Paper IV Indian Writing in English ENGBA (604)

Paper IV
Indian Writing in English ENGBA (604)
                                Unit : IV
Chapter 1
An introduction by Kamala Das
About Author
                  Kamala Surayya
Kamala Surayya (born Kamala; 31 March 1934 – 31 May 2009), popularly known by her
one-time pen name Madhavikutty and married name Kamala Das, was an Indian
English poet as well as a leading Malayalam author from Kerala, India. Her popularity in
Kerala is based chiefly on her short stories and autobiography, while her oeuvre in
English, written under the name Kamala Das, is noted for the poems and explicit
autobiography. She was also a widely read columnist and wrote on diverse topics
including women's issues, child care, politics among others.
               Kamala Surayya

Kamala
              31 March 1934
              Punnayurkulam, Madras
   Born       Presidency, British India

   Died       31 May 2009(aged 75)
              Pune, Maharashtra, India

Pen name      Madhavikutty

Occupation    Poet, novelist, short story writer

Nationality   Indian

  Genre       Poetry, novel, short story, memoirs

Notable      Ente Katha, My Story, The
          works       Descendants

         Notable      Ezhuthachan Puraskaram, Vayalar
         awards       Award, Sahitya Akademi Award, Asan
                      World Prize, Asian Poetry Prize, Kent
                      Award

          Spouse      K. Madhav Das

         Children     Madhav Das Nalapat
                      Chinnen Das
                      Jayasurya Das

         Relatives    Balamani Amma(mother)
                      V. M. Nair (father)

      Her open and honest treatment of female sexuality, free from any sense of guilt, infused
      her writing with power and she got hope after freedom, but also marked her as an
      iconoclast in her generation. On 31 May 2009, aged 75, she died at a hospital in Pune.

    Awards and other recognitions

    Kamala Das has received many awards for her literary contribution, including:
•   1963: PEN Asian Poetry Prize
•   1968: Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Story – Thanuppu
•   1984: Shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in Literature
•   1985: Kendra Sahitya Academy Award (English) – Collected Poems
•   1988: Kerala State Film Award for Best Story
•   1997: Vayalar Award – Neermathalam Pootha Kalam
•   2006: Honorary D.Litt by University of Calicut[24]
•   2006: Muttathu Varkey Award[25]

•   2009: Ezhuthachan Award[26]

    Works

    English
      Novel

•   1976: Alphabet of Lust

      Autobiography

•   1976: My Story

      Short stories

•   1977: A Doll for the Child Prostitute
•   1992: Padmavati the Harlot and Other Stories

      Poetry

•   1964: The Sirens
•   1965: Summer in Calcutta
•   1967: The Descendants
•   1973: The Old Playhouse and Other Poems
•   1977: The Stranger Time
•   1979: Tonight, This Savage Rite (with Pritish Nandy)
•   1984: Collected Poems
•   1985: The Anamalai Poems
•   1997: Only the Soul Knows How to Sing
•   1999: My Mother At Sixty-six
•   2001: Yaa Allah

    Malayalam
•   1964: Pakshiyude Manam (short stories)
•   1966: Naricheerukal Parakkumbol (short stories)
•   1968: Thanuppu (short story)
•   1982: Ente Katha (autobiography)
•   1987: Balyakala Smaranakal (childhood memoirs)
•   1989: Varshangalkku Mumbu (novel)
•   1990: Palayan (novel)
•   1991: Neypayasam (short story)
•   1992: Dayarikkurippukal (novel)
•   1994: Neermathalam Pootha Kalam (novel)
•   1996: Kadal Mayooram (short novel)

•   1996: Rohini (short novel)
•   1996: Rathriyude Padavinyasam (short novel)
•   1996: Aattukattil (short novel)
•   1996: Chekkerunna Pakshikal (short stories)
•   1998: Nashtapetta Neelambari (short stories)
•   2005: Chandana Marangal (novel)
•   2005: Madhavikkuttiyude Unmakkadhakal(short stories)
•   2005: Vandikkalakal (novel)

    An Introduction by Kamala Das

    Kamala Suraiyya, sometimes named as Kamala Madhavikutty (31 March 1934 – 31 May
    2009) was a majorIndian English poet and littérateur and at the same time a leading
    Malayalam author from Kerala, India. Her popularity in Kerala is based chiefly on her short
    stories and autobiography, while her oeuvre in English, written under the name Kamala Das,
    is noted for the fiery poems and explicit autobiography.

    Her open and honest treatment of female sexuality, free from any sense of guilt, infused her
    writing with power, but also marked her as an iconoclast in her generation. On 31 May 2009,
    aged 75, she died at a hospital in Pune, but has earned considerable respect in recent years.

    THE POEM
    I don't know politics but I know the names
    Of those in power, and can repeat them like
    Days      of     week,      or     names        of   months,   beginning     with     Nehru.

    I am Indian, very brown, born in Malabar, I
    speak three languages, write in Two,
    dream in one.
    Don't write in English, they said, English is

    Not your mother-tongue. Why not leave
    Me alone, critics, friends, visiting cousins,
    Every one of you? Why not let me speak in

Any language I like? The language I speak,
Becomes mine, its distortions, its queernesses
All mine, mine alone.
It is half English, half Indian, funny perhaps, but it is honest,
It is as human as I am human, don't
You see? It voices my joys, my longings, my
Hopes, and it is useful to me as cawing

Is to crows or roaring to the lions, it
Is human speech, the speech of the mind that is
Here and not there, a mind that sees and hears and
Is aware. Not the deaf, blind speech

Of trees in storm or of monsoon clouds or of rain or the
Incoherent mutterings of the blazing Funeral
pyre. I was child, and later they Told me I
grew, for I became tall, my limbs
Swelled and one or two places sprouted hair.
When I asked for love, not knowing what else to ask
For, he drew a youth of sixteen into the Bedroom and
closed the door, He did not beat me But my sad
woman-body felt so beaten.
The weight of my breasts and womb crushed me.
I shrank Pitifully.

Then … I wore a shirt and my
Brother's trousers, cut my hair short and ignored
My womanliness. Dress in sarees, be girl
Be wife, they said. Be embroiderer, be cook,

Be a quarreller with servants. Fit in. Oh,
Belong, cried the categorizers. Don't sit

On walls or peep in through our lace-draped windows.
Be Amy, or be Kamala. Or, better

Still, be Madhavikutty. It is time to
Choose a name, a role. Don't play pretending games.
Don't play at schizophrenia or be a
Nympho. Don't cry embarrassingly loud when Jilted
in love … I met a man, loved him. Call Him not by
any name, he is every man

Who wants. a woman, just as I am every
Woman who seeks love. In him . . . the hungry haste
Of rivers, in me . . . the oceans' tireless

Waiting. Who are you, I ask each and everyone,
The answer is, it is I. Anywhere and,
Everywhere, I see the one who calls himself I
In this world, he is tightly packed like the

Sword in its sheath. It is I who drink lonely
Drinks at twelve, midnight, in hotels of strange towns,
It is I who laugh, it is I who make love
And then, feel shame, it is I who lie dying
With a rattle in my throat. I am sinner,
I am saint. I am the beloved and the
Betrayed. I have no joys that are not yours, no Aches which
are not yours. I too call myself I.

SUMMARY
Kamala Das’s poem ‘An Introduction’ is included in her first collection of poems, ‘Summer in
Calcutta’. In the poem, she speaks in the voice of a girl, rebelling against the norms and
dictates of a patriarchal society which ask her to ‘fit in’ and ‘belong’ against her own wishes.

‘Malabar’; a south Indian location, covering a large part of Kerala which also extends to parts
of Karnataka.

Her rebellion against patriarchy is to secure an identity for herself in a male-dominated world.
The poem begins with the assertion, ‘I don’t know politics, but I know the names of those in
power’ which shows her distaste for politics in a country where politics is considered a domain
for men. Next comes her defiant assertion of her right to write in any language she likes, in
response to suggestions that she should not ‘write in English’. Her reply to her critics is a
reiteration of the (language of) appropriation of a colonial language to serve native needs.
‘Categorizers’; an allusion to those who see and group other people in different structures or
brackets: the term suggests the tendency to stereo-type people.

From the issue of the politics of language, the poem moves on the subject of sexual politics.
The poet is in utter bewilderment during her pubescent years, her sudden marriage and her
first sexual encounter all leave her traumatized. On an impulse, she defies the gender code
and dresses up as a man by wearing a shirt and a trouser and ‘sits on the wall’. The guardians
of morality force a respectable woman’s attire on with instructions that she should fit into the
socially accepted role of a woman as a ‘wife’ and a ‘mother’. “Madhavikutti’; the pseudonym
Kamala Das used while writing in Malayalam.

‘Schizophrenia’; a disorder that results in the misinterpretation of reality: the perception
change is now seen as being a health condition as well as the case of social insufficiency:
following thinkers like Michel Foucault, now schizophrenia is understood to be a reflection of
a society’s inflexibility as much as it is associated with an individual’s mental state. Identifying
herself with other suffering women of the world, Kamala Das universalizes suffering and seeks
freedom and love. The poem becomes a statement on gender differences and a move to
transcend the restrictions imposed on a woman by seeking individual freedom, love that
allows the body to come to terms with its own needs and a self that is allowed to celebrate
love’s true glory.

EXPLANATION
“An Introduction" is Kamala Das's most famous poem in the confessional mode. Writing to
her, always served as a sort of spiritual therapy:" If I had been a loved person, I wouldn't have
become a writer. I would have been a happy human being."

Kamala Das begins by self-assertion: I am what I am. The poetess claims that she is not
interested in politics, but claims to know the names of all in power beginning from Nehru. She
seems to state that these are involuntarily ingrained in her. By challenging us that she can
repeat these as easily as days of the week, or the names of months she echoes that
these politicians were caught in a repetitive cycle of time, irrespective of any individuality.
They did not define time; rather time defined them.

Subsequently, she comes down to her roots. She declares that by default she is an Indian.
Other considerations follow this factor. She says that she is 'born in' Malabar; she does not
say that she belongs to Malabar. She is far from regional prejudices. She first defines herself
in terms of her nationality, and second by her colour.

I am Indian, very brown, born in Malabar,

And she is very proud to exclaim that she is 'very brown'. She goes on to articulate that she
speaks in three languages, writes in two and dreams in one; as though dreams require a
medium. Kamala Das echoes that the medium is not as significant as is the comfort level that
one requires. The essence of one's thinking is the prerequisite to writing. Hence she implores
with all-"critics, friends, visiting cousins" to leave her alone. Kamal aDas reflects the main
theme of Girish Karnad's "Broken Images"-the conflict between writing in one's regional
language and utilizing a foreign language. The language that she speaks is essentially hers;
the primary ideas are not a reflection but an individual impression. It is the distortions and
queerness that makes it individual. And it is these imperfections that render it human. It is the
language of her expression and emotion as it voices her joys, sorrows and hopes. It comes
to her as cawing comes to the crows and roaring to the lions, and is therefore impulsive and
instinctive. It is not the deaf, blind speech: though it has its own defects, it cannot be seen as
her handicap. It is not unpredictable like the trees on storm or the clouds of rain. Neither does
it echo the "incoherent mutterings of the blazing fire." It possesses a coherence of its own: an
emotional coherence.

She was child-like or innocent; and she knew she grew up only because according to others
her size had grown. The emotional frame of mind was essentially the same. Married at the
early age of sixteen, her husband confined her to a single room. She was ashamed of her
feminity that came before time, and brought her to this predicament. This explains her claim
that she was crushed by the weight of her breast and womb. She tries to overcome it by
seeming tomboyish. So she cuts her hair short and adorns boyish clothes. People criticize her
and tell her to 'conform' to the various womanly roles. They accuse her of being schizophrenic;
and 'a nympho'. They confuse her want of love and attention for insatiable sexual craving.

She explains her encounter with a man. She attributes him with not a proper noun, but a
common noun-"every man" to reflect his universality. He defined himself by the "I", the
supreme male ego. He is tightly compartmentalized as "the sword in its sheath'. It portrays
the power politics of the patriarchal society that we thrive in that is all about control.It is this
"I" that stays long away without any restrictions, is free to laugh at his own will, succumbs to
a woman only out of lust and later feels ashamed of his own weakness that lets himself lose
to a woman. Towards the end of the poem, a role-reversal occurs as this "I" gradually
transitions to the poetess herself. She pronounces how this "I" is also sinner and saint",
beloved and betrayed. As the role-reversal occurs, the woman too becomes the "I" reaching
the pinnacle of self-assertion.

Analysis of An Introduction Lines
1-13
In the first section of An Introduction the speaker begins by comparing her knowledge of
politicians to the days of the week and months of the year. Although she does not have
a firm grasp on politics itself, those in power have remained in her mind. This shows
their power to be much greater than their role should allow. The first of these she is able
to recall is “Nehru,” who served as India’s first prime minister after the withdrawal of the
British.
After these opening lines that set the scene, the speaker moves on to describe her own
being. She is “Indian” and she is “very brown.” Lastly, she is from Malabar in southwest
India. These are the basics of her life, but of course not everything. She adds that she is
able to,

[…]speak three languages, write in Two,
dream in one.
She continues to describe language and the role it plays in her life by saying that she is
judged for writing in English. It is not her “mother-tongue.” Whenever she is criticized for
how she speaks and writes she feels as if she is alone. There is no one, not her friends
or cousins, who back her up. They are critics “Every one.”
She directs the next line at this group, asking them why they care what she speaks. She
feels a deep connection to the words she uses and how, through “distortions,” her
language can only be defined as her own.

Lines 13-25
In the next thirteen lines the speaker goes on to describe herself as “half English, half
Indian.” She sees a humour in this combination and acknowledges that fact as it is
“honest.” This seems to be one of the most important parts of her, a desire for

authenticity and honesty. Her identity, as seen through her voice, is “human” just as she
is human. It should be held under that single defining category and no other.
Das describes the control she has over her voice, whether through speech or text. It can
display all of her emotions and her,
[…] mind that sees and hears and Is
aware.
Human speech is to humans as roaring is to lions. It is intelligible, unlike the roaring of a
storm or the “mutterings of the blazing fire.” The speaker defines her freedom through
the use of her voice. In the next lines she explains to the reader that there are other
circumstances in her life that infringe on that freedom. They are out of her control. She
introduces this section by stating that she only felt older as she grew because she was
told of her own physical changes.

Lines 26-38
Her unhappiness is defined in the next section of lines and is directly related to a need
for freedom. When she was young she “asked for love,” because she didn’t know what
else to want. This ended with her marriage at sixteen and the closing of a bedroom door.
Although her husband did not beat her, her,

[…] sad woman-body felt so beaten.
This line of An Introduction is interesting as she is placing her own body in one of the
categories she rebelled against in the first stanza. It is due to this simplification of a
woman as nothing more than a body that led her to marriage at sixteen. She also places
blame on her own body for leading her to this place. Her distinctly female parts, “breasts
and womb” are a crushing weight on her life. The pressure placed on her by her
husband and by her family led to an emotional and mental shrinking. It was a
“Pitiful”process. But it ended.
She goes on to state that a change came over her. She decided to put on her “Brother’s
trousers” and cut off her hair. The speaker is ridding herself of the female image that has
harmed her. Now that she is remaking her identity she is able to say no to the traditions
of womanhood. These include fitting in and dressing in “saris.” The “categorizers” might
tell her not to,

[…] peep in through our lace-draped windows
But she is not going to listen. She chose to move her life beyond the traditional and
therefore expand her presence in the world.

Lines 39-50
In the first two lines of the next section of An Introduction it becomes clear that the
speaker is truly meant to be the poet herself. She wonders at her own identity and
marvels over the fact that she can now be,

Amy, or be Kamala. Or, better Still,
be Madhavikutty.
It is by this final name that the poet, Kamala Das, came to be known and is still called.
Das added another few reminders on behalf of the “categorizers.” She shouldn’t “play
pretending games” or “cry embarrassingly loud.” Her role as woman is supposed to be
meek, quiet, and contained.
She goes on to describe a time in which she met and loved a man. This person is
referred to as “man,” he is not named. This strips him of some of the agency he is so in
control of in the next lines. Additionally, the name is of little importance as he is meant to
represent every man in the world who uses women as he pleases.
At one point, at the height of her emotions, she asks the “man” who he is. He replies “it
is I.” The “I” represents the agency he has in the world. Men make their own decisions
and have the ability to use the pronoun in order to get what they want.

Lines 51-60
An Introduction begins its conclusion with the speaker acknowledging the constant
presence of “I” around her. In the world she’s a part of there are “I” men everywhere she
looks. A person of this nature is able to go and “Drink… at twelve” and stay in “hotels of
strange towns.” As the lines continue the division between the speaker and the “I” is
blurred. Eventually a reader comes to understand that she is trying to come to terms
with her own independence and identity as both “saint” and “sinner.”
She is trapped between her own need for a free life and the world which tries to keep
her contained. The final statement is one of protest and resistance. Das states that she
has “Aches” which belong to no one but herself. She too can be “I.”

An Introduction Questions and Answers

Q. Critically analyse the poem An Introduction by Kamala Das in your own words.

Ans:- The poem, An Introduction by Kamala Das was included in Kamala Das's first volume of poetry, Summer
in Calcutta (1965). The poem begins with a statement that shows her frank distaste for politics, especially in
politically free India ruled by a chosen elite. The poet asserts her right to speak three languages, and defends
her choice to write in two--her mother-tongue, Malayalam, and English. She doesn't like to be advised in this
matter by any guardian or relations. Her choice is her own: authentic and born of passion. The poet looks upon
her decision to write in English as natural and humane.From the issue of the politics of language the poem then
passes on to the subject of sexual politics in a patriarchy-dominated society where a girl attaining puberty is
told about her biological changes by some domineering parental figure. As the girl seeks fulfilment of her
adolescent passion, a young lover is forced upon her to traumatize and coerce the female-body since the same
is the site for patriarchy to display its power and authority. When thereafter, she opts for male clothing to hide
her femininity, the guardians enforce typical female attire, with warnings to fit into the socially determined
attributes of a woman, to become a wife and a mother and get cofined to the domestic routine. She is
threatened to remain within the four walls of her female space lest she should make herself a psychic or a
maniac. But the poet is an individual woman trying to voice a universal womanhood and trying to share her
experiences, good or bad, with all other women. Love and sexuality are a strong component in her search for
female identity and the identity consists of polarities. The poem ends with repetitions of the 1st person sigular
I to suggest vindication of the body and the self. The poet truly discloses herself and the position of women in
society particularly in that time to reveal the abuses in the society.