Rites of Passage: Women’s Reforms in Autobiographies of Sunity Devi, Cornelia
Sorabji and Indira Goswami
A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Award of the Degree of
Master of Philosophy in English
by Esha Nadkarni (Reg. No. 1630020)
Under the Supervision of Sushma V. Murthy Associate Professor
Department of English
CHRIST (Deemed to be University) BENGALURU, INDIA December 2017
DECLARATION
I Esha Nadkarni, hereby declare that the dissertation, titled Rites of Passage: Women’s
Reforms in Autobiographies of Sunity Devi, Cornelia Sorabji and Indira Goswami is a record of original research work undertaken by me for the award of the degree of Master of
Philosophy in English. I have completed this study under the supervision of Dr. Sushma V.
Murthy, Associate Professor, Department of English.
I also declare that this dissertation has not been submitted for the award of any degree, diploma, associate ship, fellowship or other title. I hereby confirm the originality of the work and that there is no plagiarism in any part of the dissertation.
Place: Bengaluru
Date: ......
Esha Nadkarni
Reg no: 1630020
Department of English
CHRIST (Deemed to be University)
Bengaluru
CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that the dissertation submitted by Esha Nadkarni (Reg. No.1630020) titled
Rites of Passage: Women’s Reforms in Autobiographies of Sunity Devi, Cornelia Sorabji and
Indira Goswami is a record of research work done by her during the academic year 2016-
2017 under my supervision in partial fulfillment for the award of Master of Philosophy in
English.
This dissertation has not been submitted for the award of any degree, diploma, associate ship, fellowship or other title. It has not been sent for any publication or presentation purpose. I hereby confirm the originality of the work and that there is no plagiarism in any part of the dissertation.
Place: Bengaluru
Date: ......
Sushma V. Murthy
Associate Professor
Department of English
CHRIST (Deemed to be University)
Bengaluru
Head of the Department
Department of English
CHRIST (Deemed to be University) Bengaluru
Nadkarni 1
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
As this eventful journey of Mphil comes to an end, I have a few people to thank without whom this dissertation would not have seen the light of day. A mere thank you would not be sufficient to express my gratitude to Dr. Sushma V. Murthy, my supervisor, whose guidance helped this dissertation blossom into an authentic and exciting piece of research. Her patience, perseverance, and warm smile were beacons of encouragement throughout and I am greatly blessed to have had her as my supervisor. I am also indebted to my internal examiner,
Dr. Arya Aiyappan for sharing her insightful suggestions and views that further molded my dissertation.
A big thank you goes out to my parents and friends too. They have been my support system throughout this journey, motivating me and cheering for me whenever I felt low or incapable.
Your warm hugs and soothing words helped me believe in myself, and my dissertation.
Lastly, I would like to thank the Department of English, Christ (Deemed to be University);
The HoD Dr. Abhaya N.B. and all the other professors for their feedback and assistance during this course.
I thank you for being a part of this journey.
I dedicate this dissertation to my Ajo and Aji who have been unconditional in their love and support.
ABSTRACT
The genre of autobiographies is a retrospective genre where the author narrates his/her story in an attempt to reconstruct his/her personal development in a social, cultural, historical or political framework whilst making coherent meaning of the past events. Unlike men’s autobiographies, women’s autobiographies are not just made up of one singular voice, but they echo voices of several other women forming a collective women’s consciousness due to their shared histories.
These autobiographies are a reflection of their time and age, exposing patriarchy and gender biases during its specific periods of time. In a male-centric society where women were never allowed to speak their mind, writing gave voice to the voiceless. For a long time, people believed that all women’s activities should only belong to the private realm with no direct bearing on the society and state. Hence women's issues were private. But with the gradual change in attitude, women's questions have started receiving a different dimension. The primary texts are The
Autobiography of an Indian Princess written in 1920 by Sunitee Devi, Cornelia Sorabji’s India
Calling (1934) and Indira Goswami’s An Unfinished Autobiography (1990). These autobiographies written in the twentieth century, belong to women reformers who made attempts to bring a change in the lives of girls and women. The research will analyze women's reforms and writing in the autobiographies of Sunitee Devi, Cornelia Sorabji and Indira Goswami along with the progress in female education in twentieth century India by textually analyzing the primary texts through the lens of feminism, autobiographical writing and women’s reforms.
The first chapter of the dissertation will state the objectives and the research question of the dissertation in relation to the three autobiographies. The entensive literature review will highlight
the genre of autobiography, women’s writing, women’s reforms along with book reviews of the texts. The second chapter is an analysis of Sunity Devi’s An Autobiography of an Indian Princess taking into consideration her socio-historical background, reforms in education and personal life.
The third chapter deals with India Calling by Cornelia Sorabji examines her struggle in becoming India’s first woman lawyer, the lives of purdahnashins and reforms brought about by
Sorabji. The fourth chapter studies Indira Goswami’s An Unfinished Autobiography with regard to her life, her writing and the lives of widows in Vrindaban. Lastly, the fifth chapter will be the conclusion of the dissertation along with further scope and the limitations.
Keywords: women autobiographies, social reform, feminism, writing, female education, resistance
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Approval of Dissertation ii
Declaration iii
Certificate iv
Acknowledgements v
Abstract vi
Chapter 1
Introduction 1
1.1 Primary texts 3 1.2 Research question and objectives 4 1.2.1 Research question 4 1.1.2 Research objectives 4 1.3 Review of literature 4 1.3.1 Autobiographical writing 5 1.3.2 Women’s writing 11 1.3.3 Women's reforms 12 1.3.4 Book reviews 14 1.4 Method and methodology 15 1.4.1 Method 15 1.4.2 Methodology 15 1.5 Scope 16 1.6 Relevance and limitations 16 1.6.1 Relevance 16 1.6.2 Limitations 1.7 Conclusion 16 Works Cited 18
Chapter 2
Women's Reform and Patriarchy in Sunity Devi's An Autobiography of an Indian Princess 21
2.1 Introduction 21 2.2 The brahmo movement in India 23
2.3 Sunity's insights in brahmo movement 24 2.4 Sunity's family and upbringing 27 2.5 Influence of brahmo movement and the contributions of Sunity Devi to women's education in India 31 2.6 Conclusion 34 Works Cited 38
Chapter 3
Unveiling Women's Reforms in Cornelia Sorabji's India Calling 40
3.1 Introduction 40 3.2 Sorabji's view on women education in India 42 3.3 Sexual politics and law in India Calling 45 3.4 Cornelia Sorabji and the purdahnashins 50 3.5 Conclusion 56 Works Cited 61
Chapter 4
Writing and Resistance in Indira Goswami's An Unfinished Autobiography 64
4.1 Introduction 64 4.2 Woman's education and Indira Goswami 68 4.3 Radheshyamis in An Unfinished Autobiography 71 4.4 Writing as a form of revolt 77 4.5 Conclusion 81 Works Cited 84
Chapter 5
Conclusion 87
5.1 Scope and limitations 92 Works Cited 93
Bibliography 94
Chapter 1
Introduction
The word autobiography can be broken into three words “autos” the self, “bios” the
life and “graphe” which is the act of writing. So the autobiography very simply means the
act of writing about one’s own self.
The genre of autobiographies is a retelling of life, a mode of self-revelation. In this
retrospective genre, the author narrates his/her story in an attempt to reconstruct his/her
personal development in a social, cultural, historical or political framework whilst making
coherent meaning of the past events. Autobiographies are not a part of traditional Indian
culture, but from the nineteenth century onwards, autobiographical writings had started
emerging in India. The writing of autobiographies is essentially a result of English
education. Men began writing their autobiographies much before women; even now the
number of men autobiographers is higher than women.
In the words of Kumar, “Autobiographical writing is an act of a conscious self which
is documented through the active help of memory. Since human memory is short, the
autobiographer tries to make up the forgotten past by inventing things which suit the
narration” (Kumar 3). Autobiographies are a product of memory, and through this
amalgamation of memory, one can see the emergence of ‘self’ which is the making of the
author. The narrator can choose what topics s/he will feature in his/her autobiography depending on which he considers significant. Autobiographical writing is a political act as
it is an assertion of the narrative self. Some critics believe that the act of writing about
oneself is an act of self-glorification. But then again not all autobiographies are a
celebration of self, some of them are tales of struggle and self-awakening. As per Kumar,
autobiographies can be divided into three main types- informal, formal and specialized
form. Informal autobiography consists of intimate writing not intended for publication.
Formal autobiography offers a special kind of biographical truth. While the specialized
form of autobiography is religious, thematic, intellectual or fictionalized.
Most women’s autobiographies not only cater to one woman’s life but collective women’s experience and shared histories. These autobiographies are a reflection of their time and age, exposing patriarchy and gender biases during their specific periods of time. In a male-centric society where women were never allowed to speak their minds, writing gave voice to the voiceless. Women’s writing is a form of reform in its own right. Their autobiographies are very different from men’s autobiographies and their concerns vary from that of the men’s.
Women’s autobiographies are unveiling her-stories which are hidden from the world because most often women are not allowed to have a voice of their own. This research looks back at the twentieth century in order to study the previous century.
Identity of Indian women will be incomplete without a walk down the corridors
of Indian history where women have paused, lived, and internalised the various
role models. The role of Indian women, as it has evolved, has been experienced
and understood over 4,000 years. It has been intertwined with the history of the
country (Andal 67).
For a long time, people believed that all women’s activities should only belong to the private realm with no direct bearing on the society and state. Hence women's issues were Nadkarni 3 private. But with the gradual change in attitude, women's questions started receiving a different dimension. A new kind of awareness started to develop among both sexes and this changed attitude owes its origin to feminism and feminist movements.
Feminism as a movement began in Europe and America before gradually spreading to the rest of the world. The first wave of feminism developed in Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth century where the main agenda was equality, liberty and universal suffrage. By the nineteenth century, under the colonial rule, India witnessed the spread of feminist ideas.
During the pre-independence period feminist questions… limited in its scope
and approach as it was concerned with the upper caste Hindu bhadromohilas of
the society only… This has compelled scholars like Anupama Rao to identify
feminism in the colonial period as 'Brahminical feminism'. (Ghosal 794-795)
One of the challenges faced by Indian feminism is its diversity. The diverse nature makes it difficult to develop any strong institutional basis which can be looked upon as a boon rather than a bane as it challenges essentialism and institutionalization of feminism.
1.1 Primary Texts
The Autobiography of The Indian Princess written in 1920 by Sunity Devi is divided into fifteen chapters beginning with her childhood to her later years. The autobiography describes her life as a Brahmo girl who gets married to a Hindu ruler of Cooch Behar. She talks about her childhood days, married life, visits to England, life of her children and her later years in her chapters. Sunity mentions her social work but doesn’t give the readers any details about the same. She is the first Indian woman to receive the Order of the Indian
Empire and has also worked towards educating girls.
Cornelia Sorabji in India Calling (1934) discusses the difficulties she faced as India’s first woman lawyer and her attempt to improve the situation of purdanishan in her autobiography which is divided into four parts and eleven chapters. Sorabji describes her life in India and England as a student and a lawyer. She also discusses the reforms she brought about to help the women in India.
Indira Goswami’s An Unfinished Autobiography (1990) begins with her childhood, marriage and her life as a widow. Her autobiography is divided into three parts- Life is No
Bargain, Down Memory Lane and The City of God. As a widow herself, she tried to improve the condition of widows through her writing and social work. Goswami was the recipient of the Jnanpith Award in the year 2000 and the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1983.
These autobiographies are written by women reformers and are the earlier autobiographies written by Indian women. They have made attempts to bring a change in the lives of girls and women. Each of them emerged victorious after braving several difficulties and fighting multiple battles in their private and public lives.
1.2 Research Question and Objectives
1.2.1 Research Question
Analysis of how the autobiographies of Sunity Devi, Cornelia Sorabji and Indira Goswami demonstrate a connection between women’s reform and writing.
1.2.2. Objectives
• Understand the link between women’s writing and reform in the twentieth century through the autobiographies selected for study
• Analyze specific socio-political contexts of women which led to reform movements
• Examine the progress of women’s education through the three autobiographies
• Underline challenges faced by feminist reformers in India
• Highlight the emergence of collective women’s consciousness through reform writing in the texts
Nadkarni 5
1.3 Literature Review
The literature review is divided into four parts for better clarity- women’s writing, autobiographical writing, women’s reform and book review of the primary texts.
1.3.1 Autobiographical Writing
The Fiction of Autobiography: Reading and Writing Identity by Maftei reveal how memoirs and autobiographies are commonly held to be true writing as they are based on true events. Maftei explains how truth has several meanings, the writer’s truth may vary from the reader’s. Is the writer supposed to support his claim with evidence or will the reader be satisfied with the writer’s memory? Or should the story be confirmed by other individuals?
Autobiographical writing necessarily involves the intersections between one’s
own ideas of what is true and the ideas of others…memoirist must incorporate
the truths of others, even indirectly, acknowledging that they may deviate from
one’s own…Determining the truthfulness of a piece of autobiographical wring
often reverts to a discussion of authorial intention (21).
Mary Karr explains the attraction behind this genre as the relationship between writing and death as it is a “survival testimony” (Maftei 30). Karr explains that the person lives past the book and the character always goes on which is a hopeful thing as the author cannot completely die even if he is dead in reality. The author also emerges and will keep emerging with the described events.
The relationship between the reader and writer is described as follows:
Successful memoir or autobiography usually enables us to experience what the
protagonist does…But the events described in autobiography are often decades
in the past. They are new for the reader…yet the reader is also aware that these
descriptions reference a time and place far removed from the moment of
reading (Maftei 84-85). Questions about the fictionality of the autobiography are often asked, while we take into consideration the author’s truth we forget to consider the reader’s truth. Maftei also discusses the process of reading making the reader an important part of the process.
The genre of autobiography is discussed in detail by Sidone Smith and Julia Watson in
Reading Autobiography: A Guide for Interpreting Life Narrative. They define autobiography as the retrospective narrative in prose that someone makes of his own existence when he puts the principal accent upon his life, especially upon the story of his own personality. (Smith 1)
In this genre, the teller of the story becomes the observing subject and the object of investigation. They write about the evolution of life writing by stating how earlier memoirs or essays of self were terms used when the writer focused on himself, later the narrative of “the sovereign-self” was an indication of self life writing. As other forms of life writing came into focus, some were termed as untrue which led many postmodern and postcolonial critics to believe that the term autobiography is “inadequate to describe the extensive historical range and the diverse genres and practises of life writing not only in the west but around the globe”
(Smith 3).
Smith and Watson mention how most publishing houses now use the term memoir instead of autobiographies to describe self writing. They discuss how in contemporary writing, the categorisation of memoir is usually characterized by the density of language and self-reflexivity about the writing process, coupling up the author’s professionalism and his/her work as an aesthetic object.
Smith and Watson believe that the autobiographer cannot lie as they speak the truth about themselves, and anything mentioned by the author in the autobiography is a characterisation of its writer even if the facts are distorted or inaccurate. This is the reason why the truth in the narrative stands on shaky grounds and hence cannot be verified so the reader very often has to adjust their expectations of the truth told in self-writing. Nadkarni 7
Gilmore in Autobiographics: A Feminist Theory of Women’s Self-Representation, states that the near absence of women’s autobiographies from the critical histories indicate how the genre is associated with men and not women. Blackburn’s review of A Feminist
Theory of Women’s Self-Representation by Leigh Gilmore highlights Gilmore’s concepts of women’s stories being “mis-read”, as women’s autobiographies are not validated until they discuss the social and cultural realities they lived in. “The author’s authority over her self- representation is held hostage to her position in the socially constructed hierarchy that determines the “production” of knowledge and truth” (Blackburn 94).
This research focuses on the autobiographies of three women reformers who
elaborately discuss their personal life as well as their social life. One can clearly note the
influence of their social and cultural surroundings on their work, which is the reason that their
autobiographies were accepted by the society they belonged to.
Benstock in his The Private Self: Theory and Practice of Women’s Autobiographical
Writing quotes Rowbathan’s Woman’s Consciousness, Man’s World where Rowbathan
explains how a woman is conscious of the image the male dominant society has created of
her. He describes the development of women’s consciousness by using the metaphor of a
mirrior, a mirrior where women can only see the culturally represented image of herself.
Benstock further discusses Rowbathan’s idea that “isolate individualism is an illusion”
(Benstock 39) as a woman’s identity is never independent of the society. He writes how
individualism is the necessary precondition for an autobiography making it an exclusive and
previledged genre, excluding those writers who have been denied the illusion of individualism
by history (Benstock 39). He further mentions how women’s sense of collective identity is not
negative but can also be a source of strength and transformation.
Cultural representation of women leads not only to women’s alienation, but
also to the potential for a “new consciousness” of self. Not recognising
themselves in the reflections of cultural representation, women develop a dual consciousness-the self as culturally defined and the self as different from
cultural prescription (Benstock 39).
Collective solidarity ensures the movement of women beyond alienation, when women recognise themselves as a group, they develop a group identity based on their historical experiences. When women write autobiographies, they not only write about theirselves alone but they write about several other women who have shared the same problems, difficulties and histories as themselves. This shared identity not only groups them togeather as one unit, but they also derive strength from each other. Indira Goswami identified herself as a widow writing about the widows, their shared history strengthened their bond and made her understand their plight better.
As per Women, Autobiography, Theory: A reader edited by Smith and Watson, the texts and theories of women’s autobiography have aided in revising the concepts of women’s life issues which were not focused on previously, like growing up female, coming to voice, affiliation, sexuality and textuality, life cycle etc. Sunity Devi writes about her life as a
Brahmo girl married early into a Hindu household, her duties as a wife and mother and her relationship with her husband. She addresses issues which are particular to women. Critically women’s lives have been theorised in texts which emphasised on the collective process while questioning the sovereignty and universality of the solitary self. Women readers have often experienced women’s autobiographies as a mirror to their own suppressed voices. Literary and cultural theory along with feminism has agreed that autobiographies make invisible subjects visible. This genre is used by several women to write themselves into history, to ensure their posterity.
Women’s autobiographies are not just personal histories but act as collective women’s consciousness. The issues addressed in the primary texts are not personal issues but issues belonging to the women of that time, thus they make up a larger group history. Nadkarni 9
Jelinek in his The Tradition of Women’s Autobiography: From Antiquity to the Present describes men’s autobiographies as “confident, having a one-dimensional self-image, women’s autobiographies are said to be multidimensional, with fragmented selfimage due to inadequacy, alienation and the feeling of being the “other”” (Jelinek 14). He writes that women feel the need to prove their worth and work towards achieving that. He hints at the conflicting nature of women’s autobiographies as they showcase self-confidence after achieving something in their life as well as feel the need to prove themselves (Jelinek 14).
Ranjana Harish’s essay “Pen and Needle: The Changing Metaphors of Self in
Autobiographies by Women in Post-Independence India” examines women’s search for the right metaphors of self and records a socio-psycho-political journey of their collective subconscious expressed through their conscious selection of the metaphors. It marks the journey from needle to pen, from the margins to the mainstream, powerlessness to authority and that of empowerment using the metaphor pen. Harish discusses James Olney’s theory which states that every autobiography is a metaphor for self, and it builds a metaphoric bridge between self-consciousness to objective reality. All selves are unique and if they are constantly evolving and transforming then it would be difficult to define a self. Harish criticises Olney for theorizing using a patriarchal tone and overlooking the marginal identity.
Harish’s essay goes on to give a brief background of women’s writing in India. The earliest
Indian woman’s autobiography was written in Marathi in 1700 by Bahinabai. But the genre of autobiography amongst women established itself only in 1860. The first autobiography to be published in English was by Maharani Sunite Devi of Cooch. Autobiographies written in the first decade of independence are by women who belonged to the zenana culture. They take the metaphor of pen to rid themselves of the patriarchal metaphor of needle. In case of Phoolan
Devi, the metaphor of pen gets replaced with the metaphor of a sword. Harish concludes by saying that autobiography is a metaphor for self. These metaphors express their aspirations and efforts. Women writing autobiographies are seen as an attempt to move out from the margins to the center. The shift from needle to pen is a reform in itself.
Butler in her essay “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An essay in
Phenomenology and Feminist Theory” reveals the views of Beauvoir and Merleau-Ponty who claim that the body is an active process which embodies certain cultural and historical possibilities, they also believe that the acts by which gender is constituted bears similarities to performative acts within theatrical contexts.
Butler agrees that “the body is always an embodying of possibilities both conditioned and circumscribed by historical convention”, that means that the body is a historical situation, and is “a manner of doing, dramatizing, and reproducing a historical situation”(521).
The personal is thus implicitly political inasmuch as it is conditioned by shared
social structures, but the personal has also been immunized against political
challenge to the extent that public/private distinctions endure. For feminist
theory, then, the personal becomes an expansive category, one which
accommodates, if only implicitly, political structures usually viewed as public
(Butler 522-523).
Butler trusts that if the personal category expands to include political and social structures, the act of the subject expands as well. She discusses the presence of political acts which aims at political organizing and reinstating a more just set of social and political relation.
Butler emphasizes how the personal is the political, similarly this research believes that the autobiography of Sunity Devi, Cornelia Sorabji and Indira Goswami highlight the political aspect of India and the position of women in India instead of just being mere narrations of their lives. Sunity Devi represents the Brahmo women, Sorabji gives a voice to Nadkarni 11 the purdanishan women and tells the reader their stories and tales of hardship, while Indira
Goswami speaks for the Hindu widows of Vrindaban.
Women write autobiographies inorder to bring into focus issues pertaining to women, which previously went unnoticed. They shift from the margins to the centre through their writing and by claiming the space they were previously denied. They not only write for themselves but form a collective voice with the women they share a similar history with.
Writing an autobiography is a way of revolting and making space for themselves in history.
1.3.2 Women’s Writing
Shobha Shindhe in her essay “The Tradition of Women’s Writing” addresses the following questions which throws light on the hurdles faced by women writers.
Women writers have traced questions like what does it mean to be
philosophically or politically positioned as a woman? Who and where does she
stand? Are women writers outsiders in a social and cultural system due to their
gendered position? Does a writer experience her gender as a painful obstacle or
even a debilitated inadequacy? (109)
Shinde also discusses the concept of a feminine voice, a voice that women have previously lacked and are seeking to find through writing.
Gertrude Fester’s essay “Women Writing for their Rights” discusses how writing was always a man’s game, they ruled the charts but now with the emergence of women writers, their position is threatened.
Writing was, until very recently, a man's game... But now, women have
stormed the literary bastions en masse and seized the right to write themselves,
define them- selves…We have broken out of the stereotypical scheme of madonnas, child- women and whores to portray real human beings, rebellious,
anxious, concerned, advancing together (42).
Women’s Writing Text & Context by Jasbir Jain discusses the struggle undergone by women against internalization of role models forced on them by the society while writing about their lives and themselves. Jain mentions how literature is a powerful tool to understand the society and interpret the past and hence women’s writing is a clear reflection of the age and society they belonged to. Women’s writing was dismissed and considered insignificant, but now a growing importance is attached to their writing.
In the above texts, writing is seen as a way of revolt. Women started writing to describe themselves better and not rely on men to write about their predicament. The process of writing itself can be seen as a form of reform, a revolt to change the stereotypical image of women in literature.
1.3.3 Women’s Reforms
Nandita Gandhi and Nandita Shah in their book The issues at stake: theory and practise in the contemporary women’s movement in India explain how the women’s movement has no “beginning” or origin. It has existed as an emotion, an anger deep within women, and has flowed like music in and out of their lives, their consciousness and actions.
Gandhi and Shah explain how women have resisted subordination in different ways in episodes of mythology, fables, folk stories, songs and humour, wherever and however it has been possible. They have challenged social conventions with bravery and wit, taken sanyas, used religious practices or the medium of trances and healing powers. Gradually through time, this resistance moved from its folk roots, from unconscious, solitary acts, to collective protest and schools of ideology. Today we see this organised form as a “movement” with “dates”,
“events” and “phases”. Nadkarni 13
Pande’s Gender Lens Women’s Issues and Perspectives examines how women’s movements began as social reform movements in the Pre-Independent era. Western ideas crept in and it was extended towards the status of women. Spurred by new European ideas they decided to create a new modern society and tried to get rid of the social evils. They believed that no society can progress if the women were backward. To the reformers, the position of women in the ninteenth century was very low and they made efforts to improve the status of women through legislation, political action and propagation of education. This was mainly spurred by the first wave of feminism in the west. They picked out those issues which the British pointed out as evidence of degeneration in the Indian society. Women’s institutions didn’t have an independent ideology but did what the men were asking them to do. There was no attempt made to alter the power structure and man-woman relationship.
Women were educated so they are appropriate wives for the new Indian men. When they felt ‘Indian’ culture was felt to be threatened, more traditional roles were imposed on women. The social reform movement did help in bringing awareness about women’s condition and helped in removing prejudices while creating a secular space for women. In the first decade of post independence the concern was economic growth and poverty alleviation.
There were no specific programmes which aimed at women. The report Towards Equality
(1975) showed how there was no real change in women’s position. Incidents of dowry indicated regression rather than any progress.
Lateef’s “Whither the Indian Women’s Movement” discusses the arrival of women’s
movement in small measures in the ninteenth century which was later turned into social
movements with the help of Christian missionaries. While women began women’s
movements elsewhere, men started them in India. Women in Madras formulated “The Indian
Women’s Association” in May 1917 and “The All India Women’s Conference” was formed in
1926. The women’s conference also had their own publication titled Roshini. But no great
progress was seen in spite of the efforts and their financial dependency on the government defeated their purpose. This gives an insight on women’s reform movements in India and aids the research in propelling the question of women’s reforms.
Educated Indian women began communicating with women outside their family and neighbourhood, something that was unheard of before. English became the common language for communication. The emergence of several women’s literature in vernacular languages enabled them to learn about women’s issues through journals and other media. Many organisations sprung up which voiced women’s opinions, and later these institutions played a role in constructing the Indian nation.
In Bengal, Keshub Chandra Sen, the charismatic leader of the Brahmo Samaj,
developed educational programs, a women’s journal, prayer meetings and
Bharat Ashram where families lived together and emulated the lifestyle of the
English middle class. Before long, other members of the Samaj argued that
Keshub was too conservative and they broke with him to form the Sadharn
(general) Brahmo Samaj (Forbes 65).
Keshub Chandra Sen is the father of Sunity Devi. The educational reforms that he began for girl children were continued by his daughter Sunity even after her marriage.
In an attempt towards understanding the context of the change over a period of time, it is important to analyse womens reforms in India. This provides a background for the texts and enables better understanding of the autobiographies and the era they were written in.
1.3.4 Book Reviews
Geetanjali Gangoli’s book review of India Calling analyses Sorabji’s life as the first woman graduate from Bombay University and the first Indian woman barrister who worked to represent the aristocratic ‘pardahnashins’(women living in seclusion and protected by the
Indian government). She mentions Sorabji’s controversial life as she didn’t support the Indian Nadkarni 15
National Movement and neither the women’s movement in India, but instead whole heartedly supported the British.
Indira Goswami’s life and autobiography is analysed by Ajeet Cour in his “Life in the
Raw” where Cour mentions that Goswami’s autobiography is named such because it talks about her life till 1970 and not beyond making it incomplete.
In Assamese she is known as a bold writer who has dared to carve out a course for
her life which is different from the traditional mould. She has broken taboos and
has suffered in the process…revered norms of social life which throttle and stifle
an individual, particularly a woman (178).
Goswami’s unconventional writing style and choice of themes in her fiction as well as non-fiction sheds light on concerns which were previously ignored. Her autobiography is a culmination of the collective voice of widows from Vrindaban and not just a narration of
Goswami’s life.
As the texts are out of print, there is a lack of secondary sources on the select autobiographies, hence the research does not contain ample amount of references.
1.4 Methods and Methodology
1.4.1 Method
This research employs a qualitative method of discourse anlysis.
1.4.2 Methodology
The methodology used is feminism and autobiographical writing with specific focus on women’s reforms. The theoretical framework of autobiographies and women’s writing aids the research question in analysing writing in the primary texts. As the research also looks at reform in the primary texts, an understanding of the feminist movements in India as well as the changing position of women is a necessary perquisite. Women’s reform is a necessary framework as the autobiographers are reformers and address women’s issues and concerns in their autobiography. An understanding of women’s movements in India gives a background to the autobiographies and the issues addressed in them as well as assists in looking at reform in the texts.
1.5 Scope
The autobiographies selected for study enable a study of women’s histories, where one learns about the social, religious, cultural, political and economic history of their time. This genre is also a testimony of women’s realities. These women’s autobiographies are not just a record of personal experiences but stand for collective consciousness.
1.6 Relevance and Limitations
1.6.1 Relevance
The relevance of this research is to bring into forefront three women reformers Sunity
Devi, Cornelia Sorabji and Indira Goswami, who are unheard of. The research also attempts to understand challenges faced by feminist reformers during their time while analysing the socio-political contexts that paved the way for reforms.
1.6.2 Limitations
The research is limited to autobiographies of the twentieth century by three women.
There are several autobiographies which haven’t been taken into consideration. There are autobiographies written in regional languages and not translated in English which are not considered for this research. Hence the research is limited to the autobiographies of Sunity
Devi, Cornelia Sorabji and Indira Goswami which are available in English and belong to the twentieth century. Nadkarni 17
1.7 Conclusion
The literature review propels the question of women’s reform in India, writing as a form of reform and gives visibility to Sunity Devi, Cornelia Sorabji and Indira Goswami who are the lesser-known women reformists. Much work hasn’t been done on the three primary texts hence sufficient literature wasn’t available on the same. This research will help in bringing them and their autobiographies to the limelight. The research will also chart the changes in the form of Indian woman autobiographies written in the twentieth century. This research outline the changes that have taken place in women’s education as seen during the course of the three autobiographies.
Nadkarni 18
Works Cited
Andal, N. Women and Indian Society Options and Constraints. Jaipur: Rawat, 2002. Print.
Anjum, Mohini. "Nation and Gender—Historical Perspective." Sociological Bulletin 49.1
(2000): 111-16. JSTOR. Web. 30 July 2016.
Benstock, Shari, ed. The Private Self: Theory and Practice of Women's Autobiographical
Writings. U of North Carolina, 1988. Print.
Blackburn, Barbara. "Review: A Feminist Theory of Women's Self-Representation by Leigh
Gilmore." Feminist Teacher 9.2 (1995): 94-95. JSTOR. Web. 15 Nov. 2016.
Butler, Judith. “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and
Feminist Theory.” Theatre Journal 40.4, 1988, pp. 519–531. JSTOR. Web. 12th
December 2016.
Chisholm, Dianne. “Climbing like a Girl: An Exemplary Adventure in Feminist
Phenomenology.” Hypatia, vol. 23, no. 1, 2008, pp. 9–40. JSTOR. Web. 12th
December 2016.
Chitkara, M.G. Women and Social Transformation. New Delhi: A.P.H. Publishing
Cooperation, 2001. Print.
Cour, Ajeet. "Life in the Raw." Indian Literature 34.4 (144) (1991): 175-79. JSTOR. Web.
16th July 2016.
Devi, Sunity. The Autobiography of an Indian Princess. London: John Murray, 1921. Print.
Forbes, Geraldine. Women in Modern India. Cambridge: Cambridge U, 1996. Google Book.
Web. 10th December 2016.
Gandhi, Nandita and Nandita Shah. The issues at stake: theory and practice in the
contemporary women’s movement in India. New Delhi: Kali for women, 1992. Print.
Nadkarni 19
Gangoli, Geetanjali. "One of a Kind."Economic and Political Weekly 37.6 (2002): 549-50.
JSTOR. Web. 16th July 2016.
Gertrude Fester. “Women Writing for Their Rights.” Agenda: Empowering Women for
Gender Equity, no. 46, 2000, pp. 42–47. JSTOR. Web. 10th November 2016.
Ghosal, Sarbani Guha. "Major Trends of Feminism in India."The Indian Journal of Political
Science 66.4 (2005): 793-812. JSTOR. Web. 29th August 2016.
Gilmore, Leigh. Autobiographics: A Feminist Theory of Women's Self-representation.
London: U Cornell press, 1994. Print.
Goswami, Indira. An Unfinished Autobiography. New Delhi: Sterling, 2000. Print.
Harish, Ranjana. "Pen and Needle: The Changing Metaphors of Self in Autobiographies by
Women in Post-Independence India." Indian Literature 46.4 (210) (2002): 161-71.
JSTOR. Web. 26 July 2016.
Jain, Jasbir, ed. Women's Writing Text & Context. 3rd ed. Jaipur: Rawat, 2014. Print.
Jelinek, Estelle. The Tradition of Women’s Autobiography: From Antiquity to the Present.
USA: Xlibris Cooperation, 1986. Google Book. Web. 6th December 2016.
Katzenstein, Mary Fainsod. "Organizing Against Violence: Strategies of the Indian Women's
Movement."Pacific Affairs 62.1 (1989): 53-71. JSTOR. Web. 29th August 2016.
Kumar, Raj. Dalit Personal Narratives. New Delhi : Orient Blackswan, 2010. Print.
Lateef, Shahida. "Whither the Indian Women's Movement?" Economic and Political
Weekly 12.47 (1977): 1948-951. JSTOR. Web. 28 July 2016.
Leonard, Karen. "Women and Social Change in Modern India." Feminist Studies 3.3/4
(1976): 117-30. JSTOR. Web. 28 July 2016.
Maftei, Micaela. The Fiction of Autobiography: Reading and Writing Identity. London:
Nadkarni 20
Bloomsbury, 2013. Print.
Pande, Rekha. Gender Lens Women’s Issues and Perspectives. Jaipur: Rawat, 2015. Print.
Routon, Claudia. “Letras Femeninas.” Letras Femeninas, vol. 25, no. 1/2, 1999, pp. 217–219.
JSTOR. Web. 1st November 2016.
Schwalm, Helga. “Autobiography”. The Living Handbook of Narratology. 9th April 2015.
JSTOR. Web. 30th August 2016.
Shinde, Shobha. “The Tradition of Women’s Writing”. Gender, History & Culture Inside the
Haveli. Jaipur: Rawat, 2009. Print.
Smith, Sidone and Julia Watson. Reading Autobiography: A Guide for Interpreting Life
Narratives. 2nd ed. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota Press, 2001, 2010. Google Book.
Web. 7th December 2016.
Smith, Sidonie, and Julia Watson, eds. Women, Autobiography, Theory: A Reader. Madison:
U of Wisconsin, 1998. Print.
Sorabji, Cornelia. India Calling. London: Nisbert & Co, 1934. Print.
Swetnam, Susan Hendricks. “Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature.” Rocky
Mountain Review of Language and Literature, vol. 53, no. 1, 1999, pp. 135–137.
Thakore, Sheetal Y. Select Women’s Autobiographies: a study. Saurashtra University, 2010.
Nadkarni 64
Chapter 4
Writing and Resistance in Indira Goswami’s
An Unfinished Autobiography
4.1 Introduction
Towards the end of the twentieth-century women’s writing had passed through different stages. It evolved from focusing on the private to the public to a combination of both.
While Sunity Devi predominantly wrote about her family life, Cornelia Sorabji’s writing revolved around her professional life and Indira Goswami balanced her personal and public life in her An Unfinished Autobiography.
Goswami challenges the dichotomy between the private and public by merging both aspects of her life in her autobiography. Preeti Singh’s essay “Feminism: A Long Journey from Androcentrism to Eurocentism” examines the absence of sociological study on the private lives of women as compared to the public life. She goes on to explain how the visible public life has taken precedence over the hidden private life even though both are equally important. Due to the lack of information about the hidden personal lives of women there occurs distortion of women’s accounts (72). An Unfinished Autobiography describes Indira
Goswami’s life as a little girl, a young woman who falls in love, a married woman, a widow to a writer, researcher and college professor. Goswami also writes about the joys and fears of
Nadkarni 65 the countless widows in Vrindaban. She can be seen as their voice, a voice that is narrating their tales as well as asking for justice.
Indira Goswami wears several hats that of a writer, researcher, professor, social worker etc. Born in 1942 in Assam she is fondly called as Mamoni Raisom Goswami.
Goswami began writing at a very young age and later took up writing to heal her broken heart as well as to bring social reforms. In the sixties and seventies Assam was going through some difficult political times, mainly the movement for the Assamese language, redrawing of the state boundaries coupled with growing insurgency. Mamoni Goswami’s writing gained visibility around that time, her first novel was published in 1968. In spite of the political disturbances, the sixties and seventies, are considered as meaningful years for Assamese literature. Mahanta observes that Goswami was probably the only Assamese writer to write novels located outside Assam (Mahanta 45). Goswami did not only use Assam as her set up but had her short stories and novels based on other Indian states. Her writing has known to radiate compassion and empathy often focusing on social issues particularly concerning women. The Library of Congress (New Delhi Office) writes that Goswami has an ear for the vernacular and her writing exudes confidence, courage and determination (Lib of C). Apart from writing several short stories, poems and novels, Goswami has penned down her autobiography in Assamese that was later translated in English. An English translation of the original Assamese autobiography was published in 1990 with the title An Unfinished
Autobiography.
In the preface Goswami tells her readers that she wrote her autobiography complying with the request of a well-known Assamese writer Homen Borgohain. Borgohain encouraged her to pen down her life but at the same time several others rebuked her for doing the same.
She was told that only great men and women were supposed to write autobiographies and not someone as young as her. It took her eighteen years to publish the first part of her
Nadkarni 66 autobiography in Asom Bani, an Assamese magazine in 1986 (Goswami v). “I was overwhelmed by the impact created by this small part of my autobiography” (Goswami xvi).
The persistence of the editor Tilak Hazarika coupled with the reader response was responsible for the second part, and the third part was the result of continuous urging by Bijoy Dutta, an
Assamese publisher (Goswami xvi).
With the development of women’s education, there were more readers who wanted to read works written by women. Women writers were not in the shadows anymore and were appreciated and valued. This also marks the evolution of self narratives by women. Women could express themselves in several forms, like magazine articles in Goswami’s case and was not just restricted to writing an autobiography.
Goswami wrote her autobiography in three parts, which were first published separately before being compiled together and are thus titled differently as Life is No Bargain, Down
Memory Lane and The City of Gold. P. Kotaky translated the original Assamese autobiography Ardhalekha Dastabez into English in 1990. Goswami calls her autobiography unfinished because it only includes her life till 1970 and not beyond therefore making it incomplete.
The serialized nature of her autobiography impacts her writing style as each part can be viewed as a whole. Since it was published in parts, Goswami has a different focus in each of the parts, treating each of them as a separate unit. The first part titled Life is No Bargain deals with her childhood memories, her days of youth, marriage with Madhu and her preoccupation with jumping into the crinoline falls. Talking about her experience of growing up female, she writes how her breasts started growing at the age of twelve and she realized that she is not a girl any more when she saw a Christian youth ogling at her figure in a swimming suit (Goswami 10). She talks about the various men who have been in love with her in her autobiography, calling them as her lovers. When she just got infatuated with Madhu
Nadkarni 67 she felt like having a physical bond with him, which she didn’t imagine with her other lovers
(Goswami 22). Indian families usually consider young girls as a burden and try to get them married as soon as they reach the suitable age, Indira’s suicide attempt and her father’s death made matters much worse for her in the marriage front. She tells her readers how everyone her age was getting married while she remained single (Goswami 15). She writes about her obsession with the falls and her desire to jump inside it several times in the first part.
The first part ends with the tragic death of her husband Madhu and the second part Down
Memory Road revolves around her life after his death and how she tried to cope with his absence. Goswami starts teaching at the Sainik School till her teacher asks her to come to
Vrindaban for her Ph.D., the last few pages of this part deal with her resignation from her job and preparations to go to Vrindaban. An unmarried girl is bad but a widow even worse,
Goswami recounts the remarks of two holy men Lila Baba and the priest from Dasrath Akhara who believed that the life of a widow is devoid of all meaning and purpose and is similar to that of death (Goswami 147, 169).
The City of Gold is about her experiences in Vrindaban that include her encounters with the widows along with her personal development as a writer and researcher. Goswami talks about the stigma there is to widowhood in her personal context as well as those of the widows at Vrindaban. She writes about the difficulties she faced living as a widowed woman in a land infamous for its widows and how she braved all odds to complete her research and live a satisfying life. Her autobiography ends with her accepting the post of a lecturer at Delhi
University and her kind words about her teacher Dr. Lekharu who helped her realize her potential and move on after the loss of her husband.
An Unfinished Autobiography is packed with history. Her autobiography is not only a record of her personal history but also the history of her ancestors, her family, the widows of
Vrindaban, the story of the various temples of Vrindaban among others. She begins by
Nadkarni 68 describing her fascination with the Crinolin falls giving the readers an insight of her depression and suicidal tendencies as the autobiography proceeds. Though the beginning is appalling, Goswami ends by writing that her teacher Dr. Lekharu taught her that ‘humanity alone was the prime consideration’ (Goswami 220) of any human being thus inspiring her to be a better human being.
Although her autobiography entails various themes, stories, and incidents, this chapter will only analyze woman’s education in relation to Goswami, this chapter will draw comparisons between the state of education from the time of Sunity Devi to Cornelia Sorabji and then Indira Goswami. Along with this, the chapter discusses the plight of the Vrindaban widows and her writing that can be seen as her form of revolt. In doing so the chapter will make use of autobiographical writing, feminism, and resistance writing as the methodology.
4.2 Woman’s Education and Indira Goswami
The purpose of woman’s education in the early ninteenth century was to mold them into better wives for the educated men. Ila Patel’s “The Contemporary Women’s Movement and Women’s Education in India” mentions how women were considered as means to strengthen the traditional values and resist the westernized way and hence women’s education endorsed their traditional role within patriarchal families; but as years rolled by there was a change in this attitude (Patel 158). Girls went to schools and colleges for their professional benefit and to serve the society. This is in turn changed their socio-economic status and lowered their dependence on men.
As per the report by Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Human
Resource Development, Government of India, the percentage of literacy of women was 0.7 in the years 1901-1902, 1.8 in 1921-1922 and it rose to 6.0 in the years 1946-1947. This shows how more and more women started going to schools and colleges by mid twentieth century.
Nadkarni 69
Sunity Devi’s An Autobiography of an Indian Princess (1921) reflected on the struggle to get girls to school and how Sunity’s father and Sunity herself opened schools for girls and encouraged them to get their primary education. Sunity was considered as a suitable match for the educated King of Cooch Beher because she was an educated girl from an unorthodox background, foregrounding the theory that earlier girls were educated to cater as better wives for the educated Indian men. India Calling (1934) highlighted Cornelia Sorabji’s struggle to become India’s first woman lawyer. Her autobiography is a testimony of the hardships she encountered so she could get enrolled in a law course and subsequently practice law. While
Indira Goswami’s An Unfinished Autobiography (1990) does not discuss any such struggle or hardship that she had to go through to pursue her education. Goswami writes about having a master’s degree, teaching in a school, pursuing her Ph.D. and becoming a lecturer at Delhi
University without expressing any difficulty due to her gender. This demonstrates the progress made in the field of girls’ education in the twentieth century. But her life was not devoid of hurdles, she had her own set of difficulties owing to her depression, widowed state etc.
Goswami shared a very close relationship with her father who was the State Director of Education of Shillong while she was growing up. With this family background, Indira
Goswami naturally gravitated towards education completing not just her bachelors but also her master’s degree before she got married to Madhu.
After the death of her husband Madhu in a car accident, she taught little boys at Sainik
School at Goalpara for a little while before leaving for Vrindaban for her Ph.D. under the guidance of her teacher Dr. Lekharu. Her family was not too happy with her decision. “The members of my family did not take kindly to my decision to go to Vrindaban” (Goswami 99).
Her mother was planning to send her to London to continue her studies there. But Goswami insisted on going to Vrindaban and that is what she did.
Nadkarni 70
As a widow living in the holy city, Goswami was not free of prejudice. The locals looked at her with pity and asked her how she would live without her husband, let alone complete her Ph.D. Goswami did not have the same problems as Cornelia Sorabji but she had to face a different kind of prejudice and unwanted pity when all that she wanted was to complete her research.
After the completion of her Ph.D. on Ramayana, Goswami was invited to several places to talk about Ramayana after her research became well known to others.
In later years, I was invited to different places to deliver talks on the
Ramayana. I read articles on this noble epic at several seminars in Uttar
Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh…. In August 1987 also, I participated in a
seminar on the Ramayana at Patna. . . . In 1988, I was invited by Thammasat
University of Bangkok, Thailand, to read a paper on Assamese language and its
Ramayana literature (Goswami 216).
In the following years, Goswami was known as a scholar of Ramayana and many sought after her expertise. Her hurdled journey motivated her to keep going and achieve her goal.
Goswami’s journey towards excellence did not end there, in 1971 she joined as a lecturer in the Department of Modern Indian Languages of the Delhi University after acing her interview (Goswami 90). Goswami not only taught at Delhi University but she was also interested in the old monuments in Delhi that she often visited and wrote about in her autobiography.
Indira Goswami did not have to face difficulties to be enrolled in a school or a college like the girls in the nineteenth or early twentieth century, she could complete her education without her femininity weighing her down. But she faced challenges as a widow living alone in an unknown land famous for its widows whose lives were contrasting Goswamis. While the
Nadkarni 71 widows in Vrindaban had no access to education and had accepted their fate, Goswami overcame all odds to complete her Ph.D. and then become a lecturer. She did not blindly accept her fate due to her marital status but did what she had to do without giving up even when she felt like.
During her years in Vrindaban, she experienced a lot of things she wouldn’t have otherwise and come across different types of people who influenced her writing. Goswami wrote and published several stories and novels based on the people around her. For the first time in her life Goswami got a first-hand experience of the widows in the holy land and saw their condition often writing about it. The following section deals with the widows of
Vrindaban along with their life and challenges faced by them.
4.3 Radheshyamis in An Unfinished Autobiography
Burton in his “Fire, Water and The Goddess: The films of Deepa Mehta and Satyajit
Ray as critiques to Hindu Patriarchy” quotes Manu who has explained the dharma of a widow in his Law of Manu. He writes that a widow should suffer till her death and remain chaste throughout her life because only a virtuous woman who has remained chaste will go to heaven otherwise she “will be reborn in the womb of a jackal” (4).
Manu’s laws are canonized all through India and considered to be absolute. The status of women depicted in his laws is considered to be the truth, thus following them even now even though several questions its relevance in the present times. A widow is forced to stay chaste and not remarry out of fear more than their will; they fear the wrath of the gods in case they don’t abide by Manu’s rules. Giri writes that a widow is excluded from the social functioning of a family and she ceases to be a daughter, daughter-in-law, wife, mother etc.
Since Sati was abolished in the nineteenth century, physical death was substituted by social death and hence widows were marginalized. Ironically widowers did not suffer through any of this and were free to remarry and restart their family life.
Nadkarni 72
Indira Goswami recollects the predicament of her widowed aunt who had lost her husband in her late teens. She writes that the Brahmin women who went to console her had warned her daughters not to touch their widowed mother because “she carries in her the pollution of sin” (Goswami 56). Even though Goswami was a young girl at that time she writes that those memories are still fresh in her mind. Her aunt was made to fast multiple times, she was only allowed a single meal per day and could not consume sweets, tea or even betel (Goswami 56).
This was her first experience of widowhood before she experienced it herself and witnessed more of it in Vrindaban.
V. Mohini Giri’s Living Death: Trauma of Widowhood in India provides important insights on widows and widowhood in India. It brings to our notice that widows are hardly mentioned in any literature, political debates or social movements making them seem invisible unless the media is covering some disaster that has affected several widows (Giri 19). Widows are socially marginalized and are considered to be socially dead. Giri writes that widows are not active participators but observers who are tolerated and not welcomed (Giri 28-29).
Widows or radheshyamis form a significant part of Goswami’s autobiography. The widows in Vrindaban are called radheshyamis because they have dedicated their lives to
Radha and chant her name till they die. She encountered several widows while she lived in
Vrindaban and being a widow herself she was empathetic towards them forming a collective women’s consciousness.
Indira Goswami lost her husband in an accident eighteen months after her marriage making her a young widow. She captures her emotions upon Madhu’s death in her autobiography, “Ages seemed to have rolled by… Life’s moorings were snapped… The trusted earth beneath my feet suddenly gave way… (Goswami 49)”
Nadkarni 73
Goswami was a widow herself writing about the predicament of widows in Vrindaban, she was not a mere outsider observing the widows but as an insider was empathetic towards them and understood their plight. She had faced prejudice and difficulties owing to her status as a widow that made her connect with the radheshyamis. Sometimes we read about widows or watch snippets on news channels covered by journalists who often sensationalize the reports for the benefit of their TRPS rarely giving an honest or real report of their conditions.
Goswami, on the other hand does no such thing, she is not an outsider like the journalists but an insider who shares her lived reality with the widows and does not magnify or sensationalize their lives.
Goswami writes about several widows from Vrindaban in her last section The City of
God. Malini Bhattacharya explains the concept of Vrindaban as the holy city for widows in her article “The Hidden Violence of Faith: The Widows of Vrindaban” by indicating that widows migrate to the city of Radha-Krishna not only due to their spiritual obligation but also economic constraints. An Unfinished Autobiography contains Satari’s tale, who was forced to live by begging after her husband’s death because her husband’s family grabbed all land from her (Goswami 77). Being cheated by the husband’s family is no new thing for widows who were often reduced to pitiable conditions making them find refuge in bhajanashrams.
The city is cluttered with bhajanashrams where the widows sing bhajans all day long.
Bhattacharya reveals “the institutional framework of the bhajanashram acts like an inner compulsion… if they are asked to abandon this life to be rehabilitated within their family circle or an old age home, they often feel like the dignity of their vocation is being endangered” (Bhattacharya 80). The psyche of the widows was such that having a normal life was considered as a sin and they preferred spending the rest of their lives singing bhajans in temples and begging for money instead of going back to a normal domestic life.
Goswami’s first encounter with the Vrindaban widows at Gopi Bazaar is described in her autobiography.
Nadkarni 74
I had a glimpse of the dirty linen that draped their skeleton figures. They were
not particularly attentive to their chanting. Their gaze was often diverted to the
rows of greengrocers outside the temple walls (Goswami 108).
The widows would sing devotional songs at temples to earn some money for their upkeep and save for their cremation. Goswami heard from several people that no one would give shelter to a widow unless she had money for her last rite because they did not want to pay for it themselves (Goswami 119).
Widows in India: Study of Varanasi and Vrindavan explains the working of the bhajan ashrams. Pathak writes that Vrindaban has more than thousand temples with Radha-Krishna idols. Women, who need relief, are homeless or widows sing bhajans and chant the name of
RadhaKrishna all through the day in the allotted shifts. In return, the women are given some ration and money (Pathak 76).
Goswami describes the widows or radheshyamis as women with torn clothes roaming the city in hopes of being offered some food. She writes that the widows often looked at the food offered to god with hungry eyes.
They cast gluttonous looks at the alluring heaps of food offered to the deities.
Who could say if there was a tinge of devotion in their mind or thought at that
moment? However, I, for myself, thought that those destitute and hungry
widows would pounce upon the offerings at the slightest chance! (Goswami
120)
Further shedding light on the poverty-ridden condition of the widows An Unfinished
Autobiography contains another incident that shocked the writer.
One day, I saw a man lying prostrate on the cemented curb around the foot of a
huge tree, in front of Lalababu’s temple. Two women, with their faces covered
Nadkarni 75
with scarfs, were searching for something in the man’s clothes. . . . What were
they looking for? What did they try to find in the possession of a man nearly
half-dead? (Goswami 121)
Goswami did not expect anyone to search the pockets of a half-dead man for money or food, but the acute poverty of the widows made them desperate to do the unthinkable.
Indira Goswami narrates the tale of another radheshyami named Krishnadasi who only wore white clothes and lived in poverty in a small hut with a man. She was not married to this man but they lived like husband and wife (Goswami 148). Some widows turn to prostitution to fill their stomachs, and people for various reasons harassed most of them, but such was not the case with Krishnadasi. She could live peacefully because of the male presence in her life.
Widows who lived alone without a man in the house were most often harassed or cheated, but a male presence in their life solved their problem.
Goswami herself could not cope up with her loss. She terribly missed her husband and compares her longing to “a severe mental and bodily pain” (Goswami 125). Lopata is of the view that an educated woman creates her own identity and is not fully dependent on her husband for the same. She believes that she shares the same world-view as her husband and is not living in segregation (Lopata 409-410). After such a strong bond with her husband a widow finds it exceedingly difficult to cope with the loss of her companion.
After her father’s death and after the death of her husband, several men pursued
Goswami. She writes that the stories of the men who proposed to her will make an interesting work of fiction (Goswami 21). She particularly mentions Mr. Singh who wanted to marry widowed Goswami to give “a new lease of life” (Goswami 80). The society does not expect a woman to be complete or happy unless she has a man in her life. Without a male presence, the
Nadkarni 76 woman is either harassed or considered unhappy, assuming that a woman by herself cannot be the reason for her happiness or protection.
People often cheated the illiterate widows. One such person was a Brahmin from
Uttarkashi who collected money from the widows in return for the arrangement of their last rites, but instead ran away with all their hard earned money. Since the widows did not have any written evidence of their deposit they could not file a case (Goswami 151-152). Their lack of education, naïve nature and lack of support made it easier for people to cheat them.
Bindeshwar Pathak makes a note that one cannot claim that all widows or all patterns widowhood is the same but the more educated they are, the better their conditions become
(Pathak 82-83).
Benstock’s The Private Self: Theory and Practise of Women’s Autobiographical
Writing asserts that the women’s sense of collective identity is a source of strength and transformation. While Goswami acted like a collective voice for the widows, she must have also derived strength from their collective sense. Collective solidarity ensures the movement of women beyond isolation when women recognize themselves as belonging to one group; they develop a group identity based on their similar experiences.
Cultural representation of women leads not only to women’s alienation, but
also to the potential for a “new consciousness” of self. Not recognizing
themselves in the reflections of cultural representation, women develop a dual
consciousness-the self as culturally defined and the self as different from
cultural prescription (Benstock 39).
Widows are doubly marginalized, first as women then as widows. Culturally defined as widows unfit to live happily in the mortal world after the death of their husbands, Goswami never conformed to the societal rules for widowhood. She continued to study and work and
Nadkarni 77 tried to improve the lives of widows who were suffering in order to change the social position of widows. Thus making her cultural-defined status different from her selfdefined status.
As a widow herself living in a holy city swamped by widows Indira Goswami composed several short stories and novels about widows and other people around her.
Goswami wanted to bring a change in the society through her writing by creating an awareness and scope for subsequent action.
4.4 Writing as a form of Revolt
Goswami picked up the pen as a small girl years before she began publishing her stories. During her conversation with Subajith Bhadra she confessed how her family’s simple lifestyle and down to earth life attitude made her understand and feel for the oppressed making her write about them (89-190). Bhadra pointed out that Goswami has always been preoccupied with the plight of the women in her works, and he asked her if being a woman made it easier for her to understand their psyche and write about them. Goswami agreed with the fact that being a woman she understood woman and their psyche better and her empathy towards them flowed in her words (195-196).
Hiren Gohain describes Indira Goswami as “the most extraordinary thing to have happened to Assamese literature” (140). In his article “Ineffable Mystery” Gohain mentions that Goswami authors using astonishing use of language, strong emotions, honesty, courage, passion and perception has amazed her readers with new experiences (140).
Flynn in her “Writing as Resistance” quotes Jean Francois Lyotard’s idea of writing whose motive is to resist. “To write is to resist the already done, already written, the already thought” (172). Writing can be seen as a process of deconstructing what is already known.
Viewing Indira Goswami’s writing in this context brings to view that Indira Goswami’s
Nadkarni 78 fiction and non-fiction was a form of resistance, she was laying bare the harsh realities of the
Indian society through her writings hoping for a change.
Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines ‘protest’ as an act of objecting or a gesture of disapproval; a complaint, objection or display of unwillingness usually to an idea or a course of action. While protest is an act of showing displeasure, ‘protest literature’ does the same.
From time immemorial, literature has been an agent for protest even before the formulation of a separate genre of ‘protest literature’. The author writes about issues which s/he feels the need to show his/her displeasure about, it is an act of revolting with the society in a nonviolent way. Literature is a mouthpiece of the oppressed and voiceless and protest literature is the voice of such.
Indira Goswami is known to be a social commentator, reflecting on the society through her work, trying to sensitize the people and bring a change. Goswami has sensitized her readers about the plight of women through her writing. Though all her literary works are written in Assamese, they have been widely translated in several languages making it accessible to several others. Goswami’s name is not only synonymous to modern Assamese literature but also to peace and protest. She received the Jnanpith award in 2000, which is the highest award for writing about the subalterns and the marginalized.
Kotaky writes that Goswami’s sympathy for the marginalized and downtrodden is not an outcome of any political ideology or some other agenda but she genuinely cares for them and believes in “human compassion, charity and other abiding human values” (Kotaky 68).
Goswami believes that change can be brought about through compassion and goodness and thus writes to bring this change.
Nadkarni 79
Nilkantha Braja written by Goswami in 1976 and translated to The Blue Necked God by Prafulla Katoky in 1986 is one of her novels about widows in the holy city. Zubaan writes the following.
The physical, emotional, financial deprivation faced by the young widow has
been woven into a perceptive text that drew on the author's own research and
experiences as she roamed the streets of Vrindavan and exposed, for the first
time, the uglier side of the city and its traditions (Zubaan).
The story revolves around Saudamini a young widow who is considered as a loose representation of the author. She willingly takes on self-purification and pursues the true meaning of widowhood. Nilkantha Braja’s central idea is the social attitude and inner consciousness of the protagonist who grew up believing that widowhood is her own fault or that of destiny and hence she needs to cleanse herself. Towards the course of the novel
Saudamini debunks the stereotypes on widowhood just as Goswami had done so herself.
Praising Goswami’s writing, Mahanta writes that Goswami uses powerful similes to write about the pain of the widows without taking the typical feminist stand and stirring sympathy of the readers (Mahanta 45).
Kotaky highlights that in the case of Nilkantha Braja, Goswami used her curious scholar’s mind while writing about history or incidents and if she was not happy with her findings she would dig deeper until she was satisfied with things, showcasing her brilliant research skills along with her writing skills (Kotaky 64).
Goswami’s award-winning novel titled Dontal Hatir Une Khowa Howdah (1986) translated to The Moth-Eaten Howdah of the Tusker is about a Brahmin widow Giribaala who is shuttling between tradition and modernity. This novel demonstrates change and transition in the Indian society. The novel is a product of Goswami’s memory of her childhood and early
Nadkarni 80 adulthood spent in the Vaishnavite sattra of Kamrup around the time of independence and after the second world war. Mahanta writes in relation to The Moth-Eaten Howdah of the
Tusker that Goswami was the first one to “give expression to a subjugated mind in Assamese literature” (Mahanta 47).
Goswami won the Jnanpith Award for this novel along with the others, and in her acceptance speech, she says how she would have committed suicide long ago owing to her early widowhood if not for her ability to write. This novel is known to have several autobiographical elements.
Shobha Shinde’s essay “The Tradition of Women’s Writing” states that women writers have realized that they should be writing about experiences unique to women. Their themes, plots, characters are a result of their experiences. Goswami’s novels were the outcome of her life events and the people she interacted with. In her autobiography she has mentioned how she would sit with her friend Manu and observe the people passing by to make her novel realistic, so one knows for sure that her characters are based on actual people. Misra’s “Indira
Goswami: Brave, Gentle, Bold” labels her writing as a variety of ecriture feminine, Misra further comments on her use of language, “Her language itself bears the imprint of female consciousness. It is marked by disruptions, gaps, silences and unusual images that seek to break the accepted structures” (30).
Her writing was not only therapeutic for her but have made her readers aware of the plight of women in India. Kotaky’s article “Indira Goswami and her novels” makes a valid point that Goswami’s novels are not about a few people, but about the suffering of the community (67).
Revisiting An Unfinished Autobiography enables a reader to understand her fiction better. Her autobiography sets the base to understand how, when and why she started writing
Nadkarni 81 the way she did. Although her novels are based on real-life incidents and draw inspiration from the people she interacted with, she does not use their real names and fictionalizes their stories a little bit to suit the mood of the novel. While in the case of her autobiography she does not refrain from using the real names, actual contexts or factual material. Goswami has a different kind of authority and power in her autobiography that she lacks in her fictitious work.
The act of writing is seldom considered as an act of revolt or resistance, but history has witnessed countless literature that was written to show the anger or indignation of the people belonging to that time. Goswami wrote not only because she enjoyed writing but also because she wanted to open the eyes of the society and show them the ugly reality. Her themes were always a result of the ongoing social injustice, which urged her to write to make this world a better world. Calling Indira Goswami a peace broker Misra questions the role of creative writers in peace negotiations and their possible contribution in conflict resolution (Misra 31).
Goswami’s writings have sensitized people and brought to light several hidden issues without having any personal agenda of her own and wrote as an act of resistance.
4.5 Conclusion
Indira Goswami a young widow gave voice to the voiceless widows not only in her autobiography but also through her novels. She asked for justice, respect and equality for the community of widows among others. Goswami passed away in 2011 after an illness, her funeral rites were completed in four days instead of the usual eleven because she was a childless widow (Misra 29). Years of writing and indignation towards unfair social practices amounted to nothing as she had to leave the world believing that maybe her writing did not bring the desired change.
An Unfinished Autobiography is a combination of facts, events and cultural values that causes tension between the self and society “which is resolved by the narrative presentation of
Nadkarni 82 a unique self recognized by society” (Cosslett 61). She did not agree to the views of the society on the fate of widows, a widow’s life is considered bleak and meaningless but
Goswami showed the society otherwise by gaining popularity and success after Madhu’s death. The society had predicted that nobody would marry her because she had tried to kill herself but she found a wonderful groom who loved her. Goswami who was initially not accepted by the society was later loved and respected by all.
Mahanta compliments her autobiography in his article ‘Indira Goswami’ and praises her insight while writing about her life.
Her autobiography Adhalekha Dastabez stands out as a unique example of the
power of her narrative, her passion, and her disarming candor in telling her
experiences and opinion on many aspects of life including areas of love, sex,
man-woman relations et al (Mahanta 50).
Women’s autobiographies are either celebrated for discussing the otherwise ignored concepts of growing up female, coming to voice, sexuality etc or for being a collective voice.
An Unfinished Autobiography is a combination of both.
Goswami’s autobiography has multiple markings of identity. She speaks as a girl who lived in the shadow of her father, a young girl who attempted suicide, a married woman, a widow, a writer, a teacher, a researcher.
Besides playing the primary role as the collective voice of widows, An Unfinished
Autobiography represents the change in woman’s education and woman’s autobiographies.
Sunity Devi wrote about the various reforms towards the primary education for girls, Cornelia
Sorabji stressed on her personal difficulties to attain higher education and become a lawyer while Indira Goswami completed her Ph.D., taught at the Delhi University and was awarded with the Jnanpith and Sahitya Akademy award, showing no struggle when it came to
Nadkarni 83 education. Secondly, Goswami’s autobiography is a combination of the private and the public, which has evolved from Sunity Devis’ predominantly private and Sorabji’s predominantly public autobiographies. Sunity’s An Autobiography of an Indian Princess was preoccupied with her family life and domestic duties, almost ignoring her public life in her writing; India
Calling on the other hand revolved around the difficulties faced by Sorabji in obtaining a law degree and then consequently practicing law. Goswami’s An Unfinished Autobiography gave equal weightage to her personal and public life, while the first section is mainly about her childhood and early adulthood, the later sections discuss her role as a teacher, writer and researcher, throwing light on her public life.
While the other two autobiographies focussed on writing about reforms, An Unfinished
Autobiography revolves around reform through writing. Goswami wrote in order to bring an awareness in the society and sesitising them to the problems of people, especially the plight of the women. Indira Goswami was a prolific writer, teacher, scholar and social activist was all this and much more, she was a wonderful human being who had a compassionate heart and a passion for what she did.
Nadkarni 84
Works Cited
Benstock, Shari, ed. The Private Self: Theory and Practice of Women's Autobiographical
Writings. U of North Carolina, 1988. Print.
Bhattacharya, Malini. “The Hidden Violence of Faith: The Widows of Vrindaban.” Social
Scientist, vol. 29, no. 1/2, 2001, pp. 75–83. JSTOR. Web. 19th September 2017.
Burton, David F. “Fire, Water and The Goddess: The Films of Deepa Mehta and Satyajit Ray
as critiques of Hindu Patriarchy.” Journal of Religion and Film, vol. 17, no. 2, Oct
2013, pp 1-21. Digitalcommons. Web. 10th November 2017.
Cosslett, Tess, Celia Lury, and Penny Summerfield, eds. Feminism and autobiography: texts,
theories, methods. London: Routledge, 2000. Print.
“Educational Development of Girls and Women.” Teinidia.nic.in. Web. 1st November 2017.
Flynn, Elizabeth A. “Writing as Resistance.” JAC, vol. 16, no. 1, 1996, pp. 171–176. JSTOR.
Web. 2nd June 2017.
Giri, V. Mohini, editor. Living Death: Trauma of Widowhood in India. New Delhi: Gyan
Publishing House, 2012. Print.
Gohain, Hiren. “Review: Ineffable Mystery.” Indian Literature, vol. 33, no. 1 (135), 1990, pp.
139-145. JSTOR. Web. 17th November 2016.
Goswami, Indira. An Unfinished Autobiography. New Delhi: Sterling, 2000. Print.
Goswami, Indira, and Subhajit Bhadra. “The Journey of a Writer: Indira Goswami in
Conversation with Subhajit Bhadra.” Indian Literature, vol. 54, no. 1 (255), 2010, pp.
188–200. JSTOR. Web. 8th December 2016.
Nadkarni 85
“Indira Goswami, 1942.” Indira Goswami-Assamese Writer. The South Asian Literary
Recordings Project. Library of Congress New Delhi Office. Web. 11th November
2017.
"Indira Goswami | Author | Zubaan." Feminist Independent Publishing. N.p., n.d. Web. 01
May 2017.
Kotoky, Prafulla. “Indira Goswami and Her Novels.” Indian Literature, vol. 27, no. 1, 1984,
pp. 63–68. JSTOR. Web. 20th January 2017.
Lal, Malashri. "Indira Goswami and Women." Indira Goswami. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 May 2017.
Lopata, Helena Znaniecki. “Self-Identity in Marriage and Widowhood.” The Sociological
Quarterly, vol. 14, no. 3, 1973, pp. 407–418. JSTOR. Web. 1st November 2017.
Mahanta, Amritjyoti. “Indira Goswami.” Indian Literature, vol. 56, no. 4 (270), 2012, pp. 44–
51. JSTOR. Web. 15th August 2016.
MISRA, TILOTTOMA. “Indira Goswami: Brave, Gentle and Bold.” Economic and Political
Weekly, vol. 46, no. 53, 2011, pp. 29–31. JSTOR. Web. 9th August 2017.
Patel, Ila. “The Contemporary Women's Movement and Women's Education in
India.” International Review of Education / Internationale Zeitschrift Für
Erziehungswissenschaft / Revue Internationale De L'Education, vol. 44, no. 2/3, 1998,
pp. 155–175. JSTOR. Web. 8th October 2017.
Pathak, Bindeshwar and Satyendra Tripathi. Widows in India: Study of Varanasi and
Vrindaban. Jaipur: Rawat, 2016. Print.
Singh, Preeti. “Feminism: A Long Journey from Androcentrism to Eurocentrism” Matrix of
Gender Issues. ed. Trivedi, Bhavani and Sangeeta Jain. Delhi: Discovery, 2010.
Shinde, Shobha. “The Tradition of Women’s Writing”. Gender, History & Culture Inside the
Haveli. Jaipur: Rawat, 2009. Print.
Smith, Sidone and Julia Watson. Reading Autobiography: A Guide for Interpreting Life
Narratives. 2nd ed. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota Press, 2001, 2010. Google Book.
Nadkarni 86
Web. 7th December 2016.
Smith, Sidonie, and Julia Watson, eds. Women, Autobiography, Theory: A Reader. Madison:
U of Wisconsin, 1998. Print.
Thomas, A. J. "A Masterpiece re-Launched." The Hindu. N.p., 07 Nov. 2004. Web. 01 May 2017.
Nadkarni 40
Chapter 3
Unveiling Women’s Reforms in Cornelia Sorabji’s
India Calling
3.1 Introduction
Due to the various movements in girl’s education more women started getting educated in India and it led to the widening of their horizon. By the end of the nineteenth century, they were no longer preoccupied entirely with their family life and domestic duties but were engaged in education and jobs. These waves of change created new stories and a new trend in women’s autobiographies which were different from the earlier ones which engaged more with their personal life instead of their public life.
From Gender to Nation written by Laura Lee Downs believes that “the source of women’s oppression lay in their confinement to domestic activities” (44). The gradual shift from the domestic sphere to a public one is seen from Sunity Devi’s An Autobiography of an
Indian Princess to Sorabji’s India Calling, but the question remains if this was the key to their emancipation or further oppression.
Cornelia Sorabji’s autobiography published in 1934 is a culmination of her struggle to become India’s first woman lawyer and her legal practice after. While Sunity Devi’s autobiography had more instances of her personal life and family, Cornelia Sorabji’s writing
Nadkarni 41 primarily revolved around law and reforms. Sorabji’s unmarried status enabled her to give most of her time to her studies and work as compared to Sunity Devi who was preoccupied with her husband and children.
Often labeled as an anglophile, in her introduction she explains how both England and
India are her homes and she cannot pick one country as her home. She adds that there was one place that called to her persistently, “Always, early or late, throughout the years, it has been
“India Calling” (Sorabji ix). And thus Sorabji’s autobiography gets its title India Calling.
Sorabji was ‘brought up English’ in a house decorated with English furniture and singing English nursery rhymes. She along with her siblings were taught about their history as
Parsis as well as the vernacular language which made them love India as dearly as everybody else.
Sorabji’s autobiography is written in a linear fashion, and begins with a description of her childhood and ends with the description of her old age and failing eyesight. In spite of a personal beginning and an end, India Calling is mainly about the obstacles faced by Sorabji in becoming India’s first woman lawyer and her scuffle in practicing law thereafter. Her autobiography not only comprises of her legal struggle but the voices of several voiceless and hidden (curtained) purdahnashin women in the form of their stories and incidences. So though it is the story of Cornelia Sorabji, her autobiography retells stories of several other women thus becoming a historical text and contributing to the collective women’s consciousness.
With the arrival of new kind of stories written by women, there comes the need to accommodate these in the present histories. This change in narration and woman’s image demanded a new version of history in order to demonstrate the evolution of women from women preoccupied with their family and domestic duties to women who went beyond their families.
Nadkarni 42
Cornelia’s autobiography is a storehouse of history, not just her own but of India,
Indians and British as well. She begins her autobiography by elaborately discussing the history of Parsis followed by Hindus and Muslims in India. In her later chapters, she examines the religious ceremonies of the Hindus and the Muslims. She briefly writes about the adoption ceremony in a Hindu household, the boy’s initiation ceremony and Hindu rules of inheritance.
Similarly, she gives logical reasoning for the worship of the cow by children as they learn that man and beast can be friends and the cow which gives one milk has to be honored and treated well. Other ceremonies like the rain ceremony, worship ceremonies for Hindus and baby fete days, betrothal, marriage in a Muslim household are written about in detail.
She charts the changes in the Indian constitution like the year women were allowed to sit the bar, practice as a lawyer, Cornelia’s scheme for the purdahnashin, along with the changes in the lives of the purdahnashins by stating actual incidents that took place in their lives.
Although India Calling is rich with the history of Parsis in India; the Hindu and
Muslim traditions and customs; the developments in England as well as the freedom struggle in India, this chapter does not analyse all that. This chapter touches upon two important aspects of Sorabji’s life and her autobiography namely education which discusses her struggle to become India’s first woman lawyer and the purdahnashins with whom Sorabji interacted greatly.
The objective of this chapter is to analyse India Calling to understand Sorabji’s struggle to become a lawyer and practice as one and to recognise her efforts in helping the purdahnashins with the help of law. This is analysed using the methodology of feminism, historicism, autobiographical writing and socialist feminism in order to understand writing and reform in the text.
Nadkarni 43
3.2 Sorabji’s View on Women’s Education in India
The first form of education in India was traditional education. This referred to the learning of the sacred texts. The women were not taught the sacred books but they learned how to read. Muslim girls had to know how to read the Quran while some upper caste
Vaishnavite women learned to read puranic literature. But mainly the girls were taught the household arts and practical matters that concerned them.
With the initiation of English education in India, a number of schools and colleges were set up by the British. While they wholeheartedly supported boys’ education, they didn’t show much interest in girls’ education. Geraldine Forbe’s essay “Education for Women” in
Women and Social Reform in Modern India Volume One echoes the same idea.
The colonial government, despite pressure exerted by missionaries and liberals,
was unconcerned with female education. The missionaries were interested in
female education and schools for girls because, they argued, women needed to
be brought into the fold to make conversions permanent. But since men made
the decisions, female education was ancillary (Sarkar 87).
Cornelia Sorabji’s autobiography charts the history of women’s education. She writes that English women and missionaries learned the vernacular language in order to teach it to the Indian girls. They started educating girls in small schools opened in the courtyard of mosques and temples and tried to make it accessible to all girls. In spite of their determination to educate Indian girls, Hindu and Muslim women continued to live in purdah and under the subjugation of the men in their families (Sorabji 2).
With the Brahmo Samaj, Prarthana Samaj and Theosophical society supporting female education, people gradually opened up to send their daughters to school. As seen in the previous chapter Brahmoism spearheded various reforms in women’s education which led to
Nadkarni 44 greater awareness and more participation in the coming years. Indians felt the need for a social and religious reform and hence sent their girls to school.
A scrutiny of Syama Prasad Mookerjee’s essay “Education in British India” suggests that education was mainly confined to the upper caste. It began with the upper caste men and then percolated to the upper caste women. Lord Curzon criticised the system by stating that three out of four boys didn’t get any education and only one girl in forty attended school
(Mookerjee 31). But Sorabji contradicts this in her autobiography by writing that after the arrival of Government Schools, children of all classes attended it. The ‘Untouchables’ who did not attend the school previously were also enrolled in them then. (Sorabji 11)
Girls were rarely sent to schools and their higher education was unheard of. In spite of the movements and awareness brought by the Brahmo Samaj and even the British government, several girls remained uneducated and thus backward.
Suntiy Devi and Cornelia Sorabji belonged to reformer families. Sunity Devi’s father
Keshub Chandra Sen was a well known Brahmo reformist who brought several changes in
India, similarly, Sorabji’s family were also greatly involved with reforms.
Sorabji writes about her father’s role in ensuring that men and women had equal opportunities in the matter of college admissions, “my father was instrumental in securing a resolution of the Governing Body of the University of Bombay to the effect that women were, equally with men, admissible to all degrees and honours of that university[Bombay, Madras, Bengal in
1857]” (Sorabji 2).
Sorabji’s mother and sister set up several schools for girls which were also looked after by
Sorabji herself in the later years.
Nadkarni 45
An analysis of Jandhyala B. G. Tilak’s essay “Inequality in Education by Sex in India” shows how the education of girls carries utmost importance. Tilak states how it is more important to educate women than a men as she carries the burden of the future generations.
Women have a dual role to play in the society. As individuals they contribute
to the socioeconomic development of the society, participating in the national
economic activities… if you educate a woman, it is educating the whole
family. Where women remain uneducated not only is their contribution to the
society limited, but the potential contribution of the next generation is also
limited by inadequate pre-school education (376).
Education played an important part in the life of Cornelia Sorabji. A close reading of India
Calling will throw light on the various problems faced by Sorabji in her pursuit to be a lawyer.
3.3 Sexual Politics and Law in India Calling
Cornelia Sorabji decided at a young age of eight that she was going to be a lawyer, at a time when law was not taken up by women. In her autobiography India Calling she mentions the incident that stirred her interest in the profession which was closed for women. Cornelia’s mother was a social worker and they always had a lot of visitors who came to see her mother and discuss their problems. One of her visitors was a Gujarati Hindu widow who was cheated by her man of business; having no education or access to lawyers she couldn’t do anything but weep. Cornelia’s mother told her how several Indian women were in trouble and little
Cornelia felt the need to help them out. And thus Cornelia aspired to study law and help the purdahnashins, women who live in seclusion behind a pardah, not exposing themselves to any man except a few male relatives (Sorabji 16). She was determined to open doors which were shut for women.
Nadkarni 46
Cornelia Sorabji had a life of opening doors. Opened doors are ones that have
been shut and the first door, which was opened to Oxford University, had been
slammed shut on a woman prize-winner in 1888. Next to be opened was the
door closed to women sitting Oxford’s law degree. Then Cornelia opened the
door of the first woman to plead in a court of the British Empire. Next her
campaign opened the door for the first woman lawyer with a post in British
Raj. Finally she opened a door for Indian women who had never seen the
outside world since their childhood (Sorabji R ix).
In spite of the various movements to educate girls in India, most of the girls refrained from education while the boys were educated, pursuing higher studies and working as professionals. Cornelia Sorabji was the first Indian woman to gain a matriculation and then was the only woman to attend The Deccan College in Poona where she obtained a B.A. After completing her five year Latin course in one year, she gained the college scholarship along with the Havelock prize and Hughling’s scholarship for topping the Bombay University Art’s exam. But Sorabji wasn’t allowed to use this scholarship to study at a University in England as she wasn’t a man. Despite the fact that she was the first girl to pass her matriculation and the only lady to have a degree, Sorabji’s gender was never an obstacle until she was not awarded the scholarship she deserved.
Sorabji took up a job in the meantime; she was an acting college principal and also got a fellowship in English literature in a Men’s college in Gujarat. Feeling pity for Cornelia because she wasn’t allowed to avail the scholarship, Lady Hobhouse brought together a few people to create a scholarship for Cornelia so she could study in England. Lady Houbhouse appealed to English men and ladies who supported women’s education in order to create this substitute scholarship for Sorabji (Mossman 24). Sorabji’s gender had deprived her of the
Havelock prize and Hughling’s scholarship, but her gender was the reason Lady Hobhouse an
Nadkarni 47 advocate of women’s education found the necessary support to create a substitute scholarship.
While Sorabji lost in one front due to her gender, she gained in another.
Cornelia reached England in September 1889. Cornelia arrived in Oxford in October as a University student of English Literature at Somerville University which was a university only for women. She wanted to pursue a degree in law but that wasn’t allowed as she was a woman. In 1890 Cornelia was finally allowed to read law, her papers were found to be above average impressing everyone. In 1892, Oxford passed a decree from the University Council enabling her to answer her law exams; this was landmark decree as she would be the first woman to be allowed to answer the law exam. She recollects that her Roman Law tutor was greatly excited for her. “Miss Sorabji, you need not sit for the examinations…you have a decree. That is enough for a lifetime. You need not go further. The University of Oxford to pass a decree like that” (Sorabji 29). Much to her disappointment, she was awarded a third class degree which she could collect only in 1922, thirty years after she had passed her examination.
Her first case was to defend a woman accused of murdering her husband, the District and
Session Judge did not let her defend the woman as a lawyer.
I wrote to Mr. Crowe, the District and Sessions Judge, asking if I might defend
the woman, not as having any legal qualification, but as a “person for the
defence of the accused”- the Statutory Law of British India, read with the
definitions section, allowed an accused any “person” for his defence, and
“person” was defined as male or female (Sorabji 59-60).
Even after passing her law examination and completing her apprenticeship at Lee &
Pemberton (England) Sorabji was not allowed to defend the accused as a lawyer but as a person to defend the accused because the British Empire did not have an arrangement for a woman lawyer.
Nadkarni 48
Marry Jane Mossman’s essay “Gender and professionalism in Law: The Challenge of
(Women’s) Biography” mentions that while some states in The United States of America had started admitting women as attorneys during the last decade of the nineteenth century, women in the British Empire had no access to law schools or that profession till the end of the nineteenth century. The relationship between India and Britain was further complicated by race, religion and imperialism so in that context Sorabji’s success in answering her law exam in 1892 and then representing an accused in a British Indian court in 1896 are big achievements (Mossman 22).
As a graduate of the Bombay University, she was entitled to appear for the L.L.B. examination which she had passed with flying colours but was not allowed to be enrolled as a
Vakil. In 1899 she was asked to give the High Court Pleader’s examination which she passed, but she wasn’t added to the rolls. The Indian High Court felt that it was impolite to admit a woman on the rolls in India before England had done so.
But protest would have been of no use. I was a single individual. At that time I
could not produce even one other woman student of the Law: and I had no
assurance that other women would want to follow my Profession (Sorabji 102).
The bar was opened to women in 1919 and that is when the Allahabad High Court admitted her to the Rolls. She returned to England in 1922 for her BCL degree in Oxford and was finally admitted to the Bar in Britain and India in 1923, thirty years after she had completed BLC degree in Oxford.
Cornelia had to push open several doors to reach her desired destination, some were closed on her face and yet again she forced them open. One would think that her struggle would have been over after getting a law degree but that was just the beginning of a long struggle which lasted for several years. Cornelia was caught amidst sexual politics on several occasions and lost on many opportunities because she wasn’t a man. Today a woman lawyer
Nadkarni 49 is not an uncommon sight; we have Cornelia to thank for setting the stepping stone and making it easier for her successors.
Yet, although Sorabji’s life certainly revealed how ideas about gender and
about legal professionalism were often connected, her individual life story also
challenged traditional approaches to the history of women’s entry to the legal
profession… gender was only one factor, albeit a very important one, in
creating both constraints and opportunities in Sorabji’s life (Mossman 20).
As per Humm’s Practising Feminist Criticism, social feminists believe that gendered values and meanings are determined by class. Sorabji came from a middle-class Parsi family which encouraged her to study and work, her family encouraged all the women to study and subsequently work. Her mother was a social worker who had built several schools, her sister
Alice was a doctor, her other sisters were also working. But the ruling class belonging to the higher caste kept their women in purdah, denied them education or any sort of freedom, they weren’t allowed to leave their rooms except to go to their father’s house. Hence gendered values are indeed determined by class.
A Socialist Feminist reading of the text also reveals how the very reason that Cornelia could become a lawyer and write her autobiography was because she was supported by highclass Britishers. Her relationship with innumerable Britishers is evident all through her autobiography. Geetanjali Gangoli in her book review of India Calling tags Cornelia Sorabji as an anglophile.
Cornelia Sorabji's education and travels in England made her closer in ideals to
the west and a great supporter of British rule in India. She makes light of any
racial or gender discrimination she suffered in Oxford, preferring in her
memoirs to concentrate on the happy aspects of university life (550).
Nadkarni 50
According to Althusser, literature both disrupted and revealed dominant ideologies,
India Calling reveals the difference between a high caste woman and a middle-class woman in India, it shows us the sexual politics faced by Cornelia but it also exposed that Cornelia’s
British connections simplified her life a great deal.
She faced a lot of sexual politics because of her gender from the very beginning. She was denied her rightful scholarship, then she was asked to study literature instead of law, later she was denied entry into the law exam, she couldn’t collect her degree until much later, she wasn’t allowed to practice as a lawyer etc.
Sorabji’s gender always interfered with her studies and her career in the field of law but as the only woman having studied law she had one advantage over her male counterparts.
Male lawyers could not interact with the purdahnashins, take their witness or fight their cases as the purdahnashins do not interact with males not related to them. As a woman, Cornelia faced no such problems and as she always wanted to help the purdahnashins, her appointment as the Lady Legal Assistant to the Courts of Wards in 1904 was suitable for her as well as the purdahnashins who could get legal help for the first time through her.
3.4 Cornelia Sorabji and the Purdahnashins
The purdahnashin women occupy a major part in Sorabji’s India Calling. She was inspired to take up law, become a lawyer and do the unthinkable as she wanted to help the purdahnashin women of India. Sorabji represented the zenana ladies as their Lady Legal
Assistant from 1904 to 1922 and tried to help them whenever and however she could. Sorabji was paid a pittance and she could barely manage with that allowance but her dedication towards her courts of wards encouraged her to keep this post.
Elizabeth H. White in her essay “Purdah” explains the purdah as a practice of secluding women and preventing them from contacting men outside their family ties. Purdah
Nadkarni 51 means a curtain or in this case a veil. White further writes that purdah is more than just wearing a veil and terms it as “inequality enshrined in custom”.
It is a complex of customs based on the concept of family honor, and designed
to maintain the sexual purity of women. Women are assumed to be vulnerable
and unable to protect themselves from their own sensual natures or the sexual
advances of other men. Therefore, they must be protected by the harem and the
veil from temptation and assault (White 31).
Andal N. in his Women and Indian Society: Options and Constraints add that the purdah system was introduced in India to protect the women from foreign invaders (N. 21).
Sorabji in India Calling writes that the Hindu purdahnashins lived in a joint family.
All women from that family lived in one zenana. They believed in and practiced unity. “The child of any particular Rani or Thakurani was fondled and petted by the entire bunch of women as if it were the personal achievement of each other” (Sorabji 66-67). The women did not go out to work but instead gave their full attention to their household and religious duties.
Only a few of them could read while none of them could write. They seldom
left their houses and their only expeditions were to temples or their father’s
houses. And when they traveled it was in a closed, fully covered carriage
(Sorabji 66-67).
The Government of Bengal had asked Cornelia to work on a scheme to be presented to the Secretary of State in connection with the province of Bengal in order to help the purdahnashins. Her scheme was approved and she was offered the post in 1904 to look after the provinces of Bengal, Bihar, Orissa and Assam. Under this scheme, Cornelia helped several purdahnashins who were under the court of wards. Cornelia’s post was vaguely described with nothing fixed and a very low salary, this got revised in 1907 when she was made a
Nadkarni 52 gazetted Government employee with a revised salary but the questions of pension and status were still unanswered. In 1914 hostile British officers retaliated against her. They used the loopholes in the scheme and denied her pension and a transportation allowance.
Sorabji writes that she would accept fees from those clients who could pay and do so voluntarily. She further states that as she was not enrolled, she could take as many cases as she wanted to and didn’t usually refuse anyone and as she neither had to take any direct instructions nor have any solicitor intervening she could do as she pleased. (Sorabji 82)
Her gender had created several obstacles when she wanted to study law and then begin practicing it, but her identity as an Indian woman was the reason behind her being able to help several purdahnashins.
Sorabji’s annual report for the year 1916 confirmed that she had dealt with 110
estates, representing 276 women, 139 boys and 95 girls, in 510 zenanas, and
that she had travelled more than 20,000 miles by rail, road, and water
(Mossman 26).
Apart from her own life, India Calling has weaved a web of several life stories of
Sorabji’s wards, the purdahnashin women. Her autobiography is not only a narration of her life but also those of the voiceless purdahnashins. Sorabji’s autobiography has multiple voices which form a collective female consciousness.
History is usually written from the perspective of the dominant class or gender often ignoring those who are voiceless or subaltern. Feminist Historicism protests against the disregard of the woman’s question and throws light on the history of women through literature. In the words of Preeti Singh, “Challenging the androcentric nature of the discipline of history, feminists argue that it is wrong to believe that the history of women is the same as
Nadkarni 53 the history of men and that the significant turning points in history have the same impact on both of them” (74).
Sorabji writes about a Hindu purdahnashin whom she fondly calls the ‘Squirrel Lady’.
The Squirrel-Lady was driven out of her palace by her step-grandnephew and she lived with her waiting woman. The Raj had not paid her allowances and her jewels weren’t with her either. Her Grand Nephew sat on the throne and was determined to make her life miserable.
He tried to poison her but wasn’t successful. Finally when she got her dues with Cornelia’s help, she allotted some for her grand nephew’s children and some for her waiting woman
(Sorabji 86-88).
Another case in her autobiography is that of a woman who gave birth to a son after years of longing. She loved him dearly but claimed that a demon got into him when he was seven or eight months old. “The child kicked his hands and feet at his own Mother.” (Sorabji
237) Her neighbours warned her that if she couldn’t quieten the child, he would kill his father.
The woman offered herself to the gods, but the demon returned. Her neighbours asked her to sit on him or the demon would escape and so she did and he died. This case proves how lack of education caused the death of an innocent child, if the women knew that her child had convulsions, he wouldn’t have died. This incident strengthened Sorabji’s belief that the only way to help the superstitious and illiterate is to proceed from the known to the unknown and that is how she came up with the League of Social Services (Sorabji 238).
One more incident is about a beautiful Buhriyar Brahmin girl whose horoscope stated that her husband would die soon after the wedding, so she was rejected by everybody. One day the news of a Buhriyar Brahmin King wanting a third wife arrived. The girl’s parents changed her horoscope and got them married. As faith would have it, her husband died within a month and his aged widows passed away subsequently. Now, this girl was in charge of the kingdom as the king had no heirs. The girl could read her own language and only write her
Nadkarni 54 name. She was spellbound by her priest and spent a fortune putting curses on others.
Eventually, the Maharani went crazy as a result of a concoction the priest gave her and she went to live at her parent’s place penniless because the priest stole all her money (Sorabji 153-
157). The lack of education and blind faith in her priest led to her downfall. Sorabji notices that a lot of Indian Hindu women were superstitious which could be changed by bringing awareness and educating them.
Upon the death of a Zamindar in Bihar, his five-year-old son was put on the gadi which was represented by the zamindar’s widowed wife and mother. His mother refused to accept the child as the heir and vouched for her second son’s son who was three years old.
This led to a quarrel between the two women. One day they found a bone under the child’s bed and believed him to be cursed, Cornelia intervened and realised that a mutton bone brought by the dog and not a curse bone thus resolving the dispute. Offers of friendship were made and the child was accepted as the heir. (Sorabji 143-144)
Sorabji was educated and had a significant influence on her wards, they listened to her and most of the times did as she said. She realised that she could only help those who required her help and they could only be helped by talking to them from their level and understanding
(Sorabji 238).
After years of experience, in untrodden ways, I conclude that the only way to
help the illiterate and superstitious is to proceed from the known and accepted
to the unknown; to base the enlightenment which you would bring upon the
superstition; not to flout the superstition (Sorabji 238).
Sorabji used her understanding of the illiterate purdahnashin women and formulated a scheme called the League of Social Service. This league had two kinds of workers, one the forerunners, acquainted with the superstitions would visit villages and bring awareness amongst the people and the second was fully trained workers (Sorabji 238). Sorabji
Nadkarni 55
recognised the need for a Central Training Institute which would be a practicing school for the
various branches of welfare, medical training, and teacher training. The candidates would live
in this institute located at the Presidency headquarters and study for their diploma further
specialising in a subject of their choice (Sorabji 239).
This league thrilled the purdahnashins and helped her raise the funds and with the
work itself. They were called the Voluntary Forerunners in the villages. They raised funds and
worked in purdah. “On Saturdays, they would come in purdah-ed cars…our village gatherings
were held in strict purdah” (Sorabji 240-241). White observes that purdahnashins cannot
pursue intellectual, social, political or recreational as their mobility is restricted, but these
women prove otherwise (White 36). Their movement was possible but within curtains may it
be at home, in their car or on the ground. The practice of purdah is associated with wealth
because only the wealthy men could provide with separate houses and cars with purdah, a
common man would not be able to afford such elaborate traditions.
Sorabji proudly writes that her purdahnashins were responsible for the Publicity
Department of the Government of India which materialized during the First World War.
Sorabji held war talks at her house where they came up with the idea to organize a Food
Products Exhibition in March 1918 at Calcutta (Sorabji 257). Natural grown and manufactured products were showcased at this exhibition. The goods which were not available in the market due to the war were available after this exhibition.
Wolfrey writes that “all texts are embedded in specific social and cultural context, and
textuality of history means that all our knowledge and understanding of the past could only
exist through the surviving textual traces of the society in concern” (Wolfreys 418). India
Calling fills the gaps in history throwing light on stories which would have been buried and
ignored.
Antoinette Burton’s essay “Purdahnashin in her Setting” deliberates the idea that
Nadkarni 56
Sorabji uses the life of the ‘improsoned’ purdahnashins to contrast her life as a lawyer
(Burton 147). Even though one can feel the pride of Sorabji in her writing, she also feels pride for her wards, She proudly writes how the third generation of orthodox zenanas visit England and are educated as she writes her autobiography in the twentieth century. Sorabji boasts about her purdahnashins who formulated the Voluntary Forerunners in the villages and also organised an exhibition during the World War.
The purdah was forced upon the women who did not reject it and accepted it as a part of their tradition and faith. Their ignorance and blind faith in their family often created trouble for them and with a lack of education or any legal knowledge they were always at a loss.
Cornelia Sorabji was a blessing in their lives. They could not seek legal assistance before as there were no women lawyers but Sorabji’s presence solved that problem. They could freely converse with Sorabji who never refused to help anybody. They weren’t just courts of ward for her but were like her extended family. Cornelia started her autobiography describing the purdahnashins as dependant, ignorant, backward women but as her autobiography progresses one can see the progress made by these purdahnashins.
3.5 Conclusion
In a nation which does not show pride in having daughters, Cornelia Sorabji’s mother was proud of giving birth to seven daughters because she believed that “they were women that
India wanted, just then, for her service” (Sorabji 14). And service to the society is what
Cornelia Sorabji engaged in. Her determination to be a lawyer was so strong that special decrees were passed in order for her to answer her exam making her the first woman in the
British Empire to do so. Sorabji’s years of hard work did not go to waste as she achieved what she had set to achieve. As a small child Sorabji wanted to become a lawyer to help the helpless purdahnashins and for two decades that is exactly what she did.
Nadkarni 57
India Calling plays an important part is creating a new history for women and women’s autobiographies. With no example before her she followed her heart and overcame all difficulties. It not just an inspiration for those who want to pursue law but is a retelling of a story and is engaged in remodelling lives.
Sorabji was involved with several other activities in her lifetime: she was not only a legal representative but also published nine books and a large number of journal articles on issues related to law, politics, and Indian culture. She had earned a name for herself but that did not deter from entering into oblivion and being completely forgotten after her death in
1954.
During her time Sorabji worked outside the boundaries of the male (legal) world. She never sought to challenge the man’s world and was content working in the peripheries of the dominant world. Though Sorabji did not actively challenge the man’s world, her decision to become the first woman lawyer is a passive if not an active act revolt against the society’s institutionalised roles. In contrast to Cornelia Sorabji, Sunity Devi neither challenged nor revolted against the societal roles.
Sorabji was a subaltern in the field of law because of her gender. She did not associate herself with the on-going women’s movements in India or Britain neither did she challenge the male authority at any time.
Sidone Smith and Julia Watson in their Reading Autobiography: A Guide for
Interpreting Life Narrative converses about the politics of remembering. They also discuss collective remembering which is true in the case of India Calling where Sorabji just doesn’t recollect her own past life but also those of the purdahnashins. Sorabji indulges in collective memory speaking for the women who shared a collective experience living in a purdah.
Nadkarni 58
Comparable to An Autobiograhy of an Indian Princess is India Calling as they both have multiple markings of identity. Sorabji’s autobiography has multiple markings of identity.
While Sunity Devi battled between her identity as a Brahmo girl married in a Hindu household, her royal status and her multiple roles in her family, Sorabji speaks as a Parsi for the Parsi community, she speaks as a woman struggling to make a mark in a man’s world of law, as a lawyer and woman striving to bring justice for the purdahnashins, as a reformer trying to modify the laws, a sister, a daughter, a student, a colleague etc. In the words of
Smith,
An exploration of the text’s autobiographics allows us to recognise that the I is
multiply coded in a range of discourses: it is the site of multiple solicitations,
multiple markings of “identity”, multiple figurations of agency. (Smith 184)
Jelinek in The Tradition of Women’s Autobiography: From Antiquity to the Present mentions that men’s autobiographies are described as confident, having a one-dimensional self-image while women’s autobiographies are said to be multidimensional, with fragmented self-image due to inadequacy, alienation and the feeling of being the “other”. Women usually feel the need to authenticate and prove their self-worth. Jelinek further discusses this by mentioning how women project self-confidence and a positive sense of accomplishment when they accomplish something in the personal or professional front. That can be seen in
Cornelia’s autobiography as she progresses from a woman struggling to study law to a lawyer and policy maker.
Cornelia’s intention to write her autobiography is not explicitly mentioned in her autobiography but she has deliberately left out anything which would tarnish her image. Most of the gaps are filled by Richard Sorabji’s biography Opening Doors: The Untold Story of
Cornelia Sorabji . Cornelia doesn’t mention her love affairs at all but her nephew has dedicated an entire chapter discussing her relationship with Falker Blair who was elder to her
Nadkarni 59 and married and with W. R. Gourland who didn’t reciprocate her love. While her relationship with Falker Blair was intense and lasted for several years, with Gourland it was one-sided.
Cornelia never got involved with anybody else after them and neither did she ever get married. Richard Sorabji writes about the aspects which Cornelia had left out on purpose in her autobiography to prevent a scandal. Cornelia portrayed a certain image of herself in her autobiography not giving the readers all the necessary details. She preferred to represent herself as a woman who fought all odds to procure her degree, practice law and help the purdahnashins, purposely not mentioning her scandalous love affairs and her envious attitude towards other Indian women who did well. As per Howarth’s Some Principles of
Autobiography an autobiography is a self-portrait, and the portrait Sorabji wanted to paint of herself is evident in the way she has written her autobiography.
India Calling is a combination of facts, events and cultural values that causes tension between the self and society “which is resolved by the narrative presentation of a unique self recognised by society” (Cosslett 61). Sorabji’s writing represents her as a Parsi-Catholic India woman who dared to dream of the impossible and set the foundation by becoming India’s first woman lawyer. Her life was not a bed of roses and had several thorns in her way causing tension between her and the society, but her narrative presents her as a unique person who is admired and accepted by the society.
This chapter was not only the analysis of Cornelia Sorabji’s India Calling but examining the need to re-visit history and understand the lives of women pioneers. Sorabji’s courage to open several doors which were slammed shut on women was the beginning of a change and inspired several to do what she did. Sorabji not only worked hard to carve a path for herself, but she worked equally hard to improve lives of other women, especially the purdahnashins who were often cheated by their trusted ones and could not receive any legal help. Sorabji’s life was dedicated to serving these women and uplifting the society.
Nadkarni 60
India Calling marks the shift of Indian women autobiographies from the personal to the public. While Sunity Devi’s autobiography published in the early twentieth century is more inclined towards her personal life, India Calling published a decade later is focussed on
Cornelia Sorabji’s public life as a lawyer and Indira Goswami’s An Unfinished Autobiography published in the late twentieth century is a culmination of her private and public life.
Sorabji’s successful struggle for higher education makes her an example of women’s educational reform. By educating herself she managed to bring forth several other reforms for women, mainly the hapless purdahnashins. Sorabji fought for their basic human rights, denoting a shift from the educational reform she brought about to the legal reforms she was responsible for. Sorabji’s efforts like the league of social sciences created a battalion of forerunners which would help women in the future.
Sorabji’s autobiography forms an important part of forming a new history which includes the stories of women whose stories were unheard of and thus ignored. Women’s autobiographies are a testimony to their life’s struggles and subsequent achievements; they vary from a man’s autobiography because men are perceived as the stronger sex while women are labeled as the weaker sex, thus sharing different histories, difficulties and stories. India
Calling is a culmination of several stories which revisits history and aides in making the voices of women heard and appreciated.
Nadkarni 61
Works Cited
Andal, N. Women and Indian Society Options and Constraints. Jaipur: Rawat, 2002. Print.
Anjum, Mohini. "Nation and Gender—Historical Perspective." Sociological Bulletin 49.1
(2000): 111-16. JSTOR. Web. 30 July 2016.
Burton, Antoinette. “Review: A Life in the Limelight.” Economic and Political Weekly, vol.
41, no. 47, 2006, pp. 4875–4876. Jstor. Web. 28 Aug. 2017
Burton, Antoinette. “'The Purdahnashin in Her Setting': Colonial Modernity and the Zenana in
Cornelia Sorabji'sMemoirs.” Feminist Review, Reconstructing Femininities: Colonial
Intersections of Gender, Race, Religion and Class , no. 65, June 2000, pp. 145– 158.
Jstor. Web. 22 June 2017.
Cosslett, Tess, Celia Lury, and Penny Summerfield, eds. Feminism and autobiography: texts,
theories, methods. London: Routledge, 2000. Print.
Downs, Laura Lee. Writing gender history. London, Bloomsbury, 2004.
Forbes, Geraldine H. Women in modern India. Vol. 1, Cambridge, Cambridge University
Press, 1996.
Gangoli, Geetanjali. "One of a Kind."Economic and Political Weekly 37.6 (2002): 549-50.
JSTOR. Web. 16th July 2016.
Howarth, William L. “Some Principles of Autobiography.” New Literary History, vol. 5, no.
2, 1974, pp. 363–381. JSTOR. Web. 23rd February 2017.
Humm, Maggie. Practising Feminist Criticism. Jaipur: Rawat, 2015. Print.
Jelinek, Estelle. The Tradition of Women’s Autobiography: From Antiquity to the Present.
Nadkarni 62
USA: Xlibris Cooperation, 1986. Google Book. Web. 6th December 2016.
Maftei, Micaela. The Fiction of Autobiography: Reading and Writing Identity. London:
Bloomsbury, 2013. Print.
Mookerjee, Syama Prasad. “Education in British India.” The Annals of the American Academy
of Political and Social Science, vol. 233, 1944, pp. 30–38. JSTOR. Web. 7th February
2017.
Mossman, Mary Jane. “6. The First Women Lawyers: Gender Equality and Professionalism in
Law.” Honouring Social Justice, 2008. JSTOR. Web. 26 June 2017.
Renza, Louis A. “The Veto of Imagination: A Theory of Autobiography” New Literary
History, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 1-26. JSTOR. Web. 11th March 2017.
Schwalm, Helga. “Autobiography”. The Living Handbook of Narratology. 9th April 2015.
JSTOR. Web. 30th August 2016.
Singh, Preeti. “Feminism: A Long Journey from Androcentrism to Eurocentrism” Matrix of
Gender Issues. ed. Trivedi, Bhavani and Sangeeta Jain. Delhi: Discovery, 2010.
Smith, Sidone and Julia Watson. Reading Autobiography: A Guide for Interpreting Life
Narratives. 2nd ed. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota Press, 2001, 2010. Google Book.
Web. 7th December 2016.
Smith, Sidonie, and Julia Watson, eds. Women, Autobiography, Theory: A Reader. Madison:
U of Wisconsin, 1998. Print.
Sorabji, Cornelia. India Calling: The Memoirs of Cornelia Sorabji. London: Nisbert & Co,
1934. Print.
Sorabji, Richard. Opening Doors: The Untold Story of Cornelia Sorabji. Haryana: Penguin,
2010. Print.
Nadkarni 63
Tilak, Jandhyala B. G. “Inequality in Education in India.” Indian Journal of Industrial
Relations, vol. 14, no. 3, 1979, pp. 417–436. JSTOR. Web. 7th February 2017.
White, Elizabeth H. “Purdah.” Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, vol. 2, no. 1, 1977, pp.
31–42. JSTOR. Web. 29th August 2017.
Wolfreys, Julian, ed. Literary Theories: A Reader & Guide. Edinburg: Edinburg UP, 1999.
Print.
Nadkarni 21
Chapter 2
Women’s Reforms and Patriarchy in Sunity Devi’s
An Autobiography of an Indian Princess
2.1 Introduction
Sunity Devi, the daughter of a renowned Brahmo reformist Keshub Chandra Sen and the wife of Maharaja Nripendra Narayan of Cooch Beher is mainly known as a daughter and a wife while her independent identity has always been in the shadow. She has emerged through the shadows by writing this autobiography and creating space and a unique identity for herself.
Published in 1921 Sunity Devi’s An Autobiography of an Indian Princess is a sociohistorical text. It not only portrays her personal life but also that of the Brahmo movement in India, educational reforms, the history of India and British and so on. Sunity
Devi’s autobiography is one of the early autobiographies written by Indian women and hence one can notice that it belongs to the nascent stage of autobiographical writing by women. An
Autobiography of an Indian Princess follows a linear narrative without any subversion of the experience of time and memory. The chronological form allows readers to understand the limited scope and reach of women in their daily lives. Even as the queen of Cooch Beher
Sunity Devi’s roles were largely defined by her feminine responsibilities based on institutional
21 22 roles. Although she had greater access to the public world as the queen, her interventions were limited to philantrophic activities. Although her spaces extended beyond the domestic spear, her roles remained largely domestic. This is evident in the journalistic fashion in which she records her life.
Brahmoism is often associated with men like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Keshub Chandra
Sen and so on while the voices and perspective of women have been absent. Sunity Devi’s autobiography is a women’s opinion of this movement, she captures the struggle of a Brahmo girl married into a Hindu household facing the conflict between tradition and modernity.
Sunity Devi’s father Keshub Chandra Sen was a champion of women’s education, his daughter followed his path and propagated women’s education. However, Sunity Devi is not known as a reformer neither is her work recognized in this era. This chapter will highlight her reform work against the background of the Indian women’s education movements during her time.
Women’s Writing Text & Context by Jasbir Jain mentions how literature is a powerful tool to understand the society and interpret the past and hence women’s writing is a clear reflection of the age and society they belonged to. Women’s writing was dismissed and considered insignificant, but now a growing importance is attached to their writing. An autobiography is a socio-historical text reflecting on the situations and conditions of its time.
Women’s autobiography narrates her-story and views the world from women’s perspective.
While women’s voice has been absent in terms of the writing of history, women’s autobiography fills in those gaps and presents a fresh outlook on the world.
Women’s autobiographies are unveiling her-stories which are hidden from the world because most often women are not allowed to have a voice of their own. In the words of N. Andal,
22 Nadkarni 23
Identity of Indian women will be incomplete without a walk down the
corridors of Indian history where women have paused, lived, and internalised
the various role models. The role of Indian women, as it has evolved, has been
experienced and understood over 4,000 years. It has been intertwined with
history of the country (67).
This chapter will make use of discourse as well as textual analysis to analyse An
Autobiography of an Indian Princess. Further using the methodology of autobiographical writing to understand the elements of Sunity Devis’s autobiography, feminist historicism in order to place the text in the context of Indian history along with the Brahmo movement, educational reforms etc.
This chapter will focus on the brief history of the Brahmo movement in India, Sunity
Devi’s insights on the movement, her family and upbringing along with women’s educational reforms influenced by Brahmoism.
2.2 The Brahmo Movement in India
The Brahmo movement has its roots in the early nineteenth century (1828) Bengal. It began as a revolt against orthodox Hinduism. Brahmoism denounced the concept of several gods and believed in a universal god, it did not believe in castes, image worship, karma and so on. Brahmoism revolted against Hinduism but was influenced by Christianity and Islam.
The name of Raja Rammohan Roy is connected with this movement. While Roy wanted to reform Hinduism from within, his successor Debendranath Tagore reproached the
Vedic authority. He founded the Tattwabodhini Sabha in 1839. The Sabha grew to become a platform for the intellectual and cultural elite of Bengal in the mid-nineteenth century. The
Sabha had declared the objective of their body as the propagation of the Brahmo Dharma. The
Brahmo movement spread all over the country and by 1872 the church had established over a
23 24 hundred branches throughout the nation. The sect now had their own set of rituals, rules and way of living and was thus recognised as a separate religious unit.
Keshub Chandra Sen joined the movement in 1857 and became the right-hand man of
Debendranath Tagore. Sen was appointed as the Acharya of the Samaj and gave him the title of Brahmananda which means one whose delight is God. Keshub was the first non-Brahmin at that level. Sen brought new life into the movement and worked hard to spread Brahmoism in every corner of Bengal.
But differences between Tagore and Sen split the group into two, the old conservatives went with Tagore and the new reformists went with Sen. With this split came the establishment of Adi Brahmo Samaj or Brahmo Samaj of India by Keshub Sen. The samaj’s reform technique was much more radical focussing mainly on female’s emancipation, female education and abolishment of caste.
In 1868 Sen set up Tabernacle of New Dispensation, a universal church preaching peace, harmony, love and unity for all. In 1879 Keshub Chandra Sen announced the arrival of the New Dispensation. Sen’s efforts helped formulate the Indian Marriage Act of 1872 which allowed inter-caste marriages and set a minimum age limit to get married.
Inspite of the Samaj’s progress, a group of Brahmos split and formed the Sadharan
Brahmo Samaj in 1878. This group strongly resisted the underage marriage of Sen’s daughter
Sunity Devi with a Hindu ruler. This body was led by Derozian Shib Chandra Dev and they believed in the Upanishads as well as continued with social reform.
The movement lost force by the twentieth century but some of its tenets are still widely followed.
Reading Sunity Devi’s autobiography provides a wider perspective towards the Brahmo movement.
24 Nadkarni 25
2.3 Sunity Devi’s Insights into The Brahmo Movement
An Autobiography of an Indian Princess is a socio-historical text that charts not only
Sunity Devi’s own history but the history of the Brahmo movement in Calcutta, the educational reforms undertaken for women and so on. This brings to mind the cautionary statement of Wolfrey’s that “all texts are embedded in specific social and cultural context, and textuality of history means that all our knowledge and understanding of the past could only exist through the surviving textual traces of the society in concern” (418). Wolfrey looks at literature as an inseparable part of history.
Brahmoism is associated with the men more than the women, with an absence of women’s insights into the movement. An Autobiography of an Indian Princess captures
Sunity Devi’s life as a Brahmo along with her opinions and views on the Brahmo movement.
On the very second page of her autobiography, Sunity Devi describes Brahmoism for the benefit of her readers. “A Brahmo is a person who believes in Brahmoe (One God). There is a Hindu god called Brahmuna, with four heads- Brahmoe is not that god (Devi 2).” She further explains the advent of the caste system and how in the beginning nobody had a caste and later caste referred to character and life but with the introduction of several castes people have become narrow-minded and stopped believing in universal brotherhood (Devi 2-3).
Sunity Devi held her father Keshub Chandra Sen in high regard and considered him as “one of the most remarkable men India has ever produced” (Devi 1).
An Autobiography of an Indian Princess mentions the causes behind the split between
Debendranath Tagore and Keshub Chandra Sen. Sunity Devi talks about her father’s indifference to caste and how Tagore’s Brahmoism still included caste leading to a disagreement and a consequent split. Devi also writes that Tagore was jealous of Sen’s popularity and influence which also contributed to the split (Devi 8).
25 26
Keshub Chandra Sen’s New Dispensation was a religion of tolerance and charity for
Sunity Devi (Devi 2). She also describes an ashram where her father’s followers from various classes and castes lived together (Devi 7).
Sen’s Indian Marriage Act of 1872 is referred to by Sunity Devi in her autobiography,
“My father’s name is for ever associated with the Civil Marriage Act...fixing the marriageable age of men and girls at eighteen and fourteen respectively” (Devi 42). Sunity Devi’s marriage with Nripendra Narayan at the age of thirteen and fifteen respectively created a rift amongst her father’s followers. They questioned his intentions and criticised his actions. Sunity Devi describes how a part of his followers questioned her father’s motives for letting her marry before the marriageable age and to a Hindu man.
These people continually attacked him and plotted to undermine his authority.
The fire of discontent and disloyalty which they kindled blazed fiercely and
dazzled the eyes of the unfaithful. Some of them even went so far as to threaten
to kill him. All those who had feeble faith left our church...they built a church
of their own which is known as Sadharan-Somaj (Devi 68).
Belonging to a Brahmo house and as a daughter of a Brahmo reformer, Sunity Devi had first-hand experience of the movement. Sunity Devi’s insights on the development of the movements are essential as the history of the Brahmo movement has not been recorded from an insider’s perspective especially a woman’s.
The history of the Brahmo Movement in Bengal can be charted out by reading her autobiography, Sunity Devi’s autobiography serves as a socio-historical text which tells its readers the meaning of Brahmoism, the tenet of Brahmoism, the various splits the movement witnessed along with the social progress of the Brahmos. An Autobiography of an Indian
Princess fills the gap in the history of Brahmoism by writing a girl’s/woman’s version of the history. As the daughter of Keshub Chandra Sen she has been a part of the movement since
26 Nadkarni 27 her birth, understanding it better than any historian. While this movement is often associated with the men, the women have never been a part of the history writing process. Sunity Devi’s autobiography is rewriting history from a woman’s perspective.
Her autobiography is a perfect blend of the Indian history and her personal life. Sunity
Devi writes about the Brahmo movement, the women’s education movement along with her personal life which comprises of her childhood, marriage and her family highlighting the ordeal faced by women in their multiple roles caught between the shackles of tradition and modernity.
2.4 Sunity’s Family and Upbringing
Sunity Devi’s mother belonged to an orthodox Hindu family which was not pleased with Brahmoism. Her family urged her not to leave her religion and change her ways but her husband wanted her to convert into a Brahmo and follow his path. Sunity Devi captures the conflict in her mother’s mind when she had to decide her future. She could stay with her relatives and continue following her religion and traditions or she would have to renounce everything to follow her husband. On the day of her conversion, Sen wrote a note to her telling her that he is waiting for her, and that was when she decided to follow her husband.
Sunity Devi calls it the “call of Love”. “The trembling girl hurriedly traversed corridors and verandahs until she reached it. Fearfully she descended the dark steps, her heart beating with fright until at last she saw my father” (Devi 4). Her husband warned her about the implications of her decision and urged her to rethink, but she had made up her mind to join her husband and undertake all the hardships she would face in life. “They looked into each other’s eyes. He read perfect faith and courage in her’s. She saw in his a love which gave her confidence to face the future” (Devi 4). For an orthodox Hindu woman, renouncing her religion and caste is a huge sacrifice, Sunity Devi’s mother was brought up to live by her religion even in the most trying times, she was expected to draw strength from her religion but
27 28 she gave up all of that after her husband’s call of love. With the loss of caste came other difficulties, her parents were shunned by the society. They were called as Christians and no servant agreed to work for them. But Sunity Devi recounts how her parents’ happy nature helped them forget their discomforts (Devi 6).
When Sen and his family shifted back to his parents’ house, for the first time Sunity
Devi started living with Hindus. While the young girls at her grandparent’s house were in purdah and lived in a zenana, Sunity Devi had no such obligation. She would go to school while her cousin sisters wouldn’t. In spite of all the love and warmth her family showered on her, as she grew a little older she felt like an outsider, she didn’t feel like she belonged in that house with her extended Hindu family.
As I grew older I began to feel that I was rather an outsider in the festivities which the other girls enjoyed, and I discovered this was due to my loss of caste... I used to run about the zenana and admire my pretty cousins, who seemed to pass their time doing woolwork slippers for their husbands (Devi 17).
Sunity Devi’s conflict aggravates as a Brahmo girl living in a Hindu household. The conflict began on the wedding day itself when the Maharaja’s family insisted on a Hindu ceremony while her family wanted one without the Hindu rituals. If it was not for the
Maharaja’s intervention, the wedding would have been postponed or canceled. After the wedding, the palace ladies scolded her and asked her to become a Hindu. Sunity Devi’s wedding was like a betrothal and she returned to her parents’ house only to leave it two years later after her husband and she had turned eighteen and sixteen respectively. They were married again in the Church of the New Disposition at that time before she left for her husband’s house.
Jelinek in The Tradition of Women’s Autobiography: From Antiquity to the Present mentions that the women’s autobiographies are said to be multidimensional, with fragmented
28 Nadkarni 29 self-image due to inadequacy, alienation and the feeling of being the “other”. Women usually feel the need to authenticate and prove their self worth. Jelinek further discusses the paradoxical nature of women’s autobiographies as they also project self-confidence and a positive sense of accomplishment when they accomplish something in the personal or professional front. Sunity Devi’s autobiography shows signs of a fragmented self-image as she was a Brahmo marrying in a Hindu household, her spiritual identity or belief before and after her marriage clashed causing the feeling of alienation. She didn’t feel accepted by her husband’s family and the people of Cooch and felt that the birth of a child, preferably a male heir would work in her favour. Sunity Devi’s actions in her personal life point towards her need for acceptance and validation. “For many generations no heir had been born to the ruler’s chief wife. . . . I knew therefore that, if I ever had a son, much of the ill-feeling of my husband’s relations towards me would disappear” (Devi 82-83).
Rajey her firstborn had delicate health which worried the Maharaja’s people. They urged the
Maharaja to marry a second time so another son was born to him. Even though the Maharaja did not tell his wife about this, he told the doctor that he would be over anxious for Rajey’s health until he has another son (Devi 89). Sunity Devi had no control over the gender of her child or the pregnancy but she had to safeguard her position with the birth of a son (Jitendra).
Sunity Devi calls her husband very strict but she revered him and considered him to be an ideal husband. The Maharaja was very particular about her dress. Sunity Devi was not allowed to wear her pearls next to her skin, he did not give any concrete reason for the same but blamed it on his preference. “I prefer my wife to do what I like” (Devi 81). This was the same Maharaja who did not want his wife to be in purdah even while visiting a Hindu kingdom. Initially, Sunity Devi was not allowed to meet Indian gentlemen who did not bring out their own wives (purdah). The hypocrisy of the Maharaja is reflected when he judges other men for being patriarchal when he himself is similar. Sunity Devi writes that her husband was
Indian at heart and was very strict about her conforming to his ideals. “He did not like loud
29 30 laughter or loud talking. I was not allowed to ride, dance, or play tennis” (Devi 81). While the
Maharaja was strict with his wife, he allowed his daughters to do as they please because he didn’t want their future husbands to find them lacking in any way. Maharaja’s broadminded attitude towards his daughters was not because he valued their freedom or choice or respected their opinions but because he was preparing them to be good wives.
Tess Cosslett and other in their Feminism and autobiography: texts, theories, methods state that “The autobiographical process uses not only facts and events, but also social representations and cultural values. A tension exists between self and society, which is resolved by the narrative presentation of a unique self which can also be recognised by society.” (61) This can be witnessed in Sunity Devi’s autobiography. Her English upbringing and exposure to the English made her worship the queen and turn into an anglophile, but she did not shy away from criticising them when she found the English wrong. Sunity Devi reveres the Queen and is a loyal subject, her happiness knew no bounds when she met the queen for the first time. “ I was delighted to find that I had not been disappointed in my ideal, and felt eager to go back to India that I might tell my country-women about our wonderful
Empress” (Devi 108). Sunity Devi questioned the Majesty when her husband was not given any Jubilee decoration, she expressed her anger to the Duke of Manchester about the same, telling him how the Indian rulers need to be rewarded in order to feel encouraged (Devi 125).
Similarly Sunity Devi was vocal about her disapproval with the cadet system where her sons along with other Indian Princes were forced to serve for a long time before returning to their kingdoms.
Sunity Devi was torn in between tradition and modernity. Born in a modern family she was expected to lead a life following the Brahmo principles but married into an orthodox
Hindu family created a fissure in that identity. Sunity Devi was the middle ground to the two families having opposite views and spiritual preferences.
30 Nadkarni 31
The women were seen as agents of change and hence their families expected them to behave in accordance with the family values. The national agenda was often reflected in the personal lives of their families. The women were seldom given a choice but modernity and change were forced upon them without their consent. Sunity Devi’s father didn’t ask her if she wanted to be a Brahmo, Brahmoism was her only option. The agents of change were not given a voice or a choice, the change was entrusted to them by the male members of the family. The
Brahmo movement preaches the advancement of women through education, widow remarriage, abolishing sati etc, but the women’s opinions were not always considered. In aping the western society, the men did not realise that they are creating a fragmented image of the Indian woman who is not Indian enough neither is she western enough, she is stuck in between with a conflicting identity, an identity she hadn’t chosen for herself but her husband or father had. Sunity Devi’s mother gave up her family and religion for her husband, while
Sunity Devi felt the loss of not being able to celebrate the festivals like her cousin sisters did.
Sunity Devi’s Brahmo upbringing gave her access to education and her father’s influence steered her in the direction of women’s educational reforms. This coupled with her social mobility as the Queen of Cooch Behar enabled her to work for the upliftment of women in a grander fashion.
2.5 Influence of Brahmo Movement and the contributions of
Sunity Devi to Women’s Education in India
In the last chapter of her autobiography, Sunity Devi examines the outcome of her educational reforms. Barbara Southhard in her essay “Bengal Women’s Education League:
Pressure Group and Professional Association” states that the Brahmo samaj spearheaded the movement for female education in Bengal. She mentions how the Brahmos believed that the backward condition of the women will deter the development of the nation and the liberation of the women will revitalize Indian culture and society (Southhard 57). Initially, most of the
31 32 orthodox Hindus resented education for women but soon the educated Indian men realised that female education is inevitable and stopped resisting it. “Changing attitudes toward female education combined with increased government and private financial support, resulted in a steady increase in the number of Bengali girls attending school” (Southhard 57). Shakuntala
Devi echoes the initiative of female education in the ninteenth and twentieth century along with the subsequent political emancipation of women with their participation in the freedom struggle.
Sunity Devi’s recollections about her early life are with the female education movement that her father started (Devi 7). Coming from a Brahmo family which encouraged female education, it is not a surprise that Sunity Devi was a champion of female education herself. Her father Keshub Chandra Sen started a school for girls called the Native Ladies’
Normal School which was a one of a kind institute in India at that time (Devi 20).
Keshub Sen has worked tremendously in the area of female education encouraging girls to study, but even after being an advocate of women’s progress, he had a patriarchal outlook towards women. Sunity Devi writes that her father did not hold importance for university degrees and “maintained that for a woman to be a good wife and a good mother is far better than to write M.A. or B.A. after her name” (Devi 21) With this attitude he established the Victoria College where the girls would be taught what is useful for them in the domestic sphere.
Indian men started the revolt for the betterment of Indian women before women started taking part in the movement. Shakuntala Devi’s Women’s Status and Social Change questions the paternalistic attitude towards the women’s question. She discusses how the women would fight for their rights within the boundaries set by the men limiting the movement. Keshub Sen wanted the girls to be educated but only up to a certain point and not become degree holders, he did not want them to become too modern and preferred them domesticated. Rekha Pande in
32 Nadkarni 33 her Gender Lens Women’s Issues and Perspectives critiques the social reformers for picking up reform only in the areas that the British thought is problematic (child marriage, sati, education) but not making any effort to radically change the patriarchal structures or gender relations of the society (Pande 7).
Sunity Devi does not write elaborately about her social work in her autobiography but mentions them in passing not attaching much significance to it. As the daughter of a Brahmo reformist, she was raised in an atmosphere of reform and she does not separate reform from her daily life. Secondly, as the Maharani of Cooch Beher she is expected to participate in social work to better her state. An Autobiography of an Indian Princess talks about a girl’s school in Cooch Beher named after her after she gave birth to her son Jit (Devi 90). Sunity
Academy formerly known as Sunity College is the brainchild of Sunity Devi and established by her husband Maharaja Nripendra Narayan in 1881. This was Sunity Devi’s contributions towards education and the academy still stands on Victor Prince Nripendra Narayan (VPNN)
Road, Cooch Beher District, West Bengal. The official website of this academy describes
Sunity Devi’s involvement with this college. Along with the grants, Sunity Devi exempted the girl students from paying the tuition fees in order to encourage girls to study. This year Sunity
Academy celebrates 125 years of imparting knowledge celebrating women’s advancement with its every year.
Sunity Devi writes about her husband’s keen interest in education and that he founded a college he was very proud about (Devi 96).
She shows gratitude towards the Governors of Bengal who have helped her run kindergarten school in Darjeeling where students of all castes study together. She then mentions her technical school for poor Hindu ladies in Calcutta and lastly her father’s Victoria
College. (Devi 240) She tells her readers that the other institutions founded by her father have been shut down due to lack of funds but she has hope for women’s education in India.
33 34
In the same chapter, Sunity Devi writes about an incident where an uneducated mother made her sick son consume a tonic, which was meant for external use only causing his death.
The woman was grief-stricken when she realised that she caused her son’s death. Sunity Devi writes that several such incidents occur in many Hindu homes whose girls are kept away from education. Sunity Devi believes that by educating women many such accidents can be avoided
(Devi 241).
She ends her autobiography with a hope for Indian women. “It is my great hope that before many years have passed Indian women will stand in their right place and once again
India will cry aloud: “I am proud of my daughters” (Devi 242).
2.6 Conclusion
History as a grand narrative does not highlight women’s tale or women’s experience of historicity, but women’s autobiography uncovers her version of history, and this makes An
Autobiography of An Indian Princess noteworthy.
Born in a Brahmo family Sunity Devi followed the tenets of Brahmoism all her life but there was a conflict in her spiritual identity after her marriage with a Hindu ruler. Caught in the shackles of modernity and tradition, Sunity Devi’s identity was fragmented. Sunity Devi was an obedient daughter, loving wife and a caring mother who did not revolt against the institutionalised roles but her education enabled her to revisit these roles in a more critical way. As the daughter of a reformist and then as a queen, the society expected her to undertake social reforms and she did the same. Brahmoism, her social status as the queen along with her western education paved her way towards reform.
Sidone and Smith discuss autobiographics and the “multiple markings of identity”
(Smith 184). Sunity Devi has the marking of a Brahmo girl, she is also the Maharani of a
Hindu state, a daughter, wife, mother, reformer and so on.. As Gilmore puts it in his
34 Nadkarni 35
Autobiographics: A Feminist Theory of Women's Self-representation by using the example of
Gertude Stein who “discovered how representing oneself to oneself and to others creates enough discursive spacing to allow the autobiographer to see the discontinuities in “identity” and to construe its representation as a problem in writing” (Gilmore 16) and that the autobiography “wraps up the interrupted and fragmentary discourses of identity and presents them as persons themselves.” (Gilmore 17) Sunity Devi as a Brahmo girl was not different from Maharani Sunity of Cooch, the process of writing her autobiography helped her unify herself and understand her multiple roles better.
A close analysis of her autobiography shows that Sunity Devi wrote for the Western readers. She addresses the reader on several occasions showing us who her intended audience was. “It is difficult to convey to English readers a real idea of the...” (Devi 16); this was with regards to the zenana system that the Hindus in India followed. Similarly in the chapter discussing the Indian festivals, she begins by referring to her western audience. “Many of our customs are full of colour and life, but few people of the West realise their inner and more sacred meaning.” (Devi 33) Another reference to the English readers is on page 84 and 85 when Sunity Devi mentions the benefit of the betel leaf which she assumes that the English readers will not be aware of. An Autobiography of an Indian Princess was written in English and as many Indians were not educated and well versed in English, Sunity Devi’s primary focus was the western readers. Indian woman’s autobiographies were unheard of and hadn’t gained popularity in India and as Sunity Devi’s autobiography is published in London, her assumed readership does not come as a surprise.
The act of writing is a process of resistance. Elizabeth A. Flynn in her essay ‘Writing as Resistance’ quotes Jean Francois Lyotard who believes that writing is resistance to what is already written, already done and already thought (Flynn 172). Sunity Devi wrote about her life as a Brahmo girl giving the readers an insight of Brahmoism through a woman’s
35 36 perspective. An analysis of Sunity Devi’s autobiography charts the ongoing social changes of her time. An Autobiography of an Indian Princess is resisting the already written history of
Brahmoism and educational changes in India. She brings to light her own perspective, her own version of history through her autobiography.
An analysis of her autobiography draws attention to the personal as the political. Her personal contributions to women’s education in India contributed politically for the benefit of
India. Similarly her personal writing acts like a social and political text to understand
Brahmoism, the politics of the British government, social reforms in India etc. As the queen of
Cooch Beher her personal life influenced the political life of her state as well.
The early women’s autobiographies followed a domestic theme, they mainly wrote about their domestic duties and personal life. The Autobiography of an Indian Princess revolves largely around Sunity Devi’s personal life where she writes about her days prior to her marriage, her days after marriage, her children etc. The later autobiographies showed a shift towards the public sphere along with the personal. Cornelia Sorabji in her India Calling
(1930) predominantly writes about her professional life and her efforts in order to help the purdahnashins in India, with minimal references to her personal life. While Indira Goswami balances her personal life along with her professional life in her An Unfinished Autobiography
(1990). The three autobiographies are of those women who were educated and worked towards education as a reform. Their education enabled them to negotiate with the institutionalised roles society entrusts on them and revisit them with a new perspective.
Sunity Devi illustrates the challenges she faced while transitioning from the domestic sphere to a private one. While the later autobiographies foregrounded their public life, Sunity
Devi’s autobiography foregrounds her private life.
Feminism mainly deals with the disadvantaged, the downtrodden and the oppressed, putting the previledged at a disadvantage as they remain unattended. As the Queen of Cooch
36 Nadkarni 37
Beher Sunity Devi belongs to an upper and advantaged class and thus no light has been shed on her and her plight. She might not be explicitly oppressed but is symbolically oppressed especially during her transition from a Brahmo girl to a Hindu Queen. Feminists tend to focus on the explicitly oppressed, lower class and caste women ignoring the upper caste and class women. This chapter was not only an analysis of An Autobiography of an Indian Princess but a review of the need for feminism to open doors to women of all classes.
An Autobiography of an Indian Princess is one of the early autobiography by Indian women. It marks a great beginning for women venturing in the genre of non-fiction, namely autobiographies which had a long tradition of men. Sunity Devi drew a connection between the personal and the public in her autobiography apart from highlighting the changes faced by women in the outside world. Thus Sunity Devi’s autobiography marks a huge shift in the genre of women’s writing in India.
37 38
Works Cited
Abrams, M. H., and Geoffrey Galt Harpham. A glossary of literary terms. Australia: Cengage
Learning, 2015. Print.
Britannica, inc., 19 Feb. 2015. Web. 20 June 2017.
Cosslett, Tess, Celia Lury, and Penny Summerfield, eds. Feminism and autobiography: texts,
theories, methods. London: Routledge, 2000. Print.
Devi, Shakuntala. Women’s Status and Social Change. Jaipur: Pointer, 1999. Print.
Flynn, Elizabeth A. “Writing as Resistance.” JAC, vol. 16, no. 1, 1996, pp. 171–176. JSTOR.
Web. 2nd June 2017.
Gilmore, Leigh. Autobiographics: A Feminist Theory of Women's Self-representation.
London: U Cornell press, 1994. Print.
"INDIA IN THE LATE 19th AND EARLY 20th CENTURIES." INDIA culture people places
tourism. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 June 2017.
Jelinek, Estelle. The Tradition of Women’s Autobiography: From Antiquity to the Present.
USA: Xlibris Cooperation, 1986. Google Book. Web. 6th December 2016.
"Keshab Chandra Sen, Brahmo Samaj." IndiaNetzone.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 June 2017.
Pande, Rekha. Gender Lens Women’s Issues and Perspectives. Jaipur: Rawat, 2015. Print.
Singh, Preeti. “Feminism: A Long Journey from Androcentrism to Eurocentrism” Matrix of
Gender Issues. ed. Trivedi, Bhavani and Sangeeta Jain. Delhi: Discovery, 2010.
Smith, Sidone and Julia Watson. Reading Autobiography: A Guide for Interpreting Life
Narratives. 2nd ed. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota Press, 2001, 2010. Google Book.
38 Nadkarni 39
Web. 7th December 2016.
Smith, Sidonie, and Julia Watson, eds. Women, Autobiography, Theory: A Reader. Madison:
U of Wisconsin, 1998. Print.
Southard, Barbara. “Bengal Women's Education League: Pressure Group and Professional
Association.” Modern Asian Studies, vol. 18, no. 1, 1984, pp. 55–88. JSTOR. Web. 1st
June 2017.
SUNITY ACADEMY of Cooch Behar. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 June 2017. coochbehar.nic.in
Tharu, Susie, and K. Lalita, eds. Women Writing in India: The twentieth Century. Vol. II.
New York: The Feminist Press, 1993. Print
The Brahmo Samaj. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 June 2017.
The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. "Brahmo Samaj." Encyclopædia Britannica.
Encyclopædia
The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. "Keshab Chunder Sen." Encyclopædia Britannica.
Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., 06 Mar. 2015. Web. 20 June 2017.
Wolfreys, Julian, ed. Literary Theories: A Reader & Guide. Edinburg: Edinburg UP, 1999.
Print.
39 Nadkarni 87
Chapter 5
Conclusion
Susie Tharu states the reason behind the necessity of revisiting women’s writing in
Women Writing in India: 600 BC to early twentieth century as “the growing realization that critical estimates of women’s literature were invariably prejudiced (Tharu 15). She further discusses “phallic criticism” (Tharu 15) which is criticism by male critics and scholars where they treated women’s writing as a woman dwelling on measurements of the busts and hips
(Tharu 15). Or rather the faulty interpretations of women’s writing by male critics which focussed on other irrelevant factors instead of the writing. There was a growing need to analyze woman’s work with an unbiased and literary point of view devoid of any sexism.
Tharu additionally quotes Showalter where she substantiates the need for “feminist culture” in order to recover the tradition of women’s writing by stating “if we study stereotypes of women, the sexism of male critics and the limited roles women play in literary history, we are not learning what women have felt and experienced” (Tharu 19). Women’s writing has either been neglected or misinterpreted for a long time, thus there is a need for revisiting the lesser- known texts written by women and reinterpreting them. Little research has been done on An
Autobiography of an Indian Princess, India Calling and An Unfinished Autobiography almost making them invisible from the canon of women’s literature. This research aimed to provide recognition to the lesser known texts and reformists by analyzing their texts and social reforms against the social background of their time.
Nadkarni 88
Satchidanandan’s “Autobiography Today” describes an autobiography as “an attempt at self-expression, self-construction, self-understanding and self-transcendence”
(Satchidanandan 7). An autobiography is a reflection of one’s understanding of the self one have constructed over a period of time. Men would either confess or celebrate in their autobiographies. While previously men were dominant autobiographers, women made their presence felt over time. Marilyn Yalom rightly points out that women wrote one out of ten autobiographies globally in the late twentieth century (Yalom 28).
The nature of women’s autobiographies was seldom confessional or celebratory; instead, they were social in nature. They not just wrote about their life but lives of several other women. It would be unfair to read women’s autobiography using the same lens as the man’s because their concerns, problems and histories differ.
Women’s autobiographies are known to showcase a collective consciousness as seen in the case of Sunity Devi’s The Autobiography of an Indian Princess, India Calling by
Cornelia Sorabji and Indira Goswami’s An Unfinished Autobiography. They were responsible for depicting women’s experiences through their writing. Each of them wrote not only for themselves but act as collective voices for the community. Bilsky agrees with the change in feminist writing with regards to the woman’s voice. She further writes that literature makes a note of the various ways in which the woman’s voice was suppressed, distorted, sidelined and kept away from the public domain (Bilsky 48). Cornelia Sorabji writes the stories of the purdahnashins in her district, sharing their life tales and difficulties along with their achievements in India Calling. Similarly, Indira Goswami’s An Unfinished Autobiography is a testimony of the struggles faced by the radheshyamis of Vrindaban. They write for those women who cannot write for themselves and whose voices will not reach others. They give voice to the voiceless women.
This research has analyzed the change of focus in Indian women’s autobiographies over the course of the twentieth century. Previously women concentrated on their private life
Nadkarni 89 discussing their family and domestic duties at length as seen in Sunity Devi’s An
Autobiography of an Indian Princess. The concerns of women changed with time due to education and the shift towards the public realm was noticed, in India Calling Cornelia
Sorabji is preoccupied with her public life as a lawyer and barely writes about her personal life. As more time passed, women attained a balance between their personal and public life giving equal weight to both in their autobiographies as in the case of Indira Goswami’s An
Unfinished Autobiography. The genre of woman’s autobiographies in India went through cycles of change suiting the demands of the society.
India in the twentieth century had an environment charged with social reforms.
Shankuntala Devi writes that during that time Indians were concentrating on social reforms concerning women, especially female education (Devi 180). Sunity Devi who wrote in 1920 concentrates on the efforts of the Brahmo movement towards girl’s education, as they believed that education was the route to woman’s emancipation. She writes about her father
Keshub Chandra Sen who spearheaded reforms in girl’s education, further discussing her own contributions to this field with the construction of several schools and colleges for girls.
Cornelia Sorabji whose autobiography was written in 1934 remarks on the advancement of primary education for girls, but elaborately writes about her struggle while trying to study law. Sorabji charts the hurdles she faced while trying to convince the administration of
Sommerville College (England) that she wished to study law and not English literature. While the progress in primary education was evident in India Calling, the state of higher education was still not improved. Indira Goswami wrote her autobiography in the 1990s when she was pursuing her Ph.D. Goswami does not write about any problems she faced while studying and doing her research like Sunity Devi and Sorabji, which suggests the improvement in female education over the course of the century. The problems that Goswami writes about are personal owing to the death of her father and then her husband, which are not a fall out of the education system. This research has attempted to plot the changes in female education in the
Nadkarni 90 twentieth century as observed in the three autobiographies, which also play the role of social commentary.
Sunity Devi, Cornelia Sorabji and Indira Goswami are social reformers in their own right. While Sunity Devi’s energy was focused on the betterment of female education towards which she worked greatly during her lifetime; Sorabji was concerned with her purdahnashins.
She attempted to safeguard their interests putting them before her herself, she protected them and tried to improve their lives when she was their appointed lawyer. Similarly, Indira
Goswami used writing as a form of revolt. She wrote about the marginalized and subaltern highlighting their plight in attempt to bring them to the limelight and subsequently improve their conditions. Goswami wrote about the radheshyamis of Vrindaban, the hapless widows found a voice through Goswami’s writing.
Butler’s essay “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in
Phenomenology and Feminist Theory” reveals how the personal is the political. The mere act of writing an autobiography that may seem personal is, in fact a political act. Sunity Devi,
Sorabji and Goswami not only wrote about their own lives but they wrote about the society they lived in, reflecting on the people, the traditions and social set up during that time.
Autobiographies enable the reader to peek into the age and society during that time, understanding the history of that age.
Autobiographies can be read as historiographical texts as they are a non-fictional account of the history, socio-economic background and developments of the time that it was written in. Wolfreys discusses the historicity of a text by stating that “all texts are embedded in specific social and cultural context, and textuality of history means that all our knowledge and understanding of the past could only exist through the surviving textual traces of the society in concern” (Wolfreys 418). The three autobiographies are embedded in a social context depending on the year it was written. Sunity Devi writes about the preoccupations of
Nadkarni 91
Bengal and Cooch Beher in early twentieth century, enabling the reader to understand the
Brahmo movement from an insider’s perspective, as well as be acquainted with the workings of a royal family under the British rule. Sorabji not only discusses the histories of Parsis in
India, but she writes about the English society, and the situation of the purdahnashin women under the courts of ward in East India. Writing about Sorabji, Burton writes that if ambitions were projected through Indian women, Sorabji played an influential role in projecting the same historically and politically (Burton 4876). Goswami describes a little about the North
Eastern states, the situation of the widows in Vrindaban along with descriptions of the Indian
Army in the later years of the twentieth century. One can understand history and society through these texts, showing that texts are historic in nature, further proving their historicity.
The purpose of women’s autobiographies are not just to write themselves into history or to record their life, but women write autobiographies to talk about their experiences which are often neglected. They talk about experiences particular to females and discuss the plight of other women in their autobiography. Cour throws light a reader’s expectations from women’s autobiography. The reader either expects scandalous details of relationships or tales of sorrow
(Cour 171). Cour mentions that Goswami’s autobiography has abundance of the latter especially due to the death of her husband Madhu. Cour writes that her autobiography has several “soul searching experiences” (Cour 171) and that her ability to handle life along with all the difficulties is reflected in her autobiography.
Women’s autobiographies are made up of several voices and not just the one voice of the writer. Another purpose of their autobiography is to create space for female stories and experiences. Helen Buss writes that women take up autobiographical writing in order to revise cultural contexts so their experiences are not excluded from it (Buss 3). Personal accounts are a way to “interrogate and repossess the culture” (Buss 3). Autobiographies written by Indian women have not only created a place for themselves in the canon of literature but have carved
Nadkarni 92 a niche in the history and culture of India. They echo several voices making them pluralistic in nature and not just a reflection on the life of one individual.
5.1 Scope and Limitations
A lot of study has been done on women’s reform but not much has been studied by making use of women’s autobiographies. This research addresses the lack of research in women’s autobiographies. One can compare the writing and reform of preindependence India with post-independence India by taking into consideration more autobiographies and highlighting the similarities and differences between the autobiographies written before and after India’s independence. This research can be expanded to analyse in detail the shift in autobiographies and their narratives written by Indian women.
This research can be further expanded to look at other forms of writing, including nonfiction, poetry, drama. More contemporary works can be studied with regards to reform and modern day activism. A concern could be how women are writing about reform or activism today as compared to the women of the twentieth century. The researcher can examine the works of popular public figures who are celebrated for their activism namely
Barkha Dutt, Kiran Bedi, Medha Patkar, Arundhati Roy, Irom Sharmila, to name a few. An analysis of how reform has turned into activism can also be looked into.
The research was limited to only three autobiographies written by Indian women only in the twentieth century. Autobiographies that were neither written nor translated in English were not considered for this research.
Nadkarni 93
Works Cited
Bilsky, Leora. “Giving Voice to Women: An Israeli Case Study.” Israel Studies, vol. 3, no. 2,
1998, pp. 47–79. JSTOR, Web. 10th November 2017.
Burton, Antoinette. “A Life in the Limelight.” Economic and Political Weekly, vol. 41, no.
47, 2006, pp. 4875–4876. JSTOR. Web. 24th November 2017.
Buss, Helen M. Repossessing the World: Reading memoirs by Contemporary Women.
Canada: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2002. Print.
Butler, Judith. “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and
Feminist Theory.” Theatre Journal, vol. 40, no. 4, 1988, pp. 519–531. JSTOR. Web.
12th December 2016.
Cour, Ajeet. "Life in the Raw." Indian Literature 34.4 (144) (1991): 175-79. JSTOR. Web.
16th July 2016.
Devi, Shakuntala. Women’s Status and Social Change. Jaipur, Pointer Publishers, 1999. Print.
Satchidanandan, K. “REFLECTIONS: Autobiography Today.” Indian Literature, vol. 54, no.
2 (256), 2010, pp. 6–9. JSTOR, Web. 10th November 2017.
Tharu, Susie and K. Lalita, Women Writing in India: 600 BC to early twentieth century. New
York, The Feminist Press, 1991. Print.
Wolfreys, Julian, ed. Literary Theories: A Reader & Guide. Edinburg: Edinburg UP, 1999.
Print.
Yalom, Marilyn. “Female Lifewriting: A Western Perspective.” Review of Japanese Culture
and Society, vol. 4, 1991, pp. 27–30. JSTOR, Web. 10th November 2017.
Nadkarni 94
Bibliography
Abrams, M. H., and Geoffrey Galt Harpham. A Glossary of Literary Terms. Australia:
Cengage Learning, 2015. Print.
Agarwal, Supriya, and Urmila Talwar, ed. Gender, History & Culture: Inside the Haweli.
Jaipur: Rawat, 2009. Print.
Andal, N. Women and Indian Society Options and Constraints. Jaipur: Rawat, 2002. Print.
Anjum, Mohini. "Nation and Gender—Historical Perspective." Sociological Bulletin 49.1
(2000): 111-16. JSTOR. Web. 30 July 2016.
Benstock, Shari, ed. The Private Self: Theory and Practice of Women's Autobiographical
Writings. U of North Carolina, 1988. Print.
Bhattacharya, Malini. “The Hidden Violence of Faith: The Widows of Vrindaban.” Social
Scientist, vol. 29, no. 1/2, 2001, pp. 75–83. JSTOR. Web. 19th September 2017.
Bilsky, Leora. “Giving Voice to Women: An Israeli Case Study.” Israel Studies, vol. 3, no. 2,
1998, pp. 47–79. JSTOR, Web. 10th November 2017.
Blackburn, Barbara. "Review: A Feminist Theory of Women's Self-Representation by Leigh
Gilmore." Feminist Teacher 9.2 (1995): 94-95. JSTOR. Web. 15 Nov. 2016.
Bora, Krishna. Interpretation of Life of Brahmin Widows in Satra Derived from Moth Eaten
Howdah of Tusker by Indira Goswami. Diss. Christ University, 2016.
Britannica, inc., 19 Feb. 2015. Web. 20 June 2017.
Burton, David F. “Fire, Water and The Goddess: The Films of Deepa Mehta and Satyajit Ray
as critiques of Hindu Patriarchy.” Journal of Religion and Film, vol. 17, no. 2, Oct
2013, pp 1-21. Digitalcommons. Web. 10th November 2017.
Burton, Antoinette. “Review: A Life in the Limelight.” Economic and Political Weekly, vol.
41, no. 47, 2006, pp. 4875–4876. Jstor. Web. 28 Aug. 2017
Burton, Antoinette. “'The Purdahnashin in Her Setting': Colonial Modernity and the Zenana in
Nadkarni 95
Cornelia Sorabji's Memoirs.” Feminist Review, Reconstructing Femininities: Colonial
Intersections of Gender, Race, Religion and Class , no. 65, June 2000, pp. 145– 158.
Jstor. Web. 22 June 2017.
Buss, Helen M. Repossessing the World: Reading memoirs by Contemporary Women.
Canada: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2002. Print.
Butler, Judith. “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and
Feminist Theory.” Theatre Journal, vol. 40, no. 4, 1988, pp. 519–531. JSTOR. Web.
12th December 2016.
Chapman, Jean. “Violence against Women in Democratic India: Let's Talk Misogyny.” Social
Scientist, vol. 42, no. 9/10, 2014, pp. 49–61. JSTOR. Web. 26th Mrach 2017.
Carroll McC. Pastner. “A Social Structural and Historical Analysis of Honor, Shame and
Purdah.” Anthropological Quarterly, vol. 45, no. 4, 1972, pp. 248–261. JSTOR. Web.
1st October 2017.
Chisholm, Dianne. “Climbing like a Girl: An Exemplary Adventure in Feminist
Phenomenology.” Hypatia, vol. 23, no. 1, 2008, pp. 9–40. JSTOR. Web. 12th
December 2016.
Chitkara, M.G. Women and Social Transformation. New Delhi: A.P.H. Publishing
Cooperation, 2001. Print.
Cosslett, Tess, Celia Lury, and Penny Summerfield, eds. Feminism and autobiography: texts,
theories, methods. London: Routledge, 2000. Print.
Cour, Ajeet. "Life in the Raw." Indian Literature 34.4 (144) (1991): 175-79. JSTOR. Web.
16th July 2016.
De Pauw, Linda Grant. “Women and the Law: The Colonial Period.” Human Rights, vol. 6,
no. 2, 1977, pp. 107–113. JSTOR. Web. 18th August 2017.
Devi, Shakuntala. Women’s Status and Social Change. Jaipur: Pointer, 1999. Print.
Devi, Sunity. The Autobiography of an Indian Princess. London: John Murray, 1921. Print.
Nadkarni 96
Downs, Laura Lee. Writing gender history. London, Bloomsbury, 2004.
“Educational Development of Girls and Women.” Teinidia.nic.in. Web. 1st November 2017.
Flynn, Elizabeth A. “Writing as Resistance.” JAC, vol. 16, no. 1, 1996, pp. 171–176. JSTOR.
Web. 2nd June 2017.
Forbes, Geraldine. Women in Modern India. Cambridge: Cambridge U, 1996. Google Book.
Web. 10th December 2016.
Gandhi, Nandita and Nandita Shah. The issues at stake: theory and practice in the
contemporary women’s movement in India. New Delhi: Kali for women, 1992. Print.
Gangoli, Geetanjali. "One of a Kind." Economic and Political Weekly 37.6 (2002): 549-50.
JSTOR. Web. 16th July 2016.
Garg, Mridula. “Intervention of Women's Writing in Making of Literature.” Indian Literature,
vol. 57, no. 4 (276), 2013, pp. 181–190. JSTOR. Web. 2nd November 2017.
Gertrude Fester. “Women Writing for Their Rights.” Agenda: Empowering Women for
Gender Equity, no. 46, 2000, pp. 42–47. JSTOR. Web. 10th November 2016.
Ghosal, Sarbani Guha. "Major Trends of Feminism in India."The Indian Journal of Political
Science 66.4 (2005): 793-812. JSTOR. Web. 29th August 2016.
Gilmore, Leigh. Autobiographics: A Feminist Theory of Women's Self-representation.
London: U Cornell press, 1994. Print.
Giri, V. Mohini, editor. Living Death: Trauma of Widowhood in India. New Delhi: Gyan
Publishing House, 2012. Print.
Gohain, Hiren. “Review: Ineffable Mystery.” Indian Literature, vol. 33, no. 1 (135), 1990, pp.
139-145. JSTOR. Web. 17th November 2016.
Gonzales, Manvel G. “Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature.” Tulsa Studies in Women's
Literature, vol. 9, no. 1, 1990, pp. 152–156. JSTOR. Web. 17th August 2016.
Goswami, Indira. An Unfinished Autobiography. New Delhi: Sterling, 2000. Print.
Nadkarni 97
Goswami, Indira, et al. “Stitching Peace Together.” India International Centre Quarterly, vol.
32, no. 2/3, 2005, pp. 288–299. JSTOR. Web. 1st February 2017.
Goswami, Indira, and Manjeet Baruah. “The Journey.” Indian Literature, vol. 56, no. 4 (270),
2012, pp. 52–67. JSTOR. Web. 15th January 2017. Goswami, Indira, and Subhajit Bhadra. “The Journey of a Writer: Indira Goswami in
Conversation with Subhajit Bhadra.” Indian Literature, vol. 54, no. 1 (255), 2010, pp.
188–200. JSTOR. Web. 8th December 2016.
Gurin, Patricia. “Women's Gender Consciousness.” The Public Opinion Quarterly, vol. 49,
no. 2, 1985, pp. 143–163. JSTOR. Web. 1st December 2016.
Harish, Ranjana. "Pen and Needle: The Changing Metaphors of Self in Autobiographies by
Women in Post-Independence India." Indian Literature 46.4 (210) (2002): 161-71.
JSTOR. Web. 26 July 2016.
Howarth, William L. “Some Principles of Autobiography.” New Literary History, vol. 5, no.
2, 1974, pp. 363–381. JSTOR. Web. 23rd February 2017.
Humm, Maggie. Practising Feminist Criticism. Jaipur: Rawat, 2015. Print.
"INDIA IN THE LATE 19th AND EARLY 20th CENTURIES." INDIA culture people places
tourism. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 June 2017.
“Indira Goswami, 1942.” Indira Goswami-Assamese Writer. The South Asian Literary
Recordings Project. Library of Congress New Delhi Office. Web. 11th November
2017.
"Indira Goswami | Author | Zubaan." Feminist Independent Publishing. N.p., n.d. Web. 01
May 2017.
Jacobs, Debra. “Waiting for the Other: Lyotard on Writing, Resistance, and Potential.” JAC,
vol. 16, no. 1, 1996, pp. 176–181. JSTOR. Web. 29th September 2017.
Jain, Jasbir, ed. Women's Writing Text & Context. 3rd ed. Jaipur: Rawat, 2014. Print.
Nadkarni 98
Jelinek, Estelle. The Tradition of Women’s Autobiography: From Antiquity to the Present.
USA: Xlibris Cooperation, 1986. Google Book. Web. 6th December 2016.
Katzenstein, Mary Fainsod. "Organizing Against Violence: Strategies of the Indian Women's
Movement."Pacific Affairs 62.1 (1989): 53-71. JSTOR. Web. 29th August 2016.
"Keshab Chandra Sen, Brahmo Samaj." IndiaNetzone.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 June 2017.
Kotoky, Prafulla. “Indira Goswami and Her Novels.” Indian Literature, vol. 27, no. 1, 1984,
pp. 63–68. JSTOR. Web. 20th January 2017.
Kumar, Raj. Dalit Personal Narratives. New Delhi : Orient Blackswan, 2010. Print.
Kumar, Rakesh. Women, Society and Law. New Delhi: Crescent, 2015. Print.
Lal, Malashri. "Indira Goswami and Women." Indira Goswami. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 May 2017.
Lanser, Susan S. “Sexing the Narrative: Propriety, Desire, and the Engendering of
Narratology.” Narrative, vol. 3, no. 1, 1995, pp. 85–94. JSTOR. Web. 1st August 2017.
Lateef, Shahida. "Whither the Indian Women's Movement?" Economic and Political
Weekly 12.47 (1977): 1948-951. JSTOR. Web. 28 July 2016.
Leonard, Karen. "Women and Social Change in Modern India." Feminist Studies 3.3/4
(1976): 117-30. JSTOR. Web. 28 July 2016.
Lopata, Helena Znaniecki. “Self-Identity in Marriage and Widowhood.” The Sociological
Quarterly, vol. 14, no. 3, 1973, pp. 407–418. JSTOR. Web. 1st November 2017.
Maftei, Micaela. The Fiction of Autobiography: Reading and Writing Identity. London:
Bloomsbury, 2013. Print.
Mahanta, Amritjyoti. “Indira Goswami.” Indian Literature, vol. 56, no. 4 (270), 2012, pp. 44–
51. JSTOR. Web. 15th August 2016.
Martens, Lorna. The Promise of Memory: Childhood Recollection and its objects in Literary
Modernism. London: Harvard UP, 2011. Print.
Misra, Roli. Rethinking Gender. Jaipur: Rawat, 2014. Print.
Misra, Tilottoma. “Indira Goswami: Brave, Gentle and Bold.” Economic and Political
Nadkarni 99
Weekly, vol. 46, no. 53, 2011, pp. 29–31. JSTOR. Web. 9th August 2017.
Mookerjee, Syama Prasad. “Education in British India.” The Annals of the American Academy
of Political and Social Science, vol. 233, 1944, pp. 30–38. JSTOR. Web. 7th February
2017.
Mossman, Mary Jane. “6. The First Women Lawyers: Gender Equality and Professionalism in
Law.” Honouring Social Justice, 2008. JSTOR. Web. 26 June 2017.
Pande, Rekha. Gender Lens Women’s Issues and Perspectives. Jaipur: Rawat, 2015. Print.
Patel, Ila. “The Contemporary Women's Movement and Women's Education in
India.” International Review of Education / Internationale Zeitschrift Für
Erziehungswissenschaft / Revue Internationale De L'Education, vol. 44, no. 2/3, 1998,
pp. 155–175. JSTOR. Web. 8th October 2017.
Pathak, Bindeshwar and Satyendra Tripathi. Widows in India: Study of Varanasi and
Vrindaban. Jaipur: Rawat, 2016. Print.
Renza, Louis A. “The Veto of Imagination: A Theory of Autobiography” New Literary
History, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 1-26. JSTOR. Web. 11th March 2017.
Routon, Claudia. “Letras Femeninas.” Letras Femeninas, vol. 25, no. 1/2, 1999, pp. 217–219.
JSTOR. Web. 1st November 2016.
Satchidanandan, K. “REFLECTIONS: Autobiography Today.” Indian Literature, vol. 54, no.
2 (256), 2010, pp. 6–9. JSTOR, Web. 10th November 2017.
Schwalm, Helga. “Autobiography”. The Living Handbook of Narratology. 9th April 2015.
JSTOR. Web. 30th August 2016.
Shahani, Roshan G. and Shoba V. Ghosh. “Indian Feminist Criticism: In Search of New
Paradigms.” Economic and Political Weekly, vol. 35, no. 43/44, 2000, pp. 3813– 3816.
JSTOR. Web. 10th November 2017.
Singh, Preeti. “Feminism: A Long Journey from Androcentrism to Eurocentrism” Matrix of
Gender Issues. ed. Trivedi, Bhavani and Sangeeta Jain. Delhi: Discovery, 2010.
Nadkarni 100
Sorabji, Cornelia. India Calling: The Memoirs of Cornelia Sorabji. London: Nisbert & Co,
1934. Print.
Sorabji, Richard. Opening Doors: The Untold Story of Cornelia Sorabji. Haryana: Penguin,
2010. Print.
Schwalm, Helga. “Autobiography”. The Living Handbook of Narratology. 9th April 2015.
JSTOR. Web. 30th August 2016.
Singh, Preeti. “Feminism: A Long Journey from Androcentrism to Eurocentrism” Matrix of
Gender Issues. ed. Trivedi, Bhavani and Sangeeta Jain. Delhi: Discovery, 2010.
Smith, Sidone and Julia Watson. Reading Autobiography: A Guide for Interpreting Life
Narratives. 2nd ed. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota Press, 2001, 2010. Google Book.
Web. 7th December 2016.
Smith, Sidonie, and Julia Watson, eds. Women, Autobiography, Theory: A Reader. Madison:
U of Wisconsin, 1998. Print.
Sorabji, Cornelia. India Calling. London: Nisbert & Co, 1934. Print.
Southard, Barbara. “Bengal Women's Education League: Pressure Group and Professional
Association.” Modern Asian Studies, vol. 18, no. 1, 1984, pp. 55–88. JSTOR. Web. 1st
June 2017.
SUNITY ACADEMY of Cooch Behar. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 June 2017. coochbehar.nic.in
Tandon, R.K. Women in Modern India. Delhi: Indian Publishers: 1998. Print.
Tharu, Susie, and K. Lalita, eds. Women Writing in India: The twentieth Century. Vol. II. New
York: The Feminist Press, 1993. Print.
Swetnam, Susan Hendricks. “Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature.” Rocky
Mountain Review of Language and Literature, vol. 53, no. 1, 1999, pp. 135–137.
Tharu, Susie and K. Lalita, Women Writing in India: 600 BC to early twentieth century. New
York, The Feminist Press, 1991. Print.
Thakore, Sheetal Y. Select Women’s Autobiographies: a study. Saurashtra University, 2010.
Nadkarni 101
Thomas, A. J. "A Masterpiece re-Launched." The Hindu. N.p., 07 Nov. 2004. Web. 01 May
2017.
Tilak, Jandhyala B. G. “Inequality in Education in India.” Indian Journal of Industrial
Relations, vol. 14, no. 3, 1979, pp. 417–436. JSTOR. Web. 7th February 2017.
The Brahmo Samaj. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 June 2017.
The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. "Brahmo Samaj." Encyclopædia Britannica.
Encyclopædia
The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. "Keshab Chunder Sen." Encyclopædia Britannica.
Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., 06 Mar. 2015. Web. 20 June 2017.
White, Elizabeth H. “Purdah.” Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, vol. 2, no. 1, 1977, pp.
31–42. JSTOR. Web. 29th August 2017.
Wolfreys, Julian, ed. Literary Theories: A Reader & Guide. Edinburg: Edinburg UP, 1999.
Print.
Yalom, Marilyn. “Female Lifewriting: A Western Perspective.” Review of Japanese Culture
and Society, vol. 4, 1991, pp. 27–30. JSTOR, Web. 10th November 2017.