Dr. Vandhana Sharma
In the early twentieth century when the feminist voices were emanating from the West particularly with Virginia Woolf’s “A Room of One’s Own”, one of most powerful feminist writings, which pioneered and initiated many debates which still surround women’s writing, there were musings on women writing on the literary arena of Dogri literature too. Woolf’s extended essay published in 1929 which was based on a series of lectures she delivered justified the need for women to possess intellectual freedom and financial independence and was noted in its argument for both literal and figural space for women writers within a literary tradition dominated by men.
In the light of this, neither would it not be inappropriate to decipher thatWoolf’s liberated writing germinated Dogri women writing nor would it be an exaggeration to believe that Dogri Women writers were seated around the room unfolding their creative impulse during that time.
While it is a truism that much of women’s writing needs to be recovered and made more accessible, this is particularly true of Dogri literary history. When we trace the origin and development of Dogri prose fiction, it emerges that women’s writing in Dogri paralleled the creative output of men writers despite the fact that socio-cultural matrix of duggar society was entrenched in patriarchy. Pehla Phull( First Flower), the very first collection of Dogri short story which appeared in 1946 was followed by Sui Dhaaga ( Needle Thread) the first collection of short-story by the first woman Dogri writer, Lalita Mehta in 1957. Lalita Mehta, thus, pioneered artistic and personal expression in Dogri women writing with the publication of Sui Dhaaga which is the first narrative of a Dogri women writer.
One of the noteworthy features of this collection is a variety of narrative viewpoints in its stories establishing the literary genius of Lalita Mehta as short story, which is seen as a consummate literary art form and a testing ground for an authors’ talent.Sui Dhaaga is a collection of seven short stories which are Tassari Kurta, Chachu, Handola, Bebu, Gopi, Mande Bhaag and Sui Dhaaga.Thematically, all the stories in this collection are poignant narratives of disappointment and oppression of women in poverty-ridden duggar society. In these powerful narratives of women’s ordeals, two stories, Sui Dhaaga and Bebu require particular attention and analysis as both these stories are poignant and powerful stories with strong feminist overtones.
Sui Dhaaga portrays the predicament of a woman and her mental and physical agony at the hands of her in-laws and husband just because she gives birth to a baby girl. Written almost sixty years back, this story sheds light on a social evil which still prevails in the roots of society. Tara, the protagonist of the story who is doted upon in her parental house is married off to the son of a wealthy zaminadar, where she is treated affectionately till she gives birth to a girl. Things change drastically for Tara after becoming a mother and she is even forced to leave her in-laws house and is sent to her parent’s house. Instead of, giving a weak protagonist who struggles a life of tribulations and endless suffering, Lalita Mehta shuns stereotypes of the age by giving a message of strong intellect, courage and resilience, which is the touchstone of womanhood. Tara who once nurtured the stereotypical feminine virtue of embellishing her home with needle and thread, which she proudly shared with her friends in a lively discussion before her marriage, transforms it to a profession as soon as she finds herself in lurch. Tara’s creativity as a skilled needle worker makes her embroidered table cloths, bed spreads, duretts and carpets popular not only in her own village but across the city. Lalita Mehta gives the story a happy ending by showing how the success story of Tara reaches her in-laws who make all pleas for her return and welcome her return. Tara’s return here can be seen as her victory at all fronts, her magnanimity to forgive the wrong meted to her; her valuing the traditional Indian family which is bedrock of stable society and her courage to prove her prowess.
Bebu, the other powerful and insightful short story in the collection dispels the myth of a woman’s physical inability and lack of strength to protect herself. Lalita Mehta gives a protagonist, who is a wealthy woman popularly known as Bebu in a Theyal village of Ramnagar. Despite the migration of her children to the lucrative world of city and their umpteen requests to her to stay with them leaving the village, she stays in her old palatial house all by herself. The beauty of her village and strong bonding with her roots keep her away from the artificial splendor of world in the cities. The entire village is aware of her wealth which gives great comfort and confidence to her. Nevertheless, all thieves and thugs eye her gold and riches and have made several unsuccessful attempts to plunder it. Everyone is aware of the fact that Bebu sleeps like a tigress all alone in her haveli with a sickle lying near her and even a rustle of dead leaves wakes her up. Despite various stories associated with her courage, a group of men headed by a respectable man make a plan to loot her wealth, one fine night, confident of their strength to overpower a single woman. However, their plan boomerang when Bebu handles them strategically killing one of them whereas the others flee, horrified and petrified of her dexterity in handling rogues. Even after everyone has ran away, the head of the dacoits, a respectable place in the village makes a last attempt under the impression that Bebu must be oblivious of any further attack. To his utter embarrassment and dismay, he is caught red-handed by Bebu and he begs her to keep his evil design a secret so that the village does not know about. Thus, the message of the story holds a strong clear message to woman to shun the stereotypes associated with femininity , which Lalita Mehta tried to convey through a formidable woman character who stays unnerved by a group of men all set to attack her.
Ostensibly, the overtones and undertones of feminism make Lalita Mehta emerge as the pioneer of feminist consciousness-raising in Duggar by highlighting the personal problems of women into a shared awareness of their meaning as social problems and political concerns through her writings.
Her stories shed light on the intricate relationships between the individual aspects of women’s experience and public and social conditions. Consciousness-raising, which originated as the cornerstone of feminist theory and practice in West in mid 1960s and early 1970s aimed at redefining and reinterpreting the meaning of women’s social experience and understanding the nature of female oppression.
A snapshot of Lalita Mehta’s collection of short stories exhibit the literary genius of a Dogri women writer for it makes readers fathom the richness of Dogri literature where women writers were creatively involved in penning down and simultaneously raising issues which were resonating in other parts of the world during that time.
( The author is the Head, Department of Languages and Literature, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Katra, J&K)
Follow our WhatsApp channel
