THE INNER COURTYARD

Lakshmi Holmstrom, ed. London:Virago, 1990.

by Roshan Shahani

Somewhere in our Scriptures it has beensaid: "With systematic regularity, a manshould beat his Drum, his Donkey, hisSlave and his Wife, in order to keep themunder control and in working order." Inthis recently published collection of shortstories by Indian women called The InnerCourtyard (Lakshmi Holmstrom, ed.), theIndian woman is portrayed not only as avictim of these "beatings" enjoined byreligion and tradition,but she is often seento revolt against the patriarchal world­order and to redefine her own space.

The title-The Inner Courtyard--sug-. gests several meanings. It signifies, on theone hand, the secluded, restricted life ofthe Indian woman who is physically andfiguratively relegated to the inner recessesof the patriarchal household. Many of thestories, especially those set in an earlierperiod, are actually located in this all­women's enclave. Even those with a morecontemporary setting present the womanas being closeted within the kitchen, thebedroom or the immediate neighbour­hood so that her contact with the outsideworld is limited by well-defined bounda­ries, by the traditional Lakshmanrekha(the line drawn by Laxman demarcatingthe boundary beyond which Sita was for­bidden to cross). On the other hand, acounterpoint to the claustrophobiaoftheseconstrained lives is also provided, for theinner courtyard provides a sense of inti­macy, a sharing ofexperience among thewomen, and the solaceoffemale bonding.Finally, the courtyard symbolizes the pri-

vate spaces of the woman's mind, theinner regions of her psyche, the regionwhere she struggles with herself andagainst the world.

The writers in this imaginatively as­sembled collection come from diversecultures and regions of India, thereby au­thenticating the diversity of patterns ofliving and thinking. Furthermore,Holmstrom has includedboth stories writ­ten originally in English, and others whichhave been translated from various Indianlanguages-Tamil, Marathi, Hindu, andUrdu. This provides the reader with anunderstanding of the variegated patternsof living in the Indian context, and of therealities of India's multilingual andmulticultural situation. A new perspec­tive is also provided by the inclusion ofdiasporic writing which often draws uponthe experience of migration.

A wide time frame is covered in thiscollection of stories. For instance, at oneend of the spectrum is a story written in1938 and set in a still earlier period-theturn of the century; at the other end is onewritten in 1989 and presumably set in thatdecade. Cultural, spatial, and temporaldifferencesperceived in these stories serveto present the complexity and contradic­tions of what it means to be an 'Indian'woman. The protagonist, the author, andfinally even the reader cannot clearly andreadily respond or correspond to fixednotions of 'Indianness.' What this collec­tion of fiction does serve to define, is thisvery fact that a stereotyping of the Indianwoman must give way to a more con­scious awareness of the inevitable multi­plicity of a society that speaks over 16languages and practises over eight reli­gions. Besides, in a country which con­tains overlapping worlds ofexperience­the rural, landless peasantry co-existingwith the sophisticated 'westernized' class,

mind-boggling affluence with stark pov­erty, traditional orthodoxy with Naxalitel

activity, faith in computer technology withan equally fervent belief in astrology­the ambiguity and contradictions of whatconstitutes the Indian woman becomemore and more apparent

The confusing realities of these inter­woven worlds and their impact on theprotagonists, along with the specificitiesofthe Indian socio-political developmentslike colonialism, independence, partition,and migration, form thebackdrop to manyofthe stories. Hence, even while they dealwith individual growth, or loss, or tri­umph, these stories become the collectivehistories of women scattered all over thisvast land. Many of the themes that domi­nate-mother-daughter relationships,marital discords, problems of spinster­hood, the woman's struggles against so­cial evils-although 'universal' in theirimplications, are rooted in the specificityofgeography and the history ofthe Indiansoil. This makes the Indian reader moreconsciously aware of what is already fa­miliar because she is treading on'homeground', even though thathomeground covers such an immenseexpanse. The western reader's responsemay perhaps differ, for, to many, it is anunfamiliar world that unfolds itself-theissues raised and the problems discussedvery remote from the ones she might haveto deal with in the western milieu, and yetlinked together by a common interest andconcern.

One of the themes that predominatesthroughout the collection is the theme ofmarriage in all its ramifications. The"uni­versally acknowledged truth" is that asingle girl in want of a husband becomesa burden that the entire family has toshoulder. The consequences of lonelyspinsterhood, of the family's loss ofrepu-

100 CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIES/LES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME

tation, ofhumiliation are threats that loomlarge over the characters in many of thestories, reflecting a very 'normal' situa­tion in a society which even today doesnot offer many viable alternatives or pos­sibilities to the unmarried woman. This isseen in Ismat Chugtai's powerful story"Chauthi Ka Jaura,,2 and in ShamaFutehally's "The Meeting."

The celebration of the birth ofa son andthe corresponding lament at the birth of adaughter are also ingrained attitudes inthe Indian psyche, and so internalized bywomen themselves thateven theprolongedbattles against these notions do not seemto have changed attitudes very radically.The media plays a contradictory role.Conscious, albeit clumsy, attempts havebeen made by Doordarshan (the govern­ment-controlled national television net­work) to change these time-honoured con­cepts; at the same time, television com­mercials and Hindi box-office ftlms aresubliminallyentrenchingthese hide-boundorthodoxies. Read in this context, MrinalPande's "Girls" and VishwapriyaIyengar's "The Library Girl" assume arelevance and importance far beyond theirimmediate contexts. In fact, Pande is her­self a media person and her views onIndian feminist issues have played a vitalrole in the contemporary situation.

At the same time, the overall picture ofthe lives of these girls and women doesnotappear totally gloomy and defeatist. Asilent, if silenced, protest and subversivesupport emerge among the women-folk,even though they know that they are help­less against a world that defmes them andwhich they never helped to defme. Thereare stories where the very buffeting by themale world-order instinctively draws thewomen together in forming a support sys­tem of their own. Of course, most of thesituations are set within the family-fold,hence this is not an active, vocal, organ­ized support system; it is always hidden,covert, intuitive, whether between sib­lings as in "Chauthi Ka Jaura", betweenmother and daughter as in "The LibraryGirl", orbetweengrandmotherand grand­daughter, as in Kamala Das's "SummerVacation" and Shashi Deshpande's "MyBeloved Charioteer." Maternity, mater­nal tenderness, sympathy for thegirl-childor the grown daughter emanate throughmost of these stories, except perhaps in"Girls," where the women have so inter-

VOLUME 13, NUMBER 1

nalized the male desire for son and heirthat they vent theirown frustrations on thegirl-child; victims themselves, they vic­timize their own kind. In contrast to thisstory is Ambai's (C.S. Lakshmi) "YellowFish," which depicts a mother's mourn­ing for the loss of her newborn girl.

While, therefore, different and varyingportraits of womanhood appear throughthis collection ofeighteen stories, it is notmere coincidence that there is not a singleone among them that portrays the male ina positive or supportive role. Atbest, theyare helpless, shadowy, figures; at worst,belligerent, tyrannical, and in two of thestories, brutally cruel. LalitambikaAntarjanam's "Revenge Herself' andMahasveta Devi's"Draupadi"are exposesof a violent and turbulent world. Thesetwo stories dramatize the sexual violenceand the brute force of the male againstwhich the woman has to contend. Theprotagonists in both stories emerge fromthe inner courtyard into the raw world,and even while in the eyes of the worldthey are 'fallen' women, they emergetriumphant for they fight to live on theirown terms. In most of the other stories,one perceives the underlying socio-politi­cal forces at work beneath the personaldimensions; in these two stories, how­ever, the socio-political situations formthe very raison d' etre of the narratives."Revenge Herself' is based on an actualevent in the late nineteenth century, whena woman from the Nambudiri Brahmancaste in Kerala left her unfaithful husbandto become a prostitute. At her trial sheargued that her partners in prostitutionshould be excommunicated along withher for they were equally guilty.

Mahasveta Devi's "Draupadi," setagainst the Naxalite movement of theseventies, challenges middle class moral­ity to the core of its being. Draupadi, thepeasant woman who has played an activerole in the peasant revolt, is caught andrepeatedly raped by the police. Her namehas obvious ironic implications, for, un­like the mythic world ofour epics, there isno Krishna who can work miracles topreserve the woman's modesty. There is,however, double irony here. This peasant.woman will not even invoke the gods'mercy. It is her own inherent dignity, herwomanly pride and her indomitable cour­age that are her weapon, her protectionand her religion.

One enters a radically different, none­theless equally real world in the storieswhich depict transnational and cross-cul­tural encounters, leading to confusion andconflict in the lives of the women con­cerned. Attia Hosain's "The First Party,"set in the colonial period, depicts a youngwife's uneasy encounter with the free,unrestrained worldoftheburrasahibs andmemsahibs. The tension in this story isprovided by the fact that the very tradi­tions of the orthodox world from whichthe bride has come inhibit her from beingable to protest freely against the alien'western' world, even though this worldmakes her feel uneasy and miserable. Asimilar juxtaposition of two worlds isperceived in Anjana Appachana's "HerMother". This is the story of immigra­tion-the parting ofways between a teen­age daughter and aging mother. In a cul­turewhere thedaughter traditionally leaveshome only as a bride, but which is increas­ingly seeingthephenomenon ofgirls leav­ing for the western world, never to 're­turn' in the true sense of the term, thisstory holds meaning and relevance to thecontemporary Indian situation. The mainpurpose of these stories is to authenticatethe bewilderment of those women whohavebeen frrmlyrooted in one cultureandcannot and will not slip easily into an­other.

At the other end of the spectrum is theexperience of displacement felt by thewhite woman who has adopted India asher homeland. Rukshana Abmad's ''TheGate-keeper's Wife" draws upon this situ­ation; thekindand compassionate Annettefmds that her humane understanding ofthe pathetic plight of the animals in anIndian zoo has made her ignore the worseconditions of the poor and the hungry.However, this is not a satiric portrait of amodern-day memsahib; our criticism ispre-empted by the Indian husband's mock­ery whereby he makes his wife bear theburden of the colonial past, and "rub[s] inthe entire guilt of white nations into hersoul. ..."

It is in "Birthday Deathday," written byPadmaH~madi(adiasporicwriter~e

Appachana and Abmad), that a tentativereconciliation between the eastern andwestern worlds is made possible. Thestory suggests that the protagonist whohas rebelled against tradition comes to thesame understanding as her traditionally

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married sister. Her insight comes pain­fully on her "death day." Implicit is thesuggestion that she has to be attuned to thewisdom she has left behind in her oldhomeland and must recover it through apainful struggle.

The concluding story in this collection,"Dusty Distance," is by Suniti Namjoshi,yet another diasporic writer. The desire ofthe Blue Donkey to be a writer is held inscorn by the male poet whose aggressive­ness and magnificent confidence frightenher away. Next she encounters a BeautifulLady who loves poetry but cannot under­stand "Blue Donkese" and although theBlue Donkey protests vehemently thatshe writes in English the Lady insists thattheir two worlds are very different­"What have a Lady and a donkey in com­mon?" and the donkey turns away rue­fully into the "dusty distance."

This fable serves as a comment on TheInner Courtyard. These voices-all In­dian, all women, speaking in multitudi­nous tongues, articulating manifold expe­riences, might not belong to the Highwayroad of the "Poet" or the "immaculatewoods" of the "Beautiful Lady". Yet­whether, they speak English or "BlueDonkese", these writers will not "sadlyretrace" their steps into the "dusty dis­tance." Instead, they will speak insist­ently from that distance, whether or notthey are heeded.

1The Naxalite Movement was a peasantuprising in 1972atNaxalbari in Bengal. Itwas supported by communist revolution­aries, and was followed by similar upris­ings elsewhere.2Chauti Ka Jaura is the dress worn on thefourth day ofwedding celebrations. Itwasbelieved that during the preparation of thetrousseau, if even one piece of the elabo­rate dress was cut inexactly, somethingwould go wrong with the marriage.

GENDER AND TRffiE:WOMEN, LAND ANDFORESTSINJHARKHAND

Govind Kelkar & Dev Nathan. NewDelhi: Kali for Women, 1991.

by Sujata Ramachandran

This interesting study documents the gen-

der role transformations that occur in atribal society, and the formation of patri­archy in the present context the continu­ing loss ofcontrol over land and forests onthepartoftheJharkhandadivasis(tribals).It further looks at their resistance to thischange in the form of a political move­ment for a Jharlchand state. The authorscontrast the greater political and manage­ment participation of women in foragingtribes (as the Birhor) with the lesser posi­tion of women in the mainly agricultural­ist tribes (as Santhal, Ho, Munda andOraon). Kelkar and Nathan argue that theintroduction of settled agriculture withinthe tribal situation had led to thepropertylessness of women, and ensuredpatrilocality and the politicalmarginalization of tribal women.

They claim that the origins of male

dominance are connected with the strug­gle to control women's labour and theproducts of women's labour, not neces­sarilythelabourofreproduction,butwom­en's labour as a whole. Thus, thesubordi­nation of women precedes the formationofclass society, in the conventional sense.The seeds ofgender inequality have beenpresent in adivasi society, although not ina developed form of full control over allaspects of a woman's existence as foundin caste/class society. Itis, however, in theinteractionofJharlchandi society with stateformations of the plains-initially withthe Mughal Raj and much more so withBritish colonialism-that this society hasevolved in the direction of patriarchy. Inthis context, the evolution of patrilineal

rights and the riseofvarious taboos againstwomen's participation in some key typesoflabour such as ploughing are discussed.The study also considers the growingphe­nomenon of witch hunting as an attemptto establish the authority of men. Genderinequality has gradually extended to gen­eral social life and the authors cite theexample of the following joke to reflectprevalent attitudes. "Why do women useboth hands to wash their face and menonly one?" The answer is, "Becausewomen have two lords, singabonga andtheir husbands."

As yet, women in these tribes have notbeen completely devalued. The alienationof women's labour within the family isstill partial, owing to the continuation offorms of communal property in land, theimportance of gathering, and women'scontrol over consumption and income.However, further development along thesame patriarchal lines, the introduction ofcapitalism, and the rapid destruction ofnatural resources in the Jharkhand regionwould destroy the existing rights of theadivasi women and result in a situation nodifferent from that which comes about in"mainstream" society. The authors con­clude that if the ecological balance of theregion is to be maintained and the patriar­chal intent checked, then economic andother activities have to be organized onthe basis of the community, and landrights given to individual women, as wellas men, through allocation of means ofproduction.

WESTERN WOMENAND IMPERIALISM:COMPLICITY ANDRESISTANCE

Edited by Nupur Chaudhuri andMargaret Strobel. Indiana: IndianaUniversity Press, 1992

by Davina Bhandar

Western Women and Imperialism: Com­plicity and Resistance, edited by NupurChaudhuri and Margaret Strobel, is a di­verse collection of essays detailing the

102 CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIES/LES CAlITERS DE LA FEMME