A Feminist Reading of Kamala Dass Poetry

Kamala Das is beyond doubt the greatest woman poet in contemporary Indo-Anglian literature. A confessional poet,
she displays feminist ethos in her poems. Kamala Das, born in Kerala in 193, is a bilingual writer. !he writes in
"alayalam, her mother tongue, under the pseudonym "adha#i$$utty. !he is the recipient of se#eral pri%es and awards&
the '. (. ). Asian 'oetry 'ri%e, Kerala !ahitya Academy Award for fiction, Asian *orld 'ri%e for literature, Kendra
!ahitya Academy Award etc. !he was short listed for the )obel 'ri%e along with "arguerite +ourcenar, Doris ,essing
and )adine -ordimer. .er poetical collection includes& Summer in Calcutta /19012, The Descendants /19032, The Old
Playhouse and Other Poems /19332, Collected Poems I /1942, The Best of Kamala Das /19912 and Only the Soul
Knows How to Sing /19902. Kamala Das5s (nglish poetry has been published in (urope in 6rench, -erman, !wedish,
and !erb-7roat translations. !he 8wrote chiefly of lo#e, its betrayal, and the conse9uent anguish, and Indian readers . . .
responded sympathetically to her guileless, guiltless fran$ness with regard to se:ual matters. "s. Das abandoned the
certainties offered by an archaic, and somewhat sterile, aestheticism for an independence of mind and body at a time
when Indian women poets were still e:pected to write about teenage girlie fantasies of eternal, bloodless, unre9uited
lo#e; /8<he histrionics of Kamala Das;2.*hile re#iewers of Das5s early poetry praised its fierce originality, bold
images, e:ploration of female se:uality, and intensely personal #oice, they lamented that it lac$ed attention to structure
and craftsmanship. !cholars such as De#indra Kohli, (unice de !ou%a, and !unil Kumar find powerful feminist
imagery in Das5s poetry, focusing on criti9ues of marriage, motherhood, women5s relationship to their bodies and
control of their se:uality, and the roles women are offered in traditional Indian society. "uch criticism analy%es Das as
a 8confessional; poet, writing in the tradition to !yl#ia 'lath, Anne !e:ton, and Denise ,e#erto#. !ome scholars, such
as =imala >ao, I9bar Kaur, and =rinda )aur, find Das5s poetry, autobiography and essays frustratingly inconsistent,
self-indulgent, and e9ui#ocal, although they, too, praise her compelling images and original #oice. <hey suggest that
Das is both o#ere:posed and o#errated. ?ther scholars, such as '. '. >a#eendran, connect the emphasis on the self in
Das5s wor$ to larger historical and cultural conte:ts and complicated, shifting postcolonial identities /8Das,
Kamala;2.Kamala Das had an unhappy, dissatisfied life e#en from her childhood. !he was a #ictim to patriarchal
pre@udices and discriminations as most women are. !he con#erted to Islam in 1999 ta$ing a new name Kamala
!urayya. It was an action, she said, she had been contemplating for many years. <o 9uote Kamala Das&<wo plain
reasons lured me to Islam. ?ne is the 'urdah. !econd is the security that Islam pro#ides to women. In fact, both these
reasons are complementary. 'urdah is the most wonderful dress for women in the world. And I ha#e always lo#ed to
wear the 'urdah. It gi#es women a sense of security. ?nly Islam gi#es protection to women. I ha#e been lonely all
through my life. At nights, I used to sleep by embracing a pillow. Aut I am no longer a loner. Islam is my company.
Islam is the only religion in the world that gi#es lo#e and protection to women. <herefore, I ha#e con#erted. /8Kamala
Das;2<he parado: of this con#ersion is that years later she confessed that it was a folly to con#ert from .induism to
Islam. <he reason is $nown only to her. It might be a reaction of the people5sBboth her friends and foesBinhospitable
and wounding response to her con#ersion. Dr. =. Ale:ander >a@u is of opinion that the con#ersion was an ine#itable
metamorphosis. <o 9uote him, 8In the poems of Kamala Das, we find a rare body and its feelings and she seems
incapable of thin$ing of eternal life as a bodiless e:istence. <his peculiar stance may be the reason why she is drawn to
Islamic religion with its different concept of life after life; />a@u C12. 6rustrated by lo#e and loneliness, she longed for
an eternal life with her body and soul after her life on the earth. !he lo#ed her body as much as she lo#ed her soul.
!ince her bodily desires could not be satiated by her life here she wants to achie#e it by a life after death. As .indusim
could not promise her such a life, she con#erted to Islam. Ay con#ersion she reser#ed a life after life where she could
attain the spiritual fulfilment in man-woman relationship which she missed, fortunately or unfortunately, in her earthly
life..er con#ersion caused much ire and furor among .indu fanatics and they started threatening her through letters
and phone calls. "ost de@ected she bade goodbye to her ancestral house and nati#e place and sought refuge in his son5s
house in "umbai. !he is li#ing there now fighting against old age problems.*omen5s literature is different from
6eminist literature. *omen5s literature which results out of women5s identity struggles creates new awareness in men
and women whereas feminist literature e:presses the shared e:periences of women5s oppression. 86eminist literature
highlights and condemns the ine9ualities and in@ustices in the treatment of womenDthe disad#antages women ha#e to
bear on account of their gender; /Kumar 92. Its emphasis is on the ideology rather than on the literariness of the te:t.
6eminism e#ol#ed as an opposition to patriarchy or the dominant se:ist ideology.It is customary for the much-centered
aesthetic to consider artistic creation as act analogous to biological creation. <hus an art wor$ is the product of the
interaction between the male artist and the e:ternal world which is regarded as feminine. A literary te:t in this #iew is
the outcome of a generati#e act in#ol#ing the phallic pen and the #irgin blan$ page. A woman writer feels artistic
creation as a form of #iolation, resulting in the destruction of the female body. In women5s writing se:uality is
identified with te:tuality. As a woman @udges her self through her body, the female self is always identified with the
female body in women5s literature /Kumar 1C-132.A woman considers her role of mother more important than a wife.
*holly dependant on man in the world of his ma$ing, woman cra#es to ha#e a child for self-e:pression as self-
affirmation. In addition to se:ual e:ploitation and betrayal the lac$ of lo#e in man-woman relationship is an impro#ised
form of male oppression. ,o#eless relationships are unbearable for women. In the words of 'rasantha Kumar&Kamala
Das concei#es of the male as beast wallowing in lust with a monstrous ego under which the women loses her identity.
<he strong desire for freedom, including the freedom to rebel, forms the central strain in many of her poems. !he
enumerates the male felonies in her poems and builds up a structure of protest and rebellion in her poetry . . . !e#eral
poems of Das con#ey the tedium and monotony of se: within and outside marriage . . . <heir lo#e is a disgusted lust, a
poor substitute for real lo#e. <he life of Das5s persona may be considered a tale of her e:periments with lo#e and the
repeated failures of her e:periments force her ego to be resentful and defiant. !he loo$s upon each encounter as a
substitute for the real e:perience of true lo#e. /3-312.(#en as a child, Kamala Das e:perienced the bitterness of
se:ism. !he was a #ictim of patriarchal pre@udice. In her autobiographical boo$ My Book her 8father was an autocrat;
/912 and her mother 8#ague and indifferent; /CE2. .er parents considered her 8a burden and responsibility and she was
gi#en in marriage to a relati#e when she was only a school girl /4C2. <hus she was compelled to become a premature
wife and mother. !he complains about it in her poem 8?f 7alcutta;&I was sent away, to protect a family5s.onour, to
sa#e a few cowards, to defend someAbstraction, sent to another city to beA relati#e5s wife. /Collected Poems I 10-0E2
In the same poem she presents the image of a doll to portray a woman5s miserable condition& 8+et another nodding F
Doll for his parlour, a wal$ie-tal$ie one to F *arm his bed at night; /Collected Poems I 10-0E2.<he indifference of man
to woman5s miseries is depicted in her poem 8<he !tone Age.; <o 9uote from it&+ou turn me into a bird of stone,a
granite do#e,
you build round me a shabby drawing roomand stri$e my face absentmindedly while you read. /The Best of Kamala
Das 93-942*hen Kamala Das understood that lo#e and matrimony are poles apart, she searched for a lo#er. 8<hough
the lo#e affair gi#es her e:citement in the beginning it is accompanied by disillusionment. .er lo#er is incapable of
gi#ing her a blissful e:perience; />a#eendran 102. <hus her frustration is e:pressed through her poem 8<he 6rea$;&. . .
7an this man with)imble finger-tips unleash)othing more ali#e than the!$in5s la%y hungersG . . . /Only the
Soul 192<he woman5s spirit of rebellion against male domination and ego is found in the poem 8<he 7onflagration.; As
Dr. ). !harda Iyer writes, 8<here is a degree to e:tricate front this 8!oul Killing; sub@ugation&8*oman, is this
happiness, this lying buriedAeneath a manG It5s time again to come ali#e.A world e:tend a 'ot beyond his si: foot
frame.; /9td. in Iyer C128<he ?ld 'lay .ouse; also #oices her protest against the male domination and the resultant
humiliation&. . . 7oweringAeneath your monstrous ego I ate the magic loaf andAecame a dwarf. I lost my will and
reason, to all yourHuestions I mumbled incoherent replies . . . /The Old Playhouse 12<he plight of a married woman,
chained to her husband5s house is depicted in the opening lines of the poem 8<he ?ld 'lay .ouse;&+ou planned to tame
a swallow, to hold herIn the long summer of your lo#e so that she would forget)ot the raw seasons alone, and the
homes left behind, butAlso her nature, the urge to fly, and the endless'athways of the s$y. . . /The Old
Playhouse 12Kamala Das hates traditional se: roles assigned to women by the patriarchy. In the poem 8Introduction;
one finds resentment and refusal& . . <hen I wore a shirtand a blac$ sarong, cut my hair short and ignored all ofthis
womanliness. Dress in sarees, be girl or be wife,they cried. Ae embroiderer, coo$ or a 9uarrellerwith ser#ants. / The
Best of Kamala Das 1C-132In the words of K. !atchidanandan, 8<he woman can not change her bodyI so the poet
changes her dress and tries to imitate men. Aut the #oices of the tradition would force her bac$ into sarees, the saree
becoming here a sign of con#ention. !he is pushed bac$ into her e:pected gender roles& wife, coo$, embroiderer
9uarreler with ser#ants& the gender role also becomes a class role; /132.<he husband transforms the wife into the
contemptible canine status of a housewife. <o 9uote from the poem 8?f 7alcutta;& 8.ere in my husband5s home, I am a
trained circus dog F Jumping my routine hoops each day.; /Collected Poems I 10-0E2Kamala Das is e:clusi#ely
concerned with the personal e:perience of lo#e in her poetry. 86or her ideal lo#e is the fulfilment of the le#els of body
and mind. It is the e:perience beyond se: through se:. <he tragic failure to get lo#e in terms of se:ual-spiritual
fulfilment from the husband leads her to search for it elsewhere. (ach relationship only intensifies her disappointment
faced with the sense of absolute frustration and loneliness; /Iyer CE32. <hough she see$s the perfection of masculine
being in e#ery lo#er, it ends in failure because of the impossibility of reali%ing this ideal in human form. <he e:perience
of frustration sets the psyche in the attitude of rebellion.8I must pretendI must act the role?f happy woman.appy wife;
/<he Descendants p. C2 /9td. in Iyer CE2Kamala Das5s aim as a poet is to underline the predicament of contemporary
women beset by the crisis of di#ided sel#es. !he wants to bring harmony out of this e:istence. .er poems are
remar$able because they re#eal her feelings of an:iety, alienation, meaninglessness, futility, acute sense of isolation,
fragmentation and loss of identity. "odern Indian woman5s ambi#alence is presented through her poems. !he seems to
ha#e a good deal of the con#entional woman in her. !he seems to ha#e the combination in herselfBwish for domestic
security and the desire for independence. Alongside her unfulfilled need for lo#e there is the need to assert, to con9uer
and to dominate. *hile her poems describe a longing for a man to fill her dreams with lo#e, she is also proud of her
being the seducer, the collector especially of those men who pose as lady $illers /Iyer 193-192.
*hat stri$es the reader most in her poetry is not the themes but the use of Indian (nglish without concern for
correctness and precision. 8It appeared unpremeditated, a direct e:pression of feeling as it shifted erratica through
unpredictable emotion, creating its own forms through its cadence and repetition of phrases, symbols and refrains. .er
effort was to find an appropriate style for what is rather a poetry of a mind thin$ing about feeling than the e:pression of
emotion; /Iyer 192. !rini#asa Iyengar writes on her style& 8*hile gi#ing the impression of writing in haste, she re#eals
a mastery of phrase and a control o#er rhythmBthe words often pointed and en#enomed too, and the rhythm so
ner#ously, almost fe#erishly ali#e. .er characteristic tric$ is to split phrases and meaningsBe#en the infiniti#eB
between two lines and this is surely symbolic of the fissured, or fractured, sensibility she wishes to communicate;
/04E2.It is thus pro#ed that Kamala Das tried her best to uplift the position of woman and thus resist the dominance of
man. <he influence of patriarchy is found in all religions as well as their scriptures. As the religious leaders were all
men, the scriptures written by them were male-oriented and as a result, women were gi#en inferior position in families
as well as societies. <he religious leaders made their gods ad#ice women, through the scriptures, to obey men. <he
7hristian and Islamic religions do not treat men and women as e9uals. <he women, in the roles of wi#es ha#e to obey
their husbands and be subser#ient to them. <hus this #enomous ideology of male dominance is in@ected into e#en
women5s #eins through the scriptures and they are destined to be inferior till they die. In the *estern society where
religion5s hold is loose, women en@oy more freedom and e9uality than the (astern society. <he #ery birth of *oman
/(#e2 in the Aible is patriarchal to the core. -od made (#e out of Adam5s rib. !he was created for him to be his
companion. *hy did -od create "an first instead of *oman who indeed bore and ga#e birth to offspringsG <he
influence of patriarchy is e#ident here. Again it was (#e who committed the sin first and then she tempted Adam to
commit it. In reality is it woman who does more se:ual outrages than man in any societyG "an has more muscular
power than woman. At the same time woman has many 9ualities which man does not ha#e. <hey should li#e in a
harmony as other beings do around us. If man imitates other beings in se:ual indulgenceBo#erpowering the femaleB
what differentiates human beings from other beingsG Is our culture and ci#ili%ation leading us to barbarityG (#en in this
twenty first century women ha#e no right to worship their 7reator in mos9ues and some temples. <his legacy of
patriarchy has to be 9uestioned. *omen ha#e e#ery right to get out of their $itchens and houses and li#e e9uals to men.
It is against this in@ustice in families and societies that feminists li$e Kamala Das fight against. <hus feminism seems to
be an ine#itable ideology and more and more women ha#e to come forward and fight for the women5s cause. <o sum
up the article with a 9uotation from !rini#asa Iyengar&<here is no doubt Kamala Das is a new phenomenon in Indo-
Anglian poetryBa far cry indeed from <oru Dutt or e#en !aro@ini )aidu. Kamala Das5s is a fiercely feminine
sensibility that dares without inhibitions to articulate the hurts it has recei#ed in an insensiti#e largely man-made
world . . . ?f course, the endless reiteration of such hurt, such disillusion, such cynicism, must sooner or later
degenerate into a mannerism, but one hopesBand her e:ceptional talent offers the ground for such hopesBshe will
outgrow this obsession in due course and find her way to a season less trying than summer and a world other than the
Kunreal5 city of dreadful ghosts. /04E2Works CitedDas, Kamala. The Best of Kamala Das. (d. '. '. >a#eendran.
7alicut& Aodhi 'ublishing .ouse, 1991. 'rint.B. Collected Poems I! <ri#andrum& <he )a#a$erala 'rinters, 194. 'rint.
B. My Story. )ew Delhi& !terling 'ublishers, 1944. 'rint.B. The Old Playhouse and Other Poems. "umbai& ?rient
,ongman 'ri#ate ,imited, 1933. 'rint.
B. Only the Soul Knows How to Sing. Kottayam& D7 Aoo$s, 1990. 'rint.
8Das, Kamala F Introduction.; *eb. 14 ?ctober CEE4
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8<he .istrionics of Kamala Das.; The Hindu 0 6ebruary CEEE. *eb. 14 ?ctober CEE4
Lhttp&FFwww.hinduonnet.comFCEEEFECFE0FstoriesF13E0E34m.htmM.
Iyengar, K. >. !rini#asa. Indian "riting in #nglish. )ew Delhi& !terling 'ublishers 'ri#ate ,imited, CEE1. 'rint.
Iyer, ). !harda. Musings on Indian "riting in #nglish! $olume % Poetry! )ew Delhi& !arup N !ons, CEE1. 'rint.
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Kumar, ). 'rasantha. "riting the &emale' ( Study of Kamala Das. Kochi& Aharatiya !ahitya 'ratishthan, 1994. 'rint.
>a@u, Dr. =. Ale:ander. 8<he Ine#itable "etamorphosis& <he 7ocoon Area$s and K!urayya5 7omes out of KKamala
Das.5; Indian )ournal of Postcolonial *iteratures C.1 /July CEE12& C3-30. 'rint.
>a#eendran, Dr. ). =. 8<he 'oems of Kamala Das& An Assessment.; Indian "riting in #nglish. (ds. "anmohan K.
Ahatnagar and ". >a@eshwar. )ew Delhi& Atlantic 'ublishers and Distributors, CEEE. 1-C. 'rint.
!atchinandan, K. 8<ranscending the Aody.; Only the Soul Knows How to Sing. Ay Kamala Das. Kottayam& D7 Aoo$s,
1990. 11-C3. 'rint.