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Chapter- VI

The Responses of a Social Ecofeminist

Radical or cultural ecofeminist features are not very much

rooted in the works of Kamala Das. The glorification of the

countryside and the traits of rural cultural noted in her

autobiographical works are more suitable for spiritual ecofeminism

than cultural ecofeminism. The deification and worship of nature that

are also noted in the autobiographical retrospective works may be

considered as contributions to the category of ecofeminist theology

where she attempts an alternative from nature for the god-demon

duo.

The novels by Kamala Das can be mainly interpreted from

social ecofeminist and socialist ecofeminist points of view. The

domination in man - woman relationship, the exploitation of nature,

the social deterioration, the corrupted nature of the political system,

the growth of the fascist trends, the discrimination and exploitation

of the Dalit communities, the capitalist exploitation, the geriatric

issues, lesbianism, naxalism and a host of other ailments of modern

existence are discussed by her in the novels.

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Novels are not treated as the most significant among the

contributions of Kamala Das and many of the novels are criticized

for faults in craftsmanship and lack of totality. She is mainly

remembered for her poems in English, short stories in Malayalam

and for the distinguishing category of autobiographical works.

Novels in the beginning of her career were noted for the emotional

tension and the warmth of narration. Hawks, Attukattil (The Rocking

Cot), Atharinte Manam (The Smell of Athar), Rohini, Kadal

Mayooram etc. are examples for this category of novels. The social

commitment of the author is not very much made clear in these

novels. A romantic and passionate portrayal of love between man

and woman is the common factor of these novels. They do not

propose serious ideological questions.

There is a second category of novels by the author which are

addressing most of the cardinal questions of feminine existence and

human existence in the twentieth and twenty first century. Manasi

(published in 1978) Amavasi (1999), Kavadam (2007) and

Vandikkalakal (2005) are the novels which are discussed in this

chapter from an ecofeminist perspective.

Vandikkalakal is an abruptly ended novel by the author and it

is the last novel by her. This novel has greater ideological and

intellectual levels than its emotional level. The emotional coherence

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is not quite often maintained in the novel. Most of the characters in

the novel have a symbolic level and they are used as tools for

philosophical discourse by the author. We don’t perceive a well

crafted plot in the novel and we don’t get the onward movement of a

story. Instead of this linear progression of the plot, we have a set of

lateral movements which lay bare the cardinal questions of modern

existence. This novel has a very well organized pattern of social

ecofeminist approach.

A super speciality hospital in Mumbai is the locale of the

novel. Almost all the characters in the novel are some how or other

related to the hospital. The hospital is also a symbol of the modern

world. Doctor Surya Narayana the cardiologist is the chief promoter

of the hospital. His wife Kameswari was the daughter of a very rich

diamond merchant in Hyderabad and this marriage made

Suryanarayana immensely wealthy. But Kameswari was not at all a

suitable wife for the doctor and he was mentally desolate. His only

son Rama is employed in the United States and he marries Prisylla,

a Black American woman. The doctor understands that the life of his

son was contended while he was leading an unanchored life.

Dr. Suryanarayana was respected by the entire staff in the

hospital and his commitment and dedication were unparalleled. He

was the main stay of the hospital and the reputation of the hospital
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spread everywhere that there were thousands of patients from

abroad also who frequented the hospital. There are several other

doctors in the hospital like Dr. Sadiq Ali, Dr. Mohini Reddy,

Dr. Williams, Dr. Vikram Ranade etc. Matron Saramma Koshy is

another prominent character in the novel. Anasooya Bai the famous

singer, Arthur Lobo, the bar tender at the Taj Mahal Hotel, Jaggu or

Jaggnath Kadam, the Dalit thinker and poet and his sister Chandri,

and Ramachandra Reddy, the husband of Dr. Mohini are the other

characters in the novel. Almost all these characters in the novel are

engulfed by the circumstances in which they live and they all

fruitlessly try for an escape, except the master manipulator

Ramachandra Reddy.

Anasooya Bai, the nationally renowned singer belonged to the

tradition of Devadasis, and she is a spinster whose uterus has been

removed, is longing for love and support in life. Dr. Sadiq Ali, the

senior surgeon in the hospital gets attached to her and there

develops a very intimate relationship. The intimacy doesn’t entirely

satisfy the longing of Anasooya Bai and she becomes an acutely

tragic figure when Dr. Ali disappeared after an accident. She

stopped singing and she turns a recluse. Finally though Dr. Ali and

Anasooya Bai meet in a Himalayan peak, fate do not leave them

free to live but they are united in death. The acute and painful
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longing in the human heart for love and the recognition of love are

strongly expressed by Kamala Das using these two characters.

People require a suitable environment for being happy in life.

Religion, economic problems, social status, political boundaries,

professional commitments, or commitment to the family or any such

reason can derail a man from his emotional equanimity and

contentment. Like Anasooya Bai, woman will always be the one to

experience greater agonies of emotional dispossession.

Dr. Mohini Reddy was a very beautiful gynecologist in the

hospital, who thought that she could seduce all people with her

charms, but who was unknowingly used as a puppet by her

husband and finally being discarded and killed by her husband. She

remained hospitalized for several months after a serious accident

and she became entirely disfigured. Dr. Williams was killed in the

same accident. The inability of human beings in choosing their

environment is another aspect highlighted here. Dr. Vikram Ranade

is killed by the mafia who demanded ransom for his release.

Matron Saramma Koshy still cherishes loving memories of her

life at Cherthala in Kerala, from where she was uprooted to the

metro. She doesn’t get the love or care of his relatives, but she

knows that they are eagerly waiting for her money. She is also a

spinster like Anasooya Bai and she overcomes the emotional

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desolation by being a very caring and considerate nurse in the

hospital and she is a great support for even Dr. Surya Narayana.

Except for the institutional bonds and the care of two paying guests,

she knows that she is quite lonely in the depth of her heart.

Perhaps Arthur Lobo is the most successful character in the

novel, the very old Goan bar tender, who quite calmly walks towards

his death. With his meager earning, he could support his family,

bring up his children and they are all well placed. He is also a happy

grand father who is fortunate enough to see the happy progress of

his grandchildren. When he realizes that he is afflicted by respiratory

cancer, he is not shocked; he does not go for chemotherapy and the

heavy expenses and agony associated with it, he goes straight to

his garden and tends his plants. He remains an optimist throughout

his life and he realizes that plants and nature have a healing

potential (138). He doesn’t dread the advent of death. Arthur Lobo is

a character who retains his organic bond with nature and also he

retains the basic values of life which he kept untainted throughout

his life. We very often fail to recognize that the basic ethics of life

cannot be changed and should not be changed and also we should

not sever our organic bond with nature.

Jagganath Kadam was a young leader of the Dalits, the

deprived class living in the city slums. He tried to spread the

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awareness about the exploitations of his men and the discrimination

meted out to them. His sister Chandri is well looked after by him.

One day he disappeared or was suspected to be killed and his sister

had to seek refuge in a convent where she undergoes religious

conversion and becomes Christeena and she also becomes a nun.

Chandri is a character who symbolically represents the

dispossessed plight of the under privileged in the society and also

the acute helplessness felt by women among the discriminated

classes. The convent doesn’t become a shelter for Chandri and she

had to flee for her life and also for her values. She goes back to the

friend of her brother, Naren, who wanted to marry her. Her

helplessness reached its extreme height when she finds that Naren

was wedded. Even after six decades after independence, the nation

is unable to provide a conducive environment for the under

privileged and the doubly dispossessed women in the society.

Religion and religious institutions do not have anything either

physically or morally to be given to people. They have just

degenerated to the level of tools for exploitation, for even after

becoming a nun, Chandri was only an unpaid Kitchen maid,

intimidated by the system in the convent. Prayers and punishment

coexist there and both seemed frightening for her.

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Kamala Das handles a host of environmental and feminist

issues in the novel and a few examples of them are mentioned here.

Terrorism as a serious threat in the modern world is mentioned in

the novels. Growth of religious fundamentalism is another serious

issue highlighted by the author as an admonition for the mankind.

She exhibits a prophetic zeal in mentioning that it will be a serious

issue than capitalistic domination and religious divide will become

a serious concern for the entire world. The criminalization of the

system and the corruption in politics are becoming issues without

any immediate solution (56, 57):

Dr. Surya Narayana remembered the statement of Nair

that when the age is getting deteriorated, we must learn

to degrade ourselves. There takes place the race of the

morally shattered people. Saints cannot chase and

defeat them. If your opponent gives bribe, you give a

higher bribe. If they drink, you also drink, if they cheat,

you also cheat…. (72)

It is interesting to note the opinion of Arthur Lobo about

women:

There develops a society in this city which considers a

woman merely as a vagina. She has not only a vagina,

she has the uterus and the milk secreting breasts. She
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feeds and nurses others and generously sacrifices

everything in her life for others. (66)

This sort of a reverence for women is to be maintained by the

society and Lobo believes that all the prosperity in his family is due

this peculiar culture of respecting women. The commodification of

woman hood is a western agenda and the native culture need not

follow the western patterns.

Kamala Das is a keen observer of the global scenario and she

unearths the modern forms of imperialist conspiracy and

exploitation. The global distribution of life saving drugs and arms

trade are two prominent avenues:

Who does not know that the wealth and prosperity of

America is sustained by two industrial processes – the

manufacturing of deadly weapons like bombs and the

making of medicines like those used for cancer cure.

(92, 93)

America ensures that a situation of tension prevails among

third world nations and thus they facilitate their arms trade. By

propagating deadly diseases like cancer, America drains the wealth

of poor nations to their corporate houses. She also points out that

the medicines that a developed country sell in a poor nation is more

devastating than the weapons that are sold there.(126) Colonization

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and exploitation are based entirely on the acquisition and holding of

wealth and all ethics and environmental considerations are given up

for wealth.

A terrible portrayal of the sexual exploitation of a helpless girl

is given by the author towards the end of the novel (159-162). The

child is an innocent victim and the predator is the leader of the

people, a minister in the cabinet and the beastial quality of the

institutions of democracy and governance are emphatically criticized

by the author. There is no haven of safety available for the women

and children of the nation and androcentricism is the only prevailing

pattern of life.

Amavasi is a novel written jointly by Kamala Das and

K.L. Mohana Varma. Amavasi or no moon day is a symbolically

used title. It stands for the acute dark power of the government

during the fascist emergency period in India. The government

headed by Mrs. Indira Gandhi imposed censoring of the media,

silenced all opposing voices and rival political leaders were

imprisoned. The entire nation was made to shout eulogies for the

government.

The locale of the novel is Tharapur Central Jail for Women in

West Bengal. The prison is representing a fascist and authoritarian

system of government. The intolerance brutality and callousness of

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a fascist is symbolized by Monica Biswas, the jail superintendent

and also by Neepa Ganguly, the assistant superintendent. These

two characters do not exhibit any of the natural feminine qualities.

The inherent love and consideration of femininity are lacking in

them.

There prevails a lesbian relationship between Monica Biswas

and Neepa Ganguly. Both of them hate and distrust men. They are

very much possessive in their relationship. They torture and kill

prisoners. They intimidate prisoners and a situation of fear is

maintained in the prison. They operate by collecting secret

information and also by stratifying and compartmentalizing the

various departments of the prison. Monica Biswas is the ultimate

authority in the prison. She has illicit nexus with her higher

authorities and she appeases them by offering attractive young

female prisoners secretly at night. Conventional morals and values

are disregarded by this woman, and she formulates her own rules in

the prison and claims that they are enforced for the well being of the

inmates. But she actually maintains a hierarchy of terror among the

various categories people in the prison. Discipline is used as a tool

for silencing opposing voices. However she is considered as the

best jail superintendent in the nation- the one who performs what

the authorities require.

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Dr. Nithon Babu (Nithyan) the son of a poor factory worker,

got his first posting in government service as the jail doctor. A host

of strange situations awaited him in the prison. Gulsan Maharaj, a

Brahmin, who was the jail warden, took special delight in punishing

the poor prisoners and he believed that it was his sacred duty to

appease Monica Biswas. Prisoners were made to work like beasts

and they were cruelly treated by the authorities. As Narain the gate

keeper said, Nithyan soon understood that the poor victims who are

imprisoned are “lesser sinners” than those who are outside the

prison or those who rule the prison.

There was a very violent mad woman, Mokada who was

chained in a cellar. The prisoners who die while being tortured or

those uncontrollable prisoners are locked in Mokada’s room for one

night. The body of the victim will be torn into pieces by Mokada and

then the jail doctor will certify that the person died due to cardiac

arrest. Nithyan faced such a situation on the first day of his duty.

Though he protested to certify the death of the prisoners, he was

intimated by Monica Biswas and the next day he issued the death

certificate. Like Nithyan, most people become helpless tools in the

making of the machine of oppression.

There was an interesting character Chameli Bai, in the prison

who was the leader of the prisoners and who made them work in the
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fields. She was the bandit queen of the Behads (sand mountains)

that extend through Uttar Pradesh Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

She was a very charming young woman, a sharp shooter, who had

killed over thirty people. She had come from the Dalit community,

had experienced the atrocities from the upper class people and she

became a gang leader bent on avenging. The police couldn’t control

her and negotiations were undertaken by Sarvodaya people.

Government promised reprieve for her and she was just to undergo

only one life term imprisonment and she was brought to Tharapur.

Chameli Bai, has very obvious similarity with Phoolan Devi, the

bandit turned parliamentarian of north India. Similarly Chameli Bai

also expects a political promotion in her life. The transparent nexus

between criminals and politicians is clearly described by the author.

Chameli Bai was a woman, displaced from her original habitat

in the village and exploited by the upper class. She undergoes

various levels of environmental change. She has the courage to

resist. The picture of Chameli Bai hitting down the minister, to whom

she was offered by Monica Biswas, is a hopeful picture of a Dalit

responding back. Chameli, though she was used by Monica Biswas,

to leak out the secrets of Hemalatha, she feels genuine sympathy

for the torture meted out to Hemalatha, and the attack upon the

minister was also inspired by the cruelty towards Hemalatha.

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Hemalatha was a naxalite from Andhra Pradesh, who killed a

feudal lord. She was also a victim of exploitation. The growth of

naxalism in India is a serious national issue and as Arundhathi Roy

says:

Millions of people have lost faith in the democratic

institutions in India. Significant sections of the nation

have separated themselves from the control of the

administration. In the latest analysis it is over twenty

five percent of the national extent. The decaying smell

of death is very much felt in the fight. (Mathrubhumi

Azchapathippu 25)

Maoists and Naxalites resort to violence and the national

atmosphere in India has been rendered more and more violent in

the recent years. Violence in national life is also an ecofeminist

issue. When people are dispossessed from their land, and

belongings and displaced to another area, in the name of

industrialization or development it becomes an environmental issue

and ecofeminist activists in the nation make their intervention like

Medha Patkar in the Narmada Bachavo Andolan, for the protection

of the Narmada Valley. But the naxalite agenda should be a

frightening one when the national integrity is considered.

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Nithyan found the atmosphere in the jail quite suffocating and

at times he felt inclined to resign his job. The red Arali trees and the

pungent red flowers that were seen every where in the prison

compound formed a suitable background for the suffocation of

human beings in the prison. The prison represents the national life

of India and many of the suppressed category of people like

Chameli Bai, Hemalatha or other female prisoners of the lower

strata of the nation live there. Very big pictures of Mrs. Indira Gandhi

were exhibited in all government offices and public places. The

omniscient presence of the fascist administrator is hinted by the very

big picture of Mrs. Gandhi in the room of Monica Biswas and she

claimed that by looking at the picture she derived an inspiration for

performing her duty.

There is a ray of optimism in the novel, where the gifted

author use the soothing ointment of love to heal the wounds of

Hemalatha. Hemalatha was mercilessly persecuted by Neepa

Ganguly and warden Gulu. They wanted to extract secrets from

Hemalatha about the naxalites and also to unearth the international

assistance that the naxalites got. She didn’t reveal anything and

suffers the punishments. Nithyan feels sympathy and love towards

Hemalatha and finally she manages to escape from the prison. The

escape may also be seen as the escape of a suppressed female

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from the governmental system and this female has her dreams

about a bright future!

The term genocide was coined by Raphael Lemkin in 1943,

after the Nazi experience. The genocide that takes place in Srilanka

forms the background for the novel Manomi. It speaks about the

external violence and the violence that individual harbours internally.

The entire novel is the fervent plea of the author to overcome both

forms of violence. Another significant aspect of the novel is the

under current of the Buddhist principles of tolerance represented by

the heroine of the novel, Manomi.

The small island of Srilanka is having two ethnic groups:

Aryan people from north-east coast of India with a Buddhist tradition

(Simhalese) and the Dravidian people from southeast coast of India

with a Tamil Hindu culture. For several hundreds of years these two

groups peacefully lived there. But in the last decades of the

twentieth century enmity grew between Simhalese and Tamilians

and millions of people were killed there. It is even now an

unresolved issue. The situation of an ethnic strife is having its

ecofeminist consequences. People will be dispossessed from their

belongings, habitat and even their human company. Manomi is a

scapegoat of such a situation. Her father Sarath Tennakkoon was

killed in a terrorist attack when he was praying before the statue of

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Budha. Her father and mother taught her to be loving and tolerant.

She couldn’t harbour enmity for the Tamilians and after the death of

her father (mother had already died) she comes to Madras, to the

house of Annadurai, her father’s friend whom her father had helped

to start a business while he was in Srilanka. Annadurai is a very rich

business man now and he is quite happy to welcome the orphaned

and poor daughter of his friend.

Manomi doesn’t receive a warm welcome at Annadurai’s

house. Prakasam the elder son and his wife Veda Vally, Sundaram

the younger son, and Roopavathy the daughter and Moorthy her

husband have their own reasons to hate Manomi. Prakasan thinks

that she would be given a share from his father’s wealth, Sundaram

is a sympathizer and supporter of Tamilians in Srilanka and he

cannot tolerate a Sinhalese woman in his house. Vedavally and

Roopavathy think that their husbands would be seduced by

Manomi. At the same time Prakasam, Sundaram and also Moorthy

exhibit their wicked intentions of sexually abusing Manomi which

were strongly repelled by her and thereafter they started spreading

scandals against her. Life becomes quite miserable for Manomi in

Madras and she thinks of going back to Srilanka. Annadurai is

extremely sad and he had hoped to unite Sundaram and Manomi in

marriage. He learns about the mean character of his children from

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servant Rajamma, and he realizes that Manomi has only contempt

for his children. But Manomi cannot hate anyone. There was a

seriously wounded Srilankan Tamil revolutionary secretly harboured

in their house by Sundaram. She nurses that man and when he is

cured, she reveals to him that she is a Simhalese and that

revolutionary is disarmed by the care of Manomi.

An incurable growth of cancer is detected in Annadurai’s

stomach and he is informed that he would die within a month. He

feels extremely sad about the plight of Manomi and he hopes to give

a share of his wealth to Manomi. But she asks him not to give her

anything and she only wants to leave the hostile atmosphere in

Madras. Annadurai decides to accompany Manomi to Srilanka and

to revisit the land of his youth and love.

Manomi comes to Madras in search of love and protection

and she returns without getting both. But she spreads the warmth of

love wherever she goes. But there are people who are unable to

recognize love, whose minds have become barren lands of love,

ready for the germination of hatred and enmity. We find Manomi as

a character going exactly according to the patterns of social

ecofeminism and spiritual ecofeminism. Peaceful coexistence, love,

and mutual respect are quite necessary in this turbulent world. She

realizes that Buddhism does not preach hatred but the disciples of
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Budha take swords against their brothers. The basic ideals of

religions are forgotten and mere rituals remain. A religious set of

people then becomes a set of people with a certain identity and

without their guiding values. In such a circumstance conspirators

plot for their private agenda and innocent people become victims of

it. Not only human beings, all types of animate and inanimate forms

are affected by a situation of genocide. The tropical evergreen

forests of Srilanka have been very much damaged in the combing

operations and in wars.

Manomi is a character symbolizing ideal womanhood. She is

loving, considerate, tolerant and has a spiritual outlook. She wants

to become a mendicant and she doesn’t have any utilitarian

approach towards life. The only thing she considers valuable in life

is love. Her character represents the agony and helplessness of

womanhood during a fight, whether it be religious, national, ethnic or

cultural.

The corruption and degeneration that happen to the modern

political systems is the theme of the novel Manasi. The androcentric

concept of power based on the domination of the earth and the

domination of women is entirely a utilitarian concept.

Commodification of woman, womanhood and sexuality is another

feature of androcentric world view and it is also a topic in the novel.

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The corrupting influence of power, the greed for power and the

callousness of power are other aspects of the novel.

Manasi Mitra yields to the commodification of her womanhood

and Vijay Raje the politician is the master manipulator. Manasi

makes great compromises for the achievement of power. She and

her daughter Suparna are being utilized by Vijay. She also

appeases the Prime Minister and finally she herself becomes the

Prime Minister. Manasi who was a poet writing revolutionary poems

is facing ultimate corruption in her life when she becomes the Prime

Minister. Even a war with the neighbouring nation is considered as

an option for maintaining power and political support.

There are certain characters like Sadasiva Rao, who point out

the corruption that creep into the national life and fight for remedies.

But he is killed by Vijay Raje. Another character who raises hope is

Syrus Contractor, who marries Suparna, though she was abused by

Vijay. He doesn’t abide by the belief in tainted womanhood. He

loves the woman, whom had been loving from childhood and she is

not merely a sexual commodity for him. Suparna, though she was

trapped by Vijay, she is not interested in following the path of her

mother, of greed and indulgence. She is like her father Amol Mitra,

generous and kind, tolerant and quiet. Nature should not be merely

exploited, it is be protected and preserved and the continuity of life

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is to be ensured on earth. Characters like Syrus give hope about

this fact where as Manasi and characters like her form impediments

in the existence and continuity of life. She asks Suparna to perform

abortion, where as Suparna refuses it, though it is the child of Vijay.

Amol, Syrus and Suparna identify the value of life.

The concept of Earth democracy becomes meaningful when

we read the novels of Kamala Das, especially, Manasi. Big and

small, strong and weak, animate and inanimate forms should be

able to coexist peacefully in the earth without any hierarchy. It is a

fact that all the creatures on earth, other than man follow this pattern

and why can’t man learn this lesson from nature? Then there won’t

be any kind of discrimination among people also. Men and women,

black and white, upper caste and lower caste, rich and poor should

live in harmony. This is the ultimate goal of ecofeminism.