ABSTRACT
In the famous Bengali trilogy (Prothom Protisruti, Subarnalata and Bakul Katha), Ashapoorna Debi (1909-1995) chronicles the evolution of a feminist consciousness through dialogues between the ‘institutional’ and ‘local statuses’ of heterosexual relationships, marriage and the marital home in colonial India. The epic history, thus created, traces the journey of the voiceless woman who learns to exercise choice and finally succeeds in asserting her individual rights. The colonial experience in India involved a direct challenge to the country’s national identity and culture. Our patriarchal forefathers realized that, to survive the onslaught of imperialism, the nation needed to preserve its essence by defending its national culture, defined largely in relation to the female population. The sacrosanct space of the woman, the ‘home’, hence, had to endure the weight of the imperial politics of cultural nationalism. The woman, consequently, became the site of enacting and resisting power. Political upheavals have invariably led to a restructuring of the social, economic and cultural institutions. The two world wars and India’s freedom struggle were political cataclysms that re-codified power relations. The marital home in colonial India was a space doubly challenged by patriarchy and imperial politics. Its metamorphosis was, unequivocally, a product of the workings of the social agencies as far as the ‘woman question’ was concerned. I have traced the narratives and counter-narratives informing the genesis of the marital home in Ashapoorna’s trilogy.
Keywords: Colonialism, Nationalism, Woman, Self.