Thematic study of Manju Kapur’s Difficult Daughters

Dr. Smita Sharma

Assistant Professor, English (Guest Faculty), School of Studies in Literature and Languages, Pt. Ravishankar Shukla University, Raipur CG

ABSTRACT:

Set up against the backdrop of 1940’s a time when India’s struggle for freedom was in its full swing. The novelist, Manju Kapur successfully presents different shades of life, painted on the canvas of Difficult Daughters. The novel has many strands with different hues e.g. woman emancipation, love, marriage, war etc. woven together in the smooth and soft textured fabric of Difficult Daughters. With all its lucidity in language, the novel, through the upheavals in the life of the protagonist, conflicts of mindsets and values and the relationship of one character to another bring into light several issues of the time like condition of woman, gradual disintegration of joint family system, impact of Western culture on Indian mind, transition from Indenisation to westernization which further agravated the problem of married life. Education, especially for women, and also some of stalk realities related to marriage and partition.

KEYWORDS:

INTRODUCTION:

Being a feminist writer Manju Kapur’s main concern in the novel Difficult Daughters is woman. Woman who is regarded as God’s best creation, a magnificent creature, a power of benevolence and tolerance, a protector and provider and understanding all wrapped in one. Even though the position of a woman in the Vedas and Upanishads was put on high pedestal to that of mother and goddess but her condition in reality was not satisfactory. It has always been felt that Indian women do not enjoy equal rights with men in social, political, religious and economic fields. Before marriage a woman depends on father, after marriage on her husband and in old-age on her son. This is one of the aspects what we see in Manju Kapur’s successfully delineated characters like Kasturi (Virmati’s mother), Virmati(the protagonist), Buaji, Ganga (Professor’s wife), Kishoridevi (Professor’s mother). When this protection turned into over protection or male domination, nobody could know when a number of restrictions imposed on her and she was no more an emancipated personality and even remained deprived of basic necessary school education. In the words of Kasturi: “ In her time going to school had been a privilege, not to be abused by going against the parents” (Kaput 55).

It was not the girl but the parents who decided how far the girl should be educated. Not only as a girl but as a wife never gets proper opportunity for an outlet of her emotions and desires, although taken case of some other comforts. Kasturi’s consecutive eleven pregnancies and then her shifting to Dalhousie’s rented house shows that Suraj Prakash, no doubt proved himself a good husband but a person with lack of understanding. He failed to understand what actually his wife needed child or health. Neither her husband Suraj Prakash nor Lala Diwan Chand, her father in law, paid due attention towards the deteriorating health of Kasturi until the doctors gave the last warning. They always welcomed every child saying. “Raunaq is the house at last”. (Kapur 22)

Beyond this ‘Raunaq’ they never saw the ever increasing illness heaving and grieving of Kasturi. Kishori Devi who being a widow did her best to educate her son in the best possible way she staked all the precious possessions to give him the best education and that too in England. But in return what she could get only the domination of his son and after his second marriage she blames Virmati and holds her responsible for their lot. Instead she could have opposed her son openly and strongly for the injustice done to Ganga. After some arguments she helplessly allows them in and tries to console and convince Ganga to accept the fate quietly. ‘We have to accept- this is our lot in life!’(Kapur 195)

The question comes to the reader’s mind that she could have scolded and made her son realise his folly to betray his wife. But there is a big ‘but’ behind it i.e. she ultimately was also a woman who is a widow who had brought up her children facing the hardships and now being an old and weak woman. She was completely in control of her son relying completely on him as she had no one else to rely upon.

Indian woman realizes her predicament when Male geocentricism blinds man to the situation of woman who may be placed in agonizing circumstances on account of her relationship with man. This attitude is very well highlighted through Virmati who found herself torn between her duties toward her family and her family and her own wishes and desires to live a life of social identity and refinement by becoming an acme.

Like a modern woman Kasturi was of the opinion: “For a girl study means developing the mind for the benefit of the family” as a girl lives for others not for herself. (Kapur 14)

Knowing that she was engaged with a man from respectable family and her own family’s attitude towards her study, she still longs for academic excellence, economic freedom and above all to develop into a personality like that of her cousin Shakuntala who studied and attained a place in society. Virmati knows that she has fight for this and assert herself. She develops into a cult figure who fights against taboos, social and joint family restrictions and manmade rules in the traditional society. She could have reached to that height, could have set an example and paved way for younger sisters’ education hadn’t she met the Professor. She tries hard to restrain her relationship with the Professor and concentrate on her study. She was aware of the Professor’s love for her. She was not ready to betray her father but the professor being a successful academician, a writer, a connoisseur of the culture, a disseminator of Knowledge attracts her towards himself with great force she ceded to the titillation of the professor. In Indian society consummation love, courtship and any other kind of love relationships, or secret marriages are strictly prohibited or not acceptable. It is a shame for a mother whose daughter is found involved in any such relationship and that too with a married man with a complete family.

Virmati’s relationship with the Professor brought all the turbulences in her life. It was because of her relationship with Professor she had to undergo an abortion before marriage, expelled from Nahan School and even after marrying the Professor her life became all the more problematic. As a wife of Professor, Virmati gets a bed to share with her husband but not his house whereas his first wife remained a dominating figure with everything belonged to her. Her hearth, house members of the family, children, belongings of husband and even her husband whom she continues to serve and never allows Virmati to do anything for him. All this made her restless and made her feel in a sense of incomplete womanhood.

Above all because of this relationship she was deprived of parental love and honour which a daughter usually gets after her marriage. This marriage gifted her only abuses and breaking up of so called strong bonds. Humiliation and lack of love from both the families aggravated her agony all the more when she finds her father and grandfather had died without forgiving her and all this made her mad. It was almost as though she has gone mad, forgotten who she was, who she was married to, and all her obligation.

A very important aspect of the novel is women education and freedom to choose her career and above all to choose her mate in life. In the novel, education and marriage go side by side. Education without marriage is considered useless as in Shakuntala’s case and marriage without education was also not seen very successful as in the case of Professor and Ganga.

The novel depicts the growing impact of social reformers and their fruitful efforts in the society. Their hard work in the direction of abolition of child marriage started bearing fruit as people were awaked not only for the struggle for freedom of the country but also from their old age orthodoxy and other evils and for the betterment of the society. By 1940 Dayanand Saraswati’s Arya reform movement jolted the mindsets of Indian people. So strong was the impact that it could be seen everywhere even after his death.

As a result of this movement child marriages were considered as an evil practice. It was believed that “marriage was a union between rational consenting, adults.”(Kapur 56)

During Kasturi’s education it was never forgotten that marriage was her destiny. After her graduation she was perfectly trained in the household. Whatever she has lived she expects her daughter Virmati to follow. Even she felt shame for Shakuntala, Virmati’s cousin. She felt, ”it is the duty of every girl to get married as a woman’s shaan is in her home.”(Kapur 13)

Like Kasturi, Virmati also belonged to an Arya Samaj family, still not much attention was paid on her education. On her complaining for the factors responsible she was scolded severely and was also compared with Shakuntala. The mother felt that Virmati’s complains were unreasonable and asserted. “ At your age i was already expecting you, not fighting with my mother.”(Kapur 19)

This conflict between two generations Kasturi’s daughter Virmati and Lajwanti’s daughter Shakuntala can be seen throughout the novel. The former emphasises marriage and the latter on education and economic freedom. We find how Shakuntala lived a solitary life. In the same way Virmati’s assertion for education resulted in her alienation. Her insistence for education filled her life with great difficulties. Her easy surrender before the Professor’s love was nothing but an outlet of those buried and fermented emotion which was expecting from her mother and family. No doubt in the beginning she was attracted by the Professor but gradually when this attraction took the form of love she herself could not know. To her, her marriage with canal engineer seemed a burden and her refusal resulted in a great chaos in her life and family. Her relationship with the Professor made her a difficult daughter for her mother and a hindrance to her siblings especially her sister, Indumati, who was married off to Inderjeet in place of Virmati. Sometimes it seems that Virmati took the aid of education just to get time and consummate her love. As a result she set a very bad example of girls’ education. It was proved a great set back to Arya Samaj’s efforts to educate girl child. Virmati broke all the taboos and moral course of the society by marrying a man with a wife and kids. Child marriage is another factor that ruins the happiness of many lives. Perhaps, this is what the novelist tries to bring into light through the relationship of Ganga, a less educated person and the Professor, highly qualified, who looks forward to Virmati for the attainment of physical, emotional and intellectual fulfilment of his desires. As A. Rangacharya puts it: Virmati’s love for the Professor “It is not a mere physical experience. The man and the woman experience a feeling in which everything including their individualities ceases to exist.” (Rangacharya 140-141)

The novelist gives a picture of war time. Reading of the novel helps us to realise the difficulties faced by the people during the period of partition. The characters affected by war are- Virmati, Ganga, Kasturi. Ganga had to leave her husband in Amritsar and go to their village as the place was not safe. Virmati had a miscarriage as a result of depression which existed due to the death of her father and grandfather due to the shock of his own son’s death. Kasturi became a widow. Both the families in the story suffered a lot due to war.

The experience of different character gives us a glimpse of the situation and atmosphere prevailed during that time. It also tells us how various people and groups suffered physically, mentally as well as emotionally due to partition. Though different characters Manju Kapur speaks of all the tensions and problems of the people during the time of 1940’s especially those faced by the weaker sex.

REFERENCE:

1. Kapur, Manju. Difficult Daughters. New Delhi: Penguin, 1998.

2. Sharma, I.K. “A Study of Manju Kapur’s Difficult Daughters and Anita Desai’s Fasting Feasting”, The Fiction of Anita Desai. Vol. II. Ed. Suman Bala and D.K. Pabby. New Delhi: Khosla Publishing House, 2002.

3. The Indian Journal of English Studies. Vol. XXXVIII. Ed. R.K. Dhawan.

4. New Delhi: The Indian Association for English Studies, 2000-2001.

Received on 29.05.2015

Modified on 11.06.2015

Accepted on 26.06.2015

© A&V Publication all right reserved

Research J. Humanities and Social Sciences. 6(2): April-June, 2015, 85-87

DOI: 10.5958/2321-5828.2015.00011.X