Research Chronicler, International Multidisciplinary Refereed Peer Reviewed Indexed Research Journal ISSN: Print: 2347-5021 www.research-chronicler.com ISSN: Online: 2347-503X

Feminism in the Works of Rabindranath Tagore Dr. Sushil Kumar Mishra Associate Professor and Head, Department of English, SRM University, Delhi-NCR, Sonepat, (Haryana) India

Abstract Born 1861 to Debendranath Tagore and Sarada Devi, Rabindranath Tagore started writing at the age of six. He was the first Indian and the first Asian to win the Nobel Prize for literature for “Gitanjali”. Known for his vast collection of poems, prose, plays, stories and novels, Tagore put women in the forefront in his works to convey feminism very strongly. Being a progressive thinker, his writings were based on bold subjects that were far ahead of the time. He strongly believed in fighting for women’s uplift using his pen as a weapon. Focusing largely on emancipation, his writing campaigned for women’s liberation, equality, freedom, justice, power, dignity and rights. Tagore’s Women have always been on the periphery of society in conservative patriarchal set up. Their voices have begun to be heard only in the recent times. Their representation in literature has largely been a reflection of the same conformist traditions. When Tagore appeared on the literary horizon, women were portrayed as acquiescent, traditional, timid and silent entities. Most of his contemporaries depicted women as bound by customs and traditions. Tagore is quite unconventional in portraying women in the tradition of his contemporaries Bankim. Chandra and Sharat Chandra and in fact here he surpasses them.

INTRODUCTION: women stand out as the most impressive feature. In Tagore’s play Chitra, woman Tagore’s progressive and feminist outlook has been shown as embodiment of inner is evident in his portrayal of bold courageous and assertive women. He strength, love and beauty. Tagore’s play probed deep into the mind of women and Chitra is a dramatic sermon on the theme presented myriad forms of their persona of true love. This lyrical drama, first very sensitively. Tagore’s plays acquaint published by the Indian society, London in 1913, the year Tagore received the Nobel his readers with the social conditions in Prize. The Play Chitra is based on the story which women were placed. H has created of Mahabharata. It is the English unforgettable women characters. The translation of Chitrangada, a Bengali play treatment of women and their position in published in 1892. society was of serious concern to Rabindranath Tagore. Being a sensitive Chitra is the first clear elucidation of person and a great poet, his understanding feminism in India by Tagore. This play is a of women was profound. His portrayal of work of superlative art and a vision of their joys and sorrows, hopes and despair, ideal beauty. Tagore’s conception of their yearnings and their dreams is genuine human love finds a striking expression in and perceptive. Among many aspects of Chitra. Krishna Kriplani describes the play Tagore’s humanism, his portraits of as the most fascinating and the most

Volume VIII Issue I: January 2020 (5) Author: Dr. Sushil Kumar Mishra Research Chronicler, International Multidisciplinary Refereed Peer Reviewed Indexed Research Journal ISSN: Print: 2347-5021 www.research-chronicler.com ISSN: Online: 2347-503X satisfying examples of Tagore’s genius. married to. The female characters are The play Chitra revolves around shown strong enough to stand for their Chitrangada. rights. Tagore took up the deprived life of Tagore’s progressive and feminist outlook a widow – Binodini - and her sexual is also evident in his portrayal of bold emancipation in a love quadrangle tale “Chokher Bali’. A story of distrust, courageous and assertive woman character adultery and lies, the novel also highlights Chandalika in his famous sociological play the dictatorship of a patriarchal society Chandalika. Chandalika is a sociological where young girls were married off to play written by Rabindranath Tagore. This much older men and left to become play is based on social discrimination, widows at an early age that caged their women’s identity and universal concept of root to freedom. love. It is a two act play. There are three characters in the play (Prakriti, her mother Rabindranath Tagore brought into the Maya and Anand a Buddhist monk). The forefront the sexual desires of a woman, play Chandalika is a story of a girl from which even today is considered taboo, the untouchable caste of India. This girl is reflecting his liberal approach to the topic. Prakriti. She is the central character of the Shesher Kobita, probably his most lyrical play. Her life as an untouchable woman is novel, presents Labanya as a strong- full of sufferings, rejection and ridicule. willed, highly educated, free spirited The Bhikshu’s words have brought an woman who hails from a middle class awakening in her and have given her a new family. A woman with high ethos, awareness of herself. Prakriti has now Labanya falls in love with Oxford-returned become conscious of her status as a human Amit. Their love blossoms and ends with being, on no way inferior to any other. A marriage. feeling of self-respect or self- esteem has taken roots in her heart. Prakriti proves Tagore was vehemently opposed to herself a very sensitive kind of girl. discrimination on the basis of gender. Besides this, he placed before the whole Tagore depicts Charulata of “Nashtanirh”, world the ideal to self- reliant in Indian wife who remains secluded within the woman fighting not for their own rights walls of her house and finds solace in her and desires but also for those of subjugated brother-in-law Anmol. Anmol not only nationality and downtrodden humanity. comforts her and brings out of boredom Through his plays he has presented very but also influences her to write for sensible and revolutionary picture of a newspaper. Charu’s confrontation with her common woman. husband about her inclination towards Anmol shows how Tagore put boldness in CONCLUSION: Feminism in his characters. Rabindranath Tagore challenges the traditional view of woman as the weaker In Noukadubi, Hemnalini refuses to marry sex. His female protagonists are subversive her brother’s friend Ramesh. Another as they defy the accepted norms of the Protagonist Kamala in the same story, society and present women confident in when discovering that the person she is their choices of life that they themselves staying with is not her husband, make. His women characters in his plays- immediately abandons his home and goes Chitra, Srimati, Prakriti, Malini, Sumitra, searching for the person she was actually

Volume VIII Issue I: January 2020 (6) Author: Dr. Sushil Kumar Mishra Research Chronicler, International Multidisciplinary Refereed Peer Reviewed Indexed Research Journal ISSN: Print: 2347-5021 www.research-chronicler.com ISSN: Online: 2347-503X Aparna and Nandini-all of them have highly successful in redefining tradition significant status of their own. They are through the portrayal of his women shown self-sufficient and self-reliant. They characters who certainly presents an remain victorious by proving their faith, antithesis of the conventional model of assertiveness and strength to achieve their women. They defy hegemonic structures purposes but still they are full of love, and dismantle the constructs of patriarchy. compassion and motherly care for Having minds of their own, their portrayal humanity. All these women can be role bears out that Tagore was far ahead of his models for the modern women. Tagore is age in his attitude towards women.

References: 1. Agarwal Beena, The Plays of Rabindranath Tagore, New Delhi: Satyam Publishers, 2003. 2. Rabindranath Tagore, Three Plays, Trans. Marjorie Sykes. Madras: Oxford University Press, 1970. 145.

Volume VIII Issue I: January 2020 (7) Author: Dr. Sushil Kumar Mishra