Koi and the Kola Nuts (Rabbit Ears: A Classic Tale (Spotlight))

Once, it gets saturated nature explodes. Hence, the need for action is imminent which can only be brought by perseverance. Our actions speak louder than words. The children of the future will learn from the actions of their adults. Our actions will become memory and our memory, their value.

So it is the duty of every previous generation to act smarter and take greater responsibility. Socialism and environment Nature therefore is a repository of knowledge, of knowledge that is everlasting and fulfilling and empowering everything and everyone that comes to its aid. The poems discussed here takes into account how trees affect human kind at the personal, societal and also at the spiritual level. For him, the fig was everything that he has left behind, the fig was his identity and all the good things that had happened to him in his life When he puts a fig in his mouth and closes his eyes, it is magic.

The fig tree was his past that he reminisced and wanted to go back to and how figtrees always became a partner in crime. They were his connection to his childhood presumably, to his wants and needs, to his laughs and worries and to his memories. A mystical and secret connection that only the fig tree and the father shares is evident here.

The tree becomes a symbol of his prayer, a symbol of his continuity and of his existence on this earth. The sentiments of a blossoming friendship and the need to invite an intimate stranger are rampant in the poem by Risha Ahmed. The tree is always many things to many people and this pluralism will always exist despite the efforts taken by mankind. It is like she wants to let the tree not to condone her for the wrongdoings of mankind. Trees are inarguably the best teachers for any person. According to Native American belief, God bestowed trees upon us to learn the quality of strength from an oak, flexibility from birch, to stand tall as a redwood, to live gracefully as a willow.

The need to give sanctity to trees was the first step in conserving these species on the earth.

They are inarguably the harbingers of biodiversity. When the trees purpose is served, it changes but still proves useful to mankind. He propounds that a toy fashioned from the left over tree will always contain the memory of the tree, a power in itself. The vintage quality upholds their status and always act as a connecting link among generations.

Here, the cedar tree becomes synonymous to the life of a man himself. Richard Walker at the beginning fosters a spiritual sentiment by pointing out how the people in the northwest still respect the canoe made from the cedar tree. The canoe in itself becomes a message of selflessness as Vol. Hence, the canoe becomes synonymous to their ancestors to be treated with reverence. The cedar tree becomes the memory of the traditional songs and the songs of the ancestors that the people can relate with and continue.

The tree becomes the continuance of tradition. The tree becomes a constant reminder of our frivolous existence on this earth and kindles within us the message of being useful to people during life and after death. The cedar tree evokes the quintessential existence of the spirit over body. It focusses on the interconnectedness of life on its sacredness thus establishing within us the message of divinity within which is a reflection of divinity outside. It reaffirms the fact the cosmic universe is within us as much as we are in it. This was one such poem that prompted people to plant trees as part of ecological conservation.

He regards people like himself as fools in only composing poems advocating the merits of the trees. But the tree which is truly a wonder can only be created by God, the supreme. The tree never complains but becomes a symbol of hope for the people who think that there is no way out of their bleak future. The tree becomes a reflection of mankind both of them more or less sharing the same physiognomy. The poem written after the wake of the First World War has had desired effect on the poet.

It teaches mankind that to create out of love and out of pride and arrogance never have the same results. One of the ways is to integrate Vol. One it may sustain our life on earth and our economy from dwindling. Human Beings should consider a proactive empathetic approach to flora and fauna alike to make this world a better place to live in. It is at its best both fatal and enlivening. It can either create or destroy.

One can either learn or re-learn from the memory that acts as storage units of all our actions of the past. Therefore, our spirit can only be revived by going back to nature. We have risen from mud and it is to the mud that we return. It is a seldom reminder that unless we check our practices and completely transform our measures, we solely would be responsible in destroying the past, present and the future of coming generations.

It is the dire need of the hour that we move from our anthropocentric constitution to eco-centric positioning. Penguin Random House, Contemporary Literary and Cultural Theory. Karna, an able warrior deprived of his identity and dignity fights against social discrimination and gradation to prove his potential. He is aided in his revolution by his trusted friend Duryodhana and his supportive wives. The great warrior is however gender insensitive. Kane seeks to unravel the silence regarding the personal life of the enchanting personality Karna and examine the contributions of the women of great warriors.

She explores the plight of marginal women in the epic hitherto neglected and unrecognized. This paper addresses the issue of marginality in the novel and comment on the characters misinterpreted and popularized through numerous representations till date. Outcaste, silence, class, gender, bonding. Epics are the earliest documents of Indian society, its structural framework and network of operations. The numerous stories and multiple characters allow readers to have an extensive view of human life and its complexities. The readers can hardly contain their urge to delve deeper into human psychology and unfold the myriads of emotions and conflicts which find their parallel in life.

Time and again, it has been repeatedly pointed out that social hierarchy, social foundation, social interest carry greater value than individual life and justice. The novel revisits the epic Mahabharata from the theoretical perspectives of post-structuralism and feminism to explore the mental turmoil, consciousness and thought processes Vol. Re-engagement with epics is not a new phenomenon. Scholars and writers are jointly venturing into these ancient realms with greater interest and vigour in recent years.

Karna, the most appealing and mysterious but damned character in the Indian classical epic has always been examined in comparison to his arch-rival Arjuna or with respect to his friendship with Duryodhana, both of them central characters. The creation of Uruvi replenishes this gap by not only illuminating the character of Karna but also by the imaginary contemplation and depiction of the predicament of the wives of a socially ostracized, determined and aspiring man.

Her advantageous royal belonging, association, intelligence and sensitivity to social and cultural processes are designed to play the eternal and ever- seeing human conscience. In pursuit of unraveling the abominable patriarchal, discriminating and exploitative nature of society, scholars are aiming at the roots of cultural dissemination.

The repeated reproductions of the epic knowingly and unknowingly consolidate and perpetuate insensitivity towards gender and humanity. Hence, there arises the need to re-interpret and re-analyze the text which archetypes ideal Indian society. The epic has ceased to be solely a religious text about the eternal war between good and evil, right and wrong. Her creation of the imaginary character, Uruvi becomes a part of the prevalent refashioning and recreating exercises in literature to suit the temperament and needs of a particular era. As a result, the text is prevented from being essentialized as literature from the ground.

This paper will read the novel from both the gender and class margins in order to elucidate the center as well as the periphery. It will consider the lived experiences of a female outcast by choice, and her power and grit in accosting society. Mahabharata has often been read as a class narrative from the stand-point of Karna, who had lifelong suffered the brunt of low birth in a society hell bent on class preservation. We zoom in our lenses on Draupadi, the wife of the Pandavas or on Kunti or Gandhari when we talk of gender. But, have we ever cared for the inconspicuous female characters within the epic?

Pre-occupation with the center often provide a partial knowledge or even distorted view of circumstances and characters. A character requires to be measured by all standards of relationships and situations before coming to any conclusion. By throwing the spotlight on the private realm, Kane tries to depict the interconnections between the two worlds: How the politics of the former affect the peace and serenity of the latter. Discussion on how his wives reacted to his lack of sense of belonging, misplaced loyalty, and most significantly his role in the molestation of a woman, will shed light on marginality and enable better scrutiny of the characters.

The honest, inquisitive, tongue in cheek Uruvi probes and prods the characters into self-introspection and confession. In this paper, I would like to analyze the experiences of a subject doubly sub-altern by class and gender. In the novel, Uruvi, the princess of Pukeya, daughter of king Vahusha, was brought up amidst all sorts of lavishness, extravagance that one could imagine of. As a playmate to the Kauravas and Pandavas, Uruvi enjoyed Vol.

While, she was contemptuous about Duryodhana for his evil ways, she sided with the Pandavas like everybody else. Bhishma Pitamaha, Gandhari, and every other person doted on the charming, intelligent, loving princess. However, with the appearance of Karna in the royal precincts, the facades, treachery and tyranny of society became blatantly exposed. She sensed her world changing, people whom she have known for years becoming strangers, when she challenged social norms by declaring love for a lower class, a sutaputra and proposing to marry him. Uruvi fought the entire world to win him.

Although, she had to pay an exorbitant price of incurring the rage and rivalry of neighbouring rulers, she managed to have a swayamvara in its truest sense. She enjoyed the chance of choosing the person she loved as her life partner instead of being carried away as a trophy by the ablest Kshatriya warrior.

It rarely happened that a woman could marry the person she loved. Karna was married and was a father to sons when Uruvi gained admittance into his life. She also emphasizes the sort of relation that existed between Karna and Uruvi through her choice of expression. Howsoever, in the course of this paper, I would consider the peril of both the wives: Vrushali and Uruvi, each antithetical to the other.

Karna points out to his brother, Shona: Whatever happens to meor whatever I do, I shall never disappoint her. Vrushali, his first wife was mature, calm, cool, tolerant, adjustable and wise. She belonged to the same class of adhiraths as that of her husband. Karna and Vrushali shared happy, contented conjugal life and were devoted to each other till the appearance of Draupadi between them. Vrushali was docile and compliant in everything her husband did. She had no rights over her Vol. The father decided the fate and future of his children.

So, Vrushali was powerless and failed to save any of her children from getting slaughtered in the fateful war of Kurukshetra. She also was bound to resign to her fate without protest when he unexpectedly married Uruvi and brought her home. Vrushali was in no way different from the other royal ladies in the past and present who had no right to voice their disagreement and decision over their lord.

Before Vrushali, women like Amba, Ambika, Ambalika, Gandhari and Kunti were also victims of deception and exploitation but were powerless to confront society. The practice of Polygamy was acceptable and recognized in society so women had no option other than sharing their husbands with other women. Draupadi, who had dared to question the court on rights and duties of a husband, morality, dharma and justice, also happened to be the second wife of her husbands.

Vrushali was pleased to perform her duties according to social expectations. She had no aspirations for herself or for her husband but was content to have him by her side. On the other hand, Uruvi was diametrically opposite to Vrushali. Younger by many years, she was willful and rebellious. Her marriage was only a beginning to a series of trials. She remained honest to her own self throughout and took responsibility of her decisions. A woman has no caste, class of her own. Her identity depends on the family she is born into until her marriage into another family.

She is then identified through her belonging and liability to her marital household. Nonetheless, a woman is not above class or caste. The Royal clans never let him forget his lineage and his true place. Karna, ignorant of his actual identity, identified himself through his foster parents Radha and Adhirath, who belonged to the class of sutas. He was the unwanted, illegitimate son of an unwed Kshatriya mother who abandoned him in a river, in desperation to save social status and reputation.

All through his life, Karna had to bear the yoke of low class identity and suffer the social ills Vol. He was treated as an outcaste when he attempted to learn archery, a skill which was reserved for the privileged Kshatriya class, from Guru Dronacharya, the Kshatriya guru himself. He underwent public humiliation for the second time when he dared to compete with other Kshatriya princes for the hand of the Kshatriya princess, Draupadi in marriage.

Karna was rudely reminded of his ineligibility and ambition in dreaming of marrying a Kshatriya princess being an outcast. She had to share his turbulent past, fretful present and tormenting future. But, she never became dispirited or regretted her decision. In tough times, she consoled her mind by saying that she married the love of her life, a privilege enjoyed by very few women in her society.

By stooping below her caste to marry Karna, Uruvi lost her friends, relationships, and society. She and her family turned into an outcast overnight. Uruvi relinquished the comforts of her palace, fineries, most importantly her respect, prestige, position, influence in order to become the companion of the sutaputra. Her trial did not end here. In the adopted new home, unlike Vrushali, she was greeted as an unwelcome guest forcibly intruding into the lives of a well-knit family. And finally, Karna, for whom she left everything, idealized her like the Petrarchan lover.

He idolized her for fighting the whole world for his sake. She was yet miles away from becoming his soul-mate. Uruvi, about whose incisive wit Kane never lets her readers forget, was quick to notice the malice, bias and flaws in the actions of the people she revered and considered to be just. She constantly harped on the human conscience, and pestered her elders with questions whenever they had taken a biased decision. She enquired Bhishma of his partiality in rejecting Karna but accepting Satyavati, a daughter of a fisherman as Vol. Uruvi also unhesitatingly declared Kunti to be responsible for making Karna a pariah, an outcast within his family and society.

She reasoned that it was desertion, opposition and neglect of the good and righteous that led him to befriend evil. Duryodhana, in spite of being malicious, was the only person who came to his rescue and treated him with due respect when he was being subjected to ignominy. Uruvi was a perfect blend of rationality and emotion. Uruvi fell in love with Karna at the moment when he challenged Arjuna in the competition ground. She dreamt of becoming his true companion, his counselor, and his protector.

She wanted to share his feelings, pain and even ambitions. Through her effort, Karna could find himself a confidante with whom he could discuss every matter from political to personal. However, despite her persistent effort, Uruvi failed to counsel Karna against forming alliance with Duryodhana. The hunger for identity, social acceptance and dream of living like a warrior pushed him towards his doom. If Duryodhana had used Karna for self-interest, Karna too had utilized Duryodhana to realize his dream of competing with Arjuna.

Duryodhana was his only chance and Kurukshetra the only place to prove his potential and win the honour and dignity he truly deserved. It was he who pestered Duryodhana for face-to-face combat with his cousins Pandavas instead of resorting to mischievous means. In aiding Duryodhana in expanding his kingdom to whole of Aryabharta 3 , he not only re-paid his debt and gratitude, he also demonstrated his potential as a warrior. Karna, even participated in the heinous crime of abducting women from their swayamvaras just like Bhishma in the past to gratify his friend.

Karna desired acceptance and recognition for Vol.

Nonetheless, the companionship of Duryodhana and Uruvi with Karna friendship between the privileged and unprivileged or rather between two differently marginalized people continue to be exemplarily redemptive and restitutive. Karna too returned his heartfelt gratitude and pledged to protect them. Uruvi was much inexperienced, impetuous and expressive in comparison to Vrushali. Nevertheless, her emotional succor was haven for him. He was ready to die for his cause. She left no stone unturned yet like Vrushali she failed to save her husband from certain death.

There existed a complex love-hate relationship between Karna and Draupadi. Draupadi symbolized power, position, honour and bewitching beauty; everything that the deprived, disadvantaged Karna lusted after. He wanted to deflate her pride of class and beauty. His wounded male pride desired to triumph over that woman who dared to abase him in public. The dice game on that ill-fated day gave them the opportunity to humble her haughty pride.

It was not only a play of fate and fortune, honour and wealth but it was also a ploy for involuntary exposition of all the characters. After the game, the characters stand adjudicated and mortified. The public spectacle of injuring feminine integrity of Draupadi forced her to fall below social standards and connect with the margin.

She bonded with the marginalized in their longing for self-respect and honour. Although, Vrushali, in allegiance to her nature was quick to forgive her husband and consoled repentant Karna, Uruvi was inconsolable. She could no more continue to admire, love or even tolerate his company. She became certain that the war was inevitable with two disgraced and stigmatized individuals resolved to redress their situation and win back their lost dignity.

In order to survive the madness infesting their lives, Uruvi tried to comfort herself by treating the maimed. Healing the wounds of the wounded warriors was therapeutic but also created other wounds in the process. She faced criticism from many and Shona was harshest of all. She was questioned of her allegiance, support and duties towards Karna. This was yet another test for Uruvi for being the wife of a great warrior. She nursing the warriors injured by or because of her husband did not comply with the respect, aura, and abilities of her husband. It rather inspired duality, suspicion and sneer in the minds of the subjects.

Her actions once again defied social norm and expectations. She was thus held answerable to the blind associate of Karna. The eighteen day war in Kurushetra left everyone bereaved and mourning. Every family had paid the price of war but most by the Kuru dynasty who lost hundred sons in one war. His mother, Kunti, finally publicly acknowledges him as her son, the Pandavas were doomed to live in repentance for their misdemeanor and treacherous murder of their elder brother.

Before his death, Duryodhana too was transformed by the generosity and love of Karna, who fought against his own Vol. If not in life, at least in death Karna enjoyed the respect due of a warrior. The death of Karna and hers sons devastated Vrushali who soon lost her sanity. She also devoted herself in caring for the helpless and suffering. She continued to support and heal the physical and mental bruises of her people. She thus carried forward the dreams and desires of Karna even after his death. After the death of her remaining family members, Uruvi retired to her childhood home.

Since time immemorial, the privileged have adopted on their own the responsibility of commenting, analyzing and determining the needs, difficulties and crisis in the lives of the unprivileged. However, these discourses from the center have often failed to truly interpret the situation of the periphery and do justice to them because of their detachment from the actual lived experiences. Kane makes use of the trope of inter-class love and marriage in the highly stratified ancient society to gauze the characters closely by joining in their experiences.

With the interpolation of the active character, Uruvi, the plight of the wives of the great warriors in the epic is intensified through contrast. The feminist within Uruvi questions society within the text itself rather than from outside. This technique not only unsettles the calm composure and negligent attitude of society but also reveal the flaws and hypocrisies embedded within it.

The wives of Karna were far more marginalized than Karna himself since they were bereft of both class and gender influence. Karna, though beaten by society, still enjoyed rights over his family. His wives were marginalized both within and outside the Vol. As long as society continues to discriminate and grade human beings, center and periphery would remain an inescapable reality.

History has witnessed discontentment and revolution from below time and again whenever the downtrodden became zealous enough to voice their plight and recover their situations. The marginal women characters, Uruvi, Vrushali too fought their individual wars with themselves as well as with society.

Brian Gleeson

Uruvi, her folly, decided to fight with the perpetrators of social ills in society. Her indomitable will, empathy for the battered individuals, support and resistance to social injustices sustained the revolution initiated by Karna. She actually took the rebellion to a much deeper level, to the battleground of conscience and inner precincts of home. Her retreat to her childhood and sharing of her motherhood with the royal queen Draupadi, indicated her treating of social wounds and creating it anew.

It obtained its name from the Aryans who ruled the land. Works Cited Kalidoss, Nanditha. An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata. Penguin Books Haryana, Essays in Cultural Politics. Stories of Cruelty, Courage and Compassion Dr. Stories of partition is a collection of thirty short stories. These stories are replete with instances of violence that marked the partition of India into India and Pakistan in Partition of India is said to be the bloodiest incident in the history of the sub-continent in which more than twelve million people were affected in some way or the other. The researcher has tried to put together all those instances of cruelty, courage and compassion—the multiple hues of human personality.

Sickle, divergent, butchered, smoldering, notorious, savagery. Stories of Partition is a collection of thirty short stories with the partition of India as the backdrop. A Punjabi writer of repute, Sarna, is the winner of the prestigious Sahitya Akademi award. The present collection is a translation of his stories by his diplomat son, Navtej Sarna. The partition of India is said to be the bloodiest incident in the history of the subcontinent. More than twelve million people had to be displaced, with more than half of the population being butchered and subjected to savagery while crossing the borders.

Arson, loots, murders, rapes became the order of the day. Saran himself was an eyewitness to such senseless brutality and barbarism as he was holed up in his house in Rawalpindi along with his father and younger brother. Later, he escaped to Delhi before finally settling in Amritsar. The stories are expressions of cruelty, courage and compassion—the divergent hues of human personality that were in display during such a trying situation such as partition that affected the lives of so many people at the same Vol. Stories of Partition tells the stories of riots and rapes, plunder and pillage, arson and killings.

Dina, the protagonist of the story, was the village blacksmith. A mere look at the crops standing in the fields; the sugarcane swaying in the breeze, would fill his body with a strange sensation. He would instantaneously forget the hellish times in which he had to live. For the last twenty days he had only moulded metal into axes and spears. And it had been a strange harvest. Instead of wheat, those who had planted it had been chopped up 2. Pakistan had already been created and it was now his responsibility to arm the warriors of the new born country.

It was as if creation of Pakistan was a yagna and killing of Hindus and Sikhs was the ahuti. Each axe made by your hands kills dozens. Would anybody eat the sugarcane that had been sprayed with blood? Or wear cotton which had been irrigated by blood? What kind of wheat would grow in this blood drenched soil? And what kind of a harvest would it be after this bloody season?

The shower of blood that has reddened everything had been caused by the axes he had fashioned. He wanted to absolve himself of the sins by throwing the instruments of death into a well, before his notorious son and his gang could lay their hands on them. Like a man possessed by evil spirits, he runs towards his house but is greeted by the corpse of the innocent old wife of the Brahmin of the thakurdwar. The same brutality and barbarism had been unleashed in another village named Laddewala Varaich. The village had turned into a cremation ground. Its headman Khuda Bakhsh Varaich moved through the neighbouring Muslim villages, pleading and beseeching the villagers not to perpetrate any violence but in vain.

Helpless, he begged the villagers to leave the village before Thursday evening, when the Baths, Chimnis, Maans, Gondals and Dogras were all going to attack the village together.

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The entire village was burnt to ashes by the attackers. Where painted cots, spinning wheels and carved stools were still smoldering; where half-burnt human bodies lay rotting; where in the corners of houses and in ditches within lanes lay pathetic piles of old bones; and where, in the doorway of the thakurdwar, a handsome young man lay on his side, his intestines pulled out by some sharp, hooked weapon.

However, Mukund Singh cannot be held entirely responsible for what he had carried out. His desire to avenge the slaughter of eighteen members of his family in Narhali village in west Punjabin in March The young and the old had been brutally massacred and women had to jump into the wells to protect their honour. The broad daylight murders took place even in the presence of the Army, which in some cases, remained a mute spectator.

The narrator narrates one such incident where he was allowed to travel with an army convoy which was deployed to rescue the Hindus and Sikhs from the newly formed Pakistan. Suddenly, the convoy came to a halt somewhere between Ludhiana and Jalandhar. The narrator saw great commotion in the nearby fields. Some men, with staves and swords in their hands, were searching for a Muslim who had disappeared amidst the corn.

After a frantic search, the poor looking Muslim was found and brought out. He was frozen with fear and was shivering. He begged at the feet of his tormentors to let go of him in the name of their Guru. When Pakistan was formed, the Muslims assured their masters to protect them at the cost of their lives. The Sikh landlords decided to continue staying in the village believing that such violence was quite normal when rulers changed. Besides, they had little faith that their passage to India would go unharmed.

The killings at Sheikhupura, the looting and burning incidents at Lahore, the attacks on caravans of refugees at both sides of the borders, and massacres of trainloads of refugees made them decide in favour of staying put in their village and wait and watch. However, the situation worsened as thousands of Muslim refugees, ravaged and looted, arrived from the other side of the border and settled in villages around Mughal Chhak.

The Sikh landlords decided to go to the Gujranwala Refugee Camp before the Muslims around them, seething for revenge, decided to settle scores and pounced on them. While they were slithering away under the cover of darkness, they came face to face with the Muslim attackers. The savage attackers demanded ornaments, money and guns with bullets to be handed over to them.

In turn, they assured a violence-free passage. However, the moment they handed over the guns and bullets, they were sprayed with bullets. Some of the members of the caravan reached the refugee camp defying death. When they were being taken from the refugee camp to Amritsar, they witnessed heart-rending and gory sights.

On both sides of the roads were lying hundreds of bodies of men, women, children and old people. Such tales of barbarism, cruelty, ruthlessness abound in the stories of Sarna. However, such tales are interspersed with tales of courage and compassion that reaffirm our faith I humanity. Such episodes may be few and far between but nevertheless, they occur as a balm to the aching soul. Regarding these tells of hope, Sarna tells something like this: My partition stories pass knee deep through the dark quicksand of blood and crushed bone, but they keep their head on which they carry their bundle of hope, clearly above the quicksand.

This hope is kept intact even in the whirlwinds of barbarity and brutality. He advises the mother-daughter duo to pack up and leave the place before the ravagers returned slithering and hissing. He himself volunteers to lead them to a Sikh village under the cover of darkness. He knows pretty well that his own life is in grave danger and that the riff-raff of his own clan stare at him with murder in their eyes.

He realises his helplesness in the current circumstances but does not give up easily. When a group of young men discovers them hiding in the sugar cane fields, Khuda Bakhsh tries to protect Nand Kaur and her daughter but gets killed in the process. When death stares directly into the face, most people would prefer to escape first. Very few would jump into the claws of death giving a safe passage to others. Usually, when Basant took to the streets, young boys would torment him and even, throw stones at him.

His face was deformed in paralysis. His lower lip hung low and saliva continuously dripped from it. Such a person whom everybody considered a fool did an act of supreme sacrifice in handing over a ticket to Kanta, the daughter of Pandit Kirpa Ram so that she could travel in the plane and join her fiance and his parents in Delhi. This he did disregarding the wishes of his mother, who made a living by washing the dirty dishes of people.

She had somehow managed the ticket to ensure safety of her half-crazy son. On another occasion, when Mehta Karam Chand had pain in kidney and someone needed to go to Hakim Abdul Aziz at the Imambara to get some medicine, Basant volunteered to go there himself. People were being stabbed ruthlessly in the streets those days but he gave it two hoots.

For him welfare of others stood supreme. Shabbir made Manzoor swear in the name of Holy Quran and Allah that he would give Shabbir anything that he asked for , if he returned in one piece after the horse ride. He finally reached the spot where his uncle was standing and demanded that the Lamba girl should be given to him so that he could take her to her uncle, Jagir Singh in the Hafizabad camp.

Surrounded by a howling mob, the two unfortunate girls tried to hide their nakedness with their hands but in vain. The people justified their act by saying that they were only returning the favour to the Muslims who had dishonoured their sisters elsewhere. Abnash exhorted only those, whose sisters and mothers had been dishonoured by the Muslims to come forward and take revenge.

They can scar the society and breed contempt and hatred but they can never be a permanent feature of a civilized society. Civilizations, since time immemorial, have been affected by such mindless violence, but like a phoenix, civilisation has raised its head again from its ashes. The world has worshipped human values. Most certain at least one character… who listens to that nagging voice of conscience, a voice often inspired by the teachings of his or her religious faith, and musters the courage to act on it. Stories of Partition, Rupa, , Sunday Guardian. The publication of Madame Bovary as a magazine serial caused Flaubert to be tried for committing an outrage against public and religious morality.

Emma Bovary's audacious behaviour sent shock waves to the nineteenth century French society. The andro-centric nature of the text becomes evident in the portrayal of Emma whose downfall is shown to be inevitable because she deviates from the already fixed path for women in general. Flaubert is technically disinterested in his style but a close reading from the feminist point of view exposes his politics in subjugating Emma to patriarchal norms.

Gender, Morality, Sex, Freedom, Politics. Since its first appearance in , Gustave Flaubert's ground breaking novel Madame Bovary has been held as the first modern novel by many literary stalwarts. The craft of fiction gained a new momentum in the hands of Flaubert when he declared that the only thing that matters is style and demonstrated it in this novel. Walter Pater aptly called Flaubert the martyr of style.

The content of the novel is no less revolutionary which represents Emma unhappily married to a mediocre provincial doctor Charles Bovary. Emma, as depicted by Flaubert, revolts against the ordinariness of her life by pursuing voluptuous dreams of ecstasy and love. But her sensuous and sentimental desires lead her only to suffering, corruption and downfall. A feminist reading of the novel will expose many hidden facts like the patriarchal structure of discourse, subordination of women under the mask of culture, and politics of literature. Like Stendhal and Balzac, Flaubert offered no morality of compromise and adaptation to his female protagonist.

Emma, till the tragic end of her life, does not feel any compunction for her prodigality and extra-marital affairs.

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Flaubert was no feminist and for him all progressive movements were forms of romantic illusion. But, unconsciously he was critical of the ways in which the lives of women were circumscribed by men. His distinction between sex and gender remains undercover. The novel, covertly, debates other issues like 'Eternal Feminine' and 'sexual politics' which were highlighted in the second half of the twentieth century by feminist thinkers like Simone de Beauvoir and Kate Millet.

I Emma's situation is precarious in the nineteenth century France where males were effectively free to adulterate outside their homes and women faced severe punishment and imprisonment if they did so. Fathers and husbands were the guardians of women and the latter ought to be virtuous wives and mothers. Women had no positive role to play, and they were restricted to the confines of home and garden.

The Napoleonic civil code had transformed marriage from an essentially religious sacrament to a legal contract in which authority was henceforth invested in the husband. Emma Bovary's conduct is at variance with these codes of the male- centered structure of society. Emma shrugs off the reductive definitions of woman conceived by patriarchy.

Emma, of course, is not a particularly self-conscious character and she does not conceptualize her dilemma in these terms. However, she does actively resist the position allotted to her and acts in such a way that unsettles the stable categories of wife and mother. The very first line- "It took her long time to find her sewing box" Flaubert 14 - that introduces Emma to the reader shows her lack of interest in house keeping. Emma, being the only daughter of Monsieur Rouault is expected to run the farm but she finds it boring and burdensome.

Flaubert provides Emma with such attributes as elegant look, refinement, and fine education that cause her to frustrate the expectations of her father and husband. The hair over her temples was waved slightly, a refinement which the country doctor now noticed for the first time in his life. The tops of her cheeks were pink. She had a shell-rimmed prince-nez which she carried, like a man, tucked in between two buttons of her bodice. The patriarchal ideology demands a woman to be imprisoned in domestic life and assume the role of 'angel in the house'.

Whatever her entity- be it a mother, a sister, a wife, or a daughter- she has to behave in a certain way defined by the masculinist culture and only after internalizing these pre-determined codes of conduct she will be called a good woman. Moreover, to be called an ideal woman she is required to do great sacrifices which may include compromising her self- respect, crushing her wishes and desires, abandoning her position and denial of self-expression. This is the position of women in a patriarchal society. The myth of 'Eternal Feminine' attempts to trap woman into an impossible ideal by denying her individuality and freedom as illustrated in The Second Sex: The very title of the novel - Madame Bovary- is sufficient to demonstrate how the individual is alienated in the patriarchal and myth perpetuating society of nineteenth century France.

The individuality of Emma vanishes in 'Madame Bovary'. The word 'Madame' signifies the married name bestowed upon all women who entered into the institution of marriage at the time.

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Emma's existential malice and obsession with fantasy is the product of her limited role in a male-centered society. The question - where is she? Cixous is of the view that a society based on male- biased hierarchical opposition leaves a virginal slot for woman which is the place where men can Vol. Emma is unwilling to accept this place passively. She feels depressed in the atmosphere created by her husband and his surroundings.

Emma wants liberation from the monotonous and rotten life, which has been imposed upon her, and in doing so she challenges the established, authoritative structure of society, which curbs her self-realization. Observing the phallocentric orientation of society Helen Cixous remarks: If we consult literary history, it is the same story. It all comes back to man-to his torment, his to be at the origin back to father there is an intrinsic connection between the philosophical and the literary… and the phallocentric.

In the novel Emma has been presented merely as a sex-object in the world of Rodolphe and Leon. II Discriminating between sex and gender Simone de Beauvoir argues that one's sex is determined by anatomy while gender is a social and cultural construct. Gender refers to socially constructed roles, activities, attributes and behaviour that a given society considers appropriate for men and women. Hence women are supposed to be acquiescent, timid, passive and emotional.

Emma, usually, does not behave as women are respected to do. For instance, the day after her wedding it is told: The next day, however, he seemed a different man. It was he who acted as though he had lost his virginity during the might, while the bride's behaviour revealed nothing whatever. Flaubert 29 Emma, like a conventional bride, is not shy of losing her virginity. On the contrary Charles behaves like a woman. Furthermore, motherhood which is considered to be the most coveted and beautiful Vol.

It is Charles who is excited to know that Emma is pregnant; she remains indifferent. Emma is extremely disgusted at the birth of a daughter as she was desperately expecting a son. She lacks the maternal instinct and leaves her daughter-Berthe- mostly in the care of her maid servant, and hardly gets time to feed her child.

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Sometimes Emma is cruel to Berthe to the extent of a step-mother. After her separation from Leon, in a fit of annoyance she shoves Berthe away and the little child sustains injury. What is defined as 'the heart of a mother' is absent in Emma. Emma's sudden forcefulness and quickness of decision are considered to be the qualities of men created for action. In one of her clandestine meetings with Rodolphe in her house, Emma hears the sound of approaching footsteps in the lane and whispers to Rodolphe: He blew out the candle.

Flaubert Here, a conventional woman had tried to hide herself and let her lover do some act of bravery to defend himself. But Rodolphe is shocked to see the bravery of Emma who is not solely governed by her heart. In Emma one finds a mystical fusion of reason and passion typical of men. Apart from that Emma had an unlimited urge to dominate and to seduce. Charles never dared to object to the way Emma spent money and strove to pursue a lavish life which their moderate income hardly allowed to do.

Charles becomes extremely helpless when Emma is angry with him over his failure to cure the crippled leg of one of his patients named Hippolyte. She leaves him emotionally shattered when he is in desperate need of consolation. Further, she scolds Charles for being impatient on her coming home late and thereby snatches the permission to indulge in her escapades without restraint. Similarly, Leon, the first lover of Emma in the second phase of their affair can help dancing to her tunes.

He starts absenting himself from his office conspicuously under the influence of Vol. She treats him as an infant. Leon is thunderstruck at her promiscuity as evident in the following passage: He did less out of vanity than for the sole purpose of pleasing her. He never argued against her ideas; he accepted all her tastes; he was becoming her mistress more than she was his. His soul was carried away by her sweet words and kisses. Where had she learned that depravity, so profuse and so artfully concealed that it was almost intangible?

Flaubert Leon is as submissive before Emma as Charles. Hence, it is not difficult to perceive a conflict between Emma Bovary's conventional feminine role and increasingly powerful masculine urges which ultimately undermines her existence and leads her to suicide. Emma's sickness can be connected to her paradoxical existence figured out by Flaubert himself.

So, it is not unsafe to guess that Flaubert intentionally denied Emma her complete female existence. Flaubert's attitude is, therefore, ambivalent towards Emma. The manliness which has been bestowed upon her serves only to highlight and aggravate her moral and physical degradation. Her masculinity does not make her the heroine of the novel but rather a villainous character who is gradually being vampirized by some evil. Emma, for instance, is shown to be an escapist who neglects her duties for romantic delusions which she engendered by reading too much of romantic fiction and fashion magazines.

It makes her immoral and irreligious and further results in the deterioration of her marital life. In this way Emma is solely responsible for her destruction. This may be the overt intention of Flaubert but there are passages in the novel which present a different picture. Charles's daily routine is enough to dismay a newly married wife. For the whole day he would ride all over the countryside treating his patients and Emma was left alone with no one around to share her feelings. To counter this loneliness she indulged herself in reading novel and magazines.

Charles often returned home late in the evening to a comforting atmosphere, a dining table exquisitely laid for him and a charming, Vol. But to Emma's disappointment, having had his dinner Charles would immediately sleep as depicted by Flaubert: He began to read it after dinner, but the warmth of the room, combine with his digestion, always made him fall asleep within five minutes; and there he sat, with his chin in his hands and his hair falling down to the base of the lamp, like a mane.

Emma would look at him and shrug her shoulder. Nothing can be more tortuous for Emma who expected married life to be an exhilarating experience. Emma's pregnancy brings another burden upon her soul. Emma's desire of having a son may be the consequence of her realization of the pettiness of a woman's existence in her society.

She often thinks of freedom of her childhood days which she has lost gradually in becoming a wife from a virgin. Emma is convinced that men are absolutely free to extract all kinds of pleasure in life and, therefore, she wants a boy who will have the power to enjoy life which she lacks. Moreover, this conviction of Emma gets stronger with the passage of time. The experience she gathers from her relationships with Leon and Rodolphe breeds only frustration in her life. Emma deeply laments what Kate Millet has pointed out in her Sexual Politics that women are always denied sexual freedom and biological control over their body.

Emma feels powerfully attracted to the local clerk Leon but she is unable to give herself to love because of the restrictions of her marriage. After Leon's departure to Paris, Emma becomes more irritated and neurotic. Subsequently she yields to Rodolphe only to be seduced and cheated. However, it is not hard to find evidence in the text to corroborate the point that Charles acts as a catalyst to push Emma into her liasion with Rodolphe. But Charles's mistake is overshadowed by Emma's whims. But, he is as much responsible in incurring sufferings and woes on his family as Vol.

To substantiate this point it is significant to quote Kate Millet who mantains: The large quantity of guilt attached to sexuality in patriarchy is overwhelmingly placed upon the female, who is, culturally speaking, held to be the culpable party is nearly any sexual liaison, whatever the extenuating circumstances. But it is Charles who insists strongly on her that she accept. No only this but he also requests Rodolphe to manage the time of trip according to the latter's convenience.

This proves out to be a golden opportunity for a libertine like Rodolphe who plays his card right. Thus Charles becomes an accomplice in initiating Emma's infidelity. In addition to that the classic masculine fantasy dictates the imagination of men to put women always in a vulnerable situation as illustrated by Kate Millet in context of great novelists like Henry Miller, Norman Mailer, D. Lawrence and Jean Genet. Flaubert also presents Rodolphe, when seen from Emma's point of view, as handsome, potent and irresistible to an almost mystical degree. It is therefore no very great surprise to the reader that Emma falls into his hands.

After this Emma keeps sinking into the quagmire of debauchery and prodigality which claims her life. It is believed that Flaubert allows his characters to develop their points of view unhampered.

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Works Cited Cixous, Helene. Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan. University of Illinois Press, In postcolonial theory, native mythological narration is also a tool for conveying the unique experiences of a subaltern self and for recording its sociological and psychological opinions. Myths are often preferred by great Indian writers to prove their affinity for their cultural roots. The literary myth based texts subvert the existent stereotypes of women as presented by the male writers. Writers like Sarah Joseph consider myths to possess the space that they require to voice their resistance and she makes a study of the life of Tara and Angadan from The Ramayana in her work, The Vigil.

Joseph mimics the myth of Raman and Sugrivan also from the epic, but she subverts the traditional myth, thereby espousing the novel postcolonial conception of subverted mimicry. Raman and Sugrivan who have been portrayed so far in the myths as ideal kings, are presented by Sarah Joseph as unjust leaders, who commit unethical deeds and heinous crimes against women and nature. There is a subversion lurking in this process, which is cited as subversive mimicry. Sarah Joseph employs this as a tool to represent her sense of repulsion and vengeance towards patriarchal brutality on women like Tara.

Bringing to light the misinterpreted myths and by breaking the prevalent monocentric perceptions, Joseph reconstructs these myths with subversion, highlighting the accomplishments of the oppressed characters like Tara, Vali and Angadan. Subversive mimicry, historical specificity, stereotypes, demythification, Vol. Postcolonial theory originated in the mid-twentieth century and since then, the scope of postcolonial studies extended beyond the boundaries of colonial histories, third world cultures, immigration issues and minority constraints.

Native mythological narration is also a tool for conveying the unique experiences of a subaltern self and for recording its sociological and psychological opinions. Myths are often preferred by great Indian writers like R. Narayan, Salman Rushdie, Raja Rao whose socio-realist works proved their affinity for their cultural roots and mythological discussions also signify the historical specificity of their nation.

Giving a re-reading of the extant mythology is a part of postcolonial impact in India. The return to roots — while running the very real danger of fundamentalism, reactionary nativism, and chauvinism — is an attempt to gain a measure of self-affirmation that is not tainted by colonialism. Nayar Patriarchy considers myths to be their personal domain and uses it as an instrument to confine women and show their restrictions on women. In Indian literature, the characters from Ramayana and Mahabharatha follow this and serve as moral lessons on how women ought to live in a patriarchal society.

Biblical characters are also pointed out in many contexts to restrict the roles of women. Mythical men characters are set apart to prove their masculine strength and diplomatic skills. Men are always portrayed as the leaders in the power structure and in all levels of power — political, familial, social and cultural — and in all domains, woman is the ruled. Mimicry refers to the imitation of the mythical and cultural background, of mythical heroes and heroines who are quoted objectively, not only to highlight their virtues or accomplishments, but also to set them as a unique model to display their follies and weaknesses.

Hence, the postcolonial readers discern the significance of the events in the myths and learn from them, so that they do not end up in the same predicament as them. Women writers give special attention to mythical women Vol. These literary myth based texts subvert the existent stereotypes of women as presented by the male epic writers. Julia Kristeva comments on the subversion of mythical texts to literature through the following words: Authors do not create their texts from their own mind, but rather compile them from pre-existent texts.

Kristeva 64 The text may be from history which is an inevitable part of myths and literature, and history forms a bridge between abstractions and experience. These literary texts attempt to form stereotypes and at the same time, also challenge and subvert the stereotypes and reconstruct a new image.

Sometimes the original forms of myths are questioned and sometimes, the myths are deconstructed and left bare to the understanding of readers. Myths are closely related to history, but they are not historical events at all times. Culture is a fluid component in them and it is always on the move.

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Myth is also a generative component of culture and myth is a recorded part of culture. It is plural and co-texual. Myth is accompanied by the text which states whatever it narrates. The contexts of a myth are multiple and tradition bound. Reilly 1 Myth is a way of negotiating the present with the past and the activities of the present are related to those of the past and new dimensions are arrived at. Mythological study in the present century is a single oft-repeated motif in many countries alike — to expose the suffering of women, the submerged voices of the weak and the victimized, the fables of valour and bravery of men and the teaching of values to posterity.

They redefine human identity and create new interpretations. The collective conscience of critics and postcolonial sensibility fixes mythical women characters like Sita and Draupati as prototypes. But they are more realized as victims of patriarchal domination. They are considered to be treated with dignity in the epic, but after a meticulous study they can be identified as abused and exploited women, and this is evident from a mythical study. Writers like Sarah Joseph consider myths to possess the space that they require to voice their resistance.

The life of Tara is even more complicated than the other women in Ramayana and Sara Joseph makes a study of her in her work, The Vigil, which is dealt in detail in the forthcoming part of this paper. Women and nature form an archetypal binding with each other and Tara symbolises the veritable empathy of a woman for nature. Myths like the myth of Angadan in The Vigil reflect the orientation of man to his environment. The cultural inheritance of man from his physical and natural environment is the first influence on man, and the world of Vali, Sugrivan and their clan proves it.

Their emotions, their loyalty and patriotism are all depicted through the myths in the novel and it shows how they shape the life of human beings as being a part of the society. The title The Vigil symbolically pleads vigilance from the readers and appeals them to skip the bigoted perceptions of the Ramayana. Joseph directs her readers to read the novel from the perceptions of the subaltern people, the weak and the oppressed, whom she lionizes and ennobles to the acme. She, in this novel projects the characters of Vali, Tara and Angadan as subalterns because Vol.

Therefore, Joseph mimics the myth of Raman and Sugrivan from The Ramayana, but she subverts the traditional myth, thereby espousing the novel postcolonial conception of subverted mimicry. Raman and Sugrivan who have been portrayed so far in the myths as ideal kings, are presented by Sarah Joseph as unjust leaders who commit unethical deeds and atrocious crimes against women and nature. Product details Format Hardback 40 pages Dimensions Looking for beautiful books? Visit our Beautiful Books page and find lovely books for kids, photography lovers and more.

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