Miranda House

University of Delhi

Muntakhab
the History
Society
Magazine

VOLUME - I
SPRING
2017
 Editorial Board

Dr Bharati Jagannathan Faculty Advisors

Ms Sushmita Banerjee

Shreya Das ( IInd Year) Chief Editor

Ritika Gupta ( IInd Year) Creative Head

Ritiksha Sharma (IInd Year) Co-editors

Diksha Goyal (Ist Year)

History Department

Students Union
TUVTUVTUVTUVT

Miranda House
University of Delhi

Muntakhab
The History Society
Magazine

VOLUME I
SPRING
2017
TUVTUVTUVTUVT

Contents
Editorial Note v

Rhetoric ,Politics and Culture

1. An Ethical Challenge to Indira Gandhis
Authoritarianism: Examining the Rhetoric of
Jayaprakash Narayan 2
Rabia Mehra
2. Rhetoric of Images : The Tank Man 9
Ritika Gupta
3. Popular Music, Rhetoric and Culture:
Western Music during the Vietnam War 16
Kondepudy Bharati
Folklore, Mythology and Popular Culture
4. Padmini: The Legend that was Or Perhaps Not 23
Krishna Shekhawat
5. Childrens Literature and Popular Culture:
Fairy Tales and Nursery Rhymes 28
Soumya Sahai
6. Hindu Goddesses and Divine Women: A Victim of Patriarchy? 34
Harini Shankar
7. Satyajit Rays Charulata: Reading the Rhetoric 38
Vanya Lochan
Language, Labels and History
8. Freed From Slavery, Chained By Labels 47
Kajri Raymahasay
9. A Literary History of Urdu Language 50
Zayana Nasir
 Editorial Note
Bhabo! Bhabo! Bhaba practice koro!
(Think! Think! Practice thinking!)

This classic dialogue delivery by Ritwik Ghatak as Neelkantha Bagchi, in Gha-

taks own outstanding 1974 Bengali movie Jukti, Takko Ar Goppo (Logic, Debate
and Dialogue) has always been a personal favourite. However, little did I know
that one day it would encapsulate the very essence of an academic journal that I
would be able to initiate for the History department of Miranda House.

The idea behind introducing Muntakhab (a Persian term for Collection) the
History Society Magazine, is strongly rooted in the desire to provide a platform
to all the students, where they can freely verbalise their opinion, engage in strong
academic discourses and debates, transcending the boundaries of the discipline
per se and engaging in critical analysis, introspection and commentary over a
wide spectrum of subjects, ranging anywhere from politics to cinema, religion to
sports, books and theatre to travelogues.

This year, for our first edition of Muntakhab, we have received an outstanding
array of articles, engaging in a wide range of issues. However, the editorial team
has sought to stitch these articles under certain thematic assortments: Rhetoric,
Politics and Culture; Folklore, Mythology and Popular Culture and Language,
Labels and History.

While Rabia Mehra has sought to decode Jayaprakash Narayans stand against
Indira Gandhis regime, Ritika Gupta unleashes a whole new paradigm of inter-
preting images. Kondepudy Bharati then takes her readers on a different journey
of rebel music, while Krishna Shekhawat provokes the readers to solve the cross-
words of Padmavat, and Soumya Sahai probes a little deeper into the different
shades of innuendos camouflaged within childrens literature. Harini Shankar has
delved into a rather different kind of interpretation of Hindu Goddesses, lacing
it with strong gender discourses, while Vanya Lochan also unravels a whole
new understanding towards Satyajit Rays outstanding Bengali film, Charulata.
Kajri Raymahasay then shifts our gaze towards breaking the stereotypical

v
labels attached to slaves and the idea of slavery, while Zayana Nasirs history of
Urdu language, shall leave the readers with the odour remnants of fond distant
memories, enamouring one, with the beauty of the language itself.

As members of the editorial team, we feel extremely proud to present to all our
readers, the very first edition of Muntakhab. However, we would also earnestly
request our readers to send us their feedbacks, to write to us on anything that
compels them. We urge all the students to keep reading, keep writing and keep
rebelling, for remember, nothing can defeat the power of our ink. Nothing can
ever extinguish the power of young minds to question, to express, and to think,
for it is we, who will and who can bring a better, a more tolerant and a more
liberal society, tomorrow.
So.
Practice thinking!

--Shreya Das (Chief Editor)

and the whole Editorial team

vi
efefefe

Rhetoric , Politics
and Culture
efefefe
 An Ethical Challenge to
Indira Gandhis Authoritarianism:
Examining the Rhetoric of Jayaprakash Narayan
Jayaprakash Narayan or JP, as he was
popularly referred to, was one of the
foremost socialist leaders from the
pre-independence period. He is most
renowned for his leadership of the
Bihar Movement or what came to be
known as the JP Movement in 1974-
75, resulting in the electoral rout of
Indira Gandhi three years later. JPs
immense personal and ethical appeal
amongst people stemmed from his
selfless service or what is sometimes
characterized as saintly tradition, el-
evating him to a plane occupied pre-
viously only by Mahatma Gandhi.
Nayantara Sahgal, Indira Gandhis
cousin and author of Indira Gandhi-
Tryst with Power remarked that JP
seemed as a counter-leader, a prevail-
ing moral influence at a time when
many believed that the leadership cult
at Delhi had been carried too far. In
this essay I have analysed JPs rhetoric
during the Bihar Movement and the
period of the Emergency, by trying
to understand the logical, ethical and
emotional appeal of his arguments.
At the outset, the historical context
and the particular factors
2
Rabia Mehra
that went into the creation of the JP
movement must be outlined.
The early years of the 1970s witnessed
dramatic changes in prime ministerial
style and behavior with Indira Gand-
his drive towards centralization and
the concentration of power in her
own hands. Despite the very catchy
Garibi Hatao (Eradicate Poverty)
slogan, this was the time when the
country was in the midst of an un-
precedented period of high inflation,
very high unemployment rate and ris-
ing inequality. An eminent economist
pointed out that independent Indias
economy was a mixed economy, par-
taking features of both socialism and
capitalism, but had failed on both
counts. According to Ramchandra
Guha, the JP Movement in 1974 was
impelled by its leaders frustrations at
the gap between expectations and re-
ality and his impatient desire to trans-
form the country before he left the
earth. This explains the sudden turn
towards radical politics by a man,
who had earlier disavowed politics
altogether. Like Mao in China, JP
turned to the students, to what he
called yuvashakti (youth power) to
bring about the Total Revolution or
revolution in every aspect of social life
and organization. In January 1974, the
students in Gujarat led a movement
called Nav Nirman(the Movement
for Regeneration) demanding the dis-
missal of the corrupt state govern-
ment, compelling the chief minister to
resign. The events in Gujarat inspired
students in Bihar to launch a struggle
against misgovernance in their own
state. They asked Jayaprakash Narayan
to step in and lead the movement.
JP asked students to boycott classes,
to leave their studies for a year and
work at raising the consciousness of
the people. By the end of 1974, the
Bihar Movement was truly poised to
become a national movement with
support pouring in from all over the
country. When the Emergency was
imposed in June 1975 on the grounds
of threat of internal disturbances, JP
was the first leader to be detained and
imprisoned. In his Prison Diary writ-
ten during solitary detention in Chan-
digarh, he put his case and outlined his
goals in the simplest terms.
An insight into the workings of JPs
mind and the logic of his arguments
can be discerned from his Prison Di-
ary where JP is attempting an exercise
of self-analysis as well as an analysis
of why things went wrong. According
to Nayantara Sahgal, three streams,
namely British Liberalism, Marxism
and Gandhism converged to evolve
his personal philosophy. When the stu-
dents of Bihar asked him to lead their
movement, JP agreed on two condi-
tions: that it should be scrupulously
non-violent and that it should not be
restricted to Bihar. He emphasized
that all the meetings, demonstrations,
strikes, bandhs, civil disobedience
must be done in a peaceful and order-
ly manner as disorder and violence
do not go with democracy. Violence,
which could in any case be crushed,
would, JP said, give the Prime Minister
an excuse to launch her dictatorship.
Thus, he took pains to explain that
violence could be counter-productive.
Through his Diary, one can also un-
derstand his Gandhian-humanist vi-
sion of a good society and the kind of
total revolution that would be neces-
sary to bring it into existence. What
Sampoorna Kranti or total revolution
meant in essence was an all-compre-
hensive social revolution. JP empha-
sized that the struggle was not to be
confined to the political field alone; it
will have to be waged on many fronts,
that is, social, economic, educational,
cultural and even ecological. One of
the unstated implications of such a
satyagraha (non-violent resistance) ,
he pointed out would be self-change,
that is, those wanting a change must
also change themselves before launch-
ing any kind of action. JP suggested
an alternate path to development with
a strong moral-spiritual framework.
In a series of articles and speeches in
Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, he declared
that the people must not only fight
corruption but also hunger, unemplo-
3
 -yment, inflation, social and economic
injustices of many kinds like the caste
system and the futile system of educa-
tion which in the first place left most
of the children uneducated and in the
second place miseducated the rest. He
stressed that the aim of economic de-
velopment should be to enhance the
well-being of all people and hence in-
dustrial development should take the
line of medium industry, small indus-
try and rural industrial development.
JP emphasized that a revolutionary
change of the political system was an
integral and inescapable part of the
programme of total revolution. He
had limited faith in parliamentary
democracy which according to him
ruled by passive consent rather than
by active participation and inevitably
lead to centralization of power, bu-
reaucratization of all initiatives, party
politics, demagoguery, etc. Instead, he
advocated decentralization and em-
powerment of the community, not
the individual. He believed that in a
democratic set-up, the people should
not rely wholly and solely on elections
to change their plight. Further, those
elected to positions of power cannot
be outside the scope of law and peo-
ple should be continuously involved in
keeping a watch on their representa-
tives and demanding good and honest
performance from them.
JP argued that contrary to what Mrs.
Gandhi was proclaiming, there was
no plan to paralyse the government.
The Janata Sarkars (Peoples Gov-
4
ernment) set up in Bihar were for the
most part constructive, undertaking
programmes like regulating the public
distribution system, checking corrup-
tion at the lower levels of administra-
tion, implementing the land reform
laws, etc. JP emphasized that he was
not condoning student violence but
that the government must understand
the root cause of student unrest, that
is, the rotten education system, unem-
ployment and the wrongheaded poli-
cies of socio-economic development.
He remarked that whatever violence
had taken place in Bihar was before
his association with the movement
after which, the students had behaved
peacefully, sometimes even in the face
of extreme provocation. Thus, after
stating the aforementioned arguments,
JP opined that there was no need to
impose a state of emergency on the
entire country, suspend fundamental
rights and curb the freedom of the
press, the very life breath of democ-
racy. It is only because Mrs. Gandhi
felt a threat to her personal power and
position that she resorted to such a
move. JP repeatedly stated that he was
willing to seek the path of coopera-
tion with the government, provided
the latter is responsive to the peoples
will and is committed to their welfare.
JPs immense ethical appeal came
from his reputation as a leader whose
human qualities and moral stature
were held in high regard. JP was one
such leader who, as Ramachandra
Guha remarked in his book, India Af-
-ter Gandhi, was regarded as someone
with unquestioned probity, a saint
who had been called upon to save pol-
itics from the politicians.
JPs political career began in the 1930s
when he joined the Congress Party
and his intellectual calibre, integrity
and ardent commitment to freedom
endeared him to Nehru. The Salt
March in the early 1930s impressed
him with the discovery that, while
the ideologues propounded ideol-
ogy, Gandhi, with neither ideology
nor manifesto, took the people with
him. After independence, JPs moral
stature grew since he was one of the
rare senior Congress leaders who had
declined political office. In numerous
speeches, he remarked, My interest is
not in the capture of power, but in the
control of power by the people.
Ajit Bhattacharjea, who accompa-
nied JP on several tours has written
in his diary, that crowds waited for
hours to see JP and he often spoke
for hours, lecturing them on his po-
litical and social goals. The overall
response seemed to convince JP that
Lokniti (peoples power) would soon
purify Rajniti or state power. Address-
ing the students in Bihar, he warned
that the road ahead would be a rocky
one and that they would have to make
sacrifices but he was convinced that in
the end, the struggle would be worth
it: Gandhiji spoke of Swaraj (free-
dom) in one year. I speak of real peo-
ples government in one year. In one
year, the right form of education will
emerge. Give me one year to build a
new country, a new Bihar. JP com-
pared himself to Gandhi implicitly
and more explicitly, the Congress re-
gime to the colonial state. While he
was in jail, the Times of London car-
ried a full page advertisement on 15th
August 1975, taken out by the Free JP
Campaign which stated, Today is In-
dias Independence, Dont let the light
go out of Indias democracy. On the
page carried printed photographs of
Mahatma Gandhi and JP and a testa-
ment to JPs character from the Ma-
hatma himself. W.H. Morris, an emi-
nent political scientist and one among
those who had paid for the ad called
JP, an influential exemplar of the
saintly idiom in Indian politics,
was of the opinion of Mrs. Gandhis
own disillusioned Joint Secretary B.N.
Tandon, the P.M.s ego, pride and
corruption did not have the ability to
stand up to JPs moral roar.
JPs rhetoric raised various types of
emotions. His Prison Diary is a record
of the manner in which a sensitive
mind reacted from day to day, to the
happenings in the world and begins
with a profoundly moving confession,
My world lies in shambles all around
me. He accused the Prime Minister
time and again of strangling democ-
racy to death by clamping down her
dictatorial regime and expressed his
anguish in these words. Every nail
driven deeper into the coffin of Indi-
an democracy is like a nail driven into
my heart. It is this tightening grip of
death on our democracy that makes
my heart weep. JP mocked Indira
5
 Gandhis interviews during the Emer-
gency, mostly to foreign correspon-
dents, for posing to be self-righteous
and the countrys savior. The new
spirit of discipline and morale that
she attributed to the emergency was
according to JP, born out of fear, for
a healthy nation can be built only in
a climate of freedom. He called Mrs.
Gandhi the frightened lady of New
Delhi, who was terrified out of her
wits by the gathering public opinion
against her. He compared the claims
of Mrs. Gandhi and her supporters
about saving democracy through the
Emergency to the Americans trying to
save the South Vietnamese by de-
stroying them.
When the CPI (Communist Party of
India) accused him of being anti-na-
tional, JP responded, It might sound
vain, but the day JP becomes a traitor,
there would be no patriot left. In a
letter to his old friend, Sheikh Abdul-
lah who became the Chief Minister
of Jammu and Kashmir, he referred
to himself as being portrayed the vil-
lain of the piece, the arch-conspirator,
culprit number one and added that a
return to true normalcy could only be
brought about with his cooperation.
In an earnest appeal to Indira Gand-
hi, he wrote, I am an old man. My
lifes work is done...I have given all
my life, after finishing education,
to the country and asked for noth-
ing in returnPlease do not destroy
the foundations that the Fathers of
the Nation, including your own
6
noble father, had laid down. There
is nothing but strife and suffering
along the path that you have taken
JP was not pessimistic about the fu-
ture. He remarked in his Diary that
though the betrayal of the intel-
lectuals had started and the rats
had begun to leave the ship, he had
unshakable faith in the people and
the countrys youth. JP believed that
people who had fought British impe-
rialism and humbled it, cannot accept
indefinitely the shame of totalitarian-
ism. He advised Indira Gandhi not
to identify herself with the nation as
while she was not immortal, India is.
Before the imposition of the Emer-
gency, JP undertook a march to Delhi,
which was one of the largest proces-
sions ever seen, drawing an estimated
7,50,000 participants from all over In-
dia. He spoke in an emotion-charged
voice comparing the Delhi march to
Gandhijis historic Salt March. When
he recited Ramdhari Singh Dinkars
evocative poem, Sinhasan Khali Karo
Ki Janta Aati Hai (Vacate the throne,
the people are coming), composed
when India became a republic on 26th
January, 1950, he received a thunder-
ous applause.
While analyzing social movements, ac-
cording to T.K. Oommen, one must
not only look at the ideological vision
of the top leadership but also view
movements from below to discern
the inside story or the micro-dimen
-sion. This gives a picture of the actu-
al operation and consequences at the
grass roots level which may be differ-
ent from the formal picture. In the
case of the JP Movement, B.K. Patil,
a former ICS Officer who at JPs in-
vitation, had travelled through Bihar
and talked to a wide cross-section of
people, offered a detailed critique of
the movement. In a long letter to JP
dated 4th October 1974, he conced-
ed that there can be no doubt about
the tremendous popular enthusiasm
generated by the movement. He saw
unprecedented crowds attending
your meetings in pin-drop silence.
However, when they were on their
own, these crowds were less disci-
plined, as in the attacks on the State
Assembly and the forcible prevention
of the Bihar governor from delive-
-ring his speech. Another Gand-
hian associate of JP wrote to him that
he worried that the common man
has yet to be educated in the ways
and values of the movement, whose
appeal to him continues to be more
negative than constructive.
There were many Indians, not neces-
sarily members of Congress who were
alarmed that the leadership of the
government, atleast at the local level,
which was passing into the hands of
the extremist rightwing party, the Jana
Sangh. Patil argued that by demanding
the dismissal of a duly elected gov-
ernment, the Bihar agitation is both
unconstitutional and undemocratic.
True, the electoral process had to be
reformed, made more transparent and
purged of the influence of power and
money. Yet, he emphasized, there
is no other way of ascertaining the
general opinion of the people in a na-
tion-state, except through free and fair
elections. A month after the Emer-
gency, the sociologist Joe Elder was
sent on a fact-finding mission to India.
His account suggests that the Emer-
gency was a script jointly authored by
JP and Mrs. Gandhi. Both had shown
little faith in representative institutions
in a modern democracy. According to
him, JP had erred in launching a mass
movement without a cadre of disci-
plined, non-violent volunteers. His
ideas had struck many as nave, un-
tested or unconvincing.
These criticisms notwithstanding,
the Bihar struggle acquired an all-In-
dia importance and the countrys
fate seemed to be bound up with its
suc--cess and failure. The Hindustan
Times commented editorially that
Mr. Jayaprakash Narayan has be-
come a symbol whose true relevance
extends far beyond Bihar. On 12th
November 1975, JP was released on
parole due to his deteriorating health,
fearing the consequences if he were
to die in jail. When he arrived at
Patna on 20th July 1976, thousands
thronged to see him and shouted
Jayaprakash Zindabad (Long live
Jayaprakash), despite threats of be-
ing arrested. Though crippled by
his kidney failure, JP poured out the
last remnants of his career to inspire
the crushing defeat of Indira Gandhis
Congress Party in the 1977 elections.
7
 However, the Janata Ministers who
took office, received his blessings but
proceeded to ignore his programme.
To conclude, JP was a politician as
well as a visionary. His relevance as a
mass leader and a clear political think-
er lies in his emphasis on grassroots
awareness and empowerment. It can
be argued that his comprehensive un-
derstanding of the Indian situation
and firm resolve to work towards his
goals did not make his rhetoric mean-
ingless, although his efforts did not
achieve the intended results. Today,
many political parties rush forward
to claim his legacy. However, until a
sustained, non-violent popular move-
ment is organized to monitor, expose,
agitate against and counter misrule
and corruption at all levels, the core
of his message will remain unheard, as
Ajit Bhattacharjea has aptly remarked.
References
Guha, Ramachandra, 2007, India After
Gandhi: The History of the Worlds Larg-
est Democracy , Delhi: Harper Collins.
8
Kapoor, Coomi, 2015, The Emergency: A
Personal History, Delhi: Penguin.
Narayan, Jayprakash, 1975, Prison Diary,
Bombay: Popular Prakashan Private Lim-
ited.
Oommen, T.K., 2012, Sociological Issues
in the Analysis of Social Movements in In-
dia, in Studies in Indian Sociology , Vol. 6,
Delhi: Sage.
Sahgal, Nayantara, 2012, Indira Gandhi
Tryst with Power, Delhi: Penguin.
https://www.mainstreamweekly.net/arti-
cle2675.html
h t t p s : / / w w w. t h e q u i n t . c o m / p o l i -
tics/2016/10/08/jayaprakash-narayan-ja-
nata-party-emergency-jp-death-anniver-
sary
http://indianexpress.com/article/ex-
plained/in-fact-why-jayaprakash-narayan-
is-more-than-his-leadership-during-emer-
gency/

The word image is derived from
imitari which means imitation. Taking
into consideration its ancient etymolo-
gy it is difficult to conceive image as a
conveyor of true meaning, when it is
itself a direct analogical representation
of something else. But the significance
of image cannot be denied, for it is lan-
guage in itself. The symbolic message
that an image yields is often discontin-
uous. Unlike language, the reading of
images may vary with individuals. It de-
pends on the different kinds of knowl-
edgepractical, national, cultural or
aestheticinvested in that image .The
meaning is derived from what Barthes
termed as lexicons, which is a body
of knowledge within viewers. Thus
meanings are constructed not only
by the creators, but also the viewers,
whose lexicons coincide with the sign
of the image. Rhetoric of image is all
the visual element in an image, that can
be employed as signifier. Not all conno-
tations in an image are signifiers; some
purely denote elements that exist with-
in the frame.
There are several forms of images, for
instance, photographs. Photographs
become iconic when they are represen-
Rhetoric of Images:
The Tank Man
Ritika Gupta
tation of historic events, activate strong
emotional response and are reproduced
across media, genre, etc. These imag-
es generally embody principles such
as egalitarianism, nationalism and civic
republicanism. They often reflect pub-
lic attitudes of civic piety, irony, nostal-
gia and cynicism.
Public can be denoted as a bulk of
strangers, who acquire self-awareness
and historical agency, when they see
themselves in collective representa-
tions. Visual image provide them with
a sense of shared experience that an-
chors impersonal nature of discourse
to motivational social life. Ideological
implication of specific images are es-
sential but not sufficient for under-
standing how their public address fulfil
diverse functions of constructing pub-
lic identity, cohabitating individualism
and collectivism and motivating action
or inaction. If a specific embodiment
becomes dominant, then the public
ceases to exist as it is conditioned by
the ideas of a specific social group.
Similarly, if representation is increas-
ingly impersonal, the public ceases to
exist as it has little motivational basis.
For example, the US marines hoisting
9
 the flag at Iwo Jima, are all white, this
could have been interpreted as only
they being fit for war. But that im-
age was increasingly used to promote
equality. This led to a major rhetor-
ical problem. Although symbolism
of equality in an image is necessary
for social unity, it gains motivational
powers only when there is specific
embodiment which again limits the
purpose. An image becomes iconic,
when albeit having specific embodi-
ment as in case of Flag hoisting at
Iwo Jima persuades public of its
egalitarianism and reaches out to
masses.
The picture I have decided to analyse
is the iconic Tank Man image, de-
picting an unidentified man standing
before a line of tanks in Chinas Ti-
ananmen Square in 1989. This image
became a symbol of defiance and
courage in the face of danger. The
man himself was never identified,
nor was his fate following the event.
This lone defiance became an enigma
and world press wanted a name for
this hero. It cannot be denied that it
was the mystery that gave Tank Man
its enduring power. He didnt need
a name, he became the voice of all
10
those who were silenced. The photo-
graph seems to capture the essence of
the event, when Tiananmen Square
whose large structures speak of in-
significance of individual in front of
the might of the state, witnessed a
humungous mass of Chinese people
protesting against their government.
The objects in the foreground the
tanks and the man and their relative
sizes reflect the nobility and courage
of little man resisting a seemingly
insurmountable opposition. The fea-
tures of man are practically indistin-
guishable, especially in the shadow of
the war machine he stares down. The
background offers minute distraction
from these contrasting elements: only
pavements and shadows are seen.
There are no people or no sky to dis-
tract from the central conflict.
In order to go further into analysis,
it is necessary to understand the con-
text in which the events of 1989 took
place. In the spring of 1989, follow-
ing a decade of post-Mao economic
and social reforms, the world wit-
nessed the spectacle of mass demon-
strations in Beijings enormous Tian-
anmen Square. Students started the
protest. They sought reforms not
revolution, as children of elite. The
protests gradually spread to middle
classes, peasants and working classes.
What started as a students uprising
metamorphosed into workers upris-
ing. This placed the government on
a nervous footing, for it had earlier
used them as the potential instrume-
nts to come to power.
In the midst of chaos, a lone man,
holding a plastic shopping bag in each
hand, stepped directly in front of an
approaching column of armoured
tanks. The lead tank worked to cir-
cumvent the man, but at each stage
was blocked as the protestor repeated-
ly repositioned himself to impede its
forward progress. Once the column
of tanks surrendered its attempts to
outmanoeuvre the pedestrian, the
man climbed atop the nearest tank
and engaged in a conversation with
the driver who emerged from with-
in. Shortly thereafter, the protestor
was whisked away by two anonymous
bystanders. Although numerous me-
dia sources have speculated about
the young mans identity, none have
been able to conrm who he was or
what happened to him following the
incident.He could have been a de-
termined courageous person or just
an ordinary one, disgusted of what
he had seen in the last few days. He
emerged as a sacrificial figure, who be-
came the symbol for resistance against
a powerful regime.
Sometimes known as the Unknown
Rebel, the young protestor is most
commonly referred to as Tank Man.
A photograph of Tank Man confront-
ing the hulking machines appeared
on the front page of the New York
Times the next day, and on the cov-
er of Time magazine shortly thereaf-
ter, and emerged as one of the most
iconic photographs of the 20th cen-
tury. In recognition, Life Magazine
later immortalized the image of Tank
Man as one of the 100 photos that
changed the world.
In contrast to this, the situation in-
side China was entirely different. The
challenge of powerful image for an
authoritarian state was enormous:
how to stop one person to become an
example for others. Hence, the image
was banned in China. It was shown
only once in Chinese television brand-
ed as an example of army restraint.
However, it was quickly withdrawn
and never shown again. The focus was
to end any sort of discussion of pro-
test by controlling media and publish-
ing, which was done quite effectively.
The communist government was least
willing to compromise regarding the
matter.
In China the internet users are under
constant surveillance due to the pres-
ence of the internet police. For more
sophisticated control, China ironically
relied on western technology. No im-
ages of the Tank Man appear on the
internet searches in China. Almost all
the western IT giants including Goo-
gle, Yahoo, Cisco and Microsoft in or-
der to enter lucrative Chinese market
have tailored their information system
to fit the political censorship needs
of the Chinese government. Worse
still, Google and Yahoo have signed
a self-censorship pledge. These com-
panies are often alleged that they are
providing Chinese companies with
technologies to identify people and
11
 messages that they do not like.
To quell the spirit of the Tank Man,
the path taken was open embrace of
capitalism, tough political repression
and strict censorship of media. There
is no doubt that the leadership feared
relaxing control, particularly over the
media and discussions of events like
1989 and a myriad of others, because
it feared that once the discussions
begin, protests like those demonstra-
tions in 1989 would be difficult to
stop. And in this, they may be right.
But there is another theory that states
if even a modicum of discussion is
allowed to go in an orderly fashion,
it would serve as a pressure-release
valve, whereas if there is no discus-
sion, at some point the pressure will
build up. What the Communist Party
had relied on to prevent the pressure
from building up, was to allow people
to exercise their ambitions and urges
to be able to advance themselves and
to have lives on the economic side of
the ledger.
This social contract, has worked quite
well for the Communist Party, and for
the elites, and now the new middle
class of China. But what about the or-
dinary men and womenthose work-
ing in factories and providing labour.
Many of them lost their jobs in new
competitive market economy. With
strict residency laws, the government
was able to restrict wealth into cities.
Owing to widened gap between rich
and poor, in recent years there has
been increasing numbers of demon-
12
strations by Chinese underclass, main-
ly protesting against land acquisition.
Perhaps the most salient aspect of the
image is that it leads to many ques-
tions. Why does he stand up to the
tanks despite certain death? What is
his fate? What does he hope to achieve
simply by standing? There is some
amount of vagueness to the picture
which makes it so intriguing, practical-
ly coercing you to try and unravel the
events which led to that one moment.
No faces are seen nor emotions nor
intentions. But the man is as station-
ary as any person or organisation will
ever be. Despite inherent ambiguity
it is hard to ignore the magnitude of
what the Tank Man is doing. The will-
ingness to stand for what he believed,
no matter who stands opposite, is why
the image is now iconic.
The photo as commonly cropped and
available to us, largely in still rather
than video form, deleting all traces
of mass involvement, contains no
sounds, no dialogue between the pro-
testor and the tank driver that might
allow the viewer to see the driver as
a human making a moral or political
decision of his own, no voices of the
million-odd others who gathered in
the square, that might frame effective
protest as a function of the masses
rather than the individual.
For the Tank Man photograph to re
tain its apparent semiotic certainty, it
needs to be understood not merely as
a representation of a reied state but
of a specically communist state.
The Washington Posts Tank Man
feature declared, Here is the vaunted
evil of communism in living color,
and Time magazines June19 1989
cover featured the Tank Man photo
positioned over a bold caption that
read, Revolt against Communism.
Indeed, through the textual commen-
tary, communism emerges as a code
for totalitarianism, understood in this
case as synonymous with the Chinese
state.
The Tank Man image reminded the
viewer not only about the inherent
nature of communism, but also that
the ideal form of statesociety rela-
tions is one in which the individual
citizen is the source of legitimacy and
the locus of power. On June 6 1989,
for example, the New York Times
centred the Tank Man photograph
on its front page, the title of the ac-
companying article asserting, Crack-
down in Beijing; One Man Can Make
a Difference, and beginning with
the deceptively simple words, It
all started with a man in a white shirt.
It acted as a guide for the desires of
the private citizen who could aspire to
what the West had already achieved
Over time the iconic Tank Man
image is modied and repurposed
to new political ends. In 21st centu-
ry, re-appropriated Tank Man images
speak less about the absence of politi-
cal liberalism and democracy in China,
that were encapsulated in the original
Tank Man image and more about their
absence in the contemporary United
States. Although the photograph of
Tank Man quickly came to stand in
for the 1989 protest movement, dom-
inating newspaper front pages, mag-
azine covers, and television airwaves,
the image was never solely about the
event itself. At the same time, they
also reect changing global hierarchies
in which the United States no longer
automatically occupies a position
of power relative to China. As such,
re-appropriations of iconic photo-
graphs have the potential to mobilize
collective memory and political imagi-
nations to new ends.
For this purpose, I would examine two
of these appropriations. The rst one
is a political cartoon published on the
occasion of high-level meetings be-
tween members of the Obama admin-
istration and Chinese ofcials during
high-prole visits to China. At rst
glance, it offers commentary on the
global repositioning of China and the
United States that is clearly intended
to mock the United States for sur-
rendering to Chinese state power and
sacrising its historical advocacy of
human rights. In contrast to this, the
second one is a political poster, ad-
13
 dressing the domestic context of Oc-
cupy Wall Street movement.
The above appropriation is made by
political cartoonist Dave Brown. The
context of the cartoon was US pres-
ident Barack Obamas visit to China.
The image makes a direct reference
to a reduction of the US power in
the face of Chinese might. In this,
cartoon, published during President
Barack Obamas rst visit to China in
2009, Brown replaced the gure of the
protestor with that of Obama stand-
ing in front of a column of Chinese
tanks and the familiar plastic shopping
bags with a bucket of soapy water and
a dripping wet squeegee. Water pud-
dles at the heros feet. His dispro-
portionately wide grin appears to be
an attempt to be ingratiating rather
than of amusement. Here Obama fac-
es the tanks clad in baggy pants and
with his knees bent, apparently sig-
nalling submission to state power. Al-
though he offers China his windshield
cleaning services, the tanks have no
windshields that require his expertise.
The United States in this image seems
reduced to low-paying service jobs be-
fore the might of the Chinese govern-
ment. Thus, it appears to echo critics
of Obamas visit who argued that the
presidents trip demonstrated Chinas
ability to push back and hold rm
against American demands.
Rather than reaffirming the original
message of The Tank Man, the im-
age seems to question whether what
the US has to offer either materially
14
or ideologically in the form of polit-
ical ideas of democracy or freedom
of speech is enough to confront the
columns of tank. While the original
Tank Man image had evoked the fear
of Chinese state as communist, this
image had evoked new kind of fear
in which Chinas successful appropri-
ation of capitalism had not only ren-
dered the US irrelevant but also un-
dermined the so-called relationship
between democracy and capitalism.
The second image uses Tank Man im-
agery to reflect the political vision of
Occupy movement. In 2011, Zuccotti
Park Press commissioned Oakland,
CA artist R. Black to design a poster
representing an attack that featured
Wall Street, the ve boroughs of New
York, and Foley Square. This Occupy
poster repurposes the image of the
Lone Rebel to comment upon prac-
tices of democracy and freedom of
speech in the United States, although
differing by also suggesting that dem-
ocratic participation is not limited to
individualistic heroism.
As in the original photo, Tank Man
appears standing in front of tanks in
the center of the poster, wearing the
same black pants and white shirt and
carrying plastic bags. Despite these
similarities, several major differences
recongure the layout and meaning of
the original image. First, this new Tank
Man confronts a horizontal rather
than vertical row of three tanks. Sec-
ond, the Tank Man gure is no longer
alone, as directly behind him stand
countless other identical Tank Men,
joining his effort to halt the tanks
collectively in their forward march.
In contrast to the original structural
simplicity and pale shades of the 1989
photo, the Occupy Tank Man poster is
replete with text and bold color. The
gure of Tank Man is no longer the
only focal point.
While both forms of the image
the original Tank Man photo and its
contemporary appropriations fa-
cilitate the self-construction of the
West, what makes the images appro-
priation compelling, even as the orig-
inal remains an important referential
structure, is that their meetings with
iconicity tend toward questioning and
critique rather than assurance and
reproduction.The Tank Man has
come to symbolize much of the rhet-
oric of citizens standing up to a brutal
government, although it symbolizes
only a part of the story. However, it
remains iconic only outside China.
The Tiananmen Square incident is no-
table for its absence from media with-
in China.
References
Barthes, Ronald ,1980,`Rhetoric of the
Image, in Classic Essays on Photography,
ed., Alan Trachtenberg, pp. 269285, New
Haven, CT: Leetes Island Books.
Hariman, Robert , 2003, Public Identi-
ty and Collective Memory in U.S. Iconic
Photography: The Image of Accidental
Napalm, https://sites.uni.edu/fabos/
seminar/readings/Harriman2.pdf
Hariman, Robert and John Louis Lucaites,
2007, No Caption Needed: Iconic Photo-
graphs, Public Culture, and Liberal De-
mocracy, Chicago: University of Chicago
Press.
Hubbert, Jennifer, 2014,Appropriating
iconicity, Visual Anthropology Review,
Vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 114126.
Iyer, Pico, 1998, The Unknown Rebel,
Time, April 13. http:// www.time.com/
time/magazine/article/0,9171
Frontline: The Tank Man 2006 PBS.org.
http://video.pbs.org/video/1146923141
15
 Popular Music, Rhetoric and Culture:
Western Music during the Vietnam War
Music has always transcended the
boundaries of class, race and gender. It
demonstrates the power simple melo-
dies hold in fueling a mass movement
and uniting people for a common
cause. In the past, music emerged as
an effective form of protest during the
Vietnam War. In this paper I am ana-
lysing the music produced during the
1960s and 1970s to detail the multiple
perspectives on both, the youth and the
hippie culture which came up during
this time.
According to George Lipsitz, during
1960s and 70s the youth in America
emerged as a distinct political and cul-
tural force. Further, he opines that the
youth involvement in politics has been
blown out of proportions. While young
college students did contribute signifi-
cantly towards the popular culture of
the 60s, their power mainly came from
their sheer numbers and purchasing
power. In fact, sociological studies sug-
gest that there were no major ideologi-
cal shifts from the previous generation
(Lipsitz 1994).
Despite this, social movements played
the defining role in what it meant to be
16
Kondepudy Bharati
young. The Vietnam War created new
and young antagonists, defining their
emotions of anger, concern and empa-
thy. These emotions of anger ,concern
and empathy. These emotions found an
outlet in literature, poetry, prose and
most importantly, in music. The music
produced during the Vietnam War was
very different from that of the Second
World War. Normal patriotic songs
such as that of Staff Sergeant Barry
Sadlers Ballad of the Green Berets
in 1969 and Merle Haggards Okie
from Muskogee in 1969 represented
one end of the spectrum. But, a vast
majority of the songs produced during
the Vietnam War fell into the category
of anti-war or anti-establishment rather
than pro-government. Hence, popular
music can be seen as an interesting and
relevant medium of studying historical
and cultural change.
The American involvement in Vietnam
stemmed from the deep anti-commu-
nist sentiment against Viet Dam and
his regime. In the words of John F.
Kennedy, the US involvement in Viet-
nam was a proving ground for De-
mocracy. Under Kennedys regime,
there was a massive increase in military
were 550,000 combat troops in Viet-
nam and rising casualties with no end
in sight. The anti-war movement and
anti-war music ran parallel to the in-
creasingly large numbers of young
men joining the army (Lipsitz 1994).
The soldiers drafted to fight in Viet-
nam were born during the massive
baby boom that began in 1946. De-
fined by landmark political events like
the civil rights movement, the Viet-
nam War, multiple riots and devas-
tating assassinations, this decade also
witnessed the tremendous increase
in popularity of the Beatles and the
Rolling Stones, of Janis Joplin and
Jimi Hendrix, and of Bob Dylan and
Aretha Franklin. However, music did
not witness any one distinct sixties ex-
perience but emerged from a plurality
of experiences, all riddled with contra-
dictions (Lipsitz 1994). The 60s also
witnessed the emergence of folk-rock
and the popularity of psychedelic acid
rock.
Additionally, rampant commercialism
gripped the music industry. It expand-
ed its scope and reach via new modes
of technology, thus cultivating a new
crop of enthusiastic consumers, will-
ing to spend money. However, music
also became an important medium to
express and engage in dialogue with
respect to the prevailing cultural val-
ues. The two key factors important
in the growth of music industry were
demography and the FM technology.
It is an undeniable fact that music was
central to the experience and con-
sciousness of many young people.
William Chafe identifies music as the
most important sacrament for the
young in the sixties, as the centre of
a lifestyle that testified powerfully to
the fragmentation taking place within
the society. The popular music per-
fectly captured the complex realities
of the 60s (Lipsitz 1994).
Rock and roll, firmly establishing
its hold in the 1950s, and termed as
noise by adults, attracted the youth
in drones towards the new and exot-
ic music. Along with rampant sexual
experimentation and the ongoing civil
rights movement, rock and roll cre-
ated a youth culture that shared the
black writer James Baldwins insight:
The American equation of success
with the big times reveals an awful
disrespect for human life and human
achievement (Baldwin 1961).
The youth counterculture created
spaces that were anti-establishment.
They questioned existing ideals to or-
ganise social life. On the other hand,
the civil rights movement and the
anti-war activists together formed a
more radical form of politics. This
was largely the social, political and
economic environment in America,
where protest music emerged as an
important genre. Music gave physical
form to the angst, empathy, melan-
choly and frustration felt by people
with regards to the political and social
atmosphere around them(Candaele n.d.).
Anti-war music began with simple
17
 melodies of folk music and progressed
towards a more aggressive rock and
roll style. In the early 1960s Bob
Dylan opened up this cultural space
and became one of the first artistes
to oppose the Vietnam War through
his music. Bob Dylan wrote, Blowin
in the wind and Masters of war in
1962. These songs were based on sim-
ple acoustic arrangements and clear
impactful lyrics. The simplicity of the
songs was crucial as simpler melodies
were easier to transmit to a wide
audience. It thus gained popularity in
the genre of protest music.
Yes, how many times must a man look up
Before he can really see the sky?
Yes, how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, how many deaths will it take till he
knows
That too many people have died?
The answer my friend is organisation in the
wind
The answer is blowin in the wind.
Blowin in the wind
In 1963 Bob Dylan released another
song, with god on our side, which
laid emphasis on the notion of god
playing favourites with countries at
war, seen as both crude and foolish.
His songs were not exclusively about
Vietnam, but focused more on the
true meaning of patriotism and free-
dom. His views were in opposition to
Eisenhower, who called for Military
Industrial complex, and an existential
angst caused by the prospects of nu-
clear annihilation.
18
Bob Dylans music thrived in the
Greenwich folk music scene, which
saw the revival of American folk
music from the 1940s to mid 1960s.
There were many other artistes in the
Greenwich scene when it came to
anti-establishment songs. Phil Ochs
wrote a jukebox full of anti-war songs,
including I Aint Marchin Anymore
and the witty Draft Dodger Rag
(Candaele n.d.). As the Cold War pro-
gressed, the harsh realities of loss,
both in the US and Vietnam, were
expressed and heightened by anti-war
songs. These songs brought people
together in their dissent and anguish.
But, the music industrys concern re-
garding the song chart position each
week, coupled with the fear of up-
setting top-level music executives,
investors and producers, meant that
radical anti-war sentiments and state-
ments rarely made it in popular music.
An artist with enough clout or record
sales could occasionally get out a song
with a political or social message. For
example, Credence Clearwater Reviv-
als Fortunate Son, a caustic attack
on militarism and the class- and race-
based unfairness of the draft, was re-
leased and sold well. Fortunate Son,
was an uncompromising two-minute-
and-twenty-one-second manifesto
about how those with connections
and money avoided the draft while the
poor and working class had to go to
war. Fogerty understood the emerging
anger that this disparity created: In
1968, the majority of the country
thought morale was great among the
troops. . . . but to some of us who
were watching closely, we just knew
we were headed for trouble (Can-
daele n.d.).
The highest point in the protest genre
was achieved on the stage of the
Woodstock concert. On 18th August
1969, Jimi Hendrix played his version
of the Star Spangles Banner. His ren-
dition of the American national an-
them rendered the audience speech-
less, as he imitated the cacophony of
war using his electric guitar. His per-
formance marked a decade of protest
music, aiming at Americas military
interest. His blistering and satire-laced
version of the anthem displayed the
changes and contradictions within the
anti-war music and movements of the
1960s and beyond.
Unlike folk music, late-sixties anti-war
music did not focus on solidarity and
shared risk-taking. Hendrix was not
a guitar-strumming folk artist lead-
ing a social movement. He, and his
soundloud, technologically sophis-
ticated and stunning in its virtuosity,
avant-garde in its musical language
was by 1969 a very big business. As
venues grew larger, the rock perform-
ernow designated a starwas
increasingly separated from the au-
dience. The song though impactful,
could not be reproduced by the mass-
es. Hendrixs performance managed
to reach millions. The song invento-
ried not just the progress of anti-war
music but also the anti of the era
itself. Hendrixs parody of The Star
Spangled banner, criticised the hon-
our and virtues of the United States.
Jimi Hendrix played the crucial role of
pushing the cruel reality of the Viet-
nam War into the publics faces and
ears.
As the war waged on in Vietnam, the
temper and anguish expressed in the
anti-war songs became more pro-
nounced in their opposition. Another
iconic performance on the Wood-
stock stage was that of Country Joe
McDonald. He perhaps delivered the
best-remembered anti-war song of the
time. A darkly satirical critique of the
war, I-Feel-Like-Im-Fixin-to--Die
Rag held importance because Coun-
try Joe had earned military stripes in
the Navy, representing frustration and
dissent from within the army veterans
with regards to the War.
Come on mothers throughout the land,
Pack your boys off to Vietnam.
Come on fathers, dont hesitate,
Send your sons off before its too late.
Be the first one on your block
To have your boy come home in a box.
(Mcdonald 1967)
The song was a savage swipe at the
hypocrisy of American values. It rep-
resented a distinct shift from Bob
Dylans rueful and elusive question of
how many would have to die, to a
more angry response.
The increasing anger within the an-
ti-war movement peaked during the
presidency of Richard Nixon elected
in 1968. Nixons Vietnam policy fur-
ther divided the nation. While Nixon
did decrease the number of troops
19
 in Vietnam, he also ordered secret
bombings of North Vietnamese sup-
ply routes that ran through neutral
Cambodia (Candaele n.d.). In April
1970, Nixon decided to send troops
into Cambodia, leading to campuses
across the country erupting in protest
and a strike of hundreds of thousands
of students on more than 700 cam-
puses, leading to injuries and in some
cases death.
Looking at the photographs of the
Kent State massacre, singer-songwrit-
er Neil Young wrote Ohio, recorded
in two days and distributed as quickly.
It was an instant reaction to the unrest
in the university campuses. Ohio
was a message to America to do some-
thing about the deaths, the war, and
the breakup of the country:
Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?
(Neil Young 1970)
While Ohio did sound like a call to
immediate action and protest, none
of the members of CSNY were tru-
ly part of the anti-war movement.
George Lipsitz questioned the music
of the sixties, product of young peo-
ple struggling to establish their own
artistic visions, or was it the creation
of marketing executives eager to cash
in on demographic trends ? (Lipsitz
1994) After all, by 1970, records and
tapes brought in over $2 billion, close
to 80 percent of the revenue from the
20
ranks of rock and roll.
Anti-war songs were not the best sell-
ers of that time. In fact the only song
to reach anthem-like influence in an-
ti-war circlesbut in no way as influ-
ential as We Shall Overcome for the
Civil Rights Movementwas John
Lennons Give Peace a Chance,
which was sung by half a million dem-
onstrators at the Vietnam Moratorium
Day protest in Washington, DC, in
October 1969.
At the time Lennon claimed that he
was bored with hearing We Shall
Overcome all the time, and offered
his simple ditty as an alternative. Our
job is to write for the people now,
he said. The song emphasised the fact
that the musicians who wrote the an-
ti-war music which became a part of
political protest were not the part of
the same (Wenner 2000).
While white male artistes got most of
the attention and fame, it is crucial to
remember that the anti-war music of
the Vietnam era was much more di-
verse than people now recall. There
were other tempos and temperaments
on display across barriers of ethnicity
and gender, perhaps a love song to a
soldier far away, or a meditation on
a domestic tragedy when a husband
re turned a hurt and tormented man,
as in the case of country singer Ar-
lene Hardens bitter Congratulations
(Candaele n.d.).
African Americans contributed much
of this sometimes forgotten anti-war
music. Martha Reeves and the Vandel-
las released I Should Be Proud in
1970, the first anti-war song from the
Motown label. It was followed a few
months later by War, recorded first
by the Temptations (not released as a
single for fear of conservative back-
lash) and then rerecorded by Edwin
Starr. With its simple but memorable
refrainWar, what is it good for?
Absolutely nothing!the song went
to number one on the Billboard Pop
Singles chart. (Candaele n.d.)
More tender and soulful was Mar-
vin Gayes plea for peace and love in
Whats Going On, where war is Hope, Days of Rage., New York: Bantam.
not the answer, for only love can con-
quer hate. In 1969 or 1970, Gaye
said, I began to re-evaluate my whole
concept of what I wanted my music
to say... affected by letters my brother
was sending me from Vietnam, as well
as the social situation here at home. I
realised that I...wanted to write songs
that would reach the souls of people.
I wanted them to take a look at what
was happening in the world.
Anti-war music of the 1960s gave the
American people an outlet to express
and spread alternate ideas to repair
the damage caused by the civil rights
movement, the Vietnam War and the
general social crisis faced by the so-
ciety. Popular music influenced the
young to believe in the ideas of social
revolution and the freedom of expres-
sion. While music did not solve every-
thing, it accomplished its most crucial
task: that of uplifting spirits and giv-
ing hope to people. Anti-war music
contributed to a vibrant and liberating
counterculture.
References
Baldwin, James, 1961, Fifth Avenue Up-
town: A letter from Harlem, in Nobody
Knows My Name: More Notes of a Na-
tive Son, New York: Vintage Books.
Candaele, Kerry. https://www.gilderleh-
rman.org/history-by-era/sixties/essays/
protest-music-1960s. n.d.
Gitlin, Todd, 1993,The Sixties: Years of
Lipsitz, George, 1994, Wholl Stop the
Rain? Youth Culture, Rock n Roll, and
Social Crises, in The Sixties: From Mem-
ory to History, ed., David Farber, pp. 157-
176, New York: Oxford: University Of
North Carolina Press.
Marvin Gaye, Whats Goin On in 500
Greatest Albums of All time. n.d. http://
www.roolingstone.com/music/lists/500-
greatest-albums-of-all-time-20120531/
marvin-gaye-whats-going-on-19691231.
Mcdonald, Joe, 1967, I-Feel-Im-Gixin-
To-Die-Rag, Rag Baby: Songs of Oppo-
sition, .
Neil Young, Crosby, Stills, Nash and
Young, 1970, Ohio, single. Atlantic.
Wenner, Jann S., 2000, Lennon Remem-
bers, London and New York, 2000.
21
efefefe

Folklore,Mythology
and Popular
Culture
efefefe

The Legend that was Or Perhaps Not
The common thread binding myths,
legends and folklore is memory. Pierre
Nora has made an important observa-
tion in this context:
Memory is always suspect in the eyes
of history.
The most insightful historical scholar-
ships argue that memory is forged and
transmitted deliberately. The question is:
Do literary sources escape these flaws
then? In this sense, as Ramya Sreeni-
vasan says, like other sources, memory
is itself a deeply historical practice. Em-
bedded in the term Rajput is a sense of
pride, valour and sacrifice. The pride of
a raja does but encompass his queens
pride.
If Chundawat, chieftain of Salumbar
is remembered for the valorous fight
he put up against Aurangzebs army,
so is his wife Hadi Rani who cut her
head as memento so that her husband
doesnt get distracted by missing her.
While Rana Sanga is considered to be
the epitome of sacrifice in Marusthala,
Rani Padmini has been immortalized by
the jawhar she committed. The Rajput
queens have been as famous a source for
Padmini :
Krishna Shekhawat
inspiration as their counterparts. This
resonates in the legends that have circu-
lated in the Rajputana and beyond. The
hype created around these figures only
reflects the awe that they created or was
being attempted at creating in the minds
of common people.
Stories of great kings and queens have
intrigued me since childhood. One such
has been Rani Padmini who has been
glorified as a perfect model of ideal In-
dian womanhood in the Amar Chitra
Katha most of us have grown up read-
ing. However, it is essential to establish
her as a historical figure first. Therefore,
my area of research would cover the leg-
end of Padmini, as described in Jayasis
Padmavat, and dwell on critically analyz-
ing its sources, variations, authenticity,
gender relations and other social impli-
cations.
One of the most celebrated figures of
Rajasthan has been Padmini, believed to
have been the Rajput queen of Mewar in
the early 14th century. Before diving into
the complexities of the legend attribut-
ed to her, I would first state the basic
story of the Padmavat: Rani Padmini is
the princess of Singhal. Ratansen is the
23

ruler of Chittaur who is told about
the beauty of Padmini by a parrot, Hi-
raman. At the mere mention of her,
Ratansen burns in anguish of sepa-
ration from her. He ultimately makes
her his wife through penance. Mean-
while,Raghav Chetan, a Brahmin in
the court of Ratansen is banished for
wrongful use of his magical powers.
As revenge, he goes to Alauddin Kh-
ilji to arouse his desires for Padmini.
Alauddins lust for Padmini manifests
in a siege on Mewar in 1303. Mean-
while, Ratansen is engaged in war with
Devpal of Khumbhalner where he
dies. Knowing of their ultimate fate,
Padmini along with many other wom-
en save their honour by committing
a jawhar unprecedented in history.
Alauddin Khilji wins an empty for-
tress as his main motive of acquiring
Padmini is defeated.
The first known narrative of the leg-
end comes from Malik Muhammad
Jayasis Padmavat (1540) in Avadhi. In
recent times, scholars are in consensus
that Padmavat was most likely writ-
ten in Persian script. This comes as
a fresh perspective because mention
of characters from the Mahabharata
and Ramayana argues against such a
claim (The bow of Rama that built the
bridge across the sea, even that bow
accepted defeat at the hands of her
brows. Even the mighty gandiva(of
Arjuna) that pierce the eye of the fish
accepted defeat, what can I say of
other bows. ). This is a major break-
through in the current atmosphere
24
where the tendency is to define liter-
ary traditions in terms of linguistic
and regional boundaries.
The Padmavat was a Sufi mystical
adaptation. The Padmavat and the
likes of it including the Chandayan,
Manjhans Madhumalati and Qutbans
Mirgavati, are heroic romances where
the prince embarks on a dangerous
quest to woo and wed princesses of
fabled beauty and wealth. However,
it is worth noting that this work came
250 years later to the event. The 14th
century accounts, both the Sultanate
and Rajput annals, are silent about
Padmini. Amir Khusrau gives the ear-
liest account of Khiljis conquest but
doesnt talk of Padmini. Yet, legends
on the queen repeatedly did rounds in
several regions and languages between
16th and 20th centuries. This suggests
that Padminis presence came to be at-
tached with Delhi sultans conquest of
Chittor only later.
The narratives of the Rajput chief-
doms came in the late 16th century.
Unlike Jayasis account, they focused
on the exemplary honour of the Ra-
jputs in defending their queen and
kingdom against Khilji. Within Mewar
multiple versions with subtle but dis-
tinct variations emerged.
According to Sreenivasan, there is evi-
dence that Jayasi remembered the Kh-
ilji conquest on Chittor but the same
cant be ascertained for his literary
successors. Pandit Ramchandra Shuk-
laji is of the view that the first half of
the story is pure imagination but the
second half from the Brahman trai-
tor Raghavs arrival in Delhi down to
Padminis self-immolation is based on
historical facts . A.K. Ramanujan puts
forward an interesting argument that
every new text confirms yet alters the
whole order ever so slightly but not so
slightly. This is justified by the fact that
while some communities remember
the legend for Padminis beauty, others
remember it as a folktale of a beautiful
queen and her parrot, Hiraman.
Being the work of a Sufi, the Padma-
vat is an allegory of divine love as ex-
pressed in the following lines:
Tan chitaur man raja kinhaa
Hiya singhal budhi padmini kinha
The body is Chittor, the King its mind,
the heart is Sinhala, the wisdom can
be seen as Padmavati and Ishq, the
final goal.
The Padmavat is an illustration of the
Sufi idea that love, suffering and death
are inseparable and only the language
of fire can sufficiently express them.
Jayasis vision of such an imagery of
love-ultimate consummation in the
incandescence of fire constitutes a
veritable apotheosis rather than de-
nouncement. Interestingly, this and
the celebrated episode of mass immo-
lation show that the Sufi work doubles
as a journey for mystical quest and ma-
terial advancement. By marrying Pad-
mini, Ratansen defines his manhood
in terms of his joga(penance) through
which he achieves an ecstatic commu-
nion with the divine as also seals an
alliance through marriageas was the
common practice wins dowry and
returns home with added prestige.
This narrative is vital for analysis be-
cause Sufi tropes and lay elite values
are entwined to such extent, that one
cannot be discerned from the other. A
normative, masculine ethic is woven
around the idea of a threatened queen.
This was perhaps to ensure purity of
blood since kinship determined access
to resources during this time.
The Padamavat attaches the suffering
of viraha with the protagonist unlike
non-Sufi tales where this emotion is
attributed to the heroine as was the
case with Shakuntala and Damayanti.
The narratives symbolism slides into
the literal and the psychological into
the physical when the anguished lov-
ers searing viraha threatens to become
a pyre itself. It is at this point Shiva
and Parvati are introduced in the nar-
rative to prevent Ratansen because a
fire as this emerging from lovers
viraha-would destroy the world.
However, it is worth noting that no
such intervention takes place when
Padmavati and Nagmati, Ratansens
second wife immolate themselves
even though their jawharis hailed as an
expression of passionate love and vi-
raha. The implicit bias that the flames
of womans viraha will not annihilate
the world can be seen clearly.The lay
norm that women are expected to
suffer in silence is very adeptly inter-
25
 woven in the narrative. Thus, Jayasis
work reinforces the lay norms of gen-
dered conduct. It sees womens expe-
rience of viraha as an end in itself and
not the route to higher revelation.
We feel that these messages implicit in
the narrative, bring out the deep-seat-
ed ideology ingrained in the society
that a widow in the words of Uma
Chakravarti socially dead and thus
committing jawhar, the only way to
preserve ones honour. Dirk Kolff
shows how female immolation was
used as a device to assert the status of
Rajput clans in 15th and 16th centu-
ries. In this, the Padmavat also plays an
important role by neatly appropriating
such Rajput practices in its mystical
frame of reference.
The entry of a second villain, Devpal
of Kumbhalner lays the socio-political
scenario clearly infront of us. Jayasis
tone in this context (Devpals advanc-
es characterized as: when the frog
gazed upon the lotus; the bat never
sees the suns face.) suggests that there
was no distinction made between the
Muslim emperor of Delhi and a Ra-
jput ruler as enemies of Chittor. This
is suggestive of the rivalry that pre-
vailed not just with the Muslim rulers
but also those of the same caste and
thus, in my opinion, justifies why a Ra-
jput empire never came up.
We also believe that the valour which
Rajputs are famous for, was such an
entrenched ideal that there grew a
tendency to fight wars not aimed at
26
victory but for laying ones life for
motherland. We will conclude with
the narratives ending and oft-quoted
stanza: Chittor became Islam. Aziz
Ahmed views it a Muslim-authored
work with an anti-Muslim finale. Giv-
ing its Sufi perspective, he highlights
that the final annihilation of Chittor
may be seen as its identity with the di-
vine through martyrdom. This pun, as
he interprets, may be the true meaning
of Chittor becoming Islam.
At one level, the defeat of Alauddin
Khilji may also suggest Jayasis cel-
ebration of the power of Sufi love
over the Sultans military conquests,
a reaction to the prevailing contest
in authority between sultans and Sufi
masters like Nizamuddin Awliya. And
yet the pun may only be the other way
round because these Rajputs towards
whom Jayasi seems to be biased, were
only reconstrued as practicing Sufis by
encoding the act of self-immolation
as the Sufi ideal of fana.
Thus, the Padmavat, with its manu-
script traditions and later adaptations
continues to reflect the spiritual and
political realms of the 16th century
woven within a Sufi frame of ref-
erence. It brings in the political and
patriarchal practices of the local Ra-
jput-Afghan elite who constituted its
clientele of patrons for the composi-
tion and circulation of tales of love
between 14th and 17th centuries. Nev-
ertheless, he does not fail to establish
the superiority of Sufi narrative above
all of them.
Given the above arguments, it is es-
sential to state, in my conclusion, that
the Padmini legend does not bear his-
toricity for those who authenticate a
history based on historical sources.
Interestingly though the contribution
of Jayasis Padmavat must be taken
account of, for his literary genius
which has continued to intrigue or as
K.R. Qanungo would put it, bluff
the credulous chronicles then and
even now.
So, feeling bluffed or intrigued? Id
let you choose.
References
Bakshi S.R. and Gupta R.K., 2008, Rajas-
than through the Ages, Delhi: Sarup and
Sons.
Chakravarti, Uma, 2006, Gender, Caste
and Labour: Ideological and Material
Structure of Widowhood, in Idem, Be-
yond the Kings and Brahmanas of An-
cient India, Delhi: Tulika, 156-81.
Qanungo, K. R. 1969, Studies in Rajput
History, Delhi.
Sreenivasan Ramya, 2007, The Many
Lives Of A Rajput Queen, Delhi: Perma-
nent Black.
Thomas, Catherine Weinberger, 1999,
Ashes of Immortality: Widow burning
in India, Chicago: University of Chicago
press.
27
 Childrens Literature and Popular Culture:
Fairy Tales and Nursery Rhymes

Soumya Sahai

Fairy tales and nursery rhymes are an
indispensable part of our lives. The
narratives are part of our collective
memory and hence they seem to be
timeless. While we are familiar with
the story of Cinderella or Rapunzel,
we seldom question the origin of
these stories. . In this paper I look at
select fairy tales and nursery rhymes
to trace the complex meanings of
metaphors and didactic element pres-
ent in these narratives.
Fairytales and nursery rhymes began
as part of an oral tradition whose be-
ginning is difficult to ascertain. Story-
telling has an inherent power in it as
it enables people to share knowledge
and experience in varying social con-
texts. Stories help people to discern
what they may regard as real, as possi-
ble and as worth doing or things best
avoided. They are born out of our
conflicts and experiences and their
magic can be equated to the wish ful-
fillment and utopian projections of
the people. Hence, we see peasant
women marrying princes, evil queens
and kings are punished and proletar-
iats triumph. As they were written,
they began establishing their own con-
ventions, motifs, characters and plots
based to a large extent on the origi-
nal oral traditions. However, the with
the advent of the print medium the
stories were altered increasingly to ad-
dress a literate audience of aristocrats
and bourgeois. Their original ideol-
ogy and narrative perspectives were
severely contained and a transition in
class emphasis from peasantry to the
upper and middle classes is noticeable.
At the beginning of the 19th centu-
ry, fairytales along with other folktales
were not considered appropriate liter-
ature for children. Especially among
the middle class, they were viewed
variously as witchcraft, vulgar, and
violent. Attitudes towards these tales
changed with the Grimm brothers
publication of Childrens and house-
hold tales (1812-1815). The Grimm
brothers were part of the German
Romantic Movement and championed
folk tales and literary fairy tales. They
didnt write these stories themselves,
rather collected tales that had been
handed down from one generation
to the other. Their primary concern
was to protect the classics from being
erased from the public memory in the

28
era of industrialisation. Their book,
however, was not meant for children,
it was an academic anthology com-
piled for adults. However, these tales
soon became popular amongst chil-
dren leading to a long process of ed-
iting and censoring in which the tales
lost much of their mysterious sensual
and erotic contents and were moulded
to fit in the German patriarchal so-
ciety. This process lasted from 1812-
1864 and during this period several
versions of these tales were printed,
and as these tales became more con-
servative, they became more popular
amongst the parents and children.
The Grimm brothers efforts to popu-
larise fairytales as childrens literature
had been buttressed by the publica-
tion of Charles Perraults Histories,
or Tales of Past Times in 1697 and
Marie-Catherine Aulnoys Stories of
Fairies. Fairytales had thus become
popular amongst adults at the French
court at the end of the 17th century.
Through the course of the 19th cen-
tury, many authors published fairy-
tales such as Henry Coles The Home
Treasury (1843-1847) which helped
establish the reputation of fairytales
as appropriate childrens literature.
With the publication of Hans Chris-
tian Andersen Tales for Children in
English in 1848, fairytales were victo-
rious as legitimate childrens fare and
soon dominated childrens reading list
in the Victorian period.
Nursery rhymes are also centu-
ries old and part of a long oral tradi-
tion. Some appeared for the first time
in written forms though their origins
are not known. Their publication
coincided with the rise of childrens
literature in the 19th century. Many
nursery rhymes have variants in other
languages. Many of the best-known
rhymes were not meant for children
but belonged to a folkloric tradition
shared by both adults and children.
They were used to parody the royal
and political events of the day and
were used as seemingly innocent ve-
hicles to spread subversive messages.
Being short and easy to remember,
they could be passed from one gener-
ation to another without any difficulty
and were often used by the common-
ers to comment on the events of the
day. A careful analysis of some fairy-
tales and nursery rhymes will help us
establish this.
RED RIDING HOOD: The origins
of the story of the Little Red Riding
Hood can be traced to the versions
produced in various European coun-
tries before the 17th century. Charles
Perrault, one of the writers of this sto-
ry explained that from this story, one
learns that children, especially young
lasses, pretty, courteous and well-bred,
should not listen to strangers. Folklor-
ists and cultural anthropologists such
as P. Saintyves and Edward Burnett
Tylor saw Little Red Riding Hood
in terms of solar myths and other nat-
urally-occurring cycles. Her red hood
could represent the bright sun which
is ultimately swallowed by the terrible
night (the wolf), and the variations in
29
 which she is cut out of the wolf s bel-
ly represents dawn. In this interpreta-
tion, there is a connection between the
wolf of this tale and Skll, the wolf
in Norse myth that will swallow the
personified Sun at Ragnark, or Fen-
rir. The tale has been interpreted as
a puberty rite, stemming from a pre-
historic origin (sometimes an origin
stemming from a previous matriarchal
era).The girl, leaving home, enters a
luminal state and by going through the
acts of the tale, is transformed into an
adult woman by the act of coming out
of the wolf s belly. The motif of the
huntsman cutting open the wolf is in-
terpreted as a rebirth; the girl who
foolishly listened to the wolf has been
reborn as a new person. The red hood
has often been given great importance
in many interpretations, with signifi-
cance from dawn to blood.
The story also serves as a metaphor
for sexual awakening and depicts the
rite of passage from puberty into
womanhood. Little Red Riding Hood
is a classic example of a stereotypical-
ly sexist depiction of the protagonist,
whose traditional portrayal ranges
from polite and naive, to carnal and
seductive. The retellings span six de-
cades and correspond with particular
intellectual movements to which they
conform: traditional, modern, and
postmodern. Books which fall into
the Traditional category only make
superficial changes. The books in the
Postmodern category are retellings
that make more meaningful changes
to the tale by addressing the political
30
implications of the story, taking a crit-
ical look at the protagonists portrayal.
This study examines how Little Red
Riding Hoods image has changed
over time, rather than asking if she
has changed as change is inevitable.
While Little Red Riding Hoods out-
ward appearance changes (clothing,
landscape) sometimes dramatically,
throughout her written history, her
inner personality characteristics with
which we are so familiar, the naivet,
unwavering politeness, and pleasant
demeanour, often remain constant.
This serves to define her as the quint-
essential victim.
SNOW WHITE: The first known ac-
counts of the Snow White story come
to us from the Grimm Brothers, who,
during the early years of the 19th cen-
tury, collected and published a num-
ber of old books.
The different retellings of Snow
White provide us with glimpses of
women from the middle ages. With
the rise of the Renaissance and Ref-
ormation, the role of women faced
a strict dichotomy: on one hand, you
had the beauty, purity and ignorance
of Snow White; on the other, you had
the conspiring, vindictive and hateful
nature of the evil stepmother. Women
were to be as Snow White: pure, inno-
cent and helpless. All of this could, of
course, be achieved by her acceptance
of her new role in society. Without
such a system, women were sure to
become like the evil stepmother.
The issue the queen deals with is
beauty and the necessity, but also con-
sequences of it. She is consumed by
beauty, which is a contradiction of
what is expected of women. They are
expected to look perfect at all times
and be refined and beautiful, but if
they obsess about it, they are seen
as crazy or in some cases ugly. How
then are women supposed to make
sense of what is expected of them?
The queen is evil because she wants
to kill Snow White because of jeal-
ousy. Though there is no doubt this
is an evil claim, is it not societys fault
that she wants to be beautiful and be
the best? We are reminded time and
time again that beauty fades, and the
queen is wise enough to recognise that
her own beauty will too. She is safe so
long as she is beautiful, as Terri Win-
dling writes that the queen is a wom-
an whose power is derived from her
beauty. The story assumes the ste-
reotypical roles of women dictated by
society instead of creating a world of
pure fantasy. It presents the point that
women are expected to be obedient or
there will be consequences, and also
a point about beauty saying beauty is
important in order to be the winner of
the situation. The oppressive ideas of
beauty of female roles influence wom-
en negatively and teach them negative
habits in regards to how they can be
their own independent person.
Snow White also presents a psychoso-
cial enigma of unsubstantiated child-
hood trauma, personality disorders,
and a politically repressed society
within a literary puzzle of suggestive
images and loosely connected plots.
RAPUNZEL: Many scholars trace
the origins of this tale to the legend
of Saint Barbara of the third century
who was locked up in a tower by her
father and tortured for her Christian
faith. Despite being beheaded she
was miraculously healed. Most imag-
es show her with long flowing blonde
hair, a characteristic feature of Ra-
punzel. Giambattista Basiles Petros-
inella or little parsley (1634) marked
the next stage in the development
of Rapunzels story. Living in Ven-
ice Basile was influenced by the tales
brought back by sailors and merchants
from faraway lands. Sixty years later,
the story appeared in France, told by
Charlotte- Rose de Caumont de la
Force as Persinette. Her stories depict
Persinette as engaging in premarital
sex as a result of which she is ban-
ished by the sorceress. But her spirit
and courage never break and she is
shown as an assertive and active agent
of healing and salvation for all those
around her. It was the German author
Friedrich Schulz (1790) who changed
the heroines name to Rapunzel and
the tale was subsequently retold by the
Grimm brothers, becoming less pow-
erful and mysterious with each retell-
ing and subsequent edition.
BLUEBEARD: Bluebeard, an anom-
aly when compared to other fairytales,
could never effectively mould itself
into a story appropriate for children.
Till date, it retains most of its violence
31
 ,horror and gore and this may be why
its relatively unheard of. The sto-
ry, however, survives under various
names and forms in different cultures.
Bluebeard and its variants enjoyed
widespread circulation in Europe and
via trade routes entered Africa, India
and Jamaica with Bluebeards beard
changing hues accordingly. The story
seems to have originated in France,
where it was first written down by
Charles Perrault (1697). Many schol-
ars believe that the tale was based on
Gilles de Rais, a marshal of France
who served under Joan of the arc.
Once settled on his estates, he began
killing young boys after he had sod-
omised them but his fame and influ-
ence prevented people from noticing
that children were disappearing. The
story thus may have originated among
the peasantry to warn children to
stay away from the dangerous baron.
Other theories argue that the tale of
bluebeard was based on older stories
like Conomor and Tripiphane oth-
ers claim that it was a tale circulated
amongst women to warn them of the
practical consequences of marriage.
This tale stands out because its vil-
lain and hero are one and the same. It
highlights fidelity to siblings and fami-
ly while also invoking questions about
marital fidelity.
LUCY LOCKET: Lucy locket lost
her pocket, kitty fisher found it, not
a penny was there in it, only a ribbon
round it
Both lucky locket and kitty fisher were
real people, prostitutes to be precise,
32
in London in the 18th century. The
rhyme has to do with one of kittys ad-
mirers. Lucy locket who also worked
as a barmaid broke off with a man she
had been seeing once he was out of
money, brokenhearted the man soon
found love in the arms of kitty fisher.
In those days locket was a euphemism
for vagina whereas the pocket in the
poem refers to the boyfriend as he was
a means of cash, the ribbon is a ref-
erence to the ribbon prostitutes used
to use to tie the money around their
thighs.
MARY, MARY QUITE CONTRARY:
Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does
your garden grow? With silver bells,
and cockle shells, and pretty maids all
in a row
This rhyme is a perfect example, of
use of nursery rhymes to comment
on political events in a relatively dis-
creet manner. The Mary in this poem
refers to bloody Mary or Queen Mary,
daughter of Henry VIII and Cather-
ine of Aragon who is widely known
for her large-scale persecution of
Protestants. Her description, as con-
trary, comes from her proclamation
that she would not compel any of
her subjects to follow her religion and
then within a month of her reign re-
pealed all religious legislation passed
by her predecessor. The garden refers
to a cemetery growing with the bodies
of heretics whereas, silver bells and
cockle shells are references to torture
instruments. Pretty maids could refer
to the original guillotine known as
maiden or shortened to maids or an
other torture device known as the iron
maiden.
The process of change, adaptation
and accommodation of fairy tales and
nursery rhymes continues into our
times. In the twentieth century, chil-
drens literature is marked by great-
er diversity in both, characters and
authors. There is also an increasing
acceptance of multiple cultures and
ethnicities. The genre is also marked
by greater segmentation by age with
separate categories for children, ad-
olescents and series books, many
appealing to the tastes of adults as
well. Media adaptations of popular
fairytales as books, films or television
series form an important part of this
tradition. Walt Disney dominates this
field and has revolutionised the way
we look at fairytales with its iconic
films. The fantasies of true love, cas-
tles, prince charming and fear of evil
stepmothers have been ingrained in
our minds thanks to Disney. However,
not all scholars are in favour of this
commercialization. Jack Zipes believes
that with each new incarnation, the
fairytales lose their teeth and narrative
edge. Murders, unwanted pregnan-
cies, cannibalistic feasts etc are pho-
toshopped and replaced with meek
princesses and happily ever afters. He
criticises Disney on two aspects, ste-
reotyping of characters and rampant
sexism, with damsels in distress whil-
ing away their time rather uselessly till
their true love rescues them. Scholars
like Armando Maggi agree and believe
that fairytales have lost their magic
and have been exhausted.
Nonetheless, these tales have a life
of their own. The richness of these
stories lies in their ability to change.
They are different every time we read
them and provide different lessons to
different people. A dynamic narrative,
they have survived because they have
adapted themselves to the needs and
desires of their audience. They will
teach several generations of children
to believe that ultimately good tri-
umphs over evil and that we all have
our happily ever after in the near fu-
ture.
33
 Hindu Goddesses and Divine Women:
A Victim of Patriarchy?

Harini Shankar

Being a woman in this world is

analysis of the tales of goddesses we
come to see how very cleverly patriar-
tough, and this fact is very aptly por-
chy is hidden behind the all powerful
trayed by way the term woman itself
projection of Hindu goddesses. In
carries different meanings in different
this article, the attempt isnt to trace
contexts (Roy 1999). Does it refer to a
the origins and development of patri-
biological female or a sexual status? Is
archy, for that in itself is intermingled
it defined in terms of class or caste?
with issues, ideas and debates of much
Does it refer explicitly or implicitly to
complexity; but to highlight how the
an upper caste woman or a woman
restrictions on Hindu women, their
who supports heterodox traditions?
subjugated and subordinated status in
These multiple definitions of a wom-
society was given currency in mythol-
an are a mirror to the complexities
ogy and ancient texts, by employing
faced by anyone who wishes to write
metaphors and symbolic anecdotes.
about women. We often fret about
how patriarchal our Indian society is
It seems most natural to inspect the
and how women suffer in a number
issues faced by women with regard
of ways under the dark shadows of
to the conception of love and mar-
ancient laws and customs. There is
riage. Generally a girl choosing a boy
also the ironical situation where In-
is a much more indigestible fact than
dians worship a goddess in a temple
a boy choosing a girl. The following
but dont regard ordinary women with
incidents in mythology highlight the
respect and dignity.
above stated fact-
If we are to compare how powerful
(1) Arjuna eloping with Subhadra with
the Indian goddesses are and how
Krishnas consent was acceptable (Pat-
helpless common women are, we
tanaik 2010, 118). This possibly could
are completely mistaken. However,
be due to the fact that Subhadra was
a comparison of the power of the
equal to Arjuna in status iand caste.
goddess with the helplessness of the
However, what needs to be stressed
common woman is misleading. Hindu
is that Subhadra was unaware of this
goddesses are not free and indepen-
plan of eloping with Arjuna till the
dent in every possible way. On a closer
time for elopement actually came.

34
Though it is incessantly reiterated that
Subhadra was in love with Arjuna, this
episode highlights the disregard for
Subhadras views of her own marriage.
This form of marriage, described in
the Dharmashastras as Asura Vivah
was acceptable, because it was with
the consent of two respected males.
(2) The love story of Radha and
Krishna is very popular among all.
But what must be noted is that even
though both of them are incomplete
without each other, Radha is not
Krishnas wife. She was elder to him.
They always met at night, in the out-
skirts of their village in secrecy (Patta-
naik 2006, 134). According to a pop-
ular Tamil lore Radha is never able to
marry Krishna because a huge tragedy
befalls the world on their wedding day
in the form of Pralaya. Clearly, the
marriage of an older woman with a
younger man is supposed to be har-
binger of catastrophe.
(3) Similarly, Shakuntala marrying her
love, Dushyanta, leads to a chain of
events that ends up in Dushyanta for-
getting Shakuntala and his marriage
to her. A message is conveyed to all
the young women as to what trage-
dy awaits them if they marry against
the wishes or without the knowl-
edge of their fathers, reiterated most
obstinately through the laws of Manu.
Also, we must note that Dushyanta
was a Kshatriya and Shakuntala was a
Rishi kanya, this was the case of an
inter-caste marriage in the absence of
fire and elders (Gandharva Vivah).
(4) Lastly, the story of the apsara, Ur-
vashi, having the audacity to desire
Arjuna, is spoken of in a negative
tone, as the union of a respectable
man with a non-virgin woman was
completely contrary to what was de-
scribed in the ancient texts.
It is evident in the cases where a wom-
an dares to love a man and profess-
es publicly, tragic incidents awaited
them in the end as the woman aban-
doned the code of conduct that the
social norms prescribed to her.
The next major ordeal faced by an In-
dian woman is to work and caring for
the household with the same efficien-
cy and dedication simultaneously. It is
like, if at all the woman has to work,
then she has to excel in both the tasks.
According to the Dharmashastras for
a woman, taking care of her fami-
ly and household came first, and she
couldnt shy away from her foremost
duty. However, males were not in any
way responsible for the household
chores, they just had to focus on one
task- To work and earn well.
A working woman can be compared to
the great Hindu goddess Durga, who
is a warrior goddess. She is invoked to
defeat the indestructible Asuras, when
all other Devas fail.
She carries numerous weapons in her
multiple hands and rides on a lion
(originally a tiger). However what
35
 most fail to observe while looking at
the independent powerful goddess
is her attire. She is dressed as a bride,
in red; She wears bridal jewellery, her
hair is unbound (Pattanaik 2006, 185-
86). Her bridal attire symbolizes her
restrictions. Like a bride she is tied to
her husband and household; there are
boundaries that she cannot cross. Af-
ter defeating the Asuras, Durga is ex-
pected to transform into Gauri, who
is domesticated and maternal (Patta-
naik 2006, 198).
Gauri is dressed in green, a colour
symbolizing fertility, she is depicted
as constantly wearing the signs of her
marriage, she holds no weapons, her
hair is bound, and is associated with
the cow, an all giving creature (Patta-
naik 2006, 1999). Gauri is the ideal
wife, she nourishes her family, takes
care of her husband.
Similarly, a working woman is expect-
ed to become Gauri at home. The
bounding of a womans hair indicates
her domestic obedient nature.
But if one thinks objectively, then
Durga is perhaps the most powerful
deity in the land of gods. She has the
strength of all the male gods put to-
gether, and as a matter of fact, also
possessed the weapons of the most
powerful of their lot. She could eas-
ily dictate her terms and might as well
dominate over every other god. But
that is not true. She voluntarily gives
up her ferocious form and takes up
the role of Gauri, for the ideal wom-
an, no matter how powerful and inde-
36
pendent she might be, and irrespective
of the fact that she can any day outdo
all the men, must always know her
limits. She must never transgress the
norms of being a good wife, a good
mother and a good daughter--- ever
dependent and ever obliged to serve
her male counterparts.
In this context we see in the depiction
of Kali where her hair is disheveled,
symbolizing her wild and raw nature
(Pattanaik 2006, 200); traits complete-
ly unacceptable in a woman under the
standards of brahmanical patriarchy
and subjugation. More often than not,
in the stories relating to Kali, there is
always the situation where the anger
and fury of Kali leads to destruction
of the entire world, which was only
put to an end after Shiva lay at her
feet. For an ideal woman, stepping on
her husband was equal to a thousand
sins.
Here the notion of an independent,
free thinking woman leading to de-
struction and chaos in the established
order is well highlighted, hence the
concept of keeping women in control
by not educating them, by engaging
them in household chores rather than
sending them to work.
Examples of Ahalya, who wavered
from the path of a chaste woman and
hence was cursed to become a stone
by her husband; Tales of Renuka, who
wavered in thought , and whose head
was chopped off by her son at the or-
ders of her husband, all in a way
justify women being punished by their
husbands, if they did not follow their
Stri-Dharma, and censoring upon
their sexuality, and attaching morality
to their carnal desires.
Similarly we can interpret Sita be-
ing punished, for not listening to
Lakshmana and crossing the Laksh-
man-Rekha, by being abducted by Ra-
vana.
Anecdotes of chaste women and ide-
al wives of Rishis like Arundhati and
Anusuya were also widely prevalent,
so that women could follow the ideal
path set by these women.
We now have an idea as to how all
the present norms and restrictions on
women, were widely justified in myth-
ological tales of women and goddess-
es.
Interpretations of these stories may
vary among people, but to a large ex-
tent it is agreeable that the goddesses
too were not free from the chains of
patriarchy. To cite an example, Parvati
was cursed to be born on earth as a
fisherwoman by Shiva as she yawned
when he was having a knowledgeable
discussion with her!
What we must try to understand is
why these restrictions on women? The
answer is simple. Women were a very
important part of the society for they
were the means of extension of fami
ly line, hence there emerged a need to
preserve pure bloodline and heritage
and endogamy took its heinous forms.
This is one of the most important rea-
sons for restriction on women.
What we as a society should realize is
that traditions and norms should be
changed as per he needs of the time,
for a rigid boundary always has the
tendency to collapse.
Any change is possible only if people
are willing to change their mindset,
which can only happen when their
minds are porous to new ideas and
methods. It is pertinent to question
norms embedded in myths and revisit
some of the didactic stories. Women
should themselves realize and respect
their own caliber and talents, and only
then can they emerge victorious in the
struggle with patriarchy that has been
going on for ages.
REFERENCES
Roy, Kumkum, 1999, Women in Early In-
dian Societies, Delhi:Manohar publishers
and distributors.
Pattanaik, Devdutt, 2006, Myth=Mithya:
A Handbook of Indian Mythology, Del-
hi: Penguin.
Pattanaik, Devdutt, 2010, Jaya: An illus-
trated Retelling of Mahabharata, Delhi:
Penguin.
37
 Satyajit Rays Charulata :
Reading the Rhetoric

Vanya Lochan

A film has to convey its message by ratives are alive with the textures of
images and relatively few words; it has nature, the rhythms of native Bengali
little tolerance for complexity or irony life, and the nuances of human ges-
or tergiversations. ture and behaviour.

LENSES
Louis Begley, Shipwreck (2003)
The best part about the film is that it
Charulata(The Lonely Wife) (1964)
can be studied using various lenses and
is a feature film by Satyajit Ray based
I believe that each lens would be able
on Nastanirh(The Broken Nest),
to capture a different aspect that the
a novella by Nobel Laureate Rabin-
film represents. This essay attempts to
dranath Tagore. Charulata , often
study the ways in which the film cap-
rated the directors finest film is also
tures the historical aspect of the late
the one that, when pressed, he would
19th century colonial Bengal. Since
name as his personal favourite: Its
an objective analysis of the historical
the one with the fewest flaws. In an
rhetoric of the film would be incom-
interview with Cineaste magazine, Sa-
plete without analysing the various
tyajit Ray praised Charulata, saying,
nuances employed in bringing out and
[Its] a film that I would make the
shaping the emotional and personal
same way if I had to do it again. The
dimension of the characters and situ-
film affords a dazzling view of Rays
ations, the essay also seeks to identify
mastery of the medium and gives
the techniques used to weave the film
vital proof of his ability to explore
together such as symbolism. The film
universal themes without compromis-
also depicts several sociological con-
ing his uniquely Bengali sensibilities.
cepts such as the relationship between
Charulata was the filmmakers second
a bhabhi or the brothers wife and the
adaptation of a Rabindranath Tagore
devar or the husbands brother, the
work (after Teen Kanya in 1961) and,
emergence of an educated Bhadra-
indeed, one senses a close affinity be-
mahila and successfully draws a line
tween Rays cinema and Tagores liter-
of differentiation between a Prachi-
ature. Like his literary idol, Rays nar-

38
na (old-fashioned woman) and a No-
bina(modern woman), thus drawing
upon the new patriarchy that was
emerging during this period.
Historically speaking, Charulata de-
picts events taking place in the nine-
teenth-century colonial Bengal when
the Bengalicultural Renaissance was
at its apogee. Charulata tells the story
of Bhupatinath or simply Bhupati, a
political journalist and publisher, his
young wife, Charu, his cousin, Amal,
who is almost the same age as Cha-
ru and Charus brother and brothers
wife, Mandakini, set in the 19th cen-
tury Bengalibhadralok(elite class)
family which is being ruffled by the
winds of liberty and individuality.The
late 19th century in Bengal was when
several changes were occurring and
were being concretised and each as-
pect of the era has been suitably rep-
resented by the characters of the sto-
ry. The New Spirit of Young Bengal who committed suicide in 1884 for
thirsty for a wave of change in the
political sphere of colonised India is
represented by Bhupati, the creative
upsurge represented by the rise and
growing popularity of literary icons
like Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay
can be found in Charu and Amal.
More importantly, this era also stood
for a flux in the familial structure be-
cause of the ideological changes seen
in men and consequently women.
These changes and the resultant con-
flict have been weaved very intricately
by means of various symbolic tools,
visuals, sound and accompanying
semi-events.
IDENTIFYING THE SOAP-
STONE
Satyajit Ray directed and wrote the
screenplay of Charulata, thereby re-
fashioning the details from Tagores
novel, Nastanirh. For example, Tag-
ores Amal was a demanding man.
He pesters Charulata to the point of
seeming insensitive to her feelings
and situation. Charulatas response to
him, as Tagore words it, seems almost
needy: That someone should ask her
for somethingin the whole world
this is the only person who asks of
her and she cannot bear to leave his
desires unfulfilled. Ray, on the other
hand, adds an endearing tenderness to
Amal and the gifts he receives from
Charulata are given to him freely. It
is widely believed that the story was
inspired by Tagores relationship with
his sister-in-law, Kadambari Devi,
reasons that have never been fully ex-
plained. Kadambari, like Charulata,
was beautiful, intelligent, and a gifted
writer, and towards the end of his life,
Tagore admitted that the hundreds of
haunting portraits of women that he
painted in his later years were inspired
by memories of her. The story is
situated in the late 19th century con-
text an age of flux in terms of
societal changes, political changes and
the emergence of revolutionary and
literary idols like Garibaldi, Mazzini
and Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay.
Further, it can be noted that the
39
 revolutionary changes in Europe such
as the French Revolution, the 1848
Revolutions not only had an influence
on the political ideals of educated
upper-class Indians but also deeply
affected the literature and rhetoric of
those times. For example, Romanti-
cism was one concept which could be
seen in these terms as Charu and Amal
write about the nature, the various el-
ements of childhood such as boats ,
mela (fair), the village, music (depic-
tion of Baul and Bhathiyali), birds (as
Charu names one of her discarded es-
says The Lament of the Cuckoo) etc.
Regarding the audience, while sev-
eral authors like Andrew Robinson
clearly identify it as a film with an in-
nately European setting supposed to
be for Western audience. The setting
is a western-style mansion, the decor
is Victorian, the dialogue strewn with
references to western literature and
politics. However, Ray says that, be-
neath the veneer of familiarity the film
is chock-a-block with details to which
the Western viewer has no access.
Snatches of song, literary allusions,
domestic details, an entire scene where
Charu and her beloved Amal talk in
alliterations (thereby setting a hope-
less task for the subtitler) all give the
film a density missed by the western
viewer in her preoccupation with plot,
character, the moral and philosophical
aspects of the story, and the apparent
meaning of the images. The purpose
and subject are definitely the depiction
of a story trying to place every detail
in an intricately carved setting of po-
40
litical and social flux as well as fragile
inter-personal relationships. The tone
is candid, symbolic, impassioned, di-
rect and upstanding.
CONCEPTS
The concept of Bhadralok as op-
posed to the Chottolok is of great
significance in the social history of
colonial Bengal. The word Bhadralok
in Bangla stands for the respectable,
the cultured and educated i.e. the
middle and upper classes, whereas in
contrast, the chhotolok refers to the
small people or the poorer, lower
classes. The word Bhadramahila re-
fers to the women of the bhadralok.
The concept of bhadralok played an
important role in the 19th century
cultural renaissance in Bengal and the
social reform movements there. What
should be further mentioned is the
bifurcation that came into the picture
in relation to the social and political
spheres, and in that sense, there came
up a dichotomy of the world into two
domains- ghar and bahir, the home
and the world. The dichotomy of
ghar and bahir did not, however, im-
ply a clear chasm between what was
European and material and what was
inner, distinctive and spiritually su-
perior. Charu Gupta argues that the
domestic domain was the inner core
of national culture, a private and sep-
arate sphere where it was possible for
the Hindu male to impose his power
and control. With the emergence of
several reformist movements aimed at
undoing various oppressive structures
of patriarchy such as Sati and efforts
at enabling women to attain liberty
by means of providing education and
equal opportunities, the dynamics
created by the confrontation between
this ingrained dichotomy and an at-
tempt at renewal of Bengali social
structure resulted in the formation
of a new kind of patriarchy some-
thing where attempts to construct
a new woman who was apparently
liberated were being made but at the
same time, the innate nature of con-
trol over the female sexuality could
not be overpowered. Ace film-maker,
Satyajit Rays Charulata can also be
understood in a similar light.
A very important aspect the film
deals with is the fragility of the re-
lationship between the devar and the
bhabhi . Like so much that Tagore
did, Nastanirh attracted adverse crit-
icism from Bengalis at the time. The
story gave the foundations of family
life a shake, which many people re-
sented. The main reason for Bengali
unwillingness to see the Charu-Amal
relationship for what it is, is peculiar
to Bengal.
Since the bou or the woman of the
house finds in her devar the only per-
son she is not in an unequal power
relationship, there is an element of
light-hearted exchange and fun be-
tween the two and as Gupta argues,
an exhilarated sense of joy and a
certain emotional dependence. This
was different from the restrained
relationship the woman shared with
the husband. It is clearly depicted in
the verbal exchange between Amal
and Charu in instances like Charu ad-
dressing Amal as Diggaj Babu (the
accomplished one) etc. Gupta men-
tions that in urban areas, education
and reformist rhetoric increased the
opportunities for women to move
around in the household. They may
have found in extra-marital relation-
ships a degree of solace and escape
from everyday drudgery and lone-
liness. More importantly, bhabhi
was someone the devar could easi-
ly flirt with as she found in him the
only person she could freely talk to.
Charu develops a deep romantic re-
lationship with him. Her constantly
touching, holding and hugging him
and sobbing and getting angry and
possessive for him can be seen in this
light.
PLACING THE RHETORIC
Deeply inspired by Mill and Ben-
thams ideas of freedom and equal-
ity, Bhupati, portrayed by Shailen
Mukherjee, who is insistent upon
propagating the same by means of
his newspaper The Sentinel which
runs on his feudal money and is des-
tined to be in dire straits. Bhupatis
enterprise keeps him busy all day,
leaving his young, childless (conve-
niently, though) good wife Charu to
herself. He loves Charu and he might
make an ideal husband were it not
for his newspaper. Bhupati is an arm-
chair revolutionary, who rails against
Englands colonial yoke, and,
41
 as the newspapers editor, he has no
qualms about venting his rhetoric in
his columns
In spite of being neglected, she is ami-
able and fills up her time reading liter-
ature and looking at the outside world
from her sequestered ghar through
her lorgnettes. It is also interesting to
note how Ray portrays the home in a
Bhadralok vis--vis the spirit of patri-
archy that binds it. The bhadramahila
is provided with the Western equip-
ment- lorgnettes and literacy to look
at the outside world while definitely
staying within her part of the world,
her ghar.The visual elegance and flu-
idity that Ray achieves in Charulata
are immediately evident in the long,
all-but-wordless sequence that fol-
lows the credits and shows us Charu,
trapped in the stuffy, brocaded cage
of her house, trying to amuse herself.
(At this period, no respectable mid-
dle-class Bengali wife could venture
out into the city alone.) Having called
to the servant to take Bhupati his tea,
she leafs through a book lying on the
bed, discards it, selects another from
the bookshelfthen, hearing noises
outside in the street flits birdlike from
window to window, watching through
her lorgnettes the humdrum of street
life below. When Bhupati wanders
past, barely a couple of feet away but
too engrossed in a book to notice her,
she turns her glasses on him as well
just another strange specimen from
the intriguing, unattainable outside
world. Rays dcor may be diverting-
ly lovely, but he makes sure to include
42
hints of Charus inner reality: the iron
bars on the window and the birdcage
poised in the the corridor, for exam-
ple, suggest all is not well.
Under the credits, weve seen Cha-
ru embroidering a wreathed B on a
handkerchief as a gift for her hus-
band. When she presents it to him,
Bhupati is delighted but asks, When
do you find the time, Charu? Evi-
dently, its never occurred to him that
she might feel herself at a loose end.
But now, becoming vaguely aware of
Charus discontent and fearing she
may be lonely, he invites her neer-do-
well brother Umapada and his wife,
Mandakini, to stay, offering Umapada
employment as manager of the Senti-
nels finances. Manda, later described
as Prachina by Amal proves poor
company for her sister-in-law who is a
Nobina, an educated, modern wom-
an with a deep understanding and a
literary bent.
Suddenly, the light in the room dark-
ens and the winds pick up, threatening
the homes blas tranquility. The storm
heralds the arrival of Amal (Soumitra
Chatterjee), Charus brother-in-law, an
idealist-poet with whom she will fall
in love. True to Tagore, Ray marshals
natures tantrums to foreshadow or
punctuate turning points in his char-
acters lives, and this is a particularly
poignant moment because no one,
least of all the happy-go-lucky Amal
nor the dutiful Charu, expect the emo-
tional storms to come. Both seem to
find a common point on literature as
they discuss Bankim babus (Bankim-
dra Chattopadhyaya) Anandamatha
and music as Amal sings Tagores Ami
Chini Go Chini Tomare, O go Bidesh-
ini to Charu.
He spends his days chatting with the
women, Charu and Manda, as they
bemusedly humor and flirt with him.
The bearded-and-gartered Bhupa-
ti, however, frowns at Amals literary
dreams, at art and literature in general,
believing them to be irrelevant distrac-
tions from the real issues. Politics is
different, he says to Amal, Politics is
life. In any case, concerned about his
wifes loneliness, he enlists the reluc-
tant Amal into keeping her company
and to find out if Charu truly has the
creative talent that she fancies through
her books. In reality, Bhupati is just as
much a dreamer as Amal. He toils day
after day in his newspaper office, hold-
ing aloft the torch of patriotism and
the collective spirit of Young Ben-
gal, but he never suspects the villain
close at hand for Umapada (Shyamal
Ghoshal), Charus brother and Man-
das husband, has been slowly siphon-
ing money from the newspaper. The
fate that Bhupati suffers in the course
of the film is arguably far worse than
Charus, owing to his nave civic and
marital trust.
Amal inspires Charu to write and Cha-
ru gradually attains the self-imposed
right to be the first one to read all of
Amals work and openly displays feel-
ings of envy when Manda seems to
be taking over this right. Slowly and
almost unknowingly a sexual love de-
velops between the two. By means of
these characters, the story discusses
social implications trudging alongside
personal lives and relationships.
The scene played out in the garden,
is significant not only for what it re-
veals of Charus heart, but as a mi-
crocosm of Rays artistry. Pivoting
the scene on Charu, he deliberately,
even playfully, follows her observa-
tions, tracing the slow emergence of
feelings she knows are forbidden. As
she arcs back and forth on the swing,
Ray switches from intimate close-ups
of Charu singing her signature tune
to her point of view, showing the re-
posed Amal flitting in and out of her
view. The effect is of a chipping away,
of Charu realising that the walls that
have heretofore kept her feelings at
bay are being intruded upon and ex-
pressed visually by Amals jutting in
and out of her point of view. This
becomes devastatingly clear moments
laterwith Ray again using the optical
point-of-view tacticwhen she spies
a mother and child through her lor-
gnettes and then turns her gaze to a
preoccupied Amal. Ray cuts to a pro-
tracted close-up of Charu as the tides
of regretover her childless life, her
yearning for romancesweep across
her face followed by a wave of sudden
panic as her love for Amal dawns on
her. Its a quintessential Ray moment
of slow, patient observation leading to
an emotional wallop of a climax. It is
now when Amal also realises that Cha-
ru might be Going too far as he tells
Charu when she asks him to push the
43
 swing she is sitting on. When her sto-
ry is published in a literary magazine,
much to Amals awe and amazement,
the bond between her and Amal
strengthens into mutual admiration;
that is, until Amal begins to feel un-
comfortable. Blind to all but his own
ideals, Bhupati is left to weather the
fate of his business and his marriage.
An important development in the
film can be studied in the light of the
growing professional partnership be-
tween Bhupati and Charu when Charu
offers to run a newspaper along with
him and Bhupathi gladly accepts it,
clearly depicting the changing status
of the New Woman.
The pattern of relationships within
the traditional joint family and the
complex confrontation is depicted
very craftily by Ray by means of the
spatial variation among Charu, Bhu-
pati and Amal and the various rivals to
the attention of Bhupati and Charu-
the newspaper for Charu and Amal
for Bhupati. The concepts of bound-
ary and decorum, which are the three main characters, but smoulders
pillars of the home-world dichotomy
is very well played with in the parts
wherein, when on recognising the na-
ture of Charus love for himself, Amal
consents to marriage and goes abroad
thus staying within the decorum, but
in close contrast to this, when break-
ing violently from this constraint,
Charu collapses on bed on getting
Amals letter, making almost no effort
to hide this facet from her husband
who for the first time comes face to
44
face with this realisation and the in-
tense emotional power of his wifes
grief. The music, rising in crescendo,
is strangled. The figures of Charu and
Bhupati stand frozen across a series of
still frames. She is reaching her hand
out to him, pleadingly. He, tentatively,
appears to want to take it. But, in spite
of the lamp a servant is bringing, the
corridorthe home, at largelooks
haunted now by the spectre of marital
discord. The appearance of the title,
The Broken Nest, in Charulatas
final shot underscores this. Its Tag-
ores original title for the story and,
by placing it at the films end, Ray
shrewdly endows it with a portentous
quality. Thus, though the entire drama
takes place inside the upper- middle
class Bhadralok and on the surface
is about the suppressed romance and
characters relationships and preoccu-
pations, it is essentially also about a
classist and sexist society and a wom-
ans or a bhadramahilas desires and
dissent in Bengal of the colonial era.
The desire and longing of Charu is
treated as a fire that engulfs all of the
Charu the most intensely. Unlike Tag-
ore, the maestro, Ray suspends the
climax in an animation, leaving the au-
dience to discern the emotional con-
flagration.
Thus, one can place the film in a back-
ground of historical flux depicted
very effectively by means of natural,
physical as well as a few subtle sym-
bols. More importantly, it is to be not-
ed that while all characters appear
naive and positive, there are dramatic
sequences and moments of weakness
that tend to bring a change in the re-
lationships and ideals they share. Ray,
by means of several subtle themes
and objects in the background, suc-
cessfully carves out the scenes in a way
such that each of them is soaked in a
particular emotional hue . He makes
them flow in a smooth succession
unravelling the multiple and diverse
aspects of human behaviour vis-a-vis
situations generated by various histor-
ically contemporary developments.
References
Gupta, Charu. 2002, Mapping the Do-
mestic Domain, in Sexuality, Obscenity,
Community: Women, Muslims, and the
Hindu Public in Colonial India, New York:
Palgrave, 2002.
Robinson, Andrew, 1989, The Lonely
Wife (Charulata) 1964, in Satyajit Ray:
The Inner Eye, Berkeley: U of California.
Sarkar, Tanika, 2010, Hindu Wife, Hindu
Nation: Gender, Religion and the Prehis-
tory of Indian Nationalism, London: C.
Hurst.
http://www.manushi-india.org/pdfs_is-
sues/PDF%20files%2045/26.%20
The%20Bengali%20Bhadramahila.pdf
http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/
Te3Y4XUerSTxUar6PyYG5L/Calm-
without-fire-within.html
https://www.criterion.com/current/
posts/2872-char ulata-calm-with-
out-fire-within
http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/re-
view/charulata
45
efefefef

Language, Labels
and History
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There is a glaring juxtaposition in
modern writing in the way in which,
on one side ancient Roman slaves are
treated as victims and shown with
sympathy because they had fallen
prey to the terrible wrong of the in-
stitution of slavery whereas, on the
other side, the ex-slaves (who had
either bought their way into free-
dom or been granted the same) were
treated with a decidedly disapproving
attitude. However recent scholarship
on Roman freedmen is different from
that of the people writing in the early
20th century. They do not echo their
predecessors lamentations on the in-
filtration of the original Italian stock
with the entry of foreigners who orig-
inated mostly from the east. How-
ever, even relatively recent scholars
have pointed out that these ex-slaves
were climbing the social ladder sole-
ly by making more and more money.
Even their approach is derogatory to
a great extent since they too term the
freedmen as foreigners whose social
status could never equal that of a
free-born Roman citizen. They also
disapprove how the masters would
free slaves without having adequate
reasons to do so. This approach of
Freed From Slavery,
Chained By Labels
Kajri Raymahasay
scholars seems extremely irrational
since slavery is seen as a violation of
an individuals basic human rights and
therefore the granting of freedom, ir-
respective of the reasons behind it or
the numbers should be looked at in
a positive light. The abuse of man-
umission (the formal way in which a
slave was freed)that scholars have re-
ferred to in the context of ancient
Roman slaves is a phrase that gives
priority to social background over ba-
sic human rights.
Therefore, the prejudices of the an-
cient scholars and records certainly
creep into the works of the modern
writers and the way they treat Roman
freedmen (which includes women).
The history of Rome written by Di-
onysius of Halicarnassus, who was a
Roman elite writing in the first centu-
ry BC, regret the way in which slaves
used criminal means and sold their
body as prostitutes to buy their free-
dom from their owners. Gaius Petro-
nius Arbiter, who was a companion
of Emperor Nero, had written a novel
called The Satyricon in which one of
the characters was a freedman called
47
 Trimalchio. The libertus is depicted
in the most ridiculous manner in the
novel where he throws a profligate
dinner party and not only serves ridic-
ulously expensive food but also shares
his plans of building a tomb like that
of a baker called Eurysaces. This
tomb of Eurysaces has survived from
ancient Rome and is referred to as a
30-feet high visual joke by scholars. It
elaborately showcases the instruments
essential for a baker. Clearly, the baker
took great pride in his profession and,
considering the splendor of the tomb,
profited well from it. The modern
historians treat Trimalchio as a model
for studying Roman freedmen and the
bakers grave only confirms the ste-
reotype. In the first place, the Roman
elites foresaw the political dangers in
the rising financial position of the
Roman freedman. Secondly, after a
survey conducted by historians on the
tombs of the ordinary citizens of an-
cient Rome it had been concluded that
not only was a great majority of this
population of slave origin but most
of the graves were also not as elab-
orate as the bakers tomb. The hum-
ble epitaphs of the graves challenge
the notion that most of the freedmen
were like Petroniuss depiction of Tri-
malchio.
The way in which a person became
a slave from a free man needs to be
elaborated upon in order to under-
stand their position after manumis-
sion. In most cases it was the defeated
lot in a Roman conquest. They were
transported by sea or foot across vast
48
distances. In this process they were
bought and sold several times. The
only time their nationality was even
recalled was when the sellers would
advertise them at the slave markets.
When men bought slaves, each man
chose a name from one source or
another whatever suited him well.
Thus, the trip itself severed captives
from the original markers of their
identity- family, community, language,
and name. Even after manumission
the freed slaves, unlike free born chil-
dren, could not inherit their fathers
culture. If captured in a foreign war,
they could not practice their cultures
values in the Roman society without
facing the stigma of alienation. The
lack of a socially acknowledged father
dishonored the ex-slave and left him
open to mockery. Manumission was
seen as a favourBeneficiumof
the master for which the slave should
be ever obliged. This was not just so-
cially but also legally imposed through
Obsequium. The ex-slave was severely
punished for any aggression against
the patron whereas there was limited
redress against the abuses of the pa-
tron. This shows how the freedom of
freed slaves was unfair and conditional
to several restrictions.
There were stringent rules surround-
ing the process of manumission
placed by the State. The age for grant-
ing manumission was set at 20 while
that of being granted the same was
set at 30. The number of slaves that
could be granted freedom by death-
bed manumission was restricted.
However, the epitaphs that have been
studied by historians show that sev-
eral people below the age of 30 were
granted freedom even if not formally
manumitted. Also, since a magistrate
was required for the process of manu-
mission several people might not have
been able to track one down
Junian Latin was a category of people
who had been granted freedom but
not manumitted (the act was not for-
malized) because of which they could
not become Roman citizens. Even
though the slave owners were merciful
towards the slaves while granting free-
dom the Roman Emperors and jurists
did not feel the same way. Being re-
duced to the position of a slave was
ruled as a punishment for a free wom-
an who slept with a slave. The image
of the freed slaves created by Ancient
scholars was due to resentment and in-
security. The act of manumission was
not just criticized but also curbed by
the State. During the time of Agustus,
Claudius and even Marcus Aurellius
several laws restricted the social and
political mobility of the freed slaves.
After all there was a reason why they
were enslaved in the first place and it
cannot just be need for cheap labour.
They were the defeated ones and their
existence embodied the superiority of
Romans. Giving them political and so-
cial power was unthinkable by the elite
of Rome. Why then, we might ask, did
manumission exist in the first place?
The act of manumission implies how
slavery was defined in the Roman so-
ciety. The temporary nature of slavery
had a huge impact on the way it must
have been looked at by ordinary Ro-
mans (Varros phrase instrumentum-
vocale which literally means speaking
tool was inclusive of free labour even
though in modern world history it is
misunderstood to just denote slaves).
This kind of flexibility in the institu-
tion of slavery made it much more en-
during than anywhere else in history.
This grant of freedom to slaves was
only letting them climb one step up
the social ladder of Rome. They were
only one step above the slaves and still
below the freeborn citizens and the la-
bel of them being libertines which
in our language means over-indulgent
and extravagant, was constructed to
keep them there.
References
Anderson, Perry, 1966, Passages from An-
tiquity to Feudalism, London: Verso.
Hopkins, Keith, 1981, Conquerors and
Slaves, Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Joshel, Sandra R., 2010, Slavery in the Ro-
man World, Cambridge: Cambridge Uni-
versity Press.
Review of Henrik Mouritsen, The Freed-
man in the Roman World (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2011)http://
bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2012/2012-02-15.
html
49

Urdu hai jiska naam, hum hi jaante
hain Dagh,
saare jahan mein dhoom humari zaban
ki hai
Urdu, one of the most beautiful lan-
guages, which not many know, devel-
oped in South Asia. Like many other
North Indian languages, Urdu belongs
to the Indo-Aryan language family.
Much has been written on the origin
of Urdu. It is generally believed that
the language of Muslim army sta-
tioned in Delhi from 1193 onwards
known as urdu-e-mualla (the exalted
army) got mingled with Khari Boli,
the language of the inhabitants which
led to the formation of Urdu. Urdu
is always said to have arisen in Delhi,
however, it should be noted that Per-
sian-speaking soldiers entered Punjab
and began to live there nearly 200
years before the first Sultan sat on the
throne of Delhi. What is believed to
have happened in Delhi, would actual-
ly have taken place in Lahore centuries
earlier. These troops stayed in Pun-
jab and in the course of time began
to speak the language of the coun-
try, modifying their mother tongue.
50
A Literary History of
Urdu Language
Zayana Nasir
The formation of Urdu began with
Ghaznavi forces settling in Lahore in
1027. At what time they gave up Per-
sian and took up Urdu is difficult to
discern . By the twelfth century Urdu
was probably the commonly used lan-
guage for conversation. Therefore, we
must distinguish two stages: (i) begin-
ning in 1027, Lahore-Urdu, consisting
of old Punjabi overlaid by Persian; (ii)
beginning in 1193, Lahore-Urdu over-
laid by Khari Boli (not very different
from old Punjabi), further influenced
by Persian, the finally the Delhi Urdu.
The earliest literary texts in the Urdu
language were produced in the Dec-
can region. As the Mughal emperors
in the North India patronized Persian,
the Deccan Sultanates at Golkunda
and Bijapur provided patronage to
Dakkhani Urdu. The Sufi saints and
poets produced many texts in Dak-
khani Urdu. The earliest extant text is
a verse narrative, Kadam Rao Padam
Rao by Nizami (1421-1434). Sabras,
an allegorical tale by Wajhi (d.1635) is
considered to be the first prose clas-
sic. The major Dakkhani poets include
Mohammad Quli Qutb Shah (d.1626),
Gawwasi (d.1631), Nusrati (d.1674),
 Ibn-e-Nishati (d.1655) and Wali Au-
rangabadi (d. 1707).
The 18th and 19th centuries are con-
sidered to be the golden period of
the classical Urdu poetry, when lan-
guage reached its highest degree of
sophistication and excellence. The
great masters include Mir Taqi Mir
(d.1810), Sauda (d.1781), Khwaja Mir
Dard (d.1784), Insha (d.1817), Musha-
fi (d.1824), Nasikh (d.1838), Aatish
(d.1847), Momin (d.1852), Zauq
(d.1854) and Ghalib (d.1869). These
poets penned large number of ghazals
(lyrics). With regards to the masnavi
genre the prominent poets included
Mir Hasan (d.1786), Daya Shankar
Nasim (d.1844) and Nawab Mirza
Shauq (d.1871). Nazir Akbarabadi of
Agra (d.1830) is considered the folk
poet par excellence of Urdu. In mar-
siya (elegy) writing no one surpassed
Anis (d.1874) and Dabir (d.1875) of
Lucknow. Ghalib who was a contem-
porary of the last Mughal ruler, Baha-
dur Shah Zafar, is considered to be the
last of the classicals as well as the first
of the moderns.
Though prose had made its begin-
ning in the 18th century, Ghalibs
letters set the standard for modern
prose, followed by Sir Syed Ahmad
Khan (d.1898), Mohd. Husain Azad
(d.1910), Hali (d.1914) and Shibli
(d.1914). During the 19th century,
the cyclic tales running into thou-
sands of pages and several volumes
like Tilism-e-Hoshruba and Dastan-
e-Amir Hamza (1881-1917) gave way
to shorter prose tales, such as Bagh-
o-Bahar (1802) and Fasana-e-Ajaib
(1831) by Rajab Ali Beg Suroor. The
beginning of the novel, however, was
made by Nazir Ahmad (d.1912), Ratan
Nath Sarshar (d.1902) and Mohd.
Hadi Ruswa (d.1931). The 20th cen-
tury witnessed proliferation of Urdu
novels in the writings of Premchand
(d.1936), whose Godan is considered
to be a classic. The other modern clas-
sics include short fiction by Saadat
Hasan Manto (d.1955), and novels like
Aag ka Darya (1960) by Qurrat-ul-ain
Hyder, Udas Naslen (1963) by Abdulla
Husain, Ek Chaadar Maili Si (1962) by
Rajinder Singh Bedi, and Basti (1979)
by Intizar Husain.
The term Urdu as a nomenclature for
a language is of recent origin, prob-
ably used for the first time around
1780. Early names for the language
now called Urdu were Hindavi, Hindi,
Dihlavi, Gujri, Dakkhani and Rekhta,
more or less in that order, though until
about middle of the nineteenth centu-
ry Dakkhani continued to be the name
for the language used in Deccan. The
English, seem to have found a set of
names of their own liking. Edward
Terry, a companion to Thomas Roe in
Jahangirs court in his A Voyage to
East India describes the language as
Indostan, saying that it was a power-
ful language which could say much in
few words. In North India both Hindi
and Rekhta were popular as the names
for the same language sometime be-
fore the eighteenth century. The spo-
ken language was almost always
51
 referred to as Hindi. Hindavi was in
use until about the end of eighteenth
century. Mushafi states in his first di-
van compiled around 1785:
Mushafi farsi ko taq pe rakh, ab hai
ashar-e-Hindavi ka rivaaj
(oh Mushafi, put away Persian now,
Hindavi verse is the mode of the
day)
The divide between Urdu and Hindi
occurred under the colonial impact
with the growing cultural conscious-
ness as part of the processes of po-
litical modernization. A beginning, in
fact, was affected at the Fort William
College, Calcutta (established 1800),
under John Gilchrist (1789-1841).
There is enough evidence to show
that the British rulers tied down the
question of the varieties of Hinda-
vi, first to the cultural heritage and
social hierarchy, and later to religion
and political power play. Thus, it was
at the Fort William College that the
two distinct trends in literary prose
writing came to the fore. On the one
hand, we had Mir Ammans Bagh-o-
Bahar (1800-1802) and Hyder Bakhsh
Hyderis Aaraish-e-Mehfil (1802-1804)
as representatives of the Urdu prose,
and, on the other hand, Lallu Lals
Premsagar and Sadal Mishras Nasike-
topakhyan as representatives of the
Hindi prose. Raja Shiva Prasad in his
book of grammar, in the year 1875,
reiterated that Hindi and Urdu have
no difference on the level of the ver-
nacular. He wrote: The absurdity be-
gan with the Maulvis and Pundits of
52
Dr. Gilchrists time, who being com-
missioned to make a grammar of the
common speech of Upper India made
two grammars... The evil consequence
is that instead of having a school
grammar of the vernacular as such...
we have two diverse and discrepant
class books, one for the Mohammed-
an and Kayastha boys and the other
for the Brahmins and Banias.
The conflation of religious and lin-
guistic identity, particularly in the case
of Urdu speakers, has had a significant
impact, as the debate is now framed
within the context of communalism
and bigotry. Opposing sidesthe
Hindi-wallahs vs. the Urdu-wallahs
have appropriated public discourse to
restrict the discussion to a religio-na-
tionalist perspective alone, with the re-
sult that the debate is confined to the
historical origins of Urdu, its role in
defining Muslim culture, the national
movement, and even the creation of
Pakistan. The term Hindustani,
proposed by Gandhi, signifies a com-
mitment towards openness in nam-
ing the vehicle of expression used by
speakers who may well have differing
political and cultural ascriptions, and
thus reflects a terminological compro-
miseit is a language of Hindustan
with an overlapping linguistic con-
tinuum common to both Hindi and
Urdu. However, this compromise was
rendered irrelevant in Independent
India, in which the communalization
of public discourse has rendered it
unusable, as this discourse immediate-
ly cast it to be a Trojan horse of the
other side.
The statistics regarding the religious
composition of those who do con-
sider Urdu to be the language of
Muslims shows that the association
of Urdu with Indian Muslims is a
construction of non-Muslims. Even
though the vast majorities of all faiths
spoke and wrote it until the British left
India. You may find the journals of
your forefathers written in Urdu. One
of the major reasons for the decline
of Urdu is that it has not been pro-
moted in the education sector. Not
every school offers Urdu as the sec-
ond language and those who do offer
Urdu are chronically short on teach-
ers. As a result, the language that had
been the symbol of power and pres-
tige across the vastness of South Asia
now finds itself limited to madrassas,
mosques, and sometimes ironically, in
Bollywood.
53
 Freshers 16
eftefteftef
 Tarikh 16
eftefteftef e
 Tarikh 16
eftefteftef
The Many Meanings of Heritage
Prof. Romila Thapar in conversation with
Prof. Kumkum Roy

eftefteftef
Photo courtesy : Jasmine Chahal