A wave of new writing

WITH the new found freedom that women suddenly seem to be enjoying, the publishing world in India has been witnessing a spate of women writers. Though there is really no conscious attempt to promote it, publishers do agree that there are a lot more women writers than before. In fact, they have been touching upon topics that were taboo earlier.

While there is some dissension on labelling it as a woman's phenomenon, or a new collective voice, one thing is certain - the new crop of writers are writing about their own lives where the intricacies in relationships are now barred like never before.

Be it Shauna Singh Baldwin, where the story of the woman's pain is recounted giving Partition a totally new dimension, or Jaishree Misra in Ancient Promises who has truthfully portrayed her life, being candid appears to be the key.

Misra's, like all first books, is autobiographical. Others like Jumpa Lahin, Amita Nair and Anjana Appachanna are writing their stories with women as the focal point.

Many feel that this is because there are more options today whether it comes to marriage, living alone or being in a relationship. A woman no longer has to play a "genteel" role.

According to Malashree Lal, noted critic and professor at Delhi University, "more and more women are being candid. There can be no real writing without total honesty. My own sense of this is that the silence regarding the body text has perhaps been removed; there is no fear of reprimand, of exposure. This has been removed and you are much more free to speak, to shock. Women are exercising the use of four letter words, describing the intimacies of body language. People like Shobha De and Kushwant Singh have adapted amazingly to the new social climate where as I would say a Salman Rushdie or a Anita Desai find no need to do so. There is a certain nuance that is used to convey a situation."

Lal was of the view that most women writers are looking at the man-woman relationship in a serious manner, offering a critique of society. She added that through the recent spate of women's writings, one gets a total view of a woman's perspective where the "female gaze was so very different from the male's". Lal felt that the quality of writing from India was exceptional. "My feeling is that the earlier writing was trapped between two worlds and there was a sense of an injunction that was imposed on them. That has now gone with a lot of women growing up in a multi-lingual society. They are looking at life seriously and have produced beautifully crafted work."

Many would echo this view as does Smita Narula, theatre critic, when she says that today, women have got on with the business of living and have left men far behind. Nirula is of the view that women have always been story tellers in the Indian context. "She was the one who narrated the epics to her children or grandchildren and passed them down from one generation to another".

Nirula, like Renuka Chatterjee of HarperCollins, wonders whether it is right to describe this phenomenon as a trend. "The fact is that when you look at a book, you look at it for what it is worth and not whether it is a woman or a man telling the story," says Chatterjee. "But I would agree that in the last few months there have been a lot many more women being published, not that there is a conscious attempt to do this." Chatterjee feels that in the past, most women wrote as a hobby. Consequently, there was really nothing of note that was published.

"This is a sign of the times - it is now possible for women to be more forthright - whether it is the way you dress, or on marriage or whatever. It is as yet an urban phenomenon but it is very much there," she says. She finds that a lot of the writing has evolved around family, relationships, men and women and social and political issues. You are looking at a generation who is, for the first time, not stifled. There are a lot of conflicts even with women who have broken away. A lot of this is reflected in the writing.

There is talk of men beginning to feel the change when they feel that the women they either know or live with have done better than them in more ways than one. Interestingly, most of the major concerns of women writers remain those that are closest to their lives - families, intra-personal relationships with men and the role of a child.

As Nirula put it, "women are today in the forefront everywhere be it theatre, writing or even academics. There is a surge towards tremendous creativity and that is now beginning to take shape".

SUCHITRA BEHAL

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