Urdu Literature and Women (Student Paper)
Urdu Literature and Women (Student Paper) A the commonly-held understanding, Indian civilization, whether Hindu or Muslim, is male chauvinist and hostile to women, but, at least from the literary point of view, women writers have contributed enormously to the progress of Indian literature, especially in the case of Urdu. The fact is that, although in ancient times Hindu women enjoyed considerable freedom and held positions of responsibility and prestige, they lost most of their rights from the third century C.E. onward, as soon as the Laws of Manu came into force. Afterwards, even though they were ostensibly considered goddesses, in practice they were reduced to servi- tude. Furthermore, when Muslims settled permanently on the Subconti- nent, they showed a certain tendency to adopt, as far as women were con- cerned, Hindu customs, even when Islamic precepts were by and large more liberal. The result was that women had to submit to the most restrictive rules codified by both religious systems (Bhushan , –). The many cases of female preeminence mentioned by Rizvi (, –), Rekha Misra (), Moroccan sociologist Fatima Mernissi (), and Annemarie Schimmel are just some exceptions proving the rule. When writing about the relationship between women and Urdu lit- erature, it seems advisable to make a distinction between literature aimed at women and literature written by women. Literature aimed at women, although mostly written by men, is extremely important, for it reflects female identity as patriarchal society saw it or, at least, as it wanted it to be. For this reason, we can distinguish still further between works addressed to women in the strict sense of the word, such as guidebooks to correct behavior and didactic novels, and literature meant for women only in a broad sense, such as novels meant for the general public which • T A U S focused on the lives of various kinds of women who could constitute alternative female role models.
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