15-PeN kalvi
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https://www.rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=204279#p204279
by arasi »
FIFTEEN
PeN kalvi
(Educating Women)
Around the year 1914, the question of education for women generated quite a bit of interest and controversy. So too, the idea of freedom for women which was vehemently argued against by some. The popular opinion was that women did not need any education but the number of supporters of uplift for women increased. Among them were some highly-placed professionals who ignored the old orthodox ways and started sending their daughters to schools to be taught in English. Child-widows were enrolled in schools which the conservatives thought was outrageous.
Many complained that because of all this breach in tradition, a hundred appaLams which you could get for four annas in VaikuNDa VAdyAr Street, were now being sold for eight annas!
Others who were for educating women but were afraid of the conservative society they lived in, engaged white women to tutor their daughters at home.
Changes did occur in the mandyam community as well. Even those who were against the idea, changed their minds, it seemed. From Ananda varusham onwards (1914-1915), friends and relatives from our extended family started sending their daughters to schools.
My father narrated stories to me and to my brother after dinner--of of Alexandre Dumas, Shakespeare and Moliere's plays, and Alain Rene Le Sage's Gil Blas , parts of which he translated into Tamizh. We listened to those stories eagerly.
Bharathi who readily got inspired by new thoughts and ideas, decried child marriages and championed remarriages for child-widows. He felt that though women did not have to vie with men in pursuing higher education, they certainly needed to be educated to be well-equipped with self-confidence, cultural values and lessons in hygiene. For his part, he praised the greatness and dignity of womanhood in his poetry.
I was keen on going to school with my peers. I argued with my mother that she should let me go to school. She objected to it by saying that I was learning from my father at home, and that was enough. I cried all day and kicked up a big fuss about it.
In the evening, as usual, Bharathi and Chellamma came by, and we went to the beach together. I was wearing a dour expression due to all the unhappy exchanges with my mother that day.
Bharathi: Yadugiri, you seem upset! Was your mother cross with you for something?
I did not answer him. I just sobbed. Chellamma gathered me in her arms and put my head on her lap and tried to console me. When I calmed down, I said: Chellamma! All the girls that I know go to school now but my mother won't let me go!
Chellamma: Is that all? Silly girl! Don't you see? Though they are of your age, they perhaps haven't started menstruating. It's not a good idea to send girls who have matured to schools. Moreover, did you think of your in-laws? They might not approve of it at all!
Bharathi: Just because your peers go to school, it doesn't make them any better than you, Yadugiri. Why should it matter if you don't get to know the names of the rivers and lakes in the english countryside? Study Tamizh even more eagerly! Going to those schools sometimes tend to introduce girls to unwanted trends in fashions which are worthless. Honestly, I don't see much benefit in your learning English.
Yadugiri: Do you mean to say that other parents want to send their girls to school because it's useless to do so? I mean, is it because they're foolish--and we are smart?
Chellamma: Yadugiri, you don't need to go to work! Then, why do you need an English education? My father says, girls need to be literate only to the extent of being able to write a letter, and for keeping household accounts. Nowadays, we women read epics, poetry and stories. To learn the languages of our own land is important. We can learn Sanskrit, Telugu, KannaDam and Hindi. Only men need English for their work, to read letters, the newspapers and meaningless stories!
Yadugiri: The problem is, most things are written in English! Not that I do not love Tamizh. When my grandmother says: telugu tETa, KannaDa kastUri, aravam advAnam (Telugu is honey, KannaDa precious and Tamizh is useless), I fight with her by saying that literary works in Tamizh are the best!
Bharathi: Your grandmother has a point. No need to get upset with what she says. Just as you seem to want to get an English education, many in tamizh nADu are crazy about the English language. I see new works of translations in Kannada and Telugu from other languages. Tamizh used to ride high once. Now it is at its nadir. That's why we are being teased.
Yadugiri: Why has this happened to Tamizh?
Bharathi: The Tamizh people are not as resolute. After reading works in English, they develop a disrespect for Tamizh literature. There is very little patronage for our language among the public.The Bengalis are prepared to give generously for the betterment of their language whereas our people, even the wealthy ones, do not like to spend a paisa for the good of our language. The poor also want to spend whatever they can on giving an English education to their sons hoping that they can get a good job to support the extended family. When the sons do get a job, they don't have enough to support their own families! How can they help their parents and siblings? In all this, where do they have the care or means to see if their language is alive or dead? If a few among us speak up about it, we get to be the enemies and traitors of this deprived society!
Chellamma: We are in the Age of Kali. Everything is upside down. It's all mayhem!
Bharathi: No, Chellamma! It's the age of the VEdAs! In the VedAs, you find mostly entreaties: destroy the rAkshasAs! Keep diseases away and give us good health! Please protect our children! Grant us our wishes! Make this land prosperous! varuNA! IndrA! Keep our crops from being destroyed by the rAkshasAs! Wind! You are our favored god! and so on. They are a compilation of all these pleas. It's the same with the Koran of the Muslims: make our children walk the righteous path! Make them good warriors! Provide them with food and clothing, make them live with sufficient means so that they can keep their heads high among their fellowmen, let good air and water be theirs like nectar!
The same is true of the Bible. They all ask for the same favors. It's just that they are in different languages!
Chellamma: Do you mean to say that peria purANam and the stories of SankarAchAryA are false?
Bharathi: No. Long ago, it was the time of the Upanishads. After having lived with Nature for a long time, they got tired of it and started saying, 'all this is an illusion, God alone is the truth'.To negate everything was in vogue then. Amid all this, they could not give up the Saiva-vaishNava conflict! They all taught lessons in 'giving up' but did not abide by it.
YugAs change.That's the way it's supposed to be. Then, when we started getting to know the ways of the west, our desires and wants increased. Even children seem to get influenced by it.Fashions are fleeting. If you get drawn to them, soon you will tire of them too. No wonder, people are eager for a new career and to follow new modes but they realize later that there is no substance to all these vanities.
Chellamma: How was it, when the Muslims ruled our country?
Bharathi: Akbar was the only one who treated the Hindus with sensitivity. Babar too, perhaps. Akbar had said in his final days: my descendants will try to treat the Hindus cruelly and will try to convert them toI islam. By doing so, they will not be able to achieve even the little that I have, but end up as the very axes which bring down our religion--and sure enough, it happened.
The Christians on the other hand, used kind words to convert the Hindus. When in DhAtu varusham the famine came, they boiled gruel in huge cauldrons and fed the nearly-dying and converted them to Christianity. Priests of the missions promised money and good jobs to them for their conversion, but left many of the poor families in the lurch.
Chellamma: Then, why do you often say that all religions are equal?
Bharathi: I do, but it does not mean that you have to be without your manjaL and kungumam like women from other religions! We are all the same, whatever our religion--when it comes to goodness. At the same time, whatever goes with our culture need not be be forgotten. Now, Yadugiri wants to study in an English school and you all do not want her to.
Yadugiri: BhArathiyArE, how about you? Are you for it?
Bharathi: Not really. If all youngsters work for the good of Tamizh, the whole world would get to know of its glory. Instead of grumbling about Tamizh being ridiculed as an useless language by others, it's better for us to do our bit for Tamizh with renewed enthusiasm for the language. Instead of bossing around with the knowledge of a bit of English, it's better to venerate Tamizh. It means, studying anew important old books in context with the present times, making old verses more understandable by splitting the words and explaining the meanings, translating great works from the literature of other languages into Tamizh and doing the same with books on natural and modern sciences, astronomy, and other works. Doing all this will benefit us no end.
Yadugiri: My father told us of a story which appeared in The Modern Review with the title Kshutita PAshAN. How do you say it in Tamizh? Had I known the language, I would have read it myself!
Bharathi: It means, hungry stones (Bharathi has translated and published this story and calls it ASA Bhangam--The publisher's note). It's Ravindranath's story. it's a good thing to translate such meaningful short fiction into Tamizh.
Chellammal: The other day, you told me the story of mAna Bhangam or Giri bAlA's Story (this has also been translated by Bharathi--publisher). I don't think the beginning or the end of the story is right. It was like a puzzle. The story ends with this line: GopinAthan jumped up and down and said, 'I will kill him!'. The curtain falls...We don't understand this at all!
BharathI: Chellamma, normally, our way of starting a story is, 'once up on a time, there was a king--then we end the story with, 'he lived happily ever after.' In this new way of writing, a story comes in as a storm, gives us a glimpse of a scene, and disappears. If we ponder about the story, we will find the meaning of it all by ourselves. This is good for sharpening our wits. If you too start reading stories like this, you will get to understand them easily.
Yadugiri: We neither know Bengali nor English to read them. We rely on the menfolk to tell us about them!
Chellamma: Yadugiri! On top of it, we have to wait until they are in a mood to tell us the stories!
Bharathi: More than the made-up stories, a true story can be appealing. Chellamma, yesterday, you were telling the children the story about what happened during your trip to the falls. I've written it all down just as you narrated it. Do you know how humorous it is! I'm sending it to svadESa Mitran. When you described your uncle, how the children fell out laughing! There is wonderment even in our mundane lives. If you write such incidents down regularly, there can't be any better stories. Even if you made up such a story, it will do Tamizh some good. Srinivasachari wrote to Tagore asking for permission to translate his stories into Tamizh. To publish them in Tamizh is a very good idea.
Bharathi sent that story told by Chellamma to svadESa Mitran and it was published in its annual December special issue in 1917. It was called Aruvi or VaLLi VANa tIrthamADiya kadai (The Falls or When VaLLi Bathed in vANa tIrtham).
* * * * *
PeN kalvi
(Educating Women)
Around the year 1914, the question of education for women generated quite a bit of interest and controversy. So too, the idea of freedom for women which was vehemently argued against by some. The popular opinion was that women did not need any education but the number of supporters of uplift for women increased. Among them were some highly-placed professionals who ignored the old orthodox ways and started sending their daughters to schools to be taught in English. Child-widows were enrolled in schools which the conservatives thought was outrageous.
Many complained that because of all this breach in tradition, a hundred appaLams which you could get for four annas in VaikuNDa VAdyAr Street, were now being sold for eight annas!
Others who were for educating women but were afraid of the conservative society they lived in, engaged white women to tutor their daughters at home.
Changes did occur in the mandyam community as well. Even those who were against the idea, changed their minds, it seemed. From Ananda varusham onwards (1914-1915), friends and relatives from our extended family started sending their daughters to schools.
My father narrated stories to me and to my brother after dinner--of of Alexandre Dumas, Shakespeare and Moliere's plays, and Alain Rene Le Sage's Gil Blas , parts of which he translated into Tamizh. We listened to those stories eagerly.
Bharathi who readily got inspired by new thoughts and ideas, decried child marriages and championed remarriages for child-widows. He felt that though women did not have to vie with men in pursuing higher education, they certainly needed to be educated to be well-equipped with self-confidence, cultural values and lessons in hygiene. For his part, he praised the greatness and dignity of womanhood in his poetry.
I was keen on going to school with my peers. I argued with my mother that she should let me go to school. She objected to it by saying that I was learning from my father at home, and that was enough. I cried all day and kicked up a big fuss about it.
In the evening, as usual, Bharathi and Chellamma came by, and we went to the beach together. I was wearing a dour expression due to all the unhappy exchanges with my mother that day.
Bharathi: Yadugiri, you seem upset! Was your mother cross with you for something?
I did not answer him. I just sobbed. Chellamma gathered me in her arms and put my head on her lap and tried to console me. When I calmed down, I said: Chellamma! All the girls that I know go to school now but my mother won't let me go!
Chellamma: Is that all? Silly girl! Don't you see? Though they are of your age, they perhaps haven't started menstruating. It's not a good idea to send girls who have matured to schools. Moreover, did you think of your in-laws? They might not approve of it at all!
Bharathi: Just because your peers go to school, it doesn't make them any better than you, Yadugiri. Why should it matter if you don't get to know the names of the rivers and lakes in the english countryside? Study Tamizh even more eagerly! Going to those schools sometimes tend to introduce girls to unwanted trends in fashions which are worthless. Honestly, I don't see much benefit in your learning English.
Yadugiri: Do you mean to say that other parents want to send their girls to school because it's useless to do so? I mean, is it because they're foolish--and we are smart?
Chellamma: Yadugiri, you don't need to go to work! Then, why do you need an English education? My father says, girls need to be literate only to the extent of being able to write a letter, and for keeping household accounts. Nowadays, we women read epics, poetry and stories. To learn the languages of our own land is important. We can learn Sanskrit, Telugu, KannaDam and Hindi. Only men need English for their work, to read letters, the newspapers and meaningless stories!
Yadugiri: The problem is, most things are written in English! Not that I do not love Tamizh. When my grandmother says: telugu tETa, KannaDa kastUri, aravam advAnam (Telugu is honey, KannaDa precious and Tamizh is useless), I fight with her by saying that literary works in Tamizh are the best!
Bharathi: Your grandmother has a point. No need to get upset with what she says. Just as you seem to want to get an English education, many in tamizh nADu are crazy about the English language. I see new works of translations in Kannada and Telugu from other languages. Tamizh used to ride high once. Now it is at its nadir. That's why we are being teased.
Yadugiri: Why has this happened to Tamizh?
Bharathi: The Tamizh people are not as resolute. After reading works in English, they develop a disrespect for Tamizh literature. There is very little patronage for our language among the public.The Bengalis are prepared to give generously for the betterment of their language whereas our people, even the wealthy ones, do not like to spend a paisa for the good of our language. The poor also want to spend whatever they can on giving an English education to their sons hoping that they can get a good job to support the extended family. When the sons do get a job, they don't have enough to support their own families! How can they help their parents and siblings? In all this, where do they have the care or means to see if their language is alive or dead? If a few among us speak up about it, we get to be the enemies and traitors of this deprived society!
Chellamma: We are in the Age of Kali. Everything is upside down. It's all mayhem!
Bharathi: No, Chellamma! It's the age of the VEdAs! In the VedAs, you find mostly entreaties: destroy the rAkshasAs! Keep diseases away and give us good health! Please protect our children! Grant us our wishes! Make this land prosperous! varuNA! IndrA! Keep our crops from being destroyed by the rAkshasAs! Wind! You are our favored god! and so on. They are a compilation of all these pleas. It's the same with the Koran of the Muslims: make our children walk the righteous path! Make them good warriors! Provide them with food and clothing, make them live with sufficient means so that they can keep their heads high among their fellowmen, let good air and water be theirs like nectar!
The same is true of the Bible. They all ask for the same favors. It's just that they are in different languages!
Chellamma: Do you mean to say that peria purANam and the stories of SankarAchAryA are false?
Bharathi: No. Long ago, it was the time of the Upanishads. After having lived with Nature for a long time, they got tired of it and started saying, 'all this is an illusion, God alone is the truth'.To negate everything was in vogue then. Amid all this, they could not give up the Saiva-vaishNava conflict! They all taught lessons in 'giving up' but did not abide by it.
YugAs change.That's the way it's supposed to be. Then, when we started getting to know the ways of the west, our desires and wants increased. Even children seem to get influenced by it.Fashions are fleeting. If you get drawn to them, soon you will tire of them too. No wonder, people are eager for a new career and to follow new modes but they realize later that there is no substance to all these vanities.
Chellamma: How was it, when the Muslims ruled our country?
Bharathi: Akbar was the only one who treated the Hindus with sensitivity. Babar too, perhaps. Akbar had said in his final days: my descendants will try to treat the Hindus cruelly and will try to convert them toI islam. By doing so, they will not be able to achieve even the little that I have, but end up as the very axes which bring down our religion--and sure enough, it happened.
The Christians on the other hand, used kind words to convert the Hindus. When in DhAtu varusham the famine came, they boiled gruel in huge cauldrons and fed the nearly-dying and converted them to Christianity. Priests of the missions promised money and good jobs to them for their conversion, but left many of the poor families in the lurch.
Chellamma: Then, why do you often say that all religions are equal?
Bharathi: I do, but it does not mean that you have to be without your manjaL and kungumam like women from other religions! We are all the same, whatever our religion--when it comes to goodness. At the same time, whatever goes with our culture need not be be forgotten. Now, Yadugiri wants to study in an English school and you all do not want her to.
Yadugiri: BhArathiyArE, how about you? Are you for it?
Bharathi: Not really. If all youngsters work for the good of Tamizh, the whole world would get to know of its glory. Instead of grumbling about Tamizh being ridiculed as an useless language by others, it's better for us to do our bit for Tamizh with renewed enthusiasm for the language. Instead of bossing around with the knowledge of a bit of English, it's better to venerate Tamizh. It means, studying anew important old books in context with the present times, making old verses more understandable by splitting the words and explaining the meanings, translating great works from the literature of other languages into Tamizh and doing the same with books on natural and modern sciences, astronomy, and other works. Doing all this will benefit us no end.
Yadugiri: My father told us of a story which appeared in The Modern Review with the title Kshutita PAshAN. How do you say it in Tamizh? Had I known the language, I would have read it myself!
Bharathi: It means, hungry stones (Bharathi has translated and published this story and calls it ASA Bhangam--The publisher's note). It's Ravindranath's story. it's a good thing to translate such meaningful short fiction into Tamizh.
Chellammal: The other day, you told me the story of mAna Bhangam or Giri bAlA's Story (this has also been translated by Bharathi--publisher). I don't think the beginning or the end of the story is right. It was like a puzzle. The story ends with this line: GopinAthan jumped up and down and said, 'I will kill him!'. The curtain falls...We don't understand this at all!
BharathI: Chellamma, normally, our way of starting a story is, 'once up on a time, there was a king--then we end the story with, 'he lived happily ever after.' In this new way of writing, a story comes in as a storm, gives us a glimpse of a scene, and disappears. If we ponder about the story, we will find the meaning of it all by ourselves. This is good for sharpening our wits. If you too start reading stories like this, you will get to understand them easily.
Yadugiri: We neither know Bengali nor English to read them. We rely on the menfolk to tell us about them!
Chellamma: Yadugiri! On top of it, we have to wait until they are in a mood to tell us the stories!
Bharathi: More than the made-up stories, a true story can be appealing. Chellamma, yesterday, you were telling the children the story about what happened during your trip to the falls. I've written it all down just as you narrated it. Do you know how humorous it is! I'm sending it to svadESa Mitran. When you described your uncle, how the children fell out laughing! There is wonderment even in our mundane lives. If you write such incidents down regularly, there can't be any better stories. Even if you made up such a story, it will do Tamizh some good. Srinivasachari wrote to Tagore asking for permission to translate his stories into Tamizh. To publish them in Tamizh is a very good idea.
Bharathi sent that story told by Chellamma to svadESa Mitran and it was published in its annual December special issue in 1917. It was called Aruvi or VaLLi VANa tIrthamADiya kadai (The Falls or When VaLLi Bathed in vANa tIrtham).
* * * * *
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