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Feminism in Bapsi Sidhwa's Fiction: A Marginalized Voice

--Dr.K.Rajkumar
Associate Prof. & Head, Department Of English Shri Gurubuddhiswami Mahavidyalaya, Purna. Purna Junction, Purna (MS)

Bapsi Sidhwa,who was born in Karachi,grew up in Lahore.Bapsi Sidhwa is also known as social activist .And Sidhwa has actively participated related to upliftment of women. She has also been on the advisory committee to Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on Womens Development. The writing of Bapsi Sidhwa is about contemporary womans upliftment in general and deep commitement to Parsi community in particular.Sidhwa also deals with the issues like Partition, exploitation of women and diasporic.The main purpose her writing is to give the voice to the silenced or marginalized group. The study aims at analyzing the female suffering against patriarchy and the conventions that were responsible for the exploitation of women. Based on the script of Deepa Mehta's Controversial film "Water 2006"

about the lives of widows in 1930's Benares is an exception. This is a Powerful and moving book that complements the film but also holds up quite well as an independent work. It couldn't have been easy for a writer of Sidhwa's stature to work on such a project I had never written within the confined of a structured story before", She admits. 'Water' bears all the trademarks of Sidhwa's finest writing most notably her book Ice-Candy- Man (1991) which was the basis for Mehta's earlier film Earth. The adaptation is a comprehensive mode of study related with socio political, socio - economic and socio - psychological dimensions of human sufferings resulting out of the passion to monopolize power resources with a view to sway the fate of those who were destined to lead the life of marginalized. In spite of psychobiological similarities, the politics of discrimination dumped a large section of society in the slumber of ignorance and injustice. The novel, Water (2006) is a tradition breaking text and film, the "silence of the weak" is become the central voice of it. In this novel Bapsi Sidhwa creates the characters, roles and images and speech seems where the film must leave women speechless . The woman is represented as ignorant, poor uneducated, silent and 1 Vol.1. Issue 02 March-April, 2012

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unaware of her own "sexualities" and "freedom" Gayatri Spivak, eminent feminist critic urges the academic feminist to 'speak' to the subaltern women, she writes:
Between patriarchy and imperialism, subject constitution and object formation, the figure of woman disappears, not in to a pristine nothingness but a violent shuttling which is the displaced figuration of the "Third World women caught between tradition and modernization.

Thus, writers focus on the plight of existence of women under the burden of conventions and tradition. The novel, Water presents the life of the widows in the 1930 which is in short a story of love, faith and redemption. It is located at Bihar Bengal border in mid-thirties mourning the suffering of a child widow, Chuyia an innocent girl of eight. Bapsi Sidhwa narrates the pathetic state of the widow Kunti, Madhumati, Shakuntala, Kalyani, Shehalata and Chuyia in the widows Ahram in Benares. Set in 1938 India against the backdrop of Mahatma Gandhi's rise to power, Water follows the life of eight year Chuyia, a child bride who is abandoned at a widows ashram in Benares after her fifty year old husband dies. There she is expected to spend the rest of her life in penitence. Unwilling to accept her fate Chuyia becomes a catalyst for change in the life of widows. The novel begins with the innocent Chuyia is playing with her clay dolls. Chuyia is the daughter of Somnath and Bhagyalakshmi (Bhagya). Chuyias mother expresses her concern about Hiralal her would be son - in - low: "I have heard Hiralal is grandfather" : Somanth is satisfied that they dont want a dowry and will pay for the wedding. Bhagya is concerned about Hiralal's age as she says: "by the time of her womanhood blooms he' will old and

spent". But her husband has the last word and she think that he is right. The thought which haunts Bhagya is" Then why did she not lavish on her the affection and attention she lavished on her sons? Feel the same urge of love and pride for her daughter? Was it because her heart knows that daughter was only a guest and never belonged to the house into which she was born." The marriage ceremony takes place at a temple where only Brahmins are allowed to enter Chuyia looks like doll sitting in front of Hiralal. He applies the red sindoor to the parting in the Chuya's hair and to her fore head Chuyia's care free life does not changed after marriage, she continue to play with brothers. Two year passed & Somnath brings the news that Hiralal is ill, and after five days he died. Somnath declares " Bitiya your husband is dead you are a widow now" For how long, Baba? Chuyia asks her father. Chuyia mother in low takes the mangalsutra off the bangles 2 Vol.1. Issue 02 March-April, 2012

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are also smashed leaving Chuyia speechless, the barber cuts her hair and white cloth to wear (the cover page) and finally Chuyia sent in the widows ashram. The women " once widowed, a women was deprived of her useful function in the society that of reproducing and fulfilling her marital duties." Chuyias innocence is aptly summed in one conversation with other widows like Kunti, Madhmati, Bua, Shakuntala and Kalyani Chuya innocently asks at a gathering "where is house for the men widows?Meanwhile a progressive minded young idealist named Narayana falls in love with Chuyias friend Kalyani, a beautiful widow helps to run the ashram as a sex worker. Its Sidhwas great strength to make a point without underlining it. She doses dose over stress irony in a couple of place - for instance when Madhumati the ashram head who has forced Kalyani into prostitution says: We must live purity, to die in purity". The novel Water implicates the reader from commonplace to the horrific : when the widows celebrate Holi, for instant, one is briefly Lulled into thinking that they have own self sustaining little community, that maybe their lives aren't so bad after all. The novel, Water is a great example of hypocrisy in the Ashram, where instead of social security & dignity they are forced to face all sorts of humiliation, torture and prostitution of their virginity. Most of the widows in Ashrams were with their shaved heads and long stern faced look like men, deprived their beauty and social status. Madhumati is a widows the imperial authority is manifested through her, she shouts, abuses and commands to maintain her absolute authority. In contrast of her Shakuntala another widow of the same Ashram with her sympathy & dynamic image consoles Chuyia. It was an Ashram situated near the temple, here widows are given a situated near the temple here widows are given a cup of rice and a fistful of lentils for every eight hour session of singing and dancing. Kalyani another young widows - prostitute falls in love with Narayan, a young upper class Gandhian idealist, the affair boldly defies Hindu tradition and threatens to undermine the delicate balance of power within the Ashram. Bapsi Sidhwa Promotes that social conventions can suppress human voice

but it cannot abolish the innate urge and individuality. The discipline of Ashram deprives unfortunate widows of their rights, self dignity and even the basic biological urges peculiar to their sex. Kalyani does not follow the code of shaving the hair. Ever 3 Vol.1. Issue 02 March-April, 2012

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since her association with Narayana She receives her dermas and she quest to seek the company of male companion. Swayed by Gandhian ideology Narayan develops a mission to liberate the widows of India from their dark world. Through the relation ship between Kalayani and Narayan, Bapsi Sidhwa insists that human relationship is the only possible panacea to encourage the marginalized to express their resistance against oppression and injustice. Sidhwa also criticizes the corrupt religious pracities which hurdle to the growth of civil society. The conventions of patriarchy are framed in the garb a religious practices Kalyani inspite of being a widows denied shaving her hair but she was dammed as a polluted women eating with Kalyani would pollute our food" (80). The concept of absolute detachment is only hypocricy. Bapsi Sidhwa by this novel tries to capture the inner world of widows through the experience of Chuyia, Shakuntala, Kalyani and Snehalata. They were reduced to state beggers, a having lost their initial sense of shame and humiliation, sitting on the stairs of temple with the blow. Sidhwa emphasizes such religious practices that encourage the politics of "Otherness". Kalyani possesses the same sensibility responds to the touch of Narayana but it is not bold enough to speak against it. She identifies her suppression of desires with the suffering of innocent Chuyia. On one occasion, Chuyia in her innocence reveals, "I will cat a hundred puris at Kalyani's wedding." This revelation becomes blew to Madhumati; it was a challenge to her autonomy. She summons Kalyani and shouts well be cured; we must live in purity to die in purity. She grabbed her hair to hack off her head her beauty was dismantled and her dreams were gone in a perpetual mourning and to give up hot foods to cool her sexual energy. The radicalism of Bapsi Sidhwa Consist in the fact that she not only represent the suffering of marginalized but also unmasks the face of the oppressors are the custodians of religious orthodoxy and the masters of economic resources like Madhumati and Seth Dwarkanath without least shame for the sexual exploitation of Kalyani, he tries to convince, " She is not a goddess dont marry her, keep her as your mistress". Narayana, Perhaps you are not aware of this, our holy texts says "We can sleep with are blessed". Kalyani realizes that "She had no choice" but to embrace death to avoid the betrayal faith to Narayan and to escape the horrors of Ashram. It is not a loss but an investment to stir the strength in Chuyia and Shakuntala to challenge the authority of Madhumati. When Chuyia is employed at the place of Kalyani for the 4 Vol.1. Issue 02 March-April, 2012

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nefarious designs of Madhumati, Shakuntala cannot tolerate it and shouts to rescues her. In the lasts scene Sidhwa Seeks the salvation in Gandhian ideology , Shakuntala finds the new way in a new awakening and new ideas - " She runs after the train looks at Narayana and finally hand over Chuyia to him to save her Ashram and widowhood ". Thus, the novel and film Water (2006) offers a riveting examination of the lives of widows, their subjugation, and exploitation in each and every level and ultimately it becomes a hunting and lyrical story of love, faith and redemption. Sidhwa is successful in the depiction of double standard of the society. She shapes and moulds the lives of the characters in the novel superbly. M.G. Vassanji Quotes. "A deeply moving story elegantly told with all the assurances of a master" . "Water is a triumph" ____Time. Selected Bibliography: 1. 2. Sidhwa, Bapsi. Water. Delhi: Penguin, 2006. Dhawan, R.K./Kapadia, Novy (eds.) The Novels of Bapsi Sidhwa, New Delhi: Prestige Books, 1996. 3. Singh, Randhir Pratap. (ed.) Bapsi Sidhwa. New Delhi: IVY Publishing House, 2005. 4. Laila, Kazmi. (ed.) Bapsi Sidhwa Women of Pakistan. New Delhi: Prestige Books, 2004. 5. Pathak R.S. (ed.) Modern Indian Novel In English. New Delhi: Creative Books, 1999. 6. Mehta, Deepa.Water (film),Eagle: 2007. from the horrors of

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