Gender assignment

For our gender assignment, we chose a few short stories written by Ismat Chughtai.
She was one of the very few women writers who dared to write about topics as
forbidden as female sexuality, at that time.

Bold, daring, progressive, scandalous, even obscene are some of the adjectives
popularly used to describe Chughtai’s work. Her works always reflected the voices of
women around her, the social implications, the world around them, and the evocation of
this whole injustice perpetrated on women since the beginning of time.

Her take on sex, extramarital affairs, puberty evoked so much interest because of the
way she presented the basic aspects of human life.The issues she spoke about are
issues that are still relevant. The stories even though set in that era evoke so much
empathy even now.

Lihaaf

“Lihaaf ” was written in 1941 by Ismat Chughtai but published a year later, in 1942.
The story not only focusses on female sexuality, the sexual needs of a woman, but also
moves further to portray a deliberate and conscious choice of an alternative sexuality
rather than a conventional heterosexual behaviour. To write of such matters at a time
when sex was discussed in whispers among women shows the writer’s revulsion for a
society which celebrated men’s sexuality while suppressed that of women’s and for
those women who allowed this to happen to themselves and meekly submitted to the
oppressive males. Commenting on this particular aspect of her writing (“aurat”/”woman”)
Ismat once wrote : “I detest the wailing, spineless women giving birth to bastards and
detest the faithful, sentimental and cringing wives with exemplary eastern values.
Girls committing suicide, crying their hearts out, or begging for love from their
lovers are taboo in my books!”
Lihaaf was a full frontal attack on a world where even the likelihood of alternative sexual
experience available to women were not acknowledged. It was a courageous
exploration of women’s sexuality in a sexually repressive world.

Lihaaf tells the story of Begum Jan, who is married into a rich Muslim household,
imprisoned in a life of desolation after her husband “tucked her away in the house with
his other possessions and promptly forgot her.” It’s a story about, the beautiful wife of
the Nawab who though surrounded by all material comforts, fawning relatives and
servants, nevertheless leads a lonely existence as her husband remains preoccupied
with ‘fair complexioned, slender-waisted young boy students.’ she yearns for her
husband’s love and attention but getting none she finds solace in the arms of her
maidservant Rabbu. The whole story is narrated through the eyes of a young girls who
sees a lot but understands nothing and this give Chughtai an opportunity to deal with a
theme that was considered a taboo and was forbidden to mention in any social circle.

But to consider the story as being just about lesbianism would be an incomplete
understanding of it. It is a woman-centric story narrated from the woman's point of view
and despite the child narrator it sensitively and very skillfully portrays the loneliness and
desperation of a frustrated wife and then locates the reason for that frustration in her
sexual deprivation. By doing so, Chughtai boldly raises the issue of female sexuality in
the story, forcing people to recognize and acknowledge that such a thing also exists.
That a woman could have sexual desires was a far cry for a society that believed only in
male desires and woman’s submission to them.

The theme of ‘Lihaf’ is an interlinked one where female sexuality, its suppression, the
resulting loneliness and then lesbianism all exist in a logical sequence, though the major
thrust of the story falls on woman's existence in an oppressive and claustrophobic
society. The narrator is merely observing and reporting what had happened but
Chughtai here is effecting a simultaneous exposure of a certain society and culture. It is
a society where marriage seems to be the ultimate goal for a woman’s existence and
somewhere money too plays a part or else why would the parents of a young and
beautiful girl marry her off to a man much older then herself?

Gharwali

Apart from ‘Lihaaf’, a strong satire on the institution of marriage, as well as on the social
mores of 1940s ‘Gharwali’ is another story by Chughtai which is has managed to turn
heads. In India, marriage remains an essential step of any individual’s life, especially a
woman. Very few women remain single and those who do, are looked at with suspicious
raised eyebrows. Seemanthini Niranjana in her book Gender and Space says “Marriage
is a critical turning point for a girl, allowing her to translate into reality latent
reproductive capacities and thereby realize her claim to womanhood in the eyes of the
community.” ‘Gharwali’ questions the notion of marriage being the prerequisite to
womanhood.

Gharwali is a story about the love between an elderly bachelor and his maid.
Lajjo, the protagonist of Ismat Chughtai’s short story, is a woman of precise pleasures.
Of illegitimate birth and with little money, she has the survival skills of an alley cat. If she
is fed, she will bed.

Having grown up on the streets, she, however, doesn’t think much of social status and
hierarchy. She does not distinguish between the neighbourhood milkman and the rich
merchant or the boy next door – Lajjo’s smiles are for all.

Lajjo certainly is desired by all. But she falls in love with Mirza, the elderly bachelor and
neighbourhood grocer in whose house she is the live-in maid. In a strange sort of way,
his loneliness, his diffidence, and even his proposal of marriage appeals to her – though
she does not understand it and finds it unnecessary.

Though her character in the story is submissive she has tongue which is razor sharp.
She is bold, frank, outspoken and in touch with her sexuality. She understands her
physical needs as basic human needs without getting caught up in the complicated
notions of modesty and morality. “She had a very large hearted concept of the man-
woman relationship. For her, love was the most beautiful experience in life. After
attaining a certain age, she was initiated into it and since then her interest had only
grown.”

The story questions the norm of our society where marriage is considered the ultimate
goal for a woman. The protagonist- Lajjo disgusts people because she defied these
regulations and lived a happy and sexually liberated life away from these conservative
social mores.

Perhaps the most striking quality of the story is how Chughtai manages to write this
story without judging either of the characters (Mirza or Lajjo). Her compassion and
understanding of both the characters is something which is rare to find. According to
Naseeruddin Shah, “I used to perform Gharwali with a slightly mocking attitude towards
the character of the maid, but then I realised she isn’t mocking the maid, but she is with
her. She isn’t mocking Mirza either”.

The story isn’t about a girl and a boy falling in love and living happily ever after. It’s
about a dysfunctional relationship where an orphan who comes of age to realize that
her biggest asset is her body. She solicits her body for money, sometimes for cash,
sometimes on credit and other times on charity.

Here Chughtai’s contempt of a hypocrite society is as evident as ever. She has build a
character which is defying all social limitations and accepting that she despite being a
woman likes sex. Hence, forcing people to acknowledge the existence of female
sexuality.