Like many other spheres and domains of life, the literary space too worked on the politics of gender. It was long thought to be a space marked only for men, and women were always discouraged from writing or reading. But, there were some women writers who did not let anyone limit their potential. They wrote extensively and let their work speak for themselves.
1. Mary Wollstonecraft
Many of the ideas floating today about feminism and equality of genders were floated by Mary Wollstonecraft, an Anglo-Irish feminist, intellectual and writer, in as early as eighteenth century. She was born on April 27, 1759, in Spitalfields, London and had an abusive father who spent most of his fortune on a series of unsuccessful ventures in farming. Troubled by his actions, she set out of her household to earn a living for her own self. In her most famous work, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), she talks about how women are not biologically incapable of reason, but as they are denied exposure to proper education, they’re made to think illogically. She realised the true potential of the female gender and appealed to the in-place institutions to not limit women as helpless adornments of the household. Some of the excerpts from her work are:
“The woman who has only been taught to please will soon find that her charms are oblique sunbeams, and that they cannot have much effect on her husband’s heart when they are seen every day, when the summer is passed and gone. Will she then have sufficient native energy to look into herself for comfort, and cultivate her dormant faculties? or, is it not more rational to expect that she will try to please other men; and, in the emotions raised by the expectation of new conquests, endeavour to forget the mortification her love or pride has received? When the husband ceases to be a lover—and the time will inevitably come, her desire of pleasing will then grow languid, or become a spring of bitterness; and love, perhaps, the most evanescent of all passions, gives place to jealousy or vanity.”
(A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Mary Wollstonecraft)
Ismat Chughtai was one of the Muslim writers who stayed in India after the partition. She was an eminent writer in Urdu who was known for her boldness, fierce ideology and impregnable attitude. She was born into an upper middle class family yet was subjected to stringent mindsets. When other girls were taught to be docile and dreamed about becoming the perfect wives, Chughtai took to books and educated herself with the support of her father and brother. Her mother disapproved of her decisions and Chughtai writes, “She hurled her shoe at me but missed.”
Her works became representative of the feminist ideas in the 20th century. Lihaaf is one of the most celebrated short stories written by her which talks about homosexuality in Aligarh. It was leveled with charges of obscenity but she never compromised on her outspoken nature and never apologized for the same. She won the case in court and became nothing less than an inspiration for the future generations of intellectuals.
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3. Virginia Woolf
Known for her famous dictum, “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.”from her essay A Room of One’s Own (1929), Virginia Woolf was an English writer and one of the most talented modernists of the twentieth century. She was raised in a wonderful household where her father was a historian and author, and her mother had been born in India and later served as a model for several Pre-Raphaelite painters. She was also a nurse and wrote a book on the profession. Woolf was a happy child but soon was distressed after being sexually abused by her half brothers. She also lost her mother and her sister soon after, which led to a nervous breakdown.
But, despite all these challenges, she took up Ancient Greek, Latin, German and history at the Ladies’ Department of King’s College London. Her novels like Mrs. Dalloway (1925) and To the Lighthouse (1927) gained much appreciation and are still read enthusiastically.
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4. Maya Angelou
“You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may tread me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.”
(Still I Rise, Maya Angelou)
Maya Angelou was a poet, novelist, actor, civil rights activist and what not. She had published seven autobiographies, three books of essays and several books of poetry. Her first autobiography called I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969) outlines her life up to the age of 17 and brought her much international recognition. Her works revolve around the themes of race, identity, society and culture and she was considered a respected spokesperson for black men and women.
“We all-adults and children, writers and readers-have an obligation to daydream. We have an obligation to imagine.”
I anticipate two kinds of readers-one category will scoff at the above statement and mumble to themselves about the kind of trash that the internet produces these days. The second category will find that their hearts and minds resound with the statement above, with every novel they lift off the shelf and every page they turn.
The statement quoted was made by Neil Gaiman, a master storyteller who reigns supreme over the world of fiction. It was part of an article published in The Guardian and aptly titled, ‘Face Facts: We need Fiction.’
The category of readers who scoffed at the statement would, in all likelihood, like to refer to fiction as a form of ‘escapism.’ Fiction, to those who consider it a waste of their time, is a convenient way of running as far away as possible from the harsh realities of the world we inhabit. It serves as a temporary retreat when the tribulations of the ‘real’ world become too heavy a burden. Cannot deal with adult problems anymore? Turn to hippogriffs, or Gandalf, or Mowgli, to forget about them for a while. Such an argument sees fiction as a form of entertainment that takes our mind off of more pressing matters-a route to the land of collective amnesia, if you will. Once our allotted, limited time for leisure has come to an end, we must return to the mundane lives of our everyday chores and routines for, fiction is not as significant as the circus that is world politics or the imminent threat that is global warming.
Though valid to a certain extent (yes, I shall make that concession), this line of thought refuses to acknowledge the fact that ‘fiction’ mirrors the very world we live in. The fantastic world of Narnia or the castle of Hogwarts, are not as untrue or feigned as the word ‘fiction’ portrays them to be. The creators of these magical realms are those who inhabit our very societies, and writers are a product of their times. The worlds that emerge from their enviably rich imaginations are not entirely disconnected from our very own realities, for the writer is largely influenced by his or her circumstances. Therefore, there are important lessons to be gleaned from animals that can talk and feel, or from the possibility of a Jurassic Park. In the process, if the story gives the reader respite from their own problems, or even better, offers a solution to them, fiction has served its noble purpose.
Fiction equips us with the powerful weapon of imagination and the ability to dream of alternative realities and truths. The academic disciplines of history or science are not the only worthy pursuits that will someday make a change in the world. Imagination can be just as powerful.
On March 10, 2014, the English department of Hansraj College hosted its annual fest that saw a coming together of informative lectures, seminars, theatre, and a pinch of literary games to add to the fun.
The first session of the day was a session by internationally acclaimed film maker Pankaj Butalia titled: Reading Cinema- The importance of beginnings. The talk discussed the turmoil of the film maker as he/she deals with his/her own set of confusions as to how to project the desired emotion on screen. He also discussed the importance of the beginning scenes and the precedence it sets and how we can read them through processing a range of visual representations and metaphors.
The “Book n bake” sale attracted a large audience and was received well. Prior to the fest, students and teachers were asked to donate books for the sale and an impressive collection was accumulated at the end of it. The books were available at cheap rates were quickly sold out. The sale of cupcakes and other confectioneries right next to the book sale added a sweet tooth to the book shopping.
The second lecture was by Sambudha Sen titled- Domesticity and the making of the female subject: From Dutch interior paintings to Jane Austen. He discussed important painters like Peter de Hooch and Vermeer who were painting in the 1th and 17th centuries that how and from when does the domestic as a sphere for women emerge as an entity. He later discussed at length about Fanny, the protagonist of “Mansfield Park” by Jane Austen in comparison to other texts that dealt with issues of sexual liberation, autonomy and domesticity.
Activities such as general quiz, literary dumb charades, and character dramatization were a fun ride and attracted quite an audience. The concluding event of the day was a stage play called “Room for doubt” by “The Players”, the dramatic society of Kirori Mal College.
From discussions on the Jazz Age to Jesus as a historical figure to contemporary Indian art, this year’s Jaipur Literature Festival covered a lot of ground and then some more. Be it Lord Meghnad Desai’s verbal duel with Pavan Verma over the metaphorical significance of Krishna or an over-capacity attendance for Prasoon Joshi’s talk, JLF 2014 had its moments. While it lacked the controversies that marked some of the previous chapters of the festival, it offered up to literature enthusiasts opportunities to listen to their favourite authors compare theories and simultaneously introduced them to a whole new gallery of writers and ideas.
Were a long flowing white beard synonymous with immense wisdom, discord would cease to exist and peace would reign supreme. Unfortunately however, that is not as rampant as we would like. On the other hand, the aforementioned white bearded men seem to have an addiction to spice and sensationalism; sentiments they are usually bereft of by virtue of their religious beliefs. As a result these geriatric souls leave no stone unturned in trying to make the most of a scandal.
In such a scenario had Salman Rushdie’s impending arrival in India for the Jaipur Literature Festival not caused a stir, more than just a handful amongst us would’ve sat up and taken notice. Why should his return be such a cause for concern though? We’re all fully aware that India as a country does not dwell in the past and always believes in looking forward; therefore, to find the answer we must go back to the year 1988 when Mr. Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses was released.
Another exercise these mullahs are particularly adept at is misinterpreting any written statement, be it from a novel of from a cookbook for that matter. So it didn’t come as a surprise when they mistook Mr. Rushdie’s choice of title to imply that the Quran itself was being touted as the ‘Satanic Verses’ or when translated in Arabic, ‘verses from evil’.
Anybody who is familiar with Mr. Rushdie’s writing and appreciates it would not run screaming blasphemy to the nearest police station knowing fully well that Satanic Verses is meant to be a fictional piece of work. But that is exactly what happened. The supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini, went to the extent of issuing a fatwa against this modern Islamist. The fatwa called upon Muslims to execute this heretic for he must ‘incur the wrath of God and be unsuccessful in his quest towards maligning the Prophet’. It also served as a warning to those who might be foolish enough to insult the ‘sacred belief of the Muslims’.
Considering the novel was written in English for a Western audience and was much appreciated for the literary skill it displayed, the book along with its author was banned in several countries including India. Moreover, that wasn’t the end of the atrocities. A reward was announced for the one who would ‘terminate that anti-Islamist’. Apart from several assassination attempts on Rushdie, bookstores were bombed, copies of the book were burnt, several translators and publishers were attacked and quite a few were killed.
Whatever the time period, to say the furor was justified would be pushing things more than just a wee bit. This reaction which gave fanaticism an entirely new meaning took half the world with surprise. The concept of freedom of speech and action became the hypocrite’s fable and mullahs were pleased.
Although the fatwa has been withdrawn and Mr. Rushdie has paid a visit to India in 2007 causing not more than a few excited whisperings, elections and a controversy are quite a potent combination. While BSP has turned the EC ruling of covering up Mayawati’s statues to its advantage, the Samajwadi Party in an ingenious move has sought to turn the Rushdie advent as its own trump card. The fact that the Doeband Seminary has demanded that Rushdie be not allowed to attend the Literature Fest later this month has therefore come at the most opportune time. Obviously, since Muslims account for 18% of the vote bank, their sentiments have to be taken into consideration.
What these Politicos and the Fatwa-issuing Mullahs have failed to grasp however is the fact that we are no longer living in the 90s! Much to their dismay the youth, be it Islamic or non-Islamic, condemns this ideology of banning any work of art or culture that may be bold. A shielded atmosphere is regressive and banal in the extreme.
I have a feeling that this year’s Lit Fest will see the maximum turnout. Not because of the literary greats that’ll be gracing the Festival with their presence this year but because of our tendency to revel in the scandalous and the sensational. The hype will make it all the more worth it.
