amalgamated with that of the god’s make
these two themes inseparable.
CONCLUSION
Autobiography has been seen as an attempt at self-expression, self-construction,

self-understanding and self-transcendence. Octavio Paz, the great Mexican poet had
said, ‘A human being is never what (s)he is, but the self (s)he seeks’. (Satchidanandan,
2010) Rashsundari Devi seeks “a life of her own” (Sarkar, 1993), not a life of the
dutiful, custom-bound housewife. That’s why she attempts the restructuration of her
past life, reconstruction of the life-blocks in her own way. Rashsundari took the god’s
way to proclaim that education for women is not against religion. She challenges
the orthodoxy in their own logic⸻ through scriptural following. She re-presents her
own life along with god’s to pitch in god’s voice the question of women’s education
and the question of their social and religious status.
REFERENCES
Anderson, L. R. (2001). Autobiography. Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780203181652
8
Chaitanyananda, S. (2018). Gurur prayojaniyata. Udbodhan Patrika, 120, 902–904.

Chandra, S. (2014). Rashsundari Debi’s Amar Jiban and Binodini Dasi’s My Story
and My Life as an Actress: A comparative study. Criterion, 5(2). Retrieved June 15,
2020, from https://www.the-criterion.com/V5/n2/Swati.pdf
Dasi, B. (1998). My Story and My Life as an Actress. In R. Bhattacharya (Ed.),
Kali for Women. Academic Press.
Devi, R. (1897). Amar Jiban. Kolkata: Indian Associated. Retrieved February 27,
2020 from https://archive.org/
Gupta, M. (1902). Sriramakrishna Kathamrita (Vol. 1). Udbodhan Karyalaya.
Ramasukhadas, S. (2012). The Bhagavad Gita: Sadhak Sanjivani (with illustrated
commentary). Gita Press.
Sarkar, T. (1993). A book of her own. A life of her own: Autobiography of a
nineteenth century woman. History Workshop, 36, 35-65. Retrieved August 24,
2020 from www.jstor.org/stable/4289251
Sarkar, T. (2014). Words to Win: The Making of Amar Jiban: A Modern Autobiography.
Zubaan.
Satchidanandan, K. (2010). Reflections: Autobiography today. Indian Literature,
54(2), 6-9. Retrieved June 5, 2020 from www.jstor.org/stable/23341994
9
10
Chapter 2
Global Androgyny
and Futurisms:
The Performativity of Anima/Animus
in Contemporary Video Games
Manodip Chakraborty
G. L. Bajaj Group of Institution, Mathura, India
ABSTRACT
The derivation of gender superiority is a societal construct that must distribute itself
in a hegemonic axis to produce discursive subjects. With postmodern disillusionment,
the potentiality of a hegemonic habitus has shifted towards the digital platform.
Much has been analyzed about this form, but video games remained outside the
periphery – smoothly constructing the mass ideology. Contemporary video games
with their simulated morphism can not only alter the player’s consciousness but also
can provide a release from their inner taboos. The gamer can exhibit freely his/her
anima/animus, which is a restricted content in society and paid the price by being
under continuous surveillance. This chapter thus proposes to analyse contemporary
video games and how these video games with their augmented enhancements can
alter the gamer’s perception and thereby bring about an entire change in the persona
– leading to a world of global androgyny.
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch002
Global Androgyny and Futurisms
INTRODUCTION
Hegemonic Derivation of Gender Superiority
The combination of production ‘worth’ and production ‘relation’ (social value) is

solely responsible for generating a rift in human civilization. The ideology of male
primacy (all the action potential of male value) is erected around a logos where
human stomata is bifurcated between dominance and oppressed. The consequent
‘sex category’ (biological value of a subject) also identifies the homo-sapiens with
a phallus (biological and symbolical), and expects the dominant race to abide by it.
The negation of ‘abide’ is what gives birth to the ‘oppressed’ one – serving as an
(inferior)antithesis to the predominant fraction of human(s). They are associated
with no social value; yet is important to provide epistemological justification for the
phalo-logo-centrism. The paradox appears when a ‘subject’ (belonging from either
the dominant lineage or from the oppressed one) deviates from the provided binary
norms and operates in a non-traditional way. “This insight is particularly significant
for research on language and gender, much of which has sought to describe the
linguistic means by which men dominate women in interaction (Tannen, 1994, pp.
20-21). Put another way, it is discourse, the interpersonal communication – which is
dominating not only the male or female (biological) but also the male or female trait
(ideological performativity) as a whole. Similarly, the problematization occurs when
one cannot trace the ‘semantic space’ (in which all forms of hegemonic creolization
epitomizes) of discursive dominance. Therefore the connection between a malleable
dynamic concept of ideological hegemony (imaginary) and its physical performance
happens on the contextual space of metaphoric associations – where a subject learn
to associate a signifier with a hegemonic signified by granting knowledge from the
existent performing subjects (either acting out the dominant one or the oppressed one).
If this is what has dominated the evolution of homo-sapiens (physical existence)
and their constructivism of gendered worldview, then with the rise of information
communication and media, a new space had announced itself – the space of binary
algorithms. Swaying away from traditional restrictions of creation (where temporal
and spatial axis are constant), they were offering a fluid existence – free from gender
discrimination. The domain of the web, with its plethora of signification (where the
sign value is not a static entity, rather it is a fluid, dynamic one) was characterized by
neutral language use and appropriate contextual formulations. However, this space
gradually became dominated by two contrasting discourses, “a feminine discourse
encompassing a more ‘personal’ style of communication, characterized by apologetic
language use…and the masculine discourse, typified by being more ‘authoritative’
and characterized by argumentative language use” (Proefschrift, 2009, p. 15). When
11
these two discourses collide – quite naturally (as it is always customarily bound to
happen) the male one prevails.
The same pattern is visible with traditional video gaming. What happens in
this communicative space is the formation of a tension that pulsates on the bipolar
association of game graphics and parallel phonetic association. The consequent
performativity re-establishes the male player’s phobia of toying with gender
performativity with hetero-normative spaces – which portrays the act of ‘masculinity’
as normalcy. As Schmieder (2009) has observed:
At first glance, sex seems to play an oppressive role…immediately when chosing

their characters, players have to decide whether they want to play a male or a female
character…male characters are bigger and more strongly built, especially around
the torso – whereas female characters are more delicate and show articulate breast
curves (p. 8).
Intrinsic Consciousness: The Anima/ Animus Within
The portrayal of ‘normalcy’ somewhat deviates from the biological constitution of

human behaviour. At the primary level the deviation takes place in the transgression
from puberty to adolescence – as it is at this stage that human being(s) become
biologically active (mating subjects). The maturation during puberty (due to hormonal
changes) transcends a subject into adolescence (the threshold of social acceptance).
But, this change is more societal than biological. A new change in physical body at
this stage (where a new ‘signifier’ needs to be counter-verified by a conventional
‘signified’) takes place within the contrasting field of biological (the will to express)
and societal (the force to suppress). This acting out is carried forward by societal
expectations of body constitution – male with enhanced physic and female with
tender curve physic; and is coupled with ‘attractive’ characteristics (such as status,
appearance, nice personality). Boys become “more interested in appearance and
sexual activity of dating partners, while girls are focused upon personality and
behavioural factors” (Campian and Hayward, 2003, p. 84).
Such a prosthetic consciousness acts as the suppression drive of an inner
consciousness. It is archetypally proven that males possess a certain degree of
femininity (anima) and females possess a portion of masculinity (animus). This inner
trait belong “on the one hand to the individual consciousness and on the other hand
are rooted in collective unconscious. Thus forming a connection link between the
personal and the impersonal, the conscious and the unconscious” (Jung, 1957, p. 1).
However, such an inner consciousness runs counter to the traditional prejudices.
If a potential ‘male’ subject (now boy) is exhibiting a certain degree of feminine trait
(inner consciousness manifested into outer, societal plane) – he is actually prioritizing
12
the ‘oppressed race’ (instead of belonging to a dominant lineage); and is thereby

running the threat of ‘gender equilibrium’ (the same paradigm is applicable for a
female subject showcasing definitive male traits). It is against this backdrop that
traditional video games (non-sensical children stuff) intervene to suppress any outlet.
The binary algorithms of such games (Leisure Suit Larry, Magna Cum Laude,
Duke Nukem: Time to Kill, Dead or Alive: XTreme 3 and as such) portrays the
female characters as submissive, ‘damsel in distress’ with phallo-phobic explicit
body curves, targeted towards to give “a presumed hetero-male audience its presumed
desire for women in games” (Malkowski, 2017, p. 20). Such characters often functions
to provide episteme about the ‘deceiving nature of women’ (stereotype) – and they
often die at the end (during the game process) or is not allowed to prevail. Thereby
they provide the necessary compromise targeted by the societal mechanisms – a
division of humanity into superior any inferior gender. For a girl (a subject in process
to become gendered ‘female’); she is being taught how to be submissive, inferior
in comparison to the boys – any form of superiority she needs to relegate into the
unconscious, any form of masculinity she needs to eradicate (application of the
opposite dynamics for the boys, the subjects to become ‘masculine’). Her conscious
state of physical (real world) stereotyping is alleviated to a degree when exposed
to the world of gaming, because the gaming avatars (female) gives an outlet to her
psychic energy by ‘winning’ over other avatars. She therefore identifies with it;
unconsciously inhibit the avatar’s body curves, gestures, and postures by thinking
them as the pre-requisite to prevailing and starts transmitting the digital constituents
into the physical world. But, as in the case of the real world, she is also not allowed
to prevail in the gaming world too. Due to this process her inherent masculine trait
receives a certain form of ‘performativity’, a form of release both in the digital and
in the physical world – she thereby readily accepts the societal customization of
mind and body as a form of superior ‘signification’.
Prosthetic Performativity
Video games serves as a force of uniformity among the group of heterogenous

mass(es). They are “particularly successful one, apt to replicate in their structure the
values and activities associated with the dominant ideology, with sufficient slippage
to make playing them exciting” (Gailey, 1993, p. 82). As a result, the hegemonic
forces transmit gender and gendered roles through them. In this communicative digital
model, a message involving an addresser (society), addressee (Subject male/female)
is not a close circuit, from which the process of signification can be achieved. In
order to transmit the subject’s consciousness into the realm of digital games (where
the binaries of signification can be altered at will) – the subject must be endorsed
through the process of ‘immersion’. The immersion process is characterised by the
13
subject’s complete lack of spatial and temporal axis. As the process of immersion
transmutes an active subject into a passive one; a subject exposed in this realm is
not interpreting its values and mechanisms rather absorbing them. As a result, the
subject’s semantic memory is flooded with gendered based prosthetic consciousness
(consciousness which is not derived from one’s own experience); it derives meaning
from the avatar’s, associates with it by acting out the digital mechanisms in the real
world.
The cultural forces makes this closed linguistic circuit a sustained one by
employing continuous feedback mechanism (absent from physical games). The
gamer is instigated to play till the height of his/her ego satisfaction (which includes
victory over opponent). In this axis, games such as Cluster’s Revenge (1982, to win
the subject must learn how to rape), Phantasmagoria (1995, to win the subject must
accept the concept of horror and rape to give an outlet of his/her horror), Knights
of Xentar (1995), Fear Effect (2000), Pia Carrot (2008), and Grand Theft Auto
(1997) (specifically GTA San Andreas) included in them the concept of ‘rewarding’
through opposite sex oppression or through mutilated violence. “The degrees of
sexual violence that the games transmit are extreme. The higher the number of
attacks and virtual violence, the better the gamer’s level” (Gutierrez, 2014, p. 62).
This derivation of the desired outcome is an ideological one. On the surface level,
the gaming semantics offer limitless significations, but on a deeper level, all of the
signifiers are marred with gender based norms. As a result, whenever a gamer (male/
female) is deriving a sense of winning – he/she is actually accepting the societal
gendered norms.
Due to this closed isolated framework of gender production, the subject fails
to understand his/ her own inner cognition. The traditional video games at first
invites its players by being a fluid entity, but upon interaction, it slowly limiticizes
its potentialities and thereby the subject is left only with a fewer choices. In this
cognition, the subject’s own inner expression of anima or animus is delayed, often
to the level of repression. On the other hand, the conditional axis, where a subject
somehow manages to express the anima/animus within by interacting with the
traditional games, is rewarded by the societal forces with the stimulus of punishment
(negative reinforcement).
Amalgamated Androgyny
In this dichotomous praxis the gendered oppression through sexual difference

is always a transcended phenomenon. On the other hand, contemporary video
games are structured to give a fullest expression to a person’s inner consciousness,
irrespective of male/female stimuli. This has propagated the characteristics of an
androgynous race, functioning as a micro culture as against the traditional male/female
14
bifurcation. They also instigated a swaying away from the binaries of conventional
notion of androgyny (physical manifestation of male and female sexuality into one),
into a behavioural one. The behavioural pattern is driven forward by the subject’s
consciousness of male/female expression. Such “androgynous people demonstrate
an intermediate position as far as the sex typing is concerned” (Heilbrun, 1986, p.
126). Through such video games (Final Fantasy VII (1997), Rune Factory (2013),
Tides of Destiny (2011), Street Fighter (2013)), it is now possible for a male subject
to give fullest expression to his inner femininity and for a female subject to express
her masculinity without being in fear of societal repression.
The contemporary games have predicted the contradictory associations that a
subject must travel during adolescence. Being one of the pivotal stages of biological
development, adolescence is riddled with new sexual ‘stimuli’ (for instance, the
desire in boys for a feminine trait), that needs to be appropriated against social
reward-repress system. As opposed to the traditional gaming matrix, PUBG (2017),
Free Fire (2017), Fortnite (2017) have realised that “androgyny is related with
psychological well-being, because it allows individuals to apply both masculine
and feminine capabilities in their interactions with others” (Avery, 1982, p. 452).
This they have achieved by transmitting the authenticity of ‘avatar configuration’
to the gamer(s) (absent in traditional gaming). The customization “help the player
to get into the mindset of the character, increasing the likelihood of affecting his/
her self-identity” (Turkey and Kinzer, 2014, p. 2).
CONCLUSION
The portrayal of self in this paradigm is the conscious rendering of the subject
(whereas in traditional gaming, the subject was passive). Now, a choice is available to
the gamer about how he/she wishes the avatar to be a part of his/her identity. In this
acting out, the gamers are elevated with a choice of trial and error ground to arrive
at a juncture of avatar-gamer synthesis – where cognition, motivation, aspirations,
willingness facilitates one another. The functionalism of avatar configuration has
provided the users with a ‘space’ away from social Panopticism. The emotional and
psychic drawbacks of playing such games can be levitated by simply ‘logging out’.
Such a sense of emotional safety opens up an arena, where a subject experiments with
contextual identities. Therefore, the contemporary gaming apparatus is providing a
transitional identity – a full release of androgynous persona, a breaking away from
rigid behaviour patterns, to a more intrinsic stimulus, the acceptance of their roles
as societal subjects while associating with their innermost persona.
15
REFERENCES
Avery, A. W. (1982). Escaping Loneliness in Adolescence: The Case for Androgyny.

Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 11(6), 451–459. doi:10.1007/BF01538806
PMID:24310957
Campian, L., & Hayward, C. (2003). Gender Differences in Opposite Sex
Relationships: Interactions with Puberty. In C. Hayward (Eds.), Gender Differences
at Puberty. Cambridge University Press.
Gailey, C. W. (1993). Mediated Messages: Gender, Class and Cosmos in Home
Video Games. Journal of Popular Culture, 27(1), 81–98. doi:10.1111/j.0022-
3840.1993.845217931.x
Gutierrez, E. J. D. (2014). Video Games and Gender Based Violence in Education
and Health: From a Transcultural Perspective. Procedia: Social and Behavioral
Sciences, 132, 58–64. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.04.278
Heilbrun, A. B. Jr. (1986). Androgyny as Type and Androgyny as Behaviour:
Implications for Gender Schema in Males and Females. Sex Roles, 14(3), 123–139.
doi:10.1007/BF00288244
Jung, E. (1957). Anima and Animus: Two Essays. Spring Publications.
Malkowski, J. (2017). I Turned Out to be Such a Damsel in Distress. In J. Malkowski
& T. Russworm (Eds.), Gaming Representation: Race (pp. 19–37). Gender and
Sexuality in Video Games. doi:10.2307/j.ctt2005rgq.6
Proifschrift, A. (2009). Digital Spaces, Material Traces: Investigating the Performance
of Gender, Sexuality and Embodiment on Internet Platforms that Feature User-
Generated Content. N.A.J.M. Van Doom.
Schmieder, C. (2009). World of Maskcraft vs. World of Overcraft? Communication,Sex
and Gender in the Online Role Playing Game World Of Worldcraft. Journal of
Gaming and Virtual Worlds, 1(1), 5–21. doi:10.1386/jgvw.1.1.5_1
Tannen, D. (1994). Gender and Discourse. Oxford University Press.
Turkey, S. & Kinzer, C.K. (2014). The Effects of Avatar Based Customization on
Player Identification. International journal of Gaming and Computer, 6(1), 1-25.
16
17
Chapter 3
Structural Domination and
Quest for Jewish Identity:
A Traumatic Study of Women’s
Characters in the Novels of Imre Kertesz
Diksha Gupta
Bhaskar Degree College, Udhampur, India
ABSTRACT
The most distinct outcome of structural domination can be examined through the major
historical event of the Holocaust that took place against the Jews. Imre Kertesz was
a historical writer who diligently chronicled the injustice and discrimination against
Jewish women in his works to highlight the barbarity that they have encountered. The
study gives a poignant depiction of the deplorable condition of the women characters,
who struggled and quested for their Jewish identity, equality, and liberty. Kertesz’s
Fateless and Kaddish for an Unborn Child depict marginalization, discrimination,
and victimization of the Jewish women. Hence, the chapter will discuss the texts
of Imre Kertesz from the theoretical perspectives of trauma in order to understand
the indelible scars and other traumatic disorders of women characters. Along with
this, the major concern of the study is to depict the dispossessedness of voice of
Jewish women in particular, as a result of which they are at a loss to articulate the
recurrence of discrimination, injustice, and oppression they witness.
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch003
Structural Domination and Quest for Jewish Identity
INTRODUCTION
Imre Kertesz was a Hungarian writer who was awarded noble prize in Literature in
the year 2002. He has been the victim of the major genocidal event of the history i.e.
the Holocaust and he was successful in incorporating those disastrous incidents of
his life in his novels. Along with this, being a survivor of the Holocaust, he himself
had felt the pain and tumult that other Jews have undergone through. He was awarded
the noble prize for bringing such barbarous issues and pathetic plight of Jews into
limelight. The writing style of his novels is much more autobiographical where he
describes his personal as well as professional life in detail. Imre Kertesz was one
of the seminal figures who stood for liberalization, justice and indiscrimination
in the European countries. Moreover, he was unsuccessful to fight against such
discriminatory acts and marginalization of the Jews. Through his works, he has
deconstructed the agony, violence and torture witnessed by Jews, Jewish women in
particular, from the dominant Nazi forces. His works Fateless (2006) and Kaddish
for an Unborn Child (1990) explore several horrific events confronted by these
people. These Jewish women were dehumanized and demoralized by the Nazi
regime. As a result of this, they suffered from mourning problem, depersonalization
and eventually were traumatized. Jews have confronted the wrath and malice of the
dominating group in their society and their educational institutions as well. Such
barbarism and tortures have broken up their psyches and as a result of this, they
were not able to overcome from those past historical events. This legacy of slavery
treatment has been transferred to their later generations as well. Imre Kertesz has
successfully portrayed the issues of violence, segregation, objectification and
discrimination done with Jewish women through his novels. These issues become
the primary factors responsible for the occurrence of various traumatic disorders
in them. They have suffered and experienced several incomprehensible horrors of
the degradation of humanity. Kertesz describes and illuminates readers with the
hatred and prejudices that these Jewish women encounter and consequently, they feel
submissive and weak before the Nazi regime. This has shattered them completely
leading to develop indelible scars in their psyches. Therefore, Imre Kertesz, being
a Jewish survivor, has depicted the issues of casteism, race and discrimination that
have dragged Jews towards the problem of trauma.
Imre Kertesz, being an advocate of Jews, has provided the Jews of later
generation with the agency to speak, stand and revolt against all the injustice and the
discriminatory acts done with them. His radical stance of empowering the Jewish
women is evident through his depiction of the deplorable and miserable conditions
of the Jewish women right from the World War II when the Nazi party came into
power to the present time where still these Jews are maltreated and bullied in several
parts of the European countries. The major concern for Imre Kertesz is based on the
18
universal fact of the domination of the Jews. The totalitarian system of the Nazis
have relegated the Jewish women to the fringes of the world. The incentive of Imre
Kertesz has been to attack the misrepresentation of Jews in the historical times as
criminals, savages and other pejoratives used for the Jews. Furthermore, his works
reflect that how the voices of these Jews have been suppressed and ignored for long
time. It is through his works that the main culprits and the realities of the impediment
of Jewish women have been exposed and apprehended. Imre Kertesz as a Jewish
historian has rectified the past history that opposes Jewish reality and reclaims this
history by making Jews (especially Jewish women) empowered. Therefore, being a
radical stance writer, Imre Kertesz portrays the cause of the structural domination
and examines the lives of these people, questing for their Jewish identity by
understanding the Jewish history.
Many critics and theorists have now turned theorizing feministic structural domination
as women’s identity and agency rather than focusing and concerning with the male
domination and patriarchy. This has eventually raised important insights into the
creation of choices, interests and preferences of women. Structural domination has
been a concept that reclaims the notion of supremacy as a source of the systematic
and planned oppression that women experience within the social and political
structures. This has dragged the attention of many thinkers towards the dynamics
inherent in unequal social and political relationships created through institutions
and ideologies creating difference between more powerful and less powerful
communities. Structural domination is a phenomenon in which the individuality of
a person and the identity gets distorted through several means of violence such as
marginalization, torture and murders. In the circle of domination, Jewish women are
treated worse than animals. They are considered as ‘other’ and as a consequence of
this, they believe themselves to be inferior. Structural domination is a consequence
of many issues as it originates on the basis of race, caste, ethnicity and religiosity.
Through the process of domination, people lose their own selves and quest for their
identity. Eventually, it ignites psychic dilemmas making them emotionally wounded
and lost. Structural domination involves prejudices, discrimination, segregation and
violence to the women in particular. They are kept alienated in the social structure
and nobody helps and provides them with any privileges and honor in the society.
This process of domination takes place both at societal as well as personal level
involving objectification of the women. This leads to the distortion of both Jewish
identity and the community to which they belong and thus, creating instability in
their lives. Subsequently, this turns towards human rights violations, violence and
crimes. Being deprived of their rights, they witness injustice and ignominy.
19
Freedom for women can only be achieved by completely destroying the malicious
and wicked structure that targets women. When power relations turn to work under
such restrained way, there always exists domination. Since many years, there have
been a lot of research going on in order to understand the Jewish women-domination
but their oppression can only be understood by the already constructed women’s
complex identities. Clearly, theorizing about women’s their freedom refers to the
analysis of women’s subjectivity that Linda Zerilli characterizes as observing such
freedom through the lens of ‘subject question’ and says that “this question centers
primarily on the subject’s very formation and on the external and internal forces
that hinder its freedom subject (autonomous, dependent, or interdependent) but the
fact that the subject (be it as a philosophical, linguistic, or psychoanalytic category)
is the nodal point around which every political question gets posed” (Zerili, 2005,
p. 10). Framing freedom with respect to individualistic gendered subject implies
that freedom can be equated with free will, which every other Jewish women strive
for. Therefore, power relations also plays a vital role in suppressing the freedom
of women because of their power that exercise over them and killing their own
individuality and identity.
Identity is one of the main quest for a women because it creates a realization which
is a lifelong expansion beginning right from her birth. In fact, it is the cognizance
of her own selfhood and its extension through her family to the more acceptance
groups such as religious, ethnic, national or cultural. This consciousness of the
identity for Jewish women creates quests in them for their Jewish identity. Sigmund
Freud claims this Jewish identity as “the individual’s relatedness to the unique
history of a people” (Sklare, 1963, p. 2). Nowadays, the contemplation of Jewish
identity for these Jewish women has become much more painful because of the
several uncertainties and political conflicts existing across the world. Jewish women
struggle to attain the unified yet unassimilated status in the society. Earlier, people
revolted against assimilation but now the prime concern is against discrimination.
Also, assimilation always involves integration, which cannot be achieved without
social harmony among the people. All the Jews, including women, have been hated
and experienced hostility because of their Jewish race. They have quested for their
identity but they were not allowed to reach the surface level rather they were dig
below. Therefore, race has become an important factor which has shattered their
identity and forced them to struggle for their Jewish identity.
Social-political groups have replaced the Jewish community through their horror
and violence in the past years whereas old-world counterparts the miserable and
devastating positions of the Jews. The economic experiences of Jews due to their
forced immigration from Germany to other parts of the world brought turmoil in
their lives. Their lives were degraded and they lived a very harsh life where they
quested and searched for their Jewish identity that was repressed for so long. One
20
of the Jewish dramatists, S. Ansky, gives a detailed description about the pogroms
that made the Jews suffered and discussed their conditions after the World War II
and says, “their folklore tells mostly about women and bloodshed, while Jewish
folklore is about the truth and injustice” (Ansky,1926/2013). These Jewish women
were also rejected violently in the society and found important to strengthen their
own pride and self-esteem by their moral supremacy. Despite the spreading of Anti-
Semitism, Jews have remained calm and submissive and as a result, they lost their
Jewish identity and racial roots.
A Traumatic Study of Women Characters

in the Novels of Imre Kertesz
Imre Kertesz in one of his seminal texts, Fateless explores the issues of race, power
politics, totalitarianism, societal domination and genocide that have completely
traumatized the lives of the Jewish women. The novel highlights that the false
belief that Jews were responsible for the defeat of Germany during World War II.
This belief has led to several barbaric incidents and leads these Jews to quest for
their identity. It denounces the prevailing barbarity, prejudices, injustice against the
Jewish women in particular. Gyorgy’s father was forced to leave for the concentration
camp because of the strict norms framed by the Nazis that every other Jew has to
move to camp and work there as a labor. In order to fulfill that task, his father also
leaves. The entire responsibility of handling her son and the business comes in the
hands of Gyorgy’s mother. She is already upset with her husband’s departure and
the fear of the tortures that he is going to encounter there but still manages to hold
everything. Gyorgy cries and expresses his emotions but she fails to do so, she
tries to console her son and eventually, represses her feelings. For her, it was “a sad
day for us” (Kertesz, 2006, p.4). Such oppressive acts and societal constructs have
created havoc in her life. She does not have any knowledge about the business but
still tries to manage. Gyorgy describes her complex situation as “I could see she was
content to leave it at that. She even moved a hand in my direction, and I half feared
that she might perhaps be wanting to hug me and cry but did not” (p. 4). Unable
to mourn over her husband’s leaving makes her more traumatized as she represses
her hidden emotions. In this way, she is psychologically traumatized as she suffers
from the problem of mourning. The main essence of the text describes the pathetic
plight of such marginalized women who have been repeatedly dominated under the
societal domination constructed by the Nazis and have become helpless under the
draconian policies.
Oppression and tortures have made Jews as slaves. Hearing the news of her
husband’s death, Gyorgy’s mother was shattered completely. She still tried a lot
to carry the heavy burdens of her family. Several laws and policies were designed
21
against the Jews such as their properties were seized and Gyorgy’s mother’s shop
was also detained from performing any kind of business. Such discriminatory and
oppressive laws made her completely traumatized. Seeing this, Gyorgy says that
“how my stepmother was going to cope with the major burdens that she was going
to bear the brunt of, in such difficult times, all alone” (Kertesz, 2006, p.15). This
reflects the fear that resides in Gyorgy and his mother who suffer from Anti-Semitic
prejudice and malice from the Nazis. Being a Jew, she confronts racial prejudice and
extermination from her own community. She was not allowed to enter the ration shops
and buy any stock. She was prohibited from entering any shop and when she was
allowed, she was given minimal quantity of leftover food. Due to this, she is unable
to cope with a normal life. Judith Lewis Herman remarks that “the central dialectic
of psychological trauma is the conflict between the will to deny horrible events
and the will to proclaim them aloud” (Herman, 1997, p.1). Psychological trauma
is a consequence of some deeply disturbing occurrence and this has evolved in the
psyche of the Gyorgy’s mother, who witnesses many Anti-Semitic, discriminatory
and injustice events repeatedly in her life. It was complex for her to cope with
her husband’s leaving, his death, loss of her business and the discrimination and
oppression she witnesses regularly. Such extreme terrific situations have not allowed
her to undergo mourning process and consequently, she is traumatized.
Kaddish for an Unborn Child portrays the Holocaust and the struggle of the
Jewish women, who fails to succeed her marriage because of her Jewish identity.
Mr. B and his wife were living a normal life. They both met at a conference party
where they both got to know each other. His unnamed wife struggles to survive
after the war. This has led to their unsuccessful marriage and the brutal experiences
of Holocaust forced her to leave Mr. B and marry someone else. Such devastating
experiences have created turmoil in her psyche and she fails to adapt a normal life.
Unwanted tortures of the Nazi forces made her mind lose its capability to react and
act. She says that she lived under totalitarian dictatorship where she was forced and
tortured to leave her husband, who was working against the Nazis and support the
allied forces. She was threatened and eventually she leaves him. She believes that
totalitarianism is completely “a mindless situation. Hypothesis of totalitarianism
are, so to say, naturally based on Nothingness. Selection and expulsion as well as
the notions on which they are based, are all nonexistent, null and void notions”
(Kertesz, 1990, p. 71). Such tortures under the dictatorship of Hitler developed
fear in her where she fails to resist the brutality and violence against her and other
Jewish women.
Along with this, the wife of the narrator suffers from flashbacks and hallucinations
of the past events of her life where she was forced to leave her husband, to migrate
to other city and work as per the Nazi’s laws. Such terrible and horrifying events
bring destruction in her life that she fails to cope with. These issues affect her
22
life in such a way that her psyche is distorted and she is traumatized. She suffers
from post-traumatic stress disorder to a larger extent that she remains submissive
throughout her life. Cathy Caruth defines post-traumatic stress disorder as in which
all “the overwhelming events of the past repeatedly possess, in intrusive images and
thoughts, the one who has lived through them” (Caruth, 1995, p. 151). At the end of
the novel, she sees narrator and she becomes completely distressed. She has witnessed
prejudices that have affected her personal life at a larger extent. After seeing him,
she is completely broken and there were tears in her eyes. She was so helpless that
she cannot even talk to him and discuss what all she has gone through. She feels
ashamed of her Jewish identity and how it has created obstacles in leading her to
live a smooth and happy life. Therefore, wide-spread state-sponsored discrimination
and societal domination have ended her personal relationships and has impacted her
that she becomes traumatized and quest for her identity to sustain.
CONCLUSION
Identity is an archetypal conundrum for a particular community on the threshold

of its acceptance in the society. The postwar inter-communal relations have been
weak which has created a wider social rift among the people belonging to different
race. It has been deconstructed through the novels of Imre Kertesz that Jewish
women have repeatedly suffered from the wrath and tortures of the Nazi forces.
Being victimized, segregated and discriminated at every spheres of their lives, these
women preferred to be silent and submissive. This suppression of the thoughts has
created indelible scars leading them towards psychic problems. Societal domination
and their struggle for their Jewish identity have eventually led them towards the
problem of mourning and traumatic disorders. This has completely ravaged their
psyches and identities. They failed to mourn over the inner conflicts they were
dealing with and as a result, they suffered from the problem of mourning. This
repression of psyches has traumatized them. Treated inhumanely by the Nazi forces
have made them exterminated, lynched from the society. Such hatred experiences,
prejudices and animosity from the dominant groups made them alienated in their
own society. Likewise, the social cataclysms that propelled the ethnicity and Jewish
identity shaped a sense of urgency within their community to look for the extent
their identity is demolished. Their quest for their Jewish identity and the structural
domination they experience brings the fore questions about the societal constructs
and their domination towards the Jews and questioning the great political leaders
and governing leaders about the equality that is missing in the society especially
in the case of the Jews.
23
REFERENCES
Ansky, S. (2013). The Dybbuk. Tsiterboym Books. (Original publication 1926)

Kertesz, I. (2006). Fateless (T. Wilkinson, Trans.). Vintage.
Kertesz, I. (2004). Kaddish for an Unborn Child (T. Wilkinson, Trans.). Vintage.
(Original work published 1990)
Caruth, C. (1995). Trauma: Explorations in Memory. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Herman, J. L. (1997). Trauma and Recovery. Basic Books.
Sklare, M. (1963). The Quest for Jewish Identity in America: Draft Outline for John
Slawson. American Jewish Committee.
Zerilli, L. M. G. (2005). Feminism and the Abyss of Freedom. University of Chicago
Press. doi:10.7208/chicago/9780226814056.001.0001
24
25
Chapter 4
Breaking the Silence:
Understanding the LGBTQ+ Community
– A Study of Alternative Realities:
Love in the Lives of Muslim Women
Gargee Rawat
Doon University, India
Sakshi Semwal
DIT University, India
ABSTRACT
Gender equality has been a can of worms. From the waves of feminism till LGBTQ,
some people, due to their otherness, have endured bigotry and social stigma. We’ve
been fed with heteronormativity for a long time and there exists a void when it comes
to homosexual tolerance. Although a lot has been written about them, transgender
people still have not been legally recognized worldwide. Their demand for identity
and getting rid of the derogatory terms they were labelled with like hijras, chakka,
kinnars, jogappa, aravani, aruvani, etc. is visible everywhere. Recently, LGBTQ is
considered taboo in society because of some stereotypical mindsets. This chapter
focuses on the lives of transgender people in and around Pakistan majorly by dwelling
deep into the kind of behavioural patterns society shows toward them by taking the
text of Alternative Realities (Nighat M. Gandhi, 2013) as a representation of the
LGBTQ community’s voice.
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch004
Breaking the Silence
INTRODUCTION
If every gay person were to come out only to his/her own family, friends, neighbours
and fellow workers, within days the entire state would discover that we are not the
stereotypes generally assumed - Harvey Milk
Queer was initially considered as a pejorative term, but now the non-heterosexuals
have embraced it. In fact, it is used as a self-affirming umbrella label. Queer theory
has its origin from LGBT studies and feminist theory.’ Queer theory has its origin
from LGBT studies and feminist theory.’ Queer’ was originated from the works of
Teresa de Lauretis on gay and lesbian sexualities. “Historically, the term queer has
been used to silence, suppress, and shame practices, identities, and values located
outside of perceived social boundaries.” (Butler, 2006).Though much has been
changed after gay and lesbian rights were given to them at workplaces and other
services, politically but their condition is deteriorating culturally and because of the
preconceived norms. “The deployment of queer in this manner is also an attempt to
move beyond the hegemonic and historic practice of institutionalized systems using
identity-categories (e.g., a “homosexual” identity) to shame, regulate, and eradicate
same-sex sexual behaviour.” (Foucault, 1984) (Gedro and Mizzi, n.d., p.448)
Homosexual marriages are also known as gender-neutral marriage, equal marriage,

and gay marriage. The literature drawn from Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, and modern
fiction also testifies the presence of same-sex love in various forms. Ancient texts
such as the Manu Smriti, Arthashastra, Kamasutra, Upanishads and Puranas refer
to homosexuality. Also there are reports that same-sex activities are common among
sannyasins, who cannot marry. Thus instances of homosexuality are available in
historical and mythological texts world over and India is not an exception to this
(Tanweer, 2018, p.2)
We can trace the existence of same sex marriage culture in various ancient texts.
It was completely normal but now the approach has changed. This paper examines
the life of LGBTQ community in the Muslim society by taking various aspects of
their lives in other parts of the world too. Pakistan and other Islamic states were
the primary focus. Pakistani law is a mix of both Anglo-Saxon colonial law as
well as Islamic law. Lord Macaulay wrote the Indian Penal Code 1860, and made
same-sex sexual acts illegal under the Anglo-Saxon law of “Unnatural Offences”.
Post-independence (1947), in Pakistan, the Parliament decided to continue using
the same Penal Code, changing the title to Pakistan Penal Code (Act XLV of 1860)
within the Penal Code, Article 377 also referred to as “Unnatural Offences “.
26
It refers to ‘unnatural offences’ and says whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse
against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal, shall be punished with
imprisonment for life or with imprisonment of either description for a term which
may extend to 10 years, and shall also be liable to pay a fine (The Economic Times,
2018, par. 5).
This has been decriminalized in some regions which were once a British colony,
but some strangely claim it to be against their culture and tradition. This results in
gender intolerance, specifically in the case of homosexuals. LGBTQ is considered
taboo in society because of some stereotypical mind sets who are the worshippers of
heterosexuality. Breaking such stereotypical mind sets and coming of the closet will
be the ‘new emancipation’. In a country like Pakistan, where people follow Islamic
rules and are very strict about the laws, it is difficult to show up as a homosexual,
which is considered haraam by the conformists. Some states punish same-sex
relationships in the name of Sharia - the punishment being the death penalty as it
is in the case with ‘zina’ (one among the six haddud offences), which was followed
by stoning till death. Pakistan and other Islamic countries develop and grow at a
comparatively slower pace when it comes to such issues.
People often consider transgender people as immoral, call them dozakhi and
their relationship as sinful. Being transgender is no crime and poses no threat to the
society that is the reason Section 377 has been abolished in many parts of the world.
But it still prevails under The Pakistan Penal Code of 1860, which the Britishers
developed, punished sodomy with a possible prison sentence and other provisions
that impacted the human rights of LGBT Pakistanis, under the guise of protecting
public order and morality.
In Pakistan, as in many other gender-segregated societies, homosocial behaviour is

considered normal and homosexual sex between men is widespread and accepted
under a condition of discretion and secrecy; everybody knows what is going on, but
nobody talks about it. At the same time the general climate for sexual minorities is
hostile, and a person who comes forward as a homosexual will risk sanctions from
the family, societal isolation, legal problems and violence (Landinfo, 2013, p.3)
This Paper attempts to figure out various issues, problems, and hardships faced
by transgender and lesbian couples and their struggles to show out as being the ‘one’
by Nighat M. Gandhi in Alternative Realities: Love in the lives of Muslim Women.
Nighat represents the true picture of transgender community in Pakistan:
In Pakistan, transgender live on the fringes of society, socially excluded and being
vulnerable; Illiteracy, poverty, injustice, lack of opportunities, social and cultural
27
boycott, power imbalances in relationship, and obstinate attitude of religious leaders

are some of the reasons for social exclusion of this community. Other than that, the
inability to reproduce and coping with their sexual orientation further adds to their
disdain (Dayani, 2019, P.37).
Since childhood, we are taught about the two sexes, and that opposite attracts, the
third sex, precisely the third gender, has been shown as a comic and anonymous figure
that was not even the topic of discussion. LGBTQ (community) is settling with its
pace, like every new law that takes time for its implementation and enforcement. But
who is supposed to let them settle? Who is the one responsible for their otherness?
They are not different; they are seen as one. People should come out and embrace
their identity. And we should accept them the way they are. Kessler and McKenna
forcefully claim that “Gender is not a reflection of biological reality but rather a
social construct that varies across cultures. Valuable for its insights into gender, its
extensive treatment of transsexualism, and its ethnomethodological approach, Gender
reviews and critiques data from biology, anthropology, sociology, and psychology”
(Kessler, 1978, p. 3).
This paper will analyze the stories from the memoir, i.e., Siraat-E-Mustaqeem:
The Straight Path, and Rakhi Sawant of Sindh to bring out the issues with one’s
identity and faith. Coping with these two things can seem smooth but takes a lot of
pain and struggle in real life. The story Siraat-E-Mustaqeem in Alternative Realities,
by Nighat M. Gandhi revolves around two lesbians, namely, Nusrat and Quratulain.
Siraat-E-Mustaqeem is the Arabic term for ‘the straight or the right path’. It discloses
the path chosen by Nusrat and QT, which is not so ‘straight’ but indeed the right
path. They were not against any religion or God but were living a life that pleased
them and gave the happiness they craved for. As:
Queer theory promotes the “self” of the individual as an alternative to wider social
interaction, disassembling the social ties that bind. Recognizing that oppression and
violence, symbolic and physical, are part of the daily reality for those of us who do
not correspond to dominant standards is compromised by queer theory’s rejection
of the category of identity, and indeed, categories as a whole (Butler, 2006, p. 308).
KARACHI: LESBIANS IN LOVE
This anecdote is of a lesbian who struggles for her lost identity in Pakistan and faces
the fear of coming out in public. Nusrat was a poet, lecturer, stage designer and
visual artist. Nighat met her, and they conversed privately. It has been mentioned
that they spoke in low tones and for greater privacy moved to the staff room, so
28
that they can’t be heard. This depicts the fear of coming out of the closet, getting
abandoned by society and being a criminal in the eyes of the law. Nusrat’s public
persona is described as.
She had on a striped beige kurta, white salwar, a plain white cotton dupatta and
a men’s watch, hair pulled back in a ponytail. No makeup, no-frills, no ribbons or
laces that Pakistani ladies were laden with that season. Her style of dress and speech
were charmingly defiant. (Gandhi, 2013, p.142)
She was not being her true self to society, although she had no makeup, frills
or ribbons, usually associated with females but had to wear kurta and salwar. She
wanted to be herself but was obliged to play a feminine role. Things like man’s watch
and ponytail pulled back shows her disagreement towards her public persona. On the
contrary, Nusrat was totally different at home, noticeably androgynous, unlike the one
on the college campus bounded to the feminine role. Nighat and Nusrat conversed
about lesbian groups and movements in Pakistan. There were none. Besides, there
was inadequacy in lesbian literature. They talked about Ismat Chughtai’s Lihaaf
and Rekhti and in Urdu literature of Humayun Iqbal. In their discussion they point
out that Gay love was partly accepted through literature, but this was not the case
with lesbians.
FAITH AND IDENTITY
One goes through a dilemma when it comes to reconciling one’s faith and identity.
Can you follow your religion and be a homosexual at the same time? Yes, you can.
Love or Ishq, in Islam, for instance, ‘is the absolute madness at the height of love’.
There are many interpretations to Ishq in the Quran, and Nusrat speaks of one. She
also states that there are many interpretations to it, but liberal interpretations are not
tolerated. For instance, one can consider the parable of Prophet Lūt or Lot, whose
people were the evil or wrongdoers and, despite the Prophet’s warnings, got engaged
in violent rape, victimization of men, lewdness and other malpractices. The city of
Sodom and Gomorrah was demolished because of its people’s shortcomings, leaving
behind Lut and his two daughters.
And his people came rushing toward him, and they had been long in the habit
of practising abominations. He said:
“O my people! Here are my daughters: they are purer for you (if you marry)! Now
fear Allah, and do not cover me with shame about my guests! Isn’t there among you
a single right-minded man?” They said: “You know well we have no need of your
29
daughters: indeed, you know quite well what we want!” He said: “Would that I
had power to suppress you or that I could betake myself to some powerful support.
(The Messengers) said: “O Lūt! We are Messengers from your Lord. By no means
shall they reach you! Now travel with your family while yet a part of the night
remains, and let not any of you look back: but your wife (will remain behind): to
her will happen what happens to the people.
Morning is their appointed time: Is not the morning near?” When Our decree issued,
We turned (the cities) upside down and rained down on them brimstones hard as
baked clay, spread, layer on layer.
- Qur’an, Sūra XI: Hūd, verses 78–83.
This is where the word sodomy (English terminology for Liwat) originally came
from. This is how the messenger of God destroyed the two cities. But this was
unfairly interpreted out of its cultural, historical and social context as something
against homosexuality or non-heterosexual activities between adults.
Misinterpretations are often deceptive. Later in the story, Nusrat mentions the
news on the front page of ‘Jang’, which was about two blind people in love who hot
married, the headline being - ‘Andhi Mohabbat: Nabeena Jore ne court marriage
krli’, which pictures the situation of Pakistan in terms of acceptance of love. She
mocks at how even after being at the headline of the news got their right to marry.
Nusrat has a different perspective on the world, unlike everyone else around her.
“I’m a woman-loving woman. You’re not born one. You evolve through attractions
and loves, and relationships. But you have to start with your own mind.” (Gandhi,
2013, P.148)
The social construction of love has narrowed people’s minds when it comes
to same-sex love. Making love for some people is synonymous with penetration,
eventually producing offspring and having a family; no matter how the feelings
remain unreciprocated or how harsh the love feels. But Nusrat perceived it differently,
unlike some of us who fail to recognize our true self from the fear of coming out
and being abandoned. She had evolved through love, relationships and attractions
and became a person she was not. It would have been her greatest epiphany.
Indeed the social norms and constructions are being followed for ages, but one
needs to overcome them. No one is born unessential. One’s character or deeds are
not predefined.
30
A ROOM OF THEIR OWN
Characters of Nusrat and QT (Quratulain) are sheer examples of the life of trans
people. They even had a room of their own, as Nusrat said,’ Virginia Woolf would
approve! Two women with a room of their own. Since both women were well -settled
and were even working.
Although Nusrat was a woman but never desired to raise kids of her own, unlike
other women who dreamt of marrying and having kids (with few exceptions). She
even comments on having kids that she does not see as her investments for her
retirement plan and can love other people’s kids. This clearly depicts that someone’s
gender can differ from their designated sex. Sex being anatomical, whereas gender
being their expression and the way they feel.
LGBTQ ‘Rainbow flag’ was designed by gay artist Gilbert Baker after Harvey
Milk, one of the first openly gays got elected as an official in U.S. California. Pride
flag consists of six colours- red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Rainbow,
per se, stands for peace, serenity, joy, beauty and power. “We needed something
to express our joy, our beauty, our power. And the rainbow did that.” - Baker told
CNN in 2015 (Borge, 2019, par. 8).
There is a parallel between the flag and the apartment where Nusrat and QT
lived. Theirs seemed much brighter and cheerful, rather than the people nearby
which seemed gloomy from the passageway. There were terracotta lamps, potted
plants and C-29 was calligraphed on the wall. It was a rare and beautiful sight. Their
space had an artist’s studio, magazines, and tubes of paints, canvases and tin cans
all around, overall, magnificent and peaceful. Nusrat calls it QT’s (Quratulain) noor.
Their love seemed divine, and their aura was not ordinary. Nusrat recited a poem
that she wrote for their anniversary on QT’s noor. It was genuinely ecstatic, the one
that could only be written by a true lover full of powerful emotions. They lived a
confined life and were happy as long as they were with each other. She comments
that the other interviewers are not so empathetic towards them, and she feels that
they were seen as some endangered species, not even as a real person. Toward the
end, Nighat’s suppressed feelings have been depicted, her love for a girl that she
was not able to confess. In the case of Nusrat and QT, both were embracing their
actual identities and following their religion. Even though they could not come up
to their neighbours but led a peaceful life on their own.
The terrible condition of transgender community is not restricted to a specific
nation but that is a universal thing. Transgender communities have seen marginalized
and is not having any significance in our society which is also affected their visibility
in literature. In spite of various efforts to improve the condition of transgender only
a little has been proved fruitful still we need to change the mindset to secure a place
for them in society and to make them economically strong. Ume Sughra visited a
31
transgender community for a research project where she heard a comment while
interviewing a transgender community at Bari Imam Islamabad, Pakistan. “We are
God’s creation we didn’t create ourselves so why are we blamed to be like this? “We
wish we would have a separate world to live, this world of males and females don’t
want to see us and we don’t want to see them either” (Ume Sughra, 2016, p. 100).
Nighat provides a true picture of the plight of transgender community through
Nisho, in Rakhi Sawant of Sindh. She met Nisho for understanding the condition
of transgender people. The setting of the story clearly reveals the pathetic condition
of transgender community living in a slam. Nighat travels all the way to Sind to
meet and record the story of Nisho. Just like every other moorten (local lingo for
transgender people) Nisho, along with the other gays (Gulnar, Rubina, Bandook,
Mashook) used to live in a slum area. Most of them made their survival possible
by begging, singing and dancing. This clearly depicts the way transgender people
were and are being treated.
According to a wide range of LGBT NGOs and activists, society generally shun[s]
transgender women, eunuchs, and intersex persons, collectively referred to as
“hijras”- a word some transgender individuals view as pejorative, preferring the
term “khwajaserra” - who often lived together in slum communities and survived
by begging and dancing at carnivals and weddings. Some also were prostitutes
(Responses to Information Requests, 2020, p. 5)
Then Nighat and Nisho conversed about the life of Gays on various grounds like
changing their names to seemingly feminine names. Nisho also mentions that she
looks like Rakhi Sawant and would preferably change her name to Rakhi Sawant.
FALLING IN LOVE
The bitter truth is society accepts couples of opposite sex; no one pays attention
to same-sex relationship. Love stories mostly contain male and female characters,
never same-sex characters. Similarly, Nisho’s love was not taken into consideration
and was regarded as sinful or najaiz. But to her it was just like everyone else’s, loyal
and pure. The fear of publicly accepting one’s gender is not as easy as it seems to
be. Nisho was sceptical through the session about how she would survive in such a
homophobic environment and questions God for her homosexuality. She somehow
manages to console herself by recalling the incidents of the married ladies of her
mohalla that she will not have to face the ill-treatments of her mother-in-law and
the cruelty of her husband. People like Nisho succumb to the harsh situations they
face and are always on the verge of getting abandoned by society.
32
I sought to understand some of the terror and anxiety that some people suffer in
“becoming gay,” the fear of losing one’s place in gender or of not knowing who
one will be if one sleeps with someone of the ostensibly “same” gender (Butler,
2006, p.11).
ON MARRIAGE
Nisho viewed her relationship as a mere fantasy and unrealistic. Although she was
well aware of the reality that the guy she loved would never marry her. Her assigned
sex didn’t match her gender. We’ve been given men’s bodies, but everything about
us, our thoughts, our soul, the way we live, everything, everything, is like a woman’s.
(Gandhi, 2013, P. 217) she wanted to have a surgery, probably a sex reassignment
surgery, which might have changed her, but she won’t get pregnant even then. “Is
there any difference between us and real women? No, it’s just that we aren’t accepted
as women by society. If I were a real woman, I could’ve gotten married, had kids,
and made some man happy. But this way, the way I am, I can’t. I don’t fit into any
role” (p. 215).
Nisho also assures Nighat of her love for his man and that he loves her back. Still
there exists a question mark on the life of transgender people. “I can’t marry him. I
can’t marry a man and give him children” (p. 216). As they are mostly abandoned
by their families, their future is least secure, and they even get kicked out when they
run out of money in their old age.
I don’t know why the world thinks of us as immoral. The world is full of criminals,
alcoholics, drug addicts, adulterers, murderers, terrorists. Do we plant bombs?
Are we murdering people? Do we take bribes? What kind of threat do we pose
to society? We keep to ourselves. Then why does the world shun us? Treat us like
criminals? (p. 220)
ON RIGHTS
Nisho added that there were many Khawaja Sara (non-derogatory terms for transgender
in Pakistan) in the town but not most of them were much educated enough to claim
their rights. Would not interview or talk to any outsider. She also talks about a film in
which the protagonist Shabnam Mausi demanded for her rights to contest elections.
She was right when she said, people from our community need to be elected to fight
for our rights (p. 221).
33
The supreme court former chief justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad

Chaudhry in 2009 declare rights that “they are third gender and they have equal
rights with national ID card with free education, jobs and health care. But members
of transgender community they don’t have these rights it is just certain records on
papers” (Saddique, 2017, p. 9053).
They rarely get seats in the elections. Although much has been ameliorate their
status in the society like they have been allotted with the NIC (National Identity
cards), right to education, jobs (in some sectors), but they face discrimination in
different levels.
LGBT communities are considered a sign of shame and disgrace in [Pakistani]

culture. Most of these individuals never get a chance to acquire education in the
regular schools due to discriminatory treatment and demeaning attitudes of their
fellow citizens (Responses to Information Requests, 2020, p. 6)
ON RESPECT
Transgender community is still struggling to get acceptance at social level. They are
being laughed and mocked but never get place among a group of male and female
gender. They even don’t have a right to be a part of social gatherings. The social
segregation and humiliation make the transgender weak. They too accept it as their
destiny and allow themselves to be marginalized in all spheres of life. It seems that
Nisho has also accepted that their condition will never improve. As she says:
People keep talking about rights. But who gives you your right? Nobody. Our small
town has many Khawaja Sara and they have small minds. They’re not clever like
educated, city people. And they’re afraid of harassment, so they keep to themselves.
(Gandhi, 2013, p. 220).
In our society Transgender people have not received any space and they don’t
fit in an ideal society created by men and women and they are being recognized by
various tags like chakka, hijra, zenna. “Khawaja Sara, Hijra, Khusra or Murat, are
different names given to third gender in Pakistan. From the early childhood they
are treated and are considered derogatory by the society” (Nazir, 2016, p. 158). The
myth generally whispered is that “born hijra (Khusra) develops akin mannerism
(dancing, singing) acceptable in hijra community only. These born with sexual
deformity ultimately join hijra community” (Zami, 2005 p.4). People make fun of
their dressing style, their way of speaking. Some even mimicked her khadra clap
Night describes Nisho’s pain “They make fun of me by trying to imitate the khadra’s
34
clap. But you know, we don’t go clapping all the time. To clap for no reason is
completely against the behavior code of our community” (p. 217). Transgender
community is also having emotions and feeling as they are a living being they also
seek for love and care. Transgender person can develop a relationship in the same
community but they are not allowed to love a male or a female. Love is free it has
no boundaries. As Nisho says “Who hasn’t been in love?
At least once in their lifetime?... People think only a man and a woman can make
a couple…But, the truth is, anybody can fall in love with anybody. A man can fall
in love with a man, a woman can fall in love with a woman. But society doesn’t
accept such love. (p. 215)
Transgender community is in dilemma and is having an inner conflict as they are

not having any space any even they are not able to fit in the categorical definition
of female or male gender Nisho remarks,
Some of us would say we’re women, some would say we’re men. But if we want to
say we’re women, shouldn’t we have the rights that belong to women? Like the right
to marry? And if we say we’re male, shouldn’t we get the rights that belong to men?
But we’ll get neither the rights of men or women. They‘ll just create a Khwaja Sara
category for us but give us no respect or rights (p. 221).
From the time transgender people get a notion or realization that being a transgender
they don’t fit in this so called society. They starts questing about their own existence
and inside a hope that one day they will be able to have a place in the society and
will not be judged on the basis of their third gender but will be able to live a normal
life. Love is pure, unbiased and can happen within two people irrespective of their
sexual orientations. They are not different; they are seen as one. People should
come out and embrace their identity. And we should accept them the way they are.
CONCLUSION
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender people, etc. can exist in any corner of the world,
normalizing their existence, letting them live a respectable and comfortable life is
what we can help them with. Nighat M. Gandhi through her travelogue has kept
this theme subtle, but it is worth the hype because transgender people are already
struggling to live their lives smoothly. Scattered around the corners of the world,
country, state, or region, they make a living by sometimes coming out of the closet
and sometimes being caged within society. People who dared to reveal their true
35
identity were looked down on by other people, i.e. treated as inferiors. Nisho, Nusrat,
QT, and other transgender people suffer an identity crisis in the society where
opposite-sex relationships thrive. Same-sex relationships are considered unnatural,
against the tradition, something that is brought in by the western people, a criminal
offence and number of other pejorative and nonsensical things that even make it a
taboo in the public sphere.
The stories depict how social construction confine the life of transgender people
by making them even more marginalized. They cope with the situations on their own.
They are disrespected and mistreated. They have no choice but to limit themselves
to a certain area and remain unemployed. The majority of transgender indulge in
begging, dancing and even prostitution. Being born as a male, a person can feel like
a female and vice versa, equivalent to what we call a transgender. A transgender
person is also a human. Scientifically, anatomy or sex of a person has nothing to
do with the gender of a person and a person either male, female or transgender,
eventually she/he is a Homosapien. But the misleading constructs often make it
hard for them to survive.
Things often get muddled up when people claim that being a transgender is a
disaster, they negate all the facts, thereby spreading hate. Misconceptions must
be cleared, and everyone should be treated equally. Each gender is superior, each
gender is important, and together we build the society. Broaden your minds till the
seamless shores, educate, spread awareness and accept every single human around.
People like Prince Manvendra, India’s royal figure and Nergis Mavalvala, who is an
astrophysicist and a openly Pakistani lesbian, set an example that acceptance shall
first come from within and then from people around. Speak it up or talk about it.
Spreading awareness is all we can do to normalize their identity.
Nighat M. Gandhi through the stories has thrown light upon the queer community
and the way they spend their life with the least opportunities. They feel content in
whatever life brings them. Amidst all the laws passed by Pakistan, Section 377 remains
a bit controversial when it comes to small regions of the country. The condition
has been ameliorated but not fully accepted. People should be sensitive enough to
deal with transgender people around. Consulting a psychologist and knowing their
behaviour can help a lot to empathize with them. Pakistani culture treats Khawaja
Seras on various grounds but there are limitations to it. They’ve even got a separate
space, identity of their own (NIC), namely the third category but they are still being
prejudiced and mistreated. Because of the preconceived norms and notions, the
judgemental ‘Us’ lack to understand the sufferings of such people. Visit, have a word
with them, socialize and spread awareness is the basic requirement to eradicate this
discrimination from the society be it in Pakistan, India, U.S.A. or other countries.
Eventually, one must practice the 3 Cs, i.e. cheer, comfort and cooperate with every
human around irrespective of their gender and identity.
36
REFERENCES
Borge, J. (2019). The Significance Behind Every Color in the Pride Flag. Oprah
Magazine. Retrieved April 23, 2021, from www.oprahmag.com/life/a27789288/
rainbow-pride-flag-meaning
Butler, J. (2006). Gender Trouble. Routledge.
Dayani, K. S., & Minaz, A. (2019). Transgender Community in Pakistan: A Look Into
Challenges and Opportunities. National Journal of Advanced Research, 5(2), 36-40.
Economic Times. (2018). Section 377: Here Is Everything You Need to Know. The
Economic Times. Retrieved May 5, 2021, fromeconomictimes.indiatimes.com/news/
politics-and-nation/sc-delivers-historic-verdict-heres-everything-you-need-to-know-
about-section 377/articleshow/65698429.cms?from=mdr
Gandhi, M. N. (2013). Alternative Realities: Love in the Lives of Muslim Women.
Tranquebar Press.
Gedro, J., & Mizzi, R. C. (n.d.). Feminist Theory and Queer Theory: Implications
for HRD Research and Practice. Scholar.Google.Co.In,adhr.sagepub.com
Jami, H. (2005). Transgender transvestitesetc in Pakistan country report. Retrieved
April30, 2021, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/294427308_
Condition_and_status_of_hijras
Kessler, M., & McKenna, W. (1978). Gender: An ethno methodological approach.
John Wiley & Sons.
Landinfo. (2013). Report Pakistan: Homosexuals and homosexuality. landinfo.no
Nazir, N. (2016). Education, Employability and Shift of Occupation of Transgender
in Pakistan: A Case Study of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The Dialoge, 11(2), 158-176.
Retrieved April 28, 2021, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320876676
Responses to information requests. (2020, June 1). Immigration and Refugee Board
of Canada. Retrieved from https://irb.gc.ca/en/country-information/rir/Pages/index.
aspx?doc=457702
Saddique, K., & Sindhu, M. (2017). Transgender Issues in Pakistani Community.
European Academic Research Journal, 4(10), 9049-9056. https://www.researchgate.
net/publication/314116381_Transgender_Issues_in_Pakistani_Community
Tanweer, A. (2018). LGBT Rights in India. International Journal of Law Management
and Humanities.
37
Ume, S., & Imran, M. (2016). Transgender: Stigma, Discrimination and Social
Exclusion, Asian Pacific. Journal of Health Sciences., 3(4), 100–101.
38
39
Chapter 5
Unlearning Internalized
Homophobia With My
Brother’s Husband:
A Glimpse Into Mainstream
Queer Literature in Japan
Anushkaa Debnath
Jadavpur University, India
ABSTRACT
The manga My Brother’s Husband (2014-2017) talks about a little Japanese
neighborhood, the microcosm representing the country’s general approach to
homosexuality and how the future holds a promise to change for better days.
Homosexual relationships and trans identities are frowned upon in the general
society of modern-day Japan, just like in many other Asian countries. An openly
gay mangaka, Gengoroh Tagame, had so far been a name limited to the gay erotic
manga circuit, but this work, targeted at a more general audience, won him critical
acclaim for depicting the struggles of being queer in Japan. This chapter is an
attempt to understand how Yaichi is a representative of the cis-heterosexual male
who is trying his best to navigate out of the patriarchal maze of heteronormativity
that has been propagated through generations following European imperialism in
Asian countries.
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch005
Unlearning Internalized Homophobia With My Brother’s Husband
INTRODUCTION
Serialized over four volumes for a stretch of four years, My Brother’s Husband
(Tagame, 2017) is a Japanese manga talking about the struggles faced by the
homosexual community of Japan. The small neighborhood in Tokyo acts as the
microcosm of Japan and its reception of queerness. Not only Japan, but the manga
also touches upon gay cultures prevalent in other countries, mostly Canada and
America, and evaluates where Japan stands in this milieu since Mike Flanagan, a
Canadian, is the deuteragonist of the story.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Gengoroh Tagame has been a well-known name in the gay erotic manga circuit before
Otouto no Otto. In doing so, he has been able to gauge the different reactions to his
erotica work and finally create something that caters to the general population in
order to raise awareness about the LGBTQIA+ community. On a broader scale, this
manga is a cultural exchange between Japan and Canada. The manga is translated to
English by Anne Ishii and is published in two volumes under the title My Brother’s
Husband.
The first chapter of the first volume of the manga is titled “The Black Ships
Have Arrived”. This is of course a reference to ‘kurofune’, a term from the Edo
period, that was used to refer to the vessels that arrived in Japan from the West in
the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. Representations of these ‘kurofune’ were
first found in 1591 on folded screens, (Curvelo, 2012, pp. 581-602).
The chapter begins with Yaichi’s dream of attending his parents’ funeral where a
younger version of him sits with his twin brother, Ryoji. A stark contrast in the two
brothers’ characters is established here as the very expressive Ryoji sobs throughout
the ceremony and Yaichi only sits there, as stoic as ever. Yaichi later wakes up and
realizes the impending arrival of Mike later that day is the reason why he had that
dream. In this chapter, the readers are introduced to the three main characters of
the manga - Yaichi, his daughter Kana and his brother’s Canadian husband, Mike
Flanagan. As a part of the chapter cover, Mike is depicted in a western navy captain
costume at the helm of a ship, while Yaichi is in a traditional kimono and hakama,
slightly annoyed and confused, and Kana is in a bright red dress greeting Mike
cheerfully. This cover sets the perfect mood for the first volume of the manga.
On arriving in Japan, Mike is looking forward to exploring and finding out more
about his husband’s family and childhood, Kana is excited to get to know him and
Yaichi, although confused about how to take Mike’s sexual identity, is trying to be
as welcoming as possible without letting his prejudices get in the way.
40
The first time he sees Mike waiting at the door of their house, the Canadian
towers over him and hugs him close. Yaichi has been raised with Japanese customs
and he is not used to physical closeness from people he barely knows. While he is
justified in his right to be uncomfortable, his first thought is to think of Mike as
the perverted one because of his homosexuality. However, he doesn’t express that
vile thought and politely asks Mike to release him. Mike seems to realize that and
recedes, reasoning Yaichi’s physical resemblance to Ryoji. Their first interaction is
quite awkward as Yaichi also goes as far as asking Mike to not address him as “big
brother”, seemingly not yet being able to accept him as family.
Right at this moment, Kana arrives home from school and while introducing
himself to her as her uncle, Mike explains how he was married to Ryoji in Canada.
Kana is surprised to find out that her father has a brother in the first place, and also
the fact that two men can get married at all. Yaichi and Mike’s opposing answers
confuse her and they proceed to explain how in some countries it is allowed, but
not in Japan. To his surprise, whereas Yaichi thinks she might find it weird that two
men can get married, Kana thinks that not letting some people marry each other in
Japan even though they can get married somewhere else is the weirdest part. Even
when Mike offers to show them pictures of himself with Ryoji, Yaichi refuses to. It
is the first time Kana learns that her uncle Ryoji is no longer alive. The story is in
fact set in a month since Ryoji passed away.
Without hearing anything from Ryoji for ten years now since he went abroad,
Yaichi is quite disinterested in his brother’s life. He uses the term ‘gay married’
instead of just ‘married’ and it shows how he thinks such a relationship is quite
different from any other normal relationship between a man and a woman. By the
end of the chapter, Yaichi’s internalized homophobia makes him still confused about
how to accept the fact that Mike is indeed his brother-in-law (“From My Brother’s
Husband series, Vol. 1”, 2018).
The second chapter, titled “Tempura Sushi” depicts Mike and Kana in chef
costumes holding a giant serving of the dish while Yaichi looks upon them
incredulously. Their appearance is no longer historic or one of grandeur, since by
now Yaichi and readers have a better idea of the characters in their current temporal
and spatial context. Yaichi is polite and usually keeps his aggravating thoughts to
himself. So when Kana proposes that Mike should stay with them for the time he’s
in Japan, even though Yaichi thinks it’s a nuisance and is not pleased with it, he
agrees to put him up. Mike is given his husband’s room and he is very grateful for
the thoughtful gesture.
Yaichi leaves Mike to unpack his belongings in the room but comes back to ask
him about his preference for dinner only to find Mike prostrated on the floor, softly
muttering his brother’s name in reverence. The image moves him and he blames it
on Kana being too pushy. But the child explains in simple terms that if Mike is her
41
uncle and his brother-in-law, then just like any other family member visiting them,
Mike should also be able to stay at their place. Yaichi seems to accept this fact for
the time being. During dinner, Yaichi reflects on Kana’s words from earlier. Their
conversation with Mike takes a turn toward the kinds of sushi available in Canada
when Mike explains that besides Japanese variants, they also have sushi made with
tempura, which is not something common in Japan. Kana finds this weird and drags
Yaichi into the conversation asking his opinion on it. Yaichi does not have an opinion
since he has not tried it yet, but Mike adds that Ryoji liked the dish while in Canada.
It occurs to Yaichi that to him, two men in a marriage are just like tempura sushi,
since he doesn’t know the taste or how to eat it yet.
Yaichi is usually in just a pair of boxers after he takes his nightly bath every day.
But this time, he cannot step out naked only in his underwear because “after all,
Mike is like that”. In his mind, he reprimands himself for thinking that way since
it’s been shown on TV that these types of thoughts are as embarrassing as a woman
thinking all men are interested in her. He even suspects that since Mike was married
to his twin brother and Yaichi is almost the spitting image of him, Mike must have
thought they were also the same regarding their sexualities to prompt the hug as
soon as they had met for the first time. He puts on clothes, reasoning to himself
that he’s just exercising good manners in front of a guest, and finds Kana touching
Mike’s chest because she is fascinated by his bushy hair. Yaichi flies off into a fit
of rage since he’s not used to seeing such physical proximity. Kana is immediately
sent to bed but not before she points out the change in Yaichi’s usual attire. Yaichi’s
annoyance is only aggravated by this incident - to him, the tempura sushi leaves a
bad taste in his mouth.
The third chapter cover depicts two young boys in hats and is titled “Memory”
since this chapter deals with Mike and Yaichi’s individual memories of Ryoji. Mike
spends the next day taking a tour of the neighborhood. Yaichi asks him if he wants
to see the major tourist attractions of Japan like Kyoto and Akihabara, but Mike
wants to visit the spots that Ryoji had mentioned to him when they had been talking
about his childhood in Japan. He wants to visit the places from Ryoji’s memories.
This surprises Yaichi and he remembers how they always used to be together as
children. He wonders when exactly they stopped talking entirely.
Even though Yaichi is modern and understanding, his mind is sometimes clouded
by his doubts about himself. He is a single, stay-at-home father who lends out his
parents’ property to earn a living. He is not proud of his career as a landlord because
he cannot accept the idea of living off his parents’ inheritance as a real job. But
Mike tells him that being Kana’s father, taking care of her needs like cooking meals
for her every day, cleaning, and doing laundry, is a wonderful job in itself. That
manages to console Yaichi.
42
When asked why Kana finds Mike so charming in such a short time, the young
girl says that the prospect of having a Canadian uncle is exciting and “really fun”.
This idea of having fun is a recurring theme amongst many others in the whole
manga. Yaichi finally considers that if he thought about it simply, then hosting Mike
might be fun for him too and since Mike came all the way to Japan from Canada,
he should have fun on his visit.
An inquisitive Kana asks Mike, in their relationship between Ryoji and him, who
the missus was. Yaichi is again nervous and displeased with Kana’s curiosity on
such a topic but Mike explains that since they were both males, there was no wife,
or a ‘missus’. They were both husbands. This is often an uncomfortable question
that homosexual people are forced to face. Non-queer people who are curious and
often like Yaichi are incredulous about how a homosexual marriage works, and pose
some very personal and intimate questions like this to queer people (Mussen, 2019).
While a child is curious by nature and their queries should be answered as much
as possible since they are still learning about the world around them, an adult has
many other resources they can consult to educate themselves. These questions are
welcome only by individuals who are consenting to share their personal experiences
upon inquiry. Just like one does not pry into a heterosexual couple’s lifestyle out of
the blue, the same privacy that a non-normative couple deserves is somewhat lost
in translation.
Even Yaichi himself can’t help his thoughts drift toward Mike and his brother’s
sex lives. He even wonders if it’s normal to think about how other couples engage
in intercourse. His inner turmoil is somewhat put to ease when he hears Mike tell
Kana, “My husband was Ryoji, and Ryoji’s husband was me.” But eventually, he
does not think much about it and accepts the simple fact that they’ve been in love
enough to get married and make a life together. That is enough.
Yaichi often finds himself looking at his shadow and reflections on the surface
of mirrors and thinking back to his brother during Mike’s visit. It’s a haunting
presence at first when he’s out to visit some of their other play spots with Mike and
Kana that Ryoji and he used to frequent. He reminisces about their childhood once
again which prompts Mike to question if their eventual estrangement was due to
Ryoji coming out to him as gay (Stalter, 2019). As far as Yaichi remembers, they
weren’t even in high school by the time when their parents had died and Yaichi had
got his first girlfriend. He was proud of that and kept pestering his brother to get
one too, to which his brother replied that he was gay. It was a casual string of words
accompanied by laughter and no hesitation, so Yaichi’s response to it was also the
bare minimum. It was partly shocking for Yaichi because he felt that he already
knew before his brother told him, and partly because he had no idea how he was
supposed to respond to that since there was hardly any queer person around him.
He acknowledges that it was not Ryoji who had changed suddenly, it was Yaichi
43
who began to see him in a different light. From Mike, he gets to know that Ryoji
did not think he reacted badly, but Yaichi had seemed to avoid him after that. That
was what caused the rift between them and as they grew older they only grew even
farther apart before Ryoji left for Canada.
In another episode, a very drunk Mike comes home to Yaichi who again thinks
being hugged is something indecent since Mike seems to mistake him for Ryoji and
he is afraid of being subjected to Mike’s sexual advances. But even in his inebriated
state, Mike is aware that Ryoji is no longer alive, and only weeps in Yaichi’s arms,
lamenting his death like any other heartbroken lover. Yaichi tries to console him
on understanding this and puts him to sleep. It reminds him of the time he lost his
parents and Ryoji cried while he was unable to. All these years, it had felt unreal to
him but now on seeing Mike in such a state, Yaichi finally finds the strength to cry.
When a hungover Mike apologizes in the morning for doing anything untowardly the
previous night that he does not remember, Yaichi dismisses it as being ‘no big deal.’
This incident is a turning point in their story as Yaichi begins to relate to Mike on a
personal level and not treat him just as an outsider with a starkly different lifestyle
that bars them from having any familial bond.
The story is indeed a love story but it talks about different kinds of romantic
love and family units than the ones people are most familiar with. Apart from Mike
and Ryoji’s marriage as a homosexual gay couple, Mike also tells Kana about his
friends, a lesbian couple, and their child who live as a family in Canada. Kana
herself is a child brought up in what some may call a ‘broken family’. Yaichi and
his wife Natsuki used to argue a lot when they were still married and were soon
to get a divorce even before Kana was old enough to attend prep school. But after
the divorce, the more peaceful domestic environment has been a healthier one for
Kana to grow up in (B., 2018). They are still in touch with her mother Natsuki, who
comes to visit and spend time with them every once in a while. This arrangement
of a family works best for all three of them and Yaichi abhors the kind of thinking
that makes people look down on a child with pity who grows up with no mother,
just a parent, or no parents at all since he has been subjected to such comments. He
believes saying that there could be only one type of family is plain discrimination.
For a man who is capable of seeing his life and experiences in such a positive light,
it may appear that Yaichi’s initial refusal to accept Mike and Ryoji being a family
is hypocritical (Cooke, 2018). But on getting to know Mike better at a much more
mature age in a more progressive time than when his brother had come out, Yaichi
is more open to newer ideas and eventually warms up to him.
Mike asks Kana if she is lonely without her mother around. Her first response
is to say she isn’t lonely but then she explains that sometimes she does want to see
her. Even though Kana is happy with the way her family is, she still misses her
mother. But she is also a mature child, sensitive to her father’s feelings, and makes
44
Mike promise her to keep it a secret from Yaichi. This is the first time Kana learns
what a hug is from Mike, who explains that it is a way to show that one cares about
someone and likes them. During dinner with her mother, Kana is so happy with the
delicious meal that Yaichi cooks, that she accidentally says that she wants to stay
like this forever with her parents and Mike. All the three adults look uncomfortable
and sad as they all know that they cannot give Kana that. She tries hard to hide her
true feelings of missing her family but is happy that she still gets to spend time with
them. She understands that her parents’ marriage did not work and her family is better
off this way. Once her mother leaves the next evening, she sleeps next to Mike, not
yet ready to sleep alone in her room after spending the previous night with Natsuki.
Kana does not want to let go of these happy times yet so she clenches Mike’s shirt
in her little fist and expresses her concerns that he would also have to leave Japan
one day. Mike assures her that he is not leaving yet because of his promise to Ryoji.
Natsuki is still on friendly terms with Yaichi. They spend quality time together.
She thanks Yaichi for being the best father for Kana, whenever Natsuki spends the
night with her daughter, Kana only ever talks about her father. They tease each other
about how that changed over the last few days and Kana only talks about Mike now.
Yaichi admits that Mike is a nice guy but they don’t yet talk much about his brother
the way Natsuki seems to think.
When Kana’s mother first visits them to meet Mike, she is interested in knowing
how Mike and Ryoji met each other, but Yaichi does not stay long enough to hear
anything more than that they met at a party. His growing discomfort makes him
excuse himself from the discussion. Mike’s reply is also only a half-truth since
in actuality he had met Ryoji on a dating app. Not only in Japan or Asia, the idea
of meeting one’s life partner through a dating app is still conceived as something
frivolous and immature in almost every culture. Natsuki observes Yaichi’s reluctance
to talk to Mike about it and advises him to do it as soon as he can so that he doesn’t
regret not getting to know his brother during his happy days even through Mike.
On the topic of showing physical affection openly, Yaichi refuses to accept a
hug from his own daughter. Even though he watches them fondly when Kana hugs
Mike before she leaves for school, he does not participate in one himself. When
Mike comments on it and adds that Ryoji was also embarrassed about hugging in
front of people but when he saw that it was normal in Canada, he grew used to it.
This incident marks Yaichi beginning to take an active interest in getting to know
more about his brother. Yaichi does not hate the idea of hugging but doing it himself
is not something he is used to.
Kana looks forward to introducing her friends to Mike but the mother of one
of her friends had advised the kid against meeting Mike since he could be a ‘bad
influence’ on the children. Kana and her friends are too young to understand what
that means but Yaichi does and is enraged on her behalf. The cover picture for this
45
chapter also has Kana dressed up as Little Red Riding Hood and Mike as the wolf from
the well-known folktale, painting him as the conventional predator the way Yuki’s
mother sees him. But Mike’s expression remains the same affable one hinting how
he is still the friendly Uncle Mike to her and does not mean her any harm regardless
of the way others see him because he chooses not to hide his sexuality. As Yaichi
rants by himself in the bath, his words “Just because someone is gay, treating them
like some kind of sex offender” is not right, shows how he has grown as a person
during the time he has spent with Mike. He also mulls over how sex between a man
and a woman is celebrated and discussed in front of children to a certain degree for
them to understand the concept of a family, but if the couple is a same-sex one, then
all of a sudden it’s too sexual. The prejudices he once held against his brother and
Mike are in the process of being eroded. He also reflects on his initial reactions to
Mike upon his arrival and feels guilty that he had reacted the same way as Yuki’s
mother. The reflection in his mirror takes the form of Ryoji and appears hurt that
he might have thought in the same way as his brother.
He resolves to his shadow, which once again appears to be Ryoji, that his duty
as a father to Kana would be to raise her as someone who won’t hurt others.
Mike and Yaichi happen to meet the slightly older brother of one of Kana’s
friends at school who confesses to often hanging around their house to get a chance
to speak to Mike. It turns out that the boy, Kazu, had realized early on that he is
gay and upon overhearing Kana tell his younger brother about her uncle being in
a same-sex marriage, Kazu had been skipping school to talk to Mike. Kazu is an
example of how lost and lonely LGBTQIA+ children are which often makes them
scared of facing the world altogether. While Ryoji was given a cold shoulder by his
brother when he came out, Kazu is afraid at the prospect of having to do so under
any circumstance. He tries hard to hide his true self from his classmates, so all the
repressed anxieties find an outlet when he is finally talking to Mike. He has never
met someone like himself before and in Mike’s presence, he finds solace. Mike also
makes Yaichi privy to their conversation with Kazu’s consent and together the two
men try to create a safe space for the kid. The chapter is aptly titled “Hot Chocolate’’
as it signifies the warmth Yaichi and Mike are able to give him.
Mike also shares with Yaichi how he was troubled in his childhood in a much
similar way even though his parents were quite liberal and accepting. It requires a
lot of courage. This episode makes Yaichi reflect on how Ryoji must have felt back
when he came out to his brother. Just because of different sexualities, children and
teenagers are bullied or disowned by their parents, and often kicked out of their
homes but Yaichi says such discrimination is unheard of in Japan. This is mostly
because such topics are either not discussed at all or people like Kazu do not reveal
their true sexual identities. In fact, later in the third volume, Mike is asked to dine
with one of Ryoji’s friends in secret. Katoyan was Ryoji’s only gay friend during his
46
time in Japan. They meet each other in another city and previously when Katoyan
visits Mike at Yaichi’s place, he asks Mike to keep their meeting a secret since Yaichi
does not know about this side of him. Katoyan is a closeted gay man and does not
plan on coming out ever and that is the reason they have to meet in secret. Mike does
not like keeping it a secret from Yaichi but has to do so for Katoyan’s sake since
the visibility can ruin Katoyan in such a way that Mike cannot help him out or even
begin to comprehend since he is from an entirely different culture.
Visibility is not the same as forcibly outing someone’s sexual or gender identity
without their consent. In some cultures, the visibility of queer people helps the
closeted ones to gather the courage to face the world as their true selves. This,
again, requires a lot of courage and more often than not, a stable source of income
to support themselves in case of a financial crisis in situations where they can be
sacked from their jobs. But again in some cultures, the visibility of queer people
can be a punishable offense. Even in places where such identities are supposed to
be protected by the law, the general mindset of the people can justify any offense
committed against them, even to the point of loss of life. So when Mike asks Katoyan
if it’s better not to greet him if they see each other next time back in Tokyo, it’s
not a surprise that Katoyan thinks that might be for the best (“From My Brother’s
Husband series, Vol. 2”, 2018).
Yaichi has a dream where he envisions an older version of Kana introducing
him to her girlfriend and announcing that she wants to marry her. It troubles him
but after a discussion with his wife on a trip to an onsen (a hot spring typically with
bathing and lodging facilities), he concludes that whomever Kana falls in love with
and chooses to marry, Yaichi will always be there to support her. The entire arc
of Yaichi becoming more accepting of Mike and his brother concludes with this.
When it comes to introducing Mike to other people, Yaichi first refers to him as
just his brother’s friend to an acquaintance. The next time when Katoyan visits them,
he is quite resolute in introducing Mike as his late brother’s husband but before he
can, Katoyan declares that he knows Mike is “Ryoji’s that,” thinking he’s saving
Yaichi the trouble of facing the question. But it only makes Yaichi feel guilty for not
being more upfront about it. Finally, when he is summoned by Kana’s principal over
the prospect of Kana being bullied if she continues to tell her classmates about her
uncle being in a same-sex marriage, Ryoji refuses to budge and insists on calling
Mike his brother-in-law (T., 2020). This gradual acceptance of Mike as family and
at the same time not trivializing his sexual identity is what makes the manga such
a genius work of art.
In a willful act of defiance against their prejudiced parents, Kana brings over
her friends, Yuki and Tomo, to meet Mike and Yaichi receives them as warmly as
possible. Yuki says that she thinks it’s beautiful that people get married because
they love each other but gets sad because she has already come across people who
47
do not agree. Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is brought up in this regard. Yuki
mentions that her parents agreed that getting in the way of two lovers was bad when
she mentioned the story but on the topic of Mike and Ryoji, her silence indicates
that her parents do not think so. She herself is quite convinced that loving one
another can never be a bad thing, and Yaichi and Mike reassure her. When Kana’s
homeroom teacher reports to her father about her continuous conversations about
Mike’s marriage to her uncle being an inappropriate subject for school, Yaichi
rightfully thinks if the teacher means the issue of marriage as a whole or just gay
marriage being labeled as ‘inappropriate’. Yaichi’s transformation is complete as he
maintains his composure and defends his daughter, hoping the teacher will take care
of her if she is ever bullied because of this. Finally, Yaichi can look at his shadow
without feeling haunted and smile at it; he even seeks Mike out of his own accord
and wishes to see pictures of their lives together, trying to get to know his brother
better by making Mike fill in the gaps.
CONCLUSION
Yaichi’s inner monologue about how he does not feel self-conscious being naked
with Mike while they are bathing together at the onsen is depicted through the
careful juxtaposition of image and text pointing out how Yaichi’s inner conflict is
at peace (Weldon, 2012). The need for queering pedagogies and public spaces is
raised in the manga. Without such education, the queer community will continue to
remain marginalized. So whether Mike returns to Canada with a promise of Yaichi
and Kana visiting him, is Yaichi’s conclusion of self-discovery or just the start of
one along with Kana’s, is left ambiguous. This is indeed a story of family and love
winning over socio-cultural values and questioning the previously unquestioned
prejudices of human beings.
REFERENCES
B. B. (2018, October 17). Graphic Novel Review: My Brother’s Husband, by Gengoroh

Tagame. The Queerblr. Retrieved from https://thequeerblr.com/2018/10/17/book-
review-my-brothers-husband-by-gengoroh-tagame/
Cooke, R. (2018). My Brother’s Husband review - a Canadian gay man about the
house. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/
jan/09/my-brothers-husband-graphic-novel-review
48
Curvelo, A. (2012). The disruptive presence of the namban-jin in early modern

Japan. Journal of Economic and Social History of the Orient, 55(2-3), 581–602.
doi:10.1163/15685209-12341246
Mussen, M. (2019, September 4). All the questions you need to stop asking
LGBT+ people about their sex lives. The Tab. Retrieved from https://thetab.com/
uk/2019/09/04/questions-for-gay-couples-123054
My Brother’s Husband: From the My Brother’s Husband series, Vol. 1. (2018a,
October 15). Kirkus. Retrieved from https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/
gengoroh-tagame/my-brothers-husband/
My Brother’s Husband: From the My Brother’s Husband series, Vol. 2. (2018b,
October 23). Kirkus. Retrieved from https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/
gengoroh-tagame/my-brothers-husband-tagame/
Stalter, D. (2019, June 7). Review: My Brother’s Husband. Geeks Out. Retrieved
from https://www.geeksout.org/2019/06/07/review-my-brothers-husband/
T. A. (2020, April 11). My Brother’s Husband series review. Al’s Manga Blog.
Retrieved from https://alsmangablog.ca/2020/04/11/my-brothers-husband-series-
review/
Tagame, G. (2017). My Brother’s Husband. Pantheon.
Weldon, G. (2018, 12 October). In ‘My Brother’s Husband Vol. 2,’ family values
(and the value of family). National Public Radio. Retrieved from https://www.npr.
org/2018/10/12/639601426/in-my-brothers-husband-vol-2-family-values-and-the-
value-of-family
49
50
Chapter 6
Subversion of the Dominant
Logic of Heteronormativity
in Akwaeke Emezi’s The
Death of Vivek Oji:
Queering the Society and the State
Guhan Priyadharshan P.
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0583-4963
Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India
ABSTRACT
Akwaeke Emezi’s 2020 novel The Death of Vivek Oji narrates the death of the
eponymous non-heterosexual character—as suggested by the title—and the emotional
turmoil faced by people with non-heterosexual orientation. This chapter demonstrates
how his death is the product of dominant logic—the prudishness of the Igbo society,
which manifests heteronormative practices, and the legal system in Nigeria that
castigate persons who diverge from normative sexual behaviour. Further, it examines
the narration in the novel that subverts the heteronormativity perpetuated by the
state and society, opening new avenues of resistance for non-heterosexual people
in Nigeria that might otherwise be obscured in the narrative. The chapter considers
the location of the experiences of the non-heterosexual characters in the novel in
liminality so that the contradiction between the lived experience and the conformity
articulated by the state and the society is apparent, which prepares the ground for
resistance to occur.
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch006
Subversion of the Dominant Logic of Heteronormativity
INTRODUCTION
Akwaeke Emezi’s 2020 novel, The Death of Vivek Oji, is set in South-eastern Nigeria.
It narrates the coming of age and the death of Vivek, the eponymous character, as
suggested by the title. Emezi presents the narration through various voices— in the
third person and the voices of Vivek and Osita. Vivek’s relationship with Osita is as
crucial as his coming of age, as both are intertwined. Osita is Vivek’s cousin, whom
Vivek addresses as “bhai” throughout the novel, and the former reciprocates it by
addressing the latter as “brother.” However, their relationship is also sexual and covert
to the public yet known to their friends; it would be condemned by society, the state
and their families if revealed since their relationship is homosexual and incestuous.
This chapter contains three parts, apart from the introductory and concluding
parts. Firstly, the narrative in the novel that acquiesces to the existing homophobia
and heteronormativity perpetuated by the Nigerian state through the legal system and
the cultural disposition of the Igbo society— the existing logic of the state and the
society—is elucidated. Secondly, the inferences made in the first part are contested
to showcase how Emezi subverts through the narration the state’s existing logic
and the social order, which informs the possible frontiers of resistance. The basic
logic behind this methodology of the chapter is to foreground the role of liminality
in subverting or transcending the existing dominant logic of both the state and the
society, which are interlinked. Liminality is the position where the subjects find their
lived experiences contradicting the dominant narrative perpetuated by the logic of
the state and the society. Elisabeth Paquette (2020) notes that “such a contradiction
is experienced because their lived reality is imposed upon by dominant positions
that exclude them. At the same time, however, because of the experiences of the
liminal position, marginalized persons are well situated to see the contradictions
inherent to the normative view” (p. 142). The inference derived from the above is
that liminality offers the understanding of the dominant narrative or logic and it
also exposes the existence of a contradiction between the dominant narrative and
the experience of the marginalised. Liminality is discussed in the third part. By
inherently housing the narratives that contradict each other, the novel acts as a site
of articulating liminality. This chapter considers the following argument of Alain
Badiou, a contemporary French philosopher, as one of its core theoretical interventions.
His argument is summarised by Paquette (2020) as follows: “Emancipation does
not come through the expansion of the power of the state (....); rather, emancipation
is when the logic of the state is interrupted and overturned such that the inexistent
can become apparent” (p. 33). Though Paquette’s (2020) argument is in the context
of identity politics in Badiou’s philosophy, it briefly summarises Badiou’s notion
of emancipation—the dominant logic has to be overcome. However, there is a
caveat here: Badiou revised his position concerning overcoming the state in his
51
later philosophical works. Harrison (2014) notes the following, “....in Badiou’s
early theory of revolutionary subjectivity, the state was something that was to be
destroyed. In Badiou’s mature work, however, the object of revolutionary subjectivity
is to keep the state at a distance, whilst nevertheless forcing it to acknowledge or
‘count’ something radically new” (p. 101). This context is taken into account in the
concluding part to situate where Emezi’s novel stands: does it want the state and
society to incorporate the non-heterosexual beings who are not “counted” or offer
the radical shift outside the establishment?
Moreover, Paquette (2020) departs from Badiou’s position after her agreement
with his conception of emancipation grounded fundamentally in the notion of
overcoming the dominant logic. This departure is in the context of incorporating
identity-centric emancipatory politics, which is ruled out as dialectic and a state
construct by Badiou. She relies on Sylvia Wynter to resurrect identity-centric politics
through the importance laid on liminality. Paquette (2020) converges with Badiou’s
fundamental conception of emancipation as an act of overcoming the dominant logic,
but diverges from him and moves toward Sylvia Wynter and her notion of liminality
in incorporating identity in the emancipatory discourse. This chapter does not deal
with the question of identity-centric politics explicitly; instead, with the question
of identity, the aspect of being homosexual, and the act of resistance articulated
to preserve that particular being which, due to the deviant nature, contradicts the
dominant logic straightaway.
Conforming to the Establishment
The following section identifies the novel’s narrative that exemplifies the Nigerian
state’s logic and that of the Igbo society. Firstly, Daniel Vignal notes the following
while commenting about homoeroticism in the African context:
For the majority of African writers, homophilia (homosexuality/ non-heteronormative

sexuality) is exclusively a deviation introduced by colonialists or their descendants;
by outsiders of all kinds: Arab, French, English, metis, and so on. It is difficult for
them to conceive that homophilia (homosexuality/ non-homonormative sexuality)
might be the act of a black African. (as cited in Dunton, 1989, p. 422)
One of the recurrent ideas prevalent in African Literature is that homoeroticism

and non-heteronormative sexuality is “Un-African.” Various narratives inform
this. One of the significant narratives implying this idea is that of Mwanga, King
of Buganda, who, it is suggested, was taught by Muslims to do what Sodom did
and is ultimately purified of his desire to “satisfy his shameful passion.” This also
implies that the native African is innocent and that non-heteronormative sexuality
52
is imported to the continent by the outsiders (Hoad, 2007, pp. 1-21). Green-Simms
(2016) discloses how homosexuality is portrayed as behaviour that comes from a
foreign source through his analysis of the character of Joe Golder—an American
gay professor living in Nigeria—in The Interpreters (p. 140). Though the tendency
as mentioned earlier cannot be categorised as homophobia or the propensity to
perpetuate heteronormativity since African states like Nigeria continue to criminalise
non-heterosexual sexual practices, the failure to acknowledge the fact that Black
African men could also be not conforming to heteronormativity makes the discourse
reflect the homophobic logic of the state and society. In The Death of Vivek Oji,
the titular character is interracial; his father, Chika, is a Nigerian of Igbo heritage
and his mother, Kavita, is an Indian. His Indian first name, Vivek, reinforces his
foreign connection. He is the one who is characterised as effeminate in the novel,
and the narrative discloses his homosexual sexual orientation. This resonates with
the earlier literary portrayal of the outsider as the sexually stigmatised “Other,”
responsible for importing “Un-African” practices into Nigeria.
On the other hand, Vivek’s homosexual partner, his cousin Osita, is characterised
as someone who is masculine with a sexual interest in women as well. Vivek is the
receptive partner in the homosexual union with Osita, who is the active partner—
the narrative suggests that it is Vivek who introduces Osita to this sexual practice.
This further strengthens the argument that a not wholly African Vivek introduced
homosexuality to a wholly African Osita, which reinforces the general African
imagination, at least in the form of literature, that homosexuality is alien to Africa
and foreigners imported it.
Secondly, the notion of the death that surrounds the non-heterosexual character
is another idea perpetuated by the state’s logic. The Nigerian legal set-up also
seconds this. In northern Nigeria, where Muslims are in the majority, Shariah law is
effective (Msibi, 2011, p. 60). It assigns the death sentence to persons who indulge
in sexual practices that are categorised as non-heterosexual. Though the novel is set
in south-eastern Nigeria, where sodomy laws are not as draconian as in the northern
region, Igbo-populated south-eastern Nigeria also criminalises non-heterosexual
activities by imprisonment of up to fourteen years (Msibi, 2011, p. 60). In addition,
the conclusion of Green-Simms (2016) in her analysis of Nollywood movies with
gay characters (“Nollywood” is the video-film industry of Nigeria) is that “they
are either killed off, imprisoned, or become born again Christians who return to
heterosexuality and denounce their sins” (p. 143). She also notes that these movies
portray homosexuality negatively, offering tacit support to the laws criminalising
homosexuality (p. 143). The inference in the novel relating death to the non-
heterosexual character is enabled by the state and also aids the state in establishing
the required homophobic discourse. It is very evident from the novel’s title that the
plot concerns the death of the titular character, Vivek Oji, who also happens to be
53
non-heterosexual in sexual orientation. As mentioned before, he is characterised as

effeminate. He asserts his presence throughout the novel as he sports long hair, loves
to dress like a girl, prefers to be addressed using the female pronoun, has a female
Igbo name in private and is passive during sexual intercourse —all of these continue
to accentuate that he is not like any other person and he is not a heterosexual, and
he is not normal. Despite homosexuality not inviting a death sentence in South-
eastern Nigeria, where the novel is set, there exists a tension throughout the novel
that Vivek might end up dying. A premonition of Kavita, Vivek’s mother, testifies
to the fear of Vivek ending up dead:
Kavita’s stomach dropped. The thought had worried her, too, but it was different—
more terrifying—to hear it put into words. Vivek couldn’t end up like those lynched
bodies at the junction, blackened by fire and stiffened, large gashes from machetes
showing old red flesh underneath. Most of them were thieves, or said to be thieves,
but mobs don’t listen, and they’d say anything afterward. (Emezi, 2020, Ch. 8)
This is interconnected with the trope of Bury Your Gays. Hulan (2017) notes
the following:
Bury Your Gays is a literary trope which originated in the late 19th century, gained
traction in the early 20th century, and which persists in modern media. The pattern
of this trope’s usage states that in a narrative work (novels especially), which
features a same-gender romantic couple, one of the lovers must die or otherwise
be destroyed by the end of the story. Many instances of this trope draw a direct
correlation between the couple confessing their feelings for one another, kissing,
having sex for the first time and the character’s death; they often die mere moments
or pages after their relationship is confirmed for the audience. The surviving lover
will then go through a process of reacclimation…(p. 17)
The Death of Vivek Oji’s plot follows the trope of Bury Your Gays. Vivek and
Osita are inseparable, express love and have sex. However, Vivek dies, and Osita
has to go through reacclimation by engaging in casual sex with random women in
Port Harcourt. Hualn (2017) also notes that “(t)his trope was originally used as a
way for gay authors to write about gay characters without coming under fire for
breaking laws and social mandates against the “endorsement” of homosexuality”
(p. 17). This shall also be viewed as an articulation of conformity.
Thirdly, the sexual relationship between cousins—Vivek and Osita—is not fully
disclosed when Vivek’s friends—Elizabeth, Juju, Somto and Olunne—show Kavita
photographs of Vivek in the presence of Osita, which, although suggestive of Vivek’s
sexuality, do not reveal the whole truth. Vivek’s friends concealed a particularly
54
telling photograph. This succours Osita in continuing his love for Vivek and his
same-sex attraction in the closet. The taboo associated with their relationship is not
only due to its homosexual nature but also due to its incestuous disposition—and it is
subtly conveyed in Osita’s narration while describing Elizabeth’s reaction as follows:
Elizabeth’s mouth curled into a snarl. “Yes,” she said, her voice saccharine. “He
was your cousin.” She was looking me straight in the eye; I could see her disgust.
I wondered how much Juju had told her, or if it even mattered at this point. (Emezi,
2020, Ch. 19)
The sexual relationship between Osita and Vivek would not be accepted along
the lines of homosexuality and incest. This shall be contextualised in terms of how
Igbo society views heterosexual union among cousins. Brian Schwimmer (2002)
notes the following:
Igbo marriage institutions are marked by extensive prohibitions on unions between

close relatives and the use of marriage obligations to interlink basic social groups
within numerous and widely scattered communities. Men and women are forbidden
to marry within their own patrilineage or those of their mother and their father’s
mother. This regulation eliminates not only parallel cousin marriage but also rules
out cross cousins. As such, basic lineage groups do not become placed into paired
or circular exchange systems as they do in many other societies with basic unilineal
descent structures similar to the Igbo one. Alliances networks do develop but are
more diffuse and temporary and tend to center on the pattern of complementary
filiation, in which a child develops special relationships within his mother’s and
father’s mother’s patrilineages. The pattern of lineage out-marriage is mirrored by
one of village exogamy. People must marry outside of their community of origin,
since all of its inhabitants usually belong to a common patrilineal group. Moreover,
in those cases where separate lineages occupy the same village or someone is born
and raised in a foreign settlement the local exogamy restriction still applies. The
highly ramified nature of the Igbo system is difficult to explain. It may be related to
the facts that in past centuries the territorial system was highly expansionary and
that a related pattern of internecine warfare necessitated a mechanism for reducing
hostilities. (Schwimmer, 2002)
The fathers of Vivek and Osita are brothers, and it is in this context—to enable
the logic of the Igbo society—that Vivek’s friends do not reveal the relationship.
The photo concealed by Vivek’s friends would have revealed their doubly forbidden
love— for being homosexual and incestuous— and it is narrated by Osita in the
novel as follows:
55
In the picture, Vivek was wearing the dress, a wraparound tied on the left of his
waist. The neckline fell into a V, showing the bone of his sternum. His hair was
down and falling around his face. Juju had combed and plaited it with gel into a
hundred small plaits, then let them dry and released them into many small waves
cascading down his body. He was sitting in my lap with his legs crossed, the dress
riding high on his thighs, his torso leaning forward as he laughed into the camera.
One arm was around my neck and I was looking at his face. My expression made
me cringe. It was, for lack of a better word, adoring. Unfettered. As if there was no
danger of anyone seeing me gaze at him like that. As if we were alone and I wasn’t
afraid and we weren’t cousins and any of this wasn’t terrifying. (…...) Vivek had
shaved his chest and legs—he did that often in those last few months—and his toes
were painted a red that matched the flowers on his dress. I remembered the first
time I saw him in that dress; I was surprised at its long sleeves and shoulder pads.
It would have been almost demure if not for the neckline, which he would cover
with his hair. But he spun around to show it off, and for once he looked happy and
not tired, not like he was dying or suffering. I couldn’t help but be happy for him.
(Emezi, 2020, Ch. 23)
Fourthly, the novel’s narrative has an underwhelming supernatural disposition from

the beginning that runs throughout. This is informed by the continuous reference to
a certain part of the narrative that implies that Ahunna, Vivek’s grandmother, died
on the day he was born. His leg had a starfish-shaped mark, just as his grandmother
had, and it was described in the third person as “the beginning and end of everything”
(Emezi, 2020, Ch. 2). This is supplemented by common incertitude that Ahunna
might have reincarnated as Vivek, which occurs throughout the novel. This implies
the possible subtext of locating the sexuality of Vivek— his passion for dressing
like girls and long hair—as a natural by-product due to the reincarnation of Ahunna.
Thus, the possibility of possessing a natural homosexual inclination is ruled out,
which reiterates and sustains the societal construction of homosexuality as unnatural
and foreign. Since homosexuality is linked to reincarnation or possession by a spirit,
a new avenue of overcoming it through religion is opened up. Mary, the wife of
Chika’s brother, manages to take Vivek to the local church, where the priest beats
him to free him of the evil spirit so that he would cut his hair and become normal
(Emezi, 2020, Ch. 8). This also testifies to the above argument that the existence of
a supernatural subtext enshrouds the non-heteronormative narrative which conforms
to the standards set by the state and society.
From the aforementioned pieces of evidence, it is apparent that the novel enables
the logic of the state and society. However, certain facets in the novel that do not
comply with, or subvert the dominant logic are identified in the next section.
56
Overcoming the Dominant Logic
Firstly, it is significant to scrutinise the characterisation of Osita, who is Vivek’s

cousin and lover. Vivek refers to him as “bhai.” It means brother in Hindi. Osita has
multiple shades in this narrative. He likes to exhibit his masculinity and consented
to Vivek’s request to allow Vivek to watch his sexual intercourse with Elizabeth,
which is narrated in Osita’s voice as follows:
I gave in. I actually knew some friends who did things like this (allowing their
friends to see their sexual intercourse). They’d rent a hotel room and some of them
would sit and drink on the room’s balcony in the dark, watching as the girl got
fucked inside, laughing quietly behind the glass of the sliding door, hidden by sheer
curtains and the lack of light. We were men together and we liked to show off, so I
agreed. (Emezi, 2020. Ch. 3)
Despite the earlier iteration that the characterisation of Vivek exemplifies the
logic of the state and the society due to its problematic invoking of identifying
homosexuality as a practice imported from outside, the characterisation of Osita— a
black Igbo male, unlike interracial Vivek— as a passionate character who reciprocates
same-sex love problematises the notion of conformity with the logic of the state
and society the novel’s narrative expressed as shown in the previous section. The
narrative also includes sexual intercourse between Vivek and Osita. Also, despite
having the trope of Bury Your Gays, the end of the novel showcases that the living
character among the same-sex lovers, Osita in this case, does not fully undergo
reacclimation. He, instead, reasserts his love for Vivek. Though Osita does not seek
to come out of the closet and remains a heterosexual person to the world outside
of his friends, which embodies the aspects of heteronormativity, the third person
narrative in the opening part of the novel accentuates that Osita would no longer
be able to love any man after Vivek:
The whole time in Port Harcourt, Osita had fucked only women—it had been like
that since Vivek died. It felt safer, as if he wasn’t giving any important parts of
himself away: not his soul or heart, just his body, which didn’t matter anyway. The
stranger’s assault felt especially violent because of that, and Osita was glad he’d
beaten him up. (Emezi, 2020, Ch. 5)
Osita’s pain of losing Vivek, his cousin and lover, and the act of articulating
heteronormativity through sexual intercourse with women in Port Harcourt is
manifested by his extreme act of attacking a Lebanese man after the latter tried to
assault him. He loved Vivek. He tries to cope with losing his love by physically
57
attacking random men and having sexual intercourse with random women. This might
seem like reacclimation, but, as mentioned earlier, he reasserts his love for Vivek
while standing at his grave. He wants to carry forward the memories of Vivek with
him. He decides not to bury the photo having him and Vivek together and Vivek’s
necklace so that he could dwell forever in Vivek’s memories (Emezi, 2020, Ch. 23).
These indicate that Osita’s characterisation overcomes the pitfalls of heteronormative
“Love Laws”—he did not use Vivek for sexual pleasure but was also emotionally
attached. They broke down what Arundhati Roy (1997) calls “Love Laws. That lay
down who should be loved. And how. And how much” (p. 328). With reacclimation
not achieved, the novel is not fully conforming to the heteronormative logic.
Secondly, the relationship shared between Juju and Vivek is also significant in
this context. Juju is in a relationship with Elizabeth, but she also acknowledges her
attraction to Vivek. She does not label it as anything but kisses him once when they
are alone. She conceals the episode of the kiss from her lover, Elizabeth, to some
extent, but she eventually discloses it. Ever since that episode, ambiguity punctuates
the relationship between Juju and Vivek until his death. When Juju reveals this to
Elizabeth, the latter’s reply is this: “you missed penis so much that you had to make
a move on Vivek, of all people? He’s not even a man, for God’s sake” (Emezi, 2020,
Ch.18). As Juju confronts Elizabeth, the latter acknowledges her mistake. However,
it is significant to note here that identifying Vivek as less than a man— a point that
is articulated in his voice in the novel— in the context of the physical intimacy of
the kiss shared between him and Juju makes sexuality and gender more ambiguous
and nonconforming to the logic of the state and the society. Moreover, the same-sex
relationship between Elizabeth and Juju undermines the dominant logic as well.
Thirdly, the circumstances leading to the death of Vivek are very significant.
Unlike the premonition articulated in the novel through various voices, Vivek is not
killed by the mob but is dead in an accident. It is narrated in the novel as follows:
She pulled herself away with such force that she stumbled, and her heel caught on
a stone, and she fell. It happened so fast. I saw her head strike the raised cement
edge of the gutter at the side of the road. I saw her body slump, eyes closed, blood
pooling into the sand within seconds. (Emezi, 2020, Ch. 23)
As mentioned earlier, the notion of homophobia is exemplified by the logic of

the state and the society resulting in the tales that characterise and normalise the
death of non-heterosexual persons. Though Vivek dies in this narrative, three factors
have to be considered in this context to assert that there lies a notion of dominant
logic’s subversion that contradicts the premise that death consistently exemplifies
dominant logic’s homophobic stance. The first factor concerns the nature of Vivek’s
death— he was not killed by a homophobic mob but in an accident, as quoted above.
58
This testifies to the fact that the narrative in the novel does not seek to enable the
homophobic logic of the state and the society per se. The second factor concerns
another non-heterosexual person, Osita, who survives eventually. His survival
transgresses the logic that such people should die. Similarly, though exclusively
related to this context, the third factor concerns the same-sex relationship between
Juju and Elizabeth. Their relationship does not end but continues to progress, similar
to the complicated married life of a heterosexual couple— Ebenezer and Chisom.
Through this parallel, Emezi subtly presents the optimistic future of the homosexual
union in Nigeria.
Fourthly, the ambiguity in the relationship between Osita and Vivek is reiterated
when the former narrates in his voice towards the end of the novel as follows:
I’m so sorry,” I told the grave. “It was an accident. I would never have hurt you,
not in a thousand years. I swear to God. You were my brother and I loved you. I
only wanted to protect you. (Emezi, 2020, Ch. 23)
This is significant as the dominant logic always categorises everything and

classifies certain acts or particularities as accepted and certain as not allowed. Osita’s
labelling that Vivek is his brother and lover makes the categorisation problematic. This
was one of the recurring phenomena throughout the novel. Finally, the acceptance
of Vivek’s female name and the inclusion of the same in his gravestone by Chika,
Vivek’s father, an Igbo man who sent his son to a military academy up north so that
he would become masculine, testifies to the ultimate subversion of the dominant
logic of the Nigerian state and the Igbo society.
Departing from the narrative-centric arguments towards genre analysis, it is also
evident that there is resistance to dominant literary narrative genre-wise. Green-Simms
(2016) quotes the opinion of Harry Garuba that periodisation and categorisation of
Nigerian Literature as “a messy business” (p. 142). She also juxtaposes this view
with that of Hamish Dalley who identified the works of the contemporary Nigerian
novelists as “spatio-temporal imageries” and contrasted these with “national-
generational framework”, which is used by the critics to categorise literary works
(p. 142). By synthesising the above ideas, she locates the contemporary Nigerian
novels— written by third-generation writers born after independence who began to
incorporate previously taboo themes— as emergent; it is as follows:
The concept of the emergent, as theorized by Raymond Williams, helps to avoid

some of the pitfalls of periodization because for Williams it is a relational concept
rather than a strictly temporal or “epochal” one. In other words, the emergent might
express new structures of feeling, but it is not necessarily that which comes after
or next. Rather, the emergent refers to social or cultural forms that exist in relation
59
to the dominant or hegemonic, forms that are excluded from the dominant and that
resist incorporation into it. And, as Williams writes, what modes of domination
“exclude may often be seen as the personal or the private... since what the dominant
has effectively seized is indeed the ruling definition of the social”. Emergence can
therefore be seen as a process that pushes against modes of domination that often
“exclude the full range of human practice.” (Green-Simms, 2016, p. 142)
Synthesising the aforementioned conception of “emergent novels” with the

narrative that subverts the logic of the state, it is evident that the novel not only
resists the dominant narrative in a fictional narrative, but also genre-wise.
Liminality
There are several instances in the novel where characters articulate their liminal
conditions. Liminality is defined as follows:
It is the experience [of] a structural contradiction between [one’s] lived experience

and the grammar of representation which generate the mode of reality by prescribing
the parameters of collective behaviors that dynamically bring that “reality” into
being. The liminal frame of reference therefore, unlike the normative, can provide .
. . the outer view from which perspective the grammars of regularities of boundary
and structure- maintaining discourses are perceivable. (As cited in Paquette, 2020,
p. 142)
Osita articulates liminality in his voice by reminiscing the incidents that unfolded
before the death of Vivek as follows:
Everything would have stayed okay if he hadn’t left the bubble. If he hadn’t felt the
need to start going outside and putting himself at risk. How were we supposed to
protect him if he wouldn’t stay inside? (Emezi, 2020, Ch. 23)
This was in line with the premonition of Vivek’mother as stated earlier.

Consequently, this also implies the possibility of existing outside the logic of the
state and the society which suggests the rejection of the dominant logic. Even the
photographs that were finally shared with Kavita to reveal Vivek’s identity suggest
that Vivek lived in a world of his own that rejected the dominant logic. This world
consisted of his friends, Somto and Olunne, and two same-sex couples— Vivek and
Osita, and Juju and Elizabeth. Also, there exists sexual tension between Vivek and
Juju, as mentioned before, and Osita and Elizabeth, who are estranged lovers. This
complicated web of relationships certainly obscures the dominant logic and exists
60
outside the same. They are aware of their deviant and non-normative position in
the world. They construct their own world, which does not align with the logic of
the “normative” outside world. Their liminal existence is structured similar to that
of a heterotopia. Heterotopia is a Foucauldian concept that signifies the space that
defies the normative social order:
Heterotopia are spaces in which an alternative social ordering is performed.

These are spaces in which a new way of ordering emerges that stands in contrast
to the taken-for-granted mundane idea of social order that exists within society.
(Hetherington, 1997, p. 40)
The construction of a heterotopic world as an alternative to the existing world

order signifies that these subjects recognise that their being is contrary to that of
the dominant logic and that their being is nothing but inexistent, which demands
an alternative setup that subverts the dominant logic. Their marginalised nature
makes the contradiction their existence faces at the hands of the dominant logic.
This recognition and the alternate world they construct opens up new avenues for
challenging the dominant logic.
Moreover, as explained in the previous section, the novel is amalgamated with
narratives that enable both conformity and resistance to the dominant logic. It sets in
motion a dialectical narrative discourse which further mirrors the notion of liminality.
By bringing together two narratives that are at loggerheads with one another, Emezi
is able to articulate the subject position of the marginalised characters in relation to
the dominant logic and situates them as sites of resistance.
CONCLUSION
At the surface level, The Death of Vivek Oji appears to be a novel that strictly
conforms to the logic established by the establishment. Nevertheless, it camouflages
an entire discourse that is at odds with the dominant logic in its narrative. This
enables the marginalised characters to become political subjects and articulate
political resistance, undermining the prevalent dominant narrative. This suggests that
despite having the semblance of being the cultural product of the hegemonic base,
the novel also houses narratives that do not fit or conform with the dominant logic.
Moreover, the marginalised characters become inexistent if they do not recognise
their contradictory position to that of the dominant logic. Alain Badiou (2012)
defines the inexistent as follows:
61
In a world structured by exploitation and oppression masses of people have, strictly

speaking, no existence. They count for nothing………Let us call these people, who
are present in the world but absent from its meaning and decisions about its future,
the inexistent of the world (p. 55,56).
By recognising their actual position in relation to the dominant logic as theorised

through liminality, these characters defy their inexistent being and become present.
This problematises and subverts the dominant logic, and they also become active
sites of resistance against the dominant logic.
Finally, coming back to the question of whether this novel sides with the earlier
philosophical stand of Alain Badiou that revolutionary subjectivity, as articulated by
the non-heterosexual characters in this novel, needs to overcome or destroy the state
(and the society), or should force these establishment structures to acknowledge and
“count” them, it is clear from the narrative style and plot that there exists a dialectical
engagement which calls for the synthesis of the contradictory elements; liminality
supplements it. This suggests that the subjectivity of the non-heterosexual characters
in this novel is premised fundamentally on defying or subverting the dominant
logic. However, the presence of the narrative contradicting this demonstrates that
subjectivity is rather premised as an opposition to the establishment and is in constant
dialogue with it so that synthesis would organically count the radically new subjects.
REFERENCES
Badiou, A. (2012). The Rebirth of History: Times of Riots and Uprisings (G. Elliott,
Trans.). Verso.
Dunton, C. (1989, Autumn). “Wheyting be Dat?” The Treatment of Homosexuality
in African Literature. Research in African Literatures, 20(3), 422. https://www.jstor.
org/stable/3819175?seq=6
Emezi, A. (2020). The Death of Vivek Oji: A Novel. Faber & Faber. https://www.
amazon.in/Death-Vivek-Oji-Akwaeke-Emezi-ebook/dp/B0812DQFMH/ref=tmm_
kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
Green-Simms, L. (2016, Summer). The Emergent Queer: Homosexuality and
Nigerian Fiction in the 21st Century. Research in African Literatures, 47(2), 139-
161. doi:10.2979/reseafrilite.47.2.09
Harrison, O. (2014). Revolutionary Subjectivity in Post-Marxist Thought: Laclau,
Negri, Badiou. Ashgate.
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Hetherington, K. (1997). The Badlands of Modernity: Heterotopia and Social

Ordering. Routledge.
Hoad, N. W. (2007). African Intimacies: Race, Homosexuality, and Globalization.
University of Minnesota Press.
Hulan, H. (2017). Bury Your Gays: History, Usage, and Context. McNair Scholars
Journal, 21(1). https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1579&
context=mcnair
Msibi, T. (2011). The Lies We Have Been Told: On (Homo) Sexuality in Africa.
Africa Today, 58(1), 55. doi:10.2979/africatoday.58.1.55
Paquette, E. (2020). Universal Emancipation: Race Beyond Badiou. University of
Minnesota Press. doi:10.5749/j.ctv17db414
Roy, A. (1997). The God of Small Things. IndiaInk.
Schwimmer, B. (2002, May). Igbo marriage. University of Manitoba. Retrieved May
3, 2022, from https://umanitoba.ca/faculties/arts/anthropology/tutor/case_studies/
igbo/igbo_marriage.html
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Chapter 7
Portrayal of Helen of Troy in
the Select Poems of Sappho
and Wislawa Szymborska:
Shattering the Stereotypes
Rushati Dasgupta
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9908-8350
Jain University (Deemed), India
ABSTRACT
The Greek society was highly patriarchal; it was a masculine world where war was
glorified. Helen of Troy is one of the most imperative characters in both ancient and
modern literature. For centuries she has been portrayed as the woman whose beauty
sparked the Trojan War. But there are writers whose characterization of Helen and
description of her beauty differ from the stereotypical mainstream narrative. This
chapter investigates how the mythical character of Helen has been explored by such
female writers, through poems of Sappho and Wislawa Szymborska. In Sappho’s
“Fragment 16,” the readers observe how she refashions the character of Helen and
projects her as a “hero” because she had followed her heart. She only mentions
her beauty and does not describe her in an elevated way. But Szymborska is more
effective in describing the consequences of her unsurpassed beauty that becomes her
weapon. In the poem “A Moment in Troy,” Szymborska criticizes the internalization
of patriarchal values. She manipulates patriarchy by using a patriarchal narrative
to empower women.
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch007
Portrayal of Helen of Troy
INTRODUCTION
Feminist critics and thinkers bring to light that gender disparity exists not only in
the society but also in terms of literature since time immemorial. In the same way,
feminist activists have also unearthed and brought forward literary texts from the
past that have seeds of feminism, break gender stereotypes, and empower women.
The Greek civilization is believed to be the earliest European civilization. The Greek
society was highly patriarchal; it was a masculine world where war was glorified. The
mythical character of Helen has inspired poets and artists for centuries as the woman
whose beauty sparked the Trojan War, but there are writers whose characterization
of Helen and description of her beauty differ from the stereotypical mainstream
narrative. Sappho and Wislawa Szymborska are two such female writers who had
used the mythic character of Helen in their works to comment on the contemporary.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Helen of Troy is one of the most imperative characters in both ancient and modern
literature. In the earliest mythological accounts, Helen’s ancestry is stated as the
daughter of Zeus and the goddess Nemesis. However, according to the most common
origin story in Greek mythology, Helen was the daughter of Zeus and Leda; her
putative father was Tyndareus − the King of Sparta. According to the myth, Zeus
disguised himself as a swan and raped Leda. The Spartan queen then produced two
eggs. From one egg Helen and her brother Pollux came out, while from the other
emerged Clytemnestra and Castor. Helen was regarded as the most beautiful woman
in the world, thus many men sought her in marriage. Menelaus was chosen to be
Helen’s husband and her twin sister Clytemnestra married Menelaus’ brother King
Agamemnon of Mycenae, who was one of the most powerful Greek rulers. Though
Menelaus was valiant and prosperous, Helen’s love for him would prove tenuous.
Paris, a prince of Troy, travelled to Sparta on the advice of goddess Aphrodite. She
had promised him the most beautiful woman in the world after he proclaimed her
the fairest goddess over Hera and Athena. When Paris saw Helen, he at once knew
that Aphrodite had kept her promise. When Menelaus was away in Crete, Paris
went back to Troy with Helen. Some stories say Helen went willingly, seduced by
Paris’ charms. Others claim that she was abducted by Paris, who had defied the
ancient laws of hospitality. When Menelaus discovers that Helen is gone, he and
his brother Agamemnon along with the suitors of Helen who had sworn to support
him if necessary set sail for Troy to wage a war against the Trojans. Their arrival at
Troy marked the beginning of the Trojan War, thus Helen becomes “the face that
65
launched a thousand ships/ And burnt the topless towers of Ilium” (Marlowe, 12.81-
82, Act V Scene 1, The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus; ancientadmin, 2021)
Homer is attributed to be the author of the two earliest surviving epic poems
of Greek literature, namely the Iliad and the Odyssey. The Iliad, supposedly
composed in the Eighth Century BC begins in the last year of the Trojan War and
records a few weeks of the ninth year of the war. Interestingly, Helen, who has
been portrayed by Homer as the pivotal figure in the outbreak of the war, appears
only in three episodes of the poem. In her first appearance, she is seen knitting a
tapestry illustrating the scenes of war. As she weaves, the Trojan elders talk about
her unmatched beauty. She is depicted as the embodiment of the feminine ideal in
the Greek society, as a dutiful woman who weaves at home, and at the same time,
she is immensely beautiful. Homer portrays Helen as someone who is ashamed and
guilty of the fate that has been forced upon Troy due to her actions. Throughout the
poem, Helen articulates a sense of remorse for having left her husband, Menelaus.
Her compunction is so deep that she goes to the extent of calling herself a whore.
Her character evokes pity from the audience due to this remorse that is depicted by
Homer (Homer et.al, 1998).
Years after the Trojan War and the fall of Troy, Homer introduces Helen again
in the Odyssey.The triumphant Greeks had returned to their homes and Menelaus
brought Helen back to Sparta. In the Odyssey, Helen’s beauty is compared to that
of goddess Artemis, for her beauty is “striking as Artemis with her golden shafts”
(Homer & Fagles, 1996, p.135). She is depicted as a passive and dutiful wife,
an efficient hostess nurturing every need of her guests. Nonetheless, the readers
encounter the deceitful side of Helen when Menelaus gives an account of her role
in the Trojan horse episode. The narration suggests that it was Helen who hoaxed
the Trojans into bringing the wooden horse into the city. That act was the turning
point of the Trojan War and it led to the victory of the Greeks. Therefore, it can
beinferred that Homer portrayed Helen through the male gaze. She exhibits all the
nuances of an ideal Greek woman, as viewed through the eyes of patriarchy. She is
submissive and beautiful, but at the same time cunning and dubious.
Euripides was a Greek playwright who has also portrayed Helen in three of
his plays. In Euripides’ plays, the audience encounters two extremes in terms of
Helen’saccountability. On one hand, she is the deceitful adulteress, as illustrated
in his plays The Trojan Women and Orestes, while on the other she is the indignant
onlooker who is an ideal wife, as depicted in his play Helen (Hayward, 2020). In
both The Trojan Women and Orestes, Helen is blamed for the outbreak of the Trojan
War and is brutally criticized for it. The condemnation is particularly harsh in The
Trojan Women, wherein the consequence of the war Helen is fated to death by her
husband Menelaus. Queen Hecuba of Troy is portrayed as her worst critic. When
Helen pleads for mercy, it was Hecuba who convinced Menelaus to stand firm in
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his decision. Hecuba advocated that Helen had left Sparta willingly with Paris,
despite being aware of the consequences. She also branded Helen as an adulterous
wife and manipulative opportunist who was neither loyal to Troy nor to Greece
(Euripides & Clay, 2005).
In the play Helen, Euripides takes a very diverse approach. The plot of this play
is written along the lines of a version of the myth which was originally created by
the Sixth Century BC poet Stesichorus. This narrative locates Helen in Egypt during
the Trojan War. Meanwhile, in Troy, a phantom Helen is acting antagonistically in
her position, by the instructions of goddess Hera. In this eccentric tale, Euripides
absolves Helen of any culpability regarding the Trojan War. Instead, she is portrayed
as a submissive figure whose character is subject to and tainted by the will of the
gods. Thus Helen becomes a victim of fate in this play (Euripides & Allan, 2008).
Both Homer and Euripides are judgemental in their portrayal of Helen. They
conform to the patriarchal perspective of the Greek society in the characterization of
Helen. One can notice a strong influence of a masculine worldview in their depiction.
Reba Alaina Wissner, in her article “The Face That Launched A Hundred Arias:
Helen of Troy And the Reversal of a Reputation in Seventeenth-Century Venetian
Opera”, delineates how Helen has been portrayed in the 17th Century Venetian Opera.
Wissner points out that in the 17th Century Venetian Opera, the representation of
Helen is in contrast to the archetypal Helen. She is by and large depicted as a victim
of the circumstances. The two major chronicles narrated in opera libretti are − her
abduction by Theseus and to Attica when she was young and her sojourn to Troy
with Paris as an adult. Unfortunately, the affirmative image of Helen disappeared
from European Opera after the 17th Century (Wissner, 2011).
Sappho and Szymborska talk about a feminized world, which is uncharacteristic
of mainstream Greek narratives and shatters the stereotypical narratives of Helen.
While Sappho’s Fragment 16 is an unusual specimen of feminine perspective about
the world of love and war in Greece, Szymborska incorporates the allusion to
Helen to symbolize the power of confidence and sophistication that the little girls
acquired simply by daydreaming. Sappho illustrates Helen’s gift of love and how it
overpowers the brutality of war and Szymborska employs Helen’s beauty to expose
the unrealistic beauty standards set by the society.
Sappho was an archaic Greek poet known for her lyrical poetry and its passionate
portrayal of love. She has also been referred to as the tenth muse. Sappho’s works
can be seen as an illustration of what happened to women’s writing through the
course of history. Although the bulk of her poetry has been lost, her reputation has
endured through surviving fragments. It was during the Second Wave of feminism
that her writings were resurrected. Sappho at times has been referred to as a lesbian.
In fact, the word lesbian has been derived from her place of birth – Lesbos. However,
there is no solid substantiation of her sexual preference. It could be because of her
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poems which express great fervour for a variety of people – both men and women
(which may have been autobiographical) or it could purely be male fantasy. Sappho
crafted her poems primarily as a tribute to the private world of women, something
from which the readers are generally excluded in Greek literature. In Sappho’s
Fragment 16: “Some There Are Who Say That the Fairest Thing Seen”, one of the
most striking portraits of the infamous Helen of Troy is observed. Sappho refashions
the villainous figure of Helen and portrays her as the lover who followed her heart,
and hence became the hero.
Sappho becomes a radical figure, as for her a hero is someone who sacrifices
everything for the sake of love, in sharp contrast to the conventional notion of the
hero. Sappho begins the poem with what is conventionally accepted as literature
but contrasts the militaristic images of masculine kleos with her own evaluative
judgement:
Some there are who say that the fairest thing seen on the black earth is an array
of horsemen; some, men marching; some would say ships; but I say she whom one
loves best is the loveliest.” (Sappho, Lines 1-5, p.516)
One can see how she begins by describing a troupe of horses, men marching
and ships, images that are associated with war; but debunks it instantaneously by
stating that love conquers war. Sappho expresses her desire to admire Helen’s beauty
rather than the horrors of the Trojan War. She completely deglamourises war and
states that love triumphs over war. Therefore, here one observes a feminine voice
narrating the feminine world which is devoid of the violence of the masculine world
that she belittles.
Helen dynamically leaves her husband for the sake of love rather than being
swayed away by Paris, which justifies her behaviour. In mainstream narrative, Helen
is described as complicated and ambiguous, but in Sappho’s poems, she is a simple
and passionate person who only pursues her lover and cannot think of anything
apart from her love. Unlike other conventional writers like Homer and Euripides,
Sappho is never judgemental towards Helen. The character of Helen is employed
by Sappho to show the power of love and passion, and to remind the persona of her
love, Anaktoria. One can also witness the element of pangs of separation when she
talks about Anaktoria, who had gone away from her after she got married. It can
be interpreted in association with lesbianism. Elements of courtly love can also be
inferred in her love for Anaktoria, but Sappho does not place her on the pedestal.
Rather, it becomes a relationship between two equals, unlike the courtly love tradition.
Through Sappho, one can perceive how women’s writings were lost due to
changes inliterary fashion. Although she enjoyed great popularity in antiquity, the
general decline of knowledge in the early Middle Ages and Christian distaste for a
68
poet who was considered vile resulted in the loss of most of her poetry. Since the
late 19th Century, many new fragments of her works have been recovered from
Papyrus found in Egypt.
Szymborska was a Polish poet, essayist, and translator who received the Nobel
Prize for Literature in the year 1996. While she was being awarded, the Academy
praised her “poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological
context to come to light in fragments of human reality” (poetryfoundation.org). While
the Polish history from World War II through Stalinism clearly informs her poetry,
Szymborska was more of a personal poet who explored the large truths existing in
ordinary, everyday life. In her poems, the context becomes important. “A Moment
in Troy” was written in 1962, it was the time when the beauty industry was coming
in. Women were judged based on their looks. Szymborska uses the mythic figure of
Helen to expose the unrealistic beauty standards for women imposed by the society
(Thompson, 2021). Furthermore, it was during the time of the Cold War. In any
tyrannical regime, the values and restrictions are imposed on women; therefore it
leads to a conservative society. The poem criticizes the internalization of patriarchal
values. It manipulates patriarchy by using a patriarchal narrative to empower women.
The theme of the poem is that beauty is power and can be used in various ways.
Helen is considered the most beautiful woman, her beauty is a weapon. Men waged
war because of her beauty. Power is equated with violence and destruction, therefore
the poem is also a criticism of this notion of beauty.
The title “A Moment in Troy” alludes to two concepts. The first being the Trojan
War and the second is the titular “moment”. The Trojan War is “a backdrop of
destruction” (Szymborska, Line 36) as mentioned in the poem. Yet, skinny little
girls use their imagination to be transported to that world because of its grandeur:
“In the grand boudoir of a wink/ they all turn into beautiful Helens” (Szymborska,
Lines 12-13, p. 31). They hope to achieve prosperity, admiration and power. They
are not escaping only the normalcy, but their powerlessness as well. And Helen of
Troy becomes the epitome of beauty whom they aspire to be like. The moment refers
to their short-lived escape from the mundane realities. Historically, in a patriarchal
world, a woman had to be beautiful in order to achieve power. Her splendour was her
effective tool.The little girls have internalized patriarchal values and the conventional
notion of beauty. They believe tribute to beauty comes through acts of violence
which is highly problematic. One might also wonder why the little girls do not want
to match Helen’s strength or persistence, and question why the testaments of her
virtues are notadmired as much as the demonstrations of her beauty.
Szymborska mentions the mythical character of Helen as a paragon of beauty
and portrays beauty as a powerful force that has caused much destruction. Helen
is greatly desired. She is also emblematic of the occasional detrimental effects of
beauty. Szymborska does not overthrow the conventional notion of beauty, but
69
rather uses it to manipulate patriarchy. The daydream of the skinny little girls not
only helps them to escape the reality, but also empowers them.Through transitions
in mood and tone of the poem, as illustrated by the poetic persona, one may observe
that the subject of the poem is more multi-dimensional and delves deeper into the
poem and its meaning.
CONCLUSION
Both Sappho and Szymborska seem to disregard the glorification of war as a theme
in their poetry. While Sappho is more radical as she would rather speak of beauty
and love rather than the death that awaits the fighting men, Szymborska creates
juxtaposition throughout her poem in contrasting the innocence of the “little girls”
and the violent disaster of the battle of Troy. These two opposing ideas are that
which emphasize the two extremes of the poem. She allows the readers to make
their own judgements on the characterization of innocence, whether they can be a
product of circumstances or the cause of unnecessary brutality.
In Sappho’s poem, Helen is seen as the most beautiful woman but she does
not describe her in an elevated way because of her beauty. Sappho elevates Helen
as a lover − because of her love for Paris and not her beauty (Senturk, n.d). But
Szymborska is more effective in describing the effects of her unsurpassed beauty.
She incorporated the allusions to Helen and the Trojan War in the daydreams of
the “little girls”. Therefore one can deduce how the mythical character of Helen has
been portrayed differently by various writers over the years. They use her story not
only to wrestle with the legendary past but with questions of Greek identity, female
subjectivity, human agency, and power of discourse.
REFERENCES
Ancientadmin. (2021, Feb. 3). Helen–Iliad Instigator or Unjust Victim? Ancient

Literature. Retrieved 3 Mar. 2021 from, https://www.ancient-literature.com/helen-
iliad/
Euripides & Allan, W. (2008). Helen. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Euripides, & Clay, D. (2005). The Trojan Women. Focus Classical Library.
Hayward, L. (2020, May 12). Helen of Troy: Wronged Queen of Sparta or Shameful
Whore of Troy? The Collector. Retrieved 3 Mar. 2021 from, https://www.thecollector.
com/helen-of-troy/
70
Helen of Troy. (n.d.). Myth Encyclopedia. http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Go-

Hi/Helen-of-Troy.html
Homer, & Fagles, R. (1996). The Odyssey. New York: Viking.
Homer, Fagles, R., & Knox, B. (1998). The Iliad. Penguin Books.
Marlowe, C. (1995). The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus. Dover Publication.
Sappho of Lesbos. (1992). Some There Are Who Say That the Fairest Thing Seen.
In The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces, Volume I (6th ed., pp. 514-517).
W.W. Norton and Co.
Senturk, R. (n.d.). Different Reflections of Helen by Homer and Sappho.
Kadir Has Universitesi, Khas Web Team. http://sites.khas.edu.tr/bukalemun/
chl_number9-4-2.html#:~:text=In%20The%20Odyssey%20Helen%20is,as%20
Artemis%E2%80%9D(135).&text=In%20Sappho’s%20poem%2C%20Helen%20
is,metaphor%20as%20in% 20The %20Odyssey
Szymborska, W. (1998). A Moment in Troy. In Poems New and Collected,1957-1997.
Harcourt, Brace & Company.
Thompson, M. (2021). The Joy of Listening: Three Voices in Poetry of Wislawa
Szymborska. CMC Senior Theses. 2732. Retrieved 03 Apr. 2022 from, https://
scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/2732
Wislawa Szymborska. (n.d.). Poetry Foundation. https://www.poetryfoundation.
org/poets/wisaawa-szymborska
Wissner, R. A. (2011). The Face That Launched A Hundred Arias: Helen of
Troy And the Reversal of a Reputation in Seventeenth-Century Venetian Opera.
The Opera Journal, 8(1). Retrieved 03 Apr. 2022, from https://www.academia.
edu/246284/_Helen_of_Troy_s_Reputation_in_Seventeenth_Century_Venetian_
Opera_?email_work_card=view-paper
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72
Chapter 8
Touching to Transgress and
Transgressing to Touch:
The Dalit Female Sexuality in
Meena Kandasamy’s Poetry
Sneha Roy
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India
ABSTRACT
Dalit feminist poet and author Meena Kandasamy’s poetry collections Touch (2006)
and Ms. Militancy (2010) are daring explorations of how the flesh can inscribe its
desires in all of its impulsive and unhindered spontaneity in the text – tender and
violent at the same time, with the text treading across wired fences of gendered
and segregated spaces only to return back to the flesh. This chapter acknowledges
Sangari and Vaid’s sociological insight into how women’s sexuality has served as
a pivotal gateway for the maintenance of caste-based and sex-based inequalities
and attempts to critically explore the pathway Kandasamy cuts to overturn the Dalit
female body’s very trajectory of “utility” in a society obsessed with purity and
patriarchal hegemony. Locating Kandasamy in the socio-political matrix to read her
poetry, an inter-disciplinary approach is adopted in scrutinizing the need to study
the language she uses in her poetry, taking into purview its apparently “sexually
provocative” content and its maneuverings around the notion of “touch” in the text.
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch008
Touching to Transgress and Transgressing to Touch
INTRODUCTION
Meena Kandasamy in a recent interview with John Rufo (2015) had gone on to express
her belief how languages are biased structures which often contribute in embedding
already- inherent inequalities deeper into the societal stratum– What with her poetry
being a means of her vocal resistance against caste and gender-based oppression,
one need not thus go further to understand therefore as to why the very language
of her poetry thus, in both her anthologies Touch and Ms. Militancy is a drift apart
from the mainstream ; replete with images of the corporeal, in all its undressed
and unpolished physicality. One might further go on to posit that, it is through this
language of flesh and blood without its garb of artificiality, societal regulations and
restrictions that Kandasamy (2006) seeks to assemble the marginalized, not to offer
them mere lip-service metaphorically but by letting them inscribe themselves with the
‘ink’ of bodily traces on the untouched and inaccessible pages of literary text- Thus
evoking, if not completely, but partially, a sense of their suffering in all its physical
and literal sense. Locating Kandasamy in the socio-political matrix to read her poetry,
one needs to reflect on how being a Dalit female writer, she is thrice removed from
mainstream society and her voice when pinned to this location, creates the need
to study the language she uses in her poetry by taking into purview its apparent
‘linguistically sexual’ content and its maneuverings around the notion of touch in the
text. And it is this very volatility of desire and sexuality which Kandasamy makes
advantage of to detonate the very gate-kept rigid boundaries of casteism and sexism
controlling the Dalit woman’s body, thus destabilizing the orthodox foundations of
sexuality to help strengthen further the stronghold of a Brahminical patriarchy in
order. What this paper then attempts at is to navigate how the linguistically sexual
language employed by Kandasamy establishes the convergence of the social and the
sexual trajectories of this desire to be touched by the Dalit women. There is further
reflection on how the realization of this socio-sexual politics makes Kandasamy use
the Dalit female body in all its corporeality as the site of her socio-sexual subversion/
transgression as a ‘radical’ means to emancipation; with the founding idea being how
the extreme corporeal vulnerability of the Dalit female has the radical potential of
being a building block for developing an effectively subversive discourse or pathway
for emancipatory body politics.
In using a language which is consciously and deliberately fleshly, Kandasamy
attempts at a overturning of the Dalit-female body’s very trajectory of ‘utility’
in society. From their bodies being exploited by majoritarian forces as a site of
oppression, there is a reclaiming of the same body as a means to active resistance.
It is in this context that that one can place Gopal Guru’s (1995) argument in the
essay ‘ Dalit Women Talk Differently’ where he goes on to justify the difference
in language and tone often used by Dalit women which arises as a voice not just
73
against the systemic violence perpetrated against them by the upper-caste members
of society owing to Brahminical patriarchy but also as a reminder against the inherent
sexism practiced by the male activist leaders of their own caste. Thus, Kandasamy
talking in a language which makes one overtly conscious of the body and all of its
uninhibited desires and demands, is an intent at destabilizing certain core principles
which consolidate the functioning of the caste-system by controlling the bodies of
women. Her naming of her first anthology as ‘Touch’ thus, can also be read through
this very perspective where the sense/sensuality of the body, as can only be felt
throughout the whole of her body through her skin and hence through touch is also
accurately where the very polemics of casteism and sexism are ‘inseminated’; which
is why it is only justified that she begins from the very beginning. However, what
will impress upon a reader on careful observation is how Kandasamy does much
more to impress upon us the significance of the ‘touch’ by going a step beyond the
usual – There is a conscious structuring involved in deciding upon the contents of
the anthology and the same can be realized through the powerfully playful ‘nested
looping’ effect she creates in sequencing and creating sub-sections for the poems.
Kandasamy uses the word ‘touch’ thrice for labelling throughout her anthology-
Once as a title to the entire anthology, second as one of the sub-sections, within which
again lies the poem titled ‘Touch’, thus making it a third time. On this realization
there is often the obvious creation of a strong imagery in one’s mind – Images which
are very near to that of concentric circles (circles having the same center) often used
for symbolizing infinities within greater infinities or talking digitally, it almost feels
like coding on the web to create loops within loops, popularly known as nested
loops. Interpreting it otherwise, this evocation of the word thrice almost sounds
like a heady mumbling of passion or desire or if one were to tread down the lines
of Hindu spirituality, it almost creates a satirical somber effect of sacred utterances
chanted by the priests during sacred Hindu rituals (and other such ‘ pure’ festivities
and rituals from which the Dalits are completely left excluded) performed by the
upper-caste Hindus, where the chants conclude with the invocation of the concluding
verses thrice, like ‘Om-Shantih Shantih Shantih’ . This three-timed utterance in
Kandasamy’s anthology does almost seems. like a Dalit women’s subversive path to
liberation-social, sexual and spiritual, where her version of ‘Shanti’ that is, peace is
almost synonymous to touch and being touched; and hence the evocation – ‘Touch,
(within) Touch, (within) Touch’. What one can take away from such imagery is
Kandasamy’s structurally-artistic agreement to the assertion of many scholars of the
caste system that- Touch is where the caste system begins and ends. Simplistically
speaking, it is what counts as the empirical unit of practicing and strengthening the
stronghold of the caste-system. We have Aniket Jaware’s (2018) agreeing to this
assertion, who in his book Practicing Caste- Touching and Not Touching remarks
on how touch is constitutive of one’s feeling of ‘self-presence’ –
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Touching others and touching oneself, being touched by others, all these seem to
be forms. of Self-Presence as strong our own speaking voice. Untouchability then,
in both its forms, seems to be a denial of bodily presence. It is not surprising at all
therefore, that metonymies of bodily presence are submitted to similar regulations.
(Jaware, 2018)
Metonymically thus, touch is representative of the feeling human skin and the
skin in turn, thus covering the whole of the body represents the body. All of these
observations only making Kandasamy’s naming of her anthology an extremely
potent beginning act of subversive expression.
To touch and be touched (let’s put in the word ‘consensually’), thus, is a sensation
which throbs with a socio-sexual anticipation/implication- one of validating tranquility
for the Dalit woman whose very segregation in society has pushed her to a state
where she is beyond all reach and hence touch, in all its physical possibility. In
order to continue further speculation along these lines, one needs to first broach
Kandasamy’s treatment and expression of sexuality in her poetry before moving on
to analyze in detail how it furthers the social significance of the same. What strikes
one is the employment of an apparently’ provocative ‘jargon’ which is scathing
in its direct encounter with all that she deems. predatorial and prejudiced in her
experience for the Dalit woman. The ‘provocation ‘is in the unabashed utterance of
the sexual – the body, its ravenous hunger and desire, its many complications where
the physical and the social entangle, unfiltered and unhindered in their assertion.
Interestingly, her second poetry anthology ‘Ms. Militancy’ comes with a preface/
forward from the author herself, titled ‘Should you Take Offense’ which shows her
conscious involvement in using such language and her deliberate intent at provoking
the unperturbed privileged in society-
I choose my words coarse as the conned Kannagi’s colorful curses, chaste as her
breast that burnt down a capital city. This tongue allows me to resist rape, to rescue
my dreams. My language is not man-made; it is beyond the while-hot rules of your
seminal texts. My language is dark and dangerous in its eagerness to slaughter
your myths. My lines are feverish with the heat of the bodies you banish in your
Manusmriti and Kamasutra. (Kandasamy, 2010, pp. 8)
Kandasamy thus intends at the usage of such language whose potential lies in
its very refusal to be bridled and harnessed only to be put into existing linguistic
matrices which, if even if not actively or consciously, end up consolidating the regime
of barricaded textual or literary spaces which preach banishing the marginalized to
the boundaries. The linguistically sexual language charged with all that pleasures
and pains the physical is somewhat radical in its intent at rebelling against the
oppressive forces at place – Not simply for its outright departure from mainstream
75
women’s writing but for the very reclaiming the body as a personal space for
rebellion as a counter-move to the suppression. The usage of such a linguistically
charged language and the very purposes steering it forward are stated by Teresa
Hubel (2019) in her work titled ‘Tracking obscenities: Dalit women, devadasis, and
the linguistically sexual’–
The obscene language in these narratives is part and parcel of the aggressive activism
that both these texts implicitly and explicitly advocate; it embodies that aggressive
activism by drawing attention to the female Dalit body itself on which acts of caste
and gender oppression are imposed. It signifies a refusal to be humiliated even by
the language that is meant to humiliate and demean them. The use of such openly
offensive language also allows for the redefinition of the poetic and the beautiful.
Kandasamy’s work thus is bolstered by this same intent. This explosive capability
of the body in all its physical and sexual connotations finds a remarkable example
here:
On the edge Ms. Militancy bade for more blood. Vending vengeance, she made a
bomb out of her left breast and blew up the blasted city long after the land had
turned to ashes. The rest of her plucked breast bled. (Kandasamy, 2010, pp 36)
Here there is a complete inversion taking place- From women’s bodies being
battlefields (a trope made cliché since prehistoric times), women here polarize their
own bodies into active agency to create battlefields with their bodies Here, the war
is not fought upon them but for themselves, by themselves with their own involved
bodies. The ‘making of a bomb out of a breast’ is a metaphor projecting how the
female body when unleashed to its fullest strength has the ability to detonate the
larger, artificial working of things and it is out of this fear of this fierce potential
which makes the patriarchal society keep it under leash, chained and tied only to
be used in ‘domestic’ ways. There arises the creation of an apparent dichotomy
here – Breast versus the city or body versus society. It is to ‘blow up the blasted
city’ or society and its many shackling, rigid and dehumanizing for Ms. of prejudice
and discrimination that Kandasamy here take the most natural and potent form of
recourse to rebel against it- The body and its fluid sexuality which in desire and
rage catches fire. Kandasamy in another poem says ‘Men are afraid of women who
make poetry and dangerous portents’ (Kandasamy, 2010, pp 37); one can thus see
from where poetry comes from. Kandasamy here writing ‘linguistically sexual’
poems. is making poetry with dangerous portents and it is from this realization that
she wants her readers to draw power from to rebel, including herself.
76
How the power of the touch locates the physicality of the body to the societal
stratum is located is best felt through the poem titled ‘Touch, where Kandasamy’s
discovery of the body’s sensuality as a means to resist societal prejudice to use it
as a pathway to emancipation is felt best:
…amidst all that pervading emptiness, touch retained its sensuality. You will
have known this. But you will never have known that touch – the taboo to your
transcendence, when crystallized in caste, was a paraphernalia of undeserving
hate. (Kandasamy, 2006, pp. 35)
The above poem illustrates the clear pathway Kandasamy uses, projecting before
us a clear picture of how and where the socio-sexual implications of the touch gain
relevance for the Dalit female. Enough has been said and done by social scientists
and Dalit activists on solely, the social significance of the touch for the untouchable
but what gains traction the most when it comes to the Dalit woman specially, is the
claim to a space, a personal territory which renders them with a sense of self-visibility.
Aniket Jaware (2018) remarking on how ‘Space manifests itself phenomenally as
touch’ in his book Practicing Caste- On Touching and Not Touching is based on the
idea of a sense of territory, which comes only when something is within ones’ reach,
close enough to be touched and felt through contact. Thus, when reterritorialized
or ghettoized women seek to touch and be touched, it comes laden with the desire
to finally be visible and leave their personal trace on all that they wish to, it is an
act of ‘instrumental touch’ claiming space, voice and visibility. And it is this very
rebellious fervor which marks the poem ‘We Will Rebuild Words’. These following
lines are what sing this motive out the loudest:
We will singe the many skins you wear to the world: the skins you change at work,
the skins called castes and skins called race, the skins you mend once a week, the
skin you bought at a sale, the skin you thought was yours, the filthy rich stinking skin
you thought you could retain at bed. We will learn how to fight with the substantial
spontaneity with which we first learnt how to love. (Kandasamy, Touch 68)
Herein we find yet another reason how touch evolves as a means to militarize;
after all, for it is through the caresses and fondles, the stroking and the kisses – that
we express our spontaneous expressions of love ; hence touch developing as a means
of rebelling is only as handy, ubiquitous and omnipotent a weapon for resistance
as can ever be.
It is acknowledging the assertion of women’s sexuality as the pivotal gateway
to the maintenance of caste-based and sex-based inequalities (Sangari and Vaid,
1989) that Kandasamy weaponizes the female body to militate gate-keeping instead
77
of letting it be a submissive gate-keeper of atrocities. There is a militant detonation

of such gateways which forge, filter, and fortify caste-based segregation through
exploiting and suppressing women’s sexuality as can best be illustrated through the
‘breast bombing up a city’ metaphor employed in the poem ‘Ms. Militancy’; thus,
tearing up an aperture which leaks and flows like blood from the remains of the
breast blind to boundaries and gates which keep women and their sexualities choked
in locked closets. Touch thus transcending in ways more than the immediate and the
physical- If and when realized and used fully, Kandasamy shows how Dalit women
can render their battered bodies bearing the brunt of bigotry into bombs blasting
barriers and boycotting bloody boundaries.
REFERENCES
Cixous, H. (2009). The laugh of the Medusa. FeminisMs. Redux, 416-431.

Guru, G. (1995). Dalit women talk differently. Economic and Political Weekly,
2548–2550.
Hubel, T. (2019). Tracking obscenities: Dalit women, devadasis, and the
linguistically sexual. Journal of Commonwealth Literature, 54(1), 52–69.
doi:10.1177/0021989417717578
Jaware, A. (2018). Touch and its Elements and Kinds. In Practising Caste: On
Touching and Not Touching (pp. 11–36). Fordham University Press. doi:10.2307/j.
ctv75d9m7.5
Kandasamy, M. (2006). Touch. Peacock Books.
Kandasamy, M. (2010). Ms. Militancy. Navayana Publishing.
Rufo, J. (2015, August 5). “Digging out weapons in the arsenal of Language”: An
interview with Meena Kandasamy. The Ploughshares Blog. Retrieved from https://
blog.pshares.org/digging-out-weapons-in-the-arsenal-of-language-an-interview-
with-meena-kandasamy/
Sangari, K., & Vaid, S. (1989). Recasting women: An introduction. Recasting
women: Essays in colonial history, 1-26.
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Chapter 9
Foucauldian-Feminist Reading
of Mo Yan’s Select Novels
Aaradhana
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4236-5345
Lovely Professional University, India
ABSTRACT
With his imaginative and humanistic fiction, Mo Yan has shed light on numerous
social and political issues prevalent in Chinese society during the 20th century.
Alongside his political narratives, he has remarkably represented women’s roles and
treatment, where gender hierarchy is evident. Moreover, to satirise the patriarchal
society, Mo Yan has boldly designed his female characters to overshadow their
male counterparts. The present study explores the systemic subjugation of women
depicted in the novels and how some female characters actively resisted them. The
issue of sexual violence during the war period in China will also be examined as
the selected novels portray the cultural and historical experience during the series
of civil and national wars. To comprehend and examine these issues, the theoretical
framework of Michael Foucault will be applied. His discourse on power relations
will be used as a medium to explore the problems mentioned above.
INTRODUCTION
Mo Yan is the first person from mainland China to become the recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Literature in 2012. His short stories and novel are categorised as the
work of hallucinatory realism, which are an amalgamation of the past, present, and
folk tales of China. Mo Yan is often compared to Charles Dickens for his narrative
maintains a balance between rapid advancement of the plot and drawing back to
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch009
Foucauldian-Feminist Reading of Mo Yan’s Select Novels
enlighten the readers with his perspective (Duran and Huang 2014). Having grown
up during the most turbulent period of the twentieth century, the novels of Mo
Yan subtly fondle sensitive incidents in Communist China such as the fall of the
Dynastic period, Second Sino-Japanese War, Cultural Revolution etc. Moreover,
the name Mo Yan is the pen name of Guan Moye, which in Chinese means ‘to say
nothing’ or ‘do not speak’. Looking carefully at the period in which Mo Yan started
writing, the strict censorship exercised in the country made the citizens understand
the gravity of what should be spoken and what should not. These circumstances
brought criticism towards Mo Yan’s writing for his alliances with the state, but it
also allowed his works to discreetly represent the Chinese people’s unique cultural
and historical experience from the inside. Therefore, making him the first author in
China with the most banned books widely pirated among its readers.
With a significant readership in the home country, Mo Yan debuted in the western
market in 1987, when his novel Red Sorghum was adapted into a film with the same
title. The movie won the Golden Bear Award at Berlin Film Festival, consequently
introducing Mo Yan to the world. Red Sorghum is a dynamic narrative that unfolds
the life and struggle of three generations in Shandong province during the 1930s. The
main plot of the novel centres around the brutality and violence during the second
Sino-Japanese War, narrated by a young man at the end of the cultural revolution. The
young man retells the account of his grandfather, the most ferocious and notorious
bandit in Shandong; his Grandma’s love story that starts after she was raped on the
third day of her arranged marriage; and the survival journey of his father, Douguan.
Eventually, with his polemic description in his political backdrop with a fictional
narrative, Mo Yan became an essential voice. Unlike G.G. Marquez’s enchanting
plots, his dreamlike narrative wittingly intertwines the fantasy into the framework
of his plot that insinuates the Chinese history, stories, and folklore that he grew up
experiencing and listening to (Duran and Huang, 2014, p.96). Such narratives of
Mo Yan dangerously skirt the censorship border as he boldly gives a comprehensive
and graphic description of the socio-political situation in twentieth-century China.
Another family saga novel Big Breasts and Wide Hips published in 1996, with a
rural backdrop, scrutinises Chinese society through the ups and downs faced by the
Shangguan family. Following the life of Shangguan Lu and her eight daughters and
a son, Mo Yan has highlighted the Chinese social structure wherein gender roles
was his target. In this microcosm, Mo Yan has represented the association of male
and female through his characters and has also subverted gender roles. He brings
out the barbaric instinct of his male characters in the warfare, and its reversal is
represented through his main character of Jintong, the only son of Shangguan Lu.
While another novel, Life and Death are Wearing Me Out, brings out the brutality
experienced by the peasants during the second half of the twentieth century. Through
this fictional narrative, Mo Yan has provided its readers with a polemic commentary
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on brutal revolutions and reformations during the reign of Chairman Mao and, later,
Deng Xiaoping.
Other heterogeneous elements in Mo Yan’s novels include- the treatment of
females in patriarchal China, which is their understood subjugation. To speak up
on such social evils, Mo Yan has focused his attention on foot binding custom in
some selected novels. The novel Sandalwood Death, which highlights the political
corruption during the final year of the Qing Dynasty, is set during the Boxer rebellion,
an anti-imperial fight against western influence. With this extensive canvas, the novel
also discusses the systemic subjugation of the females through Sun Meiniang, who
also fights these social evils and shows active resistance.
Since the study on the novels of Mo Yan from Foucault’s perspective has not been
extensively done before. Using Foucault’s theoretical perspective, the present paper
intends to examine women’s representation in the four selected novels and analyse
the use of violence, specifically sexual violence, which Mo Yan has represented
through incidents of rape and genital mutilation. Therefore, the paper is divided into
three sections distinguished by roman numerical I, II, and III. First section elaborates
on Foucault’s genealogical approach, highlighting the relationship between power
and knowledge established through discourse. Second section discusses the issue
of systemic subjugation as illustrated in the novel of Mo Yan will be emphasised.
While the third section of the paper discusses the issue of sexual violence and
examine it in the selected novels.
Michel Foucault is a French historian-philosopher who became the most influential
postmodern thinker with his broad spectrum of historical and political inquiries. His
investigations concern the formation of discourses and their role in employing and
sustaining power relationships with the interplay of power and knowledge, along
with the concept of subject and the importance of resistance in power relations.
With his research in psychiatry, medicine, human science and institutional practices,
Foucault has argued about the working of both micro-power and macro-power. As
a result, the anthropologist and the feminist, post-colonialist, and critics from other
areas of study seek Foucault’s guidance to understand how power stabilises itself
and exercises in different socio-political setups, be it in patriarchal society or the
colonies. Similarly, from the Foucauldian perspective, the subjugation of women
can be understood through the production and reproduction of power relations in
the patriarchal society.
In his genealogical approach, Foucault has examined the established institutions
such as the penal system and psychiatry to uncover the working of power regimes
and knowledge in society. Similarly, in his first volume of History of Sexuality, he
analysed how sexuality was made into a discourse to control it. Foucault argues that
the regime of power creates certain realities in the social system with the production
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and circulation of meaning and knowledge through various disciplines. That, in

turn, sets the foundation for social relation, wherein the discourse
…constitute the ‘nature’ of the body, unconscious and conscious mind, and emotional
life of the subject which they seek to govern. Neither the body nor thoughts and
feelings have meaning outside their discursive articulation, but the way in which
discourse constitutes the minds and bodies of individuals is always part of a wider
network of power relation, often with institutional bases. (Weedon, 1987, p.108)
Foucault denotes this discursive production as epistemes as a social apriori, a

kind of meaning or knowledge that proceeds any possible original discovery and
any possible truth to the world. This episteme segregates meanings and knowledge
across various disciplines as valid or invalid. The valid knowledge becomes the
acceptable truth in society, while the power regimes subjugate the invalid knowledge.
Therefore, making episteme a “strategic apparatus” of power is discursive, i.e.
linguistic rules and protocols and non-discursive, i.e. architectural proposals and
economies (Foucault, 1980, p.196-197). This further results in the creation and
regulation of established social relations. In simple words, power uses episteme to
condition the human mind into believing or knowing something. Power, according
to Foucault, is similar to the knowledge in a way that both of them depend on social
setup for their existence.
Foucault’s primary works, such as Birth of Clinic or Madness and Civilisation,
are categorised as archaeological because they study the history of the established
system through which the mechanism of power is examined. While his works from
the 1970s, such as History of Sexuality and Discipline and Punish, followed a
genealogical approach, through which he examined the ontology of these systems,
i.e. penal system and sexuality. Foucault questioned the established truth discourses
on sexuality and the penal system to underline the technologies of power relations
in work. He argued that “truth is a concept that the genealogist rejects as a ‘truth,’
an essence; the genealogist looks at the formation of truths and of the systems of
meaning which they presuppose” (Phelan, 1990, p.424).
He further argues that this truth is hidden and ingrained in our minds, making
it impossible for us to refute it. Therefore, power relations use truth discourses to
determine and authorise its operation. Moreover, his discursive shift from archaeology
to genealogical approach targets how specific knowledge or discourses are subjugated
by the grand narratives that legitimatises the power relation. As Foucault claimed
that in order to understand contemporary society, we need to not only look at the
established institutions, discourses, or truth which the archaeologists do, but also
look underneath these institutions to “desubjugate historical knowledges which were
considered minor in form. Against the coercion of unitary, formal, and scientific
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theoretical discourses” in order to get the whole picture of the socio-political

condition (Foucault,2003, p.10).
Foucault termed the pre-modern form of power as sovereign power dominated
its pre-formed subjects by using violence, where the distorted truth was propagated.
That resulted in suppressing the subjects’ desires and constructing false consciousness
and ignorance among the subjects (Dreyfus and Rainbow, 1982, p.129). This hostile
and repressive power aimed to institutionalise knowledge to legitimise its authority.
However, Foucault argues that the modern power is complex and “is tolerable only
on the condition that it mask a substantial part of itself. Its success is proportional
to its ability to hide its mechanism” (Foucault, 1978, p.86). This modern power is
formulated and works through the net-like organisation, where apparatuses like
discourse, i.e. working of knowledge, target the cognitive capacity through various
social institutions such as prisons, hospitals, schools, law, or family to govern and
subjugate the subject.
Modern power hides its true form and prevents us from sighting it using such
institutions, differentiating it from the earlier juridical power model. Therefore, the
main goal of Foucault’s genealogical approach was to highlight the positive and
productive aspects of these modern power relations. Since power relations, apart
from oppressing and subjugating the subjects as believed to be the only characteristic
associated with it, are also responsible for producing various discourse and institutions
that “construct our selves and self-understanding” (Phelan, 1990, p.424). According
to Foucault, the modern apolitical and ahistorical practices of meaning that he calls
the ‘regimes of truth’ are creative, universal, and absolute epistemological structures
that show that they are independent of the power-knowledge relationship.
This argument of Foucault brings us to question the institutions, law, and order
of our society and urge us to understand it by separating it from the perception built
by the power relations. That is why Foucault (1980) argues that “we need to cut off
the King’s head” (p.121). In Discipline and Punish, Foucault’s case study on the
discourse of the punishment system provides us with the understanding of how power
relations at work in the carceral institutions go way beyond all other social relations.
He argues that the shift from the punishment to the discipline of the delinquents
(subjects) in the modern period became the foundation of other institutions such as
schools, hospitals etc. Rejecting all the previous domination-repression model of
power and juridical power model, Foucault provides a framework of power relation
that does not regard it as centralised or a possession, but as capillary and relational
as it only exists in the space between free subjects that are related to each other.
Thus, power can be defined as a relationship established to affect the actions of
others indirectly, instead of forcing its intention upon the bodies, power relations
guide “the possibility of conduct and putting in order the possible outcome” on
independent subjects (Dreyfus and Rainbow, 1982, p.221). This modern power
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Foucault mentions in his 1970s work as disciplinary power. Wherein the discourse
about sex is used for regulating and controlling people. The discourse on sex in
the eighteenth century acted as a medium to showcase the shift from sovereign
power that was hierarchal and restrictive to disciplinary power that controlled and
normalised subjects. Considering that revelation, Foucault (1978) turned towards
bio-power, where the apparatus of sexuality is used for the “administration of bodies
and the calculated management of life” (p.140). With this apparatus, the subjects
are not forced or killed if they resist, but instead, they are turned into worthwhile,
docile bodies. In bio-power, the population is treated as one productive mass under
the regulation of power relations. Thus, the discourse of sex becomes centralised
with this transition to “disciplines of the body” and the “regulation of population”
(Dreyfus and Rainbow, 1982, p.145).
The discourse of sexuality in China was built through the age-old pastoral
institutions of Confucian teachings. The earliest form of disciplinary power evident
is the selected novels of Mo Yan. This capillary patriarchal power relation was
established by implementing subjectivities through customs and regulations on
women’s bodies to govern their habits, conduct, and action. One example of such
forces is the conditioning of women to “three obediences” where they were to
yield under three male figures in the family (Mo, 2013, p.116). First was her father,
second her husband, and her son in old age, making her dependent and bound to
these male figures. This misery of women Mo Yan has represented in his novel Big
Breasts and Wide Hips, where Young Lu Xuan’er was trained and disciplined by
her aunt to marry into a good family and get a rich husband. With the change in the
socio-political condition in republic China, Xuan’er married Shangguan Shouxi,
son of a blacksmith.
However, after getting married for three years, she could not give birth to a single
child. All the blame was put on her, and she was accused of being barren. When
she brought up the fact that her husband might be the problem, she was usually
beaten up by him, which gave her scars and bruises, while her mother-in-law never
left a chance to curse her. Shangguan Lu’s aunt got her examined by the doctor and
found she was fit to be a mother, it indeed was her husband’s fault, and she could
not blame him for that. So, her aunt suggested she get impregnated by other men.
Therefore, Shangguan slept with other men, and the first man was her uncle that
gave her first two daughters.
Nevertheless, her mother-in-law was still unhappy as she prayed for a son. It was
when Shangguan Lu realised “the cruel reality for a woman, not getting married was
not an option, not having children was not acceptable, and having only daughters
was nothing to be proud of. The only road to status in a family was to produce sons”
(Mo, 2012a, p.59). After that, Shangguan Lu slept with different men, some on her
own accord, while there were times when she was forced or gang-raped in different
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situations. After giving birth to seven daughters, she gave birth to twins, a girl and
a boy who were the seed of Swedish missionary Pastor Malory. While these three
obedience teaching made women dependent on men for survival, the “‘four virtues’
of fidelity, physical charm, propriety and fine needlework” limited their behaviour
and desires (Mo, 2013, p.116). Through three obediences, the dependence on the
males was further actualised through other forces resulting from various discourses
and customs imposed upon women. One of them is the thousand-year-old custom of
foot-binding in China, a disciplinary apparatus that is part of this net-like organisation
of patriarchal power relation, where the body of women is transformed into a docile
subject.
The foot-binding custom established discourse on beauty and accustomed women
with the belief that tiny feet were the new way to appeal to a good life which was
ultimately related to getting a good husband. Other characteristics and values were
linked to this custom to make it more acceptable by the women. Therefore, wealth
was associated with the tiny feats, considering that the tiny feet were treated as
good luck that would bring prosperity. Getting their daughter married into wealthy
families also affected her parent’s life, and this union acted as a ladder for them to
move towards the upper class. Many parents took pride in and advantage of golden
lotuses and treated them good luck.
As Lu Xuan’er’s uncle boasted his niece’s golden lotuses by hanging a sign in
front of his house saying, “Fragrant Lotus Hall”, and he even went around the village
announcing that his niece will either marry a top scholar or provincial military
governor or a county magistrate (Mo, 2012a, p.49). This relation of wealth and tiny
feet encouraged male counterparts to prefer women with golden lotuses to display
their wealthy family status. Accordingly, women willingly bound their feet to the
tiniest size possible to live with such status. The “most desirable bride possessed
a three-inch foot, known as a ‘golden lotus’. It was respectable to have four-inch
feet—silver lotus—but feet five inches or longer were dismissed as iron lotuses”
(Foreman, 2015). Such disciplining of women from a young age was done by the
family’s matriarch as women were obligated to follow the custom and Confucius
teaching to be accepted in the society or be marriageable.
Consequently, the perfect female in Chinese society was represented through her
feet size. The smaller the foot, the purer and tempting the woman was considered.
This rendered feet size valuable as “currency” and a commodity that determined
the women’s value and the family associated with them.
In Red Sorghum, Dai Fenglian was only six years old when her Grandma bound
her feet. The process involved tying the feet with a binding cloth first around the
smaller fingers of the toe to break their bones. The bounding cloth was tightened
every day till a hoof shape was formed of a three-inch size (Mo, 2003, p.42). Mo
Yan went into more detail about the process of bounding through his character of
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Lu Xuan ’er. She was also five years old when her aunt first “bent the toes back with
bamboo strip and wrapped them tightly, wrenching loud squeals of protest from her
niece. Then her Grandma wrapped the feet tightly with the alum-treated white cloth,
one layer after another. Once that was done, she pounded the toe with her wooden
mallet…the pain was like banging her head against the wall” (Mo, 2012a, p.49).
This procedure altered not only the body of women but also their minds. It
assured them that this pain would later bring them good fortune and wealthy life.
Since this repetitive technique with gradation “assured, in the form of continuity
and constraint, a growth, an observation, a qualification” (Foucault, 1991, p.161).
As a result, the women who go through this process were assured with the feeling
of pride. Dai Fenglian coming from a low-income family, was only able to marry
into the affluent Shan family because of her tiny golden lotuses spotted by Shan
Tingxiu, the patriarch of the Shan family, when she was playing outside. Because of
her tiny feet, the sedan bearer Yu Zhan’ao was fascinated by her and later married
her. That being said, bound feet became the sole criteria for women to get married
as there was a saying that goes like- even if a woman were ugly as a duck, she would
still be married if her feet were bounded to the tiniest size possible. Alternatively,
no matter how beautiful a woman is, it is impossible for her to marry into a good
family if her feet are natural and not bound.
In the novel Sandalwood Death, Sun Meiniang had natural feet because she did
not have a mother figure in her family to bound them. That made her feet a major
defect alongside her beautiful face, preventing her from a peaceful life. She had to
face the humiliation that was passed on to her via comments like “the top part is
to die for; the bottom part will petrify you” (Mo, 2013, p.17). Her natural feet also
forbid her from getting the position of Imperial consort as her beauty was up to that
mark. The people of Gaomi county gave her several nicknames such as Big-Footed
Fairy, Half-Way Beauty, and Dog-Meat Xishi because she sold delicious dog meat
while comparing her beauty with one of the four most beautiful women from the
ancient legend of China named Xishi. “It was this damning flaw—big, unbound
feet—that caused her to be considered unmarriageable at the age of twenty” (Mo,
2013, p.116). Since no man wanted a wife with big ugly feet, thereby leaving a dumb
butcher like Zhao Xiaojia the only option available to her.
After marrying a stupid husband, Meiniang’s mother-in-law hated her unbound
feet. She wanted to cut Meiniang’s standard feet to the size of bounded feet. However,
Xiaojia denied her wish, and she went to cut them off, as a result, Meiniang knocked
her so hard that she died after a couple of days. Meiniang rejected all the stereotypes
attached to how a woman should act with her standard feet, as she was the head of
her family after the death of her mother-in-law. She also opened up her shop, where
she sold cooked dog meat. She became an independent woman who fulfilled her
desires because when she fell in love with Magistrate Qian, she headstrong went after
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him and expressed her love for him. Since Meiniang “had never been schooled in
the traditional feminine imperatives of “three obediences” …and the “four virtues”
…. She was, not surprisingly an untamed young woman” (Mo, 2013, p.116). The
only virtue she had was the physical charm which she used to run her business that
was thriving because of this charm.
Her resistance to the patriarchal power relation made her an unusual figure in the
society, and the people in the village never let her forget that she was unfit for society.
One such incident was when Meiniang was humiliated at a celebratory convocation
in front of Gaomi county. During the gathering, “First Lady casually adjusted her
skirts, revealing a pair of tiny, pointed golden lotuses. A gasp of admiration rose from
the crowd behind [Meiniang] …. The woman has exquisite feet and Meiniang felt as
ashamed to show her face” (p.122). As Meiniang was the only female in the crowd
who had unbound feet, she felt horrified and wanted to cut them to the correct size.
Revealing her golden lotuses had been a conscious act, intended to humiliate her,
to go on the offensive. Meiniang did not want to look, was unwilling to look at the
women’s bound feet, but she could not help her. They had pointed, slightly upturned
tips like water chestnuts…
The First Lady’s feet were magical weapons that subdued Meiniang, the girl from
the Sun family, as she felt a pair of mocking rays pass through pink gauze and land
unerringly on her face. No, not her face—they passed through the veil and her skirt
to land on her big feet. (Mo, 2013, p.122)
She tried so hard to hide her ugly feet with her skirt and fell in front of everyone
during this commotion. Magistrate Qian’s wife used her bounded feet to suppress
Meiniang’s desire for her husband publicly. Therefore, this simple act affected
Meiniang and reminded her of reality.
The foot binding ritual of China was a useless custom with only decorative
purposes, which made it sure that the females were bounded literally and figuratively.
This mutilation process made it impossible for women to walk properly on these
hooves, let alone do hard labour or run in them. Thus, binding women inside the
domestic realm. When Lu Xuan’er started getting her feet bound, “she’d stopped
going outside, spending nearly all her time weaving nets or doing embroidery” as
it was not easy to walk on the mutilated feet (Mo, 2012a, p.50). In order to stand
on these hooks, Xuan’er had to take support of her aunt.
In his novel Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out, Mo Yan also represents the
hardship women with bounded feet faced doing the republic period. During the
Land Reform of the 1950s, all the landlords were put into labour camps to reform
their minds. Ximen Bai, the wife of the executed landlord, Ximen Nao, suffered
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more than the rest of the people. As it was hard for her to work in her tiny bound
feet, that made her “stop and rest every four or five steps” even though she was only
“carrying half a basket of dirt” (Mo, 2012b, p.33). All that soft snow made it even
difficult for tiny bound feet to maintain their balance during the winter season. Even
after years of labour work, she still could not walk properly.
When she was assigned to feed the pigs during the cultural revolution, she “came
each day with two buckets of feed on a carrying pole, slowly making her way through
the snow on tiny, once-bound feet… As she made her way through the farm, she
kept from falling by using her long-handled ladle as a crutch” (Mo, 2012b, p.271).
It shows how before China became Republic, it was impossible for women to even
think outside their domestic realm. Since the foot-binding custom made sure of it,
even if such thought occurred, it would entirely be impossible and painful for women
to catch up with men. That further developed their reliance on men for knowledge
bourgeoning outside their assigned space in society.
Moreover, the fact that the women themselves enacted this act of mutilation
upon young girls also manipulated their minds. As “the lesson of “never trust a
woman” was branded upon her soul, and emotional dependency upon the seemingly
less involved males was guaranteed… Thus her mind was purely possessed, and
it became axiomatic that the possessor of tiny feet was a paradigm of feminine
goodness” (Daly, 1978). Thus, men held no responsibility for this brutality upon
females as they accused women of doing it to themselves.
The incident when Lu Xuan’er pleaded in front of her aunt not to tie her feet
too tight, her aunt replied by saying that “it’s tight because I love you…if I didn’t, I
wouldn’t care how loose they were. One day, when you have a perfect pair of golden
lotuses, you’ll thank me” (Mo, 2012a, p.49). Her uncle had no say in it, he even
asked the aunt to loosen them a bit, but his plea was ignored. Thereby, all the blame
was on the shoulders of the aunt, whom Xuan’er hated from the bottom of her heart.
According to men, women did it out of obligation and fear, the fear that “girls
who don’t bind their feet grow up to be big-footed spinsters that nobody wants”
(Mo, 2012a, p.48). However, little did they know that this is how patriarchal power
relations actually work. It hides its actual mechanism by fooling its subjects. The real
mastermind behind it was not women but men who exerted their power to determine
that maimed feet were criteria that provided men with authority to approve of a
woman. This apparatus of foot binding provided men with the capacity to accept
or reject whether a woman was suitable for marriage, thereby giving them an upper
hand in the institution of marriage.
This male sadism also concealed itself behind the feeling of compassion
associated with golden lotuses. “Throughout… long history, the delicate, pointed
tips of women’s feet have been viewed as genital organs, in a way from which men
have derived a sort of aesthetic pleasure that sets their sexual juice flowing” (Mo,
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2003, p.94). Since men only showed compassion or pity towards this ritual, it never
occurred to women that they were the agent behind their mutilation since they only
saw women as the ones responsible. The ritual hiding behind beauty and pleasure
blamed women, while men became advocates. The torture of women in the name of
beauty and pleasure established new normal that persisted for nearly a thousand years.
Nevertheless, during the republic period in China, the new master debased this
normative and decided to free women from this sado-ritual. The nationalists banned
binding the foot, saying that “those so-called fragrant lotuses were once nothing but
stinky feet” that had a “poisonous legacy of a feudal system” which were no more
than a “morbid aspect of life” (Mo, 2012a, p.50). The women with golden lotuses
that once lined the prospects from affluent families were now treated as “fallen
phoenix” (Mo, 2012a, p.53). The aunt of Lu Xuan’er, who dreamed of marrying
her niece with an emperor, had to now settle with a blacksmith’s son because the
bounded foot in the republic era had lost their importance. “The insensitivity of
the new masters to the suffering of these women manifested that this was hardly a
gynocentric revolution… evidently males were able to change their aesthetic standards
for female beauty when their politics required this” (Daly, 1978). Therefore, the
discourse was reversed, and tiny feet became the new way women were disdained
and humiliated. After thousand years of conditioning, what was normal for women
was not suddenly treated as unnatural. It also shows how power relations are present
everywhere and constantly changing with time. Since the primary goal of any power
relation is to attain its stability, it keeps on changing its strategy, which is evident
from the explanation.
The traditional discourse on sexuality from before the twentieth century, instead of
implicating “a massive censorship, beginning with the verbal proprieties imposed by
the Age of Reason,” regulated it and led to “polymorphous incitement to discourse”
(Foucault, 1978, 34). Since sexuality for Foucault is centralised in power relations,
with its interplay in the hierarchal setup, sexuality becomes “dangerous because of
its likely integration into hegemonic system of knowledge” (Chiacchieri, 2019, p.23).
Consequently, in the modern period, new technologies of sex were introduced via
various institutions such as medicine, pedagogy, and economics. These institutions
for Foucault targeted four approaches.
First is the “hysterization of women’s bodies”, in which women’s identity was
decided through sexuality, and this sexuality was alleged to be essential for raising
children and taking care of domestic life. Second, “pedagogization of children’s
sex”, where Foucault discussed masturbation by children; third “, socialisation of
procreative behavior”, where reproduction became a technology for the state to govern
the population. Fourth is “psychiatrisation of perverse pleasure”, in which doctors
considered aberrant sexual practices to understand the cause of such deviations.
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Foucault argues that sexuality is used as an instrument by which people establish

power relations over others in the modern period.
For him, sexuality “appears rather as an especially dense transfer point for
relations of power… Sexuality is not the most intractable element in power relation,
but rather one of those endowed with the greatest instrumentality: useful for the
greatest number of maneuvers” (Foucault, 1978, p.103-105). Moreover, the issue
of sexual violence is one of the aspects of such instrumentality. The power relation
associated with sexual violence is that of domination power relation. In his later
works, Foucault introduced the theory of domination, wherein he argues that there
are cases when the network of power relationships cannot diffuse spontaneously
within the social body, and such structure of power is categorised as domination.
In a state of domination, “the relation of power are fixed in such a way that they
are perpetually asymmetrical, and the margin of liberty is extremely limited” (Raul
et al., 1984, p.123).
Mo Yan has represented brutal incidents of sexual violence occurring throughout
the twentieth century in his novels, providing the reader with a sneak peek of how
women were treated in China, specifically during wartime. During the Second Sino-
Japanese War, when the Japanese massacred the villages and invaded Chinese land,
they were also known for brutally ravaging women. One such incident Mo Yan has
described in his first novel Red Sorghum, through the character of Second Grandma
named Passion. When the Japs came to her village, Passion was three months pregnant
and was with her little girl. She was aware of the fact that “Japanese soldiers were
like beast who wouldn’t even spare seventy-year-old women” (Mo, 2003, p.333).
The sudden attack by the Japanese gave her no time to escape, so instead, she stuffed
her top with clothes to look like a pregnant woman thinking the soldiers would spare
her. She also rubbed ash on her daughter’s face and hers too, to look ugly, as she
wanted to try anything possible to protect her daughter.
Nevertheless, when six soldiers broke into her house, one “soldier’s thick lips
parted as he reached out with a coarse, fleshy finger and touched her [Passion’s]
face, making her skin crawl”. He felt her body with his hands, and when he found
that Passion was faking her baby bump, he “drove his fist down into it, hard. Then,
pinning her legs with his knees, he reached down and undid his belt” (Mo, 2003,
p.337). Passion bit off his nose while trying to resist. Then one soldier grabbed her
daughter by her hair and flung her against the window. To save her daughter, Passion
undid her clothes and offered herself to the soldiers. The five soldiers gang rapped
her one after another, thereby flaunting their “abilities without a trace of shame or
embarrassment, making a grand display. [Passion] felt dead below the neck” (Mo,
2003, p.342).
One young soldier out of six beasts showed some shame while trying to get it
done. He could not do it and was made fun of by the other five Japanese soldiers.
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To prove himself, the young soldier instead stabbed Passion’s little daughter with
his bayonet and gave her dead body a swing and then tossed her away. The brutality
by the Japanese during the twentieth-century war is a well-known fact, as they hated
their neighbour Asian countries. The incidents of sexual violence were used as a
strategy to break the soul of their enemy. During the war, women were not the only
ones to be subjected to sexual violence. As Mo Yan also mentioned, the case of genital
mutilation of men by both Chinese and Japanese to abuse their masculine identity.
When the Japanese were invading China in 1938, “four hundred thousand man-
days were spent by the local workers from Gaomi, Pingdu, and Jiao counties in the
service of the Japanese army to build the Jiao-Ping highway” (Mo, 2003, p.15).
Japanese abducted people and animals to enslave them. The highways were built
by the forced labour of the Chinese peasants so that the Japs could easily transport
resources, their men and weapon across the country. Uncle Arhat, the servant of
the narrator’s Grandma, was also abducted from Northeast Gaomi County and
forced into labour. One night, when he found a way to escape hell on earth, he
was unfortunately caught and was punished by skinning alive in front of all the
other captured peasants, including women and children. Arhat’s ears and genitals
were sliced and fed to the Japanese officer’s dog. After removing the skin from his
whole body, he “turned into a mass of meaty pulp, his innards churned and roiled,
attracting swarms of dancing green flies. The women were on their knees, wailing
piteously” (Mo, 2003, p.39). Finally, his body was mutilated into bits and pieces
and scattered around.
However, the power relation shifted again, and the Chinese held the upper
hand later in the war. During the ambush of the Japanese convoy on the Jiao-Ping
highway, the men of Commander Yu killed the Japanese General Nakaoka Jiko
and his men. In order to get rid of the dead bodies of the enemy soldiers, they
decided to dump them into the Black Water river, as “if we bury them, they’ll
stink up put soil! If we burn them they’ll foul our air!” (Mo, 2003/1992, p.142).
Commander Yu told all the women to look away and ordered his men to slice the
genitals of the dead soldiers and “stuff the things into the mouth of their owners”
and shoved them into the eastward flow of the river (p.143). The incident of sexual
violence during conflict can be considered “an attempt to suppress challenges to
the social status of the dominant group” (Sivakumaran, 2007, p.268). In this case,
it can be understood as a strategy, where the Japanese intended to emasculate the
Chinese people reminding them that they failed to protect their women and their
own (masculine) identity. Therefore establishing “empowerment and masculinity
of the offender but disempowerment of the individual victims” (p.268). It shows
the working of domination power relation in the war, that occurs not only from the
body of women but also from the body of men.
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Apart from the exploitation from the Japanese, women were also abused by
their countrymen. Many resistance groups were formed to fight off the Japs during
the resistance movement. As in the novel Big Breasts and Wide Hips, the five
Black Donkey Musket Band men lost their senses when they saw Shangguan Lu
in the church. They tossed Shangguan Lu’s newly born twins among the donkeys
and harassed her. When Pastor Malory, the father of the twins when tried to stop
them, they shot him in the leg. After which all the five muskets “soldiers took turns
ravaging” her, and when “[s]atisfied, the soldiers tossed” her and her new born
twins out into the street (Mo, 2012a, p.105). In conflict, the sexist approach will
not justify sexual violence.
The brutality of the Japanese soldier can also be understood through the genocidal
theory, where specifically Chinese women were targeted. However, as illustrated
above, the incidents of Chinese men raping Chinese women can be explained by
the sexist approach and other factors. Since power relations work in a net-like
organisation, from multiple points, this allowed different reasons to be applicable
or be regarded as the perpetrator of sexual violence during war. One of them is
“poor discipline within military group”, which means that sexual violence was not
part of some strategy used by the Japanese soldiers upon their victims, but another
reason was because of the “breakdown of social order and control”, which explain
the rape cases by the Chinese men (Gordon, 2018, p.31).
Therefore, when we consider micro-level certainties of rape during war, Foucault’s
analysis allows multiple local points for domination power relation to exercise. Such
a framework also allows the understanding of rape “reportedly motivated by pre-
existing interpersonal conflict” (p.31). It is evident when the Speechless Sun raped
Lingdi, the third daughter of Shangguan Lu, when the first daughter Laidi who was
promised to him, ran away with Sha Yueliang. Here the incidence of rape results from
the mutual conflict between the families. Therefore, “we cannot case rape or sexual
violence in generic terms because of the phenomenological differences between
social identities. As rape may occur different harm on different situated subjects”
(Chiacchieri, 2019, p.23). Moreover, the traditional approach that only women are
the target of sexual violence, that domination power relation works only from men
to women can be adjusted according to Foucault. The above incidents where women
and men both experienced violence explain Foucault’s capillary motion of power
since the one propagating the power relation can also be affected when the relation
and situation are changed.
The number of rape cases that Mo Yan has presented in his novels stresses that
sexual violence against women can be considered “systemic sexualised control of
women” (Cahill, 2000, p.45). Therefore, Foucault argues that sexual violence should
not be problematised; instead, it should be treated as physical violence. He wants
to desexualise the incidents of rape, as he believes that this would be “a liberating
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blow against the disciplining discourses which construct sexuality as a means of

social and political power” (p.44). Foucault argues that women’s body acts as a
ground for this domination power relation.
That is, the discourse of sexuality produces women originally as a victim, as
their body is repeatedly sexualised and threatened by male sexuality and “produce
the feminine body as violable and weak” (Henderson, 2007, p.229). Thereby such
social treatment at the hand of dominating male sexuality fashioned the feminine
body “as the body of the guilty pre-victim” (Cahill, 2000, p.94). According to
Foucault, this sexist mechanism of power upon the body of a female is the central
component in the case of rape. As women are not only prone to violence alone,
instead that violence is sexualised where the body of women becomes essential to
understand such threat.
To conclude, speaking up against patriarchal power relations in the west in
contemporary society is relatively an easy task. However, it is something different
issue in a country like China, where the reality of women still has not changed much.
There has been an improvement to some extent, which is evident from the narrative
provided by Mo Yan. Speaking up about the inequality and despair experienced
by women through his wide-ranging characters is also an act of resistance against
the power relation. Moreover, using Foucault’s ideas on power and discourse, the
paper further allows the reader to understand Mo Yan’s way of rewriting history or
exposing the subjugated reality concerning women. Mo Yan’s fictional narratives
provide its readers with experiences of systemic subjugation of women through
various micro-level and macro-level power relations. Where the relationship of power
and knowledge visualised by discourse produced docile subjects. This discourse
shaped the feminine body that became the instrument of the patriarchal society. The
discourse on sexuality can also become a dangerous instrument used by men during
conflict, such as the Second Sino-Japanese War and Civil Wars as depicted in the
novels. That further traumatised and dominated men as well as women.
Therefore, Foucault’s multidirectional aspect of power relations allows women to
show active resistance. To completely shatter the patriarchal power structure might
seem impossible, so instead, women can resist the various technologies working
for the patriarchal power relation. For instance, in Sandalwood Death, Meiniang’s
natural feet opened her to other ways to show resistance towards systemic subjugation.
Such as breaking the shackles by being independent of the male figures for survival,
as she never respected her father and even subdued her husband. She was the only
businesswoman in her village who discarded the four virtues and followed her own
heart that had fallen in love with Magistrate Qian Ding.
Therefore, the only way to resist such systemic power relations is to resist the
tentacles one by one that spread out of patriarchal power relations. Mo Yan’s characters
resisted sexual violence through suicide during the war, where the dominating power
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relations is evident. Qian Ding’s wife poisoned herself when the Qing Dynasty fell;
on the other side, Shangguan Lu’s mother hanged herself to protect her chastity
and hid baby Lu in the flour basket during the first Sino-Japanese war. Foucault
argues that to avoid it, there is a need to desexualise the body and not treat the
sexual organs as something vulnerable. Furthermore, sexual violence is a complex
issue. Foucault’s argument regarding resistance towards it does not fully justify its
intensity. However, we can also not ignore his argument.
REFERENCES
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Hypatia, 15(1), 43–63. doi:10.1111/j.1527-2001.2000.tb01079.x
Chiacchieri, A. M. (2019). Sexual Violation, Feminism, and Foucault:
Against a Confessional Politics of Truth [Master’s thesis, CUNY]. https://
academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/3206?utm_source=academicworks.cuny.
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Daly, M. (1978). Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism. Bacon Press.
Dreyfus, H. L., & Paul, R. (1982). Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and
Hermeneutics. University of Chicago.
Duran, A., & Huang, Y. (Eds.). (2014). Mo Yan in Context: Nobel Laureate and
Global Storyteller. Purdue University Press.
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Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-footbinding-
persisted-china-millennium-180953971/
Foucault, M. (1978). The History of Sexuality: An Introduction (Vol. 1, R. Hurley,
Trans.). Pantheon Books.
Foucault, M. (1980). Power/ Knowledge: Selected Interviews & Other Writings
1972-1977 (C. Gordon, Ed.). Pantheon Books.
Foucault, M. (1991). Discipline and Punish: Birth of Prison (A. Sheridan, Ed.).
Penguin Books.
Foucault, M. (2003). Society Must be Defended (A. I. Davidson, Ed., MaceyD.,
Trans.). Picador.
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Gordon, H. (2018). A Foucauldian-Feminist Understanding of Patterns of Sexual

Violence in Conflict. The Philosophical Journal of Conflict and Violence, II(1),
22–40. doi:10.22618/TP.PJCV.20182.1.171002
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Rape Prevention. Berkeley Journal of Gender. Law & Justice, 22(1), 225–253.
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published 1992)
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Publishing. (Original work published 2006)
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Chapter 10
There Was No Escape
Epiphany:
Subversion and Symbolic in
Clarice Lispector’s “Love”
Malvika Manisha Lobo

The English and Foreign Languages University, India
ABSTRACT
Clarice Lispector is one of the most prominent figures of literary modernism in Latin
America. Her oeuvre explores themes of existentialism, narratives of silence, and
various ideas of freedom. Her self-reflexive style of writing and experimentation
with the Portuguese language reflects her attempt to invoke alternate meanings
through her narrative. The characters’ identities in her short stories through their
exploratory nature give rise to a great deal of identity and gender play. They provoke
possibilities and prospects to create new gender roles and subversive practices by
the manifestations of thoughts and actions in various ways. This chapter examines
her use of the epiphany in her short story “Love” from the collection of short stories
entitled Family Ties. The focus rests on the symbolic violence that ensues from this
deviation through thought (language) and action as a response to subversion under
patriarchy. The theoretical approach reads against the grain in the light of Viktor
Shlovsky’s “defamiliarization” and Pierre Bourdieu’s notion of habitus and field.
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch010
There Was No Escape Epiphany
INTRODUCTION
Clarice Lispector is one among the major modernist literary figures in South America.
Her fiction has actively engaged in the process of reconfigurationand manipulation of
the Portuguese language in twentieth century Brazil. This reconfiguration of language
is intimately connected to complex relationship between identity and language. She
is known for her creative use of language, depicting the implications of language, and
articulating multiple meanings. Lispector’s literary practices reflect the inexpressible
notion of self and being and the isolation that a human being faces within various
societal structures. She depicts subversion of identity by depicting the limits of the
language used itself. Her writing embodies the stream of consciousness mode of
narrative and explores the boundaries of Portuguese language, thus contributing to
the modernist movement of Brazil. The female characters in her short stories are
portrayed strongly, and their thoughts are described in immense depth through her
language. This paper’s focus rests on the analysis of Lispector’s narratives to explore
the link between language and a form of symbolic violence, namely epiphanic
violence in her texts. This paper analyses her short story titled ‘Amor’ or ‘Love’
from her collection entitled Family Ties. It defines violence in the context of her text
and then addresses how she has used language to convey this violence by analyzing
her use of epiphany to express this symbolic violence.
The existing scholarship on Lispector’s literature identifies the silence that pervades
her stories, existentialism faced by women, and Lispector’s skepticism towards
language due to its inability to convey and articulate meaning. Martha Peixoto’s
text Passionate Fictions: Gender, Narrative, and Violence in Clarice Lispector’s
Fiction presents a critical introduction. Of how one of Lispector’s main innovations
is her inscription of the female who is sensitive to the struggles of power. Peixoto
claimes that in Lispector’s fiction the female is an active participant in the power
struggle (Peixoto, 1994). She disagrees with Helene Cixous’s approach, which
involves aspects of American and French feminism. In readings of representative
moments in Lispector’s fiction, Peixoto explores the nexus of “gender, violence,
and narrative” that looks at Lispector’s “repositioning of the female, which she
adopts a gendered approach rather than a feminist one” (Peixoto, 1994, p.39). She
shows how in the “perplexing moments” of Lispector’s narratives, in which the
“distinctions of autobiography and fiction are a blur, the structures in the narrative
are ambiguously gendered which results in the victimization of characters” (Peixoto,
1994, p.82). She also talks about how Lispector uses violence in her characters
and stories and the impact that this violence has on the psyche of her characters.
Through the use of violence, both physical and symbolic, the reader is made to
connect and sympathize with the characters that are in a struggle to conform to
rigorous patriarchal structures. This alienation suffered by Lispector’s characters is
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exclusively a product of their condition as gendered women who reside in nuclear,

patriarchal, and heterosexual families.
BACKGROUND
This paper contends that along with using violence just as a way to enable the
reader to sympathize with the characters in the text, she uses violence also as a way
to alienate the reader from the experience of the character itself, thus compelling
the reader to analyze and ponder further. By making the narrative’s meaning and
perception appear strange to the reader as in the act of ‘defamiliarizing the reader’
as defined by Viktor Shklovsky in his essay ‘Art as Technique’ (Shklovsky, 2017,
p.9), she reorients her reader towards violence by portraying the limitations of
language and its inability to articulate the feelings of capitivity experienced by
Ana, the protoganist of ‘Love’. Lispector’s experimentation with language shows
how the violence in her stories breaks out primarily through epiphanic moments.
Moreover, to place this symbolic violence and its implications in a context, Pierre
Bourdieu’s concept of habitus and field is used to analyze Ana’s interaction with
her surroundings in which she experienced the epiphany.
Commonly violence is often attributed to causing harm, whether physical or
mental. The American Heritage Dictionary defines the term violence as physical
force exerted to cause damage or injury and is an instance of violent action.
Alternatively, the word violence is defined as “distortion of meaning or intent (in
a text)” (HarperCollins n.d.). The textual violence in ‘Amor’ occurs through her
use of free indirect speech and epiphany. This suggests that violence can exist both
through its physical manifestation and at the level of language used in the narrative
insofar as the narrative is looked at as the amalgamation of the meaning, content as
well as intent is susceptible to a detriment. This phenomenon occurs at the level of
reading and introspecting of the narrative by the reader. Lispector chooses to present
her narratives in such as way that includes only the thoughts of her characters. Both
the epiphanies experienced by the characters and the free indirect speech result in
the distraction of the meaning-making process and the disorientation of the truth.
The intent of the author remains concealed to the reader engaged in the text. She
includes only certain scenes, thus enabling access to thoughts of specific characters.
The epiphanic moments serve to alienate or defamiliarize the reader. Viktor
Shklovsky defines it under “defamiliarization or estrangement” engaging the reader
in such a way that the reader is introduced to the “familiar in the new” often in jarring
ways (Shklovsky, 2017, p.10). He claims that ordinary thoughts and familiar aspects
should be presented to the reader in a new way through words of art. Rather than
using familiar language to describe things, the writer ought to provide ample space
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to the reader so that they can view the ordinary afresh in a new light. Though the
aspects portrayed might be familiar to the reader, the effect of this estrangement
should make the reader feel as though he is indeed viewing the aspects of the text
for the first time. Shklovsky talks about art as a medium to be engaged with and
deliberated on slowly, thereby forcing people to think about what they are reading
(Shklovsky, 2017, p.11). Being a modernist writer Lispector used techniques that
slowed readers down and presented the world in new ways. Through this, she tried
to portray the multifaceted nature of reality and the subjectivity experienced by
women. These include interpolating repetitions, silences, the engagement with the
thought process of the character and perpetual redirection by the characters along
with calculated representations of the pained physical body or gazes.
Lispector’s skepticism of language is due to the inability of language to convey
meaning. Earl Fitz in his post structuralist analysis of the Lispectorian universe
claims that through the “refection of silences and inner cognitions, languages play a
role in reshaping the identities of her protagonists” (Fitz, 1998, p.33). The function
of language is vital and an enigmatic force in human existence. In fiction, language
gradually emerges as the real subject matter of the novel. This is more so evident
among her female characters who are constantly negotiating their identity in the
patriarchal society. This negotiation leads to the characters experiencing epiphanic
moments in which they suddenly have desires to get away from their respective
families and move towards freedom and independence. Yet this is only restricted to
and reflected through their thoughts, and does not materialize into action.
The idea of the epiphany is prevalent in modernist criticism. Sharon Kim in
the analysis of the epiphanic moments claims that the epiphany is a moment of
realization often invoking spiritual sentiments of a higher order (Kim, 2006, p.152).
A similar view of the epiphany is in line with Robert Langbaum’s expression of
the epiphany in fiction as “a manifestation in and through the visible world of an
invisible life”. A close range study of Lispector’s epiphanic moments seems to
resonate with that of Woolf’s epiphanies that Langbaum characterizes as “moments
of being”(Langbaum, 1983, p.335).
In the initial passages of her story ‘Love’ in the collection, Family Ties Lispector
describes the protagonist Anna who is a housewife and says:
Deep down, Ana had always needed to feel the firm root of things. And this is what
a home bewilderingly had given her. Through winding paths, she had fallen into a
woman’s fate, …The man she’d married was a real man, the children she’d had were
real children. Her former youth seemed as strange to her as one of life’s illnesses.
She had… continuity, joy. What had happened to Ana before she had a home was
forever out of reach: a restless exaltation so often mistaken for unbearable happiness.
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In exchange she had created something at last comprehensible, an adult life. That
was what she had wanted and chosen (Lispector, 2017, p.44).
Ana fails to perceive her life before she became a homemaker and links her
happiness to her housewifely duties. Ana is well settled into her domestic life and
she mainly focuses on her responsibilities as a wife and a mother. She spends her life
doing the same thing every day which includes taking care of the children, cooking
food, tending to her husband and making sure the house is spotlessly clean and in
order. Her worries are restricted to her family and these worries have distanced her
from the outside world. She believes that she has chosen the vocation of being a
homemaker and performs accordingly. Here, Ana’s role as a homemaker dictates
her identity and her ‘self’. As Maria Clark in her analysis of the story claims “family
relationships which in the form of a social tie draw the boundaries of the individual’s
existence” (Clark, 1990, p.14) and the dynamics of these relationships are bought
to the forefront in Lispector’s stories.
Ana’s performance and vocation dominate her life as she fears the times when
she has nothing more to do or no one in her family requires her services. The story
takes a turn with an epiphany when Ana encounters a blind man chewing gum as
she was worrying about her family on the tram. On seeing the blind man, she is
forced to think about the world outside her home. Ana is unable to deal with the
incomprehensibility of the open space that is different from the predictability of
her domestic space. This leads to her disorientation and lack of understanding. She
is so restricted in her identity within her familial structure and her home that she is
unable to grasp the existence of problems that exist outside her home. The problems
of the outside words manifest as a shock and an epiphany. Ana’s solace comes from
being needed by her children and her husband. Freedom from this role and breaking
away was a terrifying experience.
her heart beat violently, at intervals. Leaning forward, she stared intently at the
blind man, the way we stare at things that don’t see us. He was chewing gum in the
dark. Without suffering, eyes open. (Lispector, 2017, p.45)
Ana falls over unexpectedly, breaks her eggs and spills the contents of her bag
in the tram. This action which is very careless and unlike her; it mimics the turmoil
that the beggar causes to her mind. Life goes on as usual for the other passengers
on the tram. Lispector’s use of interior monologues showcases the epiphanic
development in Ana’s mind that manifests due to the otherwise mundane encounter
with the beggar. Ana is sympathetic towards the blind man, which to Ana is an
experience that is out of the ordinary. Through the epiphany, Lispector critiques
the domestic sphere that the woman is restricted to and attempts to portray how
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it limits a woman’s thought process. Lispector, through the epiphany, claims that
even fundamental feelings like sympathy towards others can lead us to question the
nature and the foundations of being.
She had pacified life so well, taken such care for it not to explode. She had kept it all
in serene comprehension, separated each person from the rest, clothes were clearly
made to be worn and you could choose the evening movie from the newspaper—
everything wrought in such a way that one day followed another. And a blind man
chewing gum was shattering it all to pieces. (Lispector, 2017, p. 46)
The knowledge of the beggar, who to Ana was not privileged, led her to question
her own identity. On witnessing the blind beggar’s ordeal, Ana realizes that she had
not ventured outside on her own and thought about the world outside. The home
is a space that limits her thoughts. Hence, it ceases to be the place of comfort and
definite happiness as she has progressed beyond it through that experience. Ana
finds it hard to place her experience with the beggar into her domestic sphere and
familial thoughts. Her effort was only further restricted to her husband and her
children. The problems of the world have no space in the realm of her household.
However, on coming home, it is her husband and her kids who drag her back into
reality by stating that they require her assistance. “…in a gesture that wasn’t his
(her husband’s), but that seemed natural, he held his wife’s hand, taking her along
without looking back, removing her from the danger of living.”
The dizziness of benevolence was over. And, if she had passed through love and its
hell, she was now combing her hair before the mirror, for an instant with no world
at all in her heart. Before going to bed, as if putting out a candle, she blew out the
little flame of the day. (Lispector, 2017, p. 47)
By virtue of being a mother, a wife and a woman in accompanying patriarchal

structures, she is forced to leave the epiphanic experience behind and continue with
her day-to-day chores. The blowing out of the metaphorical flame represents her
moving on from the incident to go back to her old life in which her family occupies
the central role. She is drawn back to familiarity after her epiphanic moment. This
moment of Ana’s epiphany is deeply rooted in her thoughts. Ana’s reaction to these
thoughts is very physical.
Ana negotiates with the domestic “terrain of struggle” and the public field that
is alien to her on is unable to cope with the experience. The follow section reflects
on how the domestic ‘field’, traditionally seen as belonging to women, limits Ana’s
possibilities of a radical reconstitution of her self by stripping her sovereignty, leaving
only faith and fatalism behind.
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This paper draws on two concepts of Bourdieu’s work namely habitus and field.
While his work simultaneously draws criticism for its obscurity and praise for being
irreducibly complex, these concepts resonate strongly with the notion of violence as
a detriment in Lispector’s epiphanic moments to analyze further implications of the
epiphany itself as presented in the story. The notion of habitus can be understood
as “the internalised form of class condition and of the conditionings it entails”
(Bourdieu, 2012, p. 95), or as “mediating notion that revokes the common sense
duality between the individual and the social by capturing the internalisation of the
external and the externalization of the internal, that is, the way society becomes
deposited in persons in the form of lasting dispositions” (Navarro, 2006, p.16). The
concept of field in Bourdieu (2012) can be understood as an arena within which
habitus functions. The field is a structure that embodies cultural, social and political
capitals, within which individuals contest for space based on their habitus (ibid.).
Upon plain reading, Ana is seen being overwhelmed and anxious by the general
chaos and commotion of the market, the place where she spends time buying groceries
until she decided to board the tram back home. A deeper reading reveals that she
isn’t passively engaged in the environment of the marketplace. She is engaged in this
new field through the act of looking and observing, especially so in her perception
of the beggar. Early in the story, we know that Ana’s life revolves solely around
the domestic. The market place is not however innocent of its gendered and class
baggage. The marketplace serves as an extension of the domestic itself with its
familiarly rooted in the domestic sphere, however, the presence of the beggar to
Ana is alien and off putting. Thus, the act of coming into a newer field that is not a
part of the domestic that her life revolves around is not free of demanding violent
reconstitutions of social and cultural norms that make up Ana’s habitus. Though
physically she feels handicapped but her mind is racing with the realization of her
restricted self. The plot of the story is devoid of any action as the epiphany takes
centre stage all so suddenly while serving as a detriment to the narrative to present
a deeper perspective to the reader. Ana’s engagement with this new field of the
marketplace on encountering the situation gives it “time and thought” on her own
terms.
Even after this realization, Ana goes back to her former life. She is very much
aware of her restrictions within structures but there is no active rebellion in her action.
Ana’s is unable to actively articulate her thoughts. However, though the epiphany
she along with the reader is ‘defamiliarized’ with the domestic that was initially
familiar to Ana brings now discomfort and estrangement. It serves as a detriment
to her day to day chores that she is bound to complete that are patriarchal, to which
she offers resistance though thought in a very minimal way.
Reading Ana’s account against Bourdieu’s (2012) idea of habitus allows for an
interplay between free will and social structures in a way that avoids the overused tropes
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of both the helpless woman incapable of participating in society and the oppressive
evil society that inhibits its women from their full self-expression. Lispector’s craft
lies in conveying the violence of the burden of epiphanic participation in a public
space without undermining Ana’s epistemic standpoint. For it is Ana’s gaze that
inhabits the field and describes its gendered composition. Ana’s character resists
being cast as merely the object of the readers’ sympathy and portrays her as someone
who is aware of her condition.
Lispector takes great care to emphasize the domesticity of her characters. The
opening lines of the story that begin with Ana’s thoughts in the market revolve around
her family and her household affairs such as her children, her husband’s brothers
coming to dinner and her warm comfortable house. She even compares herself to a
farmhand who sowed the seeds that now are her grown up children. This can be read
as a conscious ordering of the domestic field as an intimate space that the women’s
habiti inhabit. Ana seems to be at home both literally and figuratively in her thoughts
almost all the time in the time frame of the story. Another interesting aspect to note
is Ana’s perception of her youth. She associates it to be being happy and carefree but
states that one has to get accustomed to “living without joy”. The domestic milieu
to Ana is a routine, devoid of joy and freedom at the same time this was something
she “wanted and had chosen” and in which she ought to find fulfillment by virtue
of being a woman. However, even here Lispector problematizes the narrative by
asking questions about Ana’s sovereignty over herself and her thoughts. This conflict
of sovereignty plays out at multiple levels throughout the story. At one level is her
sovereignty over her vocation that the domestic engagement robs her of. Through
claiming that she is ‘in love’ with the beggar and experiencing a sudden burst of
sympathy, Ana nurtures a great desire to break away from her family and children to
move to the more ‘public field’. She looks at herself as though someone whom the
beggar needs. She is also aware that she would never belong here as the beggar would
prefer a more “poorer love.” The second aspect is Ana’s perception of happiness and
youth. She does not look at her youth with nostalgia, though she associates it with
happiness. Youth to Ana is a phase of illness and something she has left completely
behind. She refused to acknowledge her youthfulness. As the narrative progresses
Lispector’s choice for an epiphany that leads to self realization allows for a poignant
interplay of Ana’s losing battle for meaningful self understanding. Her sovereignty
over her own time is denied through the frequent and jarring interruptions in her
thought process that keep her rooted in her family and her children pressing for her
attention. These interactions prevent Ana from further thoughts as well.
Such interplay heightens the sense of bereavement at the loss of Ana’s sovereignty.
This makes for a very literal “externalizing of the internal and internalizing of the
external” (Navarro, 2006, p.16) talks about when describing habitus. Once again,
this grotesque interplay of epiphanic love towards the strange and her love for
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family is as shocking as it is thought provoking. What comes through this play is

the impossibility of radical contestation of power within the domestic field. Among
the two ‘loves’, we see that the familial love wins and Ana moves back with her
family. She also internally pleads with her children to ensure that they do not let
her abandon them.
The security of Ana’s husband’s good nature, a nice household, and children
paradoxically limit the possibilities of self-expression within the home. Lispector’s
characters deceptively simple characters and stories resist simple, prescibed
classification into established tropes. Hence, Ana can be read as a character in an
alien field trying to negotiate her habitus on her own terms, rather than merely an
unfortunate reading of a woman who is unable to completely assert herself in the
last space that she can claim as her own. Lispector compels the reader to think and
challenge both the legitimacy of the emancipatory project and the false dichotomy
of domestic female and public male. For Ana being thrust into a new field opens up
possibilities of tepid engagements with gendered and classed spaces. The familiarity
of the domestic field allows the violent and creative possibilities of fashioning a
different habitus that comes due to her position as a woman.
REFERENCES
Bourdieu, P. (2012). Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste.

Routledge.
Clark, M. (1990). Facing the Other in Clarice Lispector’s Short Story ‘Amor.’ Letras
Femeninas, 16(1/2), 13–20. www.jstor.org/stable/23020927
Fitz, E. (1998). The Passion of Logo(Centrism), or, the Deconstructionist Universe
of Clarice Lispector. Luso-Brazilian Review, 25(2), 33–44. www.jstor.org/
stable/3513257
Kim, S. (2006). Edith Wharton and Epiphany. Journal of Modern Literature, 29(3),
150–175. www.jstor.org/stable/3831692
Langbaum, R. (1983). The Epiphanic Mode in Wordsworth and Modern Literature.
New Literary History, 14(2), 335–358. www.jstor.org/stable/468689
Lispector, C. (2017). Complete Stories. Penguin.
Navarro, Z. (2006). In Search of a Cultural Interpretation of Power: The Contribution
of Pierre Bourdieu. IDS Bulletin, 37(6), 6, 11–22. doi:10.1111/j.1759-5436.2006.
tb00319.x
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Peixoto, M. (1994). Passionate fictions: gender, narrative, and violence in Clarice

Lispector. Univerisity of Minnesota Press.
Shlovsky, V. (2017). Art as Technique. In J. Rikvin & M. Rya (Eds.), Literary
Theory: An Anthology (pp. 8–14). Blackwell Publishing.
105
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Chapter 11
An Ecofeminist Reading of
Amitav Ghosh’s Jungle Nama
Sayantani Sengupta
St Xavier’s University, India
ABSTRACT
The relationship between women and nature is powerful. Through various legends and
folktales, women have been projected as the goddesses who would save the forests as
well as save the world from overconsumption and greed. The focus of this chapter is
one of the popular legends of India, the legend of Bonbibi in Amitav Ghosh’s Jungle
Nama. Bonbibi is widely worshipped by the people of the Sundarbans, which has
been mentioned by Ghosh in his novel The Hungry Tide. But the primary focus of
Jungle Nama is on the three central characters, Dukhey, Dhona, and Dokkhin Rai,
and how Bonbibi comes as a saviour of the young boy, Dukhey, and thus becomes
the preserver of the natural order. On the other hand, Manasa, the snake goddess
can also be portrayed as someone who maintains a balance between life and death,
avarice and generosity, as well as good and evil. The chapter intends to critically
study Ghosh’s retelling of the Bonbibi legend through an ecofeminist lens and also
includes the story of Manasa to substantiate the interconnections between women
and nature.
INTRODUCTION
Though the term “ecofeminism” is contemporary, the primary motive behind it has
always encouraged women to save their surroundings, the nature and the livelihood,
as mentioned by Ariel Salleh in the foreword of Ecofeminism (ix). (Mies and Shiva,
2014) One of the earliest successful environmental movements in India is the Bishnoi
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch011
An Ecofeminist Reading of Amitav Ghosh’s Jungle Nama
movement of the 1700s. Amrita Devi and the Bishnoi villagers hugged the trees to
stop the massacre which was led by the soldiers of the king. Due to this movement,
the king ordered to protect the land and the animals from further attacks. A similar
movement can be found in the Tehri-Garhwal region in 1973 which is popularly known
as the Chipko movement. The role of women in this movement was remarkable and
this became a turning point in the history of environmental movements, both locally
and globally. Many such movement followed after this and they were dedicated to
safeguard the natural resources, which is the primary essence of ecocriticism. Vandana
Shiva, in her book Staying Alive (Shiva, 1988), established the fact that women
and nature are intertwined, “nature is symbolized as the embodiment of feminine
principle” and she is also protected and nurtured by a woman for sustenance and life
(p. 37). Shiva further emphasized on the importance of the dynamic energy called
Shakti because everything arises from this energy itself and the “manifestation of this
power, this energy, is called nature (Prakriti). “Nature, both animate and inanimate,
is thus an expression of Shakti, the feminine and creative principle of the cosmos;
in conjunction with the masculine principle (Purusha), Prakriti creates the world.”
(p. 37). Thus, the presence and interconnectedness of men and women forms the
focal point of the Indian ecology because the two are inseparable and important to
maintain a balance in the world.
Since the humans started to exploit nature in the name of development, their
greed intensified, and the economic growth became the most important aspect. Soon,
instead of being a part of nature, humans became the center of it and disregarded
the nonhumans. It affected the bond between human beings as well, the survival
of the fittest became the ultimate truth because individuals could go to any extent
to acquire wealth and fame in the society. Through several folktales and legends,
humans have given the responsibility to a woman to save nature from repeated
exploitation. One of them is the famous legend of Bon Bibi, which is popular
among the people of Sundarban. Since it is meant to read aloud and performed,
they regularly enact the legend as a stage-play in the villages as said by Amitav
Ghosh (2021) in his afterword of Jungle Nama (p. 74). In an article, “Tales From
the Forest”, Ghosh mentioned, “the basic message of the Bon Bibi legend is that it
is essential to place limits on human greed in order to preserve a balance between
the needs of humans and those of other beings. This message does not belong to
any one religion: it recurs frequently in the stories of Adivasis and forest peoples
around the world” (Ghosh, 2021). This article also highlights a major practice, the
practice of acceptance without any discrimination on the basis of caste or religion.
People of the Sundarban region read, follow and respect the legend of Bon Bibi
irrespective of their religion and caste, hence Ghosh said, “The story provides a
kind of ethical charter—almost a law—for how people should relate to the forest,
and it has an enormous influence on the lives of the inhabitants.”
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RETELLING OF THE BON BIBI LEGEND BY GHOSH
In an article, “Tales from the Forest”, Amitav Ghosh (2021) declared that “Jungle
Nama is not intended to be a definitive or accurate version of the narrative; it is
rather, yet another interpretation of a story that already exists in many forms.”
Though Ghosh has retained the essence of a panchali (a genre of Bengali narrative
folk songs), by using a variation of the Bengali dwipodi poyar (two-footed line,
especially used in Mangal kavyas and panchali) meter, his primary focus is on the
story of Dhona, Dukhey, Dokkhin Rai and Bon Bibi, which is only one-third of
the entire legend. The writer has glorified the preserver of the Sundarban forest,
Bon Bibi, in Jungle Nama to create a balance between the needs of humans and the
importance of the other beings.
The appearance of Bon Bibi was primarily to create a demarcation between
the forest and other species and the space of humans. Dokkhin Rai could rule the
southern part of the forest with pride but he cannot come out and there would be
no human intervention as well, as per the blessings of the goddess. Hence Ghosh
mentioned the crucial point right at the beginning of the poetry,
Thus did Bon Bibi create a dispensation, that brought peace to the beings of Sundarban;
every creature had a place, every want was met, all needs were balanced, like the
lines of a couplet. (p. 6)
Dhona or the Rich One had enough wealth to lead a prosperous life but he was
not satisfied, he wished to acquire more. Thus, irrespective of his brother, Mona’s
warning that the “tigers know the smell of greed” (p. 10), he planned to visit the
Sundarban to collect the treasures of nature in his seven grand ships and also included
his poor nephew, Dukhey in this journey. Though his mother did not wish to let him
go to the land of dangers, Dukhey insisted and so did Dhona because the latter’s
intensions were false; he took the young boy just to satisfy his own thirst for wealth
and thus committed the second sin. The old widow had difficulties in trusting the
rich and the proud Dhona because her experience told her that Dukhey will not be
in safe hands in the dangerous tideland. However, being a mother, she had faith on
another mother, the Mother of the Forest, “Ma Bon Bibi” (p. 23) who would save
his only son from all the dangers and spirits of the mangrove forest. Hence, before
Dukhey left with Dhona, she made him aware about the power of the goddess and
also the power of the words and rhyme, so much so that a prayer addressed in the
dwipodi poyar can reach Bon Bibi if uttered with enough faith in the heart. Bon
Bibi is the mother of all life forms, hence, she always protects everyone from the
evil, primarily from the evil sights of Dokkhin Rai.
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The unearthly Dokkhin Rai wanted the life of the innocent Dukhey in return for
wealth, that would be given to the avaricious Dhona. Though his uncle wanted to
save Dukhey from the evil spirit, he was soon entrapped and enchanted by Dokkhin
Rai, who wished to taste the young blood. His greed turned Dhona into a merciless
man, who did not care about the safety of his poor nephew because money was
more important to him. However, the blessings of Bon Bibi saved Dukhey and
both the goddess and her brother, Shah Jongoli, taught Dokkhin Rai a lesson. As
a result, Dukhey was turned into a wealthy man because Dokkhin Rai wanted to
harm an innocent individual which does not fall under the law of nature. Dukhey
and his mother were simple and virtuous beings, his old mother never wished to
become wealthy because her son was her greatest wealth, their trust and faith in
Bon Bibi pushed them closer to her and thus, their lives were the happiest of all.
Ghosh concludes the poem with some of the most crucial lines which sums up the
impact and importance of Bon Bibi:
With Bon Bibi’s blessings, Dukhey was no longer sad; he lived life in contentment,
not downcast but glad, grateful forever to his teacher, Bon Bibi; who’d taught him
the secret of how to be happy: All you need do, is to be content with what you’ve
got; to be always craving more, is a demon’s lot. A world of endless appetite is a
world possessed, is what your munshi’s learned, by the way of this quest. (p. 70)
BON BIBI AND MANASA AS THE PRESERVERS OF NATURE
Sundarban, which literally means a beautiful forest, is also the place of the ferocious
Royal Bengal tigers along with other dangerous animals. Since the people (both
Hindus and Muslims) of Sundarban depend on the forest for their livelihood and
food, they have to visit the forest frequently, where they are often exposed to the
ferocity of the tigers. Hence, they, irrespective of their religions, pray to Bon Bibi,
who had come from Medina, before they enter the forest because they believe
that only she can save them from dangers. Annu Jalais (2010), in the article titled,
“Forest of Tigers: People, Politics and Environment in the Sundarbans” writes
that “her worshippers do not think of her in terms of ‘Muslim’ or ‘Hindu’ but as a
‘forest super-power’ who extends her protection over individuals of all communities
equally.” (p. 69) An individual must enter the forest empty handed and he or she
must have a pure heart so that Bon Bibi blesses them. She does not need an offering
to help the ones in distress, one must have the faith that she would protect them
because she is the mother of all beings. Anuja Adhikari, a woman who plays the
role of Bon Bibi in the Bon Bibi’r palagaan showcased her immense belief in the
goddess when she said, “The money I bring home runs the family. The only time I
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forget my troubles and feel happy is when I act and sing as Bon Bibi. I have faith that
Bon Bibi will look after us.” After the terrible cyclone, Amphan, which had swept
through Sundarban in 2020, the people of that place were happy that Ma Bon Bibi
had saved their lives, and in a news article, “Why the Sundarbans has unwavering
faith in Bon Bibi --- a forest deity with a stage presence” by Dipanita Nath (2020),
one of the residents had mentioned, “We do not have a roof but I feel blessed. Bon
Bibi saved our lives.” The people of Sundarban encounter with multiple challenges
and life risks every day but their main source of strength is the forest goddess who
takes care of them and their livelihood along with the other forest animals. Just like
every child is equal and important for a mother, each and every species is equal in
the eyes of the mother of Nature, Bon Bibi.
On the other hand, though Manasa is a marginalised goddess, who is primarily
worshipped by the indigenous people, as stated by Azhar Uddin Sahaji (2019) in
his article, “The Divine Marginalized: The Case of Goddess Manasa in Ketkadas
Khemananda’s Manasa Mangal.”, she is full of beauty, vigour and youth, who is the
preserver of nature and the goddess of snakes, as argued in another article, “The Art
& Artisans of Tripura: Living Tradition of Goddess ―Manasa.” (Das 2020). With
her blessings, people can be saved from the dangerous and poisonous snakes, who
are mostly seen during the monsoon season, hence Manasa is widely worshipped in
the Bengali month of Ashaara, when rain envelops the areas and people are scared of
the snake bites. In the Manasa Mangalkavya, we can find a reference to the unique
stories of Manasa but the one with Chand Saudagar, the devotee of Shiva, is the
most famous. Being the manas kanya of Lord Shiva, Manasa was never allowed
to be a part of the mainstream gods and goddesses. Hence, she had to engage in a
serious conflict with Chand Saudagar to showcase her valour and strength and to
break his pride and his belief on one God only. Manasa has the power to control
the natural calamities which is also portrayed in the mangalkavya when Chand’s
ships get destroyed and his sons die in a terrible storm, launched by the goddess.
However, at last, Behula’s (Chand’s daughter-in-law) devotion and faith in Manasa
gave her the power to convince Chand to worship the snake goddess and as a result
Manasa returned the lives of his sons, including Lokhindar (Behula’s husband). This
episode marked the victory of a marginalised, indigenous and deformed goddess over
the primary Aryan gods and goddesses. Since Manasa is also known as Bishohora
(the destroyer of poison), she is the saviour of people from the deadly snake bites.
The goddess also cleanses the poison inside our minds and hearts in the form of
avarice to gain more than required and hatred towards other individuals as well as
species. Manasa is also called Padmavati because in some of her depictions, she is
found seated on a lotus holding a serpent in one hand, thus, portraying herself as
the mother of all living beings and nature. The legend of Manasa makes us aware
of the fact that humans are a part of nature and the time has come to get rid of the
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anthropocentric beliefs so that further destruction of nature and climate change can
be controlled.
CONCLUSION
Both Bon Bibi and Manasa are portrayed as warriors in the respective legends since
they fight against all odds to establish their foremost roles in the conservation of
nature. In his famous novel, The Hungry Tide, Ghosh dedicated quite a few pages to
introduce Bon Bibi and her valour and projected her as a warrior who rules over the
forests of Sundarban without the assistance of a king. Coming out of the domestic
sphere, which is mostly dedicated to a woman, she dedicated herself to eternally
conserve nature and show the right path to the people.
On the other hand, Manasa being the indigenous goddess and also deformed
because she is blind in one eye and her head is often projected like a fish head or
snake head, she is marginalised physically, socially, financially and geographically
as stated by Azhar Uddhin Sahaji (2019). In spite of getting rejected by Chand
Saudagor and the mainstream gods, she, through her ability and power, could win
over them and since then Manasa has been worshipped by all. Though she had the
divine qualities, Manasa’s journey towards establishment was never untroubled and
undisturbed like most of the women in our society. Hence Bon Bibi and Manasa
become the voices and strengths of women who wishes to showcase their identity
by overcoming the hurdles of patriarchy and dominance. They are intertwined with
nature, which is the source of all beings.
REFERENCES
Chowdhury, S. (2018). Women In Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide: Their Struggle
Against Norms And Desperate Attempt To Transgress Gender Roles. Quest Journals:
Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Science, 6(4), 54–58.
Ghosh, A. (2021). Jungle Nama. Harper Collins.
Ghosh, A. (2021). Tales from the Forest. Daak Bangla.
Jalais, A. (2014). Forest of tigers: People, politics and environment in the Sundarbans.
Routledge India. doi:10.4324/9780203085516
Nath, D. (2020). Why the Sundarbans Has Unwavering Faith in Bon Bibi — A Forest
Deity with a Stage Presence. The Indian Express.
111
Panchali. (n.d.). Banglapedia. en.banglapedia.org/index.php/Panchali

Sahaji, A. U. (2019). The Divine Marginalized: The Case of Goddess Manasa in
Ketkadas Khemananda’s Manasa Mangal. Lapis Lazuli: An International Literary
Journal, 9(1), 118–23. pintersociety.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Gen-5-Azhar-
Uddin-Sahaji.pdf
Shiva, V. (1988). Staying alive: Women, ecology, and survival in India (Vol. 84).
Kali for Women.
Shiva, V., & Mies, M. (2014). Ecofeminism. Bloomsbury Publishing.
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Chapter 12
The Women in the Fictions
of Arundhati Roy:
Forming Solidarity With
Other Marginalities
Jagriti Sengupta
Visva-Bharati, India
ABSTRACT
Arundhati Roy, the world-renowned novelist and political essayist from India, is
a dominant voice against injustice perpetrated against the marginalized in the
country. For her, the marginalization of women is part of a process through which
social oppression is unleashed upon the weak. Roy got the prestigious Booker
prize for her debut novel, The God of Small Things. The fiction brought out the
unjust politics of caste and gender discrimination inherent in an orthodox society.
However, after her first fiction, Roy shifted gear to non-fictions that she continued
to write for almost two decades. Roy got engaged in more serious political debates
and became a powerful critic of corporate globalization. In 2017, Roy published her
second novel, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. In it, Roy offered a journalistic
review of all the sociopolitical events of the post-Independent India. This chapter
examines that the women protagonists in Roy’s fictions extend solidarity to others
who are in the margins because, according to Roy, feminism should be a powerful
force against oppression in general.
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch012
The Women in the Fictions of Arundhati Roy
INTRODUCTION
More than two decades ago, Arundhati Roy could understand that instead of glorifying
the Big and the mega-narratives of Power and Progress we should pay heed to the
small tragedies of the people living in the edges. By undermining the mega narratives
Roy introduced a counter argument to the majoritarian, orthodox and patriarchal
system, which had been in vogue. Roy is a powerful voice against marginalization of
the Dalits, Adivasis and other ethnic minorities in India. As a woman writer, she is
equally vocal against the politics of gender-based discrimination inherent in society.
Gendered marginalization is one of the dominant themes in her writings. Roy thinks
it to be the same unjust process through which social oppressions perpetuate. Roy
came to the limelight with the publication of her epoch-making debut novel The God
of Small Things in 1997. The novel was much acclaimed for its universal theme,
linguistic inventiveness, non-linear storytelling and multiple narratives. The fiction
was translated in more than forty languages and Roy herself became a phenomenon
as she won the Booker Prize for it in 1997. However, Roy shifted gear to non-fictions
after it and plunged into intricate political debates over issues like nuclear detonations,
democracy, development, privatization, displacement, terrorism, genocide etc. Roy
shows that these apparently disjointed matters are inter-connected and outcomes of
the capitalist agenda of global and local oppressive regimes.
In 2017, Roy’s much-awaited second novel The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
came into publication. Roy takes us beyond the broken walls of Old Delhi where the
ghettoized Muslims recall their past glory, and to the war-torn valleys of Kashmir
that reverberate with the sound of Azadi (freedom) repeatedly. In this novel, Roy
has offered a journalistic review of the political events of India since Independence.
Roy has dealt with some major gendered issues like transgender identity, Dalit
woman identity, homosexuality, motherhood etc. Roy is keen to understand that in
every war, massacre, pogrom and displacement, the women suffer most. Fascism
and fundamentalism affect them the most. In Roy’s fictions, the women, though
vulnerable to atrocity defy power with their calm dignity and freedom of spirit. They
take initiative to transgress borders and refute social norms. They are mysterious,
singular and strong as well as fearless to take unusual decision. This paper attempts to
analyse that the women protagonists of Roy extend solidarity to other marginalities,
as it is Roy’s contention that Feminism should offer powerful resistance against
oppression in general. Marginalization means exclusion−exclusion from social,
political and economic decision-making. In a way, gendered marginalization is
associated to capitalism. Capitalism is rooted in human greed for power and wealth
and it needs a continuous process of exclusion to concentrate more wealth in fewer
hands. According to Roy, every movement of present time should join hands with
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the other to dissent against power. Along with Roy’s fictions, my paper refers to
Roy’s non-fictions also for a fuller understanding of the topic.
In The God of Small Things, Roy (1997) brings out the complex politics of gender
and caste discrimination in Ayemenem, a village in Kerala during the 1960s. While
telling out the family history of the Ipes, Roy narrates the socio-political history of
Kerala, its religious plurality and the rise and growth of the Communist Party in
Kerala. Kerala is one of the progressive states of India. Having been raised in Kerala
Roy knows that the society there is a complex mix of parochialism and progressiveness
(2009a, p. 31). Roy’s brunt of criticism in the fiction is the Communist party and the
leaders who are mostly from upper-caste communities and are extremely prejudiced
against women and bottom castes. The image of Roy’s own childhood, the setting
of Ayemenem and the influence of her mother Mary Roy are very dominant in The
God of Small Things.
Roy’s mother Mary Roy, a Syrian Christian from Kerala had married a Bengali,
a manager of a tea garden in Assam. However, she got separated from her alcoholic
husband and returned to her paternal house in Ayemenem, unwelcome. Arundhati
Roy was born in Shillong but raised in Ayemenem. Roy says about her childhood:
…I thank god that I had none of the conditioning that a normal middle-class Indian
girl would have. I had no father, no presence of this man ‘looking after’ beating or
humiliating our mother occasionally in exchange. I had no caste, no religion, no
supervision. (2009a, p. 34)
From her mother’s experience Roy learns that marriage can never offer a woman
respect and freedom neither her return to her own house can, as the brother is the
authority there. Without financial independence, there will be only subjugation for
them. According to Roy, the women of Kerala work all over India and the world as
nurses, yet when they get married, they pay a dowry and end up having subservient
relationships with their husbands (p. 33). Roy’s mother Mary Roy became well
known in Kerala for challenging the Syrian Christian Inheritance Law that offered a
woman only one forth of her father’s property. The Supreme Court ruled the case in
her favour providing equal right to the women. Mary Roy also started a school that
was very unconventional and famous. Roy grew up on a culturally rich environment.
This explains pretty much the poetics and politics of her work.
In the fiction (1997) the marginalities defies power by transgressing borders
that have been set for them. Marginalization has various dimensions in the fiction.
Velutha, the god of small things, is an untouchable Paravan who had all the
potential to be big. He is an excellent artisan. He works in the pickle factory and
does all the odd jobs for the Ipe family. Ammu, the divorced daughter of the family,
married a Bengali outside her Syrian Christian community. Ammu and her twins
115
are marginalized within the family. They are often ignored and even mal-treated
as they have no claim in the property. Chacko, the man of the house is treated very
differently from his sister. Chacko was sent to Oxford, but Ammu’s education was
abruptly terminated. Though he is also divorced from his British wife Margaret,
his daughter receives all the attention and affection of his mother (Mammachi) and
Aunt (Baby Kochamma). Mammachi has allowances for her son’s frivolities, as he
must satisfy his man’s needs. She even arranges for a secret door in his room for
the supply of his needs. However, when she comes to know about Ammu’s love for
Velutha, her rage against her own daughter has no bound. She thinks that by loving
a Paravan, Ammu has defiled generations of breeding and brought the family to its
knees (p. 258).
The novel (1997) shows that gendered discrimination is deeply rooted in Indian
society. Like other oppressive structures, Patriarchy is run by mutual acceptance
from both the oppressor and the oppressed. It pervades every strata of social order.
Pappachi, an Imperial Entomologist was in habit of beating his wife on a regular
basis. Even Ammu as a child learnt to endure the calculated cruelty of her father.
When Ammu’s relation with her husband deteriorated, he took recourse to domestic
violence. After the nightlong performance in the temple, “The Kathakali men took
off their make-up and went home to beat their wives. Even Kunti, the soft ones
with breasts” (p. 236). Even the Communist leader Comrade Pillai “had the easy
authority of the Man of the House” (p. 272). He could ignore or treat his wife like
a maid in front of guests. Mammachi’s violin lessons were terminated out of sheer
jealousy on part of her husband. Her rescuer from her husband’s beating, her own son
Chacko took over her pickle business and reduced her to a sleeping partner. Having
born in an orthodox colonial India, Baby Kochamma had to suppress her passion for
Father Mulligan, the Irish monk. The most she could expect was to stay near him.
When this least demand remained unfulfilled, Baby Kochamma internalised the
stubborn morality of the society. Every night throughout her life she used to write
in her diary “I love you I love you” (p. 298) in his memory. Her pent up feelings was
transformed into bitterness, cruelty, jealousy, mistrust and fear. Both Mammachi
and Baby Kochamma were victims as well as perpetrator of patriarchal injustice.
The story begins with the arrival of Sophie Mol to Ayemenem to visit the Ipe
family, but the real beginning according to Roy, is long ago, in the days when love
laws were made. The dominant image of the fiction is the sky blue Plymouth waiting
at the level crossing with the family going to receive Sophie Mol at the Cochin
Airport and being engulfed by a procession of Communist marchers (1997, p. 65).
Rahel saw Velutha among the protesters. Ammu’s face offered a strange reaction.
It revealed not only her passion for Velutha, it expressed a feeling of solidarity in
rage. After Sophie Mol’s arrival when everybody was in the drama of welcoming
her, Rahel sneaked away to play with Velutha. Ammu was astonished to see her
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daughter’s intimatcy with Velutha. Suddenly a revelation occurred to her. She

realised that they all were victims of injustice and a strong desire for resistance
occurred surged inside her:
Suddenly Ammu hoped that it had been him that Rahel saw in the march. She hoped
it had been him that had raised his flag and knotted arm in anger. She hoped that
under his careful cloak of cheerfulness, he housed a living, breathing anger against
the smug, ordered world that she so raged against (pp. 175-176).
That night was the beginning of their rendezvous that continued for a fortnight.
In the span of this period, they lived their lives. However, their affair was soon
disclosed. Ammu was locked in her room and Velutha was summoned, abused and
threatened by Mammachi. The three children while out for a boat riding on river
Meenachal had their boat capsized and Sophie Mol died of drowning. Velutha was
charged with a false allegation of murder and abduction. The local Communist
Party leader, Comrade K. N. M. Pillai disowned him out of jealousy and selfishness.
Velutha was beaten to death, Ammu was driven out of house and she eventually
died, sick and alcoholic, and Estha was returned to his father. As tragedy befell on
the Marginalities, the people in power could not achieve much. The turmoil in the
pickle factory went beyond Comrade Pillai’s control and it was closed down, Chacko
had to leave India for good, Mammachi died and Baby Kochamma continued to live
in terror of being dispossessed. Years after when Rahel and Estha were reunited,
they again transgressed boundaries and by committing incest. However it was not
an act of pleasure, rather it was an act of pain−their helpless quest for completeness
in which Estha’s Quietness and Rahel’s Emptiness fitted together (p. 328).
Hardly before the euphoria around the success of her first novel was over, Roy
(2002b) wrote her essay “The End of Imagination” criticising the nuclear detonation
at Pokhran in 1998. It was the beginning of her more than twenty years long essay
writing. According to Roy, in the nineties, the Indian society underwent a massive
change. The shift can be traced back to 1989 when with the Fall of Berlin Wall
Capitalism won over Communism (2009b, p. xii). It altered the concept of welfare
state. Roy’s political perspective in her first fiction and in the essays that follows has
a significant continuity. Deep-rooted gender and caste discrimination had fractured
Indian society centuries ago. In the nineties, neoliberal economic policy along with
fascist governing principles destroyed the spirit of democracy in the country. The
result was further marginalization of the weak and powerless. Roy turned out to be
a major critic of Corporate Globalization, which is the greatest malaise of present
time, and under it, marginalization is not only exclusion, it is elimination also.
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness (Roy, 2017) is a story of the marginalities.
Within the scope of this single novel, Roy has surveyed all the socio-political issues
117
of India since Independence. Roy’s second fiction takes up the subjects she dealt with
in her non-fictions. We have the Bhopal Gas-leak tragedy in 1984 and the massacre
of the Sikhs after the assassination of Mrs. Indira Gandhi in the same year. The story
provides glimpses of the attack on the Twin Towers (through news telecast) in the
USA in 2001; the Godhra incident and the pogrom against the Muslims in Gujarat
in 2002; and, the ugly, horrific image of ‘Occupation’ the bloody war in Kashmir.
Incidents of lynching the dalits and Muslims by the cow vigilantes or fanatic mob
become alive in the pages of her novel. More over the novel also offers a critique of
Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption movement at Jantar Mantar for re-directing people’s
rage to serve corporate interest. The fiction shows how the Indian democracy deals
with her marginalities and how her marginalities learn to live within it. The novel
has two distinct threads ̶ one centring Anjum, a transgender Muslim, and the other
centring Tilottama, a quiet, strange and unconventional woman with indomitable
free spirit. The two threads are connected at the end as we find that the transgender,
the dalit, the woman, and the orphan all find happiness under the sheltering shed
of a graveyard turned guesthouse.
In the first half of the novel we find that Anjum, who is doubly marginalized for
being a Muslim and a transgender, goes through a traumatic experience during her
visit to Gujarat when the Godhra incident followed by a heinous pogrom against
the Muslims takes place. Anjum was born as Aftab, a hermaphrodite child to a
Muslim couple in Old Delhi. Roy connects the narrative to the legend of Hazrat
Sarmad Shaheed and his shrine where Jahanara Begum, Aftab’s mother goes to
seek blessings for her son. Sarmad was a Jewish Armenian Merchant who travelled
to Delhi from Persia in search of his male love Abhay Chand. His search became a
quest of spirituality. He embraced Islam but roamed as a naked fakir. He was given
death sentence for not reciting the Kalima fully. With this narrative, Roy seems
to be conveying that sexuality even homosexuality may lead to spirituality. While
his parents waits for his girl part to be healed and cured, Aftab shows different
‘tendencies’ and eventually embraces his transgender identity and enters Khwabgah
(a house of dreams) where there are many like him. Aftab becomes Anjum and goes
through surgery to become more feminine, she even enjoys motherhood when she
finds Zainab, the little girl at the steps of Jama Masjid. The motherly protectiveness
in her leads her to Gujarat to pray for Zainab. The word Duniya (world) has several
connotations in the story. The first part takes us to Sahajanabad or Old Delhi where
the Muslims are ghettoized. It is the Duniya of the Muslims, the Others. Anjum leaves
Duniya for Khwabgah which is the dream world for the Hizras. Then she moves to
the graveyard and makes it Jannat or Paradise, a waiting place before one leaves for
real heaven. The graveyard becomes a place of close bonding where Anjum makes
friend with Saddam Hussain, a dalit who had watched his father being lynched by
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a Hindu Mob, the Blind Imam, and Tilo who became Ustanji or teacher of the poor
children of the surroundings.
The most important incident in Anjum’s life was her experience of Gujarat
pogrom in 2002 that left her traumatized and shaken. Anjum set out for Gujarat
with Zakir Mian, an old friend of her father to visit Ajmer Sharif and the shrine of
Urdu poet Wali Dakhani to seek blessings for sickly Zainab. Both of them became
victims to the massacre that went on for weeks. Zakir Mian was killed and Anjum
got a ‘butcher’s luck’ for being a Hizra. Anjum witnessed the killing, burning, raping
and looting that went on for weeks. She saw how the men were folded and women
were unfolded (2017, p. 63). Upon her returning, Anjum, shaken from inside, was
unable to stay in Khwabgah any longer. She entered an old cemetery and made it
her home. She was still haunted by ‘folded’ Zakir Mian and the fanatic mob who
were “Newton’s Army, deployed to deliver an Equal and Opposite Reaction. Thirty
Thousand saffron parakeets with steel talons and bloodied beaks...” (p. 62). Anjum
remembered how they found her, called her names, but let her go after forcing her to
chant some nationalistic slogans like “Bharat Mata Ki Jai! VandeMataram!” (p. 62).
The second half of the novel deals with Tilo, a dalit girl and an architect who
goes to Kashmir to meet Musa her ex-lover and who has turned a separatist due
to his horrific experiences in life. The narrative evokes the conflicting images of
Kashmir, its dissenting people, deaths, disappearances, torture centres, and the funeral
processions. Tilo is introduced as a mysterious and unconventional woman, who
elopes with an abandoned child from Jantar Mantar. Tilo is a tenant of the apartment
owned by Biplab Dasgupta who is employed in the Intelligence Bureau. Tilo keeps
some mysterious cartons with her and after she has left for Jannat guesthouse, Biplab
finds that the cartons contain documents and objects sent by Musa, a Kashmri
separatist and an old friend of both Tilo and Biplab. The narrative takes us to the
consciousness of Biplab and reveals how the old college friends Tilo, Musa, Biplab
and Naga have been caught up in a complicated relationship and how their lives are
transformed by the incidents of Kashmir.
After meeting Musa, Tilo moves around the valley. She visits the Pahalgam
meadows, Lolab Valley, villages and forests along the Line of Control – all the
dangerous places teeming with both militants and military but the night before she is
about to return from Kashmir transforms her altogether. On that day, a boy is killed
and the mass protest and the subsequent firing tolled fourteen lives. Deep in the night
Major Amrik Singh, a saddist killer and interrogator conducts a raid on the House
Boats and Tilo and Gulrez the benevolent caretaker of the boat are captured. Gulrez
is badly beaten and shot. Tilo is interrogated by ACP (Assistant Commissioner of
Police) Pinky in the Siraj JIC (Joint Interrogation Centre), where her hair is shaved
off. She manages to send a message to Biplab Dasgupta and Naga rescues her. Tilo
returns with a feeling of solidarity for the people of Kashmir fighting so long for
119
freedom. Her stay in Jannat guesthouse provides her solace. Musa, who continues
to keep his cartons with her, visits her. The ending of the novel offers an image of
utopia with the marginalities living in close solidarity as against the chaotic and
oppressive state.
It is not easy to withstand power. For Roy, fighting means understanding. Fighting
is demanding accountability and listening to those who are truly powerless (2002a,
p. 286). The process of exclusion always seeks new targets. So, according to Roy,
the writers, the artists, people who are fighting their individual battle and those who
believe in justice and plurality, should come forward and join hands. We should give
a forum to the hundreds of resistance movements and talk about real issues−about
bonded labour, marital rape, sexual preferences, women’s wages, uranium dumping,
unsustainable mining etc. (p.287). At the same time, we should not let power divert
movements from real issues or separate them from each other. She regrets the fact
that the liberal feminists in India or the ‘official’ women’s organizations keep a safe
distance from the organizations working in rural areas, central forests and villages
(2019, p. 643). These grassroots women fighters are fighting both patriarchy inside
their own community and the capitalist invasion on their land and resources. The
liberal feminists on the other hand are being detached from anti-imperialist movement
at large. In her fictions, Roy has shown that women irrespective of their class and
location can connect themselves to the deprived and put up powerful resistance
against oppression.
REFERENCES

Roy, A. (2002a). Democracy: Who’s she When She’s at Home? In The Algebra of
infinite Justice (pp. 265–294). Penguin Books.
Roy, A. (2002b). The End of Imagination. In The Algebra of infinite Justice (pp.
1–41). Penguin Books.
Roy, A. (2009a). The Colonization of Knowledge. In Conversation with David
Barsamian, February 2001. In Shape of the Beast: Conversations with Arundhati
Roy (pp. 31–54). Penguin Books.
Roy, A. (2009b). Introduction: Democracy’s Failing Light. In Listening to the Grass
Hoppers: Field Notes on Democracy (pp. ix–xxxvii). Penguin Books.
Roy, A. (2017). The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. Penguin Random House.
Roy, A. (2019). Capitalism: A Ghost Story. In My Seditious Heart (pp. 621–653).
Penguin Random House.
120
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Chapter 13
Gender and Sexuality in
Toni Morrison’s Home
Anita Devi Ahanthem
Kumbi College, India
ABSTRACT
Before venturing into the term “gender,” the biological differentiation of male and
female as “sex” is inevitable. Moreover, if “sex” is a biological categorization
based primarily on reproductive potential, then “gender” is the social elaboration of
biological sex. Hence, gender gradually builds on biological sex, but it exaggerates
biological difference, and it carries biological difference into domains in which it
is completely irrelevant. For reference, in a heterosexual society, “masculine men”
are seen as sexually dominant, active, and initiating whereas “feminine women”
are sexually passive, receptive, and submissive. In this chapter, the author has
taken up Toni Morrison’s novel Home in order to discuss the dynamics of “gender”
and “sexuality” based on “race,” as it gives false perception of self, identity, and
trauma. It will also analyze how women of any race are always the victims of violence
associated with male sexuality.
INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, the author has analyzed the two main characters namely Frank Money
and his sister, Ycidra (or as they used to call her ‘Cee’) of Toni Morrison’s novel Home
(2012). In the broad sense, the discussion and study is focused upon the treatment
of the key concepts of “gender” and “sexuality” along with the panoramic view of
“race” as well. The novel, in general, is a story about the most painful experiences
of black people; and in particular, Frank Money and Cee (the brother-sister duo). It
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch013
Gender and Sexuality in Toni Morrison’s Home
consists of “the war between Korea and the United States, medical experiments on
some poor people for genetic investigations, violence against children and women
specially, the black American women and brutality in the history of race in America”
(Soleimani and Zarrinjooee, 2014, pp. 497). Furthermore, the novel has important
themes of uprooting, homecoming and ownership. There are many instances that
portray how “race” can become a factor of dehumanizing and exploitation of African
American people irrespective of gender and class in interest of the Whites.
According to Anne Whitehead, ‘’Home … can be read as “trauma fiction,”
which focuses on recovering. African Americans’ daunting history from the
blacks’ point of view” (Siboueka and Ahlem, 2016, pp. 33-34). On the one hand,
Morrison has portrayed the social complexities and the negative side that African
Americans experienced such as – racism, racial abuse, female issues and medical
experimentations – unlike the ideal image of the 1950s America. On the other hand,
there is the depiction of psychological trauma of the Great Depression and Vietnam
War experienced by the black people and black soldiers analyzing their traumatic
experiences. In other words, the author vividly experiences those terrible events
as well as recovers from them along with the characters of the novel. Judith Lewis
Herman, the psychiatrist, has opined in her book Trauma and Recovery (1992):
To study psychological trauma is to come face to face both within human vulnerability
in the natural world and with the capacity for evil in human nature. To study
psychological trauma means bearing witness to horrible events. […] The study of
war trauma becomes legitimate only in a context that challenges the sacrifice of
young men in war (p. 34).
Therefore, the concept “Psycho-traumatic” includes both psyche and traumatic

experiences i.e. psychological trauma. And based on this experience of trauma
by Frank and Cee, the author has discussed further the treatment of “gender” and
“sexuality” in the novel analytically.
BACKGROUND
The terms “gender” and “sex” are often used interchangeably; but these terms
define different concepts and are not interchangeable. Before we venture into
the term “gender,” the biological differentiation of male and female as “sex” is
inevitable. According to Lindsey, the term “sex” refers to the biological, hormonal,
and chromosomal differences that determine if a person is male or female. Further,
there is reference of the term “gender” for “meanings that societies and individuals
ascribe to male and female categories” (Copenhaver, 2002, pp. 16-17). In case of
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“symbolic interaction theory,” gender itself is strictly a social construction based on

what the society has defined as masculine and feminine. In fact, these stereotypical
traits and roles are reinforced and inherited from one generation to another where
selective conditioning is being practiced by different mechanisms within society. For
instance, working women’s demands for maternity leave and equal pay in certain
parts of the world has a long way to go.
Moreover, “sexuality” as a term is associated extensively to sex, gender identities,
orientation, pleasure, intimacy, expression, and reproduction. It is a natural occurrence;
however when more focus is directed towards “female sexuality” and “freedom”,
then it becomes particularly controversial due to the shift in power dynamics between
men and women. Here, the author realizes that actually the male dominance in
society is connected with “the role of men in reproduction” (Bass, 2016, pp. 430).
On the one hand, women in some societies were valued for their reproductive role
like the livestock with very little social status. . On the other hand, the control over
female sexuality and female reproduction by the aggressive and dominating male
sexuality is generally accepted.
Hence, with this approach in consideration, the author has initiated to discuss
the treatment of “gender” and “sexuality” based on the main two characters of Toni
Morrison’s novel, Home (2021) namely Frank Money and Ycidra/Cee Money, when
they experience traumas and go through Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as
a consequence. In addition, the discussion becomes more dynamic when “race” as
a factor is added. For instance, when a black man like Frank is admitted in a mental
institute, then he is considered not just “dangerous,” but a sexual pervert, beast and
cannibal as well. Likewise his girlfriend, Lily, in the workplace is called “girl” by
the actresses “as in – ‘Where’s the girl?’ or, ‘Say, girl, where’s my jar of Pond’s?”
(p. 71). Here, the term “girl” is “far from being innocent or unintentional” (Andres,
2014, pp. 29). Instead it becomes much more dark and complex, as a derogatory
term with hidden meanings referring Lily both as a child and a servant who isn’t
worthy of respect or consideration based on her black race.
Treatment of Male Gender and Sexuality in Frank’s Trauma
Frank represents masculinity, adulthood and responsibility; while his sufferings in

home and war compel the author to reflect upon these experiences as a community.
Frank is an African American veteran, who joined the army to escape his too small
world; and so he has to leave behind his beloved fragile little sister. After the war,
his shattered life has no purpose until he hears that Cee is in danger. As he returns to
his native Georgia in search of Cee, it becomes clear that their troubles began well
before their wartime separation. Together, they return to their rural hometown of
Lotus, where buried secrets are unearthed. Later with much mental struggle, Frank
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is able to bury his shame and trauma and finally learns what it means to be a man,
what it takes to heal, and—above all—what it means to come home.
In the first chapter of the novel, Frank is seen to be admiring some horses as if
they represent the “masculinity” of a man (Fitriani and Saraswati, 2015, pp. 66). This
comparison itself is somewhat off where “an animal” is considered more “masculine”
than an actual human. Frank’s words indirectly reflects the restriction that black men
faced under the Whites as they can’t dare to be free to embrace their self-identity:
… they stood up like men. We saw them. Like men they stood…because there right
in front of us, about fifty yards off, they stood like men…they bit each other like
dogs but when they stood, reared up on their legs, their forelegs around the withers
of the other, we held our breath in wonder. (Morrison, 2012, pp. 3-4)
In one instance, the author encounters direct hatred and violence against the black
people as it turns out that Franks’ friend, Billy Watson’s son, Thomas, was shot
by a policeman because he had a toy gun in his hand and the police man thought
that it was a real one at that time. Thomas merely eight years old ended up with a
disabled arm as “Cops shoot anything they want. This here’s a mob city” (p. 31).
Paradoxically, the young boy, Thomas even after the tragic incident manages to
envision something that others hesitate to even think about. He says without any
hesitation that he will go deep and not just merely far. He then turns towards Frank
and asks:
“Were you in the war?”
“I was.”
“Did you kill anybody?”
“Had to.”
“How did it feel?”
“Bad. Real bad.”
“That’s good. That it made you feel bad. I’m glad.”
“How come?”
“It means you’re not a liar.”
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“You are deep, Thomas.” Frank smiled. “What you want to be when you grow up?”
Thomas turned the knob with his left hand and opened the door. “A man”, he said
and left. (p. 32-33)
Here, the phrase – “A man” – unknowingly strikes hard as it speaks aloud and
asks every reader who and what qualities can be considered “a [true/real] man”.
Moreover, the open-ended nature of this statement makes the author wonder whether
the writer herself is mocking at the superficial aspect of the interpretation and
portrayal of manhood in general.
In terms of gender based “masculinity”, Frank displays two different sides. In one
side, he is the protector of Cee both as an elder brother as well as the father-figure.
At some point of his first person intrusions into the omniscient narration, he warns
a potential offender with these words: “If they […] touched [Cee] I would kill”
(p. 104). In fact, he comes back to Georgia only to save his beloved fragile sister
after receiving the news that she was in danger. Later on, he isn’t scared to face the
villain, Dr. Beau unarmed while the latter was threatening him with a loaded gun.
Unfortunately, on the other side, this gentle and caring side of his “masculinity”
as a protector flips aside into something monstrous as he fails to save his comrades
from dying during the war in Korea. Furthermore, when Frank realizes that he
has the potential to sexually exploit a Korean scavenging girl, he can’t take it as it
triggered the traumatic incident when Cee got flashed by a pervert. In fact, acting
upon an extreme unconscious defense mechanism, he ends up shooting the Korean
girl. This incident itself is a multi-layered complex portrayal of his masculinity and
sexuality. On the one hand, in order to suppress his fetish sexual attraction towards
a child, he ends up using his masculine power to kill an innocent fragile girl. Thus,
even though he is black/victim in his own country, he ends up being the exploiter/
abuser of the Korean girl who was the victim of his “sexuality” as the exotic female
of the concept of “otherness”. In other words, it is another reflection of the binary
between the colonizer and the Orient women being stereotyped. In addition, this
incident reveals the harsh reality that irrespective of race, women in general are
exploited as part of the aggressive male dominance and desire. Here, the former
is “masculinized” being courageous, strong, heroic while the latter is “feminized”
being passive, submissive, exotic, luxurious, sexually mysterious and tempting.
These series of violence and deaths as traumatic experiences ends up damaging the
core of his identity and integrity, which he has earlier tried to create and develop
as a protective brother for Cee. However, he is fortunate enough to reclaim his self
and identity only after accepting his sin and repenting over it in front of Cee.
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Treatment of Female Gender and Sexuality in Cee’s Trauma
Cee as a female character represents the sufferings of African American women

during that time by linking between psychological wounds of black individuals
and the healing of collective traumas. Her story is also the portrayal of African
American women who were traumatized and victimized in a patriarchal society.
Indeed, Cee symbolizes the feminine voice for representing her alienated self and
the black female who suffered racism.
Interestingly, Crane, another character in Home, has described the dichotomy
of the “good girl” versus the “bad girl” within “female sexuality”. Here, as women
typically have less sexual freedom meaning increase risk of exploitation and less
protection or remedy against violence against them. In fact, more ill-treatment,
negligence, violence and exploitation are evident among marginalized women,
including women of colour and poor women. For example, women of black women
are often portrayed as oversexed, sexually objectified, and plagued with myriad
negative sexual stereotypes.
In this context, Cee is treated as the “bad girl” based on her colour. It is paradoxical
to find her in such perception by the Whites for she is merely a fragile feminine girl
who is overly protected by her brother, Frank. Further, the latter is portrayed as an
utterly idealized paternal figure, like a surrogate father who provides the love and
care she has not received from her parents. However, his sheltering suppresses Cee’s
sensual energies, since he would keep all possible suitors away from her: “When
Cee and a few other girls reached fourteen and started talking about boys, she was
prevented from any real flirtation because of her big brother, Frank. The boys knew
she was off-limits because of him” (p. 47). Therefore, when Frank leaves their
hometown, Cee cannot live without him. It is as if she were “broken. Not broken
up but broken down, down into her separate parts” (p. 54).
In Frank’s absence, the sudden freedom, inexperience and hormonal energy of
her new-found “sexuality,” attracts her irresistibly low self-confident persona towards
Prince, who happens to be the first man with whom she interacts. She ends up getting
married at fourteen years of age to Prince as she needed love and to flee from the
horrors of her household. Shockingly, it turns out to be merely the beginning of a
series of nightmares; for Prince had pursued Cee just to get her grandfather’s car,
and then he soon abandons her.
Unfortunately, with her kind of low self-esteem and lack of self-identity due to
her extreme femininity and ignorance, Cee ends up getting exploited as she joins
the service of Dr. Beau (the patriarchal colonizer) as his assistant. Later, he was
using her as a “guinea pig/laboratory rat” for his experiments on female body and
“sexuality”. In fact, according to Gonzalez (2012), his laboratory seems to symbolize
the Western patriarchal menace towards the “black woman’s body”, which is evidently
126
performed on, and towards “her sexuality” (p. 120). In this context, M.H. Miller
says, Dr. Beau is “a eugenicist who likes to hire childless young black women in
order to perform sexual experiments on them;” while Cynthia Wolff opines that the
doctor actually operates on the young girl with his scalpel, the phallic symbol of
penetration into the female body (Ramirez, 2015, pp. 124). Danger for the damsel
is equated with “a specialized form of ‘inner space.” Furthermore, the latter adds
that such act hints at the innocent maiden’s metaphorical “rape” as it is similar to
the medical procedures the evil scientist carries out on her.
Surprisingly, even after going through those physical and mental traumas, in
the hands of the barbaric Dr. Beau, Cee gets rescued by Frank at the nick of time.
However, she is no longer the innocent and defenseless little girl. During her healing
period, the black women community encouraged her to vent and introspect in order
to gain her self-assertion and self-respect. Cee gradually realizes that she is not
powerless because of her school deprivation or her dumbness because matriarchs
of her community are completely illiterate, and yet, they possess confidence and
self-reliance. And finally, Cee understands how her rugged upbringing has hindered
the development of her self-identity and self-esteem extensively. For instance, she
was categorized as a “gutter child”, and “she had agreed with the label and believed
herself worthless” (Morrison, 2012, pp. 129). However, she has “to be the one who
rescued her own self” (p. 129).
Thus, she thoughtfully refuses any further protection and excessive comfort from
Frank after she had confessed regarding her barrenness to him while embracing her
own suffering with confidence. Finally, for healing her psychological wounds, Cee
commences a quilt, which signifies her determination to stitch the dismembered
parts of herself like a bildungsroman.
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion and analysis, the author finds that both masculinity and
male sexuality is not exactly clear as black and white for Frank. When “racism”
dilutes them, the self- identity and self-awareness is compromised as false concepts
of “self” takes over – destroying them from the already weak and crumbling core. In
the case of Cee, her femininity and sexuality results into her physical and emotional
exploitation as a part of Dr. Beau’s dehumanizing horrific experience making her
“barren” for life. Fortunately, with the support of her women community and her
brother, Frank, she is able to rediscover and develop a completely new and confident
“self-identity” and “self awareness”. In fact, the burial ceremony of the unknown
black body epitomizes the need to come to terms with the dreadful past. For Frank,
it represents the burial of his shameful sin of killing the Korean girl, while for Cee,
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the buried quilt represents her shattered self overall that she has now patched and
created brand-new.
However, the author opines that there are some points which are beyond this
chapter’s discussion and yet worth pondering further later on. It would be fascinating
to imagine Cee to interact and discuss with Mrs. K as well as Lily regarding women’s
“identity” and “freedom” of sexuality. This kind of proposition is important for they
are women who actually represent self-empowered and confident black women;
and they are also those who do not submit easily. In conclusion, these women with
their freedom of choice, confidence and sexuality are standing mighty against the
traditional black women’s femininity and sexuality.
REFERENCES
Andres, M. H. (2014). Empowering The Dispossessed: A Postcolonial Reading of

Toni Morrison’s Home [Master’s Thesis]. University de Zaragoza. https://core.ac.uk
Bass, T. (2016). Exploring female sexuality: Embracing the whole narrative.
North Carolina Medical Journal, 6(6), 430–432. doi:10.18043/ncm.77.6.430
PMID:27864498
Copenhaver, B. B. (2002). A Portrayal of Gender and a Description of Gender Roles
in Selected American Modern and Postmodern Plays [PhD Thesis]. East Tennessee
University. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/632
Fitriani, R., & Saraswati, R. (2015). The influence of childhood experience in Frank’s
desire for home in Toni Morrison’s Home. Allusion, 4, 63-69. https://journal.unair.ac.id
Gonzalez, D. Y. (2012). House of fear, domesticity and community in Toni Morrison.
InvestigacionesFeministas, 3, 117–127. doi:10.509/rev_INFE:2012.v3.41140
Morrison, T. (2012). Home. Chatto &Windus.
Ramirez, M. L. (2015). Gothic tropes in Toni Morrison’s Home: The scientist-villain
figure and the maiden in distress. Revista De Filologia. 33, 119-132. https://dialnet.
unirioja.es/descarga/articulo/5120310.pdf
Sibouekaz, A., & Dahmani, A. (2018). Trauma and Black Self-Discovery in Toni
Morrison’s Home [Master’s Thesis]. People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria
Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, University of Mohamed
Boudiaf-M’Sila. http://dspace.univ-msila.dz:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/7747
Soleimani, Z., & Zarrinjooee, B. (2014). Home in Morrison’s Home. Journal of
Novel Applied Sciences, 3(5), 497–502. https://www.jnasci.org
128
ADDITIONAL READING
Arya, K. (2010). Blackhole in The Dust: The Novels of Toni Morrison. Adhyayan
Publishers & Distributors.
Das, S. (2009). From Margin to the Centre: A Morrison Reader. Manglam Publications.
Devi, A. A. (2013). Reinterpretation of Female Sexuality in Sula and The Joys of
Motherhood. Spectrum. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science,
1(2), 1–6.
Dhanavel, S. P. (Ed.). (2008). Critical Perspectives on American Literature. Saroop
& Sons.
Gupta, M. (Ed.). (2008). Women Writers in the Twentieth Century Literature.
Atlantic Publishers & Distributors (P) Ltd.
Mittali, R. (Ed.). (2001). Modern American Literature. Atlantic Publishers &
Distributors (P) Ltd.
Sengupta, J. (2006). Reflections of Desire: Feminist Perspectives in the novels of
Toni Morrison, Michele Roberts and Anita Desai. Atlantic Publishers & Distributors
(P) Ltd.
KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS
Bildungsroman: A type of literary genre in which the journey of the moral and
psychological development of the protagonist, usually from a lost and vulnerable
child to a mature adult, is often portrayed in the novel.
Femininity: A socially constructed and learned set of characteristics, behaviours
and mentality connected with girls and women, in general. For example, in a
matriarchal society, “women” need to possess and display attributes of strength and
integrity, as opposed to the submissive and dependent ones of a patriarchal society.
Gender: Beyond the biological division of male and female sex, there are
the socially constructed roles, behaviours and characteristics of men and women
considered as masculine and feminine. For example, use of make-up by women
is universally accepted; and yet, its use by men is a controversial topic in many
conservative societies.
Masculinity: A socially constructed and learned set of traditional characteristics,
that society and culture has defined, as masculine in nature and appropriate for
129
boys and men in a given society. Showing strength and dominance is an example
of showing masculinity.
PTSD: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is treated as a mental health condition
after experiencing or witnessing a terrifying event. Some common symptoms are
experiences of flashbacks, nightmares, and severe anxiety, followed by emotions
of fear, anger or sadness and acts of alienation and detachment.
Race: In the narrow-minded view of division given by the colonizers, “race”
determines who is superior from whom based on physical features of colour, hair,
body structure, etc.
Self-Identity: Refers to how one individual’s identity of being what and who he/
she is including his/her identification, awareness, and portrayal as a separate person
in the social context, in particular.
Sexuality: An important aspect of one’s identity and sexual orientation which
further dictates how one understands one’s body, experiences, and shares relationship
with another person sexually.
Trauma: Generally referred as a physical injury of medical emergency. The other
reference is associated with a deeply distressing, shocking or disturbing experience
as psychological trauma which can be triggered by a terrible event like an accident,
rape, or natural disaster.
130
131
Chapter 14
Gender Roles Portrayed
in A Room of One’s
Own and Orlando
Antara Naha
K. R. Mangalam University, India
ABSTRACT
Virginia Woolf has raised her voice through her works on the challenges of women
and freedom of thought. This chapter focuses on the gender roles as portrayed
in the works of Virginia Woolf, focusing on A Room of One’s Own and Orlando.
She states through A Room of One’s Own that the strongest creative minds are the
ones with the balance between masculine and feminine components, and through
Orlando, she presents the idea of gender through an androgynous view, using a
character who changes genders in their lifetime of 300 years. The theoretical focus
of the chapter will be through Judith Butler’s theory on gender, which relies on the
action of gender interconnected with the identity of the person. The chapter will aim
to present the idea of gender representation through a broader view for achieving
wider acceptance for different gender identities.
INTRODUCTION
Virginia Woolf often focuses on gender and its roles, and the challenges of a woman.
She is undoubtedly one of the famous writers of the modernist era who wrote about
women and their struggles in her works. Her feminist theory revolves around the
need for freedom in every field for women. She states that the rights given to men in
the fields of employment, wages, and education should be given to women as well
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch014
Gender Roles Portrayed in A Room of One’s Own and Orlando
(Koç, 2015). Her use of fiction to illustrate her point by using Judith Shakespeare
brings focus on the need to redefine gender roles (Benthin, 2008)). She emphasises
on how nascent talent and creativity will not develop until they are sculpted in
adequate conditions (Koç, 2015). She mourns for the loss of geniuses due to the
lower position given to women in the society.
Furthermore, it can be seen that her works not only reflect on the gender roles
constructed by the society, but also that it creates a constant effort to effectively
shape the rules and identity a woman had to go by in the Victorian era (Benthin,
2008). The Victorian woman was seen as an ideal woman, often staying mostly in
the homes rather than being in the public spheres, where the majority of women have
given themselves to their husbands and believe that they are inferior to men; hence
their marriage becomes a major goal in life (Benthin, 2008). Education that women
received was majorly centred towards domestic goals and housework, preparing
them more towards marriage than their individual lives. This lack of freedom and
individualism affected women massively.
While A Room of One’s Own is a semi autobiography of Woolf’s life and perspective
over the roles women has to play in the Victorian society, Orlando focuses on a
character who has been living for 300 years and changing genders throughout their
long lifetime. These works present the idea of freedom, personal or artistic. Woolf
preferred to create a character who possessed characteristics and secrets from both
sexes, a “dual personality” (Knopp, 1988, p. 30) which she believes as the way to
achieve the ultimate state of creativity. The idea of androgyny presented in both of
these works shows Woolf’s way of liberation from the patriarchal society.
Woolf uses her works to reflect the issues of gender roles, identity and begins to
construct the idea of gender as a performance rather than an internal entity (Bakhtiar
& Serveh, 2019, p. 12). Gender from the perspective of Judith Butler is a norm that
can never be fully internalized, the internal is a surface signification and the norms
are phantasmatic, impossible to embody (Leitch, 2001, p. 2388). Butler stresses on
the idea that nothing is natural, not even the sexual identities created culturally and
anatomically in the society (Leitch, 2001, p. 2382). She uses this to emphasise how
the gender roles have majorly highlighted the ‘natural way’, and she argues that there
is nothing natural about this as they are social constructs. She writes-
The possibilities of gender transformation are found to be precisely in the arbitrary

relation of between such acts, in the possibility of a failure to repeat, a deformity,
or a parodic repetition that exposes the phantasmatic effect of abiding identity as
a politically tenuous construction… if gender attributes are however not expressive
but performative, then these attributes effectively constitute the identity they are said
to express or reveal (Butler, 1999, p. 145).
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Butler’s perspective of gender is that of which cannot be regarded as a radical

choice of individual, nor can be imposed or inscribed upon them (Bakhtiar &
Serveh, 2019, p. 14). Gender is merely a construct with a collective agreement,
created by cultural definitions and the history of the society. In her book Gender
Trouble, she states-
If the inner truth of gender is a fabrication and if a true gender is a fantasy instituted
and inscribed on the surface of bodies, then it seems that genders can be neither
true nor false, but are only produced as the truth effects of a discourse of primary
and stable identity. (Butler, 1999, p. 141).
Her concept of gender is not that of a consistent one, gender only comes to
existence when performed under the eyes of the society and the rules of the society.
The individual’s identity is below that performance, it could either work against or
for the gender it has been defined for.
Gender Roles Defining Identities
A Room of One’s Own is considered to be one of the first feminist essays that
highlighted the need for independent thoughts by women, free from the patriarchal
society. Woolf presents the problem of women’s individual thoughts being absent from
literature, their representation created by their male counterparts in an inferior and
disoriented (Dalvai, 2018). Woolf very intellectually uses fiction as an experimental
way to discuss women, their relationships, their speech, and independent thoughts.
“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well (Woolf,
1929, p. 13)”, she writes emphasising how raw talent, concentration and creativity
will not develop until they are sculpted in adequate conditions (Koç, 2015).
“But you may say, we asked you to speak about women and fiction—what, has
that got to do with a room of one’s own?” (Woolf, 1929, p. 1). Woolf opens her essay
with these lines, focussing on the importance of a woman having her own room. The
keywords here, woman and literature interweave together to present the inequalities
of education and the overwhelming presence of patriarchal values constructing the
Victorian society. She uses her narrative skills to weave a life for the fictional sister
of Shakespeare, a life that is rather full of misfortune unlike her brother, whose
creative soul caged with no respite to draw a stark contrast between the two.
She writes, “… it would have been impossible, completely and entirely, for
any woman to have written the plays of Shakespeare in the age of Shakespeare”
(Woolf, 1929, p. 33) and points out the lack of literature written by women during
the medieval era and after. Woolf also brings her focus to the differences between
genders and the roles they have to play in the society, mainly focusing on the lack
133
of financial freedom presented to women. She points out that every time a woman
was oppressed, an author or an artist has been lost. While Woolf also emphasises on
the differences between genders using fiction, she also brings focus on the reasons
for inequivalence of the gender roles and independent thought given to them. She
talks about the difficulties women face because of the social conditions, created out
of the limitations of the family and their isolation in the homes (Koç, 2015, p. 7).
While Woolf mourns in A Room of One’s Own how intellectual genius has
been lost due to gender disparity, she uses Orlando’s experiences as a 300-year-old
gender-switching individual to bring light into the gender inequality and oppressive
roles a woman was subjugated to. Orlando brings its focus on the young nobleman
named Orlando in 16th century England who, one day mysteriously experiences
a change in sex and lives for around 300 years and writes about his experiences.
Orlando’s portrayal was very notable in Woolf’s works as it presents gender in a
fluid manner, the character Orlando changes into a woman without any explanations.
Orlando’s various affairs and actions depicted in the novel as they switch from one
gender to other focuses on the stereotypical roles designated for each gender by
forcing Orlando to perform like the gender they have been assigned to. Clothing
becomes an important symbol of societal norms, as clothes define Orlando’s gender,
as Woolf writes-
Clothes are but a symbol of something hid deep beneath. It was a change in Orlando
herself that dictated her choice of a woman’s dress and of a woman’s sex. And
perhaps in this she was only expressing rather more openly than usual—openness
indeed was the soul of her nature—something that happens to most people without
being thus plainly expressed. (Woolf, 1928., p. 112)
Orlando’s switch into a woman brings focus towards the roles a woman has to
fulfil, starting from being an ‘obedient, chaste and scented’ woman and finds these
new roles unnatural. This brings Orlando’s seeming unexplained switch into a
woman perplexing as they struggle with the role they have to fulfil, finding it much
more unnatural than their switch. Judith Butler’s book Gender Trouble states gender
constructs are not natural, not even the sexual identities can surround it. Feminists
have sometimes distinguished between sex as the anatomical difference between
a man and a woman, and gender as the meanings attached to the bodily difference
referred to in different cultures (Leitch, 2001, p. 2385).
Androgyny in Woolf’s Works
Woolf was a firm believer of the continuity of the female literary traditions, and her
goal ultimately focuses to transcend the ‘tyranny of sex’ in the tradition of literature
134
(Jianjun, 2010). She focuses on this idea by defining the androgynous nature of the
human mind, and the results they produce when they work in harmony. In A Room
of One’s Own, she writes -
The normal and comfortable state of being is that when the two live in harmony
together, spiritually co-operating… a great mind is androgynous. It is when this
fusion takes place that the mind is fully fertilized and uses all its faculties….it is fatal
for anyone who writes to think of their sex. It is fatal to be a man or woman pure
and simple; one must be woman – manly or man – womanly. (Woolf, 1929, p. 73).
She presents the idea of the androgynous self and the state of androgyny as the
one state where the individual is at best of their creative minds. She describes it as a
“moment of being” where the two sides of gender (masculinity and femininity) come
together as a natural fusion and are balanced. She denies the purely one sexed mind
as she states, “Perhaps the androgynous mind is less apt to make these distinctions
than the single-sexed mind (Woolf, 1929, p. 73). Needless to say, androgyny becomes
not an easy state to achieve, when in Woolf’s time, women were struggling to gain
the basic rights to vote, to employment, and to education (Jianjun, 2010, p. 56).
Despite this, androgyny had become a way of liberating women from the negative
forces placed by patriarchy on their sex (Wright, 2008, p. 4).
Meanwhile, Orlando journeys through the idea of gender switches and changing
identities related to one’s gender. Woolf uses this narrative to show how Orlando
has to adapt to the new roles of the gender they have changed into, how being a
woman makes them act differently from being a man and finally states, being a
woman is not something that can be done naturally. It presents a unique critique
on the existence of a man and woman in the English society, and how the idea of
androgyny operates in Orlando towards the separation of male and female into two
separate gender norms and represents an uncertain nature of sexual identity. The
narrator of Orlando narrates-
And as all Orlando’s loves had been women, now, through the culpable laggardry
of the human frame to adapt itself to convention, though she herself was a woman,
it was still a woman she loved; and if the consciousness of being of the same sex
had any effect at all, it was to quicken and deepen those feelings which she had had
as a man. (Woolf, 1928., p. 96).
While critics state that Woolf’s depiction of Orlando is that of one with a stable
personality while their gender undergoes changes, it cannot be concluded fully that
this is a result of an androgynous mindset. Woolf noticeably denies the existence of a
male and female gender core in Orlando’s personality, the identity Orlando now has
135
to project differs vastly from the identity they have before. In Orlando, it has been
stated, “whether, then, Orlando was most man or woman, it is difficult to say and
cannot now be decided” (Woolf, 1928., p. 113), as it becomes difficult for Orlando
to perform as the other gender completely. They are never woman and man at the
same time, and similarly there is not a perfect mix between the two presented, rather
Orlando as a woman exploits her knowledge of both sexes and performs masculinity
and femininity by the rules, but never at the same time (Rognstad, 2012, pp. 37-38).
There is a difference in how the concept of androgyny used by Woolf in both here
works to define the roles of the gender: in A Room of One’s Own she claims of the
state of androgyny as the ideal state of creativity, away from the gender binding
rules of patriarchy and a seamless reconciliation; while in Orlando, she presents it
in practice and implies that gender distinctions are maintained even as they intermix,
highlighting the fundamental differences that change but cannot be transcended
(Kaivola, 1999, p. 237).
Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity brings Orlando’s nature into
focus here, as his performance of both the gender identity begins to hint at Orlando’s
ambiguous identity. In the essay by Sarah Hasting, she indicates on Woolf’s idea
of androgyny that presents the lack of both of female and male core and indicating
that probably those two cores are one. Butler’s theory also states that gender is not
something one acquires by birth but rather by action (Bakhtiar & Serveh, 2019,
p. 9). Orlando finds themselves facing the differences in a woman and man’s
behaviour after they switch to which Orlando comments on how being a woman is
not something naturally be done.
Woolf’s focus on the female Orlando seems to be indicating the personification
of the ideal status of androgyny (Rognstad, 2012, p. 31). Orlando had presented
characteristics from both of a typical male and female before he has transformed;
how Orlando was tender-hearted and rode well, took time to dress and could drink
with the best. These unique traits of Orlando provoke questions towards the idea
of a typical gender role, asking why can’t one chose how they want to act. Butler’s
focus on gender provokes a similar question, bringing focus to how one gender traits
are designated to that gender over time through social and political norms, and are
being performed every day (Rognstad, 2012, p. 32).
CONCLUSION
The definitions of gender evolve with time and the identities surrounding it. Judith
Butler has described gender as an act, a norm that can never be fully internalized.
Woolf’s implications on gender highlights the lack of the absolute gender identity
behind the expression of gender, as similarly stated by Butler as, “there is no gender
136
identity behind the expressions of gender; that identity is performatively constituted

by the very expressions that are said to be its results” (Butler, 1999, p. 25). The
preformation of gender into a certain identity has been developed under cultural and
social constructs and the distinction between them varies. In Orlando, Orlando’s
change in sex presents this opinion, as their change in gender only gets implied
once they have been enforced under views of the society. Meanwhile in A Room
of One’s Own, Woolf presents how the social constructs has affected the views of
women, their independent thoughts and their intellectual output as their ideas has
been majorly represented by patriarchal perspective. Woolf believes that the form
of creativity generated by an androgynous mind away from the forces of the society,
bringing focus onto Butler’s description of gender as a non-monolithic definition
but as a dynamic and hybrid construction of gender roles.
Woolf’s works seems to highlight on the need to break the stereotypical roles
a woman has to partake while their voices and thoughts often shut down by the
patriarchal views. She strives to move beyond such views and she finds that it is only
possible by reaching the ideal state of androgyny, where the individual is at their
peak of their creativity. This creates an ambiguity in their works; the characters can
either represent one or the other gender easier than before while they can highlight
their thought independently. Orlando puts this into practice, where Orlando’s
ambiguous nature makes it easy for him to transform to the other gender. The story
of Orlando might be a way for Woolf to escape the system of gender classification
and conventions and the rigid norms one has to face within the society.
REFERENCES
Bakhtiar, S., & Serveh, H. (2019). Gender, Performativity, and Agency in Virginia
Woolf: A Butlerian Reading of Orlando. Khazar Journal of Humanities and Social
Sciences.
Benthin, A. (2008). Redefining gender roles: The Image of Women in Virginia Woolf’s
‘To the Lighthouse. Retrieved from GRIN: https://www.grin.com/document/127155
Butler, J. (1999). Gender trouble. Routledge.
Dalvai, S. (2018). Women’s place in fiction. How Virginia Woolf prefigured theories
of the second wave of feminist writers. Retrieved from Grin: https://www.grin.com/
document/456427
Hastings, S. (2008). Sex, Gender, and Androgyny in Virginia Woolf’s Mock-
Biographies ‘Friendship Gallery’ and Orlando. Retrieved from ETD Archive:
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/etdarchive/520
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Jianjun, M. (2010). Virginia Woolf’s Aesthetics of Feminism and Androgyny:A

Re-reading of A Room of One’s Own. Comparative Literature: East & West, 48-59.
doi:10.1080/25723618.2010.12015582
Kaivola, K. (1999). Revisiting Woolf’s Representations of Androgyny: Gender,
Race, Sexuality, and Nation. Tulsa Studies in Womens Literature, 18(2), 235–261.
doi:10.2307/464448
Knopp, S. (1988). If I Saw You Would You Kiss Me?: Sapphism and the Subversiveness
of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando. PMLA, 103(1), 24–34. doi:10.2307/462459
Koç, C. (2015). A Feminist Study Of A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf.
International Journal of Media Culture and Literature.
Leitch, V. B. (2001). The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Norton.
Rognstad, M. (2012). The Representation of Gender in Virginia Woolf’s Orlando and
Jeffrey Eugenides’s Middlesex. Retrieved from https://www.duo.uio.no/bitstream/
handle/10852/25325/Rognstad_master.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Woolf, V. (1928.). Orlando: A Biography. Hogarth Press.
Woolf, V. (1929). A Room of One’s Own. Academic Press.
Wright, E. (2008). Re-evaluating Woolf’s Androgynous Mind. Postgraduate English:
A Journal and Forum for Postgraduates in English.
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Chapter 15
“It’s My Story”:
Revisioning of Myth in Thus
Spake Shoorpanakha, So Said
Shakuni by Poile Sengupta
Anusha Ashok
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8245-4190
Stella Maris College, India
ABSTRACT
The imposing corpus of Indian mythology has long stood uncontested and unquestioned
as a repository of narratives that demarcate the heroes and the villains with the
collective sympathy leaning towards the former. The depiction of the antagonists
in epics like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata were carefully constructed to
cement their positions as figures that would incite hatred and disgust and as foils to
their infallible hero counterparts. The purpose of this chapter is to reconsider the
character of Shoorpanakha as a victim of circumstance and masculine domination
as opposed to the malevolent individual that she is portrayed in the epics, through
the lens of subalternity and feminism, as represented in Sengupta’s play Thus Spake
Shoorpanakha, So Said Shakuni. The conscious decision of giving a voice to those
who were vilified and shunned is an instance of revisioning. It defies conventional
knowledge of the two crucial metanarratives and the dominating discursive practices.
It does not lend itself to the restricting binary of good and evil and allows agency
to own their narrative.
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch015
“It’s My Story”
INTRODUCTION
The epic as a genre has been extensively defined in academia and has a set of
distinguishing characteristics that demarcate it from other genres. It is accepted
that a long narrative work that delineates the heroic deeds and adventures of an
individual(s) can be classified under this terminology. Romila Thapar furthers this
definition by critically looking at the genre in her essay The Historian and the Epic
(1979) and comments, “(...) the epic is essentially a literary crystallisation of the
heroic ideal. By its very nature, therefore, it is not to be taken as factual evidence
but as the representation of an ideal.” (p.199) Epics, therefore, act as an agent of
consolidation for the ideals that a particular society upholds and strives to attain.
The Ramayana is subjected to the same treatment as characters are portrayed
as the epitome of perfection by the juxtaposition to an ‘evil’ and ‘deformed’
counterpart. Ram and Ravan have been moulded to create an intensive polarity that
cements their positions in the hero/villain binary. This is doubly suppressive to the
female characters as patriarchal ideology dictates that they have to be subservient
and demure in order to add credibility to their femininity.
The concept of the Ideal Feminine is a common theme among the literatures of
the world, both ancient and modern. An appropriate example that can attest to this
is the verse-novel The Angel in the House written by Coventry Patmore (1866) that
spread the Victorian idea of the perfect woman which was later heavily criticised by
feminists; Virginia Woolf going so far as writing, “Killing the Angel in the House
was part of the occupation of a woman writer.” (The Death of the Moth, and Other
Essays, 2012). This behavior would not be acceptable to the largely conservative
audience that metanarratives like the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, whose core
values were seen as an essential way of Hindu life.
This paper aims to scrutinize the way revisioning aids in providing a voice to
the marginalised female character of Shoorpanakha. She is a mythological figure
that went down in the annals of history as a despicable character who incited the
war between Ram and Ravan and responsible for thousands of casualties on both
sides. It will also inspect the harmful projection of the ideal onto the same and how
Sengupta untangles the prejudice and judgment that is woven around the mythical
figure, through her play.
The Subaltern Speaks: Revisioning as a Tool of Agency
Kiran Budkuley in Mahabharata Myths in Contemporary Writing: Challenging

Ideology says, “Myths continue to inspire/provoke the contemporary writer’s creative
impulse and pose for him/her the challenge of analysing, questioning, countering or
subverting their apparent and or/concealed ideology by re-working or re-visioning
140
the myths in question” (Budkuley, 2010, p.16). In Thus Spake Shoorpanakha, So

Said Shakuni (2010) which appears in the anthology titled Women Centre Stage:
The Dramatist and the Play, Sengupta (2014) transports two minor ‘villains’ from
the epics and places them in a contemporary setting.
Mahesh Dattani, renowned playwright and director, opined in an interview about
the appeal of directing such a controversial play and observes,
At the heart of it, (the play) is about the subaltern, people whose stories we haven’t
heard and the myths as we know them, the stories that we hear(...) it is very important
that we as a society in the 21st century revisit whom we think is a good person and
whom we think is a bad person and more so now because the myths that we have
grown up to hear must be countered with another story: it is not accepting one and
rejecting another, I think it’s just embracing the fact that there are more stories
than one. (Sridhar, 2020)
Sengupta, in true post-modernist fashion, shifts the existing centre to the margins
and foregrounds the periphery. Gramsci adopted the term ‘subaltern’ to refer to those
people who are subjected to the hegemony of dominant institutions. The history
that these oppressive powers provide becomes ‘that which is accepted as ‘official’
history’ (Ashcroft et al., 2007). Horatio Legras in a paper titled Subalternity and
Negativity (1997) remarks, “(...) the subaltern is never our contemporary. We reach
him/her in the form of an aftermath.”(p.84). In the play, Sengupta focuses on the
character of Shoorpanakha as a marginalised woman, bearing the brunt of masculine
ridicule and derision. She is seen as doubly undesirable for being an asura as well as a
woman who freely expresses her sexuality and, therefore, is othered and experiences
an ‘absence of autonomy’ (Legras, 1997, pp. 84).
The conscious decision of giving a voice to a woman who was overlooked and
shunned is an example of revisioning that defies conventional knowledge of the
crucial metanarrative and dominating discursive practices. Adrienne Rich (1972)
in her essay When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re-vision notes,
Re-vision-the act of looking back, of seeing with fresh eyes, of entering an old text
from a new critical direction-is for us more than a chapter in cultural history: it is an
act of survival. Until we can understand the assumptions in which we are drenched
we cannot know ourselves. (p.18)
In the play, two characters, named simply as Man and Woman are seated in
an airport waiting lounge. They are shown as people belonging to the modern era
in every sense of the word, from their clothes to their speech but the play shifts
intermittently back to the events of the epic past to which they belong, effectively
141
beginning the revisioning process by this theatrical tool. As the play progresses,
they devolve into lamenting about their unjust portrayal, their vilification and the
loss of agency to tell their own stories. The Man and Woman immerse themselves
into the characters of Shakuni and Shoorpanakha using skilful makeup and props
at the appropriate intervals.
Shoorpanakha in Valmiki’s version of the Ramayana, is the sister of Ravan, and
is furious after the rejection of her amorous advances by both Rama and Lakshman.
This incites her to attack Sita which in turn results in her nose and breasts being cut
off by Lakshman. In the play, Shoorpanakha elaborates further on the humiliation
that she faced at the hands of the brothers, so long thought to be righteous and good.
She narrates her story and says,
(...) the two brothers ... they laughed. Laughed at me. They teased me. Mocked me....
The older one said, ask my brother, he might want you...The younger one said, I
can’t marry without my brothers consent...They tossed me this way and that, as if
... as if I did not deserve any more respect...As if I was a . . . a broken plaything.
(Sengupta, 2010, pp. 261)
The ridicule and contempt with which they treated her, stripping her of her
femininity and dignity, as she says, ‘whatever stood out from me, whatever stuck
out’ (p.262) becomes evident. Masculine anxiety concerning such explicit sensuality
that the female has full power and control over, causes the internal agitation of the
mind to manifest into external violence on the body.
She admits that revenge was not at the forefront of her mind, only the love that
was denied to her. She justifies her stance by asking if it is a sin to tell a man about
her love and admiration and that it transcended lust. Her complaint to Ravan is
believed to have instigated the abduction of Sita and the subsequent war but it quickly
became apparent that her brother had his own objectives that he hoped to accomplish
and only used her woes as a smokescreen. . The airport, which is a liminal setting,
serves as a ‘third space’ in which both of the characters can articulate their woes
and experience catharsis.
Revisioning provides a space for the ‘undesirable’ voices to pierce through the
overarching narrative that aim to color them as undeserving of being acknowledged.
Their voice, if any is given at all, was only to further the perfect and infallible hero’s
narrative and enhance and exemplify his ‘desirable’ qualities.
The Ideal Feminine Versus the Monstrous Feminine
The notion of womanhood is a heavily contested concept in feminist theory and

criticism, and not without reason. For the longest time, the image of the ideal woman
142
was guided by the values that male counterparts put forward as essential and therefore
is a constructed and performative entity. The dominating representation of the ideal
feminine had lasting impressions on female writers like Woolf, who in a speech
delivered before a branch of the National Society for Women’s Service remarked,
“(...). Be sympathetic; be tender; flatter; deceive; use all the arts and wiles of our
sex. Never let anybody guess that you have a mind of your own. Above all, be pure.”
(1931/2020). She also states that, ‘telling the truth about my own experiences as a
body’ is a process she could never reconcile and achieve. Commenting on the same,
Elaine Showalter posits that the ‘exemplary female had always been a male ideal
and not a living woman.’(Showalter, 1992, pp. 208)
Critics like Beauvoir and Friedan observed the trajectory of this ideal, in order
to map, survey and subsequently, deconstruct. Betty Friedan (2013) in her seminal
work, The Feminine Mystique notes the harmful lessons women were taught: ‘The
root of women’s troubles in the past is that women envied men, women tried to be
like men, instead of accepting their own nature, which can find fulfilment only in
sexual passivity, male domination, and nurturing maternal love.’(2013, Ch.2)
In the play, Shoorpanakha treats the idea of such an idealised femininity with
contempt and rage. Conversely, the notion of a ‘terrifying feminine’, a polarised and
shrewish version of the demure and domesticated ‘goddess’ becomes inadequate
to express her true self. There is no appropriate and accepted middle ground that
patriarchy affords women. Her impatience with such labels is captured in her
exchange with the Man in the text:
WOMAN: Who would want to be a wife? To be a pigeon. Grey and stupid and cooing
... cooing all the time.
MAN: There are other kinds of wives.
WOMAN: Oh yes, there are. Those are the crows. Caw! Caw! Why are you so late?
What did you do with your salary? Caw! Why haven’t you paid the school fees?
Caw ... Caw. Who is that bitch I saw you with? (pp.255-256)
Her refusal to be restricted by these two categories that a phallocentric society

imposes on womanhood is seen as unacceptable and dangerous. The only way to
quell this image of a woman who understands the world around her and dares to
take agency of her own body and will is to paint her as a ‘monster’. Doing so would
justify any and all cruelty that the men inflict upon her and it will even be heralded as
a necessary and commendable feat. Shoorpanakha’s opinions in the play reimagines
the definition of a woman and challenges the notion of forcing women to either be
demure and doting or a vamp that always quarrel with their husbands.
143
In the Valmiki Ramayana, Sita and Shoorpanakha are depicted as opposing

forces of womanhood; the former being pious, gentle, pure and subordinate whilst
the latter is evil, sensuous, and assertive. According to ancient beliefs, a man must
be wedded exclusively to such a woman and ‘guard’ her. The Manusmriti dictates,
“Men must make their women dependent day and night, and keep under their own
control those who are attached to sensory objects. Her father guards her in childhood,
her husband guards her in youth, and her sons guard her in old age. A woman is not
fit for independence.”(1991Ch.9,pp.2-3) Sita is seen as a dutiful wife for following
her husband in his exile to the forest and has ‘trusted’ male companionship in
Lakshman but Shoorpanakha is seen as ‘morally loose’ because of her physical
movement by her own volition.
Rama utilizes Sita almost as a scapegoat to justify the mutilation of Shoorpanakha:
the imperative punishment of the ‘bad’ woman to protect the ‘good’. The act of
cutting off her breasts is equivalent to the confiscation of her honor. Her body
has become an ‘intruded’ space upon which masculine judgement is executed for
expressing her desires. It is an act intended to demonstrate the masculine power
and ownership of, what is construed as, a lesser female body that effectively puts
her back in place in a patriarchal hierarchy.
In the play, the Woman overtly displays her raw sexuality and initially tries to
turn on her ‘feminine charms’. She calls herself an ‘enchantress’ and believes that
she can captivate every heterosexual man, especially if they are married. The Man
seems immune to her charms and is blatantly rude to her. In one instance, she rejects
the Ramayana as an epic that holds great meaning to the Indian audience and calls
it a ‘Mills and Boon’, terming it as a ‘cute’ and ‘romantic’ story.
WOMAN. Anyway, there they are in the forest living in a pretty little cottage when
this absolutely stunning woman comes along. The two brothers, especially the older
one, are bowled over. Totally bowled over.
MAN. That’s not what I’ve heard.
WOMAN. Were you there?
MAN. Of course not.
WOMAN. Then how do you know what happened?
MAN. And you were there.
(Pause)
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WOMAN. It’s my story. I was her. (pp.254-255)
Here, she tries to take control of her narrative and opposes the portrayal of her
mythical character as ‘ugly and pot-bellied’ rakshasi. In the chapter titled “The
Mutilation of Surpanakha” featured in the anthology Many Ramayanas, Kathleen
M. Erndl (1991) alludes to some versions having Rama say, ‘”You have such a
charming body that you appear to be a rakshasi.”(p.70). In the versions prevalent
in the South, like the Kamba Ramayana, Shoorpanakha is depicted as possessing a
bewitching beauty. Her femininity is of an intimidating nature and she weaponises
her outward attributes, unlike the ideal feminine who does not invite unwanted and
amorous advances. Erndl goes on to comment,
Although male characters also divide into good and bad, the split between women
is far more pronounced and is always expressed in terms of sexuality. Similarly,
when a woman such as Surpanakha performs a wrong deed, it is typically ascribed
to her female nature, whereas Ravana’s evil deeds, for example, are never said
to spring from his male nature (…)evil-doings of the male characters are recast
as devotional acts leading to eventual salvation, Surpanakha’s salvation is not
mentioned. (1991, pp. 83)
The Man, a modern-day embodiment of Shakuni, in contrast to Rama bemoans

the fact that his sister, Gandhari, while moulding herself as the ideal wife and
blinding herself to stand in solidarity with her husband, loses her sense of self and
freedom. Thus, Shoorpanakha, Sita, and Gandhari are caught in the vicious cycle
of patriarchal expectations of what a woman ought to be and the repercussions if
they fall short of the established definition.
CONCLUSION
The vast majority of sacred books that have been considered as a codified text on
how to live a righteous life with the correct code of conduct must be revisited and
should not be accepted at face value. Though it might contain certain concepts
that can be universal, it must also be studied at the time in which it was written
and questioned. Readers must also recognise that the individuals at the centre and
around whom the narrative revolves around, will understandably be portrayed in
the best possible light.
Scrutinizing the rigorous expectations of morality and the feminine ideal in
ancient times may help modern readers understand contemporary women and their
oppression. Real-life equivalents of ‘dangerous’ women like Shoorpanakha as opposed
145
to the ‘good’ Sita are abundant in culture and media. Further research and enquiry
can be made into other mythological texts and their varied treatment of women and
the style in which modern writers may subvert these ideologies.
As a scholar of literature, it is of paramount importance to scrutinize and peel
back the layers of misogyny and marginalization in order to bring the stories of the
periphery to the forefront. A re-examination of the heroes and heroines, who have
long been lauded as the paragon of righteousness and morality, is necessary in order
to understand the full picture.
The purpose of this paper is not to completely reject metanarratives but to
look at the multiplicity that it has the potential to possess. The play Thus Spake
Shoorpanakha, So Said Shakuni by Poile Sengupta (2010) does not lend itself to the
restricting binary of good and evil but rather provides a rationale for their actions
and allows them agency to own their narrative rather than be ventriloquized by a
cruel mythos.
REFERENCES
Ashcroft, B., Griffiths, G., & Tiffin, H. (2007). Key Concepts in Post-Colonial
Studies (2nd ed.). Routledge.
Budkuley, K. (2010). Mahabharata Myths in Contemporary Writing: Challenging
Ideology. In Satchidanandan (Ed.), Myth in Contemporary Indian Literature (pp.
16–30). Sahitya Akademi.
Doniger, W., & Smith, B. K. (Eds.). (1991). The Laws of Manu. PDF Drive. Penguin
Books. Retrieved April 28, 2022, from https://www.pdfdrive.com/the-laws-of-
manu-d189752067.html
Erndl, K. M. (1991). The Mutilation of Shoorpanakha. In P. Richman (Ed.), Many
Rāmāyanas: The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia. University
Of California Press. Retrieved May 1, 2022, from https://publishing.cdlib.org/
ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft3j49n8h7&chunk.id=d0e4061&toc.depth=1&toc.
id=d0e4061&brand=ucpress
Friedan, B. (2013). The Feminine Mystique. W.W. Norton & Company.
Legras, H. (1997). Subalternity and negativity. Dispositio, 22(49), 83–102. https://
www.jstor.org/stable/41491549
Patmore, C. (1866). The angel in the house. Macmillan.
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Rich, A. (1972). When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re-Vision. College English,

34(1), 18–30. doi:10.2307/375215
Sengupta, P. (2010). Thus Spake Shoorpanakha, So Said Shakuni. Women Centre
Stage: The Dramatist and the Play, 242-82.
Sengupta, P. (2014). Women centre stage: The dramatist and the play. Routledge.
doi:10.4324/9781315815954
Showalter, E. (1992). Killing the Angel in the House: The Autonomy of Women
Writers. The Antioch Review, 50(1/2), 207–220. doi:10.2307/4612511
Sridhar, V. (2020, Oct 17). Mahesh Dattani on Theatre and on Directing THUS
SPAKE [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zi04WA-Dlm4
Thapar, R. (1979). The historian and the epic. Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental
Research Institute, 60(1/4), 199–213. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41692304
Woolf, V. (2012, October). The Death of the Moth, and Other Essays. Project
Gutenberg Australia. Retrieved April 28, 2022, from https://gutenberg.net.au/
ebooks12/1203811h.html
Woolf, V. (2020). Professions for Women [Speech Transcript]. Literature Cambridge.
https://www.literaturecambridge.co.uk/news/professions-women (Original work
published 1931)
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Chapter 16
An Ode to Woman:
Role and Representation of Women
in the World of Literature
Arundhati Patra
Vivekananda Mission Mahavidyalaya, India
ABSTRACT
In this 21st century, the world, as well as societal norms, changes rapidly due to
globalization. The feminist movement is one of the important outcomes of these
societal changes. Nowadays the status or position of women becomes progressed as
we find them in every pace of the world due to the waves of the feminist movement.
This chapter examines how women got their rights to introduce themselves in this
patriarchal society, the history of the world of women’s literature – how women
introduce themselves as writers and the way they are depicted within the world
of literature, and the present scenario of women in the society as portrayed in the
world of literature through selected literary texts as contexts.
Men and women should own the world as a mutual possession.
- Pearl S. Buck, Of Men and Women
In the 21st century the terms ‘equality’, ‘empowerment’ and ‘emancipation’ are
widely used words that can be heard in each layer of society. As OED (Oxford
English Dictionary) explains these terms: ‘equality’ is ‘the fact of being equal in
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch016
An Ode to Woman
rights, status, advantages’; ‘empowerment’ means ‘the process of becoming stronger

and more confident, especially in controlling one’s life and claiming one’s rights’;
and ‘emancipation’ is ‘the fact or process of being set free from legal, social, or
political restrictions.’ All these terms are specifically related to Gender Studies. Now
the question arises what is ‘gender’ basically? Gender is all about the two sexes-
masculine and feminine-that denote a range of identities. Therefore, from this point
another question arises that Is identity dependent on the basis of sexes? Certainly, or
certainly not as identity is an abstract idea that is interpreted from various aspects.
From masculinity, the term patriarchy comes which means a belief that women are
inferior to men; an inborn belief what is basically called biological essentialism
based on biological differences between the sexes.
In literature, gender studies refer to the study of women and the question of
masculinity. It is therefore, the successor to Feminist Criticism. Now a question arises
if male and female are none but a biological difference, why ‘feminist criticism’
arises? Or why there is not any criticism called ‘masculine criticism? The answer
lies in the meaning of patriarchy that is a belief that women are inferior to men. From
this point of view feminism comes forth in society. Though the women characters
are portrayed as angels, goddesses, obedient lovers, amenable wives, mother figures
in literature written by male writers, women were not considered as human beings
at all and were not only deprived of education and financial independence but also
had to struggle against male ideologies. In the 20th century, women’s struggles for
political as well as societal rights born feminism or Marxist feminist criticism.
Therefore, feminism is a movement that raises a voice on women living on equal
terms with that of men. According to Marxist feminist criticism, the private property
from which economic inequality, dependency, political confusion and unhealthy
relationship between men and women arise is the origin of women’s oppressed
status in society. Feminist critics don’t deny the biological differences, what they
deny is that of what is called ‘social constructionism’ refers to that woman is not
born feminine and man is not born masculine rather this classification is introduced
by the society that gives birth to psychoanalytic feminist criticism. According to
Psychoanalytic feminist criticism that is based on Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis,
gender inequality is not a biological one rather it comes from that of early childhood
experiences that lead man to believe themself to be masculine and woman to be
feminine. This psychological difference considers women as inferior or marginal
characters. It’s not only the problem of western civilization but also the problem of
Eastern civilization. It bridges East and West in a single thread. In this paper, my
focus is only on the status and role of women in Indian society, though the position
of women is the same all over the world.
In Eastern Civilization, women also were considered as helpless, dependent
creatures who were born only to fulfilling male’s desires. They were always remained
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An Ode to Woman
themselves behind the pardah (veil) or four walls of the house. As Sarojini Naidu,
an Indian poet, perfectly describes the sorrow and suffering life of women in her
poem, Pardah Nashin:
From thieving light of eyes impure,
From coveting sun or wind’s caress,
Her days are guarded and secure
Behind her carven lattices... (Naidu, 1905, lines 7-10)
In the Vedic Age, we can see that there’s no difference between men and women.
Women were equally treated in the society like men. They were allowed to educate
themselves even to learn how to fight against enemy as an instance we find the
female characters named Gargi, Apala, Mayitree or female writers Phalguhastini who
wrote Trinayanjotabollipushpam, Lakhima who is the author of Sphutakabyanni or
Khamaraba the writer of Satyagrahita. During the Vedic age, women can exercise all
the powers, rights without any deprivation. But the scenario was changed gradually.
In the post- Vedic Age, Manushastra is responsible for the derogatory status accorded
to women. All the powers, rights, freedom were taken under the name of patriarchy.
As described in The Manusmriti, one of the ancient Dharmasastras of Hinduism:
“पिता रक्षति कौमारे भर्ता रक्षति यौवने ।
रक्षन्ति स्थविरे पुत्रा न स्त्री स्वातन्त्र्यमर्हति ॥ ३ ॥
pitā rakṣati kaumāre bhartā rakṣati yauvane |
rakṣanti sthavire putrā na strī svātantryamarhati || 3 ||
Translation: The father guards her during virginity, the husband guards her in
youth, the son guards her in old age; the woman is never fit for independence.
Even according to Manu, women never be free, they didn’t allow to enjoy their
freedom, as described in Chapter-5, Verse-146
बा ल् ये पि तु र् व शे ति ष् ठे त् पा णि ग् रा ह स् य यौ व ने ।
पुत्राणां भर्तरि प्रेते न भजेत् स्त्री स्वतन्त्रताम् ॥ १४६ ॥
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An Ode to Woman
bālye piturvaśe tiṣṭhet pāṇigrāhasya yauvane |

putrāṇāṃ bhartari prete na bhajet strī svatantratām || 146 ||
In childhood, she should remain under the control of her father, in youth under
that of her husband, and on the husband’s death under that of her sons, the woman
should never have recourse to independence. (Chapter-5, Verse-146)
Even Rishi Manu strictly gave a piece of advice on the marital issue as he
described in his The Manusmriti (Chapter-3, verse-13)
शू द् रै व भा र् या शू द् र स् य सा च स् वा च वि शः स् मृ ते ।
ते च स्वा चैव राज्ञश्च ताश्च स्वा चाग्रजन्मनः ॥ १३ ॥
śūdraiva bhār yā śūdrasya sā ca svā ca viśaḥ smṛte |

te ca svā caiva rājñaśca tāśca svā cāgrajanmanaḥ || 13 ||
Translation: For the Sudra, the Sudra girl. alone has been ordained to be the wife;
for the Vaisya, she as also the girl of his own caste; for the Kṣatriya, those two as
also the girl of his own caste; and for the Brahmaṇa those three as also the girl of
his own caste (Chapter-3, Verse-13).
The issues of casteism, pardha pratha and derogatory status were deliberately
challenged by the famous classical Indian Sanskrit author Kalidasa. Kalidasa took
out the women from jabanika that means in English Veil and presented them into
the mainstream of society. He depicted women as women a part of human beings.
Even he also broke the norms of the difference between the social casteism in the
issue of marriage that is quite opposite that of Manu through the characters of
Malavika, an exiled servant girl to whom King Agnimitra falls in love in the play
Malavikagnimitram (Pertaining to Malavika and Agnimitra) and Sakuntala, adopted
daughter of a sage to whom King Duṣyanta meets and marries during a hunting
trip in a forest in the play Abhijnanasakuntalam (Of the recognition of Sakuntala).
Women are depicted as mystic figures like that of the forests.
In the history of English Literature, the role and representation of women are
quite similar to that of our literature. Women are depicted as a subject of men’s
desires. In the age of the Renaissance, poets express their loves of the beloved to
whom they dedicated their writings to immortalize them like Edmund Spenser
who dedicated his Amoretti to his beloved Elizabeth Boyle or Sir Phillip Sidney
dedicated Astrophel and Stella to Lady Penelope Devereux. At that time women
characters were performed by male performers on stage. Women were not allowed
to come forward in front of society though we found Mary I and Elizabeth I as the
queen who ruled the monarchy. In the early 1660s, it’s accepted that women could
begin to appear on stage. On 8th December 1660, Margaret Hughes played the role
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An Ode to Woman
of Desdemona in Shakespeare’s play Othello, in production by Thomas Killigrew’s

new King’s Company at their Vere Street theatre. Therefore, in the history of
English Theatre Margaret Hughes become the first woman to perform on stage, the
primary step to introduce feminine identity in the patriarchal society. Even if you go
through the history of English literature thoroughly, we can easily trace that women
were not allowed to become writers that’s why they chose the path of disguising
themselves during publication. The issue of disguise was more popular from that
of the Renaissance Age as most of the Shakespearean heroine adopted the issue of
disguise i.e. Rosalind who disguised herself as a male character named Ganymede
in the Forest of Arden in the play As You Like It. Mary Ann Evans one of the famous
Victorian female writers published her writings under the pseudonym George Eliot.
It’s believed that women were safe by the male identity that’s why they introduced
themselves as male personae. Women were only made for pretty as good luck of
her husband as Jane Austen (1813, 2013) wrote in her famous novel Pride and
Prejudice: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession
of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” (Austen, 1813, 2013). After the wave
of the feminist movement, the social scenery is changed. Now women can raise
their voices for their fundamental rights. Even in United Nations Charter Chapter 3
Article 8, it is said, The United Nations shall place no restrictions on the eligibility
of men and women to participate in any capacity and under conditions of equality
in its principal and subsidiary organs. (United Nations, n.d.)
In Indian Literature, whether written in English or regional language, we find
several texts which will prove the context sort of a woman as subaltern, woman as
a writer, woman as part of society who has broken the societal norms deliberately.
Rassundari Devi’s Amar Jiban or My Life (1999/1876), the first published
autobiography written by a woman in Bengali literature, depicts Rassundari Devi’s
entire life: from her childhood to her marriage life, and life after marriage minutely.
This autobiography is nothing but a documentary of a struggling woman who refused
to stay uneducated; who refused to be a subaltern; who fought for raising her voice
against the Bengali orthodoxy. While during this present era, a girl is taken into
account to be educated as our Indian Constitution gives the right that has been
described in Article 45 entitled Provision for free and compulsory education for
children that is adopted from Article 36, Draft Constitution of India 1950:
Every citizen is entitled to free primary education and the State shall endeavour to
provide, within a period of ten years from the commencement of this Constitution,
for free and compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of
fourteen years. (Constitution of India, 1950).
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An Ode to Woman
The 17th or 18th century Bengal society’s scenario was quite different. At that
time, it was believed that education is not made for women rather it is a vice as well
curse as an educated woman become a widow and this belief is rightly depicted
through the character Binodini in Rabindranath Tagore’s Chokher Bali, a novel
that focuses on the issues of women literacy, patriarchy and also of the fates of the
widow. In Rassundari Devi’s Amar Jiban, we can hear a voice of plea for being
educated through her pen:
I would learn to read and I would read a religious manuscript. I was unlucky, in
those days women were not educated. People would say: Ah, it seems the kali age
is, indeed, upon us! Now women will take over men’s jobs…...Such talk terrified
me…...I was so scared that someone may stumble upon them that even if I came
across a piece of paper, I would not glance at it, in case people suspected that I was
trying to read it. In my heart, however, I was forever praying: “My Lord! Teach me
to read, I’ll read religious manuscripts…. Nonetheless, it is deplorable that I was not
allowed to educate myself because I was a woman (Devi, 1999, 1876, pp-161-163).
Therefore, Amar Jiban completely highlights a journey of an uneducated girl to

an educated woman; a simple housewife to a writer and a first-ever Bengal feminist
who raises her voice against the forcefully applied norms of the so-called patriarchal
society.
In the case of girl’s equality, women education, women freedom, not only the
oppressed women or female writers raise their voice but also the male writers raise
their voice. As Nelson Mandela rightly said on the issues of women’s freedom:
“Freedom cannot be achieved unless the women have been emancipated from all
forms of oppression”. Rabindranath Tagore, one amongst the leading figures of
The Bengal Renaissance, depicted women characters very carefully, presents them
educated furthermore modern in most of his novels and short stories, deliberately
challenges also as breaks this social norm and presents a form of new society
where both men and women are equal, liberal to choose their own way to lead life.
Within The Exercise Book (2018). Rabindranath Tagore raises his voice against
Hindu believes through the character Uma who loved to read and write like that of
Rassundari Devi. But her passion for reading is challenged by her own educated
husband, Pyarimohan, an epitome of patriarchy, who believed that education for
girls is to be the forerunner of widowhood as he said: “If women began to read and
write, novels and plays would soon make their way into the home and it would be
hard to uphold the household virtues…..he said that, the power of the female and the
power of the male together produced the sacred power of the conjugal relationship;
but if the power of the female was vanquished through education and study, the
power of the male alone would be paramount. Then male power would clash with
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An Ode to Woman
male power to produce so terrible a destructive energy that the power of the conjugal
bond would be completely destroyed, and so the woman would become a widow”
(Tagore, 2018, p. 48). Whereas Rabindranath Tagore represents Pyarimohan as an
incarnation of a male-dominated society, he also presents an opposite character of
Pyarimohan named Shambhunath Sen in Aparichita (2005) who may be a spokesman
of Rabindranath Tagore’s inner self even modern thought. Rabindranath Tagore
deliberately challenges the social customs through the character of Shambhunath
Sen, Kalyani’s father, who breaks his own daughter’s marriage only for protecting
her respect: “I cannot give my daughter in marriage to a family that considers me
capable of stealing her gold” (Tagore, 2005, p.224). Tagore’s heroines are openly
challenging social evils as widow-remarriage, the rigid caste-system and patriarchy
at large. In his writings Rabindranath Tagore presents the women characters as
mystic figures as well as educated.
Mahasweta Devi, another Bengali female writer of the 20th century, deals with
the issue of subalternity in her most of writings. The term ‘subaltern’ basically
implies a socially inferior class of people. Mahasweta Devi pens on the issue of
the unspeakable truth of women who are basically considered as ‘subaltern’ or
‘marginalized’ or ‘peripheral’ ones whether they belonged to the economically
superior class or economically inferior class. The scenario of women’s misery and
the power of enduring and resistance is quite similar in this patriarchal society. To
be considered women as subaltern, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak rightly said in her
well-known essay Can the Subaltern Speak?
Can the subaltern speak? What must the elite do to watch out for the continuing
construction of the subaltern? The question of ‘woman’ seems most problematic in
this context…...In seeking to learn to speak to (rather than listen to or speak for)
the historically muted subject of the subaltern woman, the postcolonial intellectual
systematically ‘unlearns’ female privilege. This systematic unlearning involves
learning to critique postcolonial discourse with the best tools it can provide
and not simply substituting the lost figure of the colonized. Thus, to question the
unquestioned muting of the subaltern women within the anti-imperialist project of
subaltern studies is not to…’produce difference by differing’ or to ‘appeal….to a
sexual identity defined as essential and privilege experiences associated with that
identity. (Spivak, 2015, pp. 90-91)
The character of Draupadi in the famous short story, Draupadi, written by

Mahasweta Devi and translated by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, is almost a perfect
example of a subaltern woman who can’t pronounce her Sanskrit name Draupadi
rather she is introduced as Dopdi, a tribalized form of her name:
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An Ode to Woman
Name Dopdi Mejhen, age twenty-seven, husband Dulna Majhi (deceased), domicile
Cherakhan, Bankrajharh, information whether dead or alive and/or assistance
in arrest, one hundred rupees. . . … What’s this, a tribal called Dopdi? The list
of names I brought has nothing like it! How can anyone have an unlisted name?
(Spivak, 1981, p. 392).
Being a tribal woman, Dopdi is not considered as part of mainstream society.

Through the character of Dopdi, Devi deliberately challenges the societal rules for
subaltern and also for women as she depicted her heroine Dopdi. Though Dopdi is
an illiterate, peasant tribal woman, she leads an armed struggle for the rights and
freedom of tribal. Devi represents Dopdi not as a victim rather as a woman equal
to men as she fights for the rights firmly like her husband Dulan. Dopdi Mejhen
replies to Spivak’s question that can the subaltern speak? rightly that a subaltern
has a voice therefore he/she can speak. Mahasweta Devi gives a voice to Dopdi
who acquires a self- definition and at the same time refuses to be a subject of male
dominated society and introduces her feminine identity.
Through the history of literature, the main mottos of the feminist criticism are- I)
literature can be gender free and II) to recover and re-read the writings of women
writers and we can say that feminist criticism is not a product of modernism rather the
seed of the feminism lies on the ancient age both Western and Eastern society. What
is new is that the feminist movement appears in 1790s through the writing of Mary
Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Women (2008, 1792) and presents its
self into three distinct waves- First Wave Feminism that declares to secure the basic
civil rights described in Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex (2010, 1949) where
she claimed: “one is not born, one becomes a woman”; Second Wave Feminism
focuses on the equality as described in Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique (2010,
1963); and Third Wave Feminism centers on racial justice, LGBT rights and women
of colour consciousness as described in Rebecca Walker’s Becoming the Third
Wave (2001). Even we may include 2016’s Me too Movement into the feminism
that arouse against the sexual violence, especially the colors of females. The waves
of the Western feminism movement not only affect the European countries but also
the Eastern countries like India due to the globalization.
To conclude, I want to interpret the title “An Ode to Woman” of my paper briefly.
In literature, Ode is considered as a literary genre that indicates to praise a person
or subject lyrically. Therefore, the title, “An ode to woman” simply shows to praise
a woman in general, to praise their struggle for establishing their selves as a human
being like that of man, to praise their fight against the rotten societal norms and
introduce their identity in front of the world as a human, as a girl, as a mother, as a
writer or as an important character without whom the society as well as the world
is incomplete. Now “the caged bird” is not a “caged bird [who] sings of freedom”
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An Ode to Woman
(Angelou, 1983, lines 21-22) rather it is “a free bird [who] leaps/on the back of the
wind/and floats downstream/till the current ends/and dips [its] wing/in the orange
sun rays/and dares to claim the sky” (Angelou, 1983, lines 1-7).
REFERENCES
Angelou, M. (1983). Caged bird. In Shaker, why don’t you sing. Random House.
Austen, J. (2003). Pride and Prejudice. Penguin Classics. (Original publication 1813)
Constitution of India. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.constitutionofindia.net/
constitution_of_india/directive_principles_of_state_policy/articles/Article%2045
De Beauvoir, S. (2010). The second sex. Knopf.
Devi, R. (1999). Amar Jiban. Writers Workshop. (Original publication 1876)
Friedan, B. (2010). The feminine mystique. WW Norton & Company.
Naidu, S. (1905). Pardah Nashin. In (The Golden Threshold (p. 87). Good Press.
Sarkar, T. (1999). Words to Win: The Making of Amar Jiban: A Modern
Autobiography. Academic Press.
Spivak, G. C. (1981, Winter). Writing and Sexual Difference.: “Draupadi” by
Mahasweta Devi. Critical Inquiry, 8(2). doi:10.1086/448160
Spivak, G. C. (1981). “Draupadi” by Mahasveta Devi. Critical Inquiry, 8(2), 381–402.
Spivak, G. C. (2015). Can the Subaltern Speak? In Colonial discourse and post-
colonial theory (pp. 66-111). Routledge.
Tagore, R. (2005). Aparichita (W. Radice, Trans.). In Selected Short Stories. Penguin
Classics.
Tagore, R. (2018). The Exercise Book. Shree Book Centre.
United Nations. (n.d.). Charter of the United Nations. United Nations. Chapter 3
Article 8. Retrieved from https://legal.un.org/repertory/art8.shtml
Walker, R. (2001). Becoming the third wave. Identity Politics in the Women’s
Movement, 3(13), 78-80.
Wollstonecraft, M. (2008). A Vindication of the Rights of Women & A Vindication
of the Rights of Men. Cosimo, Inc.
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Chapter 17
Women in Partition Literature:
A Comparative Study of
Women’s Representations in
India’s Partition Literature
Trisha Bhattacharya
Independent Researcher, India
ABSTRACT
This chapter is a comparative analysis between partition literature from Bengal and
Punjab showing how even though there is a minor divergence in literature from these
two sides owing to the political realities, for the most part literature from these two
sides shows overwhelming convergence. In order to draw a comparative analysis, the
author uses eight pieces of partition literature—four each from Bengal and Punjab.
The chapter is divided into three sections: The first section discusses the relevance
of Partition literature for studying Partition and how partition was experienced
different by Punjab and Bengal in the political sense. The second section presents the
analysis of the one most significant divergence between literature from the two sides,
and the final section presents a discussion of the overwhelming convergence between
INTRODUCTION
The Partition of India in 1947 was an event of great significance for the South
Asian region. However while the political significance of the Partition of India has
been often talked about, what partition meant for the people of the subcontinent
has received scant attention. It was this lack of attention to the social history of
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch017
Women in Partition Literature
Partition in general and to women’s history of Partition in particular which prompted

a feminist investigation into the history of Partition. This feminist investigation
was begun by scholars such as Urvashi Butalia, Ritu Menon and Kamla Bhasin. A
feminist investigation of Partition’s history allowed an analysis of how women were
one of the worst sufferers of Partition’s violence. There was mass sexual violence
during Partition with approximately 75,000-100,000 women having been abducted
and raped (Tiwari, 2013). Yet silence surrounded their experience, prompted by
the ideal of ‘Honour’ - both their family’s and the nation’s. This silence around
women’s experiences was investigated through a feminist analysis of Partition’s
history. The introduction of gender into the discussion of Partition and its politics led
to the emergence of a very different history (Didur, 2006) – and in this history the
violence inscribed on women’s bodies is clearly visible. It is because women have
been presumed to be outside history since they are outside the public and political
where history is being made (Menon, 2004) – that an investigation into women’s
history of Partition became necessary. So while researchers investigating women’s
experience of Partition in general used oral testimonies as source of knowledge –
Rituparna Roy (2010) acknowledges that there is an agreement among historians that
literature has been able to present a better picture of women’s experience of Partition.
While the question of which source of information on women’s experience is
better would require a different kind of research, in this paper I discuss how Partition
literature has come to be recognised as a genre and how it can be used as a source
for the study of Partition itself and a study of women’s experience of Partition in
particular. The first section of this paper therefore discusses what exactly Partition
literature is, followed by a brief discussion of the difference in Bengal and Punjab’s
political experience of Partition. The second section deals with the difference in
the literature from Punjab and Bengal. The third section follows all the points of
similarity between literature from Bengal and Punjab. In conclusion I discuss why the
existence of overwhelming similarities in the representation of women’s experience
between literature from Bengal and Punjab is not a surprise at all. Before beginning
the first section, I briefly discuss the methodology used in this paper and give a
brief overview of the texts analysed.
METHODOLOGY
This paper is based on a qualitative study conducted on eight literary texts and
is based on research for the author’s Master’s thesis titled “Women, History, and
Fiction: A study of women’s representation in India’s Partition literature”. The
methodology for both this paper and and the abovementioned thesis is to carry out
textual analysis on the eight chosen literary texts – four of which are literary pieces
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from Punjab’s partition literature and the other four are literary pieces from Bengal’s
Partition literature. Textual analysis as a methodology first received recognition in
literature and according to Alan Mckee (2001) performing textual analysis means
making an educated guess about the most likely interpretations a text can have.
The interpretations that a person arrives at by using the methodology of textual
analysis will depend on the kind of sensitivity the concerned person has and the
context within which research is being performed. John Scott (1990) points out
that in textual analysis there is a mediation between the context in which the author
produced the text and the context in which the researcher reads or analyses it. It
must be understood that a text cannot be interpreted by separating it from its context
of production (Scott, 1990). However it must also be remembered that there is no
single correct interpretation of a text - there can be a large number of interpretations
of a text but only some of these interpretations will be relevant to the context and
purpose of a research (McKee, 2001).
Beginning with Punjab’s Partition literature, the first story under it is Roots by
Ismat Chughtai. The story has been translated from Urdu by Vishwamitter Adil and
Alok Bhalla, and the book has been accessed from the third volume of Stories about
the Partition of India, edited by Alok Bhalla. At the centre of the story’s narrative
is Amma, who despite the threat of violence and the decision of her family refuses
to leave her ancestral home. We witness both her anxiety for her children’s lives
and her stubborn reluctance to leave her roots. The second story from Punjab’s
Partition literature is A Leaf in the Storm by Lalithambika Antharjanam. The story
has been translated from Malayalam by Narayan Chandran, and has been accessed
from the first volume of Stories about the Partition of India, edited by Alok Bhalla.
The protagonist of this story is Jyoti, who is rescued and brought to a refugee camp
and we witness her journey in dealing with her unwanted pregnancy and eventual
childbirth. The third story under Punjab’s Partition Literature is Pinjar by Amrita
Pritam. The story has been translated from Punjabi by Khushwant Singh, and has
been accessed from Pinjar: The skeleton and other stories which has been translated
and adapted by Khushwant Singh. The protagonist of this story is Pooro whose
name in the course of the story is changed to Hamida and so in this paper she is
always addressed as Pooro/Hamida. This novella tells the story of Pooro/Hamida’s
life after her abduction till the time of the Partition of the country. The fourth and
final story from Punjab’s Partition Literature is Lajwanti by Rajinder Singh Bedi.
The story has been translated from Urdu by Alok Bhalla, and has been accessed
from the first volume of Stories about the Partition of India, edited by Alok Bhalla.
The protagonist of this story is Lajwanti, and the story is about her abduction and
rehabilitation and her husband Sunderlal’s role in the process.
Now coming to Bengal’s Partition literature in which the first story is Jaha Jae or
Loss by Gour Kishore Ghosh. The story has been translated from Bengali by Sarika
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Chaudhuri, and has been accessed from Bengal Partition Stories: An unclosed chapter
edited by Bashabi Fraser. The protagonist of this story is Ranu and the story is about
the anxiety Ranu experiences when she is locked in a shop with a strange Muslim
man as she tries to protect herself from the riots on Kolkata’s streets. The second
story from Bengal’s Partition literature is Karun Kanya or The Stricken Daughter
by Ramapada Chaudhury. The story has been translated from Bengali by Sheila
Sengupta, and has been accessed from Bengal Partition Stories: An unclosed chapter
edited by Bashabi Fraser. The protagonist of this story is Arundhuti, and the story
follows her rescue and return home with her child till the time she decides to return
to her abductor. The third story from Bengal’s Partition literature is The Crossing
by Jyotirmoyee Devi. The story has been translated from Bengali by Sarmistha
Dutta Gupta, and has been accessed from Bengal Partition Stories: An unclosed
chapter edited by Bashabi Fraser. The protagonist of the story is Durga, and the
story follows her husband and her attempt at crossing the border and how eventually
she is driven to commit suicide due to the threat of sexual violation. The fourth and
final story from Bengal’s Partition literature is the novel The River Churning by
Jyotirmoyee Devi. The novel has been translated from Bengali by Enakshi Chatterji.
The protagonist of this novel is Sutara, a young girl who has lost her parents and
sister in the Partition riots. The story follows the journey of Sutara’s life after she
is brought back to Kolkata to live with her family.
Textual analysis on these literary texts requires a close reading of the text, with
the goal of reading being not just to finish the story but also to develop a deeper
understanding of the story. The most crucial aspect in the selection of these literary
texts was to address the Punjab Bias. Punjab bias refers to a tilt towards recognizing
both Punjab’s political experience and the partition literature emerging from Punjab
as the normative for the whole country’s experience of Partition. Punjab bias has
led to an overshadowing of not just Bengal’s experience of Partition but also of
the literature that has emerged from Bengal. In order to address the Punjab bias I
perform a comparative analysis of these eight selected texts to analyse whether the
perception of difference meets reality. However before moving on to the comparative
analysis, we look at what Partition literature signifies and what exactly were the
political differences in Punjab and Bengal’s Partition experiences.
Partition Literature and the Punjab-Bengal Binary
Frances Harrison (1991) defines Partition literature as any kind of literary writing
that poses or attempts to answer any question directly or indirectly related to the
Partition. According to Debjani Sengupta (2016) the function of Partition literature
is to force a society that has faced unendurable violence and in which victims and
perpetrators have become intermixed to acknowledge what exactly it is that the society
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has gone through. According to Mushirul Hasan (2008) literature has emerged as an
alternate archive of the times of Partition. What Partition literature has been able to
do is that it has articulated the ‘little’ narratives of partition against the grand and the
unofficial histories against the official ones. So as all of these scholars put forward,
Partition literature allows us to go beyond the high politics of Partition, it allows
us to look at the people’s history of Partition – how is it that people experienced
and lived through Partition. In the case of this paper, Partition literature allows us
to look at women’s experience of Partition – how society’s obsession with honour
led to a suppression of women’s experience and how Punjab and Bengal’s literature
portrays that experience. The study of Partition literature therefore allows us to go
beyond what is officially taught as the history of Partition and specifically allows
a look at women’s history of Partition. However, a focus on the Partition literature
of India did not emerge until the fiftieth anniversary of India’s independence and
as the incidents of communal/sectarian violence seemed to be increasing in the
country (Didur, 2006). This increased attention on Partition Literature prompted
History to turn towards it as a source of knowledge, something that was valuable in
the exploration of Partition and its realities - Partition literature was now to be read
as an alternative ‘record’ of the period (Didur, 2006). Partition Literature therefore
allowed focus on the different aspects of the experience people had during Partition.
Official history records had looked at the official narrative. However the everyday
effects of Partition were far greater than anything official records could even begin
to cover. It is important to remember that the communal violence that is referred
to in official historical records were in actuality witnessed and experienced by the
people of the country and their experience goes far beyond what is memorialised
in official written records. In the words of Debjani Sengupta (2016), “…literature
remains an extraordinarily sensitive index of the historical and cultural changes in
society.” (p. 29).
The division of Partition literature into Punjab’s and Bengal’s Partition is necessary
because even though Debjani Sengupta (2016) notes that Partition literature from
both Punjab and Bengal is used to negotiate the social amnesia around Partition – it
has been widely recognized that the Partition experience for Bengal and Punjab was
different politically. Jasodhara Bagchi and Subharanjan Dasgupta (2006) list out four
key reasons for why, despite some political and existential overlaps, the Partition of
Bengal and Punjab differed from each other. The Partition of Punjab was a one-time
event with the mayhem and forced migration being restricted to primarily three years
(1947-1950) while Partition of Bengal was more of a continuous process; the scale
of violence in the West was not something that was repeated in the East; history
and politics have remained constant for Partition of Punjab but for the Partition of
Bengal they have refracted through a number of conflicting prisms since Partition;
and finally, the border at the East has remained porous and flexible unlike the border
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on the West (Bagchi & Dasgupta, 2006). Since the political realities of Partition
were different, it bears the question whether the social realities were different too -
especially when it came to women. However, what Bagchi and Dasgupta (2006) have
also noted is that despite the difference in the overall political realities of Partition
for Bengal and Punjab, women’s experience of Partition in these two parts of the
country have shown remarkable similarity. The existence of similarity in women’s
experience of Partition in these two parts of the country is something that finds
ample representation in Partition literature as well. However, the next section will
be a discussion of the difference between literary works from the two parts – after
which I will move onto the discussion of similarities.
Violence in Punjab versus Bengal: A Major Point of Difference
The ‘truth’ of the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947 lay, at least for its victims,
in the violence done to them. (Pandey, 1997, p. 2037) Violence was quite synonymous
with Partition. In historical narratives of Partition we find evidence of extreme forms
and levels of violence, especially on the bodies of women. Beyond abductions and
rapes, women had their breasts cut off, marks of the other religion were tattooed on
their bodies, they were paraded on the street in their naked form, they were forced
to have sex with men from the other religion resulting in impregnations - women
were taken from their own homes and also were picked up from moving caravans
and refugee camps as they moved with their families in search of safety (Butalia,
2017). It was almost as if there was no end to the violence suffered by women. So
as in history, in literature too violence is a major theme – used by both Punjab and
Bengal’s Partition literature to quite some extent. The difference however lies in the
way violence is used within the narratives that are built around women in the literary
works chosen for this research. In Punjab’s partition literature violence as a theme
has a very central existence in the narratives that are built up around women. There
are two ways in which violence as a theme is used by the four literary works from
Punjab’s Partition literature. In the first way incidents of violence are continuously
woven into women’s storylines and violence maybe happening specifically to them
or it may be happening around them. In the second way, violence is a continuous
presence in the background – there is an awareness of the constant presence of
violence unfolding in the background while the story unfolds.
In Pinjar (Pritam, 2015) and A Leaf in the Storm (Antharjanam, 2012), there is
either a violent incident happening or there is a wishfulness for violence. As Pooro/
Hamida’s and Jyoti’s lives are represented respectively in these two stories, we find
that certain acts of violence actually get committed such as Rashida’s abduction of
Pooro/Hamida, Jyoti’s violation by the Muslim mob, the mad woman’s violation
despite of her obvious mental instability, and the murder of a newborn baby by
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(presumably) its mother in the refugee camp Jyoti was living in. While these are
straightforward acts of violence which are committed with full impunity, there are
also certain acts of violence that only exist in the minds of Pooro/Hamida and Jyoti.
Both of these women are intensely disgusted by their unborn children. Pooro/Hamida
feels the need to “Pluck it off as if it were a maggot or leech…!” (Pritam, 2015, p.1).
Jyoti asks the camp doctor to get rid of the life inside of her, describing it as “the
life bred of damnation - conceived in consequence of inhuman rape and ignorance”
(Antharjanam, 2012, p. 139). Both these women feel an intense need to remove
their unborn children, with Jyoti even contemplating killing her child once it’s born.
In Roots (Chughtai, 2012) and Lajwanti (Bedi, 2012) violence is more of a
background presence. In the case of Amma in Roots (2012), she has an awareness
of how violence is unfolding in the world outside hers. She knows that outside the
four walls of her beloved home, the world is changing. The children of the family
can no longer go outside and play and a chasm is developing between her family
and that of her Hindu neighbour Roopchandji’s. As Amma’s family prepares to
migrate and starts moving towards Pakistan, Amma refuses to abandon her home
even though she is aware of the violence that she could be subjected to since she will
be left without protection now. As her family begins travelling towards Pakistan and
Amma is left alone she “imagined, as in a nightmare, that her young and beautiful
daughters were being paraded naked in the streets, that their bodies were being cut
into pieces, that her sons and grandsons were being skinned alive.” (Chughtai 19).
In the case of Lajwanti, her story is told through Sunderlal because Lajwanti has
been abducted. As Sunderlal narrates Lajwanti’s story, the reader is made aware that
wherever Lajwanti might be it is a possibility that she is experiencing violence at
the hands of her abductor. As Sunderlal works for the rehabilitation and acceptance
for women who had been abducted and then have been rescued – their families
wish that these women had died because death would be better than the dishonour
that the return of these women brings to the family. So families wish violence on
their own daughters/wives/sisters even though they have already suffered an untold
amount of violence.
Therefore in Punjab partition literature violence manifests in two different ways
but there is still a continuous presence of violence. According to the way women are
represented in Punjab’s Partition literature violence was all pervasive in the lives
of women during the period of Partition. Violence might be happening to them or
around them but there is definitely a constant presence of violence. What is significant
about Punjab’s partition literature is that it shows how women themselves were also
capable of violence – in wanting to get rid of the existence of their unborn children,
Punjab’s partition literature shows us that women too were capable of violence and
therefore questions the patriarchal expectation from women to be only victims and
not perpetrators of violence.
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The use of violence as a theme in Bengal’s Partition literature is however very

limited and violence in women’s lives is certainly not represented in the same way as
Punjab’s partition literature. Women’s narratives involve violence only to the extent
that it either gives context or is used as a memory. The focus of the narratives that
are built around women is on how they rebuild life after a catastrophic event - how
women face the world after experiencing Partition’s violence.
In The River Churning (Devi, 1995) and Karun Kanya (Chaudhury, 2008) violence
only exists in memory. In The River Churning (Devi, 1995) there is no denial or
confirmation of whether or not Sutara was violated by the Muslim mob that had
descended on her family. The story does not linger on what might have happened
to Sutara during the riot but is concerned with presenting how Sutara copes and
rebuilds her life in the aftermath of Partition and the death of her parents when she
was brought to live in Kolkata with her hostile relatives. Similarly in Karun Kanya
(Chaudhury, 2008) Arundhuti very briefly recollects how she had been abducted but
her narrative does not linger on this experience. The concentration is on presenting
to the reader how Arundhuti rebuilds her life and copes with the experiences she
has on her return to her family with her abductor’s child.
In Jaha Jae (Ghosh, 2008) and The Crossing (Devi, 2008) violence is in the
background, it provides context. In Ranu’s and Durga’s narratives respectively,
violence is never experienced – there isn’t even an indication of violence happening
to these women. What we see instead in these stories is an intense anxiety about
violation and violence. Ranu is trapped inside a shop with a stranger who also happens
to be a Muslim man. As riots continue outside the shop, inside Ranu remains anxious
about being violated by this strange Muslim man. Durga on the other hand has been
in the safekeeping of a Muslim family but experiences a threat of violation from the
border guards. The anxiety she experiences from the demands made by the border
guards to hand Durga over so that they can use her to earn money is what drives
Durga to commit suicide in order to protect her honor. Yet Durga does not really
experience any violation or violence but the expectation and indications of violence
are what drive her to kill herself in order to protect her honor.
Debjani Sengupta (2016) points out that Bengali partition literature has a different
way of dealing with the past and memory – I agree with her. The trope of violence
and madness is only used so far as to build context for the characters, beyond that
violence as a central prominent theme does not manifest. Contrarily for Punjab
partition literature, violence is an almost constant theme that is used throughout the
narrative that surrounds women. Women’s narrative in Punjab literature remains
interspersed with violence, it is an almost constant presence which might be silent
sometimes but nevertheless is not absent. Even when not written about explicitly,
the shaping of narratives tells us that the narrative of the woman is unfolding with
violence as a companion. In Bengal’s partition literature, violence is not a central
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thematic point in the narratives of women. What is important in women’s narratives

is what happens in the aftermath of violence - their narratives aren’t unfolding with
explicit or silent violence but are unfolding in the aftermath of violence. Violence is
therefore a memory, it is the past. A reason for this might be that Bengal Partition
literature came about over a long number of years after Partition (Sengupta, 2016),
thus making it easier for the literary reactions to treat violence as a memory. After
all “tragedies of partition, played out in Bengal, were less violent and took place
over a longer period of time than in Punjab” (Sengupta, 2016, p. 200).
Bengal and Punjab’s Partition Literature:

The Overwhelming Similarity
When it comes to the representation of women in Partition literature, it would not

be unfair to say that there is an abundance of similarity between literary works
emerging from Punjab and Bengal. From how changing communal relationships
affected women beyond violence to the stigmatisation that women were subjected
to – Partition literature from Bengal and Punjab show remarkable similarities in
how they choose to build up narratives around women in the context of Partition.
Therefore this section explores in depth the ways in which women’s experience as
represented in Partition literature from Punjab and Bengal overlap with each other.
The first thread of similarity is the anxiety women experience in literature from
both Punjab and Bengal. In Roots (Chughtai, 2012) and Jaha Jae (Ghosh, 2008) from
Punjab and Bengal literature respectively - Amma and Ranu experience anxiety – and
this anxiety is about the violation of their bodies by men of the opposite religion.
Amma’s anxiousness stems from the reality of being all alone in her home as her
family abandons her in order to migrate to Pakistan. “We heard that even old women
were being dragged by their hair through the streets till their skin had been ripped off
and their white bones revealed.” (Chughtai, 2012, p. 19) Amma therefore knows that
her age will not protect her from what she calls “demonic men” (Chughtai, 2012, p.
19). Her anxiety is also rooted in her apprehension about her family being harmed
- what if her daughter-in-laws are violated, what if her sons are killed, what if her
younger daughter-in-law goes into labour? All these thoughts are a constant source
of anxiety in the mind of Amma. For Ranu however, the anxiety is more personal and
imaginative - she refrains from even hailing a cab because she experiences anxiety
about being violated. Her husband Achintya gives a psychological explanation for
her fear of violation - “‘This means, your subconscious mind likes to believe that
your physical assets are worthy of being ravished.’” (Ghosh, 2008, p. 157). So as
Ranu seeks refuge in the shop of a Muslim man in order to protect herself from
the riot outside, her anxiety about being violated leads her to imagine that the man
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is about to attack her even though he poses no threat and is actually attempting to
help her out.
A second point of similarity is the familial bond and protective action that exists
between members of these two communities which remains unscathed even in the
face of the communality of Partition. Here again both Bengal and Punjab partition
literature draw similar narratives. In stories from both these sides women are
protected by members of the opposite community and the familial bonds continue
to be maintained. In The River Churning (Devi, 1995), Roots (Chughtai, 2012) and
The Crossing (Devi, 2008) which chronicle the narratives of Sutara, Amma, and
Durga respectively we witness a continuation of familial and protective relations
between Hindus and Muslim in spite of the differences that emerge between the
two communities. Amma had “refused to speak since the day the tricolour had been
unfurled over Doctor Sahib’s house and the League’s flag over ours.” (Chughtai,
2012, p. 14). Yet despite the tensions that grow between Amma and Roopchandji’s
families - their children get into quarrels at school, Roopchandji is no longer
consulted on familial decisions - it is ultimately Roopchandji who relieves Amma
of her anxieties when he brings her children home. Similarly in The River Churning
(Devi, 1995) Sutara is protected by her Muslim friend Sakina’s family. Sakina’s
mother even rebukes her husband for not speaking up against the Muslim terror that
had cost Sutara her family, however he simply says – “It’s not that we haven’t said
anything, in fact many of us did. Do you know what they told us? We know you
have kept a Hindu girl in your house - why? To do the Hindus a good turn? Then
they laughed and said things that I can’t repeat. One of them said, “Let’s set fire to
their house, they must realise what it means to be nice to Hindus.”” (Devi, 1995, p.
14) Tamijuddin Saheb or Tamij Saheb, that is, Sakina’s father therefore takes a lot
of risks in order to give shelter to Sutara. In spite of their family being under threat
from their own community they did not leave Sutara defenceless and made sure to
deliver her safely to her brothers in Kolkata themselves. In the case of Durga, her
husband leaves her with a Muslim family despite the fact that as Hindus there is a
strict rule against sharing food with Muslims. The station master is sceptical about
letting Sudam leave Durga with them and go, telling Sudam, “There are all kinds
of ruffians in this place. Will I be able to keep them at bay?” (Devi, 2008, p. 250).
However, despite his concerns about it, he and his wife do their best in trying to
keep Durga safe from harm.
The third point of similarity is the narrative around social stigmatisation as
experienced by women. Literatures from both Punjab and Bengal give us a glimpse of
what being an abducted and rescued woman meant in post-partition society. Women
were treated extremely cruelly - both Sutara in The River Churning (Devi, 1995) and
Pooro/Hamida in Pinjar (Pritam, 2015) are examples of it. As Sutara is looked after
by her Muslim friend Sakina’s family and her father Tamij Saheb corresponds with
166
Sutara’s brothers for her safe return - he reports to his family that, “The letter was
full of apprehension, but showed not a trace of concern for Sutara.” (Devi, 1995, p.
17). The understanding Tamij Saheb draws from this one letter foreshadows Sutara’s
treatment by her relatives in Kolkata. Non-acceptance by family is a major point
of convergence between literature from Bengal and Punjab - Sutara is treated as a
polluting agent to the extent of not being allowed to touch the water in the house. In
the case of Pooro/Hamida, when she escapes from Rashida’s home and is successful
in reaching her parents - she is told by her mother, “Daughter, it would have been
better if you had died at birth! If the Shaikhs find you here they will kill your father
and your brothers. They will kill all of us” (Pritam, 1987, p. 23). In Karun Kanya
(Chaudhury, 2008) while Arundhuti’s mother experiences shame at the questions the
neighbours throw at her about Arundhuti’s return with her child, Madhuri’s family
on the other hand declares that Madhuri’s fate was her own and her fate would not
be allowed to ruin the life of the other daughters in the family. The social stigma
experienced by women, forces all of these women to ultimately turn away from their
families because the stigma and loss is simply too great.
The fourth thread of similarity lies in the way societal reactions to women’s fates
have been narrated in Partition literature of Punjab and Bengal. Women in both these
literatures are shown to be subjected to intense societal scrutiny, to the extent that
their violations are attributed to their own self - they are held as responsible for their
own violation in what we today understand as a case of victim-blaming. Jyoti in A
Leaf in the Storm (Antharjanam, 2012), has been rescued and brought to a refugee
camp and there it is realised that she is pregnant as well. In the discussion around
her at the camp it is pointed out that, “Even after coming of age, Jyoti had gone
about refusing to veil her face; that she had spurned the proposal for marriage from
a zamindar, true to her self-assertive nature, and so on. The women in her village
were rather amazed at this girl’s independent ways. Maybe now she was paying
too high a price for such indulgence” (Antharjanam, 2012, pp. 139-140). Jyoti’s
violation and subsequent fate is therefore seen as a result of her free-spirited nature
and her denial to veil her face. Even though she was one of the many victims of
a barbaric communal frenzy, her nature as a young girl is used as an explanation
for what has happened to her. In a similar vein Arundhuti’s neighbours in Karun
Kanya (Chaudhury, 2008) believe that a violated woman who has come back with
the proof of her violation must keep quiet and simply accept what society throws her
way. When hearing the neighbours’ sarcastic remarks about how at least her mother
has gotten Arundhuti back and witnessing her mother’s humiliation, Arundhuti
walks out with her child to tell the neighbours that she hasn’t returned alone after
all. This does not sit well with the people around her, because “For someone who
had returned after five years, having lost her chastity and honor, and with a child
in her lap, wasn’t she supposed to hide herself in shame and stay away from others’
167
sight? Instead here she was, talking back!” (Chaudhuri, 2008, p. 325) Women were
to silently bear their troubles and humiliations, and being violated meant that they
lost their right to speak according to society. Women were perceived as being objects
of pity, without any agency of their own.
The fifth thread of similarity is the loss of agency and silencing of women’s voice.
Parvinder Mehta (2016) is of the opinion that, “By imposing silence on Lajwanti,
Bedi shows the irony of her recovery. Although the story shows his sympathies, her
suffering is never heard and she is marginalised through enforced muteness.” (Mehta,
2016, p. 42) Parvinder Mehta (2016) writes in the context of Lajwanti, but it is my
contention that this phenomenon of silencing women’s voice and actually penalising
her when she does not comply is not confined to Lajwanti (Bedi, 2012) alone. In
both Karun Kanya (Chaudhuri, 2008) and The River Churning (Devi, 1995) women
are silenced - their trauma being left unheard and shrouded in mystery. Sunderlal
constructed abducted women into Devis, and in doing so obliterated their traumatic
pasts. When women are constructed into goddesses and put up on pedestals, they lose
their ability to articulate their pain because a goddess is considered above human
sufferings and trauma. The construction of women into goddesses robs them of their
agencies, locking away their grief and pain within themselves and leaves them with
no avenues of help. Sunderlal’s silencing of Lajwanti also takes away her sexuality
- she is no longer an ordinary woman with ordinary needs, Sunderlal has placed her
on a pedestal and locked her off. However even for women who are not constructed
into goddesses there is no one to listen to their pain. They are left with no outlet of
expression. Arundhuti is unable to share her trauma and grief with both her mother
and Subimal. Her mother does not ask her to share what has happened, Arundhuti’s
return is enough of a shame. In the case of Subimal, Arundhuti chooses not to share
anything with him given his treatment of his own sister who has been penalised by
both her husband and her family for speaking out about her trauma. Subimal’s sister
Madhuri attempts to retain her agency by revealing to her husband her traumatic
past. Her punishment for revealing her own truth is that she is abandoned by her
husband and cannot turn to her family because marrying her off was their way
of getting rid of her presence - so Madhuri resorts to prostitution. For women on
both sides therefore, agency does not exist. They are to keep quiet and accept what
society doles out to them. There exists a double-victimisation of women - firstly
they are victims of Partition and its frenzied violence, and if they have the fortune
or misfortune of being rescued they are victims of societal judgement that holds
them responsible for the very things that they are victims of. Women‘s voices are
therefore shut off and they are left to deal with their trauma on their own.
The final point of similarity in the narratives of women seen to be developing in
Punjab and Bengal’s partition literature, is the figure of the abductor as protector.
Both Pinjar and Karun Kanya help study this trope because in both the figure of
168
the abductor is transformed from being a monstrous figure who has committed a
crime to becoming a figure who provides protection to the very same woman he
has wronged. There is an attempt to humanise this man through the narrative of the
woman. So in Pinjar, Hamida wanted to forget that Rashida had abducted and wronged
her. “She longed fervently to make love to him. After all, he was her husband and
the father of her son. This alone was true; this alone mattered. The rest was mere
prattle and a lie.” (Pritam, 2015, p. 49) The narrative in Pinjar tells us that Rashida’s
conscience had weighed down on him when he had abducted Pooro/Hamida, which
is an attempt at telling the reader that he did not really want to do it. Bringing in
Rashida’s conscience into the fact that he did abduct Pooro/Hamida is a move towards
humanising Rashida beyond the fact that he did commit a crime. The story conveys
that even though he did abduct Pooro/Hamida she was in a sense lucky to have him
because he had looked out for her and had a conscience. Pooro/Hamida tells Lajo
that Rashida certainly committed a crime by abducting her but since then he has
been good to her so his earlier transgression is to an extent forgivable, after all he is
the father of her child and she loves him as well. However for Arundhuti in Karun
Kanya, her feelings towards her abductor are not quite the same as Pooro/Hamida’s
in the sense that she doesn’t forgive him or fall in love with him. Still in choosing
to go back to him she uses the union with him as a protection from the cruelty of
the society she finds herself living in. Her unnamed abductor sends her letters first
requesting that she give their child to him and then requesting to be allowed to at
least hold him once. He also professes to want Arundhuti herself back. This is an
attempt again, much like Rashida’s case, to humanise him - to show that these men
have feelings and should be understood beyond the barbarity of the act they have
committed. The narrative also develops in a way so as to justify or give reason for
Pooro/Hamida and Arundhuti to move over what they have done to them because at
the moment they are being good to them. Women in these narratives are therefore
developed in a way so as to forgive and forget and seek protection from the very
men who had violated them. For Pooro/Hamida the consolation is that Rashida has
been good to her ever since he abducted her. For Arundhuti, her abductor is the only
man that wants her and can protect her from the cruelty of the society.
Therefore there are multiple points of similarity between Bengal and Punjab’s
Partition literature. From the way changing communal relations are represented with
relation to women to the ways in which women’s societal experiences are portrayed
– literary works from both Punjab and Bengal show remarkable similarity. However
the existence of similarity between women’s representation in literary works from
both sides despite political differences is not a surprising fact. The reason that such
a similarity is expected is discussed in the next and final section.
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CONCLUSION
Why the Similarity is an Expected Outcome
The similarity between representations of women in Partition literature from Punjab

and Bengal is an expected outcome because of two factors. The first factor is
Patriarchy. Despite the regional and political difference in how Partition played out,
women were living in a patriarchal society. The rules of this patriarchal society are
same for women everywhere – no matter if its Punjab or Bengal. The experiences
of social stigmatization, the primacy of honor – are all reactions expected of a
patriarchal society no matter in which region. The reduction of women’s worth
to their bodies is a key tenet of any patriarchal society and in analyzing Partition
literature from Punjab and Bengal we witness how this has equal effects on the lives
of women in both Punjab and Bengal. So it really is no surprise that the patriarchal
controls on women’s lives manifested in the same way. The second factor is that
the overlying event through which women in both parts were living was the same.
Women in Bengal and Punjab were experiencing Partition. Even though there were
differences in the political nuances, the broad event being experienced was the same.
So in combination with the patriarchal mindset of the society women were living
in, Partition produced the same reactions in Punjab and Bengal.
Therefore to conclude this paper I would like to say that, the scope for using
Partition literature as a source for studying the effects and realities of Partition is
very wide. While commendable work has been done in the field by scholars such
as Debjani Sengupta, Debali Mookerjea-Leonard, Jill Didur and more, there is so
much more that can be explored. The study performed in this paper also has scope
for elaboration and extension. There are so many nuances of people’s experience,
especially women’s experience that can be found through a study of Partition
literature and there is a lot of space for exploring different avenues relating to women
experience or the experience of Partition in general by using Partition literature as
a source of Knowledge.
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The trauma and the triumph: Gender and partition in Eastern India (pp. 1–14). STREE.
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partition of India (Vol. 1, pp. 55–66). Manohar Publishers and Distributors.
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Chapter 18
A Feminist Reading of
Panthoipi Khongkul
Rosy Yumnam
The English and Foreign Languages University, Shillong, India
ABSTRACT
The voices of women are often marginalised and silenced. In modern feminism, Kate
Millett’s Sexual Politics (1970) used the term “patriarchy” (rule of the father) to
describe the cause of women’s oppression. Panthoipi Khongkul is a myth narrative
of Manipur, a state in Northeast India, detailing the rebellion of a legendary woman,
Panthoipi, against the patriarchal society of the early Manipuri. The text details
how Panthoipi bravely defied the social customs and chose to be united forever
in bliss with her paramour. The myth narrative deals with the desire of a woman
represented by Panthoipi to ascertain her dignity and identity in a patriarchal society.
This chapter seeks to examine the feminist perspective of how “woman” has been
represented in Panthoipi Khongkul in the context of the early patriarchal Manipuri
society. It further explores on how the feminist reading of Panthoipi Khongkul will
assist in striving to achieve equality of sexes.
INTRODUCTION
Feminism is a common goal to describe a political, social, cultural or economic

equality of sexes. Feminism is defined by Brunell and Burkett in Britannica as the
belief of equality of sexes in terms of economic, social and political affairs. Though
originated in the West, feminism is evidently present in every corner of the world.
As a literary movement, feminism seeks to rebel against the patriarchal society
where the term ‘masculine’ is associated with superiority, domination, action and
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch018
A Feminist Reading of Panthoipi Khongkul
strength, conversely, ‘feminine’ or the ‘other’ is associated with inferiority, passivity,

weakness and obedience (Bhat, 2017). Feminist writers highlight the predicament
of women in a patriarchal society and look at how a sense of self-identity, rebellion
and self-assertion will liberate women from the deeply rooted patriarchal societal
constraints. Various institutions and organisations represent feminism to cater to
activities pertaining to women’s rights and interests. Furthermore, Nahal (1991)
defined feminism as a form of existence where the woman gets rid of the dependence
syndrome. A dependence syndrome exists whether in the form of the father, the
husband, the community, the religious group or the ethnic group (Nahal, 1991).
Nahal (1991) emphasizes that his idea of feminism materialises when women
are completely free of the dependence syndrome and starts leading a normal life.
Conversely, Beauvoir (1997) posits: “One is not born, but rather becomes a woman”
(p. 301). She further asserts that psychological, biological or economic fate does not
establish the presence of human female in society, however, civilization produces
this human female which is somewhere, in the transitional phase between male and
eunuch, described as feminine (Beauvoir, 1997). From the preceding discussions, it
is apparent that feminism is a common goal to describe a political, social, cultural
or economic equality of sexes. Feminism as a movement is greatly influenced by
philosophers, thinkers and authors like Mary Wollstonecraft, Elaine Showalter,
Simone de Beauvoir, Kate Millett, Judith Butler, Helene Cixous, Julia Kristeva and
others. The movement strongly advocate protesting against male domination. Its
main aim is to understand women’s oppression pertaining to gender, class, race and
sexual orientations and devise ways to uplift this oppression. Panthoipi Khongkul
is a myth narrative of Manipur, in northeast India detailing the rebel of a legendary
woman Panthoipi against the patriarchal society of the early Manipuri society. The
paper seeks to explore the feminist perspective of the use of the term ‘patriarchy’
in the myth narratives of Panthoipi Khongkul.
FEMINISM AND THE TERM “PATRIARCHY”
In the year 1917 and early 1918s, American Feminist Critics, Annette Kolodny,
Kate Millet, Carolyn Heilbrun and Judith Fetterley stressed on investigating literary
text rather than philosophising abstractly about language. Many researches were
done to re-examine the works of the male writers by investigating the portrayals
of women characters thus exposing the inherent patriarchal dominance which has
been observed in the literary traditions since time immemorial. An important phase
in modern feminism could be seen when Kate Millett used the term ‘patriarchy’
(rule of the father) in Sexual Politics (1970) to describe the cause of women’s
oppression. Earlier, modern feminist writers like Kate Millett, Germaine Greer and
174
Mary Ellmann had written about expressing women’s political awareness about
their oppressions by men. Patriarchy is a cardinal concept of the radical second-
wave feminists, who defines it as “a system of social structures, and practices in
which men dominate, oppress and exploit women” (Walby qtd. in Wilson, 2000,
p. 1493). Wilson (2000) observes that the development of many of the important
feminist ideas and programs in the global platform is a result of the use of this
concept of patriarchy. The politics of the sexual dominance as Millet (2000) posits
is that an objective assessment of a sexual relationship system should adhere to
the situation between the sexes at present and all through history as a case of Max
Weber phenomenon which is defined as herrschaft, a dominance and subordinance
relationship. The social order which believes in the birthright idea that males rule
females often goes unexamined (Millet, 2000). This idea is prominent as a form of
“interior colonisation” (Millet, 2000, p. 24-25) and endures rigidly more than any
form of class stratification. Though it may be muted, sexual dominance is prevalent
in any form of culture and forms the basis of the concept of power (Millet, 2000).
The sexual dominance Millet (2000) believes is because “our society, like all other
historical civilisations, is a patriarchy” (p. 25). The reasoning being given is that
the industry, military, universities, technology, political office, science, finance,
police force and every aspect of power within the realms of society is entirely in the
hands of males (Millet, 2000). Therefore, it is evident from the above discussions
that, patriarchy is taken as a reason for female oppression. In this regard, Wilson
explains the feminists’ use of patriarchy as “a struggle concept” by quoting Maria
Mies, “because the movement needed a term by which the totality of oppressive
and exploitative relations which affect women could be expressed as well as their
systemic character” (Mies qtd. in Wilson, 2000, p. 1494).
Objective
The paper examines the feminist perspective of how ‘woman’ has been represented
in Panthoipi Khongkul in the context of the early patriarchal Manipuri society. It
further explores on how the feminist reading of Panthoipi Khongkul will assist in
the goal of achieving equality of sexes.
Methodology
The study is analytical in method. It tries to look at the feminist perspective of

Panthoipi Khongkul and its significance in achieving equality of sexes. The study
is based on primary, secondary sources, research journals and online sources.
175
Findings and Observations
Panthoipi Khongkul: From the Perspective of Feminism
Panthoipi Khongkul is a literary text of the early 17th century written anonymously
in an ancient script, Meitei Mayek, transcribed and rendered into modern Manipuri
and translated to English. It details the intense love story of the legendary woman,
Panthoipi, the daughter of a Meitei (the Meitei is an indigenous ethnic group of
Manipur) king and Nongpok Ningthou, Lord of the Langmai Hills. The literal
translation of Panthoipi Khongkul is ‘In quest of Panthoipi’. The text abounds in myths.
The narrative, myth is a story concerning the historical events often supernatural,
legends, folktales, fables, allegory and parables. According to Abrams (2000), a
myth is defined as a story where a scheme of traditional stories considered true by
a cultural group of people through the medium of supernatural beings are used to
describe why and how things happen and to ascertain a kind of rationale thinking for
the observations of the existing social and cultural customs by people in a society.
Panthoipi Khongkul is a traditional myth narrative chronicling the early culture and
religious traditions of Manipur. Panthoipi and Nongpok Ningthou are worshipped
as deities in many Manipuri households. As Laisram (2009) observes, Panthoipi
and Nongpok Ningthou are worshipped together as Nongpok-Panthoipi and further,
Panthoipi believed to be the fire god’s daughter is described as a compassionate
goddess who blesses her devotees with abundance wealth and health. The text begins
by describing the beautiful and the enthralling virtues of Panthoipi. She is not only
attributed with physical beauty but is also represented as a woman who is brave and
stands by her own mind and will. Panthoipi is thus described as:
....you are the very embodiment of beauty but still indulge in constant baths at every
fount and embellish your tender body, use all the fruits of the Langmai Hills as
unguents, always neatly comb your tresses of hair, skitter lightly with your drapery
loosely hung on your full blossomed body; your teeth are like pearls, your lips
are as the wild fruit tayail in the bamboo grove, your fingers are soft as those of
a neonate; your name is Panthoipi as no parents or brothers can exercise control
over you; you appropriated the name by yourself ere anyone confers it on you; you
have an unfettered soul, nowhere can you keep yourself confined.
(Trans.; Singh, 2004, pp. 59-60)
Many suitors came for Panthoipi but she was never impressed by any of them. But
her father and brothers convinced her and so she was married to Taram Khoinucha,
son of Khaba Sokchrongba, king of the Khaba dynasty and the queen Manu Teknga.
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Here, one can see the patriarchal power in convincing Panthoipi to marry a person.
It also portrays the helplessness of a woman in a patriarchal society. However, the
marriage was a complete failure as she was incompatible with her husband and she
was not able to adjust with her husband’s family and the new environment. The
patriarchal society institutionalised in early Manipur required her to abide by the rules
and regulations laid down for the newly married woman. The society demands her
to be chained in her husband’s house though she was not happy with her marriage.
Though she was discontented, initially, Panthoipi due to social obligations respected
and obeyed the instructions of her husband and parents-in-law. She became muted
owing to the societal demands. Panthoipi did not let herself subjugated for long; she
asserted her freedom and chose to free herself from the deeply rooted patriarchal
societal demands. As she was a feisty woman, she soon came out of her inhibitions
and she started wandering in the meadows and went on taking bath in the rivers
oblivion to the societal restrictions. One fine day, on one such escapade, she met
Nongpok Ningthou, Lord of the Langmai Hills and they fell in love instantly. The
gallant, Nongpok Ningthou proposes the besotted Panthoipi to elope with him.
However, she refuses due to family obligations as she was still unhappily married
to Taram Khoinucha. These attributes of Panthoipi show her as a woman who is
compassionate and who cannot be controlled by anyone not even her lover, Nongpok
Ningthou. The early Manipuri patriarchal society described by Arunkumar and Arun
(1997) is strict and rigid. It is unimaginable for a girl to come out of the rigorous
patriarchal society. In the early patriarchal Manipuri society, the daughters do not
have a choice to find their own mate. Woman existed in relation to her father, husband
or her son. Woman does not have an identity of her own. Even if she is a divorcee
or a widow, she cannot remarry. Hence, in the words of (Arunkumar and Arun
1997), “Any assertive woman would be a rarity, when quite naturally frowned even
by her own kith and kin, and of course by one and all” (p. 7). Therefore, under such
strict societal norms, the voice of the ‘woman’ as ‘daughter’, ‘wife’, ‘mother’ and
‘daughter-in-law’ becomes silenced and marginalised. However, these restrictions
did not daunt Panthoipi to meet her paramour. She was courageous and she has
her own mind and determination. The smitten lovers have been meeting regularly
thereby causing suspicions from her husband and her in-laws. So, her husband and
her parents-in-law started ill-treating and taunting her for her illicit love affair with
Nongpok Ningthou. The norms laid down by the patriarchal society made Panthoipi
suffer for being free spirited and having her own mind. As a human being, she has
the right to love or not to love somebody. But this right has been taken away by the
patriarchal societal restrictions. The strict patriarchal society did not allow her to
divorce her husband. Instead, she has to endure the unhappy marriage. Her father-
in-law even pretended to be dead to win her sympathy. The quick witted Panthoipi
instead took this opportunity of being tricked and tortured. Thus, challenging and
177
resisting the age-old barrier of social custom, she finally eloped with her paramour.
The Khabas led by her father-in-law went pursuing for her but to no avail. The lines
given below describe the frantic search of the divine, Panthoipi, who has eloped
with her lover, Nongpok leaving behind her husband.
O’ Owl, Khaba Sokchrongba is in search for his daughter-in-law, Panthoipi, the

daughter of the Meitei king. King Khaba started his search from the Naga River
and on reaching the land of Kangla, asked the owl, “O’ mighty owl, enchanting
bird, your mother, the Goddess Panthoipi left Koubru hills through the Naga River.
Have you seen her going through this route?”
O’ King Khaba replied the owl, “I have not seen the divine Goddess Panthoipi. But
I saw a mother owl being captured and taken away in captivity by a man.”
(My trans.; Singh, 2012, pp. 91-92)
Unable to find the trial of her daughter-in-law along the Naga River, King Khaba
Sokchrongba, asked the whereabouts of Panthoipi to the mighty Owl who happened
to be on the route which he assumed Panthoipi and her lover might have taken. The
Owl replied in the negative and told him that he did not see Goddess Panthoipi
but he saw a mother owl being taken into captivity by a man. Here one can see the
chained, subjugated and the muted representation of females when the owl referred
to the mother owl as being forcefully captured by a man.
On the other side, the whole of Langmai Hills along with the gods and goddesses
and even the Khabas erupted in jubilant celebrations for the joyful union of the divine
Panthoipi and Nongpok Ningthou. The merriment of the celebrations of the union
of Panthoipi and Nongpok Ningthou can be seen even today in the Lai Haraoba (a
social and a religious festival of Manipur) performance. Even the Khabas joined
in the celebrations with dance and music and offered their humble respects to the
divine couple. The graceful Panthoipi danced and sang in her celebration of the union
with her profound lover and is joined by the gods and the goddesses. The songs,
‘Ougri’ and ‘Khencho’ which are sung on this auspicious occasion are performed in
Lai Haraoba festivals even today. The intricate and the graceful dance movements
of Panthoipi also allude to the dance performances in the Lai Haraoba festivals.
Many of the Lai Haraoba performances which are associated with the love story
of the divine couple, Panthoipi and Nongpok Ningthou can be seen in the songs
such as Ougri, Khencho, Anoirol and Lairemma Paosa. These expressions of utter
happiness and joyous jubilation of Panthoipi can be described as liberation from her
chained and bounded societal demands which she endured for so long. She freed
178
herself from the patriarchal societal demands and expressed her boundless freedom
and happiness through dancing and singing.
The legendary, Panthoipi, the ‘woman’ is represented as a fearless, courageous,
witty, intelligent, charming, compassionate and a beautiful woman. She challenged
the patriarchal societal constraints which restrict her to be submissive to the male
members in the society and denial of her independent choice. Millet’s contention
that ‘sexual dominance is due to ‘patriarchy’ prevails in the early history of Manipur
and traces of it can be found even today. The imbalance social order of males and
females has been contested by Panthoipi in a form of rebellion against the existing
social construct of inequality between the two sexes. Sexual dominance was clearly
visible in the myth narrative. Due to the societal patriarchal constraints, Panthoipi’s
doting father and brothers convinced her into marrying someone without actually
giving her chance to know the prince. Here, one can find the muted Panthoipi,
helpless and giving into the patriarchal demands of the society. People in the society
are oriented towards a patriarchal mental set up where sexual dominance prevails
consciously or unconsciously. This strict patriarchal rule did not deter Panthoipi to
shed her inhibitions and fly to her freedom. The fiery, Panthoipi though muted in the
first part, transforms and thus gets liberated. She defied the patriarchal restrictions
imposed on her because of her marital status. She left behind the conservative societal
duties and listened to what her heart desires. The patriarchal oriented society of early
Manipur seldom considers woman as an independent self, she is always determined
with reference to a man as being her husband, father or son. This societal norms
might have induced the divine and legendary, Panthoipi to rebel against the age old
traditions and customs which was laid down for a woman. The oppression of the
‘woman’ in the form of restrictions and customs which is induced by the patriarchal
oriented society of the time is challenged by the brave, Panthoipi. She chose to go
against all odds to stand for her rights and beliefs. She asserted to be herself, to
listen to her heart and not to anyone else. She rebelled against the social traditions
for what she felt was right for a woman. Panthoipi becomes the powerful entity who
successfully achieved the feminist goal of achieving equality of the two sexes by a
way of revolting against the social norms instituted by the patriarchal world. She
finally became a divine goddess.
CONCLUSION
The myth narrative thus brings forth the bravery of a young woman who liberates
herself from the customs and traditions of a patriarchal society. The plight of Panthoipi
is tested in the narrative and she gracefully finds a way to assert her self-identity.
Finally she succeeds to liberate herself from the deep rooted societal traditions
179
conditioned by ‘patriarchy’. The legendary, Panthoipi embodies the fiery ‘woman’

who challenges the societal norms to stand for what is right and to cleanse the evil
of inequality in the society. Panthoipi, thus, represents every woman and their voice
in the society. A ‘Panthoipi’ in every woman is required to end oppression due to
patriarchy in a society. Panthoipi thus essays the feminist goal of achieving equality
of sexes by challenging the traditional conditioning of patriarchy.
REFERENCES
Abrams, M. H. (2000). A Glossary of Literary Terms. Macmillan India Ltd.

Arunkumar, M. C., & Arun, I. (1997). The Rebel Panthoibi. In The Transcendental
Role of Women in Manipur History, 1999-2009. www.books.e-pao.net
Beauvoir, S. D. (1997). The Second Sex. Vintage Books.
Becker, M. (1999). Patriarchy and Inequality: Towards a Substantive Feminism.
chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclf/vol1999/iss1/3
Bhat, H. (2017). A Doll’s House as a Feminist Play. www.languageinindia.com/
dec2017/ishfaqdollshouse.pdf
Brahma, R. (2016). Patriarchy, Myths and Subaltern: A Feminist Critique of Githa
Hariharan’s Select Works in. Spectrum.
Brunell, L., & Burkett, E. (2020). Feminism. www.britannica.com/topic/feminism
Hughes, C. (2002). Key Concepts in Feminist Theory and Research. Sage Publications.
doi:10.4135/9780857024459
Laiphrakpam, A. (2016). Ariba Manipuri Sahityagi (Seirol) Paring. GM Publications.
Laisram, R. (2009). Early Meitei History: Religion, Society and the Manipur Puyas.
Akansha Publishing House.
Lerner, G. (1986). The Creation of Patriarchy. Oxford University Press.
Mahapatra, B. (2014). Feminist Literary Criticism and Wuthering Height. European
Academic Research, 12019–12026. www.euacademic.org
McAfee, N. (2008). Feminist Philosophy. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy. plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2018/entries/feminist-
philosophy
Millet, K. (2000). Sexual Politics. University of Illinois Press.
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Nahal, C. (1991). Feminism in English Fiction: Forms and Variations. Feminism

and Recent Fiction in English. Prestige Books.
Showalter, E. (2012). A Literature of their Own. Virago Press.
Singh, Ch. M. (2004). A History of Manipuri Literature. Sahitya Akademi.
Singh, C. M. (2012). Panthoipi Khongkul. Manipuri Sahitya Parishad.
Thounaojam, C., Soyam, C., & Sanasam, R. (2012). Study of Myths in Manipuri
Literature and Socio-Religious Rituals. www.thecho.in/files/Study-of-Myths-in-
Manipuri-Literature-and-Socio-Religious-Rituals.pdf
Wilson, A. (2000). Patriarchy: A Feminist Theory. In Routledge Encyclopedia of
Women: Global Women’s issues and Knowledge. Routledge.
181
182
Chapter 19
Recognizing Contemporary
Tribal Women’s Writings:
A Study on Select Literary
Narrators of North East India
Raam Kumar T.
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0694-8671
Bharathiar University, India
Padmanabhan B.
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7395-126X
Bharathiar University, India
ABSTRACT
Northeast India is known for its diverse ethnic traits, natural landscapes, and
regional and political conflicts. These factors were brought to light through diverse
literary narratives. Women’s contribution to English writing plays a prominent role
in protecting the complex multi-ethnic and multi-cultural issues of their regions
and captures the multicoloured historical and collective spaces. Their writing
primarily focuses on the issues of nature, landscape, culture, oppression, conflict,
turmoil, insurgency, and identity. Women’s writings from these regions have attained
visibility and acclaim across the nation. They are deeply concerned about the brutal
violence happening in their society, which acts as a barrier to achieving progress.
This chapter attempts to analyse the select contemporary tribal women’s writings
and their unique contribution to the betterment of their native land. This study also
explores the struggle of indigenous identity and psychosocial experiences undergone
by tribal communities of Northeast India through select tribal writers in English.
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch019
Recognizing Contemporary Tribal Women’s Writings
INTRODUCTION
Humankind is defined by language; but civilization is defined by writing
– Peter T. Daniels
The North-Eastern region of India is always found isolated from the rest of the
country. This is mainly because of the factors like marginalization, economic crisis,
political instability and poor infrastructure. Apart from this, their voices were not
taken into consideration at times. The geographical location of this region covers
eight states that include Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram,
Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura. All these states maintain diverse linguistic and social
cultures. According to Thonkholal Haokip (2011), the northeast region is “diverse
in almost every aspect; it is inhabited by a mosaic of societies characterized by
diversity in ethnicity, language, culture, religion, social organization, economic
pursuits, productive relations and participation in political process” (pp.109-10).
The hidden factors of their livelihood, their ethical traits, and the cultural landscape
were brought to light through writings in various forms of literary narrations. In each
state, the writers incorporate their historical identity, cultural practice, and lifestyle
through various forms of literary narrations and their traits were transmitted to the
next generations. As it is widely known that literature reflects society, the social
values and cultural traits of these extinct communities are being documented through
writers and anthropologists. It also helps to offer beneficial schemes to resolve the
flaws that are happening in their society. The common thematic factors represented
in these regions include ethnic culture, violence, insurgency, isolation, oppression,
nature, myths, etc. The writings in English seek global attention, and dignity along
with native identity was attained. Literary writing is used as a weapon to defend
the cultural imposition of colonial suppression. Similarly, this article attempts to
bring out the proficiency of emerging English women tribal writers Temsula Ao,
Mamang Dai and Easterine Kire, who tries to bring out the livelihood of inhabitants
of Northeast India.
Indian Writing in English
Indian English writers focussed on almost all genres starting from poetry and prose
and focusing on fiction and short stories. Indian writing in English has gained
prominence both within and outside the nation. In the present-day scenario, Indian
writers have heard their voices through artistic ways of expressing ideas. Themes
like nationalism, spiritualism, aesthetic experience, idealism, humanism and
even romanticism are dominant during various points in time. Moreover, modern
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Indian English writing is under dilemma in making a choice between maintaining

cultural tradition and innovative modes of expression. Writers focus on the growth
of regionalism, violence, women’s liberation, class struggle, and cultural values.
After the Indian independence, a few non-tribal writers like Mahasweta Devi,
Heralal Shukla, R. K. Singh, and few more have come up with narratives that voice
for the concerns of tribal communities in India. This laid a stepping stone for the
flourishing of Tribal Literature. Apart from this many publishing houses and literary
magazines like Sanskriti Akhad, Adivasi Satta, Yuddhrat Aam Admi and a few more
have emerged to promote the active participation of creative documentation of the
adivasi cultures and customs across the nation.
The tribal communities who are categorized as Scheduled Tribes by the constitution
of India are struggling to establish their regional identity. Different societies with
different languages and modes of expression attempt to manifest the unique qualities
of their communities to contest the ‘other’ identity. Among many influential voices,
Temsula Ao, Mamang Dai, and Easterine Kire write in English to express their
cultural experiences to a broader audience. Most of their works were written to bring
out the essential aspects of their culture, regional conflicts and power struggle. The
emergence of tribal literature has paved way for the marginalised communities to
bring out the despairs as they are fused with their consciousness. The writings by
the tribal writers are considered as first-hand documentation that contains more
authenticity and credibility.
Tribal Women Writings from Northeast India
Male writers are thought of as ‘writers’ first and then ‘men’. As for female writers,
they are first ‘female’ and only then ‘writers’ – Elif Shafak (2011)
In India, Tribal Literature in other words, is known as ‘Adivasi Literature.’ In

contrast, in western countries like America, it is called as Native American Literature,
African American Literature and Coloured Literature. In Africa, it is known as Black
Literature whereas in Australia and New Zealand it is called as Aboriginal Literature.
Tribal Literature is enriched with folklore, myths, legends, and songs primarily oral
Literature. As there was no written script for most of their tribal languages, they
were least documented though they have all elements of literariness.
The tribes in India are considered indigenous people who occupy 8.6% of the
country’s total population and are widespread in every territory of India. Though they
are people with greater traditions and cultural values, they are not equally treated in
society. Most of them served as labourers in mines and industries. In addition to this,
their farming lands were also occupied by various industrial projects in the name of
national development. Writers like Mahashweta Devi, Ramnika Gupta, Mauha Maji,
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and many others focused on the tribals’ pathetic life, which had strengthened the
voice of tribal Literature. The new generation writers from the tribal community also
took writing as their weapon to voice for their fundamental rights. The prominent
theme of these tribal writers was the quest for identity, struggle for existence, cultural
values and even the landscapes of their region. They were the lovers of nature and
they used to celebrate nature as divine in their writing. Janardan Gond (2017) in his
article “The Identity of Adivasi Literature,” rightly points out that, “Their literature
not only reflects their love for nature but also expresses the pangs of separation from
nature. Their anger over the loot of natural wealth is evident in their movements and
songs” (para. 22). This paper focuses only on three among the litterateurs of various
tribal communities in India. They include Temsula Ao representing Ao Naga tribes,
whereas Easterine Kire focuses on Angami Naga from Nagaland and Mamang Dai
representing Adi tribes of Arunachal Pradesh. Though regions separate them, they
are united by thoughts. Their ultimate aim is to capture the image of their culture,
natural landscape and mostly the sufferings due to migration and displacement
of their communities. Preeti Gill (2011) in her article “Frontispiece – Writing the
Northeast,” highlights her observation as, “Writers across Assam, Manipur, Nagaland
and Tripura are deeply concerned about the brutalization of their societies and have
been confronting these issues upfront” (para. 3) which they attempt to bring their
sufferings to the public scrutiny.
On the other hand, the impacts of gender discrimination are found in their writings.
It is found that women face gender discrimination in this contemporary world in
the form of inequality and constantly fight to attain their identity. In nature, both
women and men share the same space, but ironically women always are negotiated
with lower status than men. Apart from these physical obstructions, the women
from the North East region of India have overcome the phenomenal growth in the
field of writing. Eleanor Roosevelt rightly states that “A women is like tea-bag
you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water” (as cited in Vrinda
Agarwal and Manisha Raj, 2020, p. 5138). The women writers of Northeast India
always plot social and historical space that is variegated. Earlier, Tribal Literature
was not recognized as the mainstream, and it was oral in nature. Later, the Indian
government and a few social activists stepped forward to preserve and educate people
about tribal literature’s necessity. Their writings cross-examine the established
texts, discriminatory practices and heterosexist assumptions of a culture. These
woman writers have habitually faced many issues such as domination, suppression,
invisibility, silence, and were forced to be in limitations. Even though women were
suppressed countless, their inner strength pushed them forward, and they discovered
new dimensions in writing. Their knowledge is comprehensive, and the selection
of texts of the northeast woman was diverse in nature. Many of the women writers
from this region are first-generation writers in English and cover the livelihood of
185
their people. The Literature from this region is highly stuffed with the voices of
women writers like Temsula Ao, Easterine Kire, Mamang Dai, Indira Goswami,
Rita Chowdhury and many more. The literary contributions of the select women
writers are discussed below with select literary narratives.
Temsula Ao
Temsula Ao is the leading women English writer from the North-Eastern region
of India. She has written poems, short stories, and ethnographies about the Naga
community named Ao Naga, one of the major tribal groups in Nagaland. She also
has a strong academic background as a retired professor from the North-Eastern
Hill University. Apart from this, she proved to be a successful administrator by
bringing out the richness of Northeast cultures when she served as the Director of
the North East Zone Cultural Centre. She received Padma Shri and Sahitya Academi
awards for her contribution to Literature. Her literary contribution includes five
collections of poems, two short stories and ethnographic documentation of the Ao
Naga community. Her ethnographic work, Ao – Naga Oral Traditions, is the result
of her twelve years of hard work, and it is the most authentic document about her
community. Her short story collections, These Hills Called Home: Stories from a
War Zone and Laburnum for her Head (2014), deal with the themes of insurgency
and violence commonly found in Nagaland. She also gives a picture of the people
of Nagaland who undergo traumatic experiences in their daily life. She illustrates
that the violence emerged due to the lack of concern shown by society towards them.
Some of her stories like “The Jungle Major,” and “An Old Man Remember” depict
how men were attracted to the underground groups to fight against the Government
forces. Another story titled “The Last Song” brings out the armed groups’ brutal
actions, which lead to the death of two women. In an incident, a teen girl was cruelly
abused and put to death, which the narrator illustrates as “the young captain was
raping Apenyo while a few other soldiers were watching the act and seemed to be
waiting for their turn” (p. 28). When her mother forwarded to protect her, she was
dragged and raped by another soldier. This incident narrates the cruel nature of
being a woman in this region. In the preface of her book, Temsula Ao states that,
I hear the land cry,
Over and over again
‘Let all the dead Awaken
And teach the living
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How not to die’ (p. 5)
Even her poetic works widely speak about the loss of peace and harmony in
her region. In one of her poems, “My Hills,” she refers to how violence overrules
Nagaland. The poetic verses are,
But to-day
I no longer know my hills,
The birdsong is gone,
Replaced by the staccato
Of sophisticated weaponry. (pp. 19-23)
Temsula Ao (2011) being a revolutionary writer, truthfully records the misery

and struggles of the Naga people and raises her voice for peace through her writing.
According to her, Literature is considered a part of societal reflection. This is depicted
through one of her interviews with Debarun Borthakur and Gitanjali Das (2011),
which states, “if literature does not talk about life it is not relevant. Today Northeast
is full of conflicts. Literature should mirror these conflicts and everything else that
is true of life here” (p. 1). The communal dysfunction of Ao Naga community is
illustrated through her effective narratives.
Mamang Dai
Mamang Dai is another well-recognized poet, novelist, and journalist from

Arunachal Pradesh. She belongs to the Adi tribal community. Before starting her
writing profession, she served as a civil servant. She was the first woman from her
community to become an IAS officer in 1979. However, she gave up her influential
service and pursued her career as a journalist. Dai was a correspondent with the
newspapers like Hindustan Times, the Sentinel and the telegraph. She also worked
with the World Wide Fund (WWF) for nature in the ‘Eastern Himalaya Biodiversity
Hotspots Programme’. She also served as a long-time member of the North East
Writer’s Forum. She was the recipient of ‘Padma Shri’ award from the Government
of India in 2011. The government of Arunachal Pradesh honoured her with ‘Annual
Verrier Elwin Prize’ in 2013 for her debut work Arunachal Pradesh: The Hidden
Land. Later in 2017, she received Sahitya Akademi Award for her fiction The Black
Hill. Her other notable works include The Legends of Pensam, Stupid Cupid and
187
River Poems. She is very much conscious of promoting the fading cultural traditions
of her community. She urges her people to retain and transmit their rich traditional
values to the next generations through her literary works.
According to Dai, the literary heritage of Arunachal Pradesh is primarily Oral
tradition, and she has implemented the narrative techniques and art of storytelling
in her fiction The Legends of Pensam. In her book, she comments that “myth and
memory would be reborn in the songs of the ponung dancers” (p. 50). Here the
writer brings out the collective memory of her culture that the shaman and the
rhapsodist led. She believes that the oral tradition is a way of their life nurtured
through centuries. Furthermore, most of her works were the record of life in the
hills covering the landscape and people of Arunachal Pradesh. In an interview with
Jaydeep Sarangi (2017), she says, “I feel attached to the land – its features, rivers,
the stories and villages. I am also looking at our epic narratives and myths” (p. 4).
She is preoccupied with preserving the ethnic identity and indigenous culture of
Adi tribes.
Easterine Kire
Kire is a prominent writer who had occupied an important place among academic
readers. She is proud to be Nagaland’s first English writer belonging to the Angami
Naga community. Her literary contributions include poems, novels, short stories,
children’s books and novels. At the age of sixteen, she started writing as the academic
profession as a translator and published her first poetry collection in 1982. Most of
her literary narrations were based on the livelihood of the Naga community. She
used writing as a tool where she incorporated her own childhood experiences and
oral narrations in it. According to her, the Northeast region is not just a place of
violence alone; instead, many undiscovered ordinary things occur in daily lives. In
an interview with Swati Daftuar (2015), she deliberates the partial actions of the
national media by bringing out the landscape of Nagaland as,
We are saying there is more: there is great beauty, not just the breathtaking landscapes
of mountains and rivers and clouds – covered villages, but the beauty of the people
who live there and the stories they have to share. The spiritual world is a big part
of the Naga world – view and it comes naturally to me to write about it. (para. 2)
Her debut novel, A Naga Village Remembered, published in 2003, discussed the
heroic deeds of a Naga warrior against British forces. Other notable works include A
terrible Matriarchy, Mari, Bitter Wormwood and When the River Sleeps, which was
awarded ‘The Hindu Literary Prize’ and deal with the beautiful narrative style of the
cultural traits and natural landscape of Naga regions. The symbolic representation of
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a human’s journey from ignorance level to practical experience is portrayed in this

work. Son of the Thundercloud was awarded Bal Sahitya Puraskar. Apart from this,
her works were translated into many regional and foreign languages that illustrate
the livelihood of the indigenous communities of her region.
CONCLUSION
The women writers from the Northeast region of India are the first-generation
writers who come from better economic backgrounds and with strong education
from their childhood. The above incidents bring the historical lives of people into
their society. Most of their works reflect the self-awareness and self-expression in
observing the current situation of being women in their region and the livelihood of
the inhabitants of Northeast India. Their literary narrations provide moral support for
women readers and make the male readers understand from the feminine perspective.
Michele Barrett, (2016), in his article “Virginia Woolf, Women and Writing,” rightly
points out that “one should try to sum up the character of women’s fiction at the
present moment, one would say that it is courageous; it is sincere, it keeps closely
to what women feel … It does not insist upon its femininity but at the same time, a
woman’s book is not written as a man would write it” (p. 1). In this regard, women
writers from the northeast have gained mainstream recognition. Through writing, they
articulate womanhood’s self-experience and become an essential voice against the
patriarchal society. Their literary contribution plays an immense role and creates an
affirmative image of the Northeast region. The role of contemporary tribal women’s
writings and the struggle of women in the marginalized region is discussed through
the select women writers.
REFERENCES
Agarwal, V., & Raj, M. (2020). Empowerment of Women in Northeast India.

International Journal of Creative Research Thoughts, 8(7), 5138–5144.
Ao, T. (2011). NELit review: Temsula Ao Recommends (D. Borthakur & G. Das,
Interviewers) [Interview]. NELit Review. https://nelitreview.blogspot.com/2011/11/
temsula-ao-recommends.html
Ao, T. (2013). “My Hills.” Book of Songs: Collected Poems 1988-2007. Heritage
Publishing House.
Ao, T. (2014). These Hills Called Home: Stories from a War Zone. Zubaan.
189
Barrett, M. (2016, October 7). Virginia Woolf, Women and Writing. https://
partumpoetics.wordpress.com/2016/10/07/virginia-woolf-women-and-writing/
Dai, M. (2006). The Legends of Pensam. Penguin Books.
Gill, P. (2011). NELit review: Frontispiece - Writing the Northeast: Preeti Gill. NELit
Review. http://nelitreview.blogspot.com/2011/11/writing-northeast-preeti-gill.html
Gond, J. (2017, November 11). The Identity of Adivasi Literature. Forward Press.
https://www.forwardpress.in/2017/11/the-identity-of-adivasi-literature/
Haokip, T. (2011). Conceptualizing Northeast India: A Discursive Analysis on
Diversity. Bangladesh e-Journal of Sociology, 8(2), 109–120. https://papers.ssrn.
com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1623524
Kire, E. (2015, November 21). No division between spiritual and physical (S.
Daftuar, Interviewer) [Interview]. The Hindu. https://www.thehindu.com/features/
lit-for-life/swati-daftuar-speaks-to-easterine-kire-about-when-the-river-sleeps/
article7903799.ece
Sarangi, J. (2017). In Conversation With Mamang Dai. Writers in Conversation,
4(2), 1–7. doi:10.22356/wic.v4i2.23
Shafak, E. (2011). Black Milk: On Writing, Motherhood, and the Harem Within.
Viking.
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Chapter 20
Nupi-Lal and Women
Empowerment:
A Study of the Meetei Women
of Manipuri Society
Yumnam Yaiphabi Chanu

Manipur University, India
ABSTRACT
Manipur, one of the North-Eastern states of India, has been in an active phase of
turmoil since the British colonial period and its subsequent annexation to the Indian
Union. Insurgency and the resulting implementation of the Armed Forces Special
Powers Act (1958), issues of drug trafficking, unemployment, and gender-related
issues have continually plagued the people of Manipur and women in particular.
Manipuri women living in a conflict-zone region have always involved themselves
in every socio-economic and political situation of the state since historical times,
and Nupi-Lal, which is the first ever women oriented movement, shows the glorious
and painstaking journey of women empowerment. Even in today’s modern society,
these empowered women are still trapped in the dark veil of political conflict and
social dystopia. The chapter is an attempt to study the social constructs of Manipuri
society and to recapture the causes, reasons, and results of the First and Second
Nupi-Lal of Manipur and their accumulative impact on the women of present day
Manipuri society.
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch020
Nupi-Lal and Women Empowerment
INTRODUCTION
Studies on women have gained a strong foothold and an unbeatable interest among the
present generation. It all started from the second wave of feminism dating from 1960
to the present day. Since then, the topic of women in every field of study continued
to grow and expand to broader areas of study courses and programmes. Women
studies is different from gender studies from the perspective that women’s studies
focusses only on women’s issues, their lives, experiences, attitudes, expectations,
problems and prospects as well. While gender studies is more of an inclusive term
and is a social construct that includes both men and women, LGBTQ’s and other
queer theories. As time progresses, ‘women’ as a concept or ‘women’ as a study
have gained new insights of learning featuring race, class, sexuality, movements,
activities, region, media, religion, ethnicity, political and ideological convictions as
well. However the study of women is very much related with society and women
itself is regarded as the mirror and model of the society. By observing certain
fundamental ways of a society, we can decipher the place and position of women
in that particular society.
Society at large depends on the progress of women and the type of position that
women enjoy in the society also brings out the fundamental social spirit of the age
and the region to which women are subject to. However it is not enough to just assess
the position of women in the current times and it is important to have a prior idea
and understanding of the women’s situation from the historical perspective. Over
the years, each and every country of the world has their own fair share of incredible
men and women but it’s been always the tales of extraordinary women that creates
interesting pages of history. Stories of brave and daring women transcend all barriers
to prove their might, influence and capabilities regardless of time and space.
MEETEI WOMEN AND THEIR ROLE IN THE SOCIETY
Manipur, one of the eight states of North-East India was once a strong and independent
Asiatic kingdom. The state has two distinct physical regions: hills, which compose
of 90% of the entire land and a narrow valley that occupies the rest 10% of the total
land area. The hills are inhabited by different tribal communities and the Imphal
valley, which is the capital of the state, is mainly inhabited by the Meeteis along with
a mixture of the other communities as well viz. Meetei Pangals (Muslims), Naga
and Kuki tribes. In the history of Manipur, much have been seen and heard of the
great and endless contributions made by women in the social, political, economic
and cultural developments of the state. Living in a patri-oriented society, women of
192
Manipur has made their presence felt in every social sphere since ancient times and
therefore their social position in the society is quite high and remarkable.
There are certain instances of many brave women who put their lives at stake
for a larger social and political interest of the land. There is the living history
of Petanga, the wife of Prince Naothingkhong who saved her husband from her
murderous clansmen by her wit and resourcefulness. Mentioned may be made of
Leima Linthoingambi, wife of King Ningthoukhomba who in the absence of her
husband suppressed the revolting hill tribes by disguising herself and dressing up as
the King. And during the colonial period, another woman Rani Gaidinliu belonging
to the Zeliarong tribe of Manipur took a firm stance against the oppressive forces
of the British government thereby asserting the indigenous right of freedom and
self-government. The case of Irom Sharmila is another example of woman power.
She went on a long sixteen years of hunger strike from 2000 to 2016 demanding for
the complete removal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (1958). Many such
courageous acts of women have been recorded in history from time to time. But
two events that still echoes in the hearts of the Manipuri people are the First Nupi
Lal (1904) and the Second Nupi Lal (1939). Here ‘nupi’ means woman and ‘lal’
meaning war is translated and described as The Women’s War/Movement which was
a mass protest initiated and organized by the Meetei women against the excessive
and unjust policies of the then British government.
The idea of Manipuri womanhood connotes a different meaning different from
the Indian version of womanhood. Since ancient times i.e. the pre-Hindu period,
Meetei women have always played a special role in shaping the history of Manipur.
They are never considered as an inferior being inside the family or in the society at
large. In the making of present day Manipur, it is the unlettered women of the past
who relentlessly participated and took charge of the social, political and economic
domain so much so that they left behind a rich legacy of women power and women
leaders. Moreover they are also socially and economically empowered and much
of the trading activities of the state are held by them. In earlier times, when men
were constantly engaged in warfare and a labour system known as the lallup, a type
of military service rendered to the King in times of need, were a compulsory duty
for a male of every Manipuri household; the women can no longer play the gentle
and weak gender and have to act independently by taking charge of the duties in
the household, engaging in agricultural activities, in trade and other forms of social
and cultural duties.
In fact, the Britishers had a high opinion of the Meetei women and are evident
from their acute observations. Ethel St. C. Grimwood remarked on the Meetei
women as “The Manipuris do not shut up their women, as is the custom in most
parts of India, and they are much more enlightened and intelligent in consequence”
(Grimwood, 2008). Another Britisher E. W. Dun also wrote, “They are very
193
industrious. The most of the work of the country, except the heaviest, is performed
by them. It would be difficult to find a more industrious woman in India than the
Manipuri”. (Dun, 1996). Again T. C. Hodson is of the opinion, “The women hold
a high and free position in Manipur, all internal trade and exchange of the produce
of the country being managed by them” (Hodson, 2003). According to Belinda
Morse, “The women of Manipur were famous for being hard-working and good at
weaving. Besides labouring in the fields they ran the bazar entirely on their own,
allowing no man to sell there” (Morse, 2014). Saroj N Arambam Paratt and John
Paratt also describe on the Meetei women as:
Despite the dominance of Hinduism in the plains of Manipur, Meitei women suffered
none of the humiliating oppression of their sisters elsewhere on the sub-continent.
Above all the women controlled the food supplies and the markets, and were therefore
a dominant economic force. From the beginning of British period they had showed
themselves capable and organized enough to take mass action when occasion
demanded (Paratt, 2017).
NUPI-LAL AND THE BEGINNING OF WOMEN’S MOVEMENT
Manipur came under the British rule on 13th April 1891 with the former’s defeat in
the Battle of Khongjom. After that the reins of Manipur administration were more
or less taken up by the British and then began an era of growing social discontent
and widespread resentment that the traditional Manipuri society slowly started to
disintegrate. The policies of the Britishers were never in tandem with the traditional
customs of the land and in the words of Leitanthem Umakanta Meitei:
They began exercising powers not in harmony with the established social system.
Antagonism between the British colonial apparatus and local populace developed on
the line of colonizers and colonized. This brought social frictions, deepened by the
Bengalis who were brought to Manipur by the British to support their administrative
set-up (Meitei, 2016).
Under the British occupation, the administration of the state was already in chaos
and protest suddenly erupted on the fateful year of 1904. In the month of July of
the same year, the women market sheds of the Khwairamband market was burned
down. Next the residences of British officers Mr. Dunlop and I. R. Nathal were also
set on fire. Responding to such an event, Major Maxwell, the then Political Agent
and the Superintendent of the State issued an order on 30th September ordering all
the males of every Meetei household to forced labour (lallup) and to rebuild the
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bungalows with teak wood collected from the Kabow valley (current Myanmar).
This order again ignited the fire of hatred and discontentment in the hearts of the
local populace and in the words of Arunkumar and Arun, “It was an extra burden
on the already harassed and overworked populace” (Arun, 2009). One Chingsubam
Natek Singh wrote to the Superintendent pleading to reconsider the order but it was
denied. On the contrary, the Political Agent even issued an order threatening that if
the burned bungalows were not rebuilt, then the people inhabiting around the Imphal
valley will be subject to pay taxes. Next an order prohibiting people to assemble
came out and in retaliation of the order, more than 5000 people gathered at Uripok
and held a public meeting decrying all the orders of the British government. The
police arrested six people and after a trial conducted by Mr. Maxwell, they were
exiled from Manipur.
At this critical moment, the Meetei women came out to the front and protested
against the Superintendent’s order to revive the abolished lallup system, which is
a form of forced labour where the males from 17 to 60 years of age are required to
work for the state for a period of time without paying any wages. Compelling the
males to forced labour was regarded by many as improper and an act of dishonouring
the Meetei society. In retaliation, the women stopped the males from coming out to
build the bungalows. Next they banned all activities of the Khwairamband market
and demonstrated for a week demanding the order to be revoked which disturbed
the normal functioning of the state. For the first time in the history of Manipur,
the women’s collective movement against the colonial policies of the British came
to be popularly known as Nupi Lal or Women’s War. Ultimately it was the simple,
unlettered and home tending women folk who made the colonial masters vow to
their demands. The women’s movement of 1904 heralded a new age of political and
national consciousness in the minds of the Manipuri people. But more importantly,
it was the first movement that sowed the seeds of women empowerment and to
fearlessly voice out their concerns. In connection with the movement of 1904,
Arunkumar and Arun observed:
From a society chained to patriarchy, the 1904 agitation was a defining movement
for the Manipuri women. While it shocked the British colonialists, it also caused a
small tremor at the patriarchal foundation of Manipuri society. The intrinsic power
and volatile nature of Manipuri women in collective action was noted by both the
colonial masters and the upholders of patriarchy in society (Arun, 2009).
After three decades of British colonialism, Nupi Lal broke out for the second time
in 1939 which is again a movement of historical importance showcasing the power
of women when they are robbed of their basic rights of existence and livelihood. The
Nupi Lal movement of 1939 became very much inevitable and almost predictable
195
because of the certain tide of events that are associated with it. The movement was a
spontaneous one and broke out in unison against the artificial scarcity of rice created
by the unjust export policy of the British and the King coupled with the monopoly
of trade employed by the Marwari traders. Manipur depends on agrarian economy
and the particular year of 1939 witnessed poor yield of crops due to excessive rain
during the monsoon season of July - August and again suffered heavy rainfall at the
time of harvesting the crops in September – November. Since the British occupation
of Manipur, the export of rice increased year by year with the opening of Imphal-
Kohima road and “The question of rice export from Manipur to British India is
closely linked with the growth of Marwari capital in Manipur” (Yambem, 1976).
Based on the Administrative Report of the State of Manipur, Sanamani Yambem
provided a statistical report of the export of rice carried on by the Britishers since
1891 as reported below.
It was reported as early as 1892-93 that rice was being freely exported to Kohima;
and it is recorded that in 1894-95 some 8000 maunds of rice were exported to
Kohima … Even so, rice exports for that year (1898 - 99) was recorded as 36,430
maunds… Rice export from Manipur reached an all-time record of 3,72,174 maunds
in 1938, the year before the outbreak of the Nupi Lan. A situation has thus arisen
where any failure of the harvest in the following year would result in severe shortages
(Yambem, 1976).
The rice export took a new turn with the introduction of motor vehicles and the
appearance of immigrant Marwari traders. The price on rice kept on increasing on
one side and on the other the people were socially and culturally exploited by the
excessive rules of the King and the Brahma Sabha in the name of Hinduism. As a
result, the socio-economic situation in Manipur has been deteriorating for a period
of time and public resentment spiraled up against the King, the Britishers and the
Marwari traders. By December 1939, no rice can be found in the Khwairamband
market and from this moment, Meetei women started to take charge of the movement.
They demanded to stop the export of rice and to close down all the rice mills. They
also urged the local people to stop selling rice to the Indian traders. When the
situation did not improve much, some women took the initiative to stop bullock
carts stealthily carrying paddy to the Marwari traders. Words spread out and as the
movement gained momentum, it was on 12th December 1939 that the Second Nupi
Lal broke out when thousands of women gathered to make an appeal to the Political
Agent, Mr. Gimson who was out on a tour. So they went to Mr. T. A. Sharpe, the
President of the Durbar demanding to immediately stop the export of rice. Mr.
Sharpe pointed out that the King was in Nabadwip and he could not do anything
without the consent of the King.
196
The crowd then immediately demanded to send telegram to the King and Mr. T.
A. Sharpe along with the women protestors went to the Telegraph office. By noon
the number of women agitators swelled up to 4000 and laid siege of the Telegraph
Office with Mr. T. A. Sharpe and two other British officers inside the office while
waiting for a reply from Nabadwip. By afternoon, the number of women protestors
rose to 10,000 and at about 2:30 p.m., Captain Stone led a platoon of Assam Rifles
to check on the prevailing situation and it is from this very moment that the second
Nupi Lal broke out as Saroj N Arambam Paratt and John Paratt reproduces the
observation made by Miles:
…it was the appearance of the Assam Rifles which caused the crowd to erupt. Some
of the soldiers were Kukis and Nepalis, and the sight of hill men and foreigners with
fixed bayonets pushing Meitei women aside to make a path for the British officers
to escape incensed the by standers (Paratt, 2017).
A major scuffle broke out between the women and the Assam Rifles and several
women were injured. The sepoys managed to disperse the women and it was only
after midnight the British officers were rescued from the Telegraph Office. Next
morning, the order to stop the export of rice came out. But the relentless women did
not stop with just an order. They targeted the rice mills and took written assurances
from the mill owners that they would not run their mills. The movement did not end
but instead was taken up by the male counterparts with Hijam Irabot Singh as the
main leader and later on took the political dimension of freedom movement. But
it can be said that this time again the women won in their fight for social justice
and “against the economic policies specially imposed to best serve the colonial
and feudal interests (Arun, 2009). The market women of Khwairamband did play
an important role in saving the people from the near famine condition because as
mediums of social change and upholders of justice, they refused to remain silent
spectators as Lieutenant General Sir Geoffrey Evans and Antony Brett-James put it
in their words: “Besides selling in the bazaar, the Manipuri women were politically
influential, tough in support of their claims and grievances, and more ready than
the men to exert pressure and take a lead…” (Brett-James, 2016).
The two women movements were very much related with the then Manipuri
society. Meetei women taking the role of a mother and that of a social guardian
have to step out from time to time and expose themselves to all the violent forces in
the course of giving the right direction to the Manipuri people. It is the central role
of women in Manipuri society that has ensured peace, stability and progress since
historical times till now. In the emergence of a new Manipur, it is the Meetei women
who led and paved the path for a collective national and political consciousness.
The spirit of the Nupi Lal movement continued to live on and it is manifested from
197
time to time whenever the situation demanded. The fight against social injustices
does not end here and even after the British left Manipur, the state continued to
be in turmoil as the state was merged into the Indian Union in 1949 amidst much
controversy and mixed opinions. The state was deeply divided into two opposing
groups; those who welcomed the Indian union and another who directly opposed to
be under Indian rule. By 1960’s the ideological differences between the two groups
culminated to a point in which the opposing group resorted to armed violence in
its demand to restore the state’s erstwhile independent political set up. And to curb
the actions of the armed youths, the Indian government imposed the Armed Forces
Special Powers Act (AFSPA), 1958 all over Manipur in 1980 and Manipur was
declared a disturbed state.
WOMEN AND MILITARISATION
The Armed Forces Special Powers Act is an act of the Indian Parliament that gives
“special” and unchecked powers to the Indian army to arrest, search, shoot, conduct
operations and even the right to kill a person that is deemed suspicious without any
trial. This has led to widespread violations of human rights and deprivation of basic
human liberties that are quite contrary to a democratic country like India. Under
AFSPA, Manipur entered a long, gruesome and dismal period of human rights
violations, extrajudicial killings, rape, torture, custodial deaths and disappearances
of all sorts, all in the name of providing peace and security to the state. In the name
of dealing the armed youths, it is the innocent civilians and women in particular
who the real victims of AFSPA are. This causes constant fear and insecurity which
has an adverse effect on the women of Manipur and in the words of Leitanthem
Umakanta Meitei,
Women of Manipur have also experienced multiple forms of gender-based atrocities

including molestation and sexual assault, sexual abuse, and rape by Indian armed
forces. Such actions deepened the sense of victimization and helplessness of the women
of Manipur, and brought both physical and psychological insecurity (Meitei, 2016).
Under the new democratic government, the society of Manipur degraded much
faster than anticipated. Although education brought about new vistas of learning,
livelihood and opportunities, the work culture of the Meetei males seem to have
lost and the 1970’s show increasing issues of domestic violence resulting from
alcoholism and drug abuse. In 1975, Meetei women started the Nishabandi movement
by keeping vigil at night and confronting drunkards, destroying vendors and even
punishing the culprits by shaming called khong-goinaba. Because of their efforts,
198
Manipur became a dry state in 1991 with the exception of Scheduled Caste and
Scheduled Tribe areas. Later this Nishabandi organization gradually evolved into
Meira Paibi or women torch bearers in 1980. The Meira Paibi movement is also a
women’s organization which was formed spontaneously to counter the attacks and
the human rights violation activities perpetrated by the Indian army in the name of
counter insurgency.
Certain terror cases of the Tangkhul Rose rape incident (1974), the Heiranggoithong
massacre (1984), the Tera Bazar massacre (1993), the Regional Medical College
massacre (1995), the Langjing incident (1996), the Tonsen Lamkhai massacre
(1999), the Malom massacre (2000), and the inhuman rape and murder of Thangjam
Manorama (2004) further ignited the fire of the Meira Paibi movement. The Thangjam
Manorama incident left the emas (a local name for mother) of Manipur with no
choice but to lay bare their bodies in naked protest against the “sexual predator in
uniform” (Rehman, 2017). On 15th July 2004, twelve elderly women “promising to
tell the world about the situation in Manipur” (Rehman, 2017) strip themselves in
front of the sacred Kangla Fort, the seat of Manipuri kingdom, holding banners and
shouted “Indian Army Rape Us”, “Take Our Flesh”. “The purpose of the protest is
not to titillate, but to provoke action that upholds the dignity of Manipuri women”
(Rehman, 2017). Although the nude protest cannot repeal AFSPA, it did make an
impact and the 17th Assam Rifles which was stationed in the Kangla Fort at the time
was removed and AFSPA was withdrawn from seven assembly constituencies within
the Imphal Municipal area. The Khwairamband incident of 2009 which brought about
the death of a young man and a pregnant woman resulted in much public outcry and
the women’s uproar from all sides put an end to all the atrocities of fake encounters
and killing people at will carried on by the state forces. And during the ILPS (Inner
Line Permit System) agitation, it is again the women who relentlessly gave support
and participated in the movement till its successful implementation in 2020.
The Meetei women have never fought against their male counterparts for their
rights. Instead they fight for a larger cause concerning their collective identity,
dignity and morality and can be a “powerful political force” (Meitei, 2016). And
Manipur being a conflict region has its endless share of issues and problems. In
every major social events and outbreaks, it is the women who always came forward
to lead the way in their motherly instinct of protecting her home, family and the
society at large. Tracing the women’s activism in recent times and linking it with
the past, the journey of Meetei women has not been easy and simple. But however
empowered or strong the Meetei women may be, in the face of rampant political
corruption and unequal gender participation in electoral politics, the rights of women
have never been realized. In fact the political decision domain is not regarded as a
place for women and women’s involvement in the political sphere is still very low.
When these social inhibitions are removed, women can freely exercise her strengths
199
and resources for the general productivity of the state. Also they should be made
more aware of the legal rights and privileges which will automatically empower
them in the process. Inclusion of educated and learned women activists should also
be encouraged to promote sound judgement. Nevertheless the responsibilities and
contributions the Meetei women have made in every socio-economic and political
affairs of the state are innumerable and worthy of respect and recognition.
REFERENCES
Arun, M. C. (2009). The Transcendental Role of Women in Manipur History in

New Insights Into The Glorious Haritage of Manipur (H. D. Sharma, Ed.). Akansha
Publishing House.
Brett-James, S. G. (2016). Imphal: A Flower on Lofty Heights, 1962. New Delhi:
Sunmarg Publishers & Distributors.
Dun, E. W. (1996). The Gazetteer of Manipur, 1886. New Delhi: Manas Publications.
Grimwood, E. S. (2008). My Three Years in Manipur, 1891. New Delhi: Gyan
Publishing House.
Hodson, T. (2003). The Meitheis. New Delhi: Low Price Publications.
Meitei, L. U. (2016). Voyages of Women in Manipur. Peace Research Institute.
Morse, B. (2014). Calamity and Courage, A Heroine of the Raj: The Story of Ethel
Grimwood & Manipur, 2008. Manipur: Imasi Publications.
Paratt, S. N. (2017). Collected Papers on the History and Culture of Manipur.
Manipur: Patriotic Writers Forum (PAWF).
Rehman, T. (2017). The Mothers of Manipur: Twelve Women Who Made History.
Zubaan Publishers Pvt. Ltd.
Yambem, S. (1976). Nupi Lan: Manipur Women’s Agitation. Economic and Political
Weekly, 11(8), 325-327-329-331. Retrieved 9 Feb Tue, 2021, from https://www.
jstor.org/stable/4364388
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ENDNOTES
1.
The Meeteis are the dominant ethnic community of Manipur. Both the words
“Meetei” and “Meitei” are used synonymously but according to the Manipur
Gazette of 1980, the word “Meetei” has been officially recognized.
2.
AFSPA was first imposed in the hills in 1960 which extended later to the valley.
3.
ILPS or the Inner Line Permit System is a travel document that allows an
Indian citizen to visit or stay in a state that is protected under this system for
a period of time. The main purpose of this system is to protect and safeguard
the indigenous population from outsiders or people belonging to other Indian
states.
201
202
Chapter 21
The Role of Haptics in
the Sexual Harassment of
Women in Corporate Sector
Shraddha Dhal
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6022-3220
KIIT University (Deemed), India
ABSTRACT
The quintessence of a woman’s modesty is her sex. The one, intending to outrage a
woman’s modesty, be it in her personal life or at her workplace, shall be punished.
Fortunately enough, women have a powerful sense of differentiating between the touch
that gives solace and the touch that is misleading and is used for sexual stimulation.
Haptics plays a vital role in this regard. As the world is being globalized, it is
onerous to avoid the chance of crossing the line of acceptability. Even so, it is quite
important to learn the proper use of haptics to remain aware of the inappropriate
act of touching as well as to avoid awkward and embarrassing occurrences. The
chapter attempts to emphasize how the proper use of haptics in the corporate sector
can add more productivity to both men and women while at the same time it can
also enhance the efficiency of the organization.
INTRODUCTION
Touching, the indispensable Universal behaviour is perhaps the earliest developing and
longest lasting of all our senses. The need to touch and to be touched is preponderant
in creating a humane bonding. Touch provides a direct contact with the other person. It
is the most ‘genuine’ way to sense the world around us. It is phenomenally effective as
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch021
The Role of Haptics in the Sexual Harassment of Women in Corporate Sector
a form of communication, as the messages are distinctly received without perplexity,

resulting in the propensity to convey substantial indications without vocal appendage.
Haptics (a Greek word meaning “I touch”) or Haptic communication is a form of
touching that outlines our interpersonal relationships and is paramount in conveying
physical intimacy. In other words, Haptics is described as the subsystem of non-
verbal communication that studies the use of touching behaviours in communication.
Science proves that the need for physical contact exists right from birth and is a
significant component of our species heritage. British clinician John Bowlby puts
forward the evolutionary need for human beings to frame indestructible affectional
bonds with other beings. He cites the example of infants who manifest themselves
in instinctive actions, promoting physical propinquity, thus escalating the quality
of survival (Holmes, 2014). Therefore, there is not a more direct and intimate way
to intermingle with our world other than touch. The messages of haptics convey
many more things than being merely limited to information about emotion, facial
expression, and describing other visual or auditory information like art or music.
Thus, Haptics is a kind of tactic by which human beings communicate via touching
that provides information about surfaces and textures. Heslin and Alper classify
Haptics communications into five different categories: Functional/Professional,
Social/Polite, Acquaintance/Warmth, Love/Intimacy and Sexual (Heslin and Alper,
1983). Haptics can effectively be used, or effectively be misused, depending upon
the knowledge of toucher and receiver in a culturally diverse workplace. With the
transforming demographics and changing global perspectives, diversity in the
gender, race and culture can be noticed in various workplaces. Burwell believes
that each culture has its own idiosyncratic way of touching behaviours, which
results in the increased sense of miscommunication and sometimes be decoded as
assault, because touching is interpreted differently by different people belonging
to different cultures. Thus, touching activities which are mutually incompatible or
goes beyond the culturally acknowledged boundary result in either an apathetic or
an active hostility. Such feelings can often lead to any undesirable impression of a
sexual nature that is tied to security and advancement.
OBJECTIVES
The present paper succinctly brings out the role of Haptics among sexually harassed
employees in corporate sectors. It also evaluates prominent issues related to the
problems of touch, with a predominant emphasis on women in diverse workplaces
and provides some ultimate solutions to overcome the problems related to haptics.
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METHODOLOGY
The information placed and cited in the present article have been collected from
various sources including governing bodies, government policies/announcements,
official documents, guidelines. A number of media reports, texts, and few research
articles have also been considered to extract information.
“TOUCH” AS A SIGNIFICANT FORM OF COMMUNICATION
The human significance of the skin is compelling. Skin is the oldest and most
sensitive organ that responds to emotions expeditiously. It is, being the biggest organ,
wraps itself over, under, and all around in living beings. Our sense of touch begins
in the womb, where warmth can often be sensed. Ashley Montagu brings together
an extensive and intensive range of research throwing light on the functions of both
skin and bodily touch in individual awareness in his seminal work, Touching. He
says, “As we have seen, in our very brief survey, different cultures vary in both the
manner in which they express the need for tactile stimulation and the manner in
which they satisfy it. But the need is universal and is everywhere the same, though
the form of its satisfaction may vary according to time and place” (Montagu, 1986).
Thus, the desire to touch and to be touched has always been of a universal need.
Touch is often intimate and can be seen from the perspectives of issues of power,
status and supremacy. Thus, it can be used as an act of ascendancy or friendship,
depending on the ambience and who is touching who, how and when. Therefore, it
may stimulate positive or negative feelings in the communicants. DePauw University
psychologist Matthew J Hertenstein along with his colleagues demonstrated that
we have an innate ability to decipher emotions through touch (Hertenstein et al,
2006). Growing up in a society where one learns by observing others and imitating
them and is exposed informally to gain knowledge of how to use gestures, glances,
intonation, and other auxiliary communication appliances to interpret the language
and behaviour of others. Besides, religions often teach that some kinds of touch are
inapt or sinful. And as human being, especially a woman has the intense power of
differentiating between the touch that gives comfort, reduces stress and the touch
that is inappropriate, misleading and is used for sexual stimulation. In the later,
touch is used to induce a sensual feeing, where certain sensitive parts of the body
are caressed and stimulated. This type of touch is acceptable between partners along
with their consent. But it can be startling and may often rouse disquiet, where the
receiver may not like to be touched. Thus, identifying reciprocated sexual intentions
is of fundamental importance. However, it depends on the person- an extrovert and
sociable individual is more open to initiate touch whereas an introvert individual
204
having a reserved personality may feel awkward and unnerving. Usually, one can
notice within a few minutes of talking to them whether or not it’s propitious. In such
cases, when the recipient gets an undesirable touch against their will, the action is
always unwelcomed of a venereal nature. Thus, sexual pestering is a major problem
for countless employees in general and women in particular. It is boorish, undignified,
and humiliating. It mostly displays the misuse of power and authority. It adversely
affects the victim’s psychological wellbeing, socio-economic status as well as the
occupational relationships.
CULTURAL ASPECTS OF ‘HAPTICS’
In a globalized world, the opportunity for crossing the line of acceptability can
hardly be evaded. To scrutinize the cultural aspect of different countries, the French
custom of traditional greeting and kissing on the cheek (faire la bise) is perceived
as unpleasant in other cultures. The Turkish people look upon a firm handshake as
discourteous and belligerent. The thumbs-up gesture is uncouth in countries like
Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran. Using the thumb and index finger to form a circle as
the ‘Okay’ symbol has a negative connotation and may also suggestive of ‘hate’
emotion in some parts of America. It may also mean ‘money’ in countries like
Japan where as in some others, it’s an awfully insulting indication to a sexual organ.
Pointing with the finger is accustomed in the U.S., while it is regarded very foul in
Japan, China, Indonesia and Latin America. Some cultures respect certain extent
of personal space while communicating, whereas some people particularly the
Middle Easterners prefer a close proximity chat. The Hispanic Americans usually
tend to touch the hands and arms of the person communicating with, they seem to
enjoy a more touchy-feely conversation in form of warm hugs, kissing the cheek
while greeting, while in the U.S., these types of physical contact is identified as
provocative. However, there are some convention bound cultures that do not at all
entertain the concept of touch outside a close relationship as in Judaism, whereas
in some Islamic societies, non-essential touch, glaring and even conversation is
completely prohibited. Touch, has, therefore, a stratum of meanings, according
to the customs and mores of one’s civilization. In order to understand the various
meanings that a single touch can lead to, one has to observe and absorb many highly
culture bound techniques.
Women working in multinational corporations or any multicultural environment
come across scores of cultural discrepancies, which they may discover interesting
and invigorating or infuriatingly strange. Although there’s a reflection in cultural
difference as far as touch is concerned and that is why crossing of relational and
cultural lines are definitely unintentional, however more often they find it deliberate,
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which is above any cultural diversity, leading to the sense of illicit or unsanctioned
sexuality. Leading U.S. Psychologists Louise Fitzgerald and Lilia M. Cortina have
widely researched on sexual harassment mostly in the corporate sectors in the U.S
by means of Sexual Experiences Questionnaire (SEQ). Their findings suggest that
the SEQ “measures harassment in what Fitzgerald has defined as the behavioural
categories of gender harassment, unwanted sexual attention and sexual coercion
expressed through crude words, acts and gestures conveying hostile, misogynist
attitudes. Unwanted sexual attention is analogous to the legal concept of ‘hostile
work environment harassment’ and sexual coercion is analogous to the legal concept
of ‘quid pro quo sexual harassment’.” (Fitzgerald and Cortina, 2018)
SEXUAL HARASSMENT AS A BARRIER TO

CORPORATE COMMUNICATION
Sexual harassment has been found to be one of the most destructive barriers to
occupation among women. As reported by Mental Health America, employees
often face countless professional snags which are detrimental to their mental health
and social well-being. Sexual harassment, being the most prominent one, triggers
acute mental and physical distress and disquiet for its victims (Sexual Assault and
Mental Health, n.d.). According to the 1994 Merit Systems Protection Board of
Sexual Harassment, women are “more than three times” expected to be harassed
than men in male-dominated occupations such as military, construction, policing,
insurance, hotel industries, modelling, film and media industries etc. As per the
report, nearly 19% of men reported sexual assault cases in workplace while the case
of women hikes up to 44% (Merit Systems Protection, 1994). Even the International
Labour Organization study of various countries shows that sexual harassment has
become contagious for women all over the world. Thus, women around the world
are extra sentient towards the kind of behaviours they receive through haptics.
Being aware of the outer world through an undesirable experience, women have
started exposing the pervasiveness of sexual harassment in their societies. Many
such examples are even overtly documented. Direct sexual propositions, where
higher-ranked employees demand or invite for sexual favours on the assurance of
certain fulfilments like promotion, an increment in the regular wages, sometimes
intimidating women employees to endanger their employment position, offensive
and demeaning behaviours etc are some of the instances. Acquaintance rape is
the extreme example of dominance related to haptics. As a result of that many
women find it impossible to control these unwelcoming situations in the workplace
and leave their jobs, which lead to serious economic consequences. Some others
suffer silently as they keep fighting the war of economic survival. Moreover, their
206
culturally learned behaviour prevents them from confronting. Some women even
hesitate to retaliate with the fear that a reprisal may lead to more pestering and
persistent harassments. As a result of that, they face myriad of problems that come
their way. The most common problems are difficulties with communication, loss
of confidence, a break from being social, distrust, a sense of insecurity, failure to
have control over interpersonal situations, emotional imbalance, mental trauma,
difficulty in concentrating at anything, defamation of character and reputation,
and the fear of being objectified and humiliated by scrutiny and gossip, which
ultimately drive the person into a state of shock and distress, terror and trepidation.
Over-protectiveness of the victim may also be an issue. Besides, other psychological
and emotional impacts can be diagnosed: psychosomatic symptoms like anxiety,
depression, insomnia, frustration, headaches, fatigue, isolation, suicidal thoughts or
attempts. It also disturbs the spiritual facets of women. Most importantly the vivacious
accomplishment obstructs the natural flow of the victims. It wounds the heart and
soul. Sometimes life becomes intensely strenuous and can be found dreadful, which
stands more contrasting to live. Very often a single occurrence takes a lifetime to
restore the previous state of mind.
However, there are some lesser issues related to haptics, which indeed play an
important role in the day-to-day psychological well-being of women. Diverse forms
of greeting conventions, from shaking hands to cheek-kissing to full-body hugs can
exhibit delicate symbolism. Even though shaking hands is a social ritual which is
widely accepted in various cultures, it may inhibit a substantial degree of power and
control. While the ‘power grip’ grabs people’s hand confidently and dynamically, the
‘vice grip’ indicates an exceedingly aggressive stance, which may even occasionally
cause pain. The ‘top handed shake’ that holds the hand in an upright way and shakes
horizontally gives a feeling of authority and superiority. Domination can also be
reflected through the length of the shake. To illustrate, clasping the other person
for a fraction of a second longer than usual can convey symbols of affection and
command. The power hug is another way to reflect the power of the hugger and to
raise the risk of discomfort. It may well be quickly initiate in the form of a stronger
squeeze, giving the ‘victim’ less time to escape. Full body touch, laying hand at the
person’s back, tight clasp, a hard hand-squeeze, a short knee touch flirting, smelling
others, kissing someone without their consent, grabbing or squeezing the buttocks
of women while hugging them, and even provocative postures and inviting gestures,
engaging in sexually manipulative acts indicate unwanted act of domination and
strong sexual overtones. It is not that women do not face trouble in any other places,
but workplaces are the most common location where harassment occurs. The most
regular complaints are inappropriate jokes, looks, or gestures, inapt invitations,
leering, sabotaging women’s work, comments about women’s bodies, taking women’s
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pictures without their approval, sexual sneak attacks, and ‘accidentally’ brushing
sexual parts of the body, sexually indicative touching, grabbing, or pinching etc.
Sexual contact has also been described to manifest in varied ways like initiating
a rough intimacy by forceful kissing, nibbling ear of the other person, whistling,
sucking, rewards in exchange of sexual favours, leaning down, marching into
someone’s private space, touching in erogenous zones etc. Touch will naturally seem
more intimate if it is accompanied by other signals, such as postural echo, prolonged
gaze, smiling more than required, increased eye-contact (Oculesics may also be
considered as a part of this) and moving closer without maintaining proxemics.
Since men sexualize touch, they are more likely to consider every woman they meet
as a potential date. As a result, males limit themselves to the kind of relationships
they form with the opposite gender. Researchers speculate that this is suggestive of
male authority and allows more convenient male touching of the female as females
are mostly at the receiving end.
According to the Commission of the European Union, “Sexual harassment
pollutes the working environment and can have a devastating effect upon the health,
confidence, morale and performance of those affected by it. The anxiety and stress
produced by sexual harassment commonly leads to those subjected to it taking time
off work due to sickness, being less efficient at work, or leaving their job to seek
work elsewhere. Employees often suffer the adverse consequences of the harassment
itself and short-term and long-term damage to their employment prospects if they
are forced to change jobs. Sexual harassment may also have a damaging impact on
employees who themselves are not the direct victims of unwanted behaviours but
who are witnesses to it or have knowledge of the unwanted behaviour” (Protection
of the Dignity, 1991).
As Sexual harassment and Gender discrimination are frequent within the business
world, it is needless to say its elimination in the workforce is exceedingly essential
for every employer for the sustenance of a work friendly and healthy environment.
Some strong and adequate remedial actions have already been calculated to terminate
sexual harassments of women at workplaces, which can protect an employer from
liability for a hostile environment with respects to acts. Sex discrimination is
already prohibited by law in the United States. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of
1964, amended in 1991 to include punitive damages, prohibits sex discrimination
in the U.S. in all employment related affairs. The sex discrimination act of 1975
in the United Kingdom, the Canadian Human Rights Acts, the Sex discrimination
act of 1984 and 1992 in Australia, the Hong Kong sex discrimination ordinance of
1996 are many such prohibitions that reinforce criminal and/or individual penalties
for such issues. In India IPC section 354, IPC section 376 hold the records of the
behaviours related to of sexual offence. Moreover, on 3 February 2012, the Supreme
Court of India, taking note of the fact that the civil and penal laws in the country
208
do not adequately provide for specific protection of women from sexual harassment
particularly at workplaces, decided to give a special stature to it by the enactment of
a new specific act of Sexual harassment at workplace. This was further put into force
in the following year as the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention,
Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 to impart a holistic working environment by
stamping out acts of unwanted sexual advances of any kind from the workplace.
CONTROL AND PREVENTION
A multicultural setting necessitates interacting with colleagues and organizational

clients, personifying an assortment of cultures. Thus, the culture of that organization
defines collective values and behavioural expectations, which ensures productivity and
facilitates the organization to prosper. But ill-treating women and sexually pestering
them can cost minimal productivity, poor self-esteem, frequent absenteeism and
employee turnover. It can have an overawing and demoralizing effect on everyone
within the gamut of it. It blocks the employees’ peace of mind and often impairs the
fertility of the organization. Even sexual pestering can disrupt the work culture and
environment of people not directly involved in the process. It can poison the work
ambience and arrest the psyche of all workers, resulting in decreased work group
productivity. The following steps can be taken up to prevent and abolish sexual
harassments of women at workplaces.
• One must first be able to understand people from diverse cultural backgrounds
and figure out if they are flexible to haptics. Extra caution must be taken to
convey the purpose of communication through touch in such situations.
• Multicultural training would be beneficial in this regard, which would provide
the members of the organization a room to partake in different learning
activities.
• Communicating effectively requires maximum sensitivity to culture. As
touching another person without permission or clarification may hold
negative outcomes, it is recommended to avoid touching work colleagues.
• Employees should be permitted to bring up any issues related to sexual
harassment at suitable forums like staffs’ meeting where these concerns can
be affirmatively talked about and necessary actions should be taken against
the accused.
• A proper grievance mechanism must be formed in every organization for
redness of grievance submitted by the victims.
• A complaint committee or Help Desk or a special counselor should be
appointed at every workplace, ensuring confidentiality. However, in case of
209
utter emergency the victim can file a First Information Report (FIR) at the
nearest police station.
• The victims or the witnesses should not be discriminated while confronting
and dealing with the issues of sexual harassment at their workplaces.
• Giving Anti-sexual harassment policies to every employee by including the
policies in any orientation material as soon as they are introduced to a new
workplace.
• Awareness campaign about the rights of women at workplace should be
done in every corporation and that should be promoted through seminars or
workshops to circulate company-wide knowledge.
• If there’s a third party or an outsider’s harassment occurs at the workplace,
then the person in charge should take all necessary steps to help out the
affected person.
• The acts of harassment should also be documented for future reference as
evidence in case of complaint. Complaints may also be personally registered
through proper avenues as per the company’s policies and guidelines for
safety and accountability.
• Following apparent forethoughtful policies against issues related to sexual
pestering in corporate is also an alternative way to prevent.
• The connection among inequity and favoritism, sexual pestering, and glass
ceiling however questions several issues that frequently obstruct women to
engage in executive posts also cultivate sexual harassment. In this respect,
courses exclusively developed to amplify the representation of women
employees at highly designated positions can shrink the occurrence of
harassment.
• Every organization should develop its own core values like integrity, respect,
responsibility, and commitment for its improved functioning. The same
should also be projected through the company’s image.
• Knowledge about the importance of non-verbal cues in varied cross-cultural
settings may help to acquaint with far-out gestures while at the same time
may also provide a base for social transformation.
• Sometimes directly confronting the harasser may be useful. The victim
should drop the fear of not being believed and name the behavior so that the
accused can be held accountable for his actions. A strong, self-respecting
body language can better undermine the message the maltreated woman
wants to convey.
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CONCLUSION
Touch is a language. It can communicate better than words. In fact, it can be more
versatile than any other way of expression. However, there are two sides to every
communication. So, one should instinctively know how to use it. As haptics is
strongly connected with the exhibition of warmth and intimacy, it should appropriately
communicate the intention of such message. Nor Intimacy and Sexual relations are
frequent in workplaces; neither the touch related to those acts of violence is typically
the part and parcel of corporate sectors. Thus, interpreting it and using it accordingly
can be immensely helpful. To evade from negativity, to boost up communication, to
build up and sustain a conducive working ecosystem, proficiency in cross-cultural
communications is a sign qua non. A constructive-interpretive approach towards
incorporating responsiveness and understanding of cultural disparity and value for
those divergences into the corporate sector can further alleviate the issues. In this
respect, treating others as you would want to be treated is the key. An employer,
by understanding and creating an awareness of the complex cultural disparities in
the workplace, can create a safe and healthy environment free from menace that
supports the employees’ natural development in these areas to thrive as organisms
and where all can be contended, accepted to manipulate their creative faculty for
the advancement of the organization.
REFERENCES
Fitzgerald, F. L., & Cortina, L. M. (2018). Sexual Harassment in Work Organizations:

A View from the Twenty-First Century. In J.W. White & C. Travis (Eds.), Handbook
on the Psychology of Women. American Psychological Association.
Hertenstein, M. J., Keltner, D., App, B., Bulleit, B. A., & Jaskolka, A. R. (2006).
Touch communicates distinct emotions. Emotion (Washington, D.C.), 6(3), 528–533.
doi:10.1037/1528-3542.6.3.528 PMID:16938094
Heslin, R., & Alper, T. (1983). Touch: A bonding gesture. In J. M. Wiemann & R.
P. Harrison (Eds.), Nonverbal Communication (Vol. 11). Sage Annual Reviews of
Communication Research.
Holmes, J. (2014). John Bowlby and Attachment Theory (2nd ed.). Taylor & Francis.
Merit Systems Protection Board Sexual Harassment Survey. (n.d.). Solomon Law
Firm, PLLC. https://www.fedemploylaw.com/blog/2018/august/merit-systems-
protection-board-sexual-harassment/
211
Montagu, A. (1986). Touching: The Human Significance of the Skin. William

Morrow Paperback.
Protection of the Dignity of Women and Men at Work: The Commission adopts
a Recommendation and Proposes a Code of Practice. (1991). Commission of
European Union.
Sexual Assault and Mental Health. (n.d.). Mental Health America. Retrieved 10
September 2021 from https://mhanational.org/sexual-assault-and-mental-health
212
213
Chapter 22
Table, Chair, and the
Persistent Patriarchy:
A Feminist Critique of Vaidehi’s
“Going by Tables and Chairs”
Kanika Bhalla
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA
ABSTRACT
The chapter deals with the short story “Going by Tables and Chairs,” which is in fact
an excerpt from the long essay “Meju Kurchiya Moolaka,” translated into English
by Prakash Belawadi. The essay written by Vaidehi, one of the most significant
names in Kannada literature, is a mixture of the writing styles of a short story and
an essay. It deals with the gender politics revolving around the most common of
the objects in our lives today: a table and a chair. The chapter attempts to analyze
the operation of patriarchal norms in most Indian households; it also provides an
insight into the minds of elder women, who with time have learned to discipline the
younger women and girls into obedience and submission to men.
INTRODUCTION
In the short-story, ‘Going by Tables and Chairs”, Vaidehi (2010) talks about the
masculinity that her society has imparted to the simplistic ‘chair’ and ‘table.’ A
woman sitting in a chair is considered audacious and she is reprimanded for doing
an activity that is meant for the males. She draws a parallel between the shaving
sets and the table and chair and designates them as the “natural right of men” (pp.
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch022
Table, Chair, and the Persistent Patriarchy
119). Even if some school-going girl feebly requests to get a chair for her because
her teacher asks the students to maintain proper body posture while studying, the
elderly women retorts, “Ask [your master] if his wife sits in a chair to cook!” (pp.
120). While this statement depicts the confinement of the female gender to the ‘inner
sanctum’ of the house, specifically the kitchen, it also denotes the oppression that
a woman inflicts upon another woman.
The story offers a feminist critique of the most common of the activities and
events that happen in the life of a woman living in the society that Vaidehi belonged
to. In the house of the narrator, for instance, she satirically questions the relevance
of a woman’s education by asking that even if she learns to write, who will a woman
write to? If a woman acquires education, her eventual goal or ‘future mission’ is to
get married and be ‘sent away’. If a woman is allowed to read, it is only for the sake
of reading, nor for argument. It suggests the patriarchal control over the thoughts
of women.
The women of the house, by and by, come to see table and chair as something
that symbolised ‘Male.’ Vaidehi writes, “They symbolised position, office, and the
hauteur of authority” (pp. 121). Meant only for the males of the house, it is believed
that the grace and the worth of table and chair would diminish “if it were sat upon
by the women, contaminated by menstruation and all” [Emphasis added] (pp. 122).
In many cultures, menstruating women are seen as contaminated and impure, and
“the patriarchal control exerted to control women’s behaviour and mobility during
menstruation undermines their agency and equality” (UN News, 2019).
The narrator then describes the throne-like chair in which her grandfather, a
lawyer, used to sit to handle his clients. She describes the table in front of the chair
with almost a great relish. There are three chairs which are meant only for the
“special Male clients only,” mostly for those who could converse in English (pp.
123). There is a bench too, for all other sorts of clients, but all men. It is significant
to note that Vaidehi capitalises the letter ‘M’ of the male in her entire story, which
perhaps, signifies her inner inferiority complex that has been imposed on her. She
writes that there is no need for a human to teach the girls of the house even to behave,
as the mere presence of the table and chair, even if unoccupied, did the business.
It is no wonder to anyone that girls were supposed to dust the chairs and the table,
illustrating the unacknowledged help and support of women that the men require to
keep their lives in order. It is no new fact that tasks like these have been delegitimized
as women’s work. According to Britannica, domesticity and motherhood were the
traditional duties of women, which remain the chief pursuits even today.
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The Woman
It is not uncommon for women to visit the grandfather to discuss the legal matters.
‘Desperate women’ of all sorts—destitute ones, widows, disinherited women,
illiterate—used to come to Vaidehi’s grandfather to seek help. Vaidehi describes
these women as beings that required help and support all the time. The women would
keep standing, clinging to some pillar or the window as if they know already that
the chairs and the bench are not supposed for them. They reply to the grandfather’s
questions in a quavering tone and eventually start to cry. Vaidehi writes that in this
regime where women were supposed to stand, the scenario suddenly changes when
a ‘Woman’ arrives. Vaidehi capitalises the letter ‘W’ of this woman, denoting the
superiority of this particular woman over the rest of women Vaidehi knows. Women
in Vaidehi’s times were not supposed to go anywhere alone; therefore, she clearly
mentions that this woman did arrive with a man. However, he seemed like a peon
that she had brought along, with his lips stitched. Vaidehi describes her incoming
in the following manner:
She was posh and sumptuous, with a shining complexion. She wore lipstick. And—
‘what’s the problem with long hair?’—hers was trimmed to the neck. She had to
frequently coax back the straying strands. [. . .] she breezed into the office in a
sleeveless blouse, swinging her arms [. . .] Without taking off her dark glasses or
slippers, or so much as a glance at the bench or veranda, she fearlessly headed
straight for the chairs, like it was her own grandfather’s office. (Vaidehi, 2010, p. 125)
From a small shutter, the women of the household rush to behold the brave woman
who dared to behave like a man. They make out that she had been sitting with her
legs crossed, leaning to one side, even shaking her leg “like a man” (pp. 127). The
sleeveless blouse she had been wearing was smaller than the bra that the other women
wore. Though the women utter, “thoo” in disgust, they smile incomprehensively.
Vaidehi writes that it is impossible to say whether the smile signified derision or
admiration. They wonder the reason this woman is entitled to sit while others are
standing and why the grandfather did not slap her. The grandmother tries to explain
the ‘phenomenon’ by saying that her husband is strict only with helpless women. She
asks the other ladies of the house, “Is there a man on earth who is not enamoured of
fair skin?” (p. 128) This obsession for fair-skinned ladies has also penetrated into the
other sectors, as Nandita Das asserts that the Indians believe that only fair-skinned
women can be educated and successful (The Guardian, 2013).
At last, the women decide that this particular woman got precedence over others
because she speaks in English. They try to remember the time when numerous
untouchables and lower caste people were standing outside the grandfather’s office
215
waiting for their turn, but the Tehsildar—a mere kid at that time—was directly
shown the chair by the grandfather. The woman always cut short the man who
accompanied her, and even the grandfather laughed at her statements. The women
in the inner courtyard wished they could understand English too. Their murmurs
lead the grandfather to chide them and shut the window.
After attending the other people, the grandfather comes inside and the women
of the house wait for the “violent act of the furious Man-Lion Narasimha avatar,
the pillar will split open, the earth shall quake...he will roar and rip asunder!”
[Emphasis Added] (Vaidehi, 2010, p. 129). In the Indian mythology, anger and
ferocity is associated with the mythological character of Narasimha who killed a
demon with his bare claws. The women of the house expect a similar display of
anger; however, the grandfather is in a surprisingly mellow mood. He even initiates
a conversation with the women and tells them that the woman is the daughter-in-law
of the Mathias. The women inquire about the man who had accompanied her, and
are told that he was some friend of hers. The grandfather understands the delirium
of the women and explains that a table and chair is not a new thing for these “very
forward” people, who even eat their food on table.
Sensing the grandfather in a docile mood, the women complain about the audacity
of the woman by saying that the chair in their courtyard is not any regular chair in
the English-speaking woman’s house. The irritated grandfather bursts out in the
praises of the lady:
Do you know how capable that woman is? She has done her BA course. BA! While
her husband works somewhere abroad and sends her a flow of cash, month on
month, she manages the home and estate so efficiently. You people need help even
to board a bus! And to get off a bus! [. . .] You saw for yourself... what a woman!
She is a role model! Such a sharp brain, so precise in her speech! (p. 130)
The women of the house—raised with the injunction that aggressiveness is

unsuitable for women—are naturally taken aback at these statements of the grandfather,
who had never allowed women in his own house to pursue any education beyond Class
8th. The women feel jealous for the English-speaking lady who gets to pursue BA,
and therefore, receives money, praises and significantly, the chair to sit in. The story
also provides an insight into the minds of elder women, who with time, have learnt
to discipline the younger women and girls into obedience and submission to men.
The story contains long paragraphs about the description of various kinds of
chairs that the men folk usually buy for themselves. For instance, while describing
a comfy chair, the woman says that to the onlooker, it seemed the man would never
want to get out for his comfortable posture. The assembly of the easy chair is to be
done by a woman, who is never allowed to sit in it. The accounts clearly establish the
216
fact that the female narrator could only imagine how it would feel like to sit in the
chair. The narrator also discusses about the journal Weekly which was meant to be
read only by men, as it was written in English: “not a language that could be grasped
even if cooked and served for thick creatures like women” (pp. 131). The young
eager girls would turn the pages and try to read, letter by letter, the advertisements
which would show the bare back of a model freshly out of bath. The vigilant boys
of the house would order them to put the book away at once. Disobedience would
result in the boys reporting the matter to the grandmother who showered on them
the choicest of abuses.
The Easy Chair
The narrative shifts to Mariyanna, a young boy who comes back home as a graduate
after years of study. He claims his grades can incite envy in anyone and believes
that getting a job is a cakewalk. For a few days after his arrival, he cycles down to
the houses of his friends and relatives announcing that he would not be able to do
it once he starts the job. His young cousin, Shaalmali wanted to learn cycling but
her persistence is rewarded with two slaps, and a report to the grandmother. The
narrator comments that women do not need any training in the art of putting down
other women. She sarcastically says that it is the ranting of the women, after all,
“that signifies human presence in a home” (p. 134).
The narrator believes Shaalmali to be of a kind that people call ‘forward’. She
questions everything that a woman is not allowed to do, for instance, to laugh loudly,
talk, ride a bicycle, or sit in a chair. Mariyanna fails to get any job despite frequent
attempts. The grandfather and father claim that their obligation was only to provide
him education, getting a job is one’s own responsibility. Meanwhile, the ‘fanciful’
Shaalmali is seized with “an unquenchable thirst to sit in the easy chair” that seemingly
belonged to Mariyanna. One day when the men of the house are away, she drags
the chair, takes her Kannada book of Egyptian Tales and is immersed in reading,
just like Mariyanna did. Her journey was abruptly cut off with Mariyanna’s sudden
arrival, who demands her out of the chair. Upon refusal, the stressed Mariyanna
lifts and dumps her on the ground and sits in the chair himself. The grandmother
comes to the spot and Mariyanna shouts at her:
[. . .] you have brought her up this way. The size of my little finger she is but look
at her nerve! I’m her elder brother but she will not respect orders. Is she some aged
woman that she can sit in that chair? Here she is, reading a story, dangling her feet,
if you please! A story! Not even her lesson. Do you think she will conduct herself
with decorum in her husband’s house in the future? (p. 137)
217
This is an utterly common rebuke that most young girls face for creating
‘indiscipline’ in the house. From the childhood itself, the girls are conditioned to
behave as per the social norms so that her independent attitude might not create
any problem for her husband or his family. When even after six months, Mariyanna
fails to get a job, he becomes miserable. His long beard made him look hideous and
everyone avoided him. One day, he comes into the house, asks Shaalmali—who
was doing her homework—for water and heads to his easy chair. He falls down as
Shaalmali might have tempered with it. The congealed misery in him bursts forth
in anger, as Vaidehi sarcastically comments: “When anguish melts in women, it
comes out in tears. In men, it turns into anger, right?” (p. 138) He pursues her but
Shaalmali runs away shouting, “Why? That chair bears your name, does it? Why
shouldn’t I sit in it? You are fit only to be a tattletale. . .that’s the job you must pursue”
(p. 138). The grandfather ends this drama by ordering Mariyanna to fold his chair
and put it in the attic. The grandfather’s judgement of the whole scene depicts the
patriarchal control over the lives of the women that thrives on depriving women of
the knowledge of anything that might empower them. In this case, the chair becomes
the source of empowerment for Shaalmali; the grandfather believes that putting the
chair out of her reach will solve the matter once and for all.
Marital Expectations
Another excerpt from the text deals with the expectations that a family keeps from
its daughter-in-law and the way a girl’s family raises its daughter in a manner that
would facilitate her entry into a happy domestic life. Vaidehi tells the story of a bride-
seeking family that comes to see Ramanand’s daughter. Ramanand is a wealthy and
educated man; the respect he commands in the village is reflected in the fact that
his whole family, including his wife and children, speaks in English. Ramanand’s
house was the first in the village that had a separate ‘drawing room’ with a sofa set
for guests at the time when men were shown a chair and a mat was rolled out for
women to sit. Ramanand’s wife would direct her women visitors to the sofa, which
the women themselves did not feel worthy of. They felt that the sofa was biting
them and their backs would begin to hurt. Vaidehi comments, “It is not an easy
matter to rise from the mat to the chair and leap directly on to the sofa” (p. 142).
Due to some reason, a prospective marital match of Ramanand’s daughter could
not become successful. The whole village gossips about its reason and concludes
that it is due to the presence of the sofa at Ramanand’s place and the women of the
house constantly using it. the actual reason is not disclosed in the story, but if it
were really what the villagers believe, one might infer that the bride-seeking party,
who had descended from America, could not upgrade their traditional beliefs that
had become obsolete with time.
218
The excerpt speaks of an eminent professor’s table, which will never become
fully hers because it is perceived to be for public use, whereas her husband’s table
is solely for him. Children, visitors, everyone use her table. If some idea occurs to
her in a middle of a chore, she rushes out of the kitchen to make a note, but she must
consider herself lucky if she finds that note on her table later as it easily finds its way
into the dustbin. Her constant pleadings to leave her table the way it is falls on deaf
ears. The female professor who, despite achieving a position in the world equal to
that of her husband, still has to work in the kitchen suggests the patriarchy in order.
The narrator wonders that a dressing table is still one table that has been sanctioned
to women by general consensus. However, even in big homes, “a chair of one’s own
and a table in a lit corner can only continue to carry that unfulfilled dream” (p. 145).
The narrative ends with Vaidehi pointing out the photograph where the grandmother
is sitting in a chair (just for the photograph) and the grandfather stands beside her,
with one hand on the chair and one on his waist. The posture of the grandfather
suggests his pride and power. The posture symbolises the control that he exercises
over the womenfolk as well the resources (chair). Letting the woman sit in the chair
just for the photograph can denote two things: the grandfather wants to show the
world that he treats his womenfolk with equal dignity; or that, he possesses full
control over the resources of the house.
CONCLUSION
The short story aptly describes the patriarchal control over minor things in the
surroundings so as to deprive women of their agency. In the entire story, the words
‘table’ and ‘chair’ can also be replaced by the word ‘education,’ and the meaning
conveyed would be the same, as ‘Table’ and ‘Chair’ are employed as a metaphor
to denote education and its implications for women, their family, and the society
on the whole.
REFERENCES
Break taboo Around menstruation, act to END ‘disempowering’ discrimination, say UN

Experts. (2019, March 5). UN News. https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/03/1034131
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. (n.d.). Women in the workforce. Encyclopædia
Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-work-organization-648000/
Women-in-the-workforce
219
India’s unfair obsession with lighter skin. (2013, August 14). The Guardian. https://
www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2013/aug/14/indias-dark-obsession-fair-skin
Vaidehi, & Belawadi, P. (2010). Going by Tables and Chairs (P. Belawadi, Trans.).
In V. Shanbhag (Ed.), Sirigannada (pp. 118–147). Tranquebar.
220
221
Chapter 23
Reading Ishmat Chughtai’s
“Lihaaf” From the Perspective
of Alternative Sexuality
Ashmita Bora
Indian Institute of Information Technology, Guwahati, India
ABSTRACT
Gender binary is a concept that is deeply entrenched into the Indian way of thought
throughout generations. Analyzing Indian life and relationships through history, we
would arrive at an understanding that heterosexuality has come down to become
the preferred sexual orientation, and heterosexual relations are seen as not only the
traditional way of life, but at the same time is considered the only normative way. In
the Indian context, the idea of sexuality has been framed over a period of eras, out
of traditions and a belief structure of society that has come into contact with forces
like modernization, colonization, and globalization. This chapter attempts to raise
queries about the nature of sexuality in relation to portrayal of queer relationship
and traces the individual’s search for alternative sexuality in Ishmat Chughtai’s
Lihaaf, which is a pioneering work in representation of homosexuality. The chapter
also deals with questions raised in relation to sexual orientation, gender crisis, and
desired sex.
INTRODUCTION
The discourses based on the assumption that gender is binary has been challenged
by changing concepts of sex and gender with time that in turn has as its base the
major theoretically established conception of sex as biological and gender as
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch023
Reading Ishmat Chughtai’s “Lihaaf” From the Perspective of Alternative Sexuality
socially constructed. In Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble, she calls performativity as

‘doing gender’ as it is the roles that are assigned by society that ultimately defines
a gender. Beyond the binary gender order of male and female there has emerged
further categories which have made way for sexual diversity studies or which is now
commonly known as Queer studies or LGBTQIA studies which focuses on issues
relating to the gender identity and sexual orientation of lesbians, gays, bisexual,
transgender, queer, asexual, intersex people and cultures. Queer studies as a field
of study emerged in the 1990s and set about to challenge fixed notions of gender
and defined identity categories. Queer theory hopes to destroy the binaries and in
turn disrupt inequality and further differences.
“The institutions, structures of understanding, and practical orientations that make
heterosexuality seem not only coherent—that is, organized as a sexuality—but also
privileged” (Berlant and Warner, 1998, p. 548) Looking at opposite-sex relationship
as the only normative way entails the fact the heterosexuality is a hegemonic practice
which seeks to keep other sexual preferences under its shadow by exerting both
power and control over them. It would not be wrong to say that the Queer (non-
heterosexual and non-cisgender) is positioned on the periphery of Indian society as
they fall outside the approved territory of heteronormative binary pattern which in
itself speak volumes about the homophobia that grasps Indian society at large. The
heteronormative Indian society time and again attempt to brush the queer under the
carpet by calling homosexuality a sin or crime or labelling it as a mental disorder
that needs to be cured. While heterosexuality is presumed, for the Indian minds, to
accept the fact that there is more to sexual relationships than that between a man
and a woman is virtually impossible as homosexuality and homoeroticism is deemed
abnormal and against the will of nature. Further reasons could be that belief system
of Indian culture looks at marriage and conjugal relationships as necessary for
reproduction and continuation of the family line so the kind of sexual relationships
that would not lead to reproduction are thought of as unnatural. The existence of
queer individuals is brushed under the carpet and people who are engaged in such
activities are openly denounced or termed mentally unfit and in need of medical
help. The entire concept of queer identity is considered a subject of taboo, something
that genteel society finds hard to discuss in the open. Sexuality in itself is a loaded
term and concept. From a long time, there has been apprehensions about labelling
sexuality as natural or biological but seldom socially constructed and whether it could
be influenced by a person’s experiences or situations was debatable. Is sexuality
something that is intrinsic of character or is subject to change in time and space and
the circumstances that a person is in are certain questions that arise while having
discussions on the topic.
In the year 1942, the Urdu writer Ishmat Chughtai was charged by the Lahore High
Court for the portrayal of lesbian desire in her short story Lihaaf. To explain using
222
Judith Butler’s words, “We can understand this conclusion to be the necessary result
of a heterosexualized and masculine observational point of view that takes lesbian
sexuality to be a refusal of sexuality per se only because sexuality is presumed to
be heterosexual...” (Butler, 1990, p. 67) This brings us to the question, why exactly
is there an impossibility of queer desire? The answer lies in the assumptions that
have infested Indian minds, as many view homosexuality as a Western import, as
an assault on Indian culture, as flouting of our ‘Sanskari’ values and therefore un-
Indian. However, this cannot be any farther from the truth.
The wide canvas of Indian literature from ancient to the modern times reveal a
gamut of examples of homoeroticism and homosexuality. Indian mythology has a
long association with queerness and instances of gender fluidity and cross dressing
are such an indispensable part of it that it is impossible to isolate it completely as
a disapproved or tabooed notion altogether. In the great Indian epic Ramayana,
Hanuman, the devotee of Lord Rama confesses to have seen Rakshasa women
kissing and embracing other women. In the Bengali Ramayana by Krittivasa we find
the legend of the birth of King Bhagiratha from the blessed union of two women
by Lord Shiva. In the epic Mahabharata we come across the story of Shikhandini
she is a woman who later becomes a hermaphrodite through divine intervention.
According to Bhagavata Purana, Lord Vishnu took the form of a woman called
Mohini whose union with Shiva led to the birth of a child, Lord Ayyappa. Similarly,
in Vatsyayana’s Kama Sutra, oral sexual acts (Auparistaka) and homosexuality is
described in the case of what is described as ‘the third sex citizens’ who were also
known to marry those similar to them. Also in the same text, various practices of
lesbians are discussed in detail. Other texts like Sushruta Samhita, Narada Smirti,
Kamatantra and Smirti Ratnavali (by Vascapati) too indulge in representation of
the queer.
With the advent of the late Islamicate culture in India in the late medieval period,
more literature on same-sex love became available. This period wsa not only liberal
but alson progressive. The love story of Mahmud of Ghazni and his Georgian slave
Ayaz is nothing short of an Islamic legend. Scott Kugle’s translation of Zulali
Khwansari’s Mathnawi-yi Zulali depict the passionate love between Mahumud and
Ayaz. Sufi poets Mir Taqi Mir and Abru also dealt with themes of homoeroticism in
their poems. “They openly discussed their ‘attraction to males, dwelt on what they
found attractive in young males... and heartbreaks” (Vanita and Kidwai, 2002, p. 119).
Another form of Urdu poetry called Rekhti ghazals introduced by poet Sa’adat Yar
Khan Rangin was composed in the ‘begumati zaban’ or the ladies tongue and was
addressed to the feminine lover. The depiction of same sex love and relationships in
both Hindu and Islamic traditions of pre-Independent India is testimony to the fact
that homosexual practices have always been a part of Indian culture.
223
Over the years, Indian writers have given a space to queer representation in their
works thus, building a bridge between ancient and contemporary India. In Ishmat
Chughtai’s Lihaaf we shall see a relentless search for alternative sexual spaces
besides the heteronormative ones as it is not able to sustain the narrative.
Lihaaf: An Analysis
Regarded as one of the most popular Urdu writers of India, Ishmat Chughtai was a
champion of women rights and empowerment. Born in a liberal Muslim household,
Chughtai’s writings reflect her unapologetic and outspoken way of life. Lihaaf,
according to the writer herself is taken from events of her own life and the characters
in the story are based on real people who she has encountered in her childhood.
The primary text by Ismat Chughtai was published in Urdu in 1941. For this study
the most popular translated version by M. Asaduddin that appeared in Manushi has
been chosen.
The story has a young girl as it’s narrator who is sent off to stay with an adopted
sister of her mother, Begum Jaan when she has to leave for a visit to Agra. The
crux of the story is the ravishing middle-aged wife of Nawab Sahib, Begum Jaan
and her maid Rabbu. At first the strange relationship between the Nawab and his
wife is brought to the fore. Known for his moral uprightness, the Nawab married
Begum Jaan who was almost half his age but soon forget her like the old articles
around the house. Day in and out Begum Jaan awaited him, but his interests could
not be shifted to her. The Nawab sponsored the education of young boys and spent
most of his time in their company. “He kept an open house for students—young, fair
and slender-waisted boys whose expenses were borne by him.” (Chughtai 1942, p.
36). Begum Jaan tried all the tips and tricks to catch his straying attention but to no
use. However, often she would have a glimpse of the men in flimsy shirts and her
innermost desires were ignited but to no avail. As the years rolled by she showed
psychological signs of withdrawal and wasted away until she was rescued by Rabbu.
Rabbu gave a new lease of life to Begum Jaan. She caressed and massaged her
body all day. “Rabbu used to massage her back for hours together. It was as though
getting the massage was one of the basic necessities of life. Rather—more important
than life’s necessities.” (Chughtai, 1942, p. 37) She became a replacement of the
male spouse, she and the Begum would eat together, sit together and even sleep
together. So much so, that whenever the topic of Begum Jaan and Rabbu emerged
among the maids they would burst into laughter. “Rabbu and Begum Jaan were the
subject of their gossip during leisure hours. Someone would mention their name and
the whole group would burst into loud guffaws. What juicy stories they made up
about them!” (Chughtai, 1942, p. 38) The hypocrisies of the social system become
apparent in the fact that when the Begum was wasting away alone there was no one
224
to support her, love her or provide affection to her but when she finds a companion
in Rabbu, the maids who are representative of society are quick to tell tales of her.
The unsuspecting young narrator does not believe in the stories until certain
nocturnal happenings steal her peace of mind. The happenings of the night are most
shocking to the narrator when she sees something moving under the quilt, something
as huge as an elephant. “I woke up at night and was scared. It was pitch dark and
Begum Jaan’s quilt was shaking vigorously as though an elephant was struggling
inside. “Begum Jaan...,” I could barely form the words out of fear. The elephant
stopped shaking and the quilt came down.” (Chughtai, 1942, p. 38)
There are moans, whispers and again on the next night she hears strange sounds
like a cat licking milk. “Then came the slurping sound of a cat licking a plate... I
was scared and got back to sleep.” (Chughtai, 1942, p. 38) A degree of ambiguity is
presented by the young girl as the elephant under the quilt lays hidden. The lihaaf or
quilt is aa carrier of the homosexual identity that lay hidden and repressed under it.
The repressed physical desires of Begum culminate first in an itch and then she
projects her desires onto an unsuspecting young girl who becomes the victim of
her aggressive sexual hunger. The young girl finally faces an ordeal when Begum
Jaan shifts her affection onto her body to count the ribs on her chest. “Come here
and lie down beside me...” She made me lie down with my head on her arm “How
skinny you are... your ribs are coming out”. She began counting my ribs. I tried to
protest.”.” (Chughtai, 1942, p. 39) She somehow escapes from the Begum’s grip
but Begum Jaan loses all restraint on that occasion much like on the next where
the gold necklace breaks apart when Rabbu talks sharply to Begum Jaan about her
growing attention towards the narrator. “Raw mangoes are sour to taste, Begum
Jaan,” hissed Rabbu, burning with jealousy... Then Begum Jaan had a fit. The gold
necklace she had offered me moments ago flew into pieces.”. (Chughtai, 1942, p.
40) On the other hand, the narrator’s earlier attraction and affection towards Begum
Jaan changes to that of aversion following these incidents.
The homoerotic angle given to the story is subtle but sharp. Shown through the
consciousness of a young girl who barely understood what was going on, the writer
has tried to leave a lot to the imagination of the readers. The Nawab is never shown
to be non- heterosexual explicitly but there is every possible hint in the story that he
is a homosexual or at least bi-sexual. Although his lack of any sexual interest in his
wife does bluntly points to the former. Or “did it start when she gave up on amulets,
talismans, black magic and other ways of retaining the love of her straying husband?
She arranged for night long reading of the scripture but in vain. One cannot draw
blood from a stone. The Nawab didn’t budge an inch”. (Chughtai 1942, pp. 36-37)
On the other hand, the sexual orientation of Begum Jaan is under question as
well. She suffers from sexual starvation from a long time but a glimpse of the ripe
bodies of the scholar boys brings a sense of physical urgency to her. “Begum Jaan
225
would have glimpses of them in their perfumed, flimsy shirts and feel as though
she was being raked over burning embers!” (Chughtai, 1942, p. 37) Begum Jaan
slowly develops an itch, a kind of metaphor for her sexual frustration which is only
calmed with Rabbu’s entry into her life. The lack of sexual satisfaction from a male
partner forces Begum Jaan to seek it from a lesbian union and this raises a number
of questions about sexuality itself. Is Begum Jaan actually a lesbian or is Begum
Jaan driven to an insane point of sexual perversion that she is ready to obtain sexual
gratification from any source she could find and if so, then is sexuality as fluid as the
writer makes it out to be? After all, Begum Jaan is also quick to shift her attention
from Rabbu to the narrator which unearths paedophilic tendency in the women.
The question of alternative sexuality comes to the fore in Begum Jaan’s relationship
with Rabbu. Rabbu is placed as a stark opposite to Begum Jaan by the reader, an
unlikely match. “Rabbu! She was as dark as Begum Jaan was fair, as purple as the
other one was white.” (Chughtai, 1942, p. 37) So when this Rabbu is sought by
the Begum as her object of sexual interest, eyebrows are raised. Rabbu becomes a
replacement to the affections of a spouse, an alternative for the body of a husband
and the final resort to fulfil Begum’s sexual needs and desires which are not met by
her husband or any other male. Her inability to have a normal conjugal life and her
numerous failed attempts at seducing the Nawab brings about a sexual transition and
puts her at the mercy of Rabbu but whether the relationship or love they share is a
wilful or conscious one or even one of natural selection or not is another question
altogether. Added to this is Begum Jaan’s condition as a childless woman deprived
of filial love and attachment which makes her position more vulnerable. Finding
no outlet for her sexual frustration she also becomes affected mentally from time-
to-time which manifests in the form of fits and unconsciousness.
CONCLUSION
The story explores the psychological dimensions of gender crisis when attached to
the sexual identity within social structures. The story questions the dubious nature
of sexuality based on how situation and circumstances could mould it or manipulate
it. What remains to be seen is how social systems attempt to put a ‘lihaaf’ on the
sexual desires of women. Begum jaan herself is no less than a victim who is in dire
need for consummation of her marriage, and her husband presents patriarchy that
pays no heed to her wants or wishes. As for her relationship with Rabbu, while it is
one of co-dependency and mutual satisfaction as both find fulfilment in each other’s
company, if it could be termed as a love relationship between two lesbian women
is unclear. Rabbu could simply be the object on which the Begum transfers her
sexual energy in her search for alternative sexual spaces. Especially Begum Jaan’s
226
attraction to the young narrator and her attempt at obtaining sexual gratification
from her shows the Begum’s incessant search for sexual partners despite Rabbu’s
presence which put Rabbu in a position of lesser significance in Begum Jaan’s life.
Therefore, the homosexual and homoerotic relationship between the two women in
Lihaaf is wrought with multiple complexities.
REFERENCES
Berlant, L., & Warner, M. (1998). Sex in public. Critical Inquiry, 4(2), 547–566.
doi:10.1086/448884
Butler, J. (1990). Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. Routledge.
Chughtai, I. (1942) Lihaaf [The Quilt] (M. Asaduddin, Trans.). https://archive.org/
stream/LihaafTheQuiltIsmatChughtai/Lihaaf%20%5BThe%20Quilt%5D%20-%20
Ismat%20Chughtai_djvu.txt
Kidwai, S., & Vanita, R. (Eds.). (2002). Same- Sex Love in India: Readings from
Literature and History. Macmillan.
227
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Chapter 24
“Knowledge Is Power, Power
Is Also Knowledge”:
Revisiting Rokeya Sakhawat
Hossain’s “Sultana’s Dream”
Dolon Sarkar
Jawaharlal Nehru University, India
ABSTRACT
The chapter explores the complex intersection of gender, knowledge, and power
as manifested in Rokeya Sakhwat Hossain’s feminist text Sultana’s Dream. In this
story, she imagines a world of women beyond the patriarchy. She reverses the
stereotypical process of gender roles and reclaims women’s space in socio-cultural
and political domination. There is an idea that subverting the performative role
of gender will lead women to autonomy and power. For her, scientific education
and sustainable use of nature are the abundant sources of alternative power. The
tactical use of women’s scientific knowledge displeases and controls the superior
authoritative forces of patriarchy. This decisive role of science is an alternative mode
of organizing society and the exceptional development of the particular category of
alternative apparatus. The chapter delineates Kate Millett’s notion of the reversal
of gender roles by mediating Michel Foucault’s concepts of power and knowledge.
INTRODUCTION
Rokeya Sakhwat Hossain did not have a formal education, but she was a pioneering
figure in Bengal’s woman’s education. She is a forgotten marginal author; being a
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch024
“Knowledge Is Power, Power Is Also Knowledge”
woman, she belonged to the “second sex,” which provided her secondary access to
rights and privileges. Her identity has been convoluted by much intersectionality
regarding religion, gender, and power. Her colonized Muslim woman identity had
victimized her two layers of patriarchy: within the Muslim household and outside
the colonial authority. Her pioneering story Sultana’s Dream (1905/2005) is a
manifesto of women’s liberation; it unequivocally expresses that women can achieve
emancipation by accessing scientific education. The text comprises multilayer
themes of a feminist utopia, science fiction, and ecofeminism. The paper tries to
understand the complex intersection of gender, knowledge, and power manifested
in Hossain’s multilayered text, Sultana’s Dream. It also conceives Kate Millett’s
(2009) claim of reversal of gender roles by mediating Michel Foucault’s notion of
power and knowledge.
In Sultana’s Dream, Hossain (2005) envisions a world of women through the
illusory experience of freedom beyond the patriarchy. She propagates the accessibility
of a space for women outside the four walls of Zenana. Hossain considers the
patriarchal discourse of gender and religion and plays with the authoritative state
power. Transversing the gender role allows women to produce and regulate the social
system and counters the religious-social constructed gender identities. Hossain
realizes that the barrier to women’s emancipation is their lack of physical vigor
and their acceptance of “natural weakness” and incompetency. She reiterates the
supremacy of knowledge over physical strength with the example of the fierce lion
and elephant. She states that both these animals are physically powerful, but they
yield against the power of human knowledge. She argues that “A lion is stronger than
a man, but it does not enable him to dominate the human race. You have neglected
the duty you owe to yourselves, and you have lost your natural rights by shutting
your eyes to your own interests” (Hossain, 2005, p. 6).
Hossain not only questions gender identity but also reverses the stereotypical
process of the formation of gender roles. She vehemently criticizes women for losing
self-respect and blames the Muslim patriarchal system for neglecting women’s
equal opportunity. She blames the Muslim social system for secluding women in
the confined zenana and depriving them of the right to education and physical and
mental health. This seclusion for her is nothing but the imprisonment of women
that causes degradation. Women, in her view, are “willing collaborators in their own
oppression” that men’s dominance and women’s slavery were the two main factors
in the degradation of Muslim women (Hasanat, 2013, p. 116). She expresses that
“you have neglected the duty you owe to yourselves, and you have lost your natural
rights by shutting your eyes to your interest” (Hossain, 2005, p. 6).
She envisions a place where the virtue of humanity determines everything. She
constructs an alternative space for women outside the four walls of the zenana.
The reclamation of gender roles and courageous assertion regarding women’s
229
subjugation are manifested in this satirical piece, which reclaims women’s space
in socio-cultural and political domains and provides access to judicial and political
power. This judicial and political power can be achieved, in her opinion, through
the implementation of scientific knowledge. The affirmation of such control is
noticeable in Queen’s of Ladyland speech, who explains the political-economic
strategy of her country to Sultana.
[…] no trade was possible with countries where the women were kept in the zenanas
and so unable to come and trade with us. Men, we find, are rather of lower morals
and so we do not like dealing with them. We do not covet other people’s land, we
do not fight for a piece of diamond though it may be a thousand-fold brighter than
the Koh-i-Noor, nor do we grudge a ruler his Peacock Throne. We dive deep into
the ocean of knowledge and try to find out the precious gems, which nature has kept
in store for us. We enjoy nature’s gifts as much as we can. (p. 13)
For her, scientific education and the sustainable use of nature are abundant sources
of alternative power sources. It will pave a new world threshold where women and
nature stand as unmistakable agents of invincible power for resisting any power
oppression. There is an idea that is subverting the performative role of gender by
the judicious use of scientific knowledge, which will lead them the autonomy and
power. She realizes that the woman’s role as a marginal is massive, pervasive, and
universal in the political and socio-cultural domains. She perceives that the powerful
tactical force can challenge the hegemonic apparatus of authoritative power. She
believes in implementing “juridical power” by the tactical use of knowledge i.e.,
scientific knowledge in an alternative way. In Foucault’s opinion, Ladyland’s small
innovative scientific discovery, the condition of functioning, techniques of mechanism
and principle compose “the microcosm of power” (de Certeau, 1984, p. 48).
The tactical use of women’s scientific knowledge displeases and controls the
superior authoritative forces. It proliferates an atmosphere of peaceful ideological
conflict, which provides a symbolic balance of compatibility and negotiation of
opposing forces. Through the tactical use of knowledge, the marginal women use the
strong, which proceeds to the political dimension of authorship. This microphysics
of power constructs an alternative form of discourse that challenges the authoritative
domination of strong power. According to Foucault, society is composed of certain
foregrounded practices organizing its normative institution and innumerable other
practices that remain minor. He found the heterogeneity and ambivalent relationship
between the repressive state apparatus and innumerable minor opposing forces.
(Mills, 2005, p. 12) Hossain, like Foucault, locates the alternative determining
mechanisms of society by acquiring the “microphysics of power”. This microphysics
operates and privileges the repressive state apparatus of the discursive formation of
230
localizable alternate power forces. Foucault’s notion of creating social institutions

like jails and asylums is invincible in Hossain’s social imagination to determine
the epistemological and social exclusion of criminals and deviants from normal
social interaction to create the space that makes sense of possible rational order.
She suggests that corrupt and evil men need to be safely confined behind bars for
women’s sensible and peaceful access to the social space.
‘Yes, it is not safe so long as there are men about the streets, nor is it so when a wild
animal enters a marketplace.’
‘Of course not.’
‘Suppose, some lunatics escape from the asylum and begin to do all sorts of mischief
to men, horses and other creatures; in that case what will your countrymen do?’
‘They will try to capture them and put them back into their asylum.’ (Hossain,
2005, p. 5)
Rokeya constructs a utopian Ladyland that entirely depends not so much

on women’s muscle power but on their ingenious scientific and technological
discoveries. When women confront the challenge of defeating a powerful opponent,
they completely invest in science instead of physically fighting against aggression
with arms. They prove their powerful scientific innovation that strikes terror on the
battlefield by showering the opponents a scorching heat generated by focusing all
the concentrated sunlight on them. In the post-peace era, they used science for very
judicious and reproductive purposes. Their knowledge of medical science prevents
diseases and immature death; the launch of a special balloon for accumulating
water from the atmosphere and the water is distributed through the huge pipes.
They have succeeded in preventing thunderstorms and rainfall with this scientific
management of the water system. Their scientific knowledge comes in the works of
their personal spaces; it works as dirt and smoke-free cooking neatly and healthily.
This tactical use of science revolutionized their style of living and empowered the
so-called weaker sex to wield authority.
This Ladyland celebrates not only the women’s liberty, power, and autonomy but
also the dreamland sanctions the gendered reversed socio-economic and governance
system. Women rule the Ladyland, enjoy freedom, benefit from modern scientific
education, and women are not forced into child marriage. This radical gender role is
legitimized by the reversed gender role. It claims that men must remain Mardanas
so that women can perform outdoor works. She transverses the positions of Zanana
with equally socially constructed exclusive men’s space Mardana. This transposition
231
of women social space with men’s social space where men are confined and are
thereby denied privileges of equality and freedom. Nevertheless, Hossain did not
instinctively eliminate the gender role as Roushan Jahan comments that “to portray
a society where women are in a position of power, Rokeya did not find it necessary
to eliminate men or to purpose anything so drastically as Charlotte Perkin Gilman
did a few years later in Herland.” (Roye, 2009, p. 144) It is obvious that Hossain
does not eliminate men as Gilman imagined in her Herland. She is rather interested
in “opaque power” what according to Foucault “that has no possessor, no privileged
place, no superior or inferior no repressive activity no dogmatism that is almost
autonomously effective, though its technological ability to distribute, classify analyze
and spatially individualized.” (de Certeau, 1984, p. 46)
Like other apparatus’ patriarchy seems to prevail over a lengthier period. It falls
back to the stratified mass of procedure and is normalized by other socio-economical
and religious apparatuses. She reverses the performative role of gender by imbibing
“opaque power” and thereby achieves and exercises the judicial and political power
with the aim of “the legitimating and exclusionary aim” in the male-dominated
apparatuses (Butler, 2002, p. 3). In Foucault’s opinion, this opaque power maintains
the dominated institution’s mode of function and produces a fundamental diversion
within the institution of order and knowledge (Mills, 2005, p. 45). The operational
technique which is initially deprived gives force to ordinary practices of power politics.
Thus, Hossain’s Sultana’s Dream criticizes the discursive formation of gender roles
in Indian society and the Muslim community in particular. The text unequivocally
expresses the religious and social construction of gender identity in a Bengali Muslim
family. She scrutinizes the women’s lives in the zenana, which is appropriated by the
patriarchal power and socio-religious norms. Women are strategically secluded by
the power procedure and regulation. The text manifests that women are the “willing
collaborators of their oppressions” without resisting patriarchal domination. This
procedure, in her opinion, repeats, amplifies and appropriates the discursive power
that has taken the form of patriarchal apparatuses. She locates numerous other sources
for tactical use against the dominative power force. Knowledge, according to her, is
one of the determining mechanisms of society. For her, the ambivalent relationship
of knowledge and apparatuses has a specific role to play in institutional order. This
disciplinary control is nothing but the “silent procedure” of the repressive apparatuses
and the discursive formation. These apparatuses prevail over generations and organize
social dominating forces. Hossain relies on Foucauldian “judiciary knowledge” by
acquiring the scientific knowledge and thereby, in her opinion, lays emancipation
of women. This new scientific knowledge challenges the foregrounded practices of
the repressive apparatuses and their normative role. This decisive role of science
is an alternative mode of organization of society and the exceptional development
of the particular category of alternative apparatus. The text, therefore, delineates
232
Kate Millett’s claims that “if knowledge is power, power is also knowledge, and a
large factor in their [women] subordinate position is the fairly systematic ignorance
patriarchy imposes upon women.” (Millet, 2009, pg. 25)
REFERENCES

de Certeau, M. (1984). Theory of Everyday Life (S. Rendall, Trans.). University of
California Press.
Hasanat, F. (2013). Sultana’s Utopian Awakening: An Ecocritical Reading of Rokeya
Sakhawat Hossain’s Sultana’s Dream. Asiatic, 7(2), 115–124.
Hossain, S. R. (2005). Sultana’s Dream. Penguin. (Original work published 1905)
Millett, K. (2009). Sexual Politics. Colombia University Press.
Mills, S. (2005). Michel Foucault. Routledge.
Roye, S. (2009). ‘Sultana’s Dream’vs. Rokeya’s Reality: A sudy of one of the
’Pioneering’feminist science fictions. Kunapipi, 31(2), 12.
233
234
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Agarwal, V., & Raj, M. (2020). Empowerment of Women in Northeast India. International
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249
About the Contributors
Gyanabati Khuraijamn is an Assistant Professor i the Department of MHSS

at NIT Agartala. She has been the editor-in-chief of Modern Research Studies – An
International Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences from 2014 to 2019. She
has presented many research papers in national and international conferences and
her research articles have also been published in many international journals of
repute. She has also organized National and International conferences as organizing
secretary. She has also published two edited books.
***
Aaradhana a is a research scholar in English Literature; she is pursuing her

PhD from Lovely Professional University, Punjab. Her doctoral thesis focuses on
providing a comprehensible study of the mechanism of various power discourses in
literary representations. Apart from political philosophy coercing power discourse,
she is also interested in Gender studied, Trauma Studies, Queer Studies, Cultural
Studies, Film Studies, Northeast Asian Literature and World Literature. Her pub-
lications include both SCOPUS and UGC Care listed Journals. Besides, she has
also presented her papers in both national and international conferences. She is a
certified TESOL instructor. She has also completed 9 online courses from different
universities such as IIT, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Yonsei
University South Korea, Wesleyan University Connecticut.
Anusha Ashok was a student of Stella Maris College, an autonomous institution

affiliated to the University of Madras in India, during the research of this chapter.
She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Madras Christian College and a Masters from
Stella Maris College. Her areas of interest include subalternity, feminism and popular
culture. ORCID id: orcid.org/0000-0002-8245-4190.
Padmanabhan B. is currently serving as Assistant professor in the Department

of English and Foreign Languages, Bharathiar University from 2011, teaching post-
graduate students and doing research in cognitive literary studies. His other research
interests are Ethnic and Area studies, Memory studies, Post-colonial Literature and
Digital Humanities.
Kanika Bhalla has also served as a Fulbright scholar at UNC Chapel Hill.
Previously, she taught several Undergraduate and Postgraduate courses in English
Literature at the Department of English, both at USOL (University School of Open
Learning, Panjab University) and IGNOU (Indira Gandhi National Open Univer-
sity). Her research interests include postcolonial studies, literature of conflict zones,
identity politics, and Islamic theology. Ms. Bhalla has presented her work at several
national and international conferences. Her academic papers focusing on areas such
as Kashmir, gender studies, and postcolonial studies have been published in journals
and books of international repute.
Ashmita Bora has completed her Master’s in English Literature from EFLU. She
hails from Jorhat district of Assam. Her interested areas of research include Gender
studies, Women studies and Cultural studies. She hobbies include writing poetry
and short stories and has won several prizes in various inter-university competitions.
She has also interned with Campus Inc. India and has volunteered in community
programmes like Indi-ed Conversation Cafe.
Manodip Chakraborty has completed his M.A. in English Literature from

Cooch Behar Panchanan Barma University. He is presently an assistant prof. of
English Communication (Department of Applied Science and Humanities) in GL
Bajaj Group of Institutions, Mathura and a research scholar at the Department of
English, Raiganj University. He has been participating in various national and in-
ternational seminars/ webinars, also is contributing to journals and in books. His
research interests include Cultural Studies, films and advertising, Memory Studies,
and Media Studies.
Rushati Dasgupta is a research scholar in English Literature; she is pursuing her

PhD from Jain Deemed-to-be University, Bengaluru. Her doctoral thesis focuses on
the literary representations of select diasporic communities that are settled in India.
Apart from Diaspora, she is also interested in Mythology, Gender studies, Conflict
studies, Postcolonial literature, Partition literature, and Dalit literature. She has won
numerous accolades for her academic excellence and extra-curricular activities. Her
publications range from research articles to poetry and short stories, both in print
and electronic media. Formerly, she was a Copy Editor at Thomson Reuters and has
been a facilitator of an online certificate course on Creative Writing, conducted by
Abhaskar School of Acting, Kerala.
250
Shraddha Dhal Shraddha Dhal is an independent warm-hearted visionary who

believes in combining the significance of learning with strong character building. She
is an M.A, Ph. D. in English and has extensively worked on minority communities
with a specific emphasis on the Parsi community, an ethno-religious minority in
India. Her research interests focus on Corporate Studies, Postcolonial fiction, cultural
studies, mental health, folklore studies, minority community, migration studies, and
identity crisis. She has presented papers at various conferences including Oxford,
IIM, IITs and NITs; published articles and papers in various journals; and translated
a major portion of Fakir Mohan Senapati’s novel Lachhama, the classic piece of an
iconic Odia literary figure. Presently, she is working as an Assistant Professor in
the School of Humanities, KIIT Deemed to be University, an Institute of Eminence
in Odisha, India. She can be contacted at dhalshraddha@gmail.com.
Diksha Gupta is an Assistant Professor (English) at Bhaskar Degree College,

Udhampur. She has published more than seven research papers in UGC Cared listed
Journals, one in SCOPUS Indexed Journal and contributed to 5 book chapters. Besides
this, she has presented her research papers in more than 20 National and International
Conferences. Also, she has attended 14 National and International workshops. She
has participated in more than 50 National and International Webinars. She has also
completed 4 online courses from IITs, 1 from University of California and 1 from
University of Toronto.
Antara Naha is a senior undergraduate from K.R. Mangalam University at

Sohna Road where she majored in Literature. Her research interests are based on
her fascination for how literature shapes the society. Her area of interests includes
the philosophy of literature and of realism, gender studies, and language studies
and semantics. She likes to gather knowledge on various subjects like linguistics,
anthropology, culture studies in order to connect them with literature and understand
how these concepts impact literature and vice versa. She enjoys reading novels and
painting in her free time.
Guhan Priyadharshan P. is a doctoral research scholar in the Department of

Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, India.
He carries out research in a broad interdisciplinary area intertwining Continental
Philosophy, Critical Theory and Postcolonial Studies.
Gargee Rawat is an independent researcher. She is pursing M.A in English

Literature from Doon University Dehradun. Her research interest lies in Gender
studies, Feminism and Queer Studies. She has presented various papers in the field
of gender studies.
251
Sneha Roy is a postgraduate student from the Centre of English Studies, Jawa-
harlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She is the recipient of the Zubaan-Sasakawa
Peace Foundation Grants, 2021 and has to her credit published poetry and writing
in various literary magazines and anthologies. Her research interests are in the fields
of gender studies, popular culture, women’s literature and South Asian culture and
literature.
Dolon Sarkar is a Ph.D. Scholar in Cultural Studies at the School of Arts and
Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, India.
Sakshi Semwal is working as an Assistant Professor of English at School of

Liberal Arts and Management (Humanities), DIT University, Dehradun. She had
her Ph.D. in English Literature from Gurukul Kangri University on the topic “The
Novels of Chinua Achebe: A Post Colonial Study. She is having more than 14 years
of experience in teaching and research. She is guiding graduate, post graduate and
Ph.d students in the field of English Literature. One of her research scholar has
already awarded Ph.d degree Her research interest lies primarily in African Litera-
ture, Post-Colonial Literature and Modern Literary Theories. Moreover, her works
have been published as book chapters and articles in nationally and internationally
reputed journals listed in UGC Care and Scopus.
Raam Kumar T. is a PhD Research Scholar in the Department of English and

Foreign Languages, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. He worked
as a Project Assistant for RUSA 2.0 – BEICH sponsored by MHRD. His doctoral
research is on Indigenous Literature in Indian context focusing on the Eastern and
Northeastern regions of India.
Rosy Yumnam is an Assistant Professor at The English and Foreign Languages

University, Shillong.
252
253
Index
A dissent 115
divinity 1-5, 7-8
adolescence 12, 15-16 domination 17, 19-21, 23, 60, 90-93, 139,
agency 8, 18-19, 70, 76, 137, 139-140, 143, 173-174, 185, 207, 228, 230, 232
142-143, 146, 168, 214, 219
Alain Badiou 50-51, 61-62 E
Alternative Realities 25, 27-28, 37
Androgyny 10, 14-16, 131-132, 134-138 Easterine Kire 183-186, 188
Anti-Semitism 21 ecofeminism 106, 112, 229
Asian 38-39, 91, 157 electoral politics 191, 199
empowerment 91, 148-149, 189, 191, 195,
B 218, 224
epic 66, 139-141, 144, 147, 188, 223
beauty 31, 64-70, 85-86, 89, 110, 145, epiphany 30, 96-104
176, 188
Bildungsroman 121, 127, 129 F
binary algorithms 11, 13
Bonbibi 106 family 2, 4, 20-21, 26-27, 30, 40-42, 44-49,
80, 83-87, 96-97, 99-101, 103-104,
C 109, 115-116, 134, 154, 158-160, 163-
168, 177, 193, 199, 218-219, 222, 232
Capitalism 114, 117, 120 femininity 12, 15, 121, 126-129, 135-136,
casteism 18, 73-74, 151 140, 142-143, 145, 189
Clarice Lispector 96-97, 104-105 Feminism 24-25, 65, 67, 94-95, 97, 113-
colonialism 191, 195 114, 138-139, 149, 155, 173-174, 176,
conflict 22, 35, 48, 91-93, 95, 103, 110, 180-181, 192, 227
182, 191, 199, 230 field 12, 96, 98, 101-104, 120, 131, 170,
corporate sector 202, 211 185, 192, 222
cultural difference 205 Foucault 26, 79, 81-84, 86, 89-90, 92-95,
228-233
D
G
Dalit female 72-73, 77
discrimination 11, 17-20, 22-23, 34, 36, 38, gay 26, 29, 31, 33, 35, 39-41, 43-44, 46-
44, 46, 76, 107, 113-117, 185, 208, 219 48, 53-54
Index
gender 3, 7, 10-14, 16, 25, 27-28, 31-37, Indian households 213

47, 58, 65, 76, 79-80, 95-97, 105, 111,
113, 115, 117, 121-123, 125-126, 128- J
129, 131-138, 149, 155, 158, 170-171,
174, 185, 192-193, 199, 203, 206, 208, Judith Butler 131-132, 134, 136, 174,
213-214, 221-223, 226-233 222-223
Gender binary 221
Gender Performance 131 K
gender roles 80, 96, 111, 128, 131-134,
137, 228-229, 232 Kashmir 114, 118-119
gender, 11, 16, 28, 97, 105, 121-122, 131,
134, 136-138, 171, 174, 203, 228-229 L
Gengoroh Tagame 39-40, 48
Greek civilization 64-65 language 2, 11, 72-76, 78, 96-99, 152, 174,
183, 204, 210-211, 217
LGBTQ+ 25
H liminality 50-52, 60-62
habitus 10, 96, 98, 102-104 literature and women 148
haptics 202-203, 205-207, 209, 211 love 25-33, 35, 37, 43-44, 47-48, 54-55,
Helen of Troy 64-65, 67-71 57-58, 65, 67-68, 70, 77, 80, 86-88,
heteronormativity 25, 39, 50-51, 53, 57 93, 96-99, 101, 103-104, 116, 118,
heterosexual 43, 54-55, 57, 59, 98, 121, 126, 133, 142-143, 151, 169, 176-178,
144, 221, 223, 225 185, 203, 223, 225-227
Hinduism 1-2, 7, 150, 194, 196
history 9, 18-20, 49, 62-63, 66-67, 69, 71, M
78, 80-82, 88, 93-94, 104, 107, 115,
122, 133, 140-141, 148, 151-152, 155, Mamang Dai 183-187, 190
157-158, 161-162, 175, 179-181, 192- manga 39-40, 43, 47-49
193, 195, 200, 221, 227 marriage 22, 26, 30, 33, 42-48, 55, 63, 65,
Holocaust 17-18, 22 80, 88, 115, 132, 151-152, 154, 167,
homoeroticism 52, 222-223 177, 213, 222, 226, 231
homosexual couple 39 masculinity 12-13, 15, 57, 91, 123-125, 127,
homosexuality 26, 30, 32, 37, 39, 41, 52-57, 129-130, 135-136, 149, 213
62-63, 113-114, 118, 221-223 meaning 14, 62, 70, 82-83, 96-99, 126, 144,
honour 158, 161 149, 193, 203, 219
husband 4, 21-22, 32, 39-41, 43, 47-49, metanarrative 139, 141
65-66, 68, 84-87, 93, 100-101, 103- mourning 18, 21-23
104, 110, 115-116, 144-145, 150-153, movement 92, 97, 107, 114, 118, 120, 144,
155, 159-160, 165-166, 168-169, 174, 148-149, 152, 155-156, 173-175, 191,
177-179, 193, 215-219, 225-226 193-199
myth narrative 173-174, 176, 179
mythology 65, 139, 216, 223
I
ideal feminine 140, 142-143, 145 N
identities 15, 20, 23, 26, 31, 39, 46-47, 92,
96, 99, 123, 131-136, 149, 172, 229 nature 5-6, 8, 13, 27, 43, 52, 55, 58, 61,
Igbo 50-55, 57, 59, 63 82, 96, 99, 101, 104, 106-111, 122,
254
Index
125, 129, 134-137, 140, 143, 145, Q

167, 182-183, 185-187, 195, 203, 205,
221-222, 226, 228, 230 Queer Literature 39, 50
nature conservation 106 Queer PAKISTAN 25
Nigerian Literature 59 Queer theory 26, 28, 37, 222
Nigerian Queer Fiction 50
Nighat M. Gandhi 25, 27-28, 35-36 R
normative 50-51, 60-61, 89, 160, 221-222,
230, 232 race 11, 13-14, 16, 18-21, 23, 63, 77, 121-
norms 3, 11, 14, 21, 26, 30, 36, 102, 111, 123, 125, 130, 138, 174, 192, 203, 229
114, 131-132, 134-137, 148, 151-153, Re-presentation 1
155, 177, 179-180, 213, 218, 232 Rokeya Sakhwat Hossain 228
Northeast India 173-174, 182-185, 189-190 Room of One’s Own 131-138
O S
occupation 37, 118, 140, 194, 196, 206 same-sex 26-27, 30, 32, 36, 39, 46-47, 55,
Orlando 131-132, 134-138 57-60, 223
school 41, 43-46, 48, 115, 127, 143, 166
P Self-Formation 1
self-identity 15, 121, 124, 126-127, 130,
Panthoipi Khongkul 173-176, 181 174, 179
Partition literature 157-170 semantic memory 14
patriarchal hegemony 72 Sexual Harassment 202, 206, 208-211
patriarchy 19, 64, 66, 69-70, 73-74, 96, sexual orientation 28, 53-54, 130, 221-
111, 116, 120, 135-136, 143, 149-150, 222, 225
153-154, 157, 170, 173-175, 179-181, Sexual Politics 173-174, 180, 233
195, 213, 219, 226, 228-229, 232-233 sexual violence 14, 79, 81, 90-95, 155, 158
patri-oriented 192 sexuality 15-16, 46, 52, 54, 56, 58, 63,
performativity 10-13, 136-137, 222 72-73, 75-78, 81-82, 84, 89-90, 93-
pogrom 114, 118-119 94, 118, 121-123, 125-130, 138, 141,
politics 21, 51-52, 73, 89, 94-95, 109, 111, 144-145, 168, 192, 206, 221-223, 226
113-115, 156, 158, 161, 171, 173-175, social position of women 148
180, 199, 213, 232-233 social stigmatisation 166
power 7-8, 18, 20-21, 28, 30-31, 51, 67- society 2, 10, 13, 18-21, 23, 25-27, 29,
70, 76-77, 79, 81-85, 87-94, 97, 104, 31-36, 39, 50-53, 55-62, 64-67, 69,
107-108, 110-111, 114-115, 117, 120, 72-76, 79-83, 85, 87-88, 93-94, 99,
123, 125, 142, 144, 153-154, 175, 177, 102-103, 107, 111, 113-117, 121, 123,
184, 193, 195, 204-205, 207, 219, 126, 129-130, 132-133, 135, 137, 140-
222, 228-233 141, 143, 148-155, 160-161, 166-170,
power and knowledge 81, 93, 228-229 173-177, 179-180, 182-184, 186, 189,
prejudice 17, 22, 76-77, 140, 152, 156 191-195, 197-199, 204, 213-214, 219,
prosthetic consciousness 10, 12, 14 221-222, 225, 228, 230, 232
protest 86, 119, 193-194, 199, 225 subalternity 139, 141, 146, 154
PTSD 123, 130 subjugation 79, 81, 93, 115, 230
Sultana’s Dream 228-229, 232-233
suppression 12, 23, 76, 161, 183, 185
255
Index
T W
taboo 25, 27, 36, 55, 59, 77, 219, 222 war 18, 21-22, 64-70, 76, 79-80, 90-94,
Temsula Ao 183-187, 189 114, 118, 122-125, 140, 142, 186,
thought 41-43, 46, 54, 62, 77, 88, 96, 99, 189, 193, 195, 206
101-104, 124, 131, 134, 137, 142, 154, woman 1-4, 9, 27, 30-31, 33, 35, 41-42,
184, 221-222 46, 64-66, 69-70, 73, 75, 77, 84-88,
totalitarian dictatorship 22 90, 99-101, 103-104, 107, 109, 111,
Touch. Transgress 72 114-115, 118-119, 126, 131-137,
Touching behavior 202 140-145, 148-155, 162, 164, 166-169,
transgender 25, 27, 31-38, 114, 118, 222 171, 173-177, 179-180, 185-187, 189,
Transgenders 25 193-194, 199, 202, 204, 208, 210,
transgression 12, 73, 169 213-217, 219, 222-223, 226, 228-230
trauma 17-18, 22, 24, 121-124, 126, 128, womanhood 142-144, 189, 193
130, 168, 170, 207 women 1, 3-4, 6, 8-9, 11, 13, 17-23, 25, 27,
traumatized 17-18, 21-23, 119, 126 31-35, 37, 53-55, 57-58, 64-70, 72-74,
Tribal Women Writings 182, 184 76-79, 81, 84-93, 97-99, 101, 103,
106-107, 111-115, 119-123, 125-129,
V 131-135, 137, 141, 143-158, 161-171,
173-175, 180-186, 189-200, 202-203,
Vaidehi 213-216, 218-220 205-219, 223-224, 226-233
Video Games 10, 13-16 women education 153, 213
violence 14, 16, 18-20, 22, 27-28, 68-69, 74, women identity 182
79-81, 83, 90-98, 102-103, 105, 116, workplace 123, 202-203, 206, 209-211
121-122, 124-126, 142, 155, 157-165,
168, 171, 182-184, 186-188, 198, 211
Virginia Woolf 31, 131, 137-138, 140,
189-190
256

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Exploring Gender Studies

and Feminism Through

A volume in the Advances in Media,

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Khuraijam, Gyanabati, 1979- editor.

British Cataloguing in Publication Data

All work contributed to this book is new, previously-unpublished material.

For electronic access to this publication, please contact: eresources@igi-global.com.

Editor-in-Chief: Giuseppe Amoruso, Politecnico di Milano, Italy

Sustaining Creativity and the Arts in the Digital Age

Contemporary Issues, Challenges, and Opportunities in Sustainable Architecture

Handbook of Research on Connecting Philosophy, Media, and Development in Developing

Redefining Journalism in an Age of Technological Advancements, Changing Demographics,

Handbook of Research on Global Media’s Preternatural Influence on Global Technological

For an entire list of titles in this series, please visit:

701 East Chocolate Avenue, Hershey, PA 17033, USA

Compilation of References............................................................................... 234

About the Contributors.................................................................................... 249

text of Alternative Realities (Nighat M. Gandhi, 2013) as a representation of the

The manga My Brother’s Husband (2014-2017) talks about a little Japanese

Compilation of References............................................................................... 234

About the Contributors.................................................................................... 249

“An Ecofeminist Reading of Amitav Ghosh’s Jungle Nama” by Sayantani

Chatur-vidhā bhajante māṁ janāḥ sukṛitino ’rjuna

Arto jijñāsur arthārthī jñānī cha bharatarṣhabha

Teṣhāṁ jñānī nitya-yukta eka-bhaktir viśhiṣhyate

Priyo hi jñānino ’tyartham ahaṁ sa cha mama priyaḥ

(Bhagavad Gita, Verses 7.16-7.17)

Paśhyāmi devāns tava deva dehe

Sarvāns tathā bhūta-viśheṣha-saṅghān

Brahmāṇam īśhaṁ kamalāsana-stham

Anta-kāle cha mām eva smaran muktvā kalevaram

Yaḥ prayāti sa mad-bhāvaṁ yāti nāstyatra sanśhayaḥ (Verse 8.5)

Worshipping the Parameshwara or knowing and understanding his actions can

Go back, O Death, you cannot decree your power here

Autobiography has been seen as an attempt at self-expression, self-construction,

Anderson, L. R. (2001). Autobiography. Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780203181652

Chaitanyananda, S. (2018). Gurur prayojaniyata. Udbodhan Patrika, 120, 902–904.

Hegemonic Derivation of Gender Superiority

The combination of production ‘worth’ and production ‘relation’ (social value) is

At first glance, sex seems to play an oppressive role…immediately when chosing

Intrinsic Consciousness: The Anima/ Animus Within

The portrayal of ‘normalcy’ somewhat deviates from the biological constitution of

the ‘oppressed race’ (instead of belonging to a dominant lineage); and is thereby

Video games serves as a force of uniformity among the group of heterogenous

In this dichotomous praxis the gendered oppression through sexual difference

Avery, A. W. (1982). Escaping Loneliness in Adolescence: The Case for Androgyny.

Structural Domination and Quest for Jewish Identity

A Traumatic Study of Women Characters

Identity is an archetypal conundrum for a particular community on the threshold

Ansky, S. (2013). The Dybbuk. Tsiterboym Books. (Original publication 1926)

Homosexual marriages are also known as gender-neutral marriage, equal marriage,

In Pakistan, as in many other gender-segregated societies, homosocial behaviour is

boycott, power imbalances in relationship, and obstinate attitude of religious leaders

KARACHI: LESBIANS IN LOVE

FAITH AND IDENTITY

- Qur’an, Sūra XI: Hūd, verses 78–83.

A ROOM OF THEIR OWN

The supreme court former chief justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad

LGBT communities are considered a sign of shame and disgrace in [Pakistani]

Transgender community is in dilemma and is having an inner conflict as they are

B. B. (2018, October 17). Graphic Novel Review: My Brother’s Husband, by Gengoroh

Curvelo, A. (2012). The disruptive presence of the namban-jin in early modern