The World Of A Woman Writer

Prafulla Kumar Mohanty

The first consciousness of woman was that she was made out of a supernumerary bone of Adam's ribs; she was the other without any authenticity of her own. This  definitely  has caused a silent psychic rebellion in woman. When she referred to herself, after the title of Simone de Beauvoir's path breaking book Second Sex, she became more conscious of her secondary status  in nature's scheme of things. The reproductory process makes the woman more conscious of her place which is, if not, subservient or secondary, at least that of a  vassal to carry someone's seed and give birth to a child without having the right of ownership. In the Indian context the woman was given a separate role, the role of what we call today, a homemaker. But the idea behind it was definitely quite imaginative. When men and women moved from nature to culture, the woman was given a role of a grihalaxmi, the deity of the house- home, she would make it beautiful, hospitable and a self-sustaining world. But in practice she was  a womb, a slave without any say in decision making. She should be obedient and responsible for the  order in the home. Only in those rare cases where love enriched life she had at least the identity of a sweet life -partner, a separate person who could absorb the man in body and mind. But this was rare, few and far between .

But the rigour of patriarchy became somewhat soft when Bernard Shaw ( Candida) and Ibsen ( A Doll's House) and other writers gave  the woman a separate thinking mind. Candida and Nora had to fight for identity although the losses were irreparable. Education and the suffragette movement gave the woman a sense of liberation. She sub-consciously adhered to the idea that   a woman is not born, she becomes a woman, a Beauvoir assertion which gained currency. The European theatre had some changes in the backdrop and wings. But liberation came around the 30s of the 20th century.

But in India the scene began to change only after the Independence. The rigidity of religious rituals , superstitions, the gender bias and suppression gradually slackened after education at par with the West began in Urban Centres. Woman started speaking in public and also started writing in English. Toru Dutta, Sarojini Naidu and others were the pioneers. The local languages too got a big boost when English masterpieces were available even to the middle class readers. But till date a large population in India is tradition bound and superstitious as the light of modern education has not yet dispelled the darker regions of Indian mind. Women are still repressed and do not have their voice to speak and write. The local languages have a few women writers but no one dares to write her true feelings. Yes many talented writers  are now openly voicing their feelings.  Mahasweta Devi, Kamala Das, de Souza and Silgardo and many others have led the foundation of women writing in India not to speak of Booker winner Arundhati Roy.

In the context of Odisha the women writers are now getting into prominence. After Kuntala Kumari Sabata who for the first time made us aware of a feminine psyche, today we have Prativa Ray whose novels and stories have  retouched the mythic past with a modern brush. Prativa transforms  Draupadi and Ahalya into contemporary  women of substance. Her women do not transgress the accepted norms of inherited culture  but they are sophisticated and refined. They are not feminist rebels  but are more humanistic with an ethical core. Prativa Satapathy in her poetry gives free rein to her native passions without sacrificing  the essential feminine. There are more than 50  women writers in Odisha who are now following feministic footprints but they have not yet established  the humane kind of feminism. But occasionally there are sparks in their poems and stories which may turn into viable conflagration.

But seldom we find in them a  cosmic vision of pure womanhood. They project woman as suave, spirited and free agents of the society. Archana Nayak, Mamata Das, Sanghamitra and Aparna Mohanty are quite bold voices in Odia literature. Aparna Mohanty, Prabasini Mahakuda, Ranjita Nayak try to project  women as free and flamboyant in self- pursuit. Aparna Mohanty even writes freely about feminine sexuality. Paramita Satapathy in her long and short stories tries to combine the mystic  with diabolic in a fair way. But we are yet to see a woman's vision. The mystery of sex, the mystic of relationship and the larger feminine reality are still half revealed. Only in Prativa Ray's latest novel 'Praptesu Prithivi' we get a glimpse of today's reality in all its lucid details without, however, the much needed redemption. Adventure, heroic passion of the feminine kind are yet to be visualized  by the woman writers . Yet they have now created a language without phallocentrism, leaning more towards the poetic, the delicate and even the sublime. But the goal, purpose and the cool serenity of the feminine essence are still illusory.