Please note that is a long post.
Sitaramayya Ari
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A lot of people were surprized at the title- RAjakIya kathalu.
The names of the stories are - sIta jada, mukkupudaka, kallu etc, and
therefore it is only natural to ask why the collection is given such
an unusual name. To explain this and to suggest the
outlook necessary to understand these stories, I chose to
write this foreward.
The stories in this collection are about the web of emotional
entanglements woven around the bodies of women, and the myths about
their relationships with fellow women, men and the society in general.
Our literature is strewn with women's bodies. The
writers didn't spare the description of even an inch of the woman's
body in either the classical or the modern literature. It is unnecessary
to go into the exxagerations and indecencies in these descriptions. The
writers described the bodies in ways that they thought were mouth watering.
A collection of the poems and commentaries on women's bodies would rival
the Encyclopedia Brittanica in size. Describing these bodies alternately
as attractive and loathsome, and looking at women through these colored
glasses of attraction and revulsion has become habitual to our society.
It is no wonder that the writers who spent their energies describing the
bodies tried to deny the women their individuality. Even in Bharatam where
there were glimpses of respect for the individuality of women, hundreds of
poems described women as base, fickle, and as reasons for all misfortunes.
The classical poets imagined women only as objects of pleasure. The
romanticists were worse. The Digambara poets were even more blind: in
expressing their disgust with the society with great effectiveness, they
could not see beyond the bodies of women and the mythical entrapments
woven around them. Perhaps it should not be a surprise. The frequent
pronouncements of wretchedness associated with women's bodies made it easy
for Digambara poets to use women in their writings as targets of revenge
against society. There are plenty of stories even in today's literature in
which the woman is identified with wretchedness and her body is used as
the object of abuse.
In spite of many progressive and revolutionary trends in Telugu literature
in recent years, there wasn't even a dent in the cultural entrapments
created by patriarchal society around women. The awakening in women started
when they found that in spite of their participation in great numbers in
the progressive movements, they were still being subordinated to male
superiority in the very same movements. That was the start. Slowly feminist
writings crept into our literature. They eventually turned into a
strong force. In this new atmosphere, women rediscovered themselves.
They discarded the bodies and associated rituals in the mythologies and
tried to understand themselves based on their own experiences. That wasn't
an easy job.
For centuries the woman's body was oppressed; it lost its strength;
it has become a stranger to the woman herself; the woman herself lost
respect for it; she looked down upon herself; when you think of this
degradation, it is heart breaking. If we look
critically at our experiences and the experiences of fellow women and
analyze them, we will come to understood how the society built a deceitful
culture around women's bodies. We will come to understand how gender
roles were institutionalized. These attempts are being made by women only
in recent years. Women are writing stories and poetry based on their
experiences. As this movement gains strength, and the myths about feminism
brought about by western stereotypes begin to fade, a lot of people are
discussing the women's writings seriously. They are welcoming this
literature. But there are other traditionalists and people who fail
to appreciate the change of times. These folks are saying that feminist
writings are not socially relevant and that they are
just descriptions of physical perceptions by women. Some even called
the feminist writings as blue literature. Whatever they say, it is our
responsibility to let the society know that when we write about our bodies,
it is to express our social awareness
and to expose the oppression and exploitation of women the present society
is built upon. The funny thing is that when we are ready to seriously
discuss the idealogy behind these issues and ask questions, there is nobody
to discuss it with, nobody to reply. And when they venture into a discussion,
they drag our personal lives into it as a distraction, and try to create an
image that feminism is nothing but confusion. I see no other way but to
ignore these folks and go ahead with our work and say what we
have to say. But there is a danger that some readers would believe the
accusation that our writings are only about our bodily awareness.
Due to the dearth of decent literary critics, it is even harder to find
critics capable of analyzing our writings from a
feminist perspective. Therefore I felt it necessary to talk about
this collection of my stories which were written about the politics
of the web of myths and deceits wrapped around the women's bodies. I
wanted to emphasize that these are serious stories about this politics.
If we had good literary critics, it would not have been
necessary to write this.
Whatever the women's issues, how do we understand them? How should we
understand them? Let us look at the recent times - a lot of things have
come up as women's issues: marriages for child widows, sale of girls,
women's education, dowry, sexual harassment, rapes, domestic violence,
financial insecurity etc. For a long time we thought of these as social
evils. In a society that is devoid of culture, education, knowledge and a
modern outlook, men created some roles and traditions for women. For a while
we thought that if we are educated, cultured, and become scientifically
knowledgeable, we can recognize these evils and get rid of them. All we
need is a couple of people dedicated to working for reformation of the
society. If it becomes necessary we could pass some new laws. Eventually
these evils will disappear, we will get our rights, and the respect and
status due to us in the society. That is what we thought. But the
reformers and the laws did little to change our situation. Scores of
little girls are being married off even now. The sale of girls is replaced
by an even worse malady, the dowry. We are seeing how sexual harassment is
becoming a nightmare for women in education and employment. Women who are
employed don't have any liberty except for what
is granted them by husbands and fathers. Inequalities in marriage
continue unabated.
It is time we ask why things are happening like this? It is time we realize
that the so-called women's issues are not merely social evils. We should
recognize that the very foundations of this exploitative society are based
on the oppression of women. We can't move forward unless we recognize that.
Suppression of women is at the inner core of the present society's
machinations. It survives on the oppression of women. We need to understand
the society not simply through the issues of economic productivity,
but also through the politics of reproductive rights. Once we do that,
we will understand that what we think of as women's issues are
manifestations of controls imposed by men on the sexuality and reproductive
rights of women. Once we realize how important these controls are for the
existence of our nation, we can turn our movements and struggles into
national issues. Once we know where the problems are, we can aim our
weapons at the right places. That simply means, we will turn the
so-called women's issues into matters of national politics and look
for political solutions to the problems. The crux of it is this: if we
understand that what we always thought of as personal problems, family
problems etc are controls the nation imposed on women in such
a clever fashion that we did not even realize it, then we realize
that every little thing we do in our lives is related to politics.
Well, all this is not going to be easy to do. When you question the
beliefs and opinions that have remained with us for thousands of years,
it sometimes feels like our very foundations are moving. It would be a
struggle to understand how important our thoughts are about our bodies.
It would be an equally difficult struggle to reach the stage where we
experience the joy of thinking for ourselves. Women's impressions of the
world, their values and opinions are based on their relationships with
their bodies. As a girl becomes an individual, her body changes also.
And the oppressive controls on her begin to increase. Efforts begin
from all directions to turn her into a slave. The two oppressions:
oppression of the body to oppress her intellect and waste her
individuality, and the oppression of the intellect to prevent the growth
of her individuality and body - are inseparable. But we are constantly
told that the mind and body are separate. Some times it is our bodies
that are valued more and on other occasions, it is our minds. It is
necessary for us to recognize today that the same relationship that exists
between our hands and brain in carrying out a task, exists between the
body and mind. We should stress that our minds and individualities are
not separate from our bodies. Women rarely realize that they have
responsibilities for themselves or for the society. They generally think
that their responsibilities are only towards their family, the husband and
children. Take for example a woman dressing up and wearing flowers in her
hair and looking happy and pretty - the legend around this is that she
should not do this for herself; it is for the sake of the husband; if she
does not have a husband, this dressing up is bad. The same about cooking.
Women cook and eat. But if they are alone, they say that there is nobody
to eat, and so why make so many things. So they just eat with some
chutney. Evidently, their own eating is not for themselves and their
bodies, but for the sake of their husbands and children.
These are simple examples everybody can recognize. Others are more
sophisticated controls woven very strongly aroud us, making them look very
natural and making us believe that any thought of opposing these controls
is sinful. Even we ourselves reproach other women for breaking off
these controls.
If a woman eats with satisfaction, the stamp on her is that she doesn't
worry about her husband and children. "MundugA thinnamma mogudAkalerugadu"
"kadupE kailAsam; illE vaikuntham" are the sayings of our society. The
accusations on a woman who dresses up when the husband is not around, are
needless to list here.
These are things that are not too difficult to recognize and think
about. But we are conditioned right from childhood not to think of these.
We are used to accepting the dictates of how our bodies should look,
how they should not look, what we can do with our bodies and what we
cannot. We are trained to despise the very nature of our bodies. We
are trained to worry about escaping what we have come to believe as
the wretchedness of our bodies. Because we are sinners, we believe,
we have these bodies and therefore we are trained to accept as our own
faults the atrocities committed on our bodies. Even the so-called scholars
say that if women wear proper cloths, don't appear provocative, walk
with their heads bent, don't laugh so much, then, the sexual
harassment of women would not occur. Women have to awaken and begin to
respect their own bodies, and recognize that it is the same as respecting
themselves, and to accomplish this, they will have to bring about profound
changes in the thinking of the society.
The stories presented here were written between 1985 and 1992. I
wrote them believing that I am rebelling against the culture oppressing
women. This culture robbed us of our powers. It created its own definitions
for our lives. It is the cultures of the powermongers and controllers.
These stories of mine which I wrote to refuse the culture of the
oppressors - yes, they represent a declaration of war on that culture.