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Of
human bondage
A MOVING PORTRAIT OF LIVES BURDENED BY THE YOKE OF RIGID TRADITION,
WRITES VINEETHA MOKKIL
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The Moth-Eaten
howdah of the tusker
Indira Goswami
Rupa
Rs 395 |
Indira Goswami is one
of the prominent voices of contemporary Assamese literature. Her novels
and short stories have been translated into several Indian languages. She
is also the recipient of honours including the Sahitya Akademi Award (1982)
and the Jnanpeeth Award (2000).
Goswami’s work throws into sharp relief the inequities of social systems,
always articulating the concerns of those who are forced to live their lives
on the margins. Her 1993 novel Une Khowa Howda (The Moth-Eaten Howdah of
the Tusker) which is now available in English (translated by Goswami herself)
is no exception. It holds up a mirror to life in the south Kamrup district
of Assam. This society is trapped in a strict hierarchy of caste, gender,
class and economic differences. The narrative begins in the tumultuous post-independence
year of 1948.
The Moth-Eaten Howdah is the story of a people who blindly live out their
lives according to the dictates of a rigid, moth-eaten tradition. Indranath,
the future adhikari of the sattra (a Vaishnavite monastery) is considered
a god in human form by his tenants. He owns a huge chunk of feudal landed
property. The opium-addled peasants serve him and live in abject poverty.
Indranath’s mother, his widowed sister Giribala, and a young girl
called Durga who has been abandoned by her husband live under his care.
Goswami paints a poignant picture of widowed upper-caste women who are virtually
buried alive in their homes. The young and vivacious Giribala is expected
to cut herself off from life and spend her days offering puja to her dead
husband’s sandals. Another widowed Gossainee (head of a sattra) who
lives by herself struggles to hold on to her land. Her life is constantly
under public scrutiny because she is a widow. In a society steeped in orthodoxy,
all her actions after her husband’s death are considered suspect.
Goswami’s voice is intimate and immediate. It captures all the nuances
of feeling that her characters experience. It recreates every ripple in
their world. Her metaphors are rooted in the landscape of the story –
a woman’s skin is ascribed the texture of a ‘bok’ flower:
a flower found only in eastern India, the ‘mushroom-coloured sky’
is called a sky of ‘moga’ silk, an exquisite Assamese handicraft.
These descriptions enrich the authenticity of her fictional universe, drawing
the reader right into the heart of the narrative.
Goswami posits the inevitable changes that take over Kamrup against the
backdrop of the political and social upheavals of the time. The Land Ceiling
Act and the growing communist movement send shivers down the landed gentry’s
spine. They desperately try to find loopholes that can circumvent the loss
of their privileges. But their efforts to cling to a monstrously prejudiced
system are washed away by the tidal wave of historical inevitability.
The characters in Goswami’s fictional world, as in real life, are
complicated and never easy to categorise. Though Indranath (the representative
of the system) is killed in a peasant uprising, the reader knows that he
was planning on giving away his land to the peasants. In the final chapter
set in 1981, the peasant leader ‘who had passed his whole life in
bitter vengefulness’ is asked whether Indranath’s murder 30
years ago has managed to fill the stomachs of the oppressed. He has no answers.
The novel was originally written in the Kamrupi dialect. The English translation
suffers from a certain stylistic awkwardness in parts. Some of the translated
idioms might come across as stilted to the English reader.
The Moth-Eaten Howdah has been included in the Sahitya Akademi’s list
of classics. What elevates the novel to the position of a classic is its
stunning grasp of the political and social reality of a historic moment
in time. As also its deep understanding of the man-made systems of oppression
that inflict the worst possible suffering on the human race.
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September 25, 2004
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