A Gender Analysis of the Representation of Women in the Works of Ila Arab Mehta with Special Reference to Her Novel Vaad
Introduction :
Gujarati has a rich heritage of literature which has flourished and developed well during various eras (starting from 12th century) mirroring the socio-political trends at the hands of literary talent in the form of a number of creative writers. Many literary genres were developed at the hands of these brilliant authors who tried to capture the drift of contemporary society along with hinting at the possibilities of change under the new developments. In the initial phase the literature was composed and developed by male writers solely and women writers appeared on the forefront only during the nineteenth century and enriched the literature with their special talent and fresh perspectives. Although their contribution is lesser in number still they have left a permanent mark on the literary spectrum through their artistic talent and their special contribution lies in their revolutionary viewpoints regarding the representation of women and their issues in literature. Many male writers have portrait some memorable women characters before them but the women writers opened up many up till now unexplored avenues in the illustration of women with a hint of shift in paradigm under the influence of changing social realities, rise of Feminism and Western influence. Through this paper I would like to analyse the transformation Gujarati literature has gone through after the arrival of women writers and conduct a comparative study of the portrayal of women in the fiction by male and female writes with a special focus on a famous Gujarati woman writer Ila Arab Mehta and her depiction of women in her fiction with a special case study of her novel Vaad.
Ila Arab Mehta (1938) is a Sahitya Akademi Award winning Gujarati writer who has contributed immensely to the field of literature in form of novels, short-story collections, essays and a number of radio and television plays. The spectrum of her literature is broad, reflecting her skills to understand human nature and her deep concern for many contemporary social and political issues especially the issues related to women and their subjugation. The credit to introduce the concept of ‘Feminism’ in Gujarati literature is normally given to Kundanika Kapadia and her novel Saat Pagla Akashma (1984) but it is a lesser known fact that even before Kapadia, Ila Mehta has already written a novel bearing traits of feminism titled Batris Putlini Vedana (1982) (which is recently adapted into a TV serial ‘Umbarne Pele Paar’ telecasted on Doordarshan). Although she does not write under the label of ‘feminism’ still her fiction often indicates her apprehension regarding the condition of women in our society along with implementing possible solutions to improve their position.
Thematic aspects of Ila Mehta’s Fiction :
Batris Putlini Vedana
Her novel Batris Putlini Vedana (1982) is a story covering lives of five women – Anuradha, Rekha, Chaya, Vinodini and Vibhavari who struggle to find their rightful positions in this world. The central character Anuradha was an emerging writer whose recent novel depicting the search of a widow for true love has created quite a stir in the literary world and her personal life as well and brought her fame for her courage to talk about the taboo subject. Anuradha was struggling to find a balance between her personal and professional life and her troubles were intensified when she received a lucrative offer by Shashtriji of ‘Arya Nari Heetvardhak Mandal’ to write a play about ‘Arya Nari’ (ideal woman) to be performed in various cities of the country. She was in a dilemma before accepting this offer due to her liberal thinking and awareness of the exploitation of women in the name of ideal womanhood still she accepted it for the sake of gaining fame. She decided to centre her drama on the theme of the Ramayana and during the course of the drama, she came in contact with the other four women who were playing various roles in the drama like Rekha as Kaikai, Chaya as Sita, Vinodini as Koishalya and Vibhavari as Manthra.
The drama brought them closer with a gradual revelation of their personal lives and troubles. Rekha’s helplessness of living a life under the constant supervision of her rich husband and her inability to help her sick mother, Chaya’s playing a double role of an educated, intelligent, confident Marketing Manager in her office and a meek, submissive wife in the house to sustain the harmony of her marriage, Vinodini’s guilt for not being able to conceive a child and her fake efforts to cover up her frustration through her cheerful nature, and Vibhavari, a successful actor, is unable to compromise on the moral ground for the sake of money and fame and in the end suffered from the separation from her husband who abandoned her for another woman. Through the drama and the various roles played by these women along with Anuradha’s revolutionary ideas, they all came to a self-realization that all their guilt and suffering was not due to the existing social structure and the expectations of society but due to their own inability to take control of their lives. They take a resolution at the end to take charge of their lives and begin a journey in search of their real identities without feeling guilt about it. At the end of the novel, all the women characters move on the stage and declare their collective decision in the following words,
Now let us end this drama and search for our true selves. We need to search for our world of love by being humans – a human for whom all the directions of development are wide open. Neither Goddesses nor Giantesses; let us remain as women. (Ila Mehta 176)
The title itself is symbolic in the sense that it tries to re-imagine the folk tale in a new light where instead of the 32 female statues trying to convince Raja Bhoj to deserve the throne of King Vikramaditya by praising the king’s virtues and bravery, the idols (in modern times) would like to be brave and virtuous themselves with independent spirit and an aspiration for power position.
Panch Pagla Pruthvi Par
This is a narrative of an educated and smart woman Anupa and her search for her identity in the world where the parameters of being worthy are different for both man and woman. Anupa’s willing choice to be a housewife soon turned into a nightmare with her realization of the fact that the highly demanding household work had no value as it could not generate money. As a result she decided to find a job and be financially independent to prove her worth against the wish of her family only to create chaos in her peaceful life. Her efforts to bring any positivity in the house proved to be futile and finally she had to leave her house to pursue her professional goals. Her hard work and intelligence came to her rescue and she was able to establish her career but her sense of frustration and guilt never allowed her to be at peace with herself. In the end she decided to give one chance to her husband when she noticed a positive change in his attitude towards her.
Vaad
This novel is a bold statement of the author in form of the representation of a woman from a minority group – a Muslim lady Fateema Lokhandwala and her struggle to cut and cross various ‘vaad’ (fence) of poverty, illiteracy, religious fanaticism and gender bias. Born in a poor family of Maajidbhai and Khatijabi in a small village of Saurashtra, Fateema could rise to the top of academic and professional avenues due to the parents’ constant encouragement, her own hard work and awareness. Despite many ordeals Fateema was able to receive higher education in the form of pursuing a Ph. D and later getting appointed as a Professor of History. She even decides to remain single to be able to support her family financially. For the sake of the fulfilment of her dreams, Fateema had to suffer a lot at personal level – extreme poverty, caste and gender discrimination, death of her siblings and later her parents, her brother’s involvement into terrorist activities etc. but being a strong minded person, she came out as winner at the end. Even then she had to face much difficulties and humiliation while looking for a house of her own in a residence of people with mixed religious faith but being a single Muslim lady, no builder was ready to sell house to her, especially in such locality. Still she was determined to cut and cross this final fence to establish communal harmony and the novel ends on a note of optimism that one day she would be able to achieve this goal.
In many of Mehta’s short-stories, the women centric themes get reflected with special focus on the dilemma of women in modern times related to the different roles they play and the issues they face while coping up with their circumstances. A story titled Kunti-Karna is an interesting re-telling of the Mahabharata tale in modern times. Chitra, a professional woman in modern times faced the same dilemma faced by Kunti while abandoning Karna. Kunti had to dispose of Karna to save her honour and to lead a respectful life of a queen while here Chitra decided to send her son Karan to a boarding school to save her aspiring career in absence of her husband’s support. The story beautifully narrates the subtle emotional upheavals in the mind of Chitra with the backdrop of the mythology to make us realize that even in modern period, women’s condition has not changed much and she still has to compromise at personal level for the sake of her professional goals.
In a story Shamik, tu shu kehse? an educated and career-oriented woman Yogini, who had been suffering from eve teasing and sexual abuse at the hands of her superior officer, finally decided to take the matter in her hands with her decision to buy a new pair of chappal without consulting her husband Shamik, even after financial problems, to be able to take action against her exploiter if needed. The central character of Hu Chu ne? decided to live life on her own terms after leading a subjugating life for years under the tyranny of her husband and found peace and relief in an independent life. Indu in the story Marginalized had faced many injustice at the hands of her family members and colleagues and had a sense of guilt for not being able to take any stand for herself in life and one fine day while recalling and analysing her past, she decided not to lead a marginalized life anymore and stand on her ground firmly with courage and confidence.
Analysis of the representation of women in Ila Mehta’s Fiction with Special Focus on Fateema (Vaad) :
Ila Arab Mehta has made an effort to understand the very core of female existence and has been successful in her endeavour of depicting highly appealing characters in her literature. Her women characters are educated and modern and they do expect their share of respect but they show maturity by not demanding their rights from anyone and rather prefer to earn them with their choices and attitude. They realize that only they are responsible for their life and honour and it is futile to expect anybody else to fulfil their desires. They exhibit maturity in their decisions regarding their personal lives and aspirations by trying to find a balance between the two, which is quite challenging, instead of taking refuge in the form of an extreme step of abandoning family for the sake of the fulfilment of their dreams. Their awareness and uncompromising spirit along with their ability to deal with their predicaments is quite praiseworthy.
Anuradha in Batris Putlini Vedana, for example, desires to be a famous writer but at the same time she is well-aware of the limitations of her circumstances and although she loses heart at times, she does not blame anyone and she continues her efforts in the direction of the fulfilment of dreams in every possible way. Even her friend Vibhavari who is a famous actress does not compromise on the moral values which costs her a separation from her husband still she faces the humiliation courageously without making efforts to convince him to return to her. Vibhavari exhibits maturity through her respecting her husband’s decision without blaming him or her fate. These women never lose their poise and though they are sensitive beings, they do not want to surrender to the societal pressure at the cost of their self-respect. As Ashis Nandy analyzes the condition of women in Indian society in his essay on Woman Versus Womanliness in India :
For the more sensitive woman, the challenge is nothing less than refining of herself. The first task that faces her is to devise means of de-emphasizing some aspects of her role in her family and society and emphasizing others, so that she may widen her identity without breaking totally from its cultural definition or becoming disjunctive with its psycho-biological distinctiveness...Indian women have paid terribly for Indian insensitivity, but they have also extracted a heavy toll from a society which has not yet learned to live with all aspects of womanhood. (42)
Anupa in Panch Pagla Pruthvi Par, is modern, intelligent woman whose awareness of her rights and her confidence and courage to fight for her status in society reflects the changing scenario where women want to prove their talent in the outer world to gain a more respectful position in the society instead of getting indulge in the monotonous and routine household tasks which can never bring them any respect. Although she abandons her husband for the sake of her self-respect, she does not hesitate to resolve their differences when he exhibits positive change in his behaviour and attitude realizing well the victimization of both men and women at the hands of patriarchy.
The women characters as appear in her short-stories also exhibit the modern independent stance of women as seen in our society. Chitra in Kunti-Karna, Yogini in Shamik, tu shu kehse? and Indu in Marginalized are middle-class, educated women well-aware of their subjugation inside and outside their houses but unlike earlier generation women who would prefer meek submission, they decided to take the command of their lives and dreams in their hands without any expectations for help from any outside sources. They feel that they themselves are sufficient to fight for their rights as it is primarily their own concern.
Ila Mehta’s most radical character appears in her novel Vaad which sets a benchmark in the matter of theme and character portrayal. The central character Fateema brings to light the uncharted world of Muslim women and their struggle to find their rightful position in this world. Fateema exhibits the traits of a futuristic Muslim woman who is educated, career-oriented, objective in her outlook and aware of her rights and ready to undertake any number of difficulties for the sake of them. Her courage and ever fighting spirit despite unfavourable circumstances are quite commendable. But the actual success of the writer is not in the narration of the life and struggles of a Muslim girl but the choices she let her character make to stand with her head high in the society while fighting for her rightful position. Her decision to remain single is also inspired by her dream of an independent life where she could support her parents morally and financially as she is well aware of the condition of married Muslim women.
Along with that the changing mentality of society towards women gets reflected here where although poor, Fateema’s family encourages her to pursue education and be financially independent. All these aspects are signs that how women are changing, they themselves are now conscious about their lives and career and they prefer to be independent in every sense and for these reasons have started crossing the fence of domestic walls. They are not ready to play passive roles and prefer to take full charge of their lives and decisions. Fateema’s character bears a clear sign of this changing trend along with her parents’ optimistic approach towards educating girls reflects the changing mentality of minorities who seem to have realized that education is the key to salvation. Even the most impressive trait of Fateema’s character is that although she has faith in Islam, her faith never transforms into religious fanaticism as she is quite open-minded and reverent towards all the religions due to her exposure to the books of history and religion as well as her upbringing in a small village amidst the people of all faiths. This element of her character indicates the need of the time where the world has been facing the burning issue of ‘Terrorism’ which can be solved only through education and open-mindedness. Promilla Kapur, a sociologist, analyzes the change as following
With a change in women's personal status and social status has come a change in her way of thinking and feelings and the past half century has witnessed great changes in attitudes towards sex, love and marriage. (4-5)
The novel mirrors the current feminist ideology which takes into consideration the issues of women from minority groups and brings forth their life situations. The situation, the characters and their choices are all rooted in reality as they are based on the real life experiences of women. Even Fateema’s character is based on a real person whom the writer happened to know and out of her experiences, Ila Mehta could create this character. While sharing her experience of creating Fateema’s character, Ila Mehta said
I wanted to portray a homogenous Indian Muslim woman without getting into the religious and communist diversities and so I could think of Fateema in this light with the holy Koran in one hand and in the other hand holy books of other religions. A woman who is open minded and that is Fateema. (Mehta, 2020)
Thus, a radical transform in the character portrayal based on reality and not on the earlier Utopian concepts can be seen in the writings of contemporary women writers and their vision of autonomous, well-balanced and powerful woman characters are well received and cherished by the readers as well. While analysing the shift in paradigm in the regional literature Meena Shirwadkar has aptly noted
The writers in these languages came out rapidly from the shadow of historical romance and presented the reality of the life of woman. So, the woman, the family, and the writers' views were all changing, resulting in a variety of realistic images. (24)
Comparative analysis of the treatment of women by contemporary and formal male and female writers :
The treatment of women characters by male and female writers in Gujarati fiction has passed through different concepts, phases and influences. At the initial stage, the fiction writers (both male and female) reflected an idealized image of the woman moulded under the mannequin of wifehood and motherhood. Stereotypical notions of womanhood were presented with glorified images of women as all powerful goddesses or ever sacrificing and caring mothers without taking into consideration the real traits of women. Kumkum Sangari and Sudesh Vaid in Recasting Women : Essays in Colonial History talk of the same trend as,
...we need to see how woman and womanhood are inserted into, and affected by social change, and how change is made to appear as continuity. That is, the ideologies of women as carriers of tradition often disguise, mitigate, compensate, contest, actual changes taking place. Womanhood is often part of an asserted or desired, not an actual cultural continuity. (17)
In Gujarati novels by male writers (although many of them have written excessively about the world of women) the women characters are shown to reflect the male psychology or desire instead of having their real personality traits. Many male writers have created outstanding women characters who do promise radical change in the portrayal of women in fiction initially but later these characters prefer to surrender to the traditionally accepted roles for the sake of family and social peace. Even the female characters are often portrayed in extreme shades – either fierce or meek in their disposition and both these images are far removed from reality. Dr. L. Thara Bhai notes,
At times she is considered as Goddess Shakthi and at times she is considered as personification of evils. This contradictory nature of the stereotype formation is still perplexing the woman study scientists. In the same culture contradictory stereotypes are available which are the manifestations of attitude of society towards women. (54)
For example, Kumud in Saraswatichandra (1887-1901) by Govardhanram Tripathi (1855-1907) is presented as an ideal image of womanhood who is although educated, bears all the injustice meekly to represent the glorified image of an ‘Arya Nari’ while Guman, Saraswatichandra’s stepmother is depicted as a wicked and manipulative character lacking any feminine qualities like kindness and compassion. While her head strong approach, ability to voice her feelings openly and manipulate others which are otherwise positive qualities, if found in men, are considered negative due to her gender. Manjri and Minaldevi in Gujaratno Nath (1917) and Patanni Prabhuta (1916) respectively by K. M. Munshi (1887-1971) reflects the traits of modern women who are educated, heroic, liberal minded and self-dependent but at the end they too chose the tradition over modern for the sake of social acceptance.
These famous characters do create an illusion of a futuristic image of women yet they ultimately turn out to be submissive and stereotype. In words of Ravindra Parekh
...her character is developed to bring alive the author’s imagination and her progress is suffocated when the author interferes...the injustice done to the ‘image’ of woman at the hands of male writers is greater than the injustice done to the ‘image’ of man by woman writers. (42)
Such glorifying images of women are far away from reality and instead of setting the right role models for them, they have done a great injustice to them at personal level with such high moral standards which at times seem almost impossible to follow resulting in frustration in women. A. K. Singh has aptly said,
Her glorification as a dutiful wife may lead to her murder in private or as sati in public,...for she does not live but exists on the terms of others. These terms become thick layers on herself. (122)
But the emergence of women writers on the horizon of Gujarati literature conveyed newer standpoints and connotations of gender roles in literature with the portrayal of confident, liberal minded, sensible and mature women characters. We rarely come across women characters having these characteristics in the fiction by male writers who mostly create archetypal women characters in light of traditional social expectations. Whereas the women writers of Gujarat imagine and depict women who could step out of the boundaries of gender and who prefer to have their identity based on their qualities and skills rather than the already existing gender construct of society.
With better opportunities of education and liberal thinking, the emerge of Feminist movement in the West in early twentieth century, advocating women’s rights and equal status in social, economical and political spheres, forced to divert the trend towards the portrayal of women in light of new values and the female voice was heard with special concern in society as well as literature. Prominent women writers like Dhiruben Patel, Kundanika Kapadia, Saroj Pathak, Varsha Adalja, Ila Mehta, Himanshi Shelat etc. obtained a rebellious tone thus bringing a drastic transformation in the representation of woman characters who are well aware of their rights, demand equality and respect, are independent decision makers and ready to face any challenge.
These writers have peeped into the inner world of their women characters and brought forth the most hidden and formidable issues and dilemmas faced by women in society. They have tried to challenge the roles pre-decided by the society and family for women and made their women characters step out of them in search of their true identity. One fundamental disparity between the female characters found in the literature by both male and female writers is that the woman characters in fiction by male writers often exhibit tendencies like anxiety, fear, stress, anger in difficult situations and pose as meek creatures seeking men’s help to survive. While women found in fiction by female writers are more calm and composed, mentally stable, emotionally balanced and confident during hard times. The women writers too present women within the tradition bounds but their position is more aspirant with an anticipation of an alternative life. They do suffer consequences in their quest for selfhood and they do possess traditional character traits but they are more liberated even within the margin with a sense of awareness and control. Due to the difference in the physical, social, psychological experiences and status, women writers’ writings are different from their male counterparts considerably.
Let us analyze some of the radical female character portrayal by women writers. The character of Vanamala in Vanamalani Diary (1924) by Lilavati Munshi (1892-1978) is a tale of a high class girl’s downfall in life with her turning into a theatre actress during the course of her life but her ability to accept and adjust to the new situation is commendable. Ranna in Dhiruben Patel’s (1926) Shimlana Phool (1976) takes a bold step to walk out of her loveless marriage, Sita in a short-story Madadgar by Varsha Adalja (1940) takes the matter pertaining her exploitation in form of domestic violence in her own hands and murders her husband to get rid of him without waiting for any saviour, Vrunda and Loveline in Saroj Pathak’s (1929-1989) novel Time Bomb (1987) both exhibit modern trends where Vrunda decides to liberate her husband from his duties as a husband on realizing his affair with Loveline while Loveline does not want to invest emotionally in any relationship with men to save herself from being exploited, Ba in Himanshi Shelat’s (1947) short-story Badatrana Bij shines out bright despite her insensitive attitude towards her family as she emerges as a strong woman who is not ready to accept her husband’s illegitimate relationship with other woman, in Mira Yagnikni Diary (1992) by Bindu Bhatt (1954) the author depicts a lesbian relationship of the central character Mira with her friend Vrunda in a bold manner without any sense of embarrassment.
Kundanika Kapadia (1927-2020) has created a range of the most revolutionary characters in Gujarati literature especially in her award winning novel Saat Pagla Akashma (1984) like Vasudha, Sumitra, Anna, Vasanti etc. who are uncompromising in their demands for equality and respect and the rebellious flow of these characters has an extensive impact on the minds of the readers. But these characters seem staunch in their demands and they end up taking extreme steps of abandoning their family to fulfil their dreams. Their refuge in discarding their personal life to achieve their self-identity seems more like a fairy tale as the writer does not have considered the practical aspect of women’s life in society where such acute decisions are not always viable. In Amina Amin’s views,
However, freedom for women also brought in its trace diverse conflicts both at the familial and the social levels. If women had to utilize their education, intelligence, ambition and decision-making capacity in the outside world, they still could not discard their century-long image of self-sacrificing, self-effacing creatures whose sole aim was to keep their family from breaking apart. (145-146)
In her rebelliousness, Kapadia makes a classic error of judgement made by many of the male writers who although do not hesitate to depict issues concerning women at all levels but while finding solutions for them, they prefer to take refuge in the traditional way by either bringing a dramatic shift in circumstances with a sudden optimistic turn of the story or by creating an fantasy world (almost Utopian) and letting their characters take refuge there. Such tricks are applied by male writers to save themselves from facing the naked reality of life. Some women writers have also fallen into the same trap (Vasudha’s stay at Anandgram in Kapadia’s Saat Pagla Akash ma, Vrunda’s decision to abandon her husband and elder son for the sake of her mentally challenged daughter in Adalja’s Khari Padelo Tahuko etc.) but apart from few such examples, women writers show their female characters struggling to find their self and identity while facing the societal pressure and fulfilling family responsibilities.
Through the analysis of the fiction by Gujarati women writers and their portrayal of women characters, one thing gets clear that there is no single truth for women, but many truths. As subjects, women become the deplorers of alternative discourses who manipulate normative signs, create new spaces, and exercise agency. In order to create newer categories of gender, the writers dwell upon the ongoing resistance towards the construction of identity in radical way that characterizes the lives of women with various dimensions of reality which gives rise to the literature of the new era reflecting the possibility of the portrayal of unconventional yet real women characters who can challenge and alter the traditional patterns with her resistance and self-confidence.
Bibliography
Pratixa Chandrakant Parekh, Dolat-Usha Institute of Applied Sciences and Dhiru-Sarla Institute of Management & Commerce, Valsad. pratixa81@gmail.com