IDENTITY IN DIFFICULT DAUGHTERS
The
world is made of woman but she is not treated equal to man despite innumerable
evolutions and revolutions. She has the same mental and moral power, yet she is
not recognised as his equal. She is
expected to serve, sacrifice, submit and tolerate each ill against her
peacefully. Her individual self has very little recognition in the patriarchal
society and so self effacement is her normal way of life. Manju Kapur, a world
acclaimed writer is known for her feministic vision. The women in her novels
seem to be the personification of new women who have been carrying the burden
of inhibition since ages and want to break that tradition of silence now. Her
female protagonists are mostly educated. Their education leads them to
independent thinking, for which their family and society becomes intolerant
towards them. They struggle between tradition and modernity. . Her novels
tackle the identity problems faced by the educated Indian woman with
authenticity and insight. These novels symbolize a fight against taboos, social
restrictions and manmade code of conduct in a traditional society. Her heroines
are the symbol of female imagination responding to pressures and oppressions of
patriarchal culture where marriage is seen only as a compromise. Her novels are
a story of struggle for freedom and search for an identity at various levels.
The protagonists of her novels are trying to maintain a balance all the time.
Their sufferings amidst the dual standards have made them strong and they
constantly struggle to exist, to free themselves from the shackles of tradition
and various prejudices. Difficult Daughters the novelist has portrayed her
protagonists as a woman caught in the conflict between the passion of the flesh
and a yearning to be a part of the political and intellectual movements of the
day. Difficult Daughters presents the women who try to establish their own
identity. The story of Virmati is narrated by her own daughter, Ida. The novel
begins with the death of the protagonist, Virmati. Ida explains the story of
her dead mother. Manju Kapur, in order to know about the story, unfolds the
tale of Virmati. The novelist also describes the nature of Virmati and her
desire after death shows her attitude. Ida a divorced girl tries to recollect
the memory of her mother. She informs that her mother is a bold and aggressive
woman who fought against the evil customs of the society. Her mother is in
search of her own identity in conventional Indian society. Virmati was brought
up in the traditional Indian family. She is engaged in the household duties.
She lost her identity in the family responsibility. The Novelist through
Virmati exposes the reality of Indian woman in the family. Virmati had always
told by her mother that the marriage is the ultimate fate of woman. Since Virmati
was the eldest daughter of Kasturi, she was forced to look after all her
brothers and sisters and she assisted her mother in the nourishment of all of
them. During the pregnancies of her mother, Virmati was always busy in
arranging the house-hold affairs and managing the things. It wasn‟t only baby
Parvati to whom she was indispensable, to her younger siblings she was second
mother as well. Thus, Virmati is portrayed as a common Indian woman. She has
spent most of her time in the household duties. Though she wishes to spend her
life freely without taking any responsibility, she is bound in the household
duties. She represents the modern woman. She fights against the conventional
Indian male dominant society. Manju Kapur seems to narrate a story of a girl
whose journey is quite symbolic due to her transformation from “innocence to
experience”. Manju Kapur also attaches the theme of feminism with the character
of Virmati. Her dress too had changed from her Amritsar days. When they went
visiting she wore her saris in Parsistyle, as Shakuntala called it, with the
palla draped over her right shoulder. The saris were of some thin material,
foreign, with a woven silk border sewn onto them. Shakuntala, a cousin of
Virmati, who studied at Lahore, is modern in behaviour and life. But the family
of Virmati is also against the modernization of female, the author represents
the two different women. Shakuntala is advanced and educated. She is aware
about her duties. She is not bound in the cage of old tradition and family
responsibility. On the other hand, Virmati is a typical Indian girl. She is
bound in the family responsibility. Her desires are always, vanished in the day
to day struggle. Her dreams and hopes are merged in the old tradition. Virmati actually thinks that she should live
her life like Shakuntala. She desires to live free life without any burden and
responsibility. She wishes to break the shackles of family responsibility and
live free life like her cousin. Virmati and Shakuntala always involve in discussion
on the issue of education and freedom. Images of Shakuntala Pehnji kept
floating through her head, Shakuntala Pehnji who having done her M.Sc. in
Chemistry had gone about tasting the wine of freedom. Although externally she
has been inspired by Shakuntala, but her problem is multiple. Virmati has also
to adjust her five sisters waiting for their marriage. Her family is quite
conscious because she is the eldest one. Her mother is also of the same
opinion. She would like to perform the marriage of her daughter as soon as
possible. Kasturi is also aware of the transformational attitude of Virmati.
She realizes the inevitable changes in her growing daughter. She does not allow
Virmati to enter in the realm of education with such freedom at the same time, she does not want to put
the burdens of traditions and conventions on her daughter. Difficult Daughters
is certainly a pensive tale of discomfort in the life of a sensitive girl who
seems to be struggling in the male-dominated society which provides a little
space to woman in general. Kasturi, her mother and gets herself engaged with a
irrigation engineer Inderjit. Her marriage is final with Inderjit but it is
postponed because of the death of his father. She does not think of the
marriage and child bearing just after the high school qualification. She joins
A.S. College, to do B.A., where she falls in love with a professor, Harish
Chandra, who is already married, lives next door and finds an intellectual
companion in him. Virmati, like many other Indian girls, is expected to accept
arranged marriage. she rejects it and decides to continue her studies. Virmati
refuses to marry Inderjit. This bold step by Virmati upsets everybody in her
family. They feel that she has disgraced the family and ruined her sister‟s
chances of marriage. After the denial of the marriage proposal, her condition
gets critical. She defines that the position of degraded due to dependability.
She has no right to take her own decision. Virmati makes an attempt of suicide.
Finally they lock her in the godown and arrange for Indu, her younger sister to
marry Inderjit. Virmati is committed to
continue her study at Lahore. Virmati decides to go to Lahore for her further
study. All the family members are against her decision but they would do nothing
before the will of Virmati. As decided by the family elders, Kasturi has to
accompany Virmati to Lahore for assisting her to take admission in RBSL College
and the principal assures Kasturi that there will be no problem. Virmati
becomes the centre of focus because of her revolutionary zeal. She does not
yield to the age old traditions of her Arya-Samaj family. In Lahore, she finds
the company of Shakuntala who always inspires her to be free and vibrant in her
outlook and manner. Shakuntala tells Virmati about the people of Lahore that
they are not narrow-minded: “You will find, Viru, that in Lahore people are not
so narrow–minded. Swarna Lata her roommate an active participant in the
political and social movements of the day. Swarna Lata, an active activist for
women‟s liberation and freedom struggle movement. She is a modern woman with
her own views and opinions. She thinks independently. She wants to do something
more than just marrying. Rather than waiting for any man she involves herself
in other people. At the centre of the narrative, we are confronted with a woman
who fights but falls by the wayside; but at its edges, as no doubt less
representative but still symbolic figures, we encounter- as will be seen
below-other women, whose relative success points the way to the future, Harish comes to meet her in Lahore. They meet
and enjoy their life. The professor shows his sexual inclination with Virmati.
On the other hand, Virmati could not decline the advances of the professor.
Virmati is conscious of the nature of her relationship with the professor but
her resistance is not long. After this
act of sexual involvement, Virmati seems to be caught in the sense of guilt.
She realizes the moral lapse in her heart and a sense of guilt runs through her
mind. Manju Kapur beautifully linked the character of Virmati in the activities
of freedom movement. Harish is reluctant to marry her. He seems just another
chauvinist steeped in patriarchal traditions. He is a hypocrite who, at his own
convenience, has moulded his opinions about social traditions and sexually
exploits Virmati, she gets pregnant.
Then she goes to Amritsar and manages a gold bangle from her father but only to
sell it for her abortion. Virmati blames the professor for this mishap in her
life. She says to the professor: „I break my engagement because of you, blacken
my family’s name, am locked up inside my house, get sent to Lahore because no
one knows what to do with me. It is there that she achieves the greatest degree
of control over her life: there are rules she has to obey (and breaking them
proves her fall), but she is able to teach inside an ordered framework, and her
performance wins her a deserved respect. In the micro-state to which her
destiny leads her, she has no family or close friends. She attains a
near-exemplary level of female autonomy. The professor Harish Chandra enjoys
the bliss of both the worlds: Ganga as a maid servant who fulfils his clothes
washed and Virmati who satisfies his academic urge which the professor cannot
seek in his meek and mild Ganga. Ganga and Harish„s mother compel Virmati to
lead a suffocating life in the tight walls of the house. It is significant to
note that Virmati who gets high education despite social odds and obscurities
aspires to play the traditional role of a house wife so that she may look after
the mundane needs of her husband but she is not allowed to. She is not even
acknowledged for her intellectuality on the other hand Harish commands respect
for his scholastic ideas and ideologies. The professor was not considerate and
calm in his decision and he also inflicts a long lecture on Virmati in order to
silence her.
Conclusion:
Thus, one can conclude that Virmati being brought up in a progressive family is
educated and exposed to western ideas. She defies the family and follows her
heart. She struggles a lot to get his own identity. Manju Kapur shows constant
effort to consolidate the position of woman in Indian society. The beauty of
her novels certainly lies in her unique presentation in which she seems to
present conflicting situations in which woman are in search of their own
self-made identity and location The rebel in Virmati might have actually
exchanged one kind of slavery for another. But towards the end, she becomes
free, free even from the oppressive love of her husband. Once she succeeds in
doing that, she gets her husband all by herself, her child and reconciliation
with her family.”
Keywords:
Marriage, Education, Male Dominance, Struggle for Identity, New Woman .
Submitted by,
SREEKA
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