Research Scholar

Dept. of English & Other Foreign Languages

Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapith,

 Varanasi, U.P., India 

While Tagore's poems primarily describe beauty, nature and his search for what is beyond mundane life, his short stories deal with the lives of ordinary people. Women’s struggles and sufferings are particularly highlighted. This paper proposes to explore his vision and views on women as reflected in his short stories. Tagore's creative works have grave impact on the traditional socio-cultural system of his period.

Rabindranath Tagore being a protagonist always tries to bring the women's contribution to the society. Though the women portrayed in his writings were in their traditional forms, they influence the society of that time. His writing contributed much to the modern society and came up as an alarming bell for the ladies to put their voice for their liberalization.

Literature plays an important role in the establishment and growth of the society. As a novelist Tagore is well aware about the social evil prevailed in the society. As a conscious socialist, he exposed all these evils in his short-stories and novels. He deals with the problem of women like inequality, dowry system, and rape. His novel "Jogajog" accentuates the issue of marital rape. Not only this, but so many other social issue were also picked up by Tagore in his writings, such as child marriage, wife-burning, etc.

Tagore has presented women in traditional role but not in stereo type image. He has presented them in varied ways. His female characters are outspoken. They know to raise their voice against injustice. His female characters are full of inner strength and have dreams and desires. They are full with fighting spirit. Tagore's female characters are the representative of the new women of the modern era. Through his female character Tagore seeks for the new change in the society. Usually he has depicted the three aspects of womens' life; relationship between men and women, their social oppression, and the avatar of new women who is confident and makes their own decisions. He recommended women to find their own identity, as wifehood and motherhood are just part of their entire self.

In the literary world, where most of writers think about women as an influence of their writings, Rabindranath Tagore thought women as lead or central character in his writings. In 19^th century literature and society where the rights of women are just beyond the thinking there Tagore presented his heroines and characters as free minded, advance thinkers with strong personality.

Tagore shows the gender discrimination primarily caused by the exploitation and the marginalization of women by males due to biological distinction leading to a psychological vacuum as encountered by the female protagonist of A Wife's Letter and The story of a Muslim Woman. He highlights the facts of the societal conditions which were absolutely unacceptable for women. These women characters through their reformist ideas and freedom come out victorious at the end.         

The story is about the modern female protagonist Mrinal who after being married for fifteen years, discards her husband's house and goes to Puri forever and writes a letter to her husband. She got married in her childhood and entered into the joint family of her husband as the second bride. Mrinal's comments :

That I had beauty, it did not take you long to forget,

But you were reminded, every step of the way, that

I also had intelligence.

                                         (A Wife's Letter, p .90)

Mrinal's mother also concerned about the fact that she is wise. She was compelled to live in unhygienic situations during her childbirth which culminated in the delivery of a female baby. Bindu's contact with Mrinal made her rebellious. Mrinal's sister-in-law was Bindu who due to her family was reluctant to face all the tortures after being married to a psychic person. Mrinal determines to go from her household and desires to take Bindu to pilgrimage to get rid of dangerous environment of her house. Whereas Bindu, on the other hand, was unable to face the emotional domination from her own relatives and committed suicide before Mrinal could take her for pilgrimage. However, even after demise, Bindu was criticized for her own hardships. Mrinal presented her ideas about her spouse and the patriarchal society in her letter. Simmi Gurwara has the same opinion. In the early years of her marriage, she was captivated by the magic of their sexual life. She eagerly looked forward to a physical union with her husband and enjoyed it immensely thinking physical intimacy of her married life. She addressed her spouse with satirical remark in the letter and at the end of the letter, she feels emancipated from all her suppressions.

Tagore presents the numerous social issues of the caste system, male-dominated society, and lack of equal chances and child marriage which was prevalent during his age. Tagore has shown these several social injustices and paints Mrinal's pain because she proves herself by being artistic, skilful and presentable in her opinions. Through her poetry, Mrinal provided vent to her suppressed feelings and raised her voice and opinions on gender equality and emancipation from the grasp of patriarchal norms. Mrinal, modern woman protagonist, narrates her own experience in A Wife's Letter. He has foreseen the modern age of liberated women who will definitely emerge in the future. Mrinal's effort in this letter is connected with the opinion of Helen Cixous (1987), the French Feminist, who, in The Newly Born Women  suggested  to females that :

She must write herself, because this is the invention of a

New insurgent writing, which, when the moment of liberation

Has come, will allow her to carry out the indispensable

Ruptures and transformations in her history.

                                                 (Cixous, 18)

Mrinal is the first female protagonist in Indian literature to protest in the male-dominated society through her efficacious writings. Mrinal writes this letter from Puri, where she lives forever at the age of twenty-seven after fifteen years of married life. Tandon says :

A woman's story, inevitably silenced by andocentric

Culture, narrated from a woman's point of view by

Women writers in itself is a challenge to the male power

                                                        (Tandon,  96)

Bindu's demise awakened Mrinal's understanding. It motivates Mrinal's identity and changes her into an emancipated woman. After fifteen years of conscious existence as a wife suffering from endless pain, Mrinal feels that her contentment cannot be gained as a wife but as a woman. She announces that she will live like Meerabai, and ends her letter with the words:

Breaking free from the shelter beneath your feet, Mrinal

                                         (A Wife's Letter, 107)

Tagore's short stories A Wife's letter and The Story of a Muslim Woman delineate how Tagore has shown his female characters as revolutionary, courageous, confident, focused and conscious of their identity. The female protagonist of these attempts defied the male-oriented norms of their period i.e. to remain crushed and guided the cause of female liberation from the chains of male-dominated society. They protested in a strong manner against the male-oriented society and through their effort, power, and strong will come out victorious.             

Tagore's short story Laboratory written a few months before his death expresses his latest views on women and gives shop to the “new women” whom he perceives as arriving in India in the new future. In so doing Tagore urges women to find an identity of their own and realises that wifehood and motherhood are but fractions of their whole being. It dazzled the readers and created a stir among the admirers of literature. In the early period of Tagore's writings, women are part of injustice done by the society and the harsh realities in the rural surroundings.  The second period of his writing (1893-1913), is the most imaginative period of his life. The era witnessed the portrayal of urban and educated women in the society who plead for human rights.

Tagore not only portrayed the urban, rural and educated women but also side of the widowed is carefully presented. Women served as the two sides of the coin, one side is the conflict of the society relating with the widow and on the other side is the conflict of the women themselves. The Choker Bali (1903), depicts the story of a widow Binodini, unfulfilled love and struggle with her own passion. On the other hand, another widow Damini, ignoring all the social rituals and dilemma, starts her new beginning with her new husband.

In the words of Vrihadaranyaka, Yajnavalka :

"The wife loves her husband not because he is her husband, or the mother loves her son not because he is her son. This love blooms only because the same self is imminent in all, only because the wife finds herself in her husband and the Mother in her son".

Rabindranath Tagore, being the greatest poet, philosopher is known for writing poems, dramas, plays and novels. In most of Tagore's writings one can find more about women struggle, their inner strength and the role played by them in different situations and at different places by the society. His first short story, Beggar Girl (1877), is his final work.  In The Bad Name (1941), the readers discover how women can be the most transformation within social life. The personality changes by every plots and this leads to the alterations made in the social society.

In Tagore's short stories female protagonists perform like men that stand for masculinity. So, we can figure out that they are modern women. Women characters have feminine qualities but their deeds show that they are revolutionary women. In Tagore's writings he represents modern women who act like revolutionary women in the Indian society. The writer gives justice for the womens' role by showing them as new women who seek their individual identity in the conventional world. They wish to create new history by highlighting themselves as modern women. With the changing scenario of the image of the women Tagore has changed the concept of womens' status. Today women now won't feel like a dominant person but they come up as equal genders with the men in the society.

References :

1. Bandyoadhyay, A.  Rabindranath Tagore : Novelist, Short Story Writer and Essayist Atlantic Publishers and Distributors,New Delhi,  2004.

2.  Matthews, B. The Philosophy of the Short Story, New York and London : Longmans, Green and Co. 1901

3. Rao, M.R. The Short Story in Modern Indian Literature, Fiction and the Reading Public in India. Mysore: Mysore University Press. 1967

4. Ray, M.K. Studies on Rabindranath Tagore, New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers and Distributors. 2004.

5. Tagore R. The Story of a Muslim Woman. Ritupatra, Barsha issue, 1955. Trans. Swapan Kumar Banerjee.

6. Tagore, N.  A Wife's Letter, publication- 1914.

7. Tagore, R. Galpaguccha (Collected Short Stories), Kolkata: Visva-Bharati. 2008.

8.  Banerjee, S. "Emancipated Women in Rabindranath Tagore's Selected Short Stories". The Criterion: An International Journal in English, 2017.