Ismat Chughtai

 

 

Table of Contents

 Abstract 

Chapter 1 Introduction  ………………………………………………………… 1

Chapter 2 Marriage in Ismat Chughtai’s short stories………………………......6

Chapter 3 Subaltern in Chughtai’s short stories…………………………………21

Conclusion……………………………………………………………………….34

Bibliography        

 

 

 

                              

 

 

 

                                       

 

 

                                       

 

 

 

 

Abstract

 

The research aims to study the status of women in early 19^th century in North India from Ismat Chughtai’s short stories. To comprehend the status of women, the research focuses on marriage of women in early 19^th century. The researcher concentrates on the concept of marriage, problems faced by women after marriage, the changes in life after marriage, age of marriage from chughtai’s short stories. Next the research focuses on the study of subalterns in Chughtai’s short stories by using concept of subaltern by Gayatri Spivak. She in her essay, Can the Subaltern speak? mentions about the women who are voiceless and are represented by  others, i.e the dominant group in the society. The research wants to study how women were oppressed and what did they do when they faced problems. The research analyses the short stories of Ismat Chughtai to know the stratum of women in early nineteenth century in North India. Research wants to study how the subalterns were controlled by dominant group in the society. Researcher uses quantitative method in her research to make an anlysis of women’s status in early 19^th century women in North India.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                               

 

 

                                                                    

                                             Introduction

 

“Her writing is ironic, caustic, frank, and bold and, yes, irreverent if the occasion merits it.

She is merciless in her depiction of corruption, deceit, injustice and hypocrisy”[1].

These are the words said by Tahira Naqvi in one of her interviews, with the news paper The Hindhu , about Ismat chughtai.

 

 Ismat chughtai is one of the famous Urdu writers in India. Chughtai wrote novels, plays, travelogues etc. But her most remarkable achievement lays in short story form. Lihaaf is her well known work and she is known by everyone for that work. Ismat Chughtai is one of the prominent writers who wrote about the living experience which she experienced in the society in which she lived. She uses the themes and characters of her stories from the sphere she knew intimately—the Muslim families of Agra, Aligarh and Bareily. She was born in 1911 in Uttar Pradesh at a place called Badun, associated with the memory of Gautama Buddha. Her father, Qasim Beg Chughtai, was a judicial magistrate who served at different capacities as Agra, Kanpur, Luknow and late in princely state of Mewar. She was known for her story “Lihaaf’, which was famous in India because it was the first short story which talked about the lesbian and homosexual relationship.

 Many short story writers have represented the caste system, partitions, women’s problems etc. Ismat  chughtai is also one of the writers in the  progressive movements in India.

 Her stories contributed for the betterment of the society. She pointed out the evils in the society. Her short stories concentrated on women issues, partition of India, development of political parties in India, communal relationships etc. Researcher in this work studies some of her short stories to know the status of women during early nineteenth century in India. The short stories the researcher  studies are Gainda, The Quilt, The wedding suit, The homemaker, Touch –me-not, Sacred duty, Tiny’s Granny, Mother –in-law, Roots. 

      

The researcher in this work is studying about the conditions of women in early 19^th century as represented in short stories of Ismat Chughtai. The work is concentrating on the conditions of Muslim women. The researcher studies marriage because after this important act of marriage the life of women changes. From the childhood the girls are trained to live a perfect life after marriage but even then changes happened in the lives of women. Next the researcher wants to look at the life of subaltern in Chughtai’s short stories. Using Gayatri spivaks concept of Can the Subaltern speak the researcher wants situate how women were voiceless in that society and they had no right for representing themselves rather they were represented.

This work contains two chapters. In the first chapter the researcher concentrates on marriage in the short stories of Ismat Chughtai. Marriage was an important turn point for the women in early nineteenth century. Marriage is a point where the life of women gets twist. After marriage girls are sent to some others house where the girls parents anticipate a boy to take care of their daughter. Marriage was a stage where parents used to get rid of their responsibilities. Marriage was a secret act but it had various problems. The problems rose because women were under men’s control—for money food and protection. Men had full liberty over women. The researcher observes marriage as a concept and studies what was the main necessity of marriage?, Why did marriages fail? Why were the women suffering after marriage, what were the expectations of society and family from a girl after marriage? Researcher sorts out all these questions with the help of Ismat Chughtai’s short stories.

The second chapter concentrates on gender subalternity. The researcher studies Gayatri Spivaks can the Subaltern speak? Spivak in her essay does not ask whether the subaltern does speak, what she asks is if it is possible for her to speak, in other words, she asks if the subaltern has the agency to speak. Spivak talks on representation. She says that when Western scholars say that there is a chance of representation; she argues that representation is done by men i.e dominant group in the society. She gives the example of sati, where sati is not given voice; instead she is represented by white and brown men saying sati is a brutal act or sacred religious act.

 The researcher from her literature review finds that most of the work of Ismat Chughtai is done on her short story Lihaaf. This story is studied to know about the sexual life of a woman in a high class society, to show the patriarchal society, homosexual studies done on it.

Chughtai is also studied as a partition writer, her stories as All Alone is studied extensively by different scholars. The other short story which is used is Wedding Suit. It is learnt from the custom were women gather to make dress for wedding and how beliefs were knitted with the knitting of dress. The same story is studied in this work from the view of marriage and subaltern. The following are the literature review done by researcher.

  In Haram in the haren: Domestic narrative in India and Algeria by Mohanlakshmi Rajkumar. In this book the second chapter describes about Ismat Chughtai and her short stories. Mohanlakshmi Rajkumar says, women were considered as guardian of national culture, indigenous religion, and family traditions in Muslim society by Muslim reformers. Chughtai stood against these beliefs. Mohanlakshmi Rajkumar has taken two stories of Ismat Chughtai to elaborate on this idea. The rock and the quilt are the stories taken by the writer to describe about the women’s oppression. In both the stories they were brought home after marriage and faced disastrous autonomy, self esteem, and sexuality. Ismat Chughtai is described as, one of the famous well known writer of (PWA) progressive writers association. PWA focused on social inequality in the government. Writer portrays that chughtai’s writings challenges, “Traditional view of fore fathers” which focus on life within upper class Muslim household. (Monakshi Rajkumar 29). Chughtai’s work challenges the idea of home as a continuous and homogenously neutral place where culture is unquestioningly preserved and protected from colonial forces. In her stories the threats to traditional values originate from within the home itself and from within its desiring subjects”.

 Radicalism in India: Gender nation and the transition to independence by Priyamvada Gopal.   In the 3^rd chapter of this book, the writer talks about the Ismat chughtai’s Lihaaf. She says about the story from the eyes of a girl. The story was filed in the court as obscene. But at the end, the Lucknow court said that story had no obscenity. The writer says that the work was a step towards modernity. When modernity and nationality was there the writer says how the women tried to adjust to the concept of modernity. She says Chughtai clearly puts out the problems of women in the world of modernity and nationality. She talks about how modernity influenced the members of family. She describes how women had to be careful about keeping the norms of the family after going out of the house. Ismat Chughtai is a writer when the problems of modernity were in its peek.

 

Encyclopedia of women and Islamic culture; Family law and politics by Suad Joseph and Afransh Najmabadi. The writers talk about the friendship among women in South Asia. In that context they speak about the middle class Muslim women. The writers give the examples of two short stories the wedding suit and the quilt .In the first story they say about the friendship of women within their family. They had not only friendship with family members but with their neighbors which is depicted in the story wedding suit.                                                                                                                                  In quilt writers said about the relationship between two females which was a taboo during that period. Friendship was accepted only between the two members of different sex.                                                                                                                         Writers said “Ismat in twentieth century initiated the spread the idea’s of women education and social change” (194  Suad joseph and Afransh Najmabadi). Ismat chughtai and other writers during her period wrote about the changes of conventional beliefs and the real happenings behind the veils. Thus they brought about changes through the short stories they wrote.

  A history of Indian literature –Sisir kumar Das. The writer speaks about different writers from India. These writers from different states of India influenced the society. He says Ismat Chughtai was one of the best writers who gave new direction for Urdu literature. She had a very good family background, but  she had to fight for her education. He says Ismat Chughtai was known for her short story Lihaaf. He says rest of her life she fought against hypocrisy and religious fanaticism.

 Borders And Boundaries; Women in India’s partition by Ritu Menon, Kamala Bhasin. The writers take the short story Roots   to describe about the partition of India into India and Pakistan. Writer takes the lines from the short story to quote in the beginning describe about the pains of division. They use these lines to say how partition affected the lives of people. The families had to depart from each other in the name of religion. The families which were friends before partition became enemies after the marriage in the name of religion. The writer describes about the conditions of partition.

Ismat Chughtai- -A tribute- TahiraNaqvi. Tahira Naqvi makes a complete study of Ismat chughtai. She writes this article as a tribute to her. In the beginning she writes about her family background, her growth in a middle class family. Later she describes about her writings. She discusses about the writing style of Ismat Chughtai. She talks about her short story Lihaaf  

which had undergone controversies. She explains the main themes of some stories as the “veil, where we meet a woman whose loyalty whose loyalty to the institution of   marriage is has tragically consumed her whole life, a phenomenon deeply ingrained in the very fiber of South Asian culture”(Taqvi 42) She describes about the language used by the writer and the themes and plots explored by her. She ends her essay by writing about the end days of Ismat Chughtai, her contributions too literature after sixties was very less.

 Ismat Chughtai Lifting The veil selected writings by M. Asadudin. In this book Asadudin has collected different stories of Ismat Chughtai. In his introduction he talks about Chughtai’s personal life in the beginning. Later he discusses about her short story ‘Lihaaf’ for which she was taken to court for obscenity. Then the writer discuses about different stories and gives a description of every story as in wedding suit he says is the story of experiencing new culture. He says she has not only written about women, but she also talks about different issues as communal violence, partition etc.

 The writer just takes only one aspect of a story and does not look into the other phase which she brings into the story. In wedding suit she talks about poverty, dowry, patriarchal society, and social relation of women with the members of society, difficulties they face after husbands death etc. Thus the writer looks into one phase and ignores. The researcher wants to look into different aspects of the story and see how women suffered in the society.

 From all the writings mentioned above, it depicts that Ismat chughtai was studied by different writers to represent the South Asian women community, homosexual relation, the culture of women during Ismat Chughtai’s period etc. Everyone took her famous short story Lihaaf. Her other short stories are not considered. These stories talks about the women, partition, communal violence during early nineteenth century in India. The researcher is concentrating on her short stories s Wedding suit, Mother-In –Law, Touch –me-Not, Sacred Duty, Lihaaf, Gainda, Homemaker to study about the marriages during early nineteenth century North India. The researcher from these stories wants to study about subalterns. Researcher wants to verify whether the subalterns had voice, could they represent their problems or needed someone to represent their problems. Researcher  in her literasture review did not find any work done on Ismat Chughtai’s short stories to learn about the status of women in early nineteenth century in North India.

 

                                                            Chapter -1

                                   Marriage in Ismat chughtai’s Short stories

 

In India, marriage remains an essential step of any individual’s life. Very few remain single, especially for women. Marriage is part of the religious, spiritual, social, cultural and economical life. It is a bond between two families. The majority of marriages are arranged in most layers of the society: rich, poor, urban, rural, literate, illiterate, Christians, Muslims, Hindus. Marriages occur mainly in the same caste, sub-caste and community. In 1991, the average age at marriage was 19 for the women and 24 for men.

 [2]Seemanthini Niranjana in her book Gender and Space says “Marriage is a critical turning point for a girl, allowing her to translate into reality latent reproductive capacities and there by realize her claim to woman hood in the eyes of the communit.The pressing obligation on the part of parents to marry off a girl underlines the high cultural value attached to wifehood”. Ismat Chughtai’s stories are a clear example for this statement. In some of her stories, as the Homemaker, Mother-in-law, touch –me-not, etc the girls life has a twist after marriage. Researcher observes the following different tribulations in married life of a girl as their age of marriage, barrenness, husbands disinterest in them, dowry etc Ismat chughtai has written many stories which articulate about the married life of women in middle class Muslim society. Marriage was done according to the wish of parents. The bride or bridegroom had no chance of choice in their marriage. The one, who goes against their parent’s verdict, is considered to contravene the laws of their society. 

            Decent Marriage: Decent marriage is a word used by Ismat chughtai in her short story Mother-in-law to describe about a perfect marriage. The researcher finds out from her other short stories that decent marriage means the marriage which was done with parents and elders concern. The parents select the bride or bridegroom, they will decide on dowry, marriage functions. The marriage will be done between a family of equal economic and social positions

 

in the society. The bride or bridegroom should have parents or relatives as their protector. A decently married woman had better position than any other woman who indecently gets into the house. Even though Muslim marriages was a contract, where a man and woman decides to live together, the decision, who should live with who was decided by the elders of the house. From the following stories, it will be apparent, what were decent marriage and the importance of decent marriage in a life of woman? A decent marriage really protected the women in society from ill-treatment of the society. The society here includes all educated and uneducated men and women. 

In the beginning of Chughtai’s short story Mother in-law, the mother- in- law gets disturbed in her siesta by her daughter- in- law Bashariya who is called as bahu throughout the story. She is scolded in the beginning of the story for playing with boys and girls of neighboring house. Mother –in-law scolds her daughter to sit at home without disturbing her in her sleep. Later mother-in-law starts complaining about the dowry given to her in marriage,   about the food served in the marriage function by bahus’s father which was not tasty. Next she complains about the dress her son got from his father –in-law which was of low quality. But when mother in law says all these complaints her bahu goes into a deep slumber. The son of the house has gone to the market.

 When both mother-in-law and daughter were sleeping the son who went to market comes. He wakes his wife by showing the bangles he has brought. In the desire of getting the bangles, she goes into his room. He had also brought watermelon and mangoes from the market. We hear the screaming sound from inside the room. The mother in law is disturbed in her sleep by the flies from the fruits. She curses the flies. Then she calls her bahu, she comes in with a mango in her hand and front buttons of kurta open. She asks her to get a glass of water. Son comes and sits near his mother and starts complaining about his wife. He demands to get rid of his wife and get a new a girl instead of her. He asks her to give permission to give her bashings. Then mother says she has not eloped with you, she has come into the house with a decent marriage. He pushed her down, hurting her legs. Mother in law takes care of her bahu and solicits Ashgar’s help to bandage the bleeding leg. He denies helping his wife in beginning, but later agrees to take his wife for his mothers scolding. When mother goes into the kitchen, Asghar carries Bashariya in his arms. Getting a chance, she bites in his shoulder   because of pain he puts her down and starts rubbing his shoulder. She laughs triumphantly, and mother in law started murmuring from inside the kitchen. Nobody knows what she was murmuring. May be she was cursing her bahu.

In the story we come across main three characters, Bashariyha daughter in law, Crone mother in law and Asghar son of the house. When Asghar complains to his mother about his wife and asks her,[3] “Shall I give her a good bashing? Asghar leapt up, planted a hefty blow in his wife’s back and then sat cross legged on the cot” For this mother in law of the story responds as “Beware!.....Listen, I’ll break your hand if you raise them to hit her again,” Crone said in support of her enemy. ‘You had decent marriage. Did she elope with you that you are treating her like this?’. So from the above conversation it is clear that a decent marriage had a complete support from the family members. Even though, the mother in law complains about the property which she brought in her marriage or of the functions organized by bahu’s father, the mother in law supports her bahu from the physical harassments of her son. Thus we can see how family members of a girl support her, because she had a decent marriage. Mother in law even warns about informing the harassments to his uncle.

 Mother in law takes care of her daughter in laws bleeding legs. She does not encourage her son to beat or be harsh towards her. Even though the crone scolds her daughter in law for playing with the neighbouring children, she supported her .It was because Bashariya had no reasons to be punished, she had a decent marriage, she is young so she plays with the neighbouring children. But mother in law’s scolding is not taken seriously because it is a usual practice in decent marriage, for a mother-in law to scold her daughter –in-law. She will complain about the property which bahu has brought, while coming to their house. A girl who had a decent marriage was safe in the society. Contradictory to this story, there is another story of Chughtai which talks about improper or indecent marriage.

The story Homemaker talks about a girl named Lajo. She was an orphan, and she worked as a maid in different houses. When she was grown- up, her body was used by many men in the   society, and she enjoyed it. Wherever she worked, she was used by the male member of that family. But she was physically tortured and pushed out of the house after there use. When Bakshi’s wife was full month pregnant, she was taken into his house for his wife’s help. Then Bakshi brings her to his friend Mirza’s house, he was a grocery shopkeeper. He did not like her in the beginning, but later appreciates her for her work done in the house. Later he has sex with the girl, which the girl was waiting for, because she knew Mirza went near the courtesans for the sexual satisfaction which she did not want to encourage in that house in her presence. She was so beautiful that everyone in the mohalla was attracted towards her. The richest man in that vicinity offers her a bungalow to be her keep. The girl is attracted to the house of Mirza, because she has no one to order and control the house in which she lives. And she has the man whom she has in her control without marriage. He decides to marry the woman which she did not wish. After marriage Mirza tries to cultivate a decent behaviour in her. She was forced to remove lehenga and she started wearing kurta which she did not yearn.  As the day passes Mirza like all other married men started coming late to the house and advised his wife. She is attracted to the neighborhood boy Mithwa who has sex with Lajo. She was caught by her husband and beaten. He divorces her and the divorce brings shame to Mirza. Then the chief of the religion says that there marriage was not proper because she did not have parents or guardians to take care of her. News in the village was spread soon and Lajo was happy to hear that. She was happy that because of her Mirza did not lose his name or fame after his marriage with her.

 In this story we find that the decision was taken by the bride groom alone. He did not consier anyone for the marriage. The line in the story [4]“That evening, Mirza decided t that he would marry Lajo, and to hell with family honour”. This line clearly states that Mirza did not take permission from his family elders for his marriage. He married a woman who was an orphan. She did not bring any dowry after her marriage nor was she a respected woman in the society. But Lajo in the beginning refuses her marriage because she thinks that marriage was only for virgins. So it is clear that their marriage was not proper, so the married life of woman is very frail. She will not be supported by anyone as Bashariya in the story Mother in law. When she was beaten by Mirza for her relation with the neighbour boy Mithwa nobody supported her. She was beaten till her death. He married the girl knowing that she was a prostitute, and after marriage he started controlling her in every way. He did not love her as he loved her before, so she was attracted by someone. She had a reason to support for her act. No one in the village supports her for her behaviour. From the above two stories we can see how the society helps a woman if she is married in a decent marriage. Indecent marriage is very likely to appreciate all the risks and no support from anyone in the society.

 In the story Sacred Duty, Samina was the daughter of Siddique Saheb and Begum. She goes for her further education to city from her native town. Her marriage is decided by her parents with a boy from Dubai. But they got a letter from their daughter informing about her marriage with a Hindu boy. The parents were taken aback by the news. People started commenting them for sending their daughter for studies and her inter-caste marriage. The parents of Samina get ideas, as killing their daughter and son in law, etc. But finally they decide to go near them and bring them home. When the bride and groom came to Siddique Sahebs house, he requested the groom to convert into Islamic religion. But they both eloped from there keeping a letter set aside for Samina’s parents. There they discussed about religion, and there plans next. Thus the story ends by their quoting from The Quran and Bhagwad Geeta.

 In this story we come across two marriages — decent marriage and indecent marriage. In the beginning of the story parents decides a decent marriage. They planned to marry their daughter to a Dubai groom. The factors her parents looked for were, he had twelve thousand rupees salary per month, had free board and lodgings, and was allowed a free vacation every year.  Developments in Arab are opening new fortunes for girls. The boy was from a decent family and had no family encumbrances considering these factors the match was settled in phone. The groom was not handsome and he was shorter tan the girl. But it was not considered, because  he  earned  twelve  thousand  every  month  in  Dubai. It is said in the story, [5]“One shouldn’t bother about a man’s physical features; it is his qualities that matter”. The qualities which the parents are looking for is the factors in which they decided to settle their daughters

marriage. So this was the marriage decided for their daughter. Decent marriage was decided by the parents for their daughter but she does not agree to this

                         Samina marries a Hindu which was the first reason for indecent marriage. Next she married without her parents concern. The decision was taken by the bride and groom. In the story Siddique sahib is described thus ‘Siddique Saheb was a progressive, a supporter of education for girls’. Siddique Saheb being such a forward thinker could not appreciate his daughter’s liberty in decision of marriage. He decides to kill his daughter they are not worried about the qualities of groom or his position in society. He is also educated and loves his daughter so much, and they are planning to live happily. But only his religion is a big obstacle for siddique Saheb than all other problems. Father is insulted by other members of the society for educating his daughter. Education during that period in India was considered not suited for women. The chapter named, The Progress of Women’s Education under Imperial rule (1911) from the book, Feminist vision or Treason against Men? the author says that [6]‘At first our society was disturbed by the idea that women would become rowdy if they were given an education, that they would disobey their husbands and insult their parents –in –law, that they would feel ashamed to do laborious house hold work, that they would cause domestic disorder, that they would spend more money than their husbands and inflate their own importance, that they would tire of staying in poor family and so on’ from this words from the writer Kashibai Kanitkar, it is clear that education was not entertained by anyone thinking of its flaws in society. So the father was abused by his neighbors and relatives for being so progressive and getting the bad effect of being progressive.

                         The Wedding Suit is another story were the mother works for her daughters. Bi Amma lost her husband when her elder daughter was young. Now it was her responsibility to marry her two daughters. She used to stitch clothes and make embroidery designs in clothes. She used to collect money for her daughters dowry. On a fine day they hear about Kubra’s – elder daughter’s maternal uncles’ son Rahat’s coming. He is having police training in their village and he was  staying  there with them. In  the  midst  of  poverty Bi Amma  decides to treat their

guest properly thinking one day he will be her would be son in law. He receives food and hospitality given by them. But later, Rahat complains about the food which they gave him amidst their poverty. Kubra does everything for him thinking sooner or later he will be her husband. But at the end, his marriage is settled and he goes back to his town. Kubra was teased by the other women of mohalla. She was an active girl who becomes silent and dies of the disease tuberculosis.

In this story Bi Amma decides to marry her daughter to a man whom she thinks proper. But she did not speak to his parents or to him about marriage. So nobody knew about the desires in Kubra’s heart. Kubra’s mother wanted to give her daughter a decent marriage, so she started preparing dowry for her daughter at early stage. Dowry was considered as a boon to get a good marriage. In one of the conversations between Bi Amma and her cousin they discuss about the dowry and they say  [7]‘Well, if one can afford to give fifteen tolas of gold as dowry and a job in the Burra Saheb’s office thrown in, there should be no dearth of suitable boys.’ This statement is evident to say that for a decent marriage dowry was also an important factor.

                     From the above stories it is comprehensible that only decent marriages were significant in the society. For a decent marriage—parents should decide the relation, dowry should be decided, marriages within the same caste was necessary, the girl should have parents. Always a woman was given to a man in good status—having jobs, no encumbrances even though if he does not have good behavior or good personality he was accepted. In the story Sacred Duty, Samina is engaged to a man who is not handsome but he has good economic power. In the story The Wedding Suit, Bi Amma decides to give her daughter to the boy who is coming to have police training in her house. She knows about his behaviour from her younger daughter, that he tried to hold her hands when she went to give him food. Instead of confronting the problem with Rahat, mother scolds her daughter and saying nothing happens if he holds you, you are not made of wax. Mother knew the boy was not good in nature but she was impressed by his job and wanted to marry her elder daughter to someone who has some good economic  background. The  protection  that  women  got  from the  society  after  decent  marriage is not gained by a woman in indecent marriage. Protection and safety that Bashariya enjoys in the society was not enjoyed by Samina, because of her inter caste marriage and by Lajo, for being an orphan who was married to Mirza without elders concern. Kubra in The Wedding Suit did not have marriage because she was poor and had no dowry to get a suitable boy. Beyond all these beauty of a woman was also a factor for marriage. Kubra was not attractive, her hands were rough and she has lost her beauty working for others in the house. Her hair started growing grey.  Lajo was easily married by Mirza because she was very beautiful and was attracted by many men in the society. So beauty was also an important aspect for women, but it was not considered for men. After marriage women were considered to be the property of husbands. Nobody had control over them as their husbands. They were the masters, rulers of the wife’s body and soul. In the story Mother-In-Law, Asghar enjoys physical pleasure with his girl but he also asks his mother’s permission to beat her. Since he could not physically torture his wife he makes her to fall down and hurted her. In the story Homemaker it is clearly evident that Mirza married Lajo only to make her his own— he did not want or liked the claims, offers of other men in the society upon Lajo. So, in order to gain complete autonomy over the girl he marries her. After marriage the same women who pleased him was now different to him. He started beating, scolding her for her behaviour. Knowing her behaviour he married her, but now he does not want any body to share her body. It is now Mirza,s wish to decide whether he should sleep with her or to go near any courtesan, but the woman was not expected to have relation after marriage with anyone except her husband.

After marriage there freedom was completely curtailed, in decent or indecent marriage. Every woman is expected to live according to the wish of her husband and she has to sacrifice everything after marriage. Lajo in the story The Homemaker is a suitable example for this. She does not wish to marry Mirza, because she was not virgin, but, she was forcefully entered into a married life. She was happy with her job as a maid in the house and the freedom she enjoyed there. She had sexual relation with the man and she was doing rest of her duties of that house. But Mirza wanted her to be his personal property and marries her. Soon after marriage she is curtailed from every freedom. She was not only curtailed from having sex with many man, she could not use the dress of her comfort and fancy. She was denied from roaming in the town and made her to sit in the house. The following are the lines from story,[8] “Mirza puts ban on lehenga and instructed her to wear tight fitting churidar pyjamas. Lajo was used to open  space between her legs. Two separate clothes joined by a strip of cloth were really bothersome”. Next line which says Mirza’s constant chastisement had put restrictions on her freewheeling ways, and eventually she was tamed and reformed” Here Mirza really put restrictions in her behaviour, he wanted to make her a decent wife. For that he stopped her mingling with everyone, she was not allowed to go for market. She was kept inside the house to become a decent wife.

In the story Mother- in -law Asghar has complete control over his wife. He can beat her, divorce her for any small reasons etc. But women were not only controlled by family members but also by other elder members. Bashariya could not play with her neighbour boys or girls. Her mother- in- law used to control her by scolding her. She had to listen to everyone in the family. In the story Lihaaf, Begum Jaan who was married to a rich Nawab after marriage did not take care of her. She was not given attention; instead he was possessed with taking class for young boys. Begum Jaan was in her room .It was Rabbu her servant who used to take care of her, massage her body etc. Nawab brings her into the house and does not care for her. For everyone, she is perfect and does not have any worries, but the Begum Jaan in the house does not get any care. 

Divorce is a terrifying thing for women after marriage. Women had trepidation of getting divorced by their husbands for any reasons. The main reasons were like not conceiving a child, women’s extra marital relationship, and disinterest in wife. In the story Homemaker Mirza decides to marry his wife without bothering about the relatives or society. After a few days of marriage, Mirza finds mistakes in his wife. He fails in his effort to change her. So he decides to divorce her. He consults his friend Mian for his advice to get divorce from her .The response of Mian for his friends suggestion of divorce was,[9] ‘Divorce the whore, and get rid of her. Had she been from a decent family, it would be different’. His friend knew everything about their relationship. He was the one who supported them during marriage, but when Mirza decides to divorce Lajo, Mian  concur faults done   by women.  Her faults are highlighted more than men. Even Mirza used to go near courtesans after marriage, but that was not considered as mistake but her being with other man was a fault.     

 Even though Mirza divorced her; he had a feeling of guilty. Because, during the time of marriage he knew that she was not from a decent family and she was an orphan. But he could not digest her attraction towards other man after marriage. Lajo had no guilt of being caught with other man. And when she was divorced she was happier than leading a married life. She is a woman with different thinking and this is not appreciated by other women. She lived a life with many men and she could not lead now a controlled life.  After divorce husband gave some money to her. This is known as Mehr. Thus Mirza in the story could easily divorce his wife for the reason that she was not from a decent family. And this is further discussed with Mullaji the chief of the community. And Mullaji says that the marriage (Nikah) was invalid. The following is the conversation between the Mullaji and Mirza.

 ‘How about the Nikah? asks Mirza

Mullaji replies, ‘Absolutely impermissible’

‘What do you mean?’

‘The Nikah was not valid, brother. No one knows whose illegitimate brat she was. Nikah with a bastard is haram-strictly forbidden’. Miran Mian declared the verdict.

‘You mean, the marriage didn’t come into effect?

‘Absolutely not’

Later Mullahji also confirmed that marriage with a bastard was not valid.

 From the above talk we come to know that a marriage was considered indecent without a proper family background. And the fact that she was an orphan was known to them before itself. It was not the reason for their divorce. They just wanted to justify their act of divorcing a girl. Since she did not like a relationship of married life, and had no to question her she happily accepted divorce. But in the story Touch –me- not we have characters as bhabijaan who was very worried about the divorce which she will get because of consecutive abortions she had. The story is about a girl who was going to her native for better treatment and takes rest in her mother’s house. After the first abortion the whole family was worried about the daughter’s married relation. In the train they met a lady who was pregnant and gave birth to a child in train. This incident shocks Bhabijaan and she had her second abortion in train.

In this story we clearly understand about the relation of abortion with divorce. The woman is worried about divorce than that of abortion. Every body in the family knows that if she gets an abortion then she will be divorced by her husband. So, small reasons were responsible for the breaking of marital relationship. But in the story Mother- in -law the girl does not know the difficulties of being divorced. She does not have any tension but her mother in law realizes the problems after divorce so she scolds her son. May be the girl was not so matured to understand the problems of divorce.

        Researcher perceives from Chughtai’s short stories that girls were married at very young age. They will be in their teen age when they will be sent in marriage to their in-laws house. It is clearly evident from the characters in the story ‘The Homemaker’, ‘Gainda’ and ‘Mother –in- law’. The young girls did not have any seriousness after their marriage. Their main intent was to play, eat and enjoy the days. They were not bothered about their future or about the scolding’s from their in-laws and husbands. Lajo in the short story The Homemaker always plays with the children in her mohalla. She is not concerned about whether she is married or what others will think about her. When she was asked to wear salwar kameez she did not like because she was comfortable with the lehenga. This confirms that the girl was very young and was not bothered to have a womanly look. This attitude is seen in the girls from the age of twelve to fourteen..

 In the book Visible histories, disappearing women:  producing Muslim womanhood by Mahua, studies on middle class women and men. He says[10] ‘nothing good comes out of the child marriage. The practice is more harmful for girls than boys. After marriage girls are deprived of habitual happiness and care freeness associated with childhood. Not only does early marriage disrupts their education, but it also leads to inhuman treatment of girls in most cases, some women conceive so early and give birth to weak and lifeless children’. Bashariya, Lajo and Gainda are deprived of the happiness they enjoyed before and soon after marriage. They had to control their behaviour in such a way that nobody could complain about them and their activities. Giving birth to a child was an important factor. When a girl is not fully grown up chances of abortions are more than a fully grown up woman. So in the story Touch- me- not we see the girl who had abortions twice. May be she was young and by seeing a stressful scene of a girl giving birth to a child in a train carried her  another abortion.

In the story Mother-in-law, Bashariya also plays with other boys and girls of her mohalla. She does not care when her mother complains her about the dowry and the marriage function engaged by her father. She was very cool and says what can I do, and sleeps when her mother in law goes on complaining about her parents. Here it is clear that she does not have any seriousness about these matters. Whereas when her husband requests his mother to give him permission to divorce her, she is not worried about the matter, rather she is busy in playing some mischief’s with her husband. She does not know the seriousness of divorce .Her desires are for small things like bangles, mangoes etc. When Asghar comes from bazaar he seduced her by showing the bangles. And her desire for bangles made her to go into his room. After  a while when mother in law calls her she comes near with a front open kurta, licking Mangoes. She does not have any shame in coming out with front open kurta. This gives us a clear picture about the seriousness that the girl had about her body. Thus this depicts that the girls were given in marriage at an early age.

 Even in story Gainda, Gainda plays with her cousins after her husband’s death. They play the games of bride and bridegroom. Gainda is seduced by her cousin. She does not realize the problems of such kind of relationship. By this relationship with her cousin she conceives a child whom no one takes care of. Narrator in the story says that Gainda was between fourteen or fifteen years old. Narrator of the story is the younger cousin of Gainda and she says this when she observes the way in which Gainda holds her new born baby. The lines [11]‘Gainda hardly fourteen or fifteen did not understand many things’ explains us that small girls were married at early age where they do not know anything of family life. Characters in all these mentioned stories get scolded by their in-laws or elders for the misbehavior they craft in the house. The mischief is clearly evident as playing in the ground with the lads or girls in their environment. After marriage they do not have nervousness to play with the neighbour children. Their playing is not encouraged by the elders of the house, because it is a shame for the elders to see their daughter-in-laws playing in the ground with other young children. So it is clearly illustrates that Indian middle class Muslim women were given married early to the men who were much elder than them.

  In the story Mother-in-law Asghar complains to his mother that he wants to get divorce from his wife. After marriage he starts finding faults in his wife as all the other men in chughtai’s stories. We can see it in the stories as The Homemaker, were Mirza finds faults in his wife such as her friendship with other men, her bad  sense of dressing, immaturity, and doubts her chastity. In the story ‘Mother- in –law’ Asghar , wishes to divorce his wife Bashariya. He gives the reasons as she is gaining fat and growing like a fat buffalo. A woman who is overweight indicates to have problems in bearing children. Bearing a child was important after marriage. Woman who does not have a child is not worth of being kept at home. Bearing a child before marriage wasn’t appreciated in the families. For example we have Gainda conceiving after her husband's death and an unknown woman in train who delivers a child in the story Touch-me-not, is not appreciated in the story. In the story ‘Touch –me- not’, the character named Bhabijaan is undergoing tensions for not having a child. She lost her first baby and the second conception is taken much care by Bi Mughlani her aunt. The tension which they have is about the divorce from bhabijaan’s husband. Child bearing before marriage was not appreciated but if a married woman does not have child then she is dangers. 

 The women were always with one or the other problem after marriage. Seemanthini Niranjana says marriage always brought many problems into women’s life and this marriage twisted their life. For example in the story  Lihaaf, were Begum had to depend upon her husband knowing his homosexual relation and his uncaring nature towards her. Babijaan in the story Touch -me not is worried about her future where she has to live without her husband. In the story Gainda, she’s shown as a woman who suffers without a man to take care of her and her child. Her relation with the man from whom she had a child was not encouraged by his family members because they wanted to marry their well educated young son to a young and beautiful girl. His faults were forgiven because he is a man and the woman had to control herself from all her desires.

Marriage was done between the cousins. The blood relations were encouraged for example Gainda has relation with her cousin. And in the story The Wedding Suit the women wishes to marry her daughter with her brother’s son. Marriage is not only a man and woman coming together but it had many complicacies after wards. Marriage ritual brought position to women in the society.

 

She was safe and secure after marriage but she was under the dangers of the same      security she gained. Divorce, problems in child bearing, early marriage, and tortures by husband and in laws, young marriage age was the problems faced by the women in the society. Even though she had many problems after marriage it was better to have a married life because women could not have a happy life without man in the society during early 19^th century. In the story Tiny’s Granny we see the grandma suffers a lot because she doesn’t have a husband, a son or a grand son. She had no men to take care of her. Since she had no male support she had to suffer in the society. This clearly says us how important was to have a man to lead a happy life in the society.

 To conclude, marriage was done between two families, with the concern of the parents. Decent marriage was the accepted kind of marriage, love marriages, eloping with a boy or girl and inter caste marriage was not accepted by the family and the society in which they live. The marriage needed to have dowry and bride’s parents used to organize the marriage functions. The marriage function and the dowry paid by girl’s parents represented their status in the society. Girls were married in their adolescent age. Divorce was in convenience with the man’s wishes. Whenever man lost his sexual interest in his wife and wants to have a new partner, he used to give some reasons to divorce so that his reputation is not affected in the society in which he live. For example we have the characters as Asghar in the story Mother –in-law who gives the reason for divorce as his wife is getting fatter and she is disobedient to his mother. In the story Homemaker, he gives divorce to his wife whom he married knowing that she has no one to take of her. After his divorcing of Lajo for her extra marital relation, he tries to prove his marriage was invalid because she had no parents and relatives. And this news is spread in the entire village that Mirza’s marriage was illegal because he married an orphan.

 Women should be obedient to their husbands and his family members. Child bearing was an important act after marriage. In the story Mother in law Asghar complains that his wife is getting heavier which directly means that she is not worth of child bearing. And in the story Touch -me -not the woman and her family is tensed about the abortion the girl had in her first issue. In her second conceiving she is taken to her home for better treatment. But she has her abortion on her way to home. The story ends by saying that the woman will end up with divorce from her husband for abortion. So it was necessary for a woman to have a child after marriage.  

After marriage woman was under the control of husbands. Marriage welcomed most of the problems for women, but unmarried women’s life was more difficult than that of a married ones. They had to face insults from the society and she was not safe in the society. She will be considered as everyone’s property. Poor girls were forced to accept any man in the society for example we have Lajo in the story The Homemaker before marriage and Tiny in the story Tiny’s Grandma. These two girls did not have anyone to take care of, so they were used by most of the men in the society. They worked as maids and they were maid for the house and men of that house. In the story wedding Suit, the mother tries to marry her elder daughter Kubra and entire village is interested in their marriage. But when she is not married, she dies of the disease. Thus a position of married woman was much safer than of being alone in the society.

The stratum of women as married was much safer than that of unmarried or without men’s protection. The women did not have education and they did not have any economical support if they don’t have male members in the family. The only work they could do was to work as maids in others house or do some stitching. For this work they did not get good income, so they became lower strata of the society. The people in lower strata were not helped by the members in society. They were marginalized from the society they lived. So they were forced into prostitution and thus had no power, respect, position in the society. Women were exploited by the society they lived, to have a better life they needed man to support them.                                

 

 

 

 

 

                Chapter-2

Subaltern in Chughtai’s short stories.

 

            [12] “  Let us now consider the margins (one can just as well say the silent or silenced center)of the circuit marked out by this epistemic violence, men and women among the illiterate peasantry, the tribal’s, the lowest strata of the sub proletariat”.

Spivak in her essay talks about the ideas of Foucault and Deluze, where they say that if an oppressed is given a chance with the political alliance they may speak and know their conditions. Using Marxist analysis, Spivak highlighted that exploitation against the oppressed lies in structural domination, which emerged from international division of labor. In other words, Spivak is highlighting the problems and politics of representations. In all claims to represent the most marginal/oppressed group, the Subject (i.e. the Subaltern) is further rendered voiceless. This is because within the structural domination characterized by the international division of labor, all forms of representation must necessarily come from a privileged position or of power, i.e. from comparative privileged position accorded by educational opportunity, citizenship, class, race, gender and location.

Gayatri Spivak in her essay ‘Can the Subaltern Speak? argues that the abolition of the Hindu rite of Sati in India by the British has been generally understood as a case of White men saving brown women from brown men. Spivak states that when Sati system was considered as an act of offence by Britishers, but Indian men found that sati rite was a sacred act. But nobody knew what did the real sati wanted to say. Her voice was not heard, she was represented by the men in two different ways. How can we understand subaltern ? Can we understand from the English, as the slaughter of innocent women or, from the male Hindus who spoke for the female Indians, as a voluntary act? Spivak describes that in the case of Indian sati rite, sati is still illustrative of how subaltern cannot speak.

     

  Representation: What is representation? Spivak in her essay discusses that scholars uses two kinds of representation for describing representation as representation as speaking for as in politics and re –presentation as in art or philosophy. Spivak uses two German terms Vetreten and Darstellen to describe these differences. Vertreten means (to stand in for) and darstellen to (describe for). Hence the western approach to the subaltern is either to speak for or to silently let them to speak for themselves. Both strategies silence the subaltern because they ignore the positional relations of the dominant to the subaltern .Thus the amalgamation of the two notions of representation establishes a silencing of the subaltern. They can never speak because they are both being ‘stood in for’ and ‘embodied’ by others in the dominant discourse

                      In her famous essay entitled “Can the Subaltern Speak?” she provides a poignant analysis and critique of attempts to speak for the most marginal/oppressed (or the ‘subaltern’). What Spivak wants to highlight is that the subaltern cannot be represented. Having discussed some aspects of Spivak’s pivotal thought on the issues of the voiceless ness of the subaltern and how one’s privileged position ought to interact with the subaltern Other, it becomes apparent that much of Spivak’s insights can be useful in analyzing Ismast Chughtai’s short stories. As Spivak mentions, “If, in the context of colonial production, the subaltern has no history and cannot speak, the subaltern as female is even more deeply in shadow.”  The researcher concentrates women characters in Ismat Chughtai’s short stories as Homemaker, Touch –Me-Not, Sacred Duty, and Mother-In -Law in terms of gender in Ismat chughtai’s stories.

                 Subalternity is a place where hegemonic power controls the rest of the persons in the society. In Chughtai’s short stories we find religion as a hegemonic power in the society. The Muslims of early 19^th century was controlled by religion and religious leaders. These religious leaders were men. So men in the society perpetuate the rules for enhancement of society. The power transmitions happen from the super most power to the subaltern .The hegemonic power here is the religion and the religious leaders. The women who are under the surveillance of men do not have any power of their own. Their power is transmitted from the powerful man with them. It is evident that, the subaltern in the stories of Ismat Chughtai are  widows, educated women, women without men’s support, poverty of women etc.

                           

            The control of religion and men over the subaltern women is like the colonial rule in India. Indians were subaltern and the British rulers were dominant power who posed rules from their super power, queen of England. The government of England under the power of queen gave common rules for every British officer for the colonized countries. The rule which had to be implemented in the land was in the hands of British officers. They could change any rules according to their comforts. And these officers had some supporters from India. The Indians, who were in contact with them, enjoyed the privileges and prestige in society. They were the communicators for the Britishers and enjoyed all the privileges as education and other basic requirements .The privileged women in Ismat Chughtai’s stories are parallel to the Indians who were allied with the Britishers.

 British officers used the power from their authority for their betterment in the land which they ruled. They accomplished everything for their pleasure and ease. The researcher examines that the men in the early 19^th century Muslim society in India was not poles apart from the British officers. They used the religion to control over the women who were under them. They took the liberty to modify everything according to their wishes. Women are the subaltern, everything is laid upon them. As, Indians did not realize, that they are being controlled by the Britishers in the beginning, the Muslim women did not realize it. Some of the woman raised voice for their equality and freedom. But they were not appreciated by others in the society, like the leaders in the freedom struggle who were not acknowledged in the beginning. 

  From the short stories of Chughtai, it is very clear, that those women who had their husbands or sons for their protection were safe in the society. The men are controlled by the religion. And the religion is manipulated by men. Thus men have the liberty to have complete control over the religious rules. They adopt everything according to their wish and fancies. They were the learnt and the liberated. The women had the only choice of obeying to anything laid down to them by their super power or their controller without questioning it. So the women who were subaltern had no power to speak.

 The researcher observes that women in Chughtai’s stories were voiceless. Even though they wished to say something as Spivak says they had no voice they needed to be represented by some others in the society. And the representation was done by the men. Chughtai was a subaltern because of her gender. She was not allowed to have education, even when her parents were from higher strata of society. She had to fight for her education. When she got education she was not given equal position as that of men. As a woman when she had to get education she had to sit behind the curtains of the class. She being a woman who was suppressed a lot she had to raise the voice of injustice done to the women in Middle class Muslim society in North India.

She represents the subaltern women from the short stories she has written. She has lifted the veil which covered them from the society in which they lived. The women had to wear veils which they could not lift amidst the men or in the society they live. By lifting the veil the reality is shown to all of them in society. Are they really happy inside the veils or are they suffering and suffocated being inside. The short stories of Chughtai are in a way is lifting of the veil and representing the problem to the society that they are really suffering.

 The researcher observes the subaltern women as Tinny’s Grandma who does not have a son or a husband to take care of her and her granddaughter. In the story Home maker the servant girl Lajo is married to an old man and later he divorced her for his inconvenient life with her. She is separated and looked down upon by the society because she is not having a husband to take care of. In the next story, ‘Touch- me-not’,  we see a woman who gives birth to a child in the train, which nobody could think of, because she had no husband nor any parents to take care of. The child was illegal. She was an orphan or a woman used by many men for their pleasure. In the story Sacred Duty we find a Muslim girl marrying a Hindu man. She was not appreciated, because she married a Hindu (out caste) and the second reason for her rejection was her education. So from the characters mentioned above we come to know that women who were subaltern were uneducated, divorced, widow, illegal pregnancy and marrying other caste.

  From Spivaks subalternity it is clear that all these aforesaid women were subaltern in the society in which they lived. They didn’t have voice to rise against the injustice done to them. For example Ismat chughtai, when wanted to go for education she had to get permission from the dominant section of the society, i.e. her father, uncles and brother. Her brother Mirza Azim Beg Chughtai, already an established writer, when Ismat was still in her teens, was her first teacher and mentor. After her marriage she was supported by her husband. So it evident that even though she had a talent of being a good writer she was supported by the dominant section in the society. She had no voice to go against them. When she started writing directly breaking all the conventional boundaries, she was put into great troubles. She was branded as bad writer and a bad female for her work Lihaaf. The women were not allowed to break the conventions and talk to the society. She had no voice to say about the truth which they are facing in the society. She had no voice if ever she had to raise voice it was by her men’s permission.

            In the story Tiny’s Granny (Nanhi ki Nani) brings to light the social and religious insincerity of the society. It shows how poverty and circumstances can change people and how the poor girls are sexually exploited by the upper class men and difficulty of girls from lower strata of society to live a decent life. The very beginning of the story brings forth the question of identity into focus. The first line says, “God knows what her real name was, as no one ever called her by it. She has no identity of her own and as the years pass, she is called ‘Baftan’s kid,’ ‘Bashira’s daughter-in-law,’ ‘Bismillah’s mother’ and ‘Tiny’s granny.’ She never had a childhood. When she ought [13]“to have been laughing and playing with other children,” she had started working in people’s households. The woman being poor is exploited by the society.

            As the years pass, Tiny’s granny tries all trades for her living. She had been a maid, a cook, a beggar and even a thief. The miserable condition of the poor people is brought out in the story. Poor people do not get enough to fill their stomach and Granny, who was living a life of utter poverty, did not leave any opportunity of grabbing food for herself and her granddaughter, Tiny. Everybody knew about her stealing things but nobody questioned as she would threaten to take an oath on the Holy Quran. And nobody wanted to risk on religion or religious text. Since the granny had to live the life she promised in the name of Quran. For her food for a time was important than any other consequences she faces. But others wanted respects and positions, and never questioned religion. The cruelty and hypocrisy of the rich people who hold positions of power is also brought out in the story. The poor women were of no respect to the powerful in the society. The girl was physically punished and tortured by the Deputy Saheb, where she works as a maid. The story says, Tiny did “job at the Deputy Sahib’s for her food, clothing and one and a half rupees a month”. Granny always stuck to Tiny “like a shadow” but “a pair of old hands cannot wipe out what is inscribed in a person’s fate”. These lines illustrate that old and weak in the society suffered. They could not go against any other in the society.            

             This is how Ismat Chughtai describes it in the story:[14] “Tiny, who was supposed to be pulling the rope of the ceiling fan, was dozing with the rope in her hand. The fan stopped moving, the lord and master woke up, his animality was aroused, and Tiny’s fate was sealed” This depicts how brutally she was treated in the house. Deputy Sahib was known as a religious man who said his five daily prayers and had provided water vessels to the mosque. This is ironical, as in real life he had no religiosity and the image he portrays in society is completely false and deceptive. The Quran says to respect every human being in this world. The deputy a religious man uses religion for his comforts and pleasures.               

  Even society is callous and cruel towards the poor people and does not raise its voice against the injustice and wrong done to the poor. Instead it makes fun of the poor for no fault of theirs. After Tiny’s fearful encounter with the Deputy, her Granny comforted the” wounded bird” with sweets. Instead of sympathizing with the poor girl whose innocence and childhood have been ravished by the Deputy, the women of the society would ask Tiny all that happened to her on the pretext of giving her something like bangles and after hearing the details from her, would laugh out loud. This shows the callous and unsympathetic behaviour of the women who are neither angry with the Deputy’s behaviour nor do they try to comfort and understand Tiny; instead they mock at her. The women who are privileged do not understand the sufferings of the poor. Tiny instead of growing into a child grows into a woman in the story. She goes to some unknown city, where she works as a prostitute. Her grandma lies after that her granddaughter is killed by cholera disease.

From the story Tiny’s granny it is obvious that woman who did not have any one – husband or son was victim of society. Grandma who had to suffer also could not speak in the society about the difficulties she had. She had to keep her grand daughters suffering within herself.  Tiny who was working Deputy Saheb’s house had to bear beatings than questioning or saying her problems. She was sexually harassed, physically beaten and mentally tortured in the

Even when she was teased in the society by men and women in the society she did not voice against them because she was from a poor family and she had to live her life in that village depending on those people—people of higher strata. So she had no right to speak. If she wanted to speak she needed some one to represent her problems to the society. But in the story we do not find any one helping the girl or her grandmother. But Ismat Chughtai is a writer who is representing these peoples voice to the society by her short stories. These stories are written of the place which she live in.

            The poor women had no voice to ask any one about anything. Bi Amma and her two daughters in the story Wedding Suit were three women who had no voice to rise against any one. Bi Amma’s husband dies when her daughter was very young. She had no one to look after. She collected money for her daughter’s dowry by stitching clothes. If she goes to work in others family then it will bring a bad reputation to her. Every maid was exploited by the men of the house. It is shown in the characters of maid servants in the story Homemaker, Tiny’s Granny. In order to get a decent marriage from a decent family, she had to stitch clothes which were the only source of income. Since hey had no education and could not go outside for work they had no source of living. Stitching was the only way. Nobody supports a woman who has lost her husband by giving any aid; instead they will be used for their purpose.

Soon after the death of the man, father of the house, the writer talks about the situation thus [15]‘After that, Hamida gave up making demands for sweet roti, and Kubra’s marriage proposals

Some how lost their way.  It was as if no one ever knew that behind the ack –cloth curtain someone’s youth was at its last gasp. And there was another whose youth was raising its head like a serpent’s hood’ these lines talks about the condition in Bi Amma’s house after the death of her husband. The younger child controlled all her wises as asking for rotis, sweets etc. And the elder daughter’s proposals were blocked. They had no one to talk for them in the society. The one who was representing them was dead and they were completely in problems. When a man in a house dies then the house is ruined. Since Bi Amma knew stiching she stitched clothes without losing the hopes.

The boy who comes to stay in their house was treated very well. When they had nothing to eat, he was served well. The main intention behind was that he will marry the elder daughter of the house and they will have some strand in the society they live. But there was no one to say to him about their wishes. Since there was no man to speak to the other man, their wishes were not conveyed. Since the women were under veils they could not talk to a man face to face. The only one to speak was the younger daughter, because she was not grown up. She was sent to know about his mind and his desire towards the elder daughter. But, Hamida could not do it because Rahat the boy played some pranks with her. Even if he does something to the girl he knew no one was there to question him. Bi Amma or any other member in the family could not reveal their desire towards the boy. He did not know their desire in mind, it was hidden, nobody could reveal.  Rahat got a message from his house informing him about his marriage. He went to his town for marriage. The desire in the mind of these three women was closed in the minds. Kubra becomes silent and later she dies of fever. So the Subaltern here is the three women, who could not speak to a man who is considered to be superior and powerful in the society. They had no voice to speak to or they had no one to represent their wish.

 In the story The Home maker Lajo is the subaltern. She is an orphan who does not have anyone to claim as her own. No man or woman to support. She worked in everybody house and they used her to the maximum as working in the house as well working for men’s sexual thirst. Finally she gets into Mirza’s house. She liked the house more than any thing, because there was no one to command her. The man did not like to keep her in the house but when she made everything proper in the house he was satisfied. He has sexual relation with the girl. But when everyone looks at her and offers her bungalows and houses to be with them, she rejects. He did not want to share her so he decides to marry her. She did not like to marry him. She did not want a life of binding. She did not have respect in the society because she did not have a man. But she was happy with that life of being alone. She worked in houses for livelihood. She did not care about the position or reputation in the society. So, she did not wish for a marriage. But she could not say her wish to Mirza. She had no voice to speak because she was a woman, servant girl and it was a great generosity in the part of Mirza to offer a slave girl such a status in the society. People in the village started talking about the luck of the girl, but nobody could listen to her inner voice nor she had courage speak loudly her wish.

 After marriage, when she had a man with her does not mean she was happy and could say anything as she wish. She was controlled by him for everything she did. She had to wear salwar kameez instead of lehenga which she was not comfortable and did not like. But can she say, no, she cannot say because she is a woman and has to listen to her husband who has provided everything for her in life—including shelter, status food etc. Whatever order he puts on her, she had to listen. She had no choice to alter it or question but to listen and obey. She was not allowed to walk in the streets, play with friends, she had to remain inside the house and do house hold woks. So she had to listen and obey.

              When Mirza decides to divorce he does not ask her permission or her opinion on continuing his life with her. He did not ask because it was no necessary to take permission of girl to decide anything by a man. When he divorced her, no one in the society supported women. Everyone was in favour of man. She was given a certain amount of money, and she did not ask any thing on the amount given to her as Mehr. Before divorce, Mirza beats Lajo, when she was caught with Mithwa. The line in the story ‘ people came in droves to see the fun, but they felt sorely disappointed when they found that Mithwa had bolted and Lajo was beaten up but alive. She’ll live. Ramu’s grandma will bring her round’, they said. In the above lines of people’s conversation in village by seeing Lajo beaten brings sympathy in them. They all wish to save her but no one had courage to speak up and question to the supreme. Here her husband has full power to do as he wishes to his wife. Nobody had right to question. She was helped by  a woman who was very poor and did not care for any status in society. Helping a poor also mattered a lot. After all these sufferings Lajo did not say a word. She could ask you married me against my will I did not force anyone to marry me. But this did not happen because she had no voice. And she had no one to represent her voice. Even when Mirza decided to divorce her, he had guilt of doing that. But other men in the society supported him by consoling him about his marriage was illegal because she was an orphan. So they decided that he had not married at all because the woman he married did not have anyone to claim for as relatives. So he does not have any shame on his part for marrying the woman, because the mistake was from woman’s side. The news of his divorce is quoted in the story as ‘This news also spread soon throughout the village, that Mira’s marriage with Lajo was not valid, and there was no divorce, though Mirza had lost thirty two rupees in the bargain’. Man was safe in the society and women became the cheater, betrayer etc.

After divorce Mirza keeps the girl with him and has relation with her as they had before marriage. In this story the women was controlled by man who were the super powers and the subaltern women had to listen to everything, whatever happens to her life. Whether it is good or bad it is their luck. Women were not given any respect. Even though Lajo was a woman, she had no one to represent her in society; she represented herself in her own way. She questioned the act of marriage. When she could not speak she showed it in her actions. When she did not like marriage and was forced to be under a man. She was not a virgin and she liked the life being with many men. She could not say that but she did it after marriage. She used to talk with milkman, had physical relation with Mithwa. At the end she did not care Mirza’s divorce or his beatings, he remained in his house. But opposing like that did not bring any fortune or status to her. She was again degraded by the society. Whatever women do was not respected. Men could not tolerate the power of women in society.

Mother- in- law is another interesting story from Chughtai which atleast has some voice for women. The mother in law of the house supports her daughter in law from the abuses and ill treatment of her husband. The Asghar does not like the wife he has and to push way that girl from the house he needs his mother’s support. But mother does not support him in this act. He pushes her down and she falls with a glass tumbler and it hurts her leg. Husband does not have any sympathy towards his wife. When mother in law sees her daughter in law leg bleeding, he does not help. Later he agrees for his mother’s scolding.

When Asghar talks about her divorce, Bashariya the daughter in law of the house does not speak a word. She knows that her speaking in the house will not do any good. Women did not have voice to speak in that society. But mother in law spoke instead of daughter in law. She was represented by someone. So he, the son could not say anything to his wife. His mother did not have power but she gets power using his uncle’s name. In the story when Asghar does wrong to his wife, Mother warns him on complaining to his uncle. Bahariya was complained by Asghar as getting heavier and did not obey his mother’s words. When he was saying the girl was doing her work which was ordered by mother-in-law. Asghar wanted to get rid of her and have a new wife, and this is the reason which he finds for this.

Bashariya had this voice, support from her mother in law because she was brought into the house with a decent marriage. Even then she was disturbed by man. She could not oppose him or argue against him. Mother got voice in the name of other powerful man. At the end when Asghar lifts her and take her to the other room she bites in his shoulder. In this way she showed her anger or may be she was still clinging on him for his love and attention. The reason for biting is unknown; still he puts out her in that form.

 So from the above examples of the short stories, the researcher concludes that man was important for a perfect and a happy life of woman. Men and women are made equally by the god but when the stories says about different instances then we come to know that the laws given by the superpower god was manipulated by the man in the society for his benefits. Man made himself powerful by taking away all the powers of women. Now the women are powerless. If they have to get any power then they have to depend on the man. So by using the laws man is having complete control over women. Man is the hegemonic power and the women are the subaltern.

In the story, Mother –in –law the son wants to divorce his wife for the reason saying that she is growing fat and she is disobedient to her mother in law. The reasons given by him are naïve. The reason he wants to divorce is he wanted her only for sexual pleasure. He wants some other woman now. He is not satisfied with this girl. Thus he gives the above reasons. From his behaviour in the story we come to know that he is algolagnia i.e one who derives sexual pleasure by inflicting or experiencing pain. The woman is refusing his own wife for his personal reasons. But the girl was not bold enough to protest or talk against her husband. So the husband is happy to divorce the women for his desires. From the stories mentioned above it is clear that women were suffering in the society.

In the story Touch-me-not, Bhabijaan is undergoing the tensions of divorce, which is awaiting her, if she loses the child. The tensions in her and her family member’s mind in the story clearly tell us, what will be the condition of married women after divorce. These two stories is the examples which gives a complete idea about the divorces, which were handled by the male members of the society. They really used the divorce for their conformity. The women were just the body of sexual pleasure; they had no state in society.

A man was an utmost need for women to have a happy life in the society. The woman who is married and lives happily in the society will have a man to protect her. So the main aim of every parent was to get a man to their daughter. In the story wedding suit the mother wishes that her brother’s son who is coming for police training is taken care of by the mother. Mother treats him properly thinking that the boy will marry his elder daughter. But he does not care the lady. The small girl in the house who communicates with the man finds faults in the man. She says about the disinterest of the man in his sister. At the end of the story the girl dies and she puts the wedding shroud on her daughter. So the importance of man in married life was important.

The above stories clearly depicts that women were not allowed to have any freedom in the society they lived. They were scrounger on their husbands and other members in her house. She had no voice in the society. Nobody cared for her decisions or opinions. Whatever she wanted to say was suppressed in her mind. She was represented by some others as mother-in-law in the story Mother- In-Law represents her daughter in law. She was supported by the mother in law. In rest of her stories, as Homemaker, Touch- Me-Not, Sacred Duty, The Wedding Suit women could not voice their problems to the society. They had to listen to the norms and conventions laid on them by their dominant group. The status of women was very low; they had no power, no voice, and no one to represent their problem. Chughtai is representing the problems of women by her short stories.                             

 

                                                              Conclusion

 

Marriage was done between family of equal status and with approval of parents. The girl and boy had no opportunity in selection of partners while they marry. The marriage was based upon the dowry, the position of boy in the society—as his job, economic status. The girl was married on her beauty and the dowry from her parents. Marriage was done on this basis. The marriages done in this process is considered as a decent marriage. Decent marriage had position in society and the girls were much safer in this decent marriage, because she will be supported by her in laws and family members when they face problems after married life. Indecent marriage are – when marriage is done without elders consideration, marrying a girl who have no relatives or history to trace behind in the society, and the inter caste marriages, no dowry for women, no good looking girl.

 Divorce was one of the threatening factors in married life. Women were uneducated and knew only house hold works. When they get divorced they should rely only on their parents. And for parents, keeping a daughter after marriage is a shameful act. They don’t like their daughters to be in their home after marriage. So women will become really an orphan after divorce. So divorce was a scary dream for women. Divorce in a decent marriage was given for not having a child and extra marital relation of women. Sometimes divorce may happen when man loses his interest in his wife and gets attracted to another woman.

The age of marriage was in between thirteen to fourteen, as soon as they attain puberty. The girl’s family had to give their daughter at this age because if she crosses her age of marriage there will be difficulty in getting boy. In the story Wedding Suit the elder daughter, Kubra is not married because of hers father’s death. When her maternal uncle’s son comes there for police training, they have a hope of marrying their daughter with him. But he is attracted towards the younger daughter of the house. This portray that aged girls were not liked by boys. Bashariya in Mother-in-law and Lajo in the story The Homemaker are seen playing with the boys and girls in Mohalla after marriage. This shows their interested area .It is clearly predictable that woman of adolescent age does all these acts. Marrying a small girl is expected to play than taking any responsibility.

 In Ismat Chughtai stories marriage was an act were women were under complete control of men and his family after marriage. Marriage really brought a wind in women’s life. A girl who was free and enjoyed in her parents house was given to a grown up man in her young days. She was then controlled in her in- laws house. She had to work in the house throughout the day for her in laws family. She had no recreation instead she was scolded for her work, behaviour etc. They were criticized for dowry. Even if the marriage is a decent marriage dowry was important. If a girl brings lot of dowry then husband’s family will be happy. Dowry was an important fact in which the woman was weighed in the society. The family which could afford lot of dowry would conveniently get a big family.

 Women were not at all free from the authority of male in the society. Men were powerful and women had to listen to their advices. They had no voice to speak in the society.  They were subaltern. They were out of the hegemonic power system. Every rule was done upon them; rather they were just listeners and not speakers. Even if they knew that society was going wrong towards them, they had no right to speak against. They covered everything within themselves. Ismat Chughtai through her short stories tried to lift the veil the women wanted to say truth to the society. Ismat Chughtai represents her disapproval to the society by writing short stories on the problems she faced and found in the society. And it was not appreciated by the society in which she lived in.

She was a courageous woman, who dared to go for education after having big fights in her home. During her time the only education given to women was to talk slowly, play with girls, behave like woman, learn to cook, clean etc. Doing the house hold duties was important, because after marriage this is what she will do in her husband’s house. She came out of this tradition and got educated. She could represent the problems of other women only by writing stories. She was a subaltern and she could not question the hegemonic power in the society. If she does she will be criticized and marginalized in society. As Spivak says , for sati system where English men says sati is bad and brown men says sati is a sacred ritual ,nobody knows the real voice of sati who has to sacrifice her life. Chughtai’s stories also have a same attitude.

Women do not have voice of their own and their problems are not represented in the society, and if it is represented then it will be by men.

Thus in Chughtais’s stories we have as complete study of middle class Muslim women in North India. Educating the women and making them economically strong is a way of resolving the problem. When women are educated, she doesn’t have to rely on man for everything. She will have courage to do any thing by her own. Job is another chance of getting rid of sufferings of women. When she will have money to spend, she can lead a comfortable life even after her husband’s death or divorce. But this fact should be again approved by the dominant persons in the society again that is men. He will decide his daughter to be educated or not and after marriage whether wife should go for job. Even though Chughtai has written her stories in the early nineteenth century, the conditions are not so good for women till now.  Women are subaltern till today. Even though she has job and education her conditions are not far better than the women of early nineteenth century.

            

                                                                  Bibliography:

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[1] (Tahira Naqvi- The Hindhu Sept 30, 2007 Sunday)

[2] Seemanthini Niranjana. Gender and Space: Femininity, Sexualization, and the Female Body. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2001. Print.

 

[3] Asaduddin, M. "Mother-In-Law." Trans. M. Asaduddin. Lifting the Veil: Selected Writings of Ismat Chughtai. New Delhi: Penguin, 2001. Print.

[4] Asaduddin, M. "The Homemaker" Trans. M. Asaduddin. Lifting the Veil: Selected Writings of Ismat Chughtai. New Delhi: Penguin, 2001. Print.

[5] Asaduddin, M. "Sacred Duty." Trans. M. Asaduddin. Lifting the Veil: Selected Writings of Ismat Chughtai. New Delhi: Penguin, 2001. Print.

[6] Kosambi, Meera. "The Progress of Women’s Education under Imperial Rule (1911)." Feminist Vision or 'Treason against Men'?: Kashibai Kanitkar and the Engendering of Marathi Literature. Ranikhet, India: Permanent Black, 2008. Print.

[7] Asaduddin, M. "The Wedding Suit." Trans. M. Asaduddin. Lifting the Veil: Selected Writings of Ismat Chughtai. New Delhi: Penguin, 2001. Print.

 

[8] Asaduddin, M.  The HomeMaker." Trans. M. Asaduddin. Lifting the Veil: Selected Writings of Ismat Chughtai. New Delhi: Penguin, 2001. Print.

[9] Asaduddin, M. "The Homemaker." Trans. M. Asaduddin. Lifting the Veil: Selected Writings of Ismat Chughtai. New Delhi: Penguin, 2001. Print.

[10] Sarkar, Mahua. Visible Hoistories,disappearing Women:producing Muslim Womanhood. USA: Duke UP, 2008. Print.

[11] Asaduddin, M. "Gainda." Trans. M. Asaduddin. Lifting the Veil: Selected Writings of Ismat Chughtai. New Delhi: Penguin, 2001. Print.

 

[12] Spivak Gayatri  “Can the Subaltern Speak?” 1988.print

[13] Asaduddin, M. "Tiny’s Nany". Trans. M. Asaduddin. Lifting the Veil: Selected Writings of Ismat Chughtai. New Delhi: Penguin, 2001. Print.

 

 

[14] Asaduddin, M. "Tiny’s Nany." Trans. M. Asaduddin. Lifting the Veil: Selected Writings of Ismat Chughtai. New Delhi: Penguin, 2001. Print.

 

 

[15] Asaduddin, M. "Weddinmg Suit." Trans. M. Asaduddin. Lifting the Veil: Selected Writings of Ismat Chughtai. New Delhi: Penguin, 2001. Print.