Neha Arora

The Sin of Being A Woman: ‘Against All Odds’: A Story Of Double Jeopardy

   
In the age of postmodernism and post-colonialism, we are primarily discussing the ‘role reversals’ in society and the movement of the ‘marginal’ to the ‘centre’. The emergence of separate canonical literatures vindicates this paradigm shift. Today we have Dalit Literature, Afro-American Literature, Feminist Literature, and the likes. Literature is being used by the ‘underdogs’ to assert themselves. It is in this very context that I have taken up Kishore Shantabai Kale’s autobiography, Against All Odds to focus on two of the oft suppressed and deprived communities of India - the ‘untouchables’ and the ‘women’, i.e. the Dalit women.

 The ‘subalterns’ are not only the people of the colonies, the hegemony is not only of the imperial powers – these terms encompass a fairly larger ambit. We witness various forms of suppression; a woman is subjugated by patriarchy, a lower caste by a high caste, a poor farmer by a rich zamindar, a black by a white and so on. For a Brahman, a paravan is a Dalit; for a man, a woman is a Dalit. The term ‘dalit’, narrowly applied to the ‘untouchables’ of India, in fact, extends to the whole of the weaker section - including the women as well. It literally means any one who has been crushed, tortured, harassed, etc. Once suppressed as the ‘Subaltern’ section of Indian society, the dalits have now awakened to their existence and are trying to break the vicious circle of their oppression, humiliation, degradation and discrimination. Dalit Literature has emerged in revolt to the mainstream literature. The latter has not given the deserved place to the ‘untouchables’ and has always painted them in a negative shade. Dalit Literature aims at reinstating the depressed castes. It talks about reality, their lived experiences; it tries to open our eyes to the wounds of these peoples.

Against All Odds turns our attention to two major issues considered by Feminism – ‘Virgin Syndrome’ (the desire of every male to have a virgin wife, though he himself might have lost his virginity) and the motto of French Feminists who talk of the ‘newly born woman’. Kale reveals the harsh truth of our society. The weaker sex of Maharashtra’s Kolhati community, despite being the breadwinner of the family, is still suppressed by patriarchy and has to pay the price of being born as a woman.

The exponents of French Feminism such as Julia Kristeva, Luce Irigaray and Helene Cixous talked about ‘Newly born woman’, about women celebrating their body, about women who have ‘won back their body’. But Kale presents a section of women who is in awe of their body. Lacan remarks, ‘there are one thousand and one pores in female body and from each pore oozes female language’ but the females of Kolhati community are made silent and are not permitted to give voice to their misery while the male sex becomes the mute spectator of its women being exploited. They do not have any ‘room of their own’, even their life is not theirs. The Kolhati women are like Eve, who is supposed to be born out of Adam – ‘this is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh, she shall be called woman. Because she was taken out of man’ (Contemporary Literary Theory: A Student’s  Companion, 73)) and thus are expected to be submissive to men.

As an autobiography of Kishore Shantabai Kale, Against All Odds traces the predicaments of the tamasha dancers of Kolhati community in Maharashtra. The book is a scathing attack on Feminist Movement and questions the very authenticity of the aims of the movement. Patriarchy makes man the sole possessor of woman. However, Kale’s community gives one right to the females, the child bears the name of his/her mother and not that of the father. But this should not be seen as the victory of Feminism – their mother’s name is something to be ashamed of: ‘..most Kolhati children bear their mother’s name, a fact that proclaims their illegitimacy’ (Introduction to Against All Odds, ix). Earlier we had cases of female foeticide, the cases of ‘missing girls’. The girl child was ‘unwanted’. But among Kolhatis, the birth of a daughter was celebrated as more daughters meant more income. The males live off on the money that their women earned by dancing in front of the ‘Satans’: ‘the men considered any labour below their dignity’ (5).

Instead of protecting their daughters and sisters from the male-gaze, the Kolhati men themselves gave away their women to the highest bidder for chira utarna, a ceremony where young virgins were given to men ‘with all the trappings of a wedding, but none of its sanctity’ (5). This kind of degeneration where a father whores his daughter is incredible and unacceptable. Kale’s grandfather Kondiba handed over Kale’s ‘young Baby Maushi’ to a middle-aged drunkard so that she would make his life easy – ‘what a travesty it was of the father-daughter relationship’ (63). Even his eldest daughter, Shanta, Kale’s mother was pulled out of school to bring in money. Such was the pitiable condition of these women that the life of ‘imprisonment’ was a kind of security to them: ‘They are like birds in a cage who have forgotten how life outside the cage is like. They cannot survive outside because their fear kills them’ (191).

The hypocrite society allowed the male to taste ‘fresh flesh every night’, the woman was always expected to be loyal to her man:
As long as he maintained her and her family, she would not have sex with any other man. He was her ‘kaja’ or ‘yejman’, her master. (15)

The figure of speech used by Kale evokes the deep pain within:
Like a worn-out piece of clothing she would be discarded…Like a flower that has lost its fragrance, we are thrown out. (29, 30)
What an irony – women who are selling away their flesh daily to make the two ends meet, do not have any time either for their children or for themselves: ‘Tears are all that tamasha dancers have in their lives anyway’ (161). Their life is worth living only until the time they have any benefactor who not only supports her but also her family. And once she bores him a child, he moves out to find some other girl. Thus, ‘happiness plays a very, very small part in a dancer’s life’ (173).

In the guise of an autobiography, Kishore Shantabai Kale narrates the sad tale of Kolhati women and their children who are left to destiny – if they survive, their life is no better than a stray-dog ‘who can be kicked by any passer-by’. Against All Odds also focuses on the blurring away of the fine line between art and prostitution. People of Kolhati community were nomadic who used to earn their living by performing tamashas before the public. Men played dholaks and women danced on the rhythm. However, slowly this degraded from an art into business, and eventually there was no difference left between a dancer and a prostitute. The latter at least has the satisfaction of carrying out her trade overtly but the Kolhati ‘dancers’ had to put on the façade of respectability by cladding in ‘elaborate saris, which covered them completely and were pinned securely in place so that the pallu never slid off the shoulder on stage’ (11). They dance to attract men but are fully dressed, although physically only. It is just a pretence for any spectator could hold and squeeze their hands, pass lewd remarks and even take her as his mistress. There is no one to sympathize with them because ‘who will mourn her who dies every day’ (94).

Another important aspect to be noted in this book is the emphasis on education. Kale reiterates that once the under-privileged decide to stand for their rights, they can easily swim against the current to change their destiny: ‘..success does not depend on a name or a cast, or the womb from which one is born. It is only sincere effort that counts’ (175). Despite being left alone in the barbaric and brutal society, Kale continued studying and finally, as he writes in the last line, success was his:
I had been tried and tested every step of the way, but at last my dream had come true: Kirsya had become Dr Kishore Shantabai Kale. (197)

Though Kale yearned for his mother’s love through out his life, it also highlights the dilemma, the pain of a woman who is standing at crossroads – to choose between the child and a miserable life and the husband or ‘kaja’, ‘yejman’ for support. His mother’s decision to go with the latter was unforgivable by Kale as well as by her family – the family lost the breadwinner and a child his mother. But what about the woman, the mother? He says in the beginning, ‘My mother managed to free herself of the binding ghungroos, but I, like a little broken bell, was dropped, left in the care of Jiji’ (2). But can any one fathom the pain suffered by a mother? Shantabai ‘pinned for her sons, but remained duty bound to her husband’ (43). A woman has to bear all the pain because she has ‘no right to her own life’ (43), because ‘it is a sin to be born a beautiful woman in a Kolhati family’ (44)

The harrowing experiences narrated in the book make one sympathize with these women. They put on make-ups, wear masks to hide their helplessness. Kale admits, ‘the sadness and despair of the women behind their laughing facades affected me deeply and made me very depressed’ (114). These dancing women ‘belonged to every body’. They were trading their flesh just to earn few coins to satisfy the desires of their family and that is why it was a crime if a Kolhati girl falls in love because it meant snapping off all the bonds with the family and thus termination of the source of income.

Whether it be Jiji, once the lady of the house and now a pauper or Shantabai, the steady and loyal wife, or Susheela Maushi, the fate of all Kolhati tamasha girls is the same – they all have to expiate their ‘sin of being a woman’. It is sorrowful but through Kale’s autobiography Nietzsche’s statement comes true that ‘woman is the source of all folly and unreason, the siren figure that lures the male philosopher out of his appointed truth-seeking path’ (Contemporary… 76) and that ‘woman is God’s second mistake’(76).

 

 

Works Cited

Kale, Kishore Shantabai. Against All Odds. Penguin Books, New   Delhi: 2000.

Krishnaswamy, N. Contemporary Literary Theory: A Student’s       Companion. Macmillan India Ltd, New Delhi: 2003.