ANWESH BANERJEE
Rabindranath and his gamut of female characters,
bold, feisty and definitely leagues ahead of their times, have been attributed
by several readers and critics alike to the tapestry of colorful women in whose
midst Tagore spent a major portion of his life. The exuberance of his
sister-in-law Gnadanandini Devi, the loneliness of his bosom friend Kadambari
Debi, the innocence of his wife Mrinalini Debi and the fierce creative spirit
of his niece Indira Debi. Innocence and pathos is found in the platonic relationship
that Ratan shares with the eponymous Postmaster, and the sudden albeit tragic
turn of events that causes the two to be separated is considered to be a
landmark in not only Bengali literature but also in the study of child
psychology in Indian literature. Soon after Tagore tread on familiar ground by exploring
a young girls', fiendish and a truant by nature, penchant for romance in his
seminal short story Samapti. In Mrinmayees' decision to assert herself in the
face of a society that expects its young women to silently garland a stranger
as their husband and her refusal to be embraced on nothing short of her own
personal terms was perhaps the foundation of Tagore's widely acclaimed novel
Chokher Bali. Chokher Bali while reminiscent of the relationship shared by two
women and a common man, as previously seen in Malancha, took Tagore's advocacy
of womens rights to another level. Here we find, the protagonist Binodini not
only stand up for the rights and dignity denied unto her but also asserts her
sexual desires and emotional needs in the face of a society that branded young
widowed girls on the cusp of youthful blossom, as hated outcasts. The novel
soon takes the shape of an intense love quadrangle as Binodini juggles the the
impulses of flesh and heart and is brought to question the very bonds that
define friendship between two women. Perhaps it was in the much talked about
loneliness of his Notun Bouthan, that Tagore also found the seeds of
inspiration that later blossomed into Nastanirh, where the wife of a rich
household feels stifled and suppressed by the lack of affection in her
marriage. The isolation of the soul here becomes a metaphor for creativity,
whose eventual expression becomes a further enabler in pushing Chaity, the
heroine towards the brink of a forbidden love. Not only was writing about such
interpersonal and deeply feminine relationships considered path breaking but
Tagore knew better than to stop here. He furthered his vision of the empowered,
independent, modern woman by birthing characters such as the polyamorous and
patriotic Damini in Chaturanga; Mrinal in Streer Patra who unlike her elder
sister in law doesn't bow down to the regressive housshold of her husband and
unlike her childhood friend now a widow who chooses to commit suicide, she
seeks liberation in the waves of the mighty sea in whose face she walks out
once and for all from her husband's house with not a shred of hatred for the
man who she realised was only a pawn in the patriarchal conditionings of the
larger society; and ultimately finishing his literary ouvre with the delicate
Labanya, who in the final pages of Shesher Kobita, denounces love and breaks
off her engagement with Amit, something almost unheard of in those days.
Tagore's fascination with women didn't just stop here but also spilled forth
into his dance dramas where he immortalised the pining of Radha for Krishna,
attacked the caste system by the tale of Chandalika and gave Indian literature
one of its first prominent queer love stories in Chitrangada. Replete with
overtly Buddhist imagery despite the deeply Hindu subject matter, Tagore
approached the love story of Arjun and Chitrangada as a journey of self-realization
through the complicit barriers of gender identity. The ambiguity in his words suggest
that perhaps he was aware of the queer undertones in his narrative, but
nonetheless the play eventually sparked off various debates and received mighty
aplomb for its ferocious assertion of human identity.
Editor’s Note: Today is
Rabindranath Tagore’s birth anniversary and here we have talked about his women
characters, their bold and fierce nature. We hope to get inspired from such
beautiful characters and become better people.
If
you also have something to write about or speak about, do it now. We encourage
our audience to be the ‘voice of change’.
Write
to us and send recordings at- democraticcharkha@gmail.com
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