The Feminist Voice Through Words by Sarbajit Chowdhury

Kamala Das (1934- 2002) also known as Kamala Surayya was an Indian Poet from Kerala who wrote in English and Malayalam. Some of her famous works are – Summer in Calcutta (1965), The Descendants (1967), The Old Playhouse and Other Poems (1973), and My Story (1973). (Kamala Das). She was known for her bold, honest, and explicit poetry which often explored the themes of love, desire, and sexuality. Her work was considered controversial and groundbreaking in her times. It challenged the traditional Indian social norms and taboos around sexuality and gender roles. Her poetry is characterized by its intense emotional, powerful, sensual, and autobiographical elements offering a glimpse into her personal experiences and inner world. She is celebrated as a pioneer of confessional poetry in Indian writing in English and a powerful voice for women’s empowerment. 

Kamala Das's loveless marriage has been a constant source of pain in her life. She got married to Madhav Das at the age of 15 and was eternally trapped in a fruitless and loveless marriage. She yearned for love. Her husband's failure to understand this, made their marriage a mechanical one about which she writes in her autobiography, My Story. This did not sit well with her husband and later, she claimed some incidents as fictionalized.

                              My body’s wisdom tells and tells again

                              That I shall find my rest, my sleep, my peace,

                               And even death nowhere else but here in 

                               My betrayer’s arm…

                                                                     (A relationship, Kamala Das) 

When we talk about her lack of marital bliss, what comes to mind is the poem from her collection The Old Playhouse, and other poems named The Stone Age. In this poem, she compares her husband to the “…ancient settler in the mind, Old fat spider”, and addresses the age-old patriarchy that deprived her of mental peace.  She unceasingly pines for her husband’s attention and love which is essential for a successful relationship. As he failed to understand this, it made their marriage a mechanical machine. As she wrote in the poem: 

                                 You turn me into a bird of stone, a granite

                                 Dove, you build round me a shabby drawing room,

                                 And stroke my pitted face absentmindedly while

                                 You read. With loud talk, you bruise my pre-morning sleep,

                                 You stick a finger into my dreaming eye… 

                                                                                               (The Stone Age)  

Kamala Das expressed her fascination for the eternal and true love of Radha and Krishna in her poetry. She wished to experience the true love that she heard of by internalizing the pain of Radha, and thus in this piece, she thinks she becomes Radha waiting eternally for her true lover, Krishna. She glorifies the image of Radha and Krishna as a symbol of true love in her poems and solidifies the idea that true love is beyond the barriers of marriage. 

However, she contradicts the idea by saying that Krishna deserted Radha and never came back to see her, and she does not see him as the ideal lover. The sense of loss and detachment from the love of life remains one of the most predominant themes of her poems. In her poem The Maggot, she says: 

                                                                  At sunset, on the river bank, Krishna

                         Loved her for the last time and left, 

                                 That night in her husband’s arms, Radha felt

                                  So, dead that he asked, what is wrong,

                                   Do you mind my kisses, Love? And she said,

                                   No, not at all, but thought, what is

                                   Is it to the corpse if the maggots nip? 

                                                                                (The Maggot)  

Kamala Das was the loudest voice against the societal restrictions on women and she advocated for women’s independence. Her work is considered to be a patent example of women’s emancipation from domestic servitude and gender roles. 

                                  Widowed and diabetic

                                  Wrinkling like a bitter gourd  

                                  Not even death can perfect me now. 

                                  What was courage worth

                                   At the very end? 

                                   Even Phoolan the dacoit queen

                                    Finally threw down her guns

                                    To settle for weekly orgasms.

                                                                          (A Feminist’s Lament)

FAQs

1. Why is Kamala Das called a feminist poet?

Kamala Das, through her poetry and prose throws a light on the sorrow of being a woman in a male-dominated society. Her poetry also reflects the sufferings that she had to undergo as a female child. Her works revolve around condemning marginalization and exploitation of women.

2. Kamala Das, an Indian poet and a Malayalam author was widely known by her pen name. What was her one-time pen name?

She primarily used to write under a pen name and the pen name she used was Madhvi Kutty to get the flow of her writing going on.

3. Did Kamala Das win the Nobel Prize?

In the year 1984, Kamala Das was nominated for the Nobel Prize for her work My Story. She was a feminist who talked about the deep-rooted patriarchy and did not waver from the idea of the portrayal of female sexuality in an unapologetic way.

4. What were some of the notable works of Kamala Das?

The Old Playhouse and Other Poems (1973).

My Story (1973).

Summer in Calcutta (1965).

The Descendants (1967).

5. What made Kamala Das earn the label “The Mother of Modern Indian English Poetry?”

The title "The Mother of Modern Indian English Poetry" was bestowed upon Kamala Das in recognition of her significant contribution to our nation's poetry.

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Image source:  https://journals.flinders.edu.au/public/journals/1/article_66_cover_en_US.jpg