View of KAMALA DAS’S POETRY: A FEMININE SENSIBILITY

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ACCENT JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS ECOLOGY & ENGINEERING Peer Reviewed and Refereed Journal (International Journal) ISSN-2456-1037

Vol. 05,Special Issue 02, (IC-IRSHEM-2020) February 2020, Available Online: www.ajeee.co.in/index.php/AJEEE

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KAMALA DAS’S POETRY: A FEMININE SENSIBILITY RAHMAT PRASAD

Research Scholar, Shri Khushal Das University, Pilibangan, Hanumangarh

Kamala Das (1934-2009)

Abstract:- Kamala Das was born on 31^st March, 1934 in the state of Kerala, in a Hindu family. Kamala Das is her pseudonym, her real name is MadhaviKutty, She was a revolutionary writer. She used the English language for her poetic choice of themes, characters, sentiment and locate. Kamala das is the leading champion of feminism in the field of Indian poetry in English. She is feminist as her poetry represents female voice and not the borrowed male voice. “My grandmother’s house”, “Next to Indira Gandhi”, “The old play house”, the suicide”, and “Composition” are the best example of feminine sensibility.

Keywords: Kamala Das, Kerala, Pseudonym, Madhvikutty, champion, represents, feminine sensibility.

1. INTRODUCTION

Kamala Das is one of the pioneers of Indian poetry in English. Kamala Das’s poetry is concerned with both the external and internal worlds and her response to the external world in particular, despite her inner restlessness, is marked by an admirable sense of poise and perfection. Kamala Das poetic output is contained in four volumes of poems.

Which include “Summer in Calcutta” (1965), “The Descendants” (1967), “The Old play house and other poems” (1973), and “Stranger time” (1975).

In the contemporary Indian literary scenario, Kamala Das holds a major position as a poet of talent and artistry. She as a prominent Indian poetess in English, has attracted international attention by virtue of her bold uninhibited articulation of feminine urges along with other women poets like MamataKalia, and GauriDeshpande.

Feminism is a reactionary movement which calls for assigning a dignified place to a woman in the male-dominated society. It advocates the concept of equality between a man and a woman in it. Kamala Das is the champion of feminism in the field of Indian poetry in English. She deals with different aspects of feminine sensibility in her poetry. Her poetry represents female voice and not male’s voice. As a feminist, she is also dead against the primitive concept of dehumanization of females in the society. Even in this man made social construct, she voices her feminine quest fearlessly. She does not defer between a girl-child and a male-child. She has full faith in the equality of sexes. She wants freedom from male- dominated society. She raises her vigorous voice against the male tyrannies and hails as an ardent spokesperson for women’s liberation movement in India. She rebels at the passive role that a woman is forced to play in this anti-female traditional society.

Kamala Das’s feminism is clearly seen in her bold portrayal of sex in her poems. She does not feel shy of dramatizing sexual act in any way. She frankly narrates her marital and extra-marital relationships in her autobiographical poems. The birth of a girl child is normally not welcomed in a male-dominated Indian society. She is often ill-treated and

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humiliated. As a feminist, Kamala Das has graphically presented the dilemma of a girl-child to awaken the social consciousness in her poems.

In her poem “Next to Indira Gandhi” She questions her father whether she was an unwanted girl-child:

Father, I ask, you now without fear Did you want me, Did you ever want a daughter?

The poem “The old playhouse” Shows how an exclusive body-centered love arrests the Growth of self in a man-woman relationship. Being a feminist writer, Das protests against this life of captivity which kills a woman’s romantic aspirations and individuality.

“You called me wife,

I was taught to break saccharine into your tea and

To offer at the right moment the vitamins. Cowering Beneath your monstrous ego I ate the magic loaf and

Become a dwarf. I lost my will and reason, to all your.

Questions I mumbled incoherent replies”.

“My grandmother’s House” is remarkable example of feminine sensibility. The poetess has adopted a woman’s point of view in highlighting the futility of loveless and hopeless love relationship in life. She openly criticizes her husband

“Can you, that I lived in such a house and

Was proud, and loved…… I who have lost my way and beg now at strangers doors to receive love, at least in small change?

(The old playhouse. P.13)

The poem “The suicide” is a veiled satire on elderly female ancestors who wilfully superimpose their choices on small helpless girls and deny them and freedom to choose anything in life. The contrast between the happy security of childhood under the loving guidance of her grandmother.

“My grandmother cried,

Darling, You must stop this bathing now, You are much too big to play

naked in the pond”

(The suicide”. P.41)

Kamala Das shows her dissatisfaction with marital love in “Composition”. Das’s several poems are about the warmth of her childhood and the family home in Kerala.

“I must let my mind striptease I must extrude

autobiography.

The only secrets I always withhold Are that I am so alone and that I miss my grandmother”.

(“Composition”. P.61) 2. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

In order to achieve the knowledge of feminine sensibility of Kamala Das’s poetry, the following methods are employed:

1- By studying magazines, journals and various literary articles published in India to gain knowledge about the poetry of Kamala das’s. These articles and magazines are deeply studied in order to get knowledge of Kamala Das’s poetry.

2- Authentic books and dictionaries are consulted to solve difficult spellings and to avoid plagiarism.

3- Some poems of Kamala Das’s poetry are studied to get knowledge feminine sensibility in Kamala Das’s poetry.

3. CONCLUSION

In the contemporary literature written by woman, the feminine voice revolves largely round claim for perfect freedom in personal matters, chiefly in relation to love and sex. Most of Kamala Das’s poems articulate her strong desire to be liberated from the clutches of the male-dominated society. She does not feel shy of dramatizing sexual acts in any way. She

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frankly depicts her marital and extra-marital relationships in her autographical poems. As K.R.S. Iyengar points out the subject of her poetry: Love is crucified in sex and sex defiles itself again and again.” I attempt to explain the feminist voice through some of her poems in which Mrs. Das has presented a new device to liberate the women from the bondage of slavery in man-dominated society.

REFERENCES

1. DevendraKohli, “passionate sincerity in Indian poetry in English”, The Journal of commonwealth literature, 91 (1974):23.

2. AnisurRahman, Expressive from in the poetry of Kamala Das (New Delhi: Abhinav Publicatins, 1981): 37.

3. Kamala Das, “The Return of Hitler”, Indian literary review 32 (1985): 29.

4. For a consideration see Iyengar, 37.

5. GauriDeshpande, lost love (Culcutta: writers workshop, 1970).