Indian Writing in English ENGBA 604 Edited by Dr. Haroon Rasheed Department of English Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti Urdu, Arabi -Farsi University, Lucknow

Home , Sahitya Akademi Award

E-content edited by Dr. Harun Rasheed

Paper IV

Indian Writing in English ENGBA (604)

Unit : IV

Chapter 1

An introduction by Kamala Das

About Author

Kamala Surayya Kamala Surayya (born Kamala; 31 March 1934 – 31 May 2009), popularly known by her one-time pen name Madhavikutty and married name Kamala Das, was an Indian English poet as well as a leading Malayalam author from Kerala, India. Her popularity in Kerala is based chiefly on her short stories and autobiography, while her oeuvre in English, written under the name Kamala Das, is noted for the poems and explicit autobiography. She was also a widely read columnist and wrote on diverse topics including women's issues, child care, politics among others.

Kamala Surayya

E-content edited by Dr. Harun Rasheed

Kamala 31 March 1934 Punnayurkulam, Madras Presidency, Born British India

Died 31 May 2009(aged 75) Pune, Maharashtra, India

Pen name Madhavikutty

Occupation Poet, novelist, short story writer

Nationality Indian

E-content edited by Dr. Harun Rasheed

Genre Poetry, novel, short story, memoirs

Notable Ente Katha, My Story, The works Descendants

Notable Ezhuthachan Puraskaram, Vayalar awards Award, Sahitya Akademi Award, Asan World Prize, Asian Poetry Prize, Kent Award

Spouse K. Madhav Das

Children Madhav Das Nalapat Chinnen Das Jayasurya Das

Relatives Balamani Amma(mother) V. M. Nair (father)

Her open and honest treatment of female sexuality, free from any sense of guilt, infused her writing with power and she got hope after freedom, but also marked her as an iconoclast in her generation. On 31 May 2009, aged 75, she died at a hospital in Pune.

Awards and other recognitions

E-content edited by Dr. Harun Rasheed

Kamala Das has received many awards for her literary contribution, including: • 1963: PEN Asian Poetry Prize

• 1968: Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Story – Thanuppu • 1984: Shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in Literature • 1985: Kendra Sahitya Academy Award (English) – Collected Poems • 1988: Kerala State Film Award for Best Story • 1997: Vayalar Award – Neermathalam Pootha Kalam • 2006: Honorary D.Litt by University of Calicut[24] • 2006: Muttathu Varkey Award[25] • 2009: Ezhuthachan Award[26]

Works

English Novel • 1976: Alphabet of Lust

Autobiography

• 1976: My Story

Short stories

• 1977: A Doll for the Child Prostitute • 1992: Padmavati the Harlot and Other Stories

Poetry

• 1964: The Sirens • 1965: Summer in Calcutta • 1967: The Descendants • 1973: The Old Playhouse and Other Poems • 1977: The Stranger Time

• 1979: Tonight, This Savage Rite (with Pritish Nandy) • 1984: Collected Poems • 1985: The Anamalai Poems • 1997: Only the Soul Knows How to Sing • 1999: My Mother At Sixty-six • 2001: Yaa Allah

E-content edited by Dr. Harun Rasheed

Malayalam • 1964: Pakshiyude Manam (short stories) • 1966: Naricheerukal Parakkumbol (short stories) • 1968: Thanuppu (short story) • 1982: Ente Katha (autobiography) • 1987: Balyakala Smaranakal (childhood memoirs) • 1989: Varshangalkku Mumbu (novel) • 1990: Palayan (novel) • 1991: Neypayasam (short story) • 1992: Dayarikkurippukal (novel) • 1994: Neermathalam Pootha Kalam (novel) • 1996: Kadal Mayooram (short novel) • 1996: Rohini (short novel) • 1996: Rathriyude Padavinyasam (short novel) • 1996: Aattukattil (short novel) • 1996: Chekkerunna Pakshikal (short stories) • 1998: Nashtapetta Neelambari (short stories) • 2005: Chandana Marangal (novel) • 2005: Madhavikkuttiyude Unmakkadhakal(short stories) • 2005: Vandikkalakal (novel)

An Introduction by Kamala Das

Kamala Suraiyya, sometimes named as Kamala Madhavikutty (31 March 1934 – 31 May 2009) was a majorIndian English poet and littérateur and at the same time a leading Malayalam author from Kerala, India. Her popularity in Kerala is based chiefly on her short stories and autobiography, while her oeuvre in English, written under the name Kamala Das, is noted for the fiery poems and explicit autobiography.

Her open and honest treatment of female sexuality, free from any sense of guilt, infused her writing with power, but also marked her as an iconoclast in her generation. On 31 May 2009, aged 75, she died at a hospital in Pune, but has earned considerable respect in recent years.

THE POEM I don't know politics but I know the names

E-content edited by Dr. Harun Rasheed

Of those in power, and can repeat them like

Days of week, or names of months, beginning with Nehru.

I am Indian, very brown, born in Malabar, I speak three languages, write in Two, dream in one.

Don't write in English, they said, English is

Not your mother-tongue. Why not leave

Me alone, critics, friends, visiting cousins,

Every one of you? Why not let me speak in

Any language I like? The language I speak, Becomes mine, its distortions, its queernesses

All mine, mine alone.

It is half English, half Indian, funny perhaps, but it is honest,

It is as human as I am human, don't

You see? It voices my joys, my longings, my

Hopes, and it is useful to me as cawing

Is to crows or roaring to the lions, it

Is human speech, the speech of the mind that is

Here and not there, a mind that sees and hears and

Is aware. Not the deaf, blind speech

Of trees in storm or of monsoon clouds or of rain or the

Incoherent mutterings of the blazing Funeral pyre. I was child, and later they Told me I grew, for I became tall, my limbs

Swelled and one or two places sprouted hair.

When I asked for love, not knowing what else to ask

For, he drew a youth of sixteen into the Bedroom and

E-content edited by Dr. Harun Rasheed

8 closed the door, He did not beat me But my sad woman- body felt so beaten.

The weight of my breasts and womb crushed me.

I shrank Pitifully.

Then … I wore a shirt and my

Brother's trousers, cut my hair short and ignored

My womanliness. Dress in sarees, be girl

Be wife, they said. Be embroiderer, be cook,

Be a quarreller with servants. Fit in. Oh,

Belong, cried the categorizers. Don't sit

On walls or peep in through our lace-draped windows.

Be Amy, or be Kamala. Or, better

Still, be Madhavikutty. It is time to

Choose a name, a role. Don't play pretending games.

Don't play at schizophrenia or be a

Nympho. Don't cry embarrassingly loud when Jilted in love … I met a man, loved him. Call Him not by any name, he is every man

Who wants. a woman, just as I am every

Woman who seeks love. In him . . . the hungry haste

Of rivers, in me . . . the oceans' tireless

Waiting. Who are you, I ask each and everyone,

The answer is, it is I. Anywhere and,

Everywhere, I see the one who calls himself I

In this world, he is tightly packed like the

Sword in its sheath. It is I who drink lonely

Drinks at twelve, midnight, in hotels of strange towns,

E-content edited by Dr. Harun Rasheed

It is I who laugh, it is I who make love

And then, feel shame, it is I who lie dying

With a rattle in my throat. I am sinner,

I am saint. I am the beloved and the

Betrayed. I have no joys that are not yours, no Aches which are not yours. I too call myself I.

SUMMARY Kamala Das’s poem ‘An Introduction’ is included in her first collection of poems, ‘Summer in Calcutta’. In the poem, she speaks in the voice of a girl, rebelling against the norms and dictates of a patriarchal society which ask her to ‘fit in’ and ‘belong’ against her own wishes. ‘Malabar’; a south Indian location, covering a large part of Kerala which also extends to parts of Karnataka.

Her rebellion against patriarchy is to secure an identity for herself in a male-dominated world. The poem begins with the assertion, ‘I don’t know politics, but I know the names of those in power’ which shows her distaste for politics in a country where politics is considered a domain for men. Next comes her defiant assertion of her right to write in any language she likes, in response to suggestions that she should not ‘write in English’. Her reply to her critics is a reiteration of the (language of) appropriation of a colonial language to serve native needs. ‘Categorizers’; an allusion to those who see and group other people in different structures or brackets: the term suggests the tendency to stereo-type people.

From the issue of the politics of language, the poem moves on the subject of sexual politics. The poet is in utter bewilderment during her pubescent years, her sudden marriage and her first sexual encounter all leave her traumatized. On an impulse, she defies the gender code and dresses up as a man by wearing a shirt and a trouser and ‘sits on the wall’. The guardians of morality force a respectable woman’s attire on with instructions that she should fit into the socially accepted role of a woman as a ‘wife’ and a ‘mother’. “Madhavikutti’; the pseudonym Kamala Das used while writing in Malayalam.

‘Schizophrenia’; a disorder that results in the misinterpretation of reality: the perception change is now seen as being a health condition as well as the case of social insufficiency: following thinkers like Michel Foucault, now schizophrenia is understood to be a reflection of a society’s inflexibility as much as it is associated with an individual’s mental state. Identifying herself with other suffering women of the world, Kamala Das universalizes suffering and seeks

E-content edited by Dr. Harun Rasheed

10 freedom and love. The poem becomes a statement on gender differences and a move to transcend the restrictions imposed on a woman by seeking individual freedom, love that allows the body to come to terms with its own needs and a self that is allowed to celebrate love’s true glory.

EXPLANATION “An Introduction" is Kamala Das's most famous poem in the confessional mode. Writing to her, always served as a sort of spiritual therapy:" If I had been a loved person, I wouldn't have become a writer. I would have been a happy human being."

Kamala Das begins by self-assertion: I am what I am. The poetess claims that she is not interested in politics, but claims to know the names of all in power beginning from Nehru. She seems to state that these are involuntarily ingrained in her. By challenging us that she can repeat these as easily as days of the week, or the names of months she echoes that these politicians were caught in a repetitive cycle of time, irrespective of any individuality. They did not define time; rather time defined them.

Subsequently, she comes down to her roots. She declares that by default she is an Indian. Other considerations follow this factor. She says that she is 'born in' Malabar; she does not say that she belongs to Malabar. She is far from regional prejudices. She first defines herself in terms of her nationality, and second by her colour.

I am Indian, very brown, born in Malabar,

And she is very proud to exclaim that she is 'very brown'. She goes on to articulate that she speaks in three languages, writes in two and dreams in one; as though dreams require a medium. Kamala Das echoes that the medium is not as significant as is the comfort level that one requires. The essence of one's thinking is the prerequisite to writing. Hence she implores with all-"critics, friends, visiting cousins" to leave her alone. Kamal aDas reflects the main theme of Girish Karnad's "Broken Images"-the conflict between writing in one's regional language and utilizing a foreign language. The language that she speaks is essentially hers; the primary ideas are not a reflection but an individual impression. It is the distortions and queerness that makes it individual. And it is these imperfections that render it human. It is the language of her expression and emotion as it voices her joys, sorrows and hopes. It comes to her as cawing comes to the crows and roaring to the lions, and is therefore impulsive and instinctive. It is not the deaf, blind speech: though it has its own defects, it cannot be seen as her handicap. It is not unpredictable like the trees on storm or the clouds of rain. Neither does it echo the "incoherent mutterings of the blazing fire." It possesses a coherence of its own: an emotional coherence.

E-content edited by Dr. Harun Rasheed

She was child-like or innocent; and she knew she grew up only because according to others her size had grown. The emotional frame of mind was essentially the same. Married at the early age of sixteen, her husband confined her to a single room. She was ashamed of her feminity that came before time, and brought her to this predicament. This explains her claim that she was crushed by the weight of her breast and womb. She tries to overcome it by seeming tomboyish. So she cuts her hair short and adorns boyish clothes. People criticize her and tell her to 'conform' to the various womanly roles. They accuse her of being schizophrenic; and 'a nympho'. They confuse her want of love and attention for insatiable sexual craving.

She explains her encounter with a man. She attributes him with not a proper noun, but a common noun-"every man" to reflect his universality. He defined himself by the "I", the supreme male ego. He is tightly compartmentalized as "the sword in its sheath'. It portrays the power politics of the patriarchal society that we thrive in that is all about control.It is this "I" that stays long away without any restrictions, is free to laugh at his own will, succumbs to a woman only out of lust and later feels ashamed of his own weakness that lets himself lose to a woman. Towards the end of the poem, a role-reversal occurs as this "I" gradually transitions to the poetess herself. She pronounces how this "I" is also sinner and saint", beloved and betrayed. As the role-reversal occurs, the woman too becomes the "I" reaching the pinnacle of self-assertion.

Analysis of An Introduction Lines

1-13 In the first section of An Introduction the speaker begins by comparing her knowledge of politicians to the days of the week and months of the year. Although she does not have a firm grasp on politics itself, those in power have remained in her mind. This shows their power to be much greater than their role should allow. The first of these she is able to recall is “Nehru,” who served as India’s first prime minister after the withdrawal of the British. After these opening lines that set the scene, the speaker moves on to describe her own being. She is “Indian” and she is “very brown.” Lastly, she is from Malabar in southwest India. These are the basics of her life, but of course not everything. She adds that she is able to,

[…]speak three languages, write in Two, dream in one.

E-content edited by Dr. Harun Rasheed

She continues to describe language and the role it plays in her life by saying that she is judged for writing in English. It is not her “mother-tongue.” Whenever she is criticized for how she speaks and writes she feels as if she is alone. There is no one, not her friends or cousins, who back her up. They are critics “Every one.” She directs the next line at this group, asking them why they care what she speaks. She feels a deep connection to the words she uses and how, through “distortions,” her language can only be defined as her own.

Lines 13-25 In the next thirteen lines the speaker goes on to describe herself as “half English, half Indian.” She sees a humour in this combination and acknowledges that fact as it is “honest.” This seems to be one of the most important parts of her, a desire for authenticity and honesty. Her identity, as seen through her voice, is “human” just as she is human. It should be held under that single defining category and no other. Das describes the control she has over her voice, whether through speech or text. It can display all of her emotions and her,

[…] mind that sees and hears and Is aware. Human speech is to humans as roaring is to lions. It is intelligible, unlike the roaring of a storm or the “mutterings of the blazing fire.” The speaker defines her freedom through the use of her voice. In the next lines she explains to the reader that there are other circumstances in her life that infringe on that freedom. They are out of her control. She introduces this section by stating that she only felt older as she grew because she was told of her own physical changes.

Lines 26-38 Her unhappiness is defined in the next section of lines and is directly related to a need for freedom. When she was young she “asked for love,” because she didn’t know what else to want. This ended with her marriage at sixteen and the closing of a bedroom door. Although her husband did not beat her, her,

[…] sad woman-body felt so beaten. This line of An Introduction is interesting as she is placing her own body in one of the categories she rebelled against in the first stanza. It is due to this simplification of a woman as nothing more than a body that led her to marriage at sixteen. She also places blame on her own body for leading her to this place. Her distinctly female parts, “breasts

E-content edited by Dr. Harun Rasheed

13 and womb” are a crushing weight on her life. The pressure placed on her by her husband and by her family led to an emotional and mental shrinking. It was a “Pitiful”process. But it ended. She goes on to state that a change came over her. She decided to put on her “Brother’s trousers” and cut off her hair. The speaker is ridding herself of the female image that has harmed her. Now that she is remaking her identity she is able to say no to the traditions of womanhood. These include fitting in and dressing in “saris.” The “categorizers” might tell her not to, […] peep in through our lace-draped windows But she is not going to listen. She chose to move her life beyond the traditional and therefore expand her presence in the world.

Lines 39-50 In the first two lines of the next section of An Introduction it becomes clear that the speaker is truly meant to be the poet herself. She wonders at her own identity and marvels over the fact that she can now be,

Amy, or be Kamala. Or, better Still, be Madhavikutty. It is by this final name that the poet, Kamala Das, came to be known and is still called. Das added another few reminders on behalf of the “categorizers.” She shouldn’t “play pretending games” or “cry embarrassingly loud.” Her role as woman is supposed to be meek, quiet, and contained. She goes on to describe a time in which she met and loved a man. This person is referred to as “man,” he is not named. This strips him of some of the agency he is so in control of in the next lines. Additionally, the name is of little importance as he is meant to represent every man in the world who uses women as he pleases. At one point, at the height of her emotions, she asks the “man” who he is. He replies “it is I.” The “I” represents the agency he has in the world. Men make their own decisions and have the ability to use the pronoun in order to get what they want.

Lines 51-60 An Introduction begins its conclusion with the speaker acknowledging the constant presence of “I” around her. In the world she’s a part of there are “I” men everywhere she looks. A person of this nature is able to go and “Drink… at twelve” and stay in “hotels of strange towns.” As the lines continue the division between the speaker and the “I” is

E-content edited by Dr. Harun Rasheed

14 blurred. Eventually a reader comes to understand that she is trying to come to terms with her own independence and identity as both “saint” and “sinner.” She is trapped between her own need for a free life and the world which tries to keep her contained. The final statement is one of protest and resistance. Das states that she has “Aches” which belong to no one but herself. She too can be “I.”

An Introduction Questions and Answers

Q. Critically analyse the poem An Introduction by Kamala Das in your own words. Ans:- The poem, An Introduction by Kamala Das was included in Kamala Das's first volume of poetry, Summer in Calcutta (1965). The poem begins with a statement that shows her frank distaste for politics, especially in politically free India ruled by a chosen elite. The poet asserts her right to speak three languages, and defends her choice to write in two--her mother-tongue, Malayalam, and English. She doesn't like to be advised in this matter by any guardian or relations. Her choice is her own: authentic and born of passion. The poet looks upon her decision to write in English as natural and humane.From the issue of the politics of language the poem then passes on to the subject of sexual politics in a patriarchy-dominated society where a girl attaining puberty is told about her biological changes by some domineering parental figure. As the girl seeks fulfilment of her adolescent passion, a young lover is forced upon her to traumatize and coerce the female-body since the same is the site for patriarchy to display its power and authority. When thereafter, she opts for male clothing to hide her femininity, the guardians enforce typical female attire, with warnings to fit into the socially determined attributes of a woman, to become a wife and a mother and get cofined to the domestic routine. She is threatened to remain within the four walls of her female space lest she should make herself a psychic or a maniac. But the poet is an individual woman trying to voice a universal womanhood and trying to share her experiences, good or bad, with all other women. Love and sexuality are a strong component in her search for female identity and the identity consists of polarities. The poem ends with repetitions of the 1st person sigular I to suggest vindication of the body and the self. The poet truly discloses herself and the position of women in society particularly in that time to reveal the abuses in the society.

E-content edited by Dr. Harun Rasheed

Reference

▪ S. D. Sharma, in article Kamala Das, in the book ▪ Perspectives on Kamala Das Poetry, edited by Iqbal Kaur, ▪ Intellectual Publishing House New Delhi, 1995, p. 2.Quoted by Dr. Raghukul Tilak in New Indian English Poets ▪ and Poetry, Rama Brothers, New Delhi, 1995, p. 24. BruceBruce King in Modern Poetry in English, O. U. P., 1987, p.152. TT. N. Dhar, in article Eros Denied Love in the poetry of ▪ Kamala Das, in the book Contemporary Indian English ▪ Poetry, edited by Atma Ram, Writer’s Workshop, 1989, p. 22. KekiKeki N. Daruwalla, Two Decades of Indian Poetry, Vikas ▪ Publishing House, Ghaziabad, 1980, p. 34-35 M. L. Sharma in Contemporary Indo-English Verse edited ▪ by Dwivedi, Prakash Book Depot, Bareilly 1984, p. 108. QuotedQuoted in Prospectives of Kamala Das’s poetry by Iqbal ▪ Kaur, Inielluctual Publication, New Delhi, 1995, p. xi Rama Rani Lall, article Rebellion and Escape: Kamala Das’s ▪ My Story, in the book Women’s Writing: Text and Context, ▪ edited by Jasbir Jain, Rawat Publication, Jaipur, 1996, p. ▪ 233. QuotedQuoted by Usha V. T. in an article One Woman’s ▪ Autobiography: Kamala Das’s My Story, in the book. ▪ Internet Material. ▪ Kamala Das: A Critical Spectrum, edited by Rajeshwar ▪ Mittapalli and Pier Paolo Piciucco, Atlantic Publishers and ▪ Distributors, New Delhi, 2001, p. 5. RamaRama Rani Lall, article Rebellion and Escape: Kamala Das’s ▪ My Story, in the book Women’s Writing: Text and Context, ▪ edited by Jasbir Jain, Rawat Publication, Jaipur, 1996, p. ▪ 233. Quoted by K. R. Ramachandran Nair, The Poetry of Kamala ▪ Das, Reliance Publishing House, New Delhi, 1993, p. 137. ▪ Indian Writing in English by K.R.Srinivas Lyenger. ▪ Indian Writing in English: Critical Explorations by Amar Nath Prasad. ▪ Indian Writing in English: Past and Present by Amar Nath Prasad. ▪ Indian Writing in English: Tradition and Modernity by Amar Nath Prasad. ▪ Feminism in Indian Writing in English by Amar Nath Prasad, S. K.Paul. ▪ Studies in Indian English Fiction by Amar Nath Prasad. ▪ New Lights on Indian Women Novelists in English by Amar Nath Prasad.

E-content edited by Dr. Harun Rasheed