Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Chapter- 3
Patriarchy and Gender Discrimination:
Bravely Fought the Queen, Dance Like A Man and Tara
colours and filthy clothes, buy a male child a gun, when we rebuke girls for
behaving like boys, or tease boys for behaving timid ‗like girls‘, we are ‗doing‘ this
on the basis of gender. That is, we are distributing specific roles and attributes to
the male and female sexes; likewise we also impose different sets of expectations
considered as the head of the family. It is said that God has made women different
from men. Women are physically weak and less capable in comparison to men. In
fact, they need men to take care of them. Since men have to be protectors and
caretakers, it is natural that they exert power and authority over women. In this
power execution process, men overlook the interests and freedom of women. This
exists in most languages and divides up objects into masculine, feminine and
masculine, feminine and neuter. In language gender is the matter of habit and
convention – this is how things have been referred to and this is how they ought to
be referred to. However, the term ‗gender‘ has other meanings. It has come to be
associated with ‗biological sex‘. Sex is considered a fact- one is born with either
meaning to the fact of sex. In the sociological context, the word gender refers to the
socio-cultural definition of man and woman, the different social roles associated to
them by societies. It was believed for long ages that the different roles, status and
characteristics assigned to men and women in society are determined by sex, that
they are natural and therefore cannot be changed. Thus, sexual differences play
vital role in the allotted social status and power of men and women. As soon as a
child takes birth, the process of gendering starts by the families. The birth of male
child is celebrated while the female child filled with pains. The parents encourage
cultural category that colligates and re-writes the meaning of human sex, the fact of
being masculine and feminine. The identities, roles and relationships that are
associated with gender have come about as a result of human agency. That is they
are neither innate, nor given but constructed, made and re-made by human beings as
they lived, loved, worked and procreated. It is a lived and experienced relationship
differences that mean masculinity and femininity are not biological or physiological
aspect. Neither are they God-given. Instead they are parts of system of thought and
action which have been constructed by human beings over centuries. It refers that
the meaning and significance associated to them are myriad, dependant on time and
gender based issues in contemporary literary scene has become the burning topic
which tries its best to diagnose the malaise of the gender discrimination within
patriarchal based society. The gender based approaches comprise feminist issues,
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lesbian/gay issues, issues of hijras, alternate sexuality, child sexual abuse etc. It is
significant to note:
Simon de Beauvoir‘s telling phrase. Milton‘s line ―He for God only,
she for God in him‖ could well cited as anexample of the almost
God, the state, society, not least his self-advancement, while man‘s
Though the biological differences between male and female are accepted
facts yet the notion that female or woman is inferior to male or man has no causal
explanation. And it is Simon de Beauvoir who declares that ―one is not born but
become woman‖(273). The old prejudice against woman as being weaker than man
contemporary socio-political problems but also for his bold treatment of virgin and
taboo subjects in his plays. The preoccupation with marginal issues forms an
or are pushed to the periphery, come to occupy centre stage quite literally. Dattani
is of the view that these ‗invisible‘ issues should be pushed forward to create an
acknowledgement of their existence. Dattani‘s plays reveal his preference for the
fringe and virgin issues, the issues least discussed or not discussed at all such as
To relocate the position of women in the patriarchal order has been the
expanded the horizon of theatre by introducing the issues that are judged to be
taboos. To break the taboos, to expose the misery of sexually marginalised sections
and to reflect man‘s consistent struggle with his inner self, confronting with socio-
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ethical restrictions constitute a specific strain in the dramatic art of Mahesh Dattani.
It is a product of social practices. The media, the families, theschools, the literature
and art all construct the notion of gender. Dattanitries to unfold the excesses and
Bravely Fought the Queen (1991) has been critically admired all over the
world including Britain‘s prestigious Leicester Haymarket Theatre. The play is set
in Bangalore of the 1980s and 1990s and charts the emotional, financial and sexual
workings in the lives of an urban Indian family. The play focuses on the wrapped
the alternative sexuality which is obviously the matter of choice for Nitin, we see
how the conjugal relationship with his wife Alkaloses its normal colour because of
The play is divided into three acts, entitled ‗Women‘, ‗Men‘ and ‗Free for
All‘. The first act remains focus on the home-confined identity of women. In the
second act there is a fine exposition of the world of men representing the outer
space of the business world and third act lays bare characters and their two worlds.
The fissure between conventional and modern cultures having thrown up a new
social landscape, the play races towards a brave culmination, laying bare the
gruesome truth that lie behind the pretence of conservative Indian morality. The
play concerns itself with question of gender, sexuality, alternate sexuality and
identity, although the approach is perhaps secondary to the more open themes of
gender differences and the rupture between the male and female world. While the
main setting of the play is the politics of the Indian joint family, it constantly point
at the division of and the dominance of the one over the other. This is made clear
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from the title that Dattani gives to his three acts: ‗Men‘, ‗Women‘ and ‗Free for
All‘.
The title of the play, Bravely Fought the Queenis derived from the famous
on the great Rani LaxmiBai of Jhansi and her name in the play is invoked as an
ironic parallel to the women in the play who are passive, helpless and victims of
male tyranny. All the three women in the play, Baa, Dolly and Alka suffer in their
own ways. The oldest of them, Baa, suffers from the disloyalty of her husband. He
abandons her in favour of another woman. So she now lies bed-ridden and aged,
and no one responds to her call. Baa‘s eldest daughter-in-law, Dolly is a meek and
pale character and is beaten by her brutal husband when she was in her advanced
in the deformed birth of her daughter, Daksha. Alka, the younger daughter-in-law
has her own cross to bear; her husband has a homosexual relationship with her own
brother, Praful, who has planned this marriage to carry on this relationship, right in
expose the juxtaposition of past and present. The realistic events and imaginary
events are beautifully mingled in the play without breaking the flow of interest. The
significance is marked in the play as it is clear from the title of the three acts. While
the first act throws light on the identity of women confined to home only, the
second act focuses a fine exposition of the business world of men. Both these
spaces are pre-conceived and well defined by the society. However, the third act
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proceeds with the belief that distinction between male and female spaces is an
The play deals with three couples, Dolly and Nitin, Alka and Jiten and
Lalitha and Sridhar, each existing in a hierarchical relation with others. The play
centres onTrivedi family with their two brothers Jiten and Nitin and their wives
Dolly and Alka. Both the brothers are genetically right descendants of their
tyrannical father who always tortured their mother physically causing deep hatred
in Baa. Jiten, the elder son exercises control over the family as son, brother and
husband. He is sadistically aggressive and kicks her wife brutally even in her
pregnancy. In the same way the younger son Nitin subjects his wife to
psychological torture by inflicting sexual deprivation. All the relations in the play
are maintained strictly under the dictates of patriarchy. The gender division is
more fraught, as the characters struggle under the domination of individual as well
space- those of the ideal husband, faithful and docile wife, responsible and caring
Bravely Fought the Queenis a play about sinners and their secret guilts; it is
about violence against women, about exploitation of the weaker and about the mean
through the medium of his plays, focuses on relevant issues of society. He does not
provide any resolution but leaves it to the audience to discern for themselves their
own space and its problems. His interest of writing always centres on the area of
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Banarjee:
power play class and gender. A lot of my plays deal with them and
believe that the form should serve the content. (Indian Literature
2004)
in which the process of female silencing is at work. The play exposes the position
of women in traditional Indian society. The presence of women like Dolly and Alka
is taken for granted. They are expected to remain present at home, to understand the
requirements of the ones who are really in charge and to be always ready to obey
Thus, Dattani, in his plays becomes the mouthpiece of the muted, subalterns and
marginalised as all subjugated class of society are not permitted to speak of their
rights and duties. They have to survive in the home-confined spaces and are kept in
The first act of the play entitled ‗Women‘ presents the position of women in
India. Women in the play are subjected to different level of hierarchies; domestic,
professional and social level that is closely connected with class concerns. All the
three women in the play suffer in their own way. The old Baa unknowingly married
an already married man. Her husband, after giving birth to three children, deserted
her to live with his former wife. Thus, she is the victim of man‘s debauchery. She
was thus left alone to fend for herself and her three children. The Indian society is
unnecessarily cruel to such lonely women. She must have face many problems in
bringing up and educating her children. Dolly, the other female member of the
family has her own cause to suffer. She, beaten by her husband Jiten while she is
Alka‘s husband is gay and maintained a relationship with her own brother Praful.
Thus,Alka, who longs for her brother‘s acceptance for herself, silently suffers her
fruitless marriage with Nitin. Nitin‘s homosexuality is revealed in the play when he
says:
to look at him. Close enough for my breath to fall gently on his face.
All the three women try to escape the confines of their claustrophobic world
in various ways: Alka with alcohol, Dolly with her fantasizing about Kanhaiya and
Lalitha with her obsession with bonsais. The challenge for the characters in the first
act is to carve individual spaces out of their oppression and live lives of their own.
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The remarkable element which Dattani highlights in the play is the absurdity
of the situation in which the women are trapped by birth. As Gauri Shankar Jha
writes:
Act first begins with Lalitha‘s entry into the Trivedi household. All the
women meet one another and in this meeting women relate to each other in terms of
their patriarchal identity as wife as also their capitalist identities as employer and
Dolly: No, no I did. What I was trying to remember was- whose wife
are you? You know we met at the office partylast month so you must
This shows that women do not realize their individual identity; they try to introduce
themselves with the relative identity of their male partners. So in the play both of
the sisters try to place Lalitha in the context of her husband. But the presence of
Lalitha in the Trivedi household, where women have well-defined roles to play,
create a space that is her own. When Alka asks her identity, she says:
It is Lalitha‘s attempt at formulating an identity of her own that dissolves the class
hierarchy between the women of the Trivedi house and Lalitha. She is an emissary
from the male world. Dolly finds it difficult to praise her over involvement in
business world. The presence of Daksha, Dolly‘s daughter, in the play is silent but
is very pertinent for the painful reminder of violence wracked by her husband. The
old Baa, mother of Jiten and Nitin, also asserts paternal authority and does not
mental thinking, all the three women try to escape the frustration of their
claustrophobic spaces. The bonsai is the only significant metaphor integrated in the
play. It unveils the attitude of power- ridden society towards women. Their roots of
desires are constantly cut like bonsais to create the desired effect. PayalNagpal
aptly says,―Alka, Dolly and Lalitha are all bonsais each of different kind, with one
difference. Unlike the bonsai their nurturing needs are also not taken care of. But
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like the bonsais, they too reflect on the beauty and class quotient of their male
counterparts.‖(80)
Act second entitled ‗Men‘ transforms the sets from family world of women
to the office world of men. Jiten dominates the business world and is highly
various ways. Meanwhile, in their business settlement men discuss the psyche of
women and Re-VA-Tee brand of lingerie. Jiten argues the whole matter on the
item, they are trying to sell -women‘s lingerie, from male point of view whereas
Sridhar tries to argue for the female as it is female product. Sridhar was of the view
that the advertisement would not attract women to buy the product. But instead of
agreeing they should work again, Jiten argues that they should try to attract men
Jiten: Yes! Men would want to buy it for their women! That is our
market. Men. Men would want their women dressed up like that.
And they have the buying power. Yes! So there is no point in asking
Sridhar warns him, ―They‘ll screw us! If we do not come out with a compaigne idea
that works, we‘ll be dead!‖ (279). Jiten presents male chauvinism and asserts the
Baa, in spite of being his mother, has a realization of weakness of Jiten. She admits,
―Jitu is just like his father. Just like him.‖ (284). There is an obvious parallelism
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between two tales of suffering of Baa and Dolly. Baa, being beaten and ill -treated
by her husband slips into nightmare of the past and expresses her delirium:
You hit me? I only speak the truth and you hit me? Go on. Hit me
again. The children should see what a demon you are. Aah! Jitu!
Nitin! Are you watching? See your father! No! No! Not on the face!
What will the neighbours say? Not on the face.Ibeg you! Hit me but
In the third act, entitled ―Free for All‖, all the characters are exposed and the
false appearances are lost. Dolly, who in the first act appeared as meek, passive and
Alka, revealing the torturous truth about Daksha and exposing the horrors of her
brother Praful. The play ends with Nitin‘s acceptance of his ‗gay‘ relationship with
How can you still love your brother after what he did to you…?
That‘s right. Don‘t answer. Just sleep. (Laughs) You always were a
heavy sleeper. Thank God. Those times when I used to spend the
night at your place, I used to sleep on his cot. And he would sleep on
Sridhar, who has already revealed himself to be every bit as egotistical as Jiten
seems now to don the mantle of the stereotypes as he proposes to leave with
Lalitha.
layers of exploitation in the advertising world and the way it seeps into the
construction, the selling of women products, and most of all women as target for
the male gaze is appropriate and suits his motto. According to Jiten his Ad-
women are expected to dress themselves and throw themselves at their male
partners. All the three chapters reveal different aspects. First act reveals location to
which the women are tied down; they remain at home most of the time. The
cloistered female world of act first clashes with wheeling and dealing, corruption
and adultery of act second of male world. The revelation is made as to the nature of
their true selves in the confrontation of act third; the realities of their lives come
out.
The play exposes male chauvinism and women as the colonized victims in
the male dominated society. Women in Indian society are considered as rude,
refinement process of their actions and behaviour that men apply on them horrifies
our eyes. The tool which is used for the civilization and socialization of women is
nothing but violence. Alka‘spresent condition in the play is the result of this
civilizing process which also creates a rift between Dolly and Alka. Like Tara this
control over the affairs of the family. She is not merely a woman but patriarch in
the guise of a man. She has become a repository of all the male values in the family.
of male gaze. Jiten and Nitin gratify their sexual desires with market girls. They are
The least that Dolly is asking for is the recognition of her status as a
member in her own house. Alka, in the play is presented as confirmed boozer and
hence an utter misfit in the family. Her case gained a certain kind of poignancy in
the fact that she has been used by her own brother as a veil behind furtive gay
relationship may continue. Yet in comparison Lalitha seems more compatible than
the other two due to her total absence of any visible manifestation of physical
PayalNagpal depicts clearly the position of Lalitha vis-à-vis the other women in the
play:
roles to play, Lalitha is able to create a space that is her own. She
that dissolves the class hierarchy between the women of the Trivedi
space that constantly shifts them to a patriarchal space of control. The play
uncovers the women‘s position in conventional Indian society. Dolly and Alka are
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first managed by their brother and then by their husbands. Praful, as a brother in
patriarchal society has full right to exercise violence on their sisters, if he feels they
are going astray. The pain of women living in so called globalised world of
I told him to drop me before our street come. He did not understand
word to me. He just dragged me into the kitchen. He lit the stove and
new scenario, her oppression takes new form. Here she does not have right to feel
free or to express herself. As she dances in the rain, she is considered as boozer, an
immoral and an uncivilized woman. It is however ironic that Jiten who himself has
secret relationship with other woman, is now making sweeping claims of morality
Trapped in a patriarchal matrix that allows little space for female world, the
women in the play seek alternative ways of expression, despite the fact that women
have been conditioned at the hands of patriarchal oppression for many years, they
still have potential to resist deteriorate social forces. The women in the play identify
themselves with the bravery of Rani of Jhansi but at the same time they find it
difficult to relate to her as she was ―manly queen‖. Her bravery has been
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appropriated into a matrix of patriarchal power that recognizes only men as brave.
Dattani subtly reveals how even in the course of history, the immense bravery of
This suggests that there is a need to locate areas for empowering female identity as
a dynamic trope and not one that remains developed in the folds of patriarchy and
gender.
drama takes up serious problems prevailing in urban India. He, very successfully,
possesses an exceptional sensibility for the sufferings in society born out of gender
discrimination. He delves deep to examine the psychic reaction of those who are the
victims of discrimination. He believes that ‗society‘ and ‗self‘ are two different
entities and without the harmony of the two human lives cannot constitute the
balance.
22 September 1989, as a part of the Deccan Herald Theatre festival. The play was
staged to public and earned a critical acclaim in India as well as abroad. Dattani has
written three types of plays: Stage plays, Radio plays and Screen plays. Dance Like
a Man is a stage play in three acts. It opens questions on hypocrisy and gender
patriarchal authority has been brought out effectively in the play. The protagonist
Jairaj and Ratna, Bharatnatyam dancers, come under the pressures of patriarchy and
Jairaj is worst hit by it. Jairaj could not become successful dancer because of his
father, Amritlal Parekh who did not allow him to pursue dance as his career. In his
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effort to break away from the imposition of his father and form an identity of his
The play Dance Like a Man conceptualizes the gender issues with an
preconceived and predetermined and the efforts to cross the boundaries pose threats
and the noesis of society is the central motif in the play. It is a fact that when one
exploration would be of women‘s issues. About this play Dattani says, ―I wrote the
young man wanting to be a dancer, growing up in a world that believes dance is for
women.‖ (Ayyar 2004). It suggests that Dattani was inspired by two irresistible
passions: dancer and dance i.e. to be a dancer, an individual choice and the fear of
society that ‗dance‘ is a feminine art and man‘s attempt to be a dancer would be a
questions about the sexual construct of man. The stereotypes of gender roles are
pitted against the idea of the artist in search of creativity within the restrictive
constriction of the world that he is forced to inhabit. Jairaj with his obsession for
about gender:
In the play Dance Like a Man, Dattani gives a twist to the stereotypes
associated with ‗gender‘ issues that consider only women at the receiving end of
oppressive power structures of patriarchal society. The play rejects this notion and
explores the nature of the tyranny that even men might be subject to within such
structures. The play is a self-discovery of Jairaj‘s ideals of life and the burden
thrusted in his life from outside world. It deals with the lives of the people who feel
circumstances. Jairaj, the central character of the play sees himself as a big failure
partly because of his father‘s autocracy and partly due to his wife‘s ambition.
and forties. He is a freedom fighter and a reformist but he curtails the freedom of
his son who wanted to become a Bharatnatyam dancer. He in the view of his son
was ―as conservative and prudish‖ as the white rulers. The clash of motives of Jairaj
with his father involve the issue of identity crisis, the stigma of gender binary
desires and forces of destiny. The perpetual clash of human motives with the
traditions of family, prejudice of society and the code of culture constitute the
dramatic structure of the play Dance Like a Man.Jairaj, having a passion for dance
of patriarchal authority. His antipathy to a great many things that concern the
activities of his son and daughter-in-law draws the boundary line for their
behaviour within the sphere of influence. For him dance is the profession of
prostitutes and so improper for his daughter-in-law and absolutely unimaginable for
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his son. He fails to tolerate that Ratna, his daughter-in-law should learn dance from
a ‗Devdasi‘, the temple dancer who is traditionally looked down upon as prostitutes
in society. He, thus, feels that no self-respecting person should perform such a
and the idea of honour of an artist to a ‗Devdasi‘ was a challenge for person like
Amritlal. He, being disgusted with the effeminate nature of the art of dance, tries
his best to dissuade his son from pursuing his career in dancing. Making a reference
obvious that dance would make him ‗womanly‘—an effeminate man – the
Dance Like a Man is a powerful human drama that provides an insight into
the contemporary Indian social scene, reflecting the aspirations of a middle class
South Indian couple, who by their choice of profession as dancers, mirror the past
and the present Indian culture, identities and gender roles. The play revolves around
the life of 62 years old Bharatnatyam dancer, Jairaj Parekh and his wife Ratna who
is also a Bharatnatyam dancer. They are living with their only daughter, a
promising dancer. The play begins with Latawaiting for her parents‘ approval of
Viswas, a young Mithaiwala whom she wishes to marry. The very first observation
of Viswas shows male prejudice against dance as he says, ―Dancers stay at home
till its show time.‖ (387) Lata too is apprehensive about her future as a dancer, if
her fiancé Viswas would not permit her for dancing profession, ―Actually they
could not care less who are what you are. As long as you let me dance.‖ (388) The
feeling of insecurity always hovers on Lata‘s mind. She thinks that the
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responsibility of married life would ruin her career, freedom and her individuality.
The conversation between Lata and Viswas prepares a background to expose the
The play encapsulates Jairaj and Ratna‘spresent tension and past struggle as
well as their present efforts and past discontentment. They reflect upon their past
struggle, failure and success as dancers. They got married much against the wish of
his father. The father, who claims to be a freedom fighter social reformer, is a
manipulator by nature. He does not permit his son to exercise his own will. The
gender defined roles are so deeply rooted in Indian society that Amritlal do not like
Guruji‘s long hair, criticizes his way of walking. Dattani interrogates the
interest becomes a passion, it becomes a social stigma for Amritlal. He says, ―My
request is that you finish with your session as quickly as you can and see that your
Guruji leaves before my visitors arrived. God forbids that they should bump into
one another. (422) While Jairaj wants to be a dancer, Amritlal feels embarrassment
for his dancing Bharatnatyam whose earlier practitioners were devdasis and the
secrets of dance form from person like devdasis, it becomes stigma for him. He
People will point at you on the streets and laugh and ask.
(397)
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dancing. He makes a pact with her that he will consent to her career in dance if she
helps him in pulling in Jairaj out of his dancing obsession and make him a ‗manly‘
man. He grants his permission to Ratna to dance with the condition that she should
restrain Jairaj. The following conversation between Amritlal and Ratna makes it
clear:
Ratna: no
pathetic.
by Amritlal and Jairaj respectively, Jairaj suffers both as a dancer and as a human
being. He does not take up the manly path that his father thought that he would and
not of female but of male. The receiving end of the politics of gender is not Ratnaso
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much as is Jairaj: kept on a leash by his father, eclipsed by his wife, a failure as a
dancer and an alcoholic. His father and wife have conspired to achieve their own
selfish ends, to prolong the old stereotypes and reinforce their own sense of security
at his expense. Jairaj‘s tragedy is that he chooses a career that is accepted ‗right‘
only for women. That is why his father permits Ratna to be the dancer but not
Jairaj. In conservative Indian society we see when men take up dancing as their
career, there is heavy parental and social pressure on them to become engineers,
doctors, businessmen and teachers so that a lucrative is assured. The male dancers
who wish to excel in this field are considered as an effeminate and alien ‗other‘.
Dattani, in this play questions the norms and criteria of being a man. If the question
remains of social acceptance and strict adherence to the patriarchal gender construct
then Jairaj‘s view regarding ‗erotic numbers‘, reveals that Jairaj has hardly accepted
Jairaj: There is nothing crude about it. I danced the same item for
the army. A friend of ours arranged a programme and the money was
good. Your mother was too scareand they only wanted a woman. So
They loved it even more when they found out that I was a man.
(435)
within an Indian family is set against the idea of creative artist searching for
creative accomplishment. Such endeavours of the artists are often pushed to a state
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of helplessness where the artist has to confirm to the stereotypes within their
The second part of the play where Jairaj speaks against the negligence of
Ratna and domination of his father proves that his external consciousness cripples
at the face of the odds of life. Ratna humiliates him by addressing him a spineless
boy who couldn‘t leave his father‘s house for more than forty-eight hours. This
affects their personal relationship and creates disharmony between them that ends
Bit by bit. You took it when you insisted on top billing in all your
items. You took it when you arranged the lighting so that I was
(443)
Thus, Jairaj‘s life is shaped and reshaped according to others desires and dreams.
While his father wants to shape him according to his desired shape, Ratna, his wife
carves out her own method to give a shape to the manhood of Jairaj. He is not
allowed to shape his own desires. This is pathetic and makes his tragedy, a tragedy
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of soul. The feeling of being inadequate overpowers him all the time and he
and questions the discrepancy between the man‘s world and woman‘s world. She is
undoubtedly the most dominant character in the play. She married by her own
choice in a Guajarati family, dominates their taste by her own South-Indian plate of
dosa, idli and coffee. Unlike Jairaj, she protests to make her space, to defend her
rights. She is very assertive and more competent to fight for her identity, ―You
cannot stop me from learning an art.‖ (421)The argument she makes against
Amritlal, impresses us as rational and logical and justifies her progressiveness but
Amritlal: How do you feel? How do you feel dancing with your
husband? What do you think of him when you see him all dressed
and…made up
Amritlal: Is it?
Or did you marry him because he would let you dance Ratna: That
Well…Yes. (426)
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The action in the play moves between the past, present and future
synchronically, dissolving the different time shifts and anticipating the fate of three
generations. As soon as Jairaj recalls his past, his conflict gets internalised. He
recalls the crucial juncture from where he and Ratna started their lives. They dreamt
to perfect their art as both of them were Bharatnatyam dancers. Ratna accomplishes
her art but Jairaj couldn‘t as he becomes the victim of patriarchal authority of his
father. After her accomplishment as a dancer, Ratna concentrates all her hopes on
the performance of her daughter Lata. What she had lost in her life, wanted to
achieve through Lata. With the success of Lata, she strengthens herself but makes
English and in other Indian vernaculars. Tara is also a problem play which centres
around the theme of gender discrimination and identity crisis of a girl child
in a family. It reflects the reality of Indian society as to how women have been
subjected to persecutions and sufferings right from the birth to death. In the twenty-
first century, too, women are discriminated on the gender basis. Society has always
tried to define her role, confined to the four walls of her home. Although many
remains strong rooted in India. Despite the fact that in our ancient books and
scriptures, sometimes women have been admired in a hyperbolic terms. Manu, the
greatHindu saint of India, in his famous book Manusmriti writes that where there is
worship of women, there the gods dwell. But it is unfortunate that women in most
of the classes have been treated as weaker sex or second sex or flower vase or a bird
The plays of Mahesh Dattani are significant for their innate freshness and
candour. The social issues which entangle our lives are discussed in his plays. The
play Tara shares the anguish of gender discrimination in Indian society. It was
1990 by Playpen Performing Arts Group. Dattani himself directed the play at first
question related to his most famous and performed play, he replies that his play
Tara is always assumed asthe most performed play. He further said that its former
present title—Tara.
The story of the play Tara is centred on the issue of gender preferences. The
play centres on the emotional separation that grows between two conjoined twins
following the discovery that they were born with three legs and at the time of the
operation, arranged by their mother and maternal grand- father, the boy was given
third leg though the major blood supply to that third leg was provided by the girl.
Thus, the play questions the role of society that treats the children of same womb in
two different ways. It is a play about two children, joined together at the hip. Out of
them one is boy and the other is girl, they can be separated only surgically. This
surgery means the death of either of the two. The patriarchy and injustice starts
here. Bharti, the mother gives preference to the male child and thus strengthens the
chain of injustice. Thus, Dattani‘s play Tara sets under the background of a middle
class family in which a girl child suffers because she is not productive for the
growth of the family. She wants to blossom in the family but is pruned by her own
favour the boy (Chandan) over the girl (Tara). Tara, a feisty girl who
isn‘t given the opportunities given to her brother (although she may
London, changes his name to Dan, and attempts to repress the guilt
Woven into the play are issues of class and community, and the
Thus, Tara shows the picture of Indian girl‘s life which is that of subjugation and
advanced and liberal in its thought and action. Therefore, it is evident enough to
confirm male chauvinism prevailing in our day to day life. The play revolves
around the Siamese twins, Chandan and Tara Patel, an operation to separate the
twins at birth, leaves Tara crippled for life. In the operation it is Tara‘s own mother,
Bharti who prefers Chandan to provide third leg. In a society which claims that its
mothers are educated today and have ‗Devis‘ like Durga, Kali, Laxmi, Saraswatietc
whom not only women but men also pay reverence and obeisance, differentiate
between male child and female child. All the propagandas of equality between male
and female, equal opportunities to women in the entire field are belied. Thus, the
The play opens with a scene in which Dan, changed name of Chandan, a
playwright recalls his childhood with his sister, a Siamese twin. He begins to write
his story of past. Patel and Bharti have two children, Tara and Chandan, conjoined
twins. They share third leg. Now the time comes for surgery and the big question is
with whom the third leg lie. All the members of family knew that the third leg can
survive only with Tara. Even the second God on earth Dr.Thakkar knows this fact
but under the influence of money he becomes ready for this unethical surgery.
The preference for the male child is so common in the society that the
surgeon could be easily managed for the wrong doing to the girl child. The master
plan of conspiracy was arranged by Bharti‘s father, who being rich and influential
in the society, badly needed heir, as he was without son, his grandson was the next
preference and so he tried his best to see Chandan standing on his two natural legs.
Hence the surgeon, Dr.Thakkar was bribed to doing the unethical job and since the
medical science has not yet been able to exercise total control over Nature, the
operation was unsuccessful and both the twins had to depend on artificial leg. It is
clear that if the leg had been given to Tara, it would have suited to her but nobody
Thus, Dattani is of the view that in spite of the fact that Indian culture is one
of the most ancient and loftiest cultures of the world, it has not been able to
progress in its age-old beliefs on the subject of gender differences. So Tara, being a
girl gets secondary position in the society. It is all due to stereotypical thinking of
traditional people like Bharti and her father. Anita Myles opines, ―Tara is the
portrayal of woman as a victim and she was denied the opportunity to become a
normal human being because she was a female and preferences had to be given to
male members dominate female members. They have the supreme power to take all
decisions related to their family. In such patriarchal societies, the identity of woman
is defined as others in terms of her relationship with men. Patel who is the
between the role of his son and daughter. There are certain gender roles associated
to men and women in the society and hardly anyone bothers to go beyond those
accepted norms. Thus, Patel could not bear the scene in which Chandan was
Chandan: Why?
Patel: (To Bharti): How dare you do this to him?...you can think of
The preferences for the beneficence of male child while staking the life of female
child is pathetic and takes to culmination the feeling of rejection felt by women in
our society. Though Tara is no less intelligent than Chandan, Patel thinks only
about Chandan‘s career. When Chandan says that he will not go to college without
Tara, Patel feels unhappy. He says again and again that he has some future plans for
Chandan, but he hardly shows any interest in the future of Tara who is crippled and
needs more secure future. Tara is the victim of male chauvinism. It is social reality
that a girl is always given next position to boy and is considered as second grade
Chandan. The world will tolerate you. The world will accept you—but not her! Oh,
the pain she is going to feel when she sees herself at eighteen or twenty. Thirty is
unthinkable. And what about forty and fifty!‖ (344) Though Tara and Chandan both
were crippled yet Tara‘s condition was more pathetic and precarious so needs more
financially secured future to survive in the society. But unfortunately nobody in her
family thinks for Tara‘s future because she was a girl. Patel is the manager of the
family and is a firm believer in old values. He has fixed opinion regarding women‘s
position. Due to Bharti‘s dominating nature, he feels helpless and confused. He was
not able to tolerate a woman‘s domination over family. Next is Dr.Thakkar who
operates upon the conjoined twins of Bharti and Patel. He knew the consequences
of the decision to transplant the third leg to Chandan. But his overpowered ambition
It is interesting to note that the girls have become the most vulnerable
section of our society. They are dependent and need utmost support in the bad time.
There is no differentiation between male and female in Indian constitution and they
are given equal opportunities to develop in healthy, free and dignified way. It is
thus, the responsibility of parents and society to follow to the principles of ‗First
Call for Girl‘. But in Tara another reality comes in front of our eyes. In the play, we
find that it is the parents and family members who exercise dual morality for male
and female child and give something more to male child.While in doing so they
totally ignore the aspirations and wishes of girl child. It is evident that Patel is
desirous to send Chandan to his office but does not think to call his twin sister Tara,
who is more interested in learning the art of business. He agrees only on Chandan‘s
insistence.
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come.
Patel: No!
to.(352)
to the office and college with Tara. Chandan, a representative of new values, is
surprised and shocked when he comes to learn that there is no reference to Tara‘s
share in the Will, but Patel considers it quite natural. His reaction is that of typical
gender discrimination. It deals not only with gender issues and the treatment of girl
child in male dominated society, but also with gender biases and prejudices which
still affect several girl children‘s lives even amongst educated urban families like
Patel family in the play. The most striking part in the play is Tara‘s betrayal by
Bharti, her own mother who herself is a woman. Thus, by making the woman
destroyer of another woman, Dattani brings out the root of gender discrimination.
Though Bharti‘s father also plays a part in this crime, it is Bharti who has to bear
the brunt of blame ultimately. In this way due to her mother‘s one wrong decision,
Tara has to carry the burden of being physically disabled all through her life. She
becomes the innocent victim of society‘s injustice. Dattani is thus, concerned not
only with the issue of gender discrimination in Indian society but also with the
contribution of the female to the injustice towards women. In the male dominated
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society, a woman is valued for her beauty and sex appeal. Tara possesses
potentiality which Chandan does not possess. Tara is intelligent, energetic and
without fear. When Chandan says that he will not join college without Tara, she
tells the truth on his face that he cannot do very much on his own and is therefore
afraid.Chandan accepts angrily that everyone is not supposed to get her strength.
Tara tells her, ―You are afraid. Afraid of meeting new people. People who don‘t
know you. Who won‘t know how clever you are.‖ (361) When such a girl fails to
do anything positive and it is learnt that she was denied her right to stand on her
own feet only because she was a girl, Dattani succeeds in showing how her
potentiality was sacrificed on the altar of gender. It is taken for granted that a
woman has to do all the odd jobs at home such as sewing, cooking etc. and the man
Victorian poet says, ―Man for the field; Woman for the hearth‖ (The Princess). Tara
taunts this age-old concept when Roopa enters the room and asks if she disturbs
them:
Ours has been a patriarchal society where men have always enjoyed a
privileged position. Like men, women also need space to breathe freely and
flourish. But it is unfortunate that female feticide has become very common of late.
People are degraded to such an extent that they kill the fetus of the male child even
before it takes shape in the uterus. The play Tara directly indicates the gender
prejudices prevailing in Indian society. The society is made of man and woman.
One is incomplete without the other. But man always gets better deal while woman
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generally gets partial treatment of the society. They are killed even in the womb. As
AshaKuthariChaudhari opines:
different sets of plans for the boy and the girl.‘ (89)
by men and women from one generation to another, make it difficult for laws to be
implemented and also for social reformers to bring about meaningful change in the
mind set of common people. There are many reasons for the displacement that Tara
undergoes. First and foremost is that she is a girl child. In a patriarchal society the
fate that a girl child meets is not congenial for her survival. Most of the time they
face the pain of female feticide. Sometimes, they are abandoned after birth to be
Roopa (to Tara): Since you insist, I will tell you. It may not be true.
But this is what I have heard. The Patels in the old days were
they used to drown them in milk. So when people asked them how
the baby died, they could say that she choked while drinking her
milk. (349)
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Tara is not just the story of the protagonist of the play but it is the story of
the every girl child born in Indian family whether urban or rural. The play is
narrated through the consciousness of Chandan who emotionally suffers after the
untouched by the poison of gender discrimination. He loves his twin sister very
much and believes in her talent. But the stereotypical people like Bharti and her
father snatch her zest of life. It is interesting to note how the patriarchal system
undermines the women folk despite their calibre and potential. If Tara had been
given the leg that was rightfully hers, perhaps she might have had a different
Though it was Bharti‘s decision to provide third leg to Chandan, she was
not the master planner of this unethical decision. She, under the authority of rigid
parents unknowingly does injustice to her own daughter. This guilt was rooted in
her psyche even before the operation. She knew well the trauma of the
consequences of her decision, finds herself too weak to resist social forces. Her
after sometime, she feels guilty and tries to shed her burden of guilt by showing
maternal love and concern for her daughter. She also donates her kidney to Tara,
which was ultimately futile. This was Bharti‘s repentance but unfortunately it was
not very beneficial for Tara. On the other hand, Patel, the father of Siamese
children, is not free of blame himself. He believes in patriarchal values and treats
Chandan differently from Tara. He thinks future plans only for Chandan. He never
shows his love and sympathy towards his daughter but gives full attention to his
son. He too believes in gender hierarchy and, thus, his protestations are ultimately
hollow and his rejection by Dan seems apposite. Bharti‘s father further
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strengthenshis indulgence for male grandchild by leaving his property after his
demise to Chandan and not a single penny to Tara. Sangeeta Das opines:
The gender crisis which has given rise to identity crisis among our
progress has been proposed in the country‘s agenda. Dattani has just
female and belie all the hue and cry for female emancipation
which turns human existence quite ‗absurd‘. Happiness seems transitory, deriving
from false reality. Tara, who believes in her mother‘s love for her in the beginning,
realizes the truth towards the end of the play. Tara is surprised when she comes to
know about the motif behind the love and affection of her mother. She is shaken to
learn from her father, Mr Patel that her mother and grandfather had deprived her of
the leg and crippled her—as all women are crippled by patriarchy. Tara was denied
the opportunity to live like a complete human being as she was a girl. After the
revelation of her mother‘s truth, Tara stands alone in a daze.Chandan moves to her
and a gesture to her to hold her hand, but Tara turns away from him. She utters in
sorrow, ―And she called me her star.‖(379) Thus, the love Bharti displays for Tara,
loses meaning in essence and displaced by Tara‘s feeling of disgust and treachery.
As G.J.V. Prasad says, ―This is a play about the injustice done in the name of
does as much harm to men as to women.‖ (141) It is unfortunate that Tara and
Chandan both are born in the same society but the society does not accept her as the
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other part of the same coin. A girl is not thought productive for the family as well
as for the society and Tara is doomed to oblivion. Everyone uses her for its own
sake. Her parents use her for a male child, Dr Thakkar uses her for money and all
Dattani, through his play Tara reveals the reality of so-called modern Indian
society in which the entrenched social biases regarding gender roles are responsible
for creating and perpetuating male/ female binary. In such a social milieu, a male
child is seen to possess a profit making potential while the abilities of female child
are underestimated or negated and they are relegated to inferior position of service-
provider. In the play, the fateful leg which was the cause of Tara‘s bad health and
consequent death could not be given to the boy as it became useless after few days.
The leg would have been complete success with Tara‘a body. The leg would not
only save her life but also made her a complete person which she very much desired
to be more than her brother Chandan. The theme of the play is based on the
mentality of Indian society. It shows that the sons may be less talented and less
intelligent than their female issues, but parents always prefer spending money and
giving more attention on their male issues. Despite being enthusiastic and full of
zest of life, she was deprived of the life she deserves, by her own mother. Dattani,
on the basis of Indian experience, claims that even a woman makes difference on
Identity crisis is strident in our society. The title of the play stands not only
for its protagonist, Tara but it is the story of every girl child born in Indian family.
The situation is aggravated if the girl is physically challenged. Dattani hints through
Tara that every girl child suffers some kind of exploitation and if there is boy in the
Though Tara is a play about the injustices done to women, it is also a play
about the injustices to men such as Chandan for no fault of his goes through a sea of
agony and spends his life in guilt. Although he was not guilty cause, he could not
forgive himself for the wrong doings done towards his sister. He considers himself
responsible for Tara‘s death. In order to escape the horrors of situation created by
others, Chandan leaves to London in a new identity ‗Dan‘. He becomes writer and
withdraws himself from the external world but he finds it difficult to compromise
with the injustice. Tara was an inseparable part of his inner-self. As Erin Mee in the
…Tara and Chandan are two sides of the same self rather than two
separate entities and that Dan is trying to write the story of his own
Chandan suffers for the wrong choices of his parents. The dictum, ‗more
sinned against than sinning‘ can be used to reveal his condition. Chandan wants to
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twist his grief into drama by writing about his sister‘s childhood. Even of the
unethical and manipulated partition of them done by their dear one, which is made
against the law of Nature, they are emotionally united. They share the same agony,
untimely death of Tara shatters him and he feels alienated from the society. Tara‘s
Moving in a forced harmony. Those who survive are those who not
defy the gravity of others. And those who desire even a moment of
prevailing in the society. Thus, Dattani through Chandan reveals the fact that
categorizations between the genders, but there cannot be anything which is called
cultural polarity. Besides Tara‘s case Dattani also introduces other cases of gender
discrimination in the play. Thus, there is a scene in the play in which Chadan and
Roopa talk on the film Sophie’s Choice, Dattani allows Chandan to bring in the
horrific choice between sexes that people may be forced to make. In the scene,
Sophie, the polish immigrant, faces the problem of choosing one from her two
Nazis will only allow her to keep one child. The other one would be
Roopa and Chandan makes the point clear that this answer is not articulated.
However, what we get is a little bit of necking that goes wrong. The play is not only
about gender- discrimination but about our notions of normality and disability as
well.
Dattani seems to send the message that gender discrimination is artificial and as
…Unlike the radical feminists, who are seriously concerned with the
projects a world in which both male and the female are looser as
they are forced to stay under the illusion that being biologically
different, the male and the female are also compelled to accept
male and the female in the society Dattani creates a real world—
when Tara and Dan are seen hugging each other in some other place.
A project combination of the real world and the dream world in Tara
helps the dramatist pave out a new way for projecting his views on
Thus, all the three plays reveal the issues of gender discrimination. Protagonists in
the plays, Alka, Dolly, Jairaj and Tara are the victims of the social systems which
control the minds and actions of the people. Women also play significant role in the
degradation of their own groups. According to Dattani men and women ought to
complete each other in their lives only then life can run smoothly. A successful life