Intersecting Marginalities in Attia Hosain’s Sunlight on A Broken Column
Abstract:
Attia Hosain’s keen perception and association with the past brings to fore the squalid reality of patriarchal exploitation and marginalised position of women in the context of everyday experiences. Sunlight On A Broken Column situates women politically and traditionally away from the centre on the periphery. The narrative through the autobiographical mode observes Laila the main protagonist’s struggle between tradition and liberty. The paper would focus upon the social and cultural reality of the colonial and post colonial era that was to impact Laila and her family. To be a woman and postcolonial would both imply double marginalisation whereby the forces of social patriarchy and political authority are pitted against as well. The novel poses the question of gender and class. As Hosain tries to feature the Talukdars as clannish leaders who evolved both socially and politically, the novel projects the debate of colonial hegemony and gender oppression across three generations of a family. It addresses through Laila’s existence the problem of growth and development and search for an identity in a set social structure. Hosain’s depiction renders one into the closed circles of these elite households which are shaped by the agenda of cultural misrepresentations of the colonised influence. The paper would analyse how Laila’s position between restriction and freedom intensifies her quest for identity in the context of the other young women and their lives. Finally, it would examine her triumphant movement towards individuality and fulfilment.
Keywords: Marginalisation, Patriarchy, Post colonial, Tradition, Liberty, Oppression, Gender, Class, Identity, Individuality
Sunlight on a Broken Column is a notable text that deals with a feminist thought in a postcolonial society. The novel brings to fore through its multiple plot lines the aspects of feudalism, patriarchy and colonialism into play that allows the question of identity and existence into being.
The novel is a first person narration by the main protagonist Laila. The main focus of the novel is Patriarchy, Feudalistic dominance and to an extent the effect of Partition and it is projected mainly through Laila’s family as an aristocratic Muslim Taluqdar family. In the beginning of the story Laila is introduced as an orphan and a young girl of fifteen years who lives with her aunts and grand -father. She seemed confident and forth coming in her mannerisms.
The novel has feudalistic and patriarchal influence as Laila and her cousin Zahara are brought up in a traditional and orthodox way. They abide Purdah culture and do not maintain contact with the outside world. These feudalistic forces come into alive with Laila having come across Ameer. It brings to fore the conservative forces build across economic disparity, class distinctions and patriarchy. However, Laila combats the hostile forces to practise her ways.
The story is laid in the colonial era and the beginning of the twentieth century when the country continued with a marginalised identity under British imperialism. The state of women is delineated in Laila’s observation that “Zahra and (she) felt (their) girlhood a heavy burden” (p14). The statement enforces the women centric theme of the novel in entirety. The factors of colonialism and patriarchy paired with feudalism offered challenges towards strengthening the position of women and pushed them towards a marginalised living and a burdened existence in the society. Hossain gives the patriarchal construction of the Muslim society in the novel with its generalisations on the normative structures of the Indian society.
The novel, further in the vein of a postcolonial feminist narrative makes a representation of women in India as a colonised state. Ideally, Laila with her freedom of thought would freely want to resist the dominance of the colonial power but would not be able to do so readily, being a woman and oppressed under patriarchal forces. The situation becomes quite evident under uncle Hamid’s dominant assertion and feudalistic support of colonisation “You must know that freedom of action must be controlled until the mind reaches maturity and one’s powers of judgment are fully developed. (p.160), Laila under these circumstances observes being subjected to double marginalization. She discerns the sense of being an ‘other’ not only as a colonized object but also as a woman. Here the oppressor is none other than her own uncle who as a matter of fact is colonized himself. But if she were to interpret her status she is rendered marginalized both colonially and patriarchally. The novel portrays in terms of the women characters such a double marginalization that in turn inflicts silence on the social, cultural and political specificities of a woman’s existence.
Hosain in the course of the narrative treats an important aspect such as education as an anti-colonial discourse. Baba Jan in the spirit of a feudal patriarch asserts education to bring reformation in his community and to use it as a tool against the colonial powers. He sends both his sons abroad to expose them to the western learning. The narrative projects his motive in an explicit manner as:
At the end of the last century Baba Jan had been influenced by ideas of reform among Muslims and had sent his sons to English universities. He had thought the weapons of foreigners should be used against them to preserve inherited values and culture. To copy their way was abhorrent to him. (p.86)
But with respect to women in the family he retained the outlook of a domineering and traditional feudalistic patriarch as they were subjected to learning not beyond the religious and cultural mode. It was functionally imperative to maintain the role of a Muslim woman dictated by the socio-cultural and religious constructs. The traditional uncle Mohsin comments upon the expected role of women with an admirable reference to Zahra while hinting with an abhorrent scorn at the “memsahib education” of Laila -“She has read the Quran, she knows her religious duties; she can sew and cook, and at the Muslim School she learned a little English, which is what young men want now.”(p.24). He insinuates quite thoughtlessly the decisive approval of patriarchy about the pattern of women’s education and conduct in the society. Such a structure inadvertently directs at keeping them marginalized due to lack of liberty and freedom to decide for themselves. Laila has been consciously observant of her position as well as of the other women around her, but it is her cousin Zahra who, despite growing up alongside Laila exhibits an adaptive and assimilative approach towards the arbitrariness of such a cultural construct. She maintains in a state of agreement that “I was brought up to do my duty” (p.147). Zahra was aware of her position at the periphery further on account of being an orphan and a dependent in the family. Her position becomes weak against Laila who also being an orphan is still privileged as she would receive her father’s inheritance. Hence for Zahra, she would have to do as her duty what was instructed by the patriarchal forces at the centre. And according to the stringent norms of patriarchy, a marriage into a wealthy family would be her only hope and a course to respite which with the new code, the learning of “little English” would largely improve her prospects of marriage.
Hence Attia points out in her vivid style that the learning of English language was important to assert the suitability for marriage and not as a tool for reformation and emancipation of women. The system of English education was in effect one of the decisions of colonialism and a scathing remark on the inferiority of the native and traditional learning. The idea however was directed towards certain change and assumed reformation but more to facilitate colonial functioning and the feudal and patriarchal forces in the society intercepted to impose upon women the use of English as limited and only to describe their suitability for marriage. The narrative poses the issue of Education as both change and reform but establishes a dichotomy between man and woman. The introduction of the English education affected the lives gender wise separately. Attia portrays the lives of Muslim women with a focus on the class of the land owning feudal lords, the ‘Taluqdars’ in the story. She holds the sentiments of these women ironically, in certain aspects as privileged and in certain as marginalized. She portrays them in a time-period when they enjoyed richly the wealth of the affluent class but were deprived of the freedom and public space in the inner courtyards of their lavish mansions. The story adheres to the times when a mixed element to adapt to the culture and ways of British colonialism along with safeguarding one’s native culture and identity became prevalent. These impositions brought a stir in the socio-cultural ethos of a nation that persisted upon the Sanskrit and Persian mode of education so far. For instance Uncle Hamid supported the English education and colonial influences in the public sphere but when it came to the private affairs of his family particularly the role of women, he was conservative. There is a sense of fluctuation created in uncle Hamid’s simultaneous attraction and repulsion towards a foreign culture, identity and action. This strikes ambivalence in the relationship as to what Homi.K.Bhabha, in his Colonial Discourse theory suggests as a complicated mixture of attraction and repulsion between colonizer and the colonized. This was greatly attributed by the “responsibilities in the changing world” (pp110) upon the women in the household to ensure the upkeep of the Muslim culture and identity in the family amidst the ongoing change. Therefore for Aunt Abida English education implied a sense of duty, for Zahra it was merely a means to find a suitable match and for Aunt Saira to define the role of a wife in support of the husband’s status. Hosain projects the lives of these women as double marginalized under these intersecting colonial and patriarchal influences. In the discussion among the “progressive women”, Aunt Saira is vocal about her views on women’s education “I believe our daughters will find it easier, having the benefit of education. That is why I believe in education for women—to prepare them for service.” (p.131) But her idea of women’s education was directed toward adding a feather to the husband’s stature. In her views she suggested coming together of colonial ways and traditional values as a new patriarchal code for women. This was to bring the outcome of a complicated relationship between the colonizer and the colonized in trying to imbibe the west as well as retain the east. And so, Colonialism offered larger challenges to women as it paved a way for new patriarchy. These women were to now learn and adapt to new enforcements born directly from colonialism and further intervened by patriarchal forces such that in the course, they became double colonized. The narrative through the multiplicity of the women characters of the colonized background depicts their oppression through colonialism and also by their colonized brethren who ironically are also their oppressors.
Aunt Abida is conscious about the marginalized position of women. When Uncle Mohsin severely resists the presence of Zahra during the discussion of her marriage- “Is the girl to pass judgments on her elders? Doubt their capabilities to choose? Question their decision? Choose her own husband?” (p.20) Aunt Abida reacts to it- “The walls of this house are high enough, but they do not enclose a cemetery. The girl cannot choose her own husband; she has neither the upbringing nor the opportunity.”(p.21). She exhibits a sense of her subservient position but she preferably conforms to patriarchy. With a fine understanding of Urdu and Persian poetry like the women of Taluqdar class, she abides by the traditional and cultural norms of her society to the extent that she becomes unreasonably marginalized after her marriage. She maintains silence and obedience even when she suffers the plight of being mistreated in the family where she is married into and finally succumbs to her death in vain. Laila fails to understand the constitution of Aunt Abida even when she was nurtured by her. Abida before her wedding projects herself as ardently law abiding and duty bound and so resumes the responsibilities of Ashiana and moves out of zenana into the men’s wing to take care of Baba Jan when he is severely taken ill. Laila takes a subtle note of this transition-“The day my aunt Abida moved from the zenana into the guest room off the corridor that led to the men’s wing of the house, within call of her father’s room, we knew Baba Jan had not much longer to live.” (p.14) But later confides herself to silence with an unhappy marriage. Within the Indian context she represents the stereotype of “where female symbolized the pre-colonial, the traditional, and the untouched domestic spaces” (Tyagi, p46).
Hosain largely depicts the state of upper class Muslim women of the pre-partition and colonial India in the novel and deals with their marginalized living through the concept of ‘zenana’ and ‘purdah’. These women made a subverted living in a patriarchal and a racist society. The novel creates gender binaries in the description of Ashiana:
In this vast room the coloured panes of the arched doors let in not light but shadows that moved in mirrors on the walls and the mantelpiece, that slithered under chairs, tables and divans, hid behind marble statues, lurked in giant porcelain vases and nestled in the carpets. (p.18)
The novel garners gender bifurcation in the very construction of Ashiana through the depiction of zenana done to arrange the physical seclusion of women and restrict the socio-economic activities outside the zone of zenana. The panes used on the doors were also coloured to ensure a shadowed existence behind these panes. The women residing in it emerge like a small female society which has its own system of hierarchy with Aunt Abida and Majida occupy the highest level followed by Laila and Zahra and further down the lower class Nandi and Saleema. The place is selectively permeated by servants or workers and visitors who are men from within the family or close relations such as uncle Mohsin. These men would have a patriarchal say and practice a control in the functioning of this set up. However, the higher up women of the zenana play the role of culture makers for the women in zenana and ensure their appropriate consumption within. This private domain manifests into a female public sphere within the courtyards. These women can exercise their voice in here. But, the novel portrays that outside the inner courtyards these women have a silenced existence. They can’t practice their desire as they have no authority. Hence Zahara would follow as part of her duty what has been considered as culture and tradition irrespective of her desire and choice. Their existence is prescribed on the principle of exclusion which Helene Cixous sums this position of a woman in relation to men that terms like ‘desire’ and ‘authority’ when analyzed would at once lead to the notion of ‘Father’ or a patriarch and it is naturally observed and accepted that there can be no place for women in such domains . The system of patriarchy is so patterned that there has been a traditional exchange of women as property or possessions from father to husband to son and that keeps her exclusive from the domains of desire and authority. Attia’s novel belongs to the age of colonial era whereby the colonized men lacked desire and authority to the colonizer but the women lacked it both as the colonized subjects as well as women. The oppression of the colonized or ‘third world’ women is therefore interpreted differently to the white feminist ideology or to the oppression of the ‘first world’ women. The novel through the lives of the women characters portrays the elements of ‘race’, ‘class’ and ‘sexuality’ which become determinants to derive sense on the oppression of the women of the ‘third world’. The mal-treatment of the unsentimental servant girl Nandi at the hands of Uncle Mohsin is further suggestive of oppression on the basis of class object and gender.
The novel also brings out the element of marginality with reference to Nationalism in the context of India’s freedom struggle. Asad is a revolutionary and is actively involved as a student. Attia pins upon her contemporary society with nuances of anti-colonial discourses. But the women at large are subdued. Nita chatterjee, Laila’s friend and also a strong revolutionary in her instinct, in one of the critical moments of discussion, points at being a colonized subject and the inability of education to emancipate women -"What is education worth if it does not recognize the freedom of expression?" (P-125) Her frustration is due to her inability to make her education contributory towards the society under colonialism and patriarchy. She feels gravely marginalized under these domineering forces. Indian nationalist movement symbolically reflects the passive position of women with its Gandhian strategies of Satyagraha and Ahinsa that utilized the non-aggressive and passive means in the anti-colonial discourse. The generic idea behind such a Gandhian politics was to offer an effective non- violent resistance to the colonial rule which could be made possible through a vast gender representation in the struggle via images and narratives. But, it could not alleviate the subordinated lives of these women under the social, political and historical context. Attia’s subdued representation of the women characters in that time-period and Nita’s annoyance can be summed up that despite the passive aspect of Indian nationalism the women continued to be deprived and marginalized. Even with their education they could not be free and liberated to make a ‘choice’ due to subservience under the patriarchal forces. With Laila the approach was different to that of Nita. Being raised in a zenana culture she had observed the cruel, oppressing and exploiting nature of patriarchy in a feudalistic atmosphere and so for her the utility of education was to create a system of high humanistic values. In the same discussion she puts forth “I believe my education will make me a better human being.”(p.125)
These women were further marginalized on account of ‘purdah’ an elite social and cultural practice to create seclusion of these women in public spheres. What was a matter of cultural practice was transformed into a legal notion under British hegemony giving acceptance to such confined and marginalized existence of women. The novel portrays these women are constituted under various social structures of class, religion and culture specificities of the upper class Muslim feudalistic and patriarchal society residing in the Northern part of India under the Colonial hegemony. Hence there is an interlocking nature of race, gender and patriarchy that seeps into the depiction of their lives.
The narrative through the lives of its women characters raises the issues of equality and discrimination with reference to race, education, marriage and gender. The second wave of feminism considered these issues as political. The slogan ‘The Personal is Political’ sights the inequality based on culture is inseparably linked to political inequality. Betty Friedan an active second wave feminist, in her book The Feminine Mystique critiques that the role of women through age old traditions has been for child-rearing and home-making. They have been restricted from education and its appropriate uses and to make their contributions towards functioning of the society in the public domain such as markets, employability, legislation and legal affairs. They have been pushed into the domesticity of life making their roles elusively non-contributive and passive in the development of the society and so failed to receive the recognition and a position of significance. Attia portrays this inequality through socio-cultural and historical perspective of the upper-class, feudalistic and patriarchal Muslim society in the novel but the issues addressed in the plot stand akin to the colonized societies of the world. The aspects of culture, social practice, religion, education and family have played a decisive role to inscribe a patriarchal ideology into the minds of the women belonging to such societies. These women have internalized their inferiority and a position of subordination and dependence upon men. Laila and Zahra would often depend on Asad to shop the essential and needful items from the market as their mobility was restricted into the public domain. There exists a social system based upon binary opposites which grants a dominant social role to man and a submissisive, dependent role to a woman. Attia depicts the zenana culture and purdah as part of the Muslim culture to suggest the subordination of women in the novel. But purdah has been manifested as a social practice in the other communities and elite groups particularly in the Northern part of India as well. During the British colonialism it became a widespread social practice and has been observed to be prevalent in middle-eastern, South-Asian and certain African communities who have also been colonized societies. The concept evolved historically from the idea of protection to subjugation as it meant to curb the women from freedom and movement thereby restricting their role to participate in the development and progress of the society and in turn suffer the lack of recognition and significance. Hence there is the element of cultural representation in the unequalled and subjugated role of women which Cathia Jenainati in her book Feminism refers to Harriet Taylor Mill, the first wave feminist who attributes in her essay on the ‘enfranchisement of women’ that “sexual inequality has been imposed on women by social custom” (CJ, P43). The lack of recognition enforces the status of ‘other’ upon the women and men enjoy recognition due to their active role in the social development, become the subject and claim the status of ‘self’. Jenainati further refers to Simone de Beauvoir, the second wave feminist who offers an understanding on the position of women in the society that the cultural manifestations all around the world is an act of man defining women their role such that they read themselves through them, they even “dream through the dreams of men” (CJ, P 84). This confirms an accepted status of ‘other’ on her part and do away with any kind of ‘autonomy’. Beauvoir further maintains that “The status of other can be changed if women learn to access the subject-hood they have so far been denied.”(CJ, P 84) She goes on to suggest the ways by which women can achieve this change of status of other by “Women must achieve complete economic and social equality, which will enable an inner metamorphosis to take place”. (CJ,P 84) This in turn will also transform her from a female which merely signifies a physical entity, to a woman that becomes substantive and a subject like a man.
Laila’s position in the narrative exemplifies the “inner metamorphosis” and so she becomes a privileged woman as compared to the other women in the family. She accomplishes her journey of self-determination, education and marriage and is able to transform her life. In these matters she achieves social equality to become a woman. The sense of her being a ‘self’ and a ‘subject’ evolves such that she is able to liberate herself from the status of ‘other’ when compared to the ‘other’ women in the family. She is also symbolically perceived as a white feminist, freed and liberated when compared to the other women as colonized subjects. Laila has worked out the role of her-‘self’ while observing the rest played as the ‘other’. Baba Jan despite being a formidable patriarch and a staunch bearer of family traditions permits Laila for western learning for the sake of the wishes of his late son even though he allows it in a gender-separated environment. Her decision to marry Ameer much lower than her in class and wealth suffices her role as self-willed in the matters of marriage, even when she violates the norms and goes against the family. Her character has been created in the light of an ‘Observer’ though; she participates in the traditions along side the other women in the family. For instance her growing up together with Zahra but being equally different from her was on account of being an observer. She observed the oppressions upon the women in Ashiana which built a sense of consciousness in her to transform from subservience to self determination and to carve a niche for herself. Her upsurge on Uncle Mohsin in the mistreatment of Nandi is a journey towards liberation. She observes the oppression of Nandi as a class subject as well as a woman. She raises an alarm about marriage- “If it is such a shameful business being married and having children, why talk of nothing but marriage from the moment a girl is born?” (p21) and challenges the dictated norms about the conduct of women. She encounters an in-between position because of the contrast in the environment in her school and college and that in her home. “I felt I lived in two worlds, an observer in an outside world and solitary in my own.”(p.124) But the observations led her and help her carve a space for her-self. Her sense of ‘self’ is also depicted in contrast with Sita who despite being educated abroad and exposed to westernized liberal discourses gives up on her love and passion for Kemal and accepts her position as the ‘other’ in marriage for the sake of patriarchal norms-“My parents are the best judges of the man with the best qualifications for being the husband. They have a wider choice; it is only love that narrows it down to a pin point”. (p.216) Ironically, Hosain grants Laila a position of advantage that she resists the control in two very crucial matters of woman’s lives- education and marriage in her time period and is able to represent herself when her counterparts are apparently closed and ignored subjects in the dominant discourse of patriarchy. Their position is likened to being absent colonized subjects from the dominant discourse of the colonizer. Laila finds herself positioned between the two adverse worlds and does not eliminate her constant search of an identity for her self.
The novel vividly reveals the elements of colonialism and feudalistic patriarchy which is thickly woven in the entire plot. Hosain uses these elements to depict the lives of the women characters while interpreting them as marginalized under these forces. Laila’s journey however, has been one of exception and redemption under the adversaries of the forces of race and gender. She creates a separate space for herself born from Observation and consciousness between the oppressor and the oppressed. Attia Hosain through the novel places the women in her contemporary society to their historical and cultural contexts and through Laila she justifies her representation outside the traditional stereotype. She is able to subjective herself and renounce the status of ‘other’ in the time-period when both gender and race were dominant forces operational under staunch patriarchy and British colonialism.
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