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Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s Views on Educated Women and Their Duties
Ms. Mana Biswas1 Dr. Jayanta Mete 2 Abstract:
Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay (1876-1938) is a renowned writer of Bengali Literature. He showcased the then contemporary society through fiction, like, stories, novels, essays, etc. In his various writings, women and society were greatly touched. The bright presence of women can be seen in all of his various short stories. He has also highlighted the importance of women’s education as an agenda of women’s development. Thus, in his various short stories, he has emphasized the importance of women's development as well as various duties of women in Indian Culture. In this research paper, Sarat Chandra’s views on the responsibilities and duties of educated women have been analyzed in the light of his short stories - ‘Darpachurna’ and ‘Anuradha’.
Keywords: Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, Educated Women, Short Story, Darpachurna, Anuradha
Introduction
Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay was able to change the reader's as well as society's attitude towards women just as he realized the unspoken cry of women with a deep feeling. It can be said that a very revolutionary trend was flowing through his writing.
He identified the position of women in society through his writing and sought to transcend that position. He sincerely wanted women to be a part of society and participate in various activities in society. Through his various stories, he has shown how a woman can play an important role in society and family and whole the governing power of the family. This research paper discusses how he wanted to educate the neglected women in the society as well as how he viewed the duties of those educated women toward their families and societies.
Literature Review
Mahbub-ul-Alam, A. (2019) in his paper titled ‘A study on Feministic Relevance between Jane Austen and Sharat Chandra Chatterjee’ has reviewed the feministic relevance of female characters through critical reviews in the novels of those two different celebrated novelists of two different languages and genre.
Mukhopadhyay, A. (2017) conducted a study with the title ‘Pallisamaj and Women Empowerment in Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s Novel’. Researchers have reviewed Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay as a novelist in English through his novel Pallisamaj, the fourth novel in the Sarat Chandra Omnibus.
Roy Barman, B. (2016) in his paper titled ‘Women Character in the works of Sarat Chandra’ has reviewed the women Character of Sarat Chandra’s literature in the context of Indian Culture.
Ghosh, D. (2016) conducted a study entitled ‘Burma-Bengal Crossing: Intercolonial connections in Pre-Independence India’. Here the researcher have reviewed the long and historical connections between Bengalis and Burmese were transformed by the British colonialization of the region.
1Research Scholar, Department of Education, University of Kalyani, Nadia, West Bengal.
2Professor, Department of Education, University of Kalyani, Nadia, West Bengal.
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Purkayastha, M. (2013) carried out a study under the title ‘Cultural Relativism and feminist Discourse in Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s Fiction vis-à-vis his concepts on the ‘Worth of Women’. This study explores the theory of Cultural Relativism in comparative literature and entails cross-cultural literacy investigation. Here the researcher takes Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's essay ‘Narir Mulya’ and the short story ‘Darpachurna’ and the novel ‘Grihadaha’ to analyze.
Study Objectives
The study objectives are to study the,
Mentality of Sarat Chandra in women’s passages,
Motivation of Sarat Chandra for the betterment of women’s education,
Duty of educated women in the thoughts of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay.
Research Questions
The research questions are as follows:
Was Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay really in favor of women's education?
What was Sarat Chandra’s opinion about the responsibilities and duties of an educated woman?
Has Sarat Chandra supported the chaotic mentality of Educated women?
Significance of the Study
This research paper gives a glimpse of what Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay thought about Education. In the society of that time, humiliation towards women was very painful for him, so he was in favor of women’s development and above all women’s education. This research paper explores the notion that, Sarat Chandra had about the passage of women as well as the duties and responsibilities of women.
Methodology
The literary analysis method was used to analyze the data collected for the purpose of the study. Here the researcher explored the author’s point of view thorough examination of the main characters.
Source of Data
In order to reach the objective of the research, the researcher has to collect various data and evidence. And the source of this information is of two types, namely-primary source and secondary source.
Primary Source: Data collected directly for the purpose of research are primary sources. From that point of view, the short story written by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay is the primary source.
Secondary sources: And when the primary data source is used in another research, it is again used for research purposes, then it is a secondary source. Here various research reports and journals, books on the short story of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay by several authors are accepted as secondary sources.
Results and Discussion
Women are found in the central Character of almost every writing of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay. He wanted women to have an important place in society (Purakayastha, 2013). He even supported the acceptance of fallen women in society (Devi,1367 BE). He did not support the humiliation of society towards women.
Especially the cruel behavior of society towards widows made him very sad. Therefore,
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in his various writings, he sought to strengthen the position of women in society by playing an important role. He wanted woman’s participation in religion, politics, education, etc. Since the main premise of this research paper is to explore the concept of Sarat Chandra about the responsibilities and duties of educated women towards their families, among the various short stories of Sarat Chandra, the two stories called
‘Darpochurna’ (broken pride) and ‘Anuradha’ have been chosen to analyze.
In ‘Darpachurna’ Indumati and Bimala are the two central characters. Writers Sarat Chandra portrayed Indumati as an educated, independent woman. At the beginning of the story, the author puts a lot of logical modern statements in the Indumati discourse. The author mentions that Indumati studied there till she was older and finally gave her in marriage as per her wishes. Because in the case of marriage with Narendra, her parents agreed at first but later Indumati’s parents refused it.
(Chattopadhyay, 2016).
On the other hand, Sarat Chandra has drawn an uneducated woman like Bimala who is dutiful, patient, responsible, and unwavering in her duty to her husband. She wants to achieve the ultimate goal not only by borrowing arguments but also by having immense respect for her husband. She knows respect is earned with respect. The author mentions Ambika babu’s wife to give another example of a women's duty to her husband. So, it can be said that Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay has to give top place to the duty of women towards the family. That is why Indumati, has to learn the duties of family and husband from Bimala. Love and authority can be acquired by a wife through love and dependence on her husband. At the beginning of the story, Biamala’s bondage to her husband was caught in the eye of Indumati, and later it was taken as authority. Bimala’s husband sent Bhola to ask Bimala if he could buy a cupboard and Ambika babu sent his servant to his wife if Ambika babu would visit the museum in both cases, Indumati found no indication of the dominance of the husband and the enslavement of wives. Rather, the pain began to ring in his mind and he seemed to have become smaller to them (Chattopadhyay, 2016).
In fact, she understood the chemistry of the relationship. Moreover, Bimala explained that there is no love without respect (Chattopadhyay, 2016). That is so say smashing the Indumati’s pride in the arrogance of education and money, the author has taught the true education of women.
‘Sharat Chandra here indicates that Indu’s pride in education and contempt for
‘Ignorant’ women like Bimala have blinded her to the possibility of a conjugal love and bliss that is experienced in the submersion of one’s self in the other or the absolute, unconditional surrender that true love entails’ (Qtd in Purakayastha, 2013, P-60).
Sarat Chandra is not against women’s education. In fact, he is not willing to accept any education without a sense of justice and duty. Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay has embraced modernity with dignity in our culture. Indian culture values women's love and sense of duty. That is why Sarat Chandra wants to see this culture flowing on the path of women’s education and passage. In another story in ‘Anuradha,’ Sarat Chandra showed that the motherly love of Anuradha is greater than any educational degree.
Kumar’s father Vijoy is overwhelmed by the tenderness of the mother’s heart that Anuradha has shown in caring for the motherless Kumar. Kumar’s auntie passed BA and even the stepmother who is going to come for him also passed B.A. . But they could not be the mother, that Anuradha could have, maybe she didn’t have any educational degree. The woman is educated but now the only question is if she going to lose her tenderness or not in her syllabus. That’s why the author's statements in the mouth of
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Vijay – It is not written in the book of BA pass to take care of the son of husband younger brother (Deorpo). She didn’t have to give that exam. In other words, the education of this woman did not include taking care of her parents-in-law and relatives (Chattopadhyay,2016).
That is to say, there is no place for humanity in this education. That’s why the author anonymously replaced all the words when Anuradha said, ‘BA pass is not bigger than the boy’(Chattopadhyay,2016).
That is, Sarat Chandra is not willing to accept an educated woman who has no sense of duty.
As Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay did not want society to have contempt for women, he played a major role in almost every one of his works. In his various short stories, he portrayed the sufferings of women, the situation of women, the power of women, etc.
So that Women could play an important role in society. Through his writing, he forced people from every corner of society to think especially. But one or two incidents in his personal life made Sarat Chandra a little worried.
One day while returning from Naren Dev’s house, he saw a newborn baby in a blood- strained cloth by the side of the road. And he tried his best to save the child with Naren Dev and Radharani Devi. He later handed over the child to the police. After hearing the whole incident when the police inform him that such incident when the police blamed the English education of the girls, Sarat Chandra became very sad. After this, he told Suniti Babu (Roy,1966).
“Kāla thēkē āmi kēbali bhābachi, skula-kalējē yē ādhunika śikṣā āmarā mēẏēdēra dicchi, tāra jan'ya'i ki ēta durnīti, ē'isaba hr̥daẏahīnatā? Tabē ki āmarā bhula pathē calēchi?” (Qtd. In Roy,1966, p-40).
(‘I have been wondering since yesterday whether this modern education we are imparting to our girls is the reason behind this corruption heartlessness and corruption. Are we heading astray?’)
Therefore, he did not believe in heartless education. The passage of women is desirable to him but not heartless.
Conclusion:
In the light of the above discussion, it can be said that Chandra Chattopadhyay wanted the progress of women but did not want degradation. According to him, a woman is a mother, daughter, and wife of family. So, none of her roles is to be left out. After all, she is a citizen. that is why should Chandra Chattopadhyay wants women to play an important role, not to be neglected by society. He has shown that family and Society are very dependent on women. It is noteworthy here that he didn't tolerate the degradation of his female character, and he wants to teach those well-educated and sophisticated women. Not traditional education but a good education is desirable here.
Above all, it can be said Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay wanted to make a woman proficient in all aspects of education, power, love, and knowledge.
15 References
Mahbub-ul-Alam, A.(2019) A study on Feministic Relevance between Jane Austen and Sarat Chandra Chatterjee. Journal of ELT and Education, Vol.-2, Issue-3 and 4, 96-101.
Mukhopadhyay, A. (2017). Pallisamaj and women empowerment in Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s Novel. Journal of Advance and Scholarly Researched in Allied Education (JASRAE), Vol.14, Issue-1, pp.539-542.
Retrieved from http://www.ignited.in/l/a/78780.
Roy Barman, B. (2016). Women Characters in the works of Sarat Chandra. Ars Artium : An International Peer Reviewed-cum-refereed researched Journal of Humanities and social science, Vol. 4, January, pp. 25-34, Paragon
International Publishers, New Delhi-110002 (India).
Ghosh, D. (2016). Burma-Bengal Crossings: Intercolonial connections in Pre- Independence India. Asian Studies Review, Vol.40, No.2, pp.156-172.
Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10357823.2016.1158237.
Chattopadhyay, S (2016). Sarat Galposamagra, Subham,7, Symacharan Dey street, Kolkata -73.
Purakayastha, M. (2003). Cultural Relativism and Feminist Discourse in Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s fiction vis-à-vis his concepts on the ‘Worth of Women’. IOSR Journal Of Humanities And Social Science (IOSR-JHSS), Volume 16, Issue 2 (Sep. - Oct. 2013), PP 58-63
Roy,G. (1966). Saratchandra, Dwitio Khanda-Moukhik aalap-aalochana,hasyo- Parihas, Boithaki Galpo O Moukhik Abhibhasan,Vol. 2, Sahitya Sadan, Kolkata-12, A 125 College street Market, 2nd edition.
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