Chapter Four

Emancipated Women: The New Women of Tagore

She is not in the world of the fairy tale where

the fair woman sleeps for ages until she is

touched by the magic wand. . . . At last, the

time has arrived when woman must step in and

impart her life rhythm to this reckless movement

of power. (Tagore, Selected Essays 226)

Tagore’s family, right from his grandfather, Prince

Dwarkanath Tagore, was influenced by the Western culture.

Women of Tagore’s household were all educated and

progressive in their outlook. Tagore’s stay in London to

study from 1877 to 1880 made him aware of the freedom women

were enjoying in London and enabled him to compare their

status with the Bengali women. He sent articles

appreciating the above impression to be published in

Bharathi, the family journal of Tagore. However, it was not

received well by its editor-brother Dwejendranath Tagore.

As a Hindu Revivalist himself, he wrote a rejoinder to

counter the radical views of Tagore on women’s freedom

which had offended the orthodox Hindus.

After Tagore got the Nobel Prize for literature in

1913, he went on a tour of Western countries at the




invitation for lecturing. There he became aware of the

women’s liberation. Naturally, the emerging New Woman

concept in the Western society had its impact on his

fiction writings also. The writings of Pandita Ramabai

Saraswati, and Cornelia Sorabji in the Indian scenario

awakened the spirit of emancipation of women of that

period. Tagore’s different experiences, ever-growing

knowledge, travels and political experiences continually

reshaped and recreated him.

The social reformer in Rabindranath Tagore gave

priority to women. They took the centre stage in his prose

works. Tagore’s portrayal of women characters in his short

stories and novels changed consequent to the contemporary

changes in the society. Due to English education and the

influence of Western culture, women characters were no

longer the submissive sufferers of patriarchy. They started

to assert their individuality. The heroines created by

Tagore during the third phase of his literary career (1913-

41) are bold to have a futuristic outlook. They are more

emancipated and empowered to transform themselves in the

twentieth century. They are all forerunners to the later

day women characters depicted by the so-called staunch




feminist writers. This made Tagore a visionary for the

cause of feminism.

Tagore’s short stories and novels of the Post-

Gitanjali period portray the emancipated women. His

heroines of this period become a vehicle for the attack of

male-domination, advocacy of women’s education, and cause

of the emancipation of women. Santosh Chakrabarti observes:

Rabindranath Tagore’s socio-familial concept took

a new turn as he began to probe the husband-wife

relationship within the joint family set up. Gone

is the tyrannical in-law and submissive son

syndrome in which subservience to the patriarchal

norm is the rigour, as Rabindranath Tagore sets

out at the beginning of the 20th century, to

apply his mind to the taboo subject of women’s

emancipation. (94)

Tagore’s writings also made its impact on the traditional

and social orders and quickened the spirit of social and

cultural criticism in a section of Bengali intelligentsia.

This spirit found a most articulate representative in

Pramadha Chowdhri’s (1868-1946) journal Sabujpatra (Green

Leaves) founded in 1914. The journal became the principal

organ of the new intellectual radicalism. Chowdhri and the




group of writers who gathered around him championed the

rights of youth against the traditional gerontocracy. They

poured scorn on Hindu orthodoxy and its time-honoured

customs, habits and institutions. They were ardent

individualists and accepted no authority other than reason.

They expressed themselves not in English, but in Bengali.

The most gifted among them combined creative writing with

social criticism.

In this endeavour, throughout Sabujpatra’s brief

literary career (1914-22; 1925-27) Chowdhri’s principal

literary associate was Tagore. Interestingly, Tagore became

more radical as he grew older. In 1914 when he was already

past fifty, when most people resign themselves to pragmatic

acceptance of the status quo, Tagore became closely

involved with the avant-garde journal Sabujpatra. His

writings during this period show very strong revolutionary

features. Tagore’s “Balaka” poems (1916) have movement

change as their central theme. The poems are strikingly

different in temper and style. His short stories of this

period, e.g. “Haimanti”, “Streer Patra”, “Aparachita”,

“Tapasvini”, make a devastating exposure of traditional

Hindu family life and of the Hindu attitude to women.



His novels Home and the World (1916) and Chaturanga

(1916) are very unorthodox in the treatment of the

heroines. The change in Tagore’s outlook in the direction

of radicalism continued until his end. Nevertheless, it is

particularly pronounced in his writings of Sabujpatra

period, which present a significant contrast to the

relatively more traditional temper of his earlier writings.

In the mature period (1913-41) the heroines of Tagore’s

fiction do not hesitate to voice their feelings openly

against the ills of the society like widow remarriage, the

caste system and religious hypocrisy. Cenkner remarks,

“They advocate higher education and woman’s emancipation

and empowerment” (106).

In this chapter, how Tagore’s conception of womanly

perfection is characteristically unfolded from exploitation

to emancipation in the evolution of the Indian womanhood in

select fiction is discussed. The women protagonists of his

fictional writings from 1913 to 1941 are all self-

assertive, liberated and emancipated. How Tagore envisioned

the new ideal womanhood in the creation of women characters

is scrutinized through the short stories “Giribala” (1895),

“Woman Unknown” (1914), “Letter from a Wife” (1914), “The

Laboratory” (1940) and a novel Chaturanga (1916).




“Giribala” (1895) is the first short story, in which

the protagonist raises her voice of protest against her

uncaring husband and takes revenge upon him. Giribala, the

heroine is the first liberated woman character depicted by

Tagore, much earlier than his other more radical women

characters of Sabujpatra period beginning from 1913.

Giribala is the beautiful, young, and the childless

wife of a wealthy husband, Gopinath, “. . . who was not

under her control” (EWRT 316). Her husband does not notice

her bloom from a child-bride to a beautiful woman. She is

well aware of her beauty, but that is of no use to attract

her husband who has deserted her in his infatuation for a

stage actress Lavanga. This is reported to Giribala by her

maid Sudha who is her only relief to escape from her

loneliness.

One evening on a full moon day, Giribala, dressing

elegantly, sits on her terrace. At that time, Gopinath

rushes in and demands the keys of the cash box. However,

Giribala pays no heed and unable to get the keys, he

“pinned her to the wall”, takes away the jewels from her

forcibly, gives her “a parting kick” and goes out. (EWRT

321)



Gopinath becomes a slave to the stage actress Lavanga.

This is reported to Giribala by Sudha. One day, Giribala

visits the theatre stealthily without her husband’s

knowledge as it is felt by him that the theatre is a place

not fit for any woman of a decent family. She witnesses her

husband’s lust for the stage actress. His indecent

behaviour in the theatre disgusts her. She gains courage to

teach her husband a lesson. Nevertheless, her husband

Gopinath does not return home for some time with no

intimation as to where he has gone. Giribala also leaves

home when she hears Gopinath has eloped with the actress

Lavanga. The proprietors of the theatre have introduced a

new actress in her place and staged it successfully.

Gopinath happens to see the new play “Manorama”. He finds

out to his dismay the new actress is none other than his

own wife Giribala. She takes revenge on her husband by

joining the same theatre as an actress. Moreover, the

theatrical profession was not considered as a respectable

one for a family woman in those days.

Giribala’s emancipation is the first step towards

Tagore’s experimentation with a chain of liberated women.

Through Giribala’s character, Tagore has suggested a

solution to women’s oppression. “Tagore conceives of this

  

solution on the pay-you-back-in-your-own-coin formula, for

Gopinath’s chief intoxication lies with theatrical

performance” (Chakrabarti 85-86).

Women’s identity is not shaped individually, but in

relation to others around them. The gender pattern of

socialization in the society has resulted in forming

different patterns of identification for men and women. Men

learn self-reliance and self-dependence while women learn

to take care of others and to thwart themselves. Giribala

breaks the rigid old tradition of passivity of wifehood. As

an emancipated woman, she becomes an initiator as a

defender on the part of the wife in this social scenario.

Giribala’s emancipation has not happened suddenly.

Giribala derives inspiration from the story of Krishna and

his consort Radha played on the stage. Krishna has not

visited Radha for some days. His absence makes her feel

lonely. When Krishna arrives to see Radha, she does not

respond to him. By way of expressing her grief, she ignores

his presence. Krishna’s effort in entreating her by

“abasing himself at her feet” (EWRT 319) does not soften

her heart. Seeing this, Giribala imagines herself as an

offended Radha and she realizes her womanpower to vindicate

her pride.
 

Tagore’s portrayal of Giribala’s character is to

kindle the awakening of womanpower in the minds of other

women. Her maid Sudha is also the root cause for the

awakening of self and to revolt against her husband’s male

oppression, right from the beginning of the story. Sudha

kindles the sexual identity of Giribala by praising her

beauty, which arouses her pride as a woman. After

Giribala’s realization of her husband’s betrayal, she sits

on her terrace dressed in her cream coloured robe and

decked herself with jewels, looking gorgeous as she used to

do every evening. Sudha, “. . . sitting near her bare feet

admiringly touching them with her hand expressed her wish

that if she were a man privileged to offer her life as

homage to such a pair of feet” (EWRT 320).

The portrayal of Sudha’s attraction to the female body

of Giribala is a significant bold construction of Tagore.

He has touched the chord of Lesbian Feminism, which evolved

in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Martha Shelly, a Lesbian

Feminist urges, “Lesbianism is really the heart of the

women’s liberation movement. For, in order to throw off the

oppression of the male caste, women must unite” (Tandon

56). Tagore was well aware of the fact that women

themselves should create a space for their survival. He

  

knew that the social system was against women’s

emancipation and therefore he relied heavily on women’s

wish to make them free from the bondages. Tagore has

created a woman character from a feminist perspective

nearly nine decades before the ideology was evolved. This

reveals how Rabindranath Tagore justly interpreted the

female psyche.

The positive image of the lesbian as a woman of

strength and independence continued as a central

thesis of the Lesbian Feminist theory. As Elsa

Gidlow, an elderly Lesbian poet puts it: It

usually included erotic attraction to women,

although we know there have been many women of

Lesbian personality who never had any sexual

relations with one another. What is strongly a

part of the Lesbian personality is loyalty and

love for other women. (Tandon 55)

Tagore introduces Sudha as a person capable of singing,

dancing, and improvising verses. She never feels tired of

showering praise on her mistress. She freely gives

expression to her regret that such a beauty as her mistress

has been “dedicated to a fool who forgets to enjoy what he

owns” (EWRT 317). She starts to hum a love song to her.

 

Tagore unquestionably describes Sudha’s love and loyalty to

her mistress. From the Lesbian Feminist ideological

perspective, Sudha’s characterization belongs to Lesbian

feminism. Sudha fulfills the emotional and the sexual void

of Giribala and thus, is a cause for her liberation from

the male oppression.

There is a striking affinity between Tagore’s

portrayal of Sudha’s character in “Giribala” and the

character Shug Avery depicted by the popular Black Feminist

writer Alice Walker in her novel, The Color Purple. Even

though Tagore’s is a short story and Alice Walker’s is a

novel, the characters Sudha and Shug Avery belong to the

category of liberated women of the Lesbian feminist

ideology. Tagore wrote the short story “Giribala” in 1895

and Alice Walker wrote the novel The Color Purple in 1983.

In the creation of these two characters, there are some

striking similarities. Shug Avery is a professional singer

and a paramour of Albert, the husband of Celia, the

protagonist. Shug Avery is a strong-minded woman by

polygamous nature. She sings a song named after Celia by

way of expressing her gratitude and love for Celia who

nurses her during her illness. Her performance makes Celia

elated, whose self-esteem is at the lowest ebb because she

  

is sexually abused by both her stepfather and also her

husband who used to beat her frequently for no reason.

Sudha is also a good singer and a lyricist. She has

composed a song in admiration of Giribala’s beauty. Sudha

is a source of inspiration to Giribala in her emancipation,

just as Shug Avery is to Celia. Humming a love song, Sudha

touches the feet of Giribala. Shug Avery also educates

Celia on love affairs by physical touches. Sudha helps

Giribala to take revenge upon her husband Gopinath. Shug

Avery also encourages Celia to take revenge upon Albert,

her abusive husband, by leaving him.

Both Tagore and Alice Walker do not use the word

Lesbianism anywhere in their writings. It is only a

description of a woman-love-woman affair. The messages

conveyed by both are the same, that women should take care

of women in order to liberate themselves from male

oppression and attain self-fulfillment. Tagore has realized

that it is the women themselves who are responsible in many

ways for the denigration or improvement of women from

sorrows and problems inflicted upon them. A woman like

Giribala gets confidence from the support received from the

same sex.
  

A real life character who felt distressed due to lack

of women’s support is found in Tagore’s sister-in-law,

Kadambari Debi, wife of Jyothindranath Tagore. Her suicide

after six months of Rabindranath Tagore’s marriage in 1884,

is still a mystery. It is reported that Jyothindranath’s

failure to fulfill the marital companionship of Kadambari

was one among the causes of her suicide at the age of

twenty-three. Jyotindranath was too busy involving himself

in multifarious activities and in staging dramas at home

and outdoor. Kadambari also took part in Jyotindranath’s

dramas, enacted in “Andharmahal” of Jorasanko Mansion. She

was appreciated for her ability in acting and singing. She

was the first woman to inspire Tagore in becoming a poet.

Tagore wrote this story after eleven years of

Kadambari’s death. As Tagore is best known for choosing the

title of the story and also for naming the characters, it

was initially titled as “Manbanjang” which means “Breaking

the Ice”. Tagore perhaps remembered his sister-in-law, a

sensitive, beautiful compassionate woman. She was childless

for more than fourteen years. Her husband was more attached

to Sathyendranath’s wife, Jnanandanandini, who, as a second

daughter-in-law of the house was dominating after her

foreign tour. “He certainly failed in his duty as a husband

  

to alleviate the loneliness of his wife” (Deb 89). Other

women of Tagore’s household envied Kadambari’s talents in

creation and home decoration. She was left companionless.

She spent her life lonely as childless mother. “She was

being excluded; edged out of the mainstream” (Chakrabarthy,

Jorasanko 218).

Kadambari could not reveal herself as “. . . her

mother had told her that a girl must never be too forward

with her husband or make claims on him. Men didn’t like

pushy women” (Chakrabarthy, Jorasanko 184). Devoid of her

husband’s company, she became more depressed. Added to that

the immediate cause for the successful suicide attempt was

the detection of a love letter of a stage actress,

Binodini, to Jyothindranath. The demise of Kadambari, who

lit the literary fire of Tagore, greatly affected him.

Tagore realized that Kadambari out of hurt self-pride had

decided to end her life.

Tagore had thought that had she been aware of her

womanpower, and received good support from other women she

might have been relieved of her depression and survived. A

little effort might have helped her to express herself and

made Jyothindranath to understand her as wife. Tagore

strongly felt that woman bonding might help women to become

 

more assertive and empowered. That might be the reason

behind writing the story by Tagore. Tagore’s immediate aim

was to expose the repression of women. By disclosing his

opinion that women showed no mercy for women and opposing

the prejudice and narrowness it fostered, he emphasized the

need for woman bonding which the later day Lesbian

Feminism, a branch of Radical Feminists also advocated.

Feminism itself stands on the premises that women are

inhumanely treated and pushed to the secondary position by

men. In “Woman Unknown” (1914), the bride and her father

are humiliated by the maternal uncle of the bridegroom who

checks the weight and purity of the gold ornaments given to

the bride by way of dowry. They thwart the act of

humiliation in a more humane way of rejecting the marriage

itself. Anupam, the fiancée of the protagonist, Kalyani,

narrates the story. His widowed wealthy mother and his

maternal uncle brought up Anupam. He is a postgraduate, an

obedient son and an “eligible bachelor” because he lacks

“the quality to disobey. . . and has been trained to follow

the orders from the women’s quarters” (SSS 219). His

engagement to the daughter of a doctor, Sambunath Babu of

Kanpur, is fixed. The cash and quantum of gold ornaments to

be given to the bridegroom’s family by way of dowry is also

  

settled to the satisfaction of the bridegroom’s maternal

uncle.

When Sampunath Babu seeks Anupam’s opinion in the

matter of verification of the gold ornaments, he realizes

that Anupam is under the control of his uncle. Tagore

unfolds the fact that patriarchal dominance under the joint

family system is harmful not only to the women, but also to

the younger male members of the family, as it blocks their

individuality and growth. The goldsmith certifies that the

jewellery is all pure gold. However, after the dinner is

over, Sampunath Babu announces, “I cannot give my daughter

in marriage to a family that considers me capable of

stealing her gold” (SSS 224). The marriage is broken off.

By refusing to give his daughter in marriage to a member of

the dowry-gluttonous family, the bride’s father asserts his

self-dignity. Tagore the humanist reveals his concern for

the bride’s father by this sheer conception.

Everyone in the family of Anupam is enraged at the

audacity of the girl’s father. They threaten that it would

be difficult for Sambunath to get his daughter married. The

breaking down of so many marriages at the time of the

ceremony, because of non-fulfillment of dowry commitments

happens even in the twenty first century. Tagore asserts

  

the self-dignity of the father Sambunath who refuses to

give his daughter in marriage to a member of such a mean

minded family, even a century before, and secondly on the

part of bride Kalyani, who remains a lifelong spinster by

way of protest against such an ugly insult. It is a

revolutionary thought conceived by Tagore in the beginning

of the twentieth century.

Tagore suggests that to eradicate the dowry menace,

the first step should be initiated within the bride’s

family itself. The rich artefact of Tagore is present in

this masterly production. On one hand, there are several

nuances of gender bias regarding masculine and feminine

attitudes of contemporary society; on the other hand, there

is a progressive thinking father who takes a decision

regarding his daughter’s marriage that could have

effectively ruined her chance of ever getting married.

Anupam comes to know that the girl has turned down

many proposals offered during the one year. He imagines

that the reason for the rejection by Kalyani is that she

languishes for him. He dreams that the girl’s father “. . .

swallows his pride and comes to our doorstep” (SSS 226)

with all humbleness and seeks his acceptance for marrying

his daughter. However, nothing happens as he has dreamt. He

  

feels an endearment for the girl: “My heart had gone out to

the unknown girl: I could not call it back. She was just

one step away from me, but suddenly the distance stretched

out into infinity” (SSS 225). In the traditional

description, it is the woman who dreams, longs and waits

for her suitor to marry, and the man is always meant to

make reasonable decisions. Here Tagore has deconstructed

the conservative description of masculine characterization.

Anupam’s character is marked not only by his weakness and

indecisiveness, but also by his imaginative bend of mind.

One year has passed; Anupam is travelling in a train,

accompanied by his mother on a visit to Kanpur. When the

train stops at a station, he hears a girl’s voice in

Bengali says, “Hurry up, there’s room here in this

carriage” (SSS 227). He is very much impressed with the

voice. He tries to know the person to whom the voice

belongs but in vain.

Next morning they have to change trains at a junction.

When he is searching for a comfortable compartment, there

is a call in the same voice heard by him during the

previous night, which asks his mother “Why don’t you come

here? There’s room” (SSS 228). It is a sudden surprise for

him to hear the same voice. He and his mother board the
 

same compartment. Two or three girls younger to her,

playing games, surround the girl. She then reads a story in

her magical voice from an illustrated children’s book that

the little girls seem to enjoy. When the train stops at

another junction, the stationmaster approaches Anupam with

a request to vacate the compartment since some English men

has already reserved berths in that compartment. Anupam is

about to oblige, but he is stopped by Kalyani. She argues

in English with the station master, that it is not a

reserved compartment at the boarding point and it is not

necessary to vacate. An extra coach is added to accommodate

the uniformed English officials.

By refusing to vacate the railway compartment as it

may cause inconvenience and insult to the fellow

passengers, she fights against racial discrimination

prevailed at the colonial time. The amazing characteristics

of Kalyani’s forwardness, courage, and self-assertion were

not common among the girls then. Anupam feels inferior

before her because of his inability to defend. Moreover, he

feels that Kalyani has recognized him and in spite of that,

she is so magnanimous that she does not show any aversion

for him. Anupam is very much impressed by the humanistic

approach of Kalyani.
  

Kalyani’s blooming persona is perhaps a reflection of

Tagore’s vision of the emerging New Women in India. At the

age of sixteen, she is still a girl, but in the process of

becoming a woman, she is developing a personality. While at

once she is a commanding adult, she is also a child with

the other young girls who is accompanying her. Anupam’s

mother, loyal to her generation and customs, disapproves

Kalyani’s nature. Yet the same also fascinate her. A

strangeness perhaps makes her wonder if she herself could

ever have the courage to defy her own traditional

upbringing and become like Kalyani. She feels torn “between

fascination and disapproval” (SSS 229).

Kalyani’s strength of identity gives the courage to

Anupam to overcome his repressed and inactive self. As a

result, after returning to Calcutta, Anupam goes to Kanpur

without the consent of his mother and his uncle. He repents

for the insult caused to Kalyani’s family and asks

earnestly for the hand of the girl in marriage. Sampunath

Babu does not object, but Kalyani turn down his request as

she wants to remain a lifelong spinster, by dedicating

herself to the cause of women’s education.

However, Anupam, who has given his heart to Kalyani,

on his part, decides to remain a bachelor, singing a song

 

of which the refrain is “There’s room here.” Through the

character of Anupam, Tagore wishes to convey the message to

the menfolk that “Nevertheless, neither is the man without

the woman, nor the woman without the man” (Denny 95).

Kalyani’s identity-formation begins when she is confronted

with a crisis of her wedding. Although Tagore does not

dwell upon it in detail, it can be assumed that such an

event could have triggered Kalyani’s self to emancipate.

Kalyani as a woman is devoid of womanly characters

like coyness, delicacy, and timidity. She is bold,

independent-thinking, and possesses self-esteem, which is

uncharacteristic of women of those days. The culturally

constructed identities of masculinity and femininity are

broken down in the portrayal of Anupam and Kalyani. Anupam

is brought up by his mother. He is obedient, anxious,

indecisive, and fantasy-prone. He possesses the passive

nature of that of a woman. On the contrary, Kalyani, a

motherless girl, is brought up by her father. She is

rebellious, fearless, resolute, and practical in her

outlook. Tagore has deviated from the traditional way of

constructing a female character. In the traditional way a

woman is often portrayed with all feminine qualities like

calmness, coyness, etc., which is taught to be the

  

compulsory characteristics a woman should possess in order

to identify her in the society. Tagore has broken this and

has proved that the binary oppositions of man and woman for

active and passive qualities are constructed by patriarchy.

The characterization of Kalyani is similar to the opinion

expressed by Simon De Beauvoir in her groundbreaking

feminist text The Second Sex (1942), who declares, “One is

not born, but rather becomes a woman” (234). Beauvoir

declares that the inequality of the sexes is not nature’s

design, but a result of various social forces created by

patriarchy.

Most men like Anupam think that by accepting to marry

a girl they are doing her a favour. Tagore wants to make

men to remove such a wrong notion from their mind. Here

Tagore speaks on behalf of women. Anupam, a highly educated

man, realizes that “In a full heart there is room for

everything and in any empty heart there is room for

nothing” (Prochia 1498). Anupam recognizes that people like

Sampunath Babu and Kalyani have full hearts in which there

is room for love of people, whereas people like his uncle

has an empty heart in which affection for people is

missing. That is why Anupam gives him up at the end of the

story. Kalyani has a secured room in his heart and he

  

decides to live his life throughout with her thoughts.

Tagore makes the character Anupam repent for his action and

turn him humane.

Tagore gives a solution to eradicate the dowry problem

from the feminine perspective. A man should also take

action and should not be a weakling just like Anupam in

this story. Tagore emphasizes that a man should get to know

the mind of his woman and then only would he be able to

treat her equally. Through Kalyani’s character, Tagore

emphasizes the necessity of education for women. Her

decision to remain a lifelong spinster is one way of

solving the dowry menace.

Celibacy was important to the feminists because

it attempted to set up an alternative role for

women apart from the traditional female sphere of

marriage and motherhood: an alternative, indeed,

that was followed from choice by many of the

pioneers. It enabled them to avoid the sexual and

economic subordination of marriage, while at the

same time pursuing for them an interesting and

challenging career. (Banus 97)

During the period of writing this story women started

participating in the Swedeshi Movement in response to the

  

clarion call of Mahatma Gandhi. “The sight of unmarried

Bengali women coming out of their sheltered house,

discarding all old inhibitions does inspire every person”

(Kumar 82). Increasingly, women students came forward to

hold street corner meetings, to travel unaccompanied in

trams and buses, to collect party funds, and organize

strikes and agitations, violating all traditional norms of

womanly conduct and derecognising the domestic-public lines

of demarcation. For the more sensitive women participating

in the freedom movement meant a protracted struggle against

two different badges of servility, colonialism and

patriarchy. In the then prevailing scenario only Tagore has

created Kalyani as a role model, a marvellous New Woman who

rejects the notion that a woman’s only future is that of a

housewife, and that motherhood is the supreme fulfillment

of her life. She asserts herself against the racist

humiliation in a public railway carriage. She startles men,

who are not yet familiar with such a type at that time. The

voice of Kalyani does not find resonance in the ordinary

middle class household. In Kalyani, the emergence of a new

type of personality and a new form of feminist

consciousness linked with political awareness can be

detected. Tagore delineates Kalyani as a representative of

 

the emerging emancipated New Women, who breaks the age-old

traditions and conventions set up by patriarchy.

Radical Feminist theory holds that marriage is the

major cause of women’s oppression. “Since marriage is a

primary formalization of the persecution of women, they

consider the rejection of this institution of marriage,

both in theory and in practice” (Tandon 45). That Tagore

has reflected the same in this short story “Woman Unknown”

even three decades before Radical Feminism itself evolved

exemplifies Tagore as a visionary of feminism in India.

Tagore takes up one of the major evils of the society

the question of dowry and suggests an alternate solution to

minimize the problem of dowry to some extent in “Woman

Unknown”. In this story, he deals with the feminine

problems of dowry, the need for better understanding of

wife by a man, celibacy and the importance of women’s

education. Having dealt with all the female problems and

finding solutions to them, Tagore becomes a crusader of

feminism. P. K. Dutta observes:

Rabindranath’s literary thought was developed and

intensified in the Sabujpathra years. Most of the

stories that Rabi wrote for that journal dealt

with women as individual subjects engaged in

  

negotiating with a problematic relationship in

their marriages and with their household, but

also women who created alternate life, some of

which involved being single. (9)

Being a true feminist, Tagore sends his message through

this story that gender equality can be achieved only by

educating the women. In creating Kalyani, Tagore has

envisioned the New Women of India. The character of Kalyani

provides another testimony to Tagore’s feminist approach.

Tagore has pooh-poohed the patriarchal notion that women

are innately unfit to assume responsibility and require

masculine guidance and protection. Given proper training

that women themselves can act independently is Tagore’s

strong message sent out to men. Tagore deconstructs the

social roles, which represents the patriarchy defined

female and male traits. He has inverted the active male and

passive female syndrome. This strategic decision helps the

artist to achieve space for female growth, which is the

tenet of feminism.

“Letter From A Wife” (1914) is an epoch-making short

story which Tagore himself had admitted that this short

story was his “. . . first attempt at writing a pro-woman

text” (Ray 181). It is a treatise on the liberation of

  

women. It is a powerful story about an emancipated woman,

Mrinal, in an epistolary form. A woman depicted as writing

a letter itself was a revolution in those days. Then it was

thought that, according to Hindu religion a woman who took

up writing was a prelude to becoming a widow very soon.

Tagore portrays Mrinal as a child-bride of twelve

years entering as the second daughter-in-law into an

orthodox family. After fifteen years, at the age of twenty-

seven, she leaves the house forever to Puri, determined not

to return. She relieves herself from the shackles of

patriarchal oppression. How the metamorphosis of womanhood

of Mrinal, from the status of a traditional wife to that of

a freedom-seeking woman happens is forcefully expressed by

Tagore.

Tagore artistically uses the strategy of epistolary

form to get into the mind, voice, and experience of Mrinal.

Tagore hitherto has dealt with the problems of female

oppression by patriarchy and advocated women’s upliftment

through the third person narration in his short stories.

Here he chooses the first person narration. In making

Mrinal the protagonist to narrate her own experience in

writing, Tagore has foreseen the new age of emancipated

women that was to emerge in the next few decades. Mrinal’s

   

attempt in writing this letter is in agreement with the

view of Helen Cixous, the French Feminist, who, in The

Newly Born Women (1987), advises women;

She must write herself, because this is the

invention of a new insurgent writing, which, when

the moment of liberation has come, will allow her

to carry out the indispensable ruptures and

transformations in her history. (18)

Mrinal is the first woman character in Indian literature

who rebels against the patriarchal exploitation of women

through her powerful writing. She records her protest

against all sorts of male oppression courageously in her

letter addressed to her husband. Tagore’s concern for the

womenfolk comes through the writings of Mrinal. Her own

voice is more assertive and confident. Mrinal writes this

letter from Puri, where she has gone forever at the age of

twenty-seven after fifteen years of married life. B.R.

Agarwal rightly observes that, “A woman’s story, inevitably

silenced by androcentric culture, narrated from a woman’s

point of view by women writers in itself is a challenge to

the male power” (96). Mrinal was the prototype of what Mary

Wollstonecraft, the first popular feminist writer,

described in her Vindication of the Rights of Women in

  

1791. Mrinal speaks out, tells her own life story,

articulates her feelings, and acknowledges both her own

hopes and her sense of having been cheated, as put forth by

Mary Wollstonecraft.

As the Feminist Betty Frieden has observed in The

Feminine Mystique (1963), the impulse for freedom must come

from each individual woman who must find her own answers

and her own experience and strategies for liberation.

Mrinal acts on her own for her liberation. Through the

letter, Mrinal reminds her husband that he is unaware of

her talent in writing poetry for fifteen years. She recalls

that she has been selected as the second daughter-in-law of

the family for her good looks. Moreover, her beauty has

only earned the jealousy of other women in the family. Her

inborn intelligence is the least asset to be accepted by

his family. Even her own womenfolk construes her

intelligence for arrogance. She remembers that they use to

abuse her by calling her brash. “Abusiveness is the

consolation of weak. I forgive you” (SSR 191). In such a

conservative patriarchal set up, she feels suffocated. She

charges that women’s quarter is besides the cattle shed, in

an unhygienic condition, which even annoys the family

doctor.
   

As a true feminist, Tagore is very much concerned

about the denial of even the basic amenities for the lives

of women. In making a female to voice against the degraded

status of women and patriarchal oppression, Tagore makes a

clarion call to all the womenfolk to realize their status

of subordination and to fight for their rights. Here Tagore

speaks through Mrinal to awaken the conscience of women for

their emancipation. Tagore brings in all the pathos of

women who suffer in the high caste system. During Tagore’s

days, though born into the higher caste, the status of

women was no better when compared to the lower caste women.

Suffering was even worse with no basic requirements to be

fulfilled. The men’s room was well furnished whereas the

inner quarters of women were devoid of ventilation, with

stained floors and walls. As women of lowest self-esteem,

they were unable to raise their voice against this inhuman

treatment meted out to them.

Mrinal’s hard-hitting writing in the letter on the

fundamental problems of patriarchal oppression in its

different forms like dowry, denigration of womenfolk,

inhuman treatment in providing accommodation, denial of

women’s education, the loss of identity, and lower self-

esteem attempts to make men understand the sufferings of

  

women. In Helen Cixous’ encouraging words, “Write yourself.

Your body must be heard. It is time for women to start

scoring their feats in writing and oral language” (The

Newly Born women 23). Tagore’s text enables a woman to tell

and write her story about the culture of the times and to

unravel the story of gender relationships. Mrinal is a New

Woman envisioned by Tagore who challenges the patriarchal

oppression and gets liberated from the same. However, this

does not happen all of a sudden.

Having lost her first girl child immediately after

giving birth, she has lost the privilege and status of a

mother. Motherhood denotes security for women. Here Tagore

mirrors the miserable mindset of childless women who feel

their womanhood unfulfilled. It is noteworthy that most of

Tagore’s female protagonists are childless. Mrinal would

have continued to live in such a condition throughout her

life. Nevertheless, her enlightenment for emancipation and

liberation from this situation comes to her aid with the

arrival of Bindu, a twelve-year old sister of the first

daughter-in-law of that house. Bindu lost her mother and

was driven out of her house by her cousins. She has taken

shelter in her sister’s house as an uninvited guest. Mrinal

is anguished by the ill treatment meted out to Bindu, who

   

is lesser than an unwanted garbage by all the family

members, including Bindu’s sister. Bindu takes refuge in

Mrinal’s love and considers her as a guardian. She

continues to write in her letter: “Bindu came to me with a

lot of apprehension” (SSR 195). It takes some time for

Mrinal to bring Bindu to find her own self. Bindu is

overwhelmed by Mrinal’s empathy that she falls hopelessly

in love with her. Mrinal records in her letter:

She began to love me with such fervour that I was

scared. I have not seen a comparable face of

love. I have only read about it and that also

between man and woman. . . . She would gaze upon

my face as if she could not have enough of it. .

. . The girl was obsessed with me. . . . At times

I was exasperated with her, I admit, but through

her love I could get a glimpse of my own self, of

which I had not been aware. This was my

unencumbered self. (SSR 197)

That Tagore has taken up the subject of romantic love

between two women was a significant step in a radical

approach to women’s issues. As an offshoot of the later day

Feminist theory, Lesbian Feminism came into prominence in

the early 1970s. The central point of Lesbian Feminist

   

theory is the positive image of the Lesbian as a woman of

strength and independence. Martha Shelley, a Lesbian

feminist remark, “We must learn to love ourselves and each

other; we must grow strong and independent of men so that

we can deal with them from a position of strength” (Tandon

56).

Bindu’s infatuation for Mrinal helps her to rediscover

her individuality and assert her independence. Betty

Frieden, a popular feminist writer called this as, “Woman-

Identified Woman” (Walters 107). Later Bindu is married to

an insane man. Tagore contrasts between the status of men

and women in patriarchal society. A woman is hollow if she

lacks beauty or wealth, whereas even if the man is a

lunatic the qualification of being a man is more than

enough to be married. Bindu’s elder sister also declares,

“. . . It’s her blighted fate. There is no point in rueing

it. Mad or moron; he’s her husband after all” (SSR 202).

The torture and tribulations inflicted by a woman on a

woman left a deep impression on Tagore’s mind. His

compassion for womenfolk is reflected through Mrinal’s

feeling that a woman shows no mercy to another woman. In

The Laugh of Medusa (1975), Helen Cixous also sends a hard-

hitting message to womenfolk “. . . don’t denigrate woman,

   

don’t make of her what men have made of you” (339).

Tagore’s thinking was very similar to the later day

feminist ideology and it reveals his feminist

consciousness.

Mrinal writes in her letter that such a type of

traditionally devoted women have been brainwashed by the

patriarchy by citing the examples of Nalayini and others in

the Hindu scriptures. Being a sensible woman, she cannot

tolerate all these tales of morality. Tagore, through

Mrinal, ridicules the preaching of moral values, which

sanctifies women and makes them unaware of their

victimization. Mrinal can no longer live in that situation.

She decides to leave her house forever to Puri, a holy

place. When she desires to take Bindu also with her, in

order to free her, she comes to know that Bindu has burnt

herself to death. In this news, Mrinal’s comment seems to

be shared by Tagore, “At last there was peace” (SSR 204).

Even Bindu’s death is criticized: “It has become a fashion

with women to die by setting their saris on fire” (SSR

205). Mrinal asks why it is happening to the Bengali

women’s sari only and not with the dhotis of Bengali men.

Mrinal informs that she has come to the holy place

Puri and declares, “I will not return to your 27 Makhan

  

Boral Lane. I have seen Bindu. I have known the value women

are given in your world. I have had enough” (SSR 205).

Bindu’s cruel death has awakened her sensibilities. It

makes her to assert herself, and turns her into a liberated

woman. After fifteen years of life as a wife suffering

endless anguish and indignity as a human being, Mrinal

realizes that her fulfillment cannot be attained as a wife

but as a woman. She declares that, she will live like

Meerabai. She concludes her letter as, “Breaking free from

the shelter beneath your feet, Mrinal” (SSR 207).

Mrinal breaks free from the shackles of the

patriarchal oppression and emerges as an independent woman.

It is to be noticed that she signs the letter in her own

name and not in the nomenclature attributed to her as “Mejo

Bou”, the second daughter-in-law. By this Mrinal announces

that she has discarded her identity as the second daughter-

in-law of the family. The acquisition of name is symbolic

of the individuality. It is a violation and subversion of

social identity inflicted upon her.

The story “Letter From A Wife” revolves around three

women. Mrinal, the second daughter-in-law of the house is

an emancipated woman. The first daughter-in-law is a

traditional woman, who cannot come out of the enslavement

   

of patriarchal persecution. Her younger sister Bindu is a

victim of patriarchy. Mrinal’s acute observation, her

profundity and her independent spirit are scripted in each

line of this letter of power. She questions, destabilizes

and finally rejects the tyrannical and “. . . callous

citadel of patriarchy” (Ray 184).

Tagore has advanced the women’s cause for emancipation

by the portrayal of Mrinal. He breaks the traditional image

of the Indian woman. Mrinal’s is an integrated Indian

woman’s voice against the age-old practice of patriarchy.

At the end of the story, Mrinal finds her individuality.

She is an emancipated woman who becomes aware of her right

to live. “I too shall live. I am living” (SSR 207). Mrinal

is a successor to Nora of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House (1879).

The young Tagore in his late twenties was annoyed with the

ending of A Doll’s House. At the age of fifty-three, the

matured Tagore, as a crusader for individual freedom of

woman created Mrinal. (Ray 189)

Tagore indicts the drawback in the system of arranged

marriage and its consequent oppression of women in the name

of tradition. In the evolution of Mrinal, from a

traditional housewife to a human being, Rabindranath

Tagore’s progressive and feminist outlook supporting

   

women’s emancipation is explicit and complete. Simon de

Beauvoir, the most popular French feminist writer of the

twentieth century, has argued; “for women it is not a

question of asserting themselves as women but of becoming

full scale human being” (Walters 99). Mrinal has asserted

her right to live as a human being. She is a precursor to

the woman idealized by Simon de Beauvoir. Tagore a true

reformist, believed that the gender inequality prevalent in

the society can be eradicated only when the women are able

to confront their fears and insecurities, and thus able to

create new and strong identities of their own.

Twelve years after writing the novel Binodini Tagore

wrote the novel Chaturanga in 1915, in which the central

theme is again widow remarriage but the setting is

different. In Chaturanga Tagore explores the issue of

sexuality once again with boldness hitherto unprecedented

in Bengali fiction. Tagore locates the question of identity

and sexuality in relation to contemporary debates about

religion, interpersonal relationships and widow remarriage.

Damini, the young widow remarries unlike Binodini in

the novel Binodini. Damini is a rebel. She refuses to

follow the rigid life ascribed to a young widow by the

Hindu code of conduct. She registers her protest in every

  

stage, struggles to lead a life of her own without fear of

the taboos of Hindu society, and succeeds in the end. In

this aspect Damini is an emancipated woman, who achieves

the conjugal life, which is forbidden for a Hindu widow

like her by the society. In the struggle for widow’s self-

actualization, she comes out victoriously. The novel was

first serialized in four consecutive issues of Sabujpatra

magazines from December 1914 to March 1915.

According to Adrienne Rich a Radical feminist, which

Robbins quotes “The patriarchal strategy against women is

massive, but it includes social and economic deprivations,

sexual subordination, denial of female sexuality” (201).

Damini is a typical victim of patriarchal oppression as

described by Adrienne Rich. She is denied of marital bliss

in her life by her husband Sivatosh, who renounces conjugal

life as part of his act of abstinence from a life of

earthly delights, owing to the influence of his

Vaishnavaite Guru, Leelananda Swamy. Sivatosh tries to

spiritually discipline his wife Damini by giving away

plenty of jewels given to her as dowry to his Guru

Leelananda Swamy. Damini is not only sexually repressed by

her husband while he is alive, but also is deprived

economically after his death. He wills all his properties

 

to his master, including the guardianship of his young

childless wife by way of penalizing for her defiance of

religiosity. This hurts her self-pride tremendously.

Damini, who has a mind of enjoying life to its fullest with

all her desires and wishes, rebels against the deceitful

Guru. She not only non-chantingly defies Leelananda Swamy’s

instruction, but also mimics the effusive unction with

which he treats her. She openly disobeys his orders.

The story of Chaturanga begins with Jagmohan the uncle

of the central character Sachish. Sachish is an idealistic

young man in search of spiritual fulfillment. Initially,

his uncle Jagmohan, an atheist who espouses a form of

rationalistic humanism, influences him. Sachish rejects his

father’s narrow-minded orthodoxy and adopts his uncle’s

worldviews. Purander, Sachish’s elder brother, seduces a

young widow Nanibala. She is driven out when she is

pregnant. To save her from this predicament, Sachish offers

to marry her under the Civil Marriages Act with the support

of his uncle Jagmohan whose mission in life is to help

others. Jagmohan gives shelter to her and makes arrangement

for the marriage of Nanibala. She does not refuse to the

proposal initially, but commits suicide on the day of

marriage, because she is still in love with Purander, her

  

seducer. It is beyond the imagination of both Sachish and

his uncle that Nanibala can possess any feeling of love for

the rascally Purander. For them Nanibala is more conceptual

in their larger project of social upliftment than a

creature of flesh and blood.

Here Tagore points out the mistake of even the social

reformer failing to understand the mind of woman as an

individual. Nanibala cannot be openly rebellious like

Binodini or Damini, but she makes her silence heard through

her suicide note. She is a typical traditional woman who

renounces her life for her master. For people like Purander

young widows are merely unclaimed, unprotected female

bodies to be enjoyed without any subsequent burden of

responsibilities. Tagore portrays the plight of the young

widows, who are left helpless realistically. Tagore

observes rightly in his essay on women,

Wherever there is something which is concretely

personal and human there is a woman’s world. My

contention is that, the act of looking at women

as a conceptual problem is symptomatic of the

anxieties of the colonial male during the advent

of colonial modernity. (Women in Personality 191)

 

Soon after, an epidemic of plague breaks out in

Calcutta. Jagmohan who turns his house into a hospital for

the poor, dies of a dreaded disease. This creates a void

for Sachish who finds his fulfillment in the emotional

communion with God, by becoming an ardent disciple of

Vaishnava Guru Leelanada Swami. The narrator of the story,

Sribilas, an admirer of Sachish, and the closest friend

from his college days also joins him. They settle down with

their Guru in his Ashram in Calcutta, where their encounter

with Damini occurs.

Damini has an attraction for Sachish and falls madly

in love with him. Sachish too finds it difficult to

withstand her charm, but is determined to eliminate woman

as “Maya” i.e. illusion. He begs her to free him from her

spell by going away to stay with a relative, but she

refuses to go. She raises her voice in protest against the

male dominated world in which she finds herself and affirms

her right to choose. She rejects the patriarchal deciding

authority of her life; “Some of you will decide this for

me, some that, to suit your convenience-am I a mere pawn in

your game?” (56). Damini in Bengali means lightening.

Tagore creates Damini as an extraordinary woman of

  

individuality who could not be cowed down by the

patriarchy.

Damini adopts different strategies to win over the

heart of Sachish. She makes a show of love to Sribilas in

order to arouse jealousy in Sachish. For Damini, it is an

unrequited love. Sribilas too loves Damini. For Sribilas,

“. . . she (Damini) is like the lightening in the heart of

Shravan rain clouds, having the youthfulness to outward

view, but flickering with restless fires within” (37).

Sachish secretly writes in his diary,

In Nanibala I saw one arch type of womanhood, the

woman who took her upon herself the stain of

impurity who gave her life for a sinner, and by

her death fitted the cup of life to overflowing.

In Damini I have seen another arch type of

womanhood who refuses to have any truck with

death, she is soaked in the sap of life. She is

vibrant and forever filling herself with grace

and fragrance like flowers in the spring. She is

anxious to miss nothing, reluctant to admit the

hermit in her home, stubbornly denying the

smallest tithe to the north wind. (37)

  

There are two dimensions of women characters always

travelling in parallel. One submits to patriarchy and the

other succeeds at the end. Nanibala is a victim, whereas

Damini is a winner in a similar situation. Perhaps with the

death of Nanibala, Tagore wants to display the feminine

value and the traditional Hindu woman who loves only once.

With the character of Damini, Tagore completely inverts the

picture of the traditional Hindu woman. Damini is the

embodiment and reflection of the latent desires that a

person conceals within. She is epicurean in her attitude

and forever anxious to leave nothing in life.

She has been willing to delight life to its fullest,

with all her hopes and wishes fulfilled, due to which

Sachish finds in her the symbol of the archetypal woman.

She is so dashing and daring that there is nothing

forbidden or rather unattainable in her moral code.

Moreover, being young, she has yet to celebrate her marital

bliss to the most beneficial, which finds vent in reading

romantic novels. She is obstinate enough to question the

status quo of the Hindu society. Nevertheless, the only

person to whom she can give her life is Sachish.

Sachish-Damini relationship forms the central theme of

the novel. It is intended by Tagore as an attempt to trace

  

the complex issue of the spiritual Vs sensual. Sachish

feels that Damini’s love for him causes a distraction in

his devotional path. He does not reciprocate her love. In

order to remain in Sachish’s presence, she decides to

accompany the Guru and his disciples to the cave. During

their stay, Damini stealthily enters the cave at night

where Sachish sleeps and falls at his feet as a token of

expressing her love-surrender. He at that time is dreaming

that a primordial beast is attacking him and kicks her

number of times until she leaves him. The scene is rendered

in moving imagery. He records:

Then something which I imagined to be a wild

beast grabbed my feet. But a wild beast has fur,

this had none. . . it was horrible precisely

because it was so soft and clammy, that's a heap

of hunger. . . its breath was heavy and fast I

did not know what the face was like I kicked and

kicked, throwing my legs above. . . . I perceived

a heap of shaggy mane over my feet. (44)

Tagore is at his best in describing the feelings of a

sexually starved young widow, and makes men realize that

sexuality in women also should be recognized as a basic

instinct equal to that of men. Damini’s character has to be

 

studied against the background of sexual repression

inflicted on her by her husband Sivatosh. She is the victim

of the specific hegemonistic modes through which

patriarchal power operates and castrates female

individuality. Damini is like Binodini. Both are full

blooded and eager to enjoy what life has to offer. Both the

widows refuse to be condemned to a bleak and humiliated

existence. Binodini consciously and Damini instinctively,

both have a strong personality which nobody can trifle with

or ignore. Tagore was the first novelist in Bengali

literature to declare that sexual passion of a widow is not

to be abhorred. Tagore sublimates both their passions into

spiritual level.

Sachish realizes that he cannot avoid reality while

treading on the spiritual path. Sribilas also enlightens

him by saying that the true way of spiritual discipline is

to acknowledge nature and yet rise above it. He compromises

with Damini not to leave the “ashram” and in return, she

promises to obey him. Damini plays a vital role in

Sachish’s quest for truth.

The wife of Nabin, one of the disciples of Swami

Leelananda, commits suicide following her husband’s illicit

relation with her sister. Damini points out to Sachish the

  

limitation of Vaishnavism through this episode. She

questions the earthly use of the religion, which tries to

replace earthly passion with the passion for the lord. She

openly confesses; “your Guru has given nothing at all. He

has not been able to give a moment’s calm to my troubled

soul; you can’t put out fire with fire. . . . I beg of you,

please do not throw me to that demon” (65). Sachish is

convinced by Damini’s words. She is responsible for turning

him away from the path of Vaishnavism to self-realization

through meditation. Thus, Tagore satirizes the hollowness

of religion in the name of which women alone are repressed.

The purpose of Tagore’s creation of Damini is to

insist that a balance must be maintained between spiritual

and earthly goals. Shunning away from life will not lead to

spiritual enlightenment. According to Tagore,

“spirituality” means “living to the fullest”. It cannot be

attained through the blind faith or adherence to a set of

dogmas. It is possible only through self-realization.

Damini enables Sachish to realize himself and thus, Tagore

elevates Damini to the level of a “spiritual guru”.

Damini takes on the role of a true devotee, serves

him, and thereby facilitates his quest for truth. Damini is

grateful to Sachish for saving her soul from the passion of

  

the flesh and the imminent moral ruin thereby. She narrates

to Sribilas the incidents at the caves, and how she regards

the injury, she received from Sachish as sacred. Damini

wants to free Sachish. Then both Damini and Sribilas have

the identical interest of helping Sachish in his quest for

truth. Getting to know each other, and out of societal

compulsion, she marries Sribilas who is deeply in love with

her from the very beginning. They pass their days in the

ecstasy of delight, but not for long. She dies a little

more than a year after.

Although Damini appears to embody the idea of woman as

an enchantress, she does not remain confined to that

stereotype. Tagore lets Damini to develop according to the

logic of her own character and often seems to represent the

very idea of marital reality. She seeks liberation through

her relationship with a man because no other form of

freedom is possible within her mental horizon. However, she

is much more self-aware. Hence, she becomes Leelananda

Swami’s prime adversary.

Damini has the courage and intellectual independence

to stand up to Leelananda Swami. When he questions her need

to re-read the romantic books, she demands; “Your needs are

never questioned. Am I alone to be denied any needs of my

   

own?” (72). Through the narratives of Sribilas and Damini,

Tagore questions the institution of marriage. Sribilas-

Damini marriage is one of the most striking aspects of the

text’s modernity. In fulfilling the marriage of Damini,

Tagore breaks the convention of the then Hindu society,

which allowed the young widows turn to a secluded life in

Kashi or selfless service or in premature death. For one

thing, it is an instance of widow remarriage and it draws

dissension from the newspapers for this reason. It is also

an inter-caste marriage. It is a challenge to the social

taboos. Although Sribilas and Damini may face social

pressures, their own attitude remains liberal.

Sribilas’ understanding of her true self is greater

than the limits of this relationship. This is the truly

unusual feature of their marriage. Sribilas rejects the

institutionalized version of marriage, for he marries

without claiming the right to happiness. Because it is free

of such claims, the Sribilas-Damini marriage is free of

normative restraints. It is founded on truth. Damini can

love Sribilas and enjoy a happy marriage with him while she

is still in love with Sachish. This unconventional

understanding of love belongs to the twentieth century

  

because sociologically and psychologically this is a modern

concept. According to Dipanker Roy,

When Damini accepts Sribilas’s proposal of

marriage, she neither remains a mere widow an

‘unclaimed’ female-body of people like Purander –

nor an ideal feminine principle in the act of

creation as in the eyes religious fantasies. . .

but a ‘complete’ woman.(3)

Damini is an extraordinary creation by Tagore. She differs

from the protagonist in Binodini in that Damini is more

rebellious against customs and traditions and more

determined to establish a widow’s right to love and

conjugality. She asserts her individuality in her marriage

with Sribilas. She is the symbol of the social change and

advancement of women that had started taking place in the

early decades of this twentieth century. She is an

emancipated woman.

Tagore’s conceptualization of widow remarriage ends in

success in this novel, because, Damini the repressed wife

of Sivathosh is denied the right to conjugal life by her

husband, and Tagore has sanctified the womanhood of Damini

by this unconventional marriage with Sribilas. Tagore makes

Damini to reach the destination in the journey of

   

emancipated womanhood. Chaturanga can be considered as the

last novel of Tagore in which he boldly attacks the worn-

out idea of the Hindu traditional views on the institutions

of marriage and widow remarriage in particular. His

protagonist Damini represents the advent of

individualistic, emancipated New Woman of the upcoming

progressive new age.

Throughout Tagore’s lifetime, his perception of woman

was changing over time. There were fast changes in India

that inevitably left footprints in his writings. Tagore’s

changing concept of woman finds its fulfillment in the

creation of the character Sohini. Between the two

perspectives of Tagore as a romantic writer and as a

mystic, his visionary perspective is expressed in the prose

writings. In addition to the role of mother and lover, he

has unveiled another aspect of woman.

Tagore wrote the short story “The Laboratory” (1940)

in the twilight years of his life. It is an interesting

story about a typical emancipated modern woman. Tagore has

envisioned the ideal New Womanhood in the portrayal of the

protagonist, Sohini. Tagore creates Sohini as a model of

the modern woman of a self-assertive and independent nature

with a futuristic outlook who believes in women’s

  

empowerment. She is a woman with the social consciousness

of spreading scientific knowledge among the youth, which

she inherits from her husband.

Sohini is a Punjabi girl, twenty years old, with

sharp, bright eyes, and a lingering smile on her lips. She

has strong, beautiful features of a North Indian cast. As a

daughter of poor, underprivileged family, Sohini lives with

her grandmother. She has a magnetic personality. She walks

in a sari with a knife hidden at her waist. Once she comes

across a Bengali civil engineer Nandakishore, who has a

laboratory in Calcutta and has a passion for scientific

research.

In Sohini’s first meeting with Nandakishore, she tells

him what the local trading community thinks of him. As he

is a Bengali, has no sense of business, it is the Punjabi

traders will succeed. Sohini the shrewd woman estimates,

“Well, I found, that none of their intrigues worked” (SSS

263). Nandakishore is taken aback by her observation and

pleased to have come across such an intelligent girl. “The

spirit of her character comes shining from inside her. It

is clear that she knows her worth” (SSS 263).

With the request that Nandakishore should settle her

grandmother’s debt of seven thousand rupees, she proposes

   

to him. He is stunned by her daring approach. He agrees to

it and asks her what could be the reward for doing so. She

replies that she would always remain by his side and would

see to it that no one tries to cheat him, except herself.

Nandakishore laughs at this and gives his ring to wear as a

token of marriage. He saves her grandmother from selling

the house. Tagore seems to advocate a simple marriage of

contract and a marriage for which the bridegroom gives the

dowry to the bride. Through Nandakishore, Tagore suggests

that women should not be humiliated for their economic

dependence on men. Nandakishore makes an unconventional

marriage with Sohini, by breaking all the norms and

strictures of the society.

Here Tagore stresses the companionate marriage

hitherto unexpected in Bengali Literature. Woman as mother,

wife, mistress, and goddess are stereotyped. However,

friendship between husband and wife is first introduced by

Tagore in this short story. Nandakishore used to say, “An

engineer husband and a wife only a home maker minding the

kitchen are not acceptable. The knots that bind them are

not the same. I will make them uniform” (SSS 264). He

claims that he and Sohini belong to the same caste by

temperament. This is the only character in Tagore’s short

   

stories, where the woman selects her man. The man is not

the suitor. Even though Nandakishore knows that she is an

unchaste woman, he accepts Sohini not for her good looks

but for her emancipated personality. In Tagore’s words “The

situation from which Nandakishore had raised her was

neither secluded nor very pure. But this obstinate and

indomitable man cared nothing for society’s norms and

strictures” (SSS 264). They share a common faith. He makes

her also involve in his scientific research activities. She

is a woman with an individuality of her own. Nirmal Kumar

Sidhanta observes, “. . . Sohini, an unchaste woman,

according to conventional standards, a tower of strength to

the man of action she has chosen, faithful to his memory in

trying to build up the institution (Laboratory) he had

started” (18).

Equality of the sexes, casteless society, and mutual

faith between the couple in marriage, and profession and

position of power for women are the messages conceptualized

by Tagore through the characters Sohini and Nandakishore.

Their love is not restricted to a mere physical relation

between husband and wife. There is a bond of respect and

gratitude which takes their conjugal life to a higher

plane. Tagore has shown a remarkable understanding of a

   

woman’s psyche, perceives the injustice of an unequal

social structure, and advocates for gender freedom and

decision making power for women in the family and the

larger society. What Tagore realized has become a subject

of debate in the twenty first century and then it is

accepted that housekeeping should also be considered as a

job, which should be paid suitably by the husbands. Tagore

has gone into the crux of the problem several decades in

advance.

An accident that occurred in his laboratory while

doing a daring experiment leads to the sudden demise of

Nandakishore in his late middle age. Sohini has to close

down the laboratory, and face a number of litigations. She

gets back the possession of the laboratory after winning

all the cases using her charm and womanpower. In Tagore’s

times, The “Mitakara” school of thought was prevalent in

North India other than Bengal. It held that only male

descendent acquired the right to receive the ancestral

property and a widow without a son was entirely dependent

on the joint family for maintenance. Tagore was very much

concerned about the economic deprivations of widows on this

account. Tagore makes Sohini the New Woman to fight for her

husband’s property both legally and using her womanpower

  

and ultimately wins. Sohini not only uses her feminine

weapons whenever she needs to, more importantly applies her

analytical mind and sharp intellect. Sohini confesses: “How

else have women survived through the ages? Feminine wiles

need clever planning, just like the rules of battle; but of

course one need to top it up with some honey as well. That

is a woman’s natural fighting style” (SSS 268). Tagore

believes that by natural instinct women are creative and

graceful. Indeed Tagore approves the tricks women sometimes

employ. He names it as “woman’s strength”. He writes,

Of course, women do resort to deceptions that are

also another aspect of women’s strength. The

demands of men when they exceed the women’s

resources are often met by ruses and

machinations. (Tagore, Rabindra Rachnabali 21)

There is a similarity to the woman character of empowerment

portrayed by Namitha Gokhle (1956-) a modern Indian

feminist novelist. Criticizing Namitha Gokhle’s novels N.

M. Nigam observes: “Namitha Gokhle, in her novels, has

tried to illustrate how a woman can use her power to create

a space for her existence. She has shown two ways to

empower her womanhood. One is through female bonding and

another is by using her sexuality” (56).

   

The similarity of ideas obviously differentiates

Tagore from the conventional writers and explicates his

feminist consciousness. Though brought up in an orthodox

family, Tagore does not treat widows as a curse in the

society. He creates a space, even for a fallen woman to

look beyond the ordinary households. Tagore allows them to

participate not only in the freedom struggle, but paves a

way towards scientific temperament to aspire beyond the

ordinary restrictions.

Normally women, moreover, majority of widows, of

Tagore’s time does not find any pleasure in impersonal

ideas or in an existence of action detached from the daily

chores of life. While widows of Sohini’s age spend

thousands of rupees on the agents of various gods and

goddesses to ensure the souls of their husband’s enter into

heaven, she does not have any belief in such things. Here

Tagore indicts at the Hindu rituals of “Shraddha”, a

ceremony done in paying homage to the departed soul of dear

ones. As a true Brahmo, he does not believe in wasting the

human power and resources in the superstitious rituals. A

woman in Indian society is more obsessed with such rituals.

Instead, Sohini likes to spend the money in the development

of scientific research among the Indian youth in memory of

   

her husband, which could be the true tribute to her

husband’s soul. Tagore delineates Sohini as a

representative of ideal womanhood who withers all the

superstitious inhibitions, which tie up the Indian women.

This embodiment of Sohini is the little step towards

tapping the rational mindset among women. Tagore might have

thought that by making a widow to ridicule such hypocrisies

would make a powerful impact on the other widows.

Tagore creates Sohini as an awful woman who is

compassionate towards animals, unlike other ordinary women

who would sacrifice the animals in the name of religion.

Sohini treats the dog, which has broken its leg in a car

accident. She has a firm determination to build a hospital

for the lame and blind dogs and rabbits in the biology lab.

Sohini is full of affection. Sohini loves her grandmother

and she rushes to look after her during her illness,

leaving behind the laboratory. The tenderness and humanity

of Sohini make her a complete woman.

Sohini is not frail. She wants to spend every rupee of

the property on the laboratory. Finding a person to

continue the research in her husband’s laboratory has

become her sole aim in life. As a determined person she

does not allow any hindrance to thwart her mission. Through

  

Sohini’s allegiance to her dedication, Tagore portrays the

strong bond and loyalty of an exceptional lover.

He initiated her into the path of salvation

through learning. . . . The good that he saw in

me far outweighed the bad. Where he trusted me

most-a foundling like me-that’s one trust I’ve

never betrayed, and that I’m trying to maintain

still with my heart and soul. . . . I didn’t have

to go by the scriptures to play the devoted wife.

(SSS 284)

Sohini reveals herself as a devoted wife, but not as

exemplified in the Hindu scriptures. Tagore destabilizes

the traditional purity and virtuality assigned to a wife.

Here Sohini’s devotion towards her husband lies in her

prime duty to fulfill his aim and not merely in doing

ceremony. Tagore believes in the solemnity of marriage,

based on harmony and not on biased sacrifice and

possession.

Sohini’s beauty is permeated by intelligence. She has

the power of enduring pain as well as intellect. She is not

the ideal of womanly perfection in the conventional sense.

The ideal of chastity, which has always been held high in

the country, has not been her guiding principle. She is

 

prepared to flout it out, when that serves her purpose. She

confesses, “. . . women were not lifelong ascetics” (SSS

272). She hints that women “. . . have a tough time to keep

up their pretence. Draupadis and Kunthis have to pretend

like Sitas and Savithris” (ibid) of the Hindu epics. It is

bold statement not only about her but about womankind in

general. It is the society which has forced women to

suppress their physical desires and pretend indifference to

the sexual passions. Draupadi and Kunti are characters in

The Mahabharata the Hindu epic. Draupadi had five husbands.

Four different men were the fathers of Kunti’s four sons.

Tagore makes this reference through Sohini for the reason

that she has Nila an illegitimate daughter not born to

Nandakishore, thereby making the patriarchy, not to

denigrate Sohini’s womanhood. Interestingly, Kunti and

Draupadi are highly regarded in Hindu mythology because of

their other eminent qualities. Just like them Tagore wants

to posit Sohini in a high pedestal in the upcoming new age.

Through Sohini’s character Tagore envisioned a new age

where men would initiate women’s education and women would

contribute their might in social service like the

development of scientific research.

  

Sohini agrees that she might be impure in body, but

pure in mind. Her bad “desires and heaped-up sins” (SSS

272) are burnt on the funeral pyre of her husband. She

claims: “The sacrificial fire is burning right here in this

Laboratory” (SSS 272). Sohini’s courage in admitting her

weakness and her determination in carrying out the research

in the laboratory to accomplish the ambition of her husband

is a bold construction of Tagore. By Sohini’s plurality of

sex, Tagore attacks the men who practiced polygamy.

Sohini has a detached outlook towards her life and

role as an individual and dedicates herself in scientific

improvement. She defies the social restrictions imposed on

her as a widow. She does not succumb to the mere sentiments

of motherhood in fulfilling Nila’s wayward and wanton life

in enjoying Nandakishore’s property. She dares to unveil

Nila’s birth identity, which any ordinary woman will never

dream to do so. She reveals the fact that Nila is not

Nandakishore’s daughter and cannot inherit his property. An

illegitimate child is a disgrace for a mother. To admit her

sin in public is a challenge to the then contemporary

society. Tagore has intended to do that through Sohini.

Sohini does not behave as a conventional mother. Tagore

through Sohini announces to the womenfolk that a woman’s

 

identity lies not as a mother or a wife but as an

individual human being.

Tagore makes Sohini repeatedly declare that she is a

Punjabi woman who is determined to achieve her aim. She

will not spare even her own daughter if she is a hindrance

to her aspiration. She also announces that she is not a

Bengali woman to weep and stay quiet. By these comparisons

Tagore wants Bengali women to realize their individuality

and womanpower and to become emancipated like Sohini.

Sohini’s promiscuous daughter is diametrically

opposite to the idealistic, social conscious mother who

does not hesitate to violate all the traditional values for

the sake of science. Commenting on the story Tagore himself

has written, which Majumdhar quotes,

I have done it deliberately. . . . The episode

of. . . bodily affairs are secondary. Nila the

daughter will pass quite easily, but Sohini will

be difficult to accept. Yet I have shown with

emphasis the great difference, the mental make-up

between mother and daughter. (142)

The above statement clearly delineates his aim in creating

Sohini, a more powerful female character dear to his heart.

She represents the New Woman heralding the new age, who
  

challenges the conventions of the society. Tagore is quite

accustomed to the adverse criticism of his literary and

political thoughts by the Hindu Revivalists. Naturally, he

suspects that his Sohini belonging to the future world may

not be acceptable to the then prevailing conservative

society.

Tagore delineates a situation where the male character

is guided and controlled by womanpower. When Sohini strives

hard to bring Rebati Bhattacharya to continue the research

work in her husband’s laboratory, it is told that the aunt

who with her superstitious belief can prevent his

initiation towards research. In Tagore’s words, “You know

what matriarchal society means. The woman is superior to

man in such societies. The wave of that Dravidian culture

once flowed through Bengal” (SSS 267). Tagore, suggests for

a matriarchal system in lieu of patriarchy.

Sohini’s character speaks about using womanpower to

face the patriarchal suppression. Here the same womanpower

through Rebati’s aunt is a hindrance to his taking charge

of her husband’s laboratory. Her own daughter Nila’s

womanpower also has its own influence in distracting

Rebati’s research. Sohini makes it clear to Nila that she

would not allow her marriage with Rebati Bhattacharya.

  

Pishi the aunt in mother figure dominates and controls

Rebati. She stops the marriage of Nila and Rebati. Just

when Rebati is getting ready to marry, Pishima comes in and

calls, “Come with me Rebati, and Rebati like an obedient

boy follows her out. He did not look back for once” (SSS

269). By breaking the marriage, Sohini’s laboratory is

saved from wayward Nila. The matriarchal force of his aunt

wins at last.

Sohini is the prototype of Rabindranath Tagore’s

ideal, emancipated woman, who asserts her individuality and

wields power on men. From the feminist perspective,

Sohini’s character possesses the qualities of women of

Post-Feminism. Post-Feminism in Indian English Literature

is a byproduct of Western Liberalism in general and

feminist movement in particular.

Post-Feminist fiction is an attempt to achieve a

balance between the sexes by recognizing the bond

of symbiosis between men and women. With new

perceptions and attitudinal changes in society,

the impact of girl power has been recognized. . .

. Women are represented as more assertive, self-

assured and confident. Women claim an equal

footing with men. They voice forth Betty

  

Friedan’s feminist discourse in The Feminine

Mystique, ‘For women, as for man the need for

self-fulfillment, autonomy, self-realization,

independence, self-actualization is as important

as the sexual need’. (Tandon 97)

In the short story “Laboratory” Rabindranath Tagore has

depicted a new age where there is no more patriarchal

oppression. There is the reversal of role to that of

matriarchal force, where women gain the upper hand. Beyond

physical charm and chastity, a man attempts to perceive the

intelligence and spiritual beauty of a woman. A woman has

the choice of selecting her man. Equality of the sexes is

maintained. A mother and a daughter break all the social

conventions and values with regard to sexuality. Sohini the

protagonist is a rare woman character with a social

consciousness who violated all traditional values for the

sake of her idealism. As a widow, she regains her right to

the property of her husband through a legal battle. In

uniting individualism and idealism, Sohini is the New Woman

of Tagore. Considering the fact that this was his last

short story just a few months before his demise, it is

obvious that Tagore has envisioned the advent of Feminism

in Indian society by the creation of such a bold woman with

 

a futuristic outlook. She challenges the conservative

society, with the unconventional marriage, with her open

views on women’s sexuality and by her untraditional

devotion to her husband in carrying out his scientific

temperament. She stands on a higher pedestal than other men

and women. In creating Sohini, Tagore’s experimentation and

ideas for women comes to a complete shape.

In the selected short stories and a novel analysed in

Chapter Four under the title “Emancipated Women: The New

Women of Tagore”, it is observed how Rabindranath Tagore

has depicted his female characters as very bold,

courageous, assertive, self-reliant and conscious of their

identity. They are unconventional in the sense that they

are no longer passive, suppressed suffering women of the

traditional type. His emancipated women characters seem to

follow what Naomi Wolf, the later day feminist writer, who

writes in Fire with Fire (1983), “Women must give up what

she styles ‘victim’ feminism, stop complaining, and embrace

‘power’ feminism” (Walters 139).

Woman’s liberation from the sexually indifferent

husband in the story “Giribala”, Kalyani’s celibacy and

devotion to social work as a mission of her life and as a

way of protest against dowry system in “Woman Unknown”, the

  

asserting individuality of Mrinal in “Letter from a Wife”,

the determined widow Damini who achieves her right to love

and conjugality in Chaturanga, Sohini’s woman empowerment

to save her husband’s laboratory in “The Laboratory” are

all exemplary characters of Tagore as defined in the later

day Feminist ideologies. In these Fiction, Tagore’s women

protagonists come forward to maintain their equal rights

and positions in the society. They pose a challenge to men.

By rejecting the patriarchal influence, they refuse to be

humiliated. They come forward to educate themselves and

pursue a career. They rebel and revolt against the

patriarchy and come out victorious.

Tagore gives solutions to the problems of dowry,

sexual oppression, arranged marriage and suggests for

regaining individuality, freedom from the patriarchal set

up of the family system, and the need for women

empowerment, through the women characters of the selected

short stories and a novel analyzed in the Chapter Four.

Tagore’s creation of such emancipated women characters

several decades before the Feminist ideologies were evolved

goes to prove that Rabindranath Tagore was a harbinger of

Feminism far ahead of his time.