For The Course E 405

A Feminist Reading
on Manik
Bandopadhyay’s
Khustho-Rogir Bou
Introduction to Critical Theory

Course Instructor

Kazi Ashraf Uddin

Associate Professor
Department of English
Jahangirnagar University

Submitted by

Md. Musabbir Hassan

Batch 43
Roll – 881

Date of Submission: 10th July, 201810th of

July, 2018

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Contents
Chapter One .................................................................................................................................................. 2
Introduction .............................................................................................................................................. 2
Brief Summary .......................................................................................................................................... 3
Chapter Two .................................................................................................................................................. 4
Representation of Mahasheta in Khusto Rogir Bou.................................................................................. 4
The Denouncement of Patriarchal Oppression in Kushto Rogir Bou ............................................................ 5
Chapter Three ............................................................................................................................................... 6
Correlation between the Waves of Feminism and Kushto Rogir Bou....................................................... 6
The Emancipation of Mahasheta .............................................................................................................. 7
Chapter Four ................................................................................................................................................. 7
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................. 7
Bibliography .................................................................................................................................................. 8
 Chapter One

Introduction

The paper is an attempt on understanding the dynamics of gender, society and femininity in

Manik Bandhopadhay’s short story Kushto Rogir Bou (কুষ্ঠ – ররোগীর বউ) through the lense of

feminist criticism and its related theories. A husband suffering from leprosy and a wife becoming
the caregiver, the story is of a wife upholding the patriarchal norms and later emancipating from
them in the 20th century Bengali society.

The paper includes a brief summary of the short story to understand the context of the arguments
provided later on. After the summary, the paper intends to focus on the female character
Mahasheta and her representation in the text. The existence of the patriarchal oppression in the
text and the author’s viewpoint are key components as the paper intends to explain the
similarities that the waves of feminism and the text share. The paper explores the emancipation
of Mahasheta from her husband and lastly concludes with further suggestions for study in the
related areas.
Brief Summary

The story is set around 20th century Bengal and revolves around Jotin and his wife Mahasheta.
Jotin inherited a large amount of wealth from his father and married Mahasheta. After being
happily married for four years, one day, Mahasheta noticed a sort of boil on Jotin’s hand and
began to worry what it was. Later through various costly visits, the doctors diagnosed Jotin with
leprosy. That diagnose changed the complexion of the relationship between Joti and Mahasheta
as Jotin became more and more frustrated and angry. He blamed Mahasheta for not taking care
of him properly and accusing her of his current predicament. He accused her of the miscarriage
as if it was her fault and of adultery. Though at the beginning, Mahasheta was a devoted
caretaker of her husband, as time went by and Jotin became more unbearable, she distant herself
from him. At the end, Mahasheta started a center for treating leprosy at Jotin’s own home,
convincing Jotin that a spiritual man told her to do so in order to please the gods to cure him of
his leprosy. Mahasheta continued to treat the leprosy patients instead of Jotin as she freed herself
from him.
Chapter Two

Representation of Mahasheta in Khusto Rogir Bou

Manik Bandhopadhay’s Mahasheta is a character representative of the 20th century Bengali

women. Subservient and docile, she’s a caricature of the women produced in a patriarchal
society. She values patriarchal norms and abides by them for a while. Manik Bandhopadhay did
not portray the characteristics of Mahasheta to be negative because Bengali society at that time
desired these characteristics in women. Manik Bandhopadhay also represented the economic
powers that Mahasheta held which was nonexistent. Bandhopadhay influence by Marxist
principals highlighted the economic struggle of women in Bengali society through Mahasheta.
One of many thinkers influenced by Beauvoir, Christine Delphy offers a feminist critique of
patriarchy based on Marxist principal. Delphy, who coined the phrase materialist feminism in the
early 1970s, focuses her analysis on the family as economic unit. Just as the lower classes are
oppressed by the upper classes in society as a whole, she explains, women are the subordinates
within families. Delphy points out that,

“[a]ll contemporary “developed” societies...depend on the unpaid labour of women for domestic
services and child-rearing. These services are furnished within the framework of a particular
relationship to an individual (the husband). They are excluded from the realm of exchange [i.e.,
these services are not treated as like the jobs people do for money outside their own home] and
consequently have no value. They are unpaid. Whatever women receive in return is independent
of the work which they perform because it is not handed out in exchange for that work (i.e., as a
wage to which their work entitles them), but rather as a gift. The husband’s only obligation,
which is obviously in his own interest, is to provide for his wife’s basic needs, in other words he
maintains her labour power.” (60)
Manik Bandhopadhay a Marxist himself, the Marxist influence is present in the storyline from
the beginning as it starts with the inequalities of economics that exist within society. The story is
also adamant about focusing on the way money is made, as to be rich is to hurt people. The
character of Jotin underscores Bandhopadhay’s conviction of the curse of the suffering people as
an inheritance to his father’s wealth suffering from leprosy at the age of 28. In accordance to
Delphy, the patriarchal nature exists within both Jotin and Mahasheta. Mahasheta’s character
starts as the typical caretaker of a sick husband and Jotin as the dominant entity as he has the
wealth. However, that later changed as Mahasheta took control of her life and separated herself
from the toxicity that engulfed Jotin.

The Denouncement of Patriarchal Oppression in Kushto Rogir Bou

Manik Bandhopadhay denounces the patriarchal oppression in the text from Marxist and realist
viewpoints. Bandhopadhay foreshadows the misery of Jotin through the argument that the curse
of the suffering people at the hands of the rich will come full circle. The curse becomes Jotin’s
leprosy at the age of 28. Bandhopadhay further highlights the economic and social pressures put
on Mahasheta that the patriarchy enforced through programming. As the wife of a trust fund son,
the devaluing of Mahasheta’s role as a homemaker and caregiver is enforced through Jotin’s
continuous degrading state of character. Ironically, “all the anthropological and sociological
evidence reveals,” Delphy notes, “that the dominant class make the classes in their power do the
productive work – that the pre-eminent sex does less work” (61). Delphy argues, that all
relationships between men and women are based on power: patriarchal men wants to keep all of
it; nonpatriarchal women want the power to be equally distributed. Mahasheta from starting as a
women who held patriarchal norms, later on broke free of them through opening a care center for
leprosy patients in Jotin’s own home. The ending of the story solidifies Manik Bandhapadhay’s
stance on the patriarchal nature of the 20th century Bengali society, which through his Marxist
and realist viewpoints, deemed unreasonable.

Chapter Three

Correlation between the Waves of Feminism and Kushto Rogir Bou

As the setting of the story dates back to 20th century Bengali society, the oppressive state of
women that all three waves of Feminism addresses are pre-existent in the text. Mahasheta being
accused by Jotin of aborting a child and Mahasheta’s refusal to justify her decisions relate to the
reproductive rights of women that Second Wave Feminism advocated for. “Second-wave”
feminism and feminist criticism are very much a product of – are shaped by and themselves help
to shape – the liberalist movements of the mid to late 1960s. Although second-wave feminism
continues to share the first wave’s fight for women’s rights in all areas, its focal emphasis shifts
to the politics of reproduction to women’s ‘experience’, to sexual ‘difference’ and to ‘sexuality’
as at once a form of oppression and something to celebrate (128). Mahasheta though at the
beginning harbored patriarchal notions but later on showed through her actions and thoughts of
retracting from her previous positions. Mahasheta questions Jotin as about the effectiveness of
his treatment and she refuses Jotin’s questions about the ‘miscarriage’ as according to her, this
experience belongs to her and her only. Mahasheta rejection of taking care of Jotin and opening
up a care center for leprosy is synonymous to third-wave feminism and the advocacy of all the
variety of work women should be able to do. Third-wave feminism looks to promote dialog and
community as for the valorization of women and of all the varieties of work women perform
(Tyson 97). Mahasheta breaks free from her husband’s toxicity through working with leprosy
and ironically not taking care of her husband who suffers the same diseases and lives under the
same roof with the ones being taken care of.
The Emancipation of Mahasheta

Mahasheta’s escape through opening up a care center for leprosy patients is a clever and ironic
ending to Manik Bandhopadhay’s Kushto Rogir Bou. Mahasheta convinced her husband that
taking care of leprosy patients will grant him the gods blessing in recovering from leprosy
himself. This turns into an ironic situation as Mahasheta continues to not take care of Jotin but
instead take care of other patients who are living in Jotin’s own home. This is a clear rejection to
Jotin’s toxicity towards Mahasheta and Mahasheta freeing herself from him. Once the caregiver
of Jotin, she turned around become a caregiver to the masses as she took it upon herself to find
her calling and the same time, escaped the patriarchal forces which prevented her from
happiness.

Chapter Four

Conclusion

From a woman engraved in patriarchal norms to a woman who challenged and finally freed
herself from it, the character of Mahasheta is encapsulates the spirit of the struggle of the female
identity in the 20th century Bengal society. As there haven’t been much research done upon the
short story, further studies are required to fully grasp the connotations and subtleties that Manik
Bandhopadhay incorporated in Khusto Rogir Bou. The key areas that need to be further looked
upon is that of the miscarriage of Mahasheta, the wealth gap between the rich and the poor, and
the how the contemporary 20th century Bengali society stacks against feminism.
Bibliography

SHRESHTA MANIK (A Collection of Short Stories, Novels, Poems, Drama, Essays, Diary,
Letters) by Manik Bandyopadhyay. Edited by Syed Azizul Huq. ISBN: 978-984-8797-11-2

Beginning Theory, An Introduction to literary and cultural theory, Third Edition by Peter Barry.
ISBN: 978-81-309-1568-5

A Reader’s Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory, Fourth Edition by Raman Selden, Peter
Widdowson and Peter Brooker. ISBN: 0-13-491952-1

critical theory today, A User-Friendly Guide, Second Edition by Lois Tyson. ISBN: 0-415-
97409-7