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| Sucharita Sharma |
Mahashweta Devi’s short story “The Breast-Giver” in Breast Stories is the narrative of the
life of a woman whose body is exploited as a site to satisfy sexual desires;
who reproduces and suckles children throughout her life, epitomizing herself as
an icon of selfless, caring and sacrificing Indian mother. Fraught with scars,
she is left to perish in the end. The writer’s concerns and her Dalit feminist consciousness
can be witnessed in the story of Jashoda, whose name is replete with the
mythological connotations, echoing the life of Mother Yashoda. The Bengali
writer and social activist Mahashweta Devi’s text is a treatise for the
socio-cultural and human rights of the marginalized sections of the society,
especially Dalits. Her sympathies with women and an aggressive portrayal of elite
capitalists and patriarchal society bring her writings under the umbrella of
feminist discourses. The present paper is an attempt to study the interface of
subaltern history with literature, focusing on the deeper concerns under the
texture of the story hidden between the lines. It will focus on the embodiment
of the idea of motherhood as a dual institution that empowers as well as
decentralizes the power of a woman as subject; that is, it aims to carve the
tragic destiny of a woman, whose reproductive powers make her disposed to the
value act of procreation, as a defenseless victim to veneration and therefore,
interleaved to economic structure.
Keywords: Subaltern, Nation, Motherhood, Divine, Patriarchy, Capitalist society.
The cultural heritage of a nation like West Bengal is
outweighed by images of goddesses in religion and culture, ensuring the
literary and cinematic representations of maternal idols and the interface of
cultural values with ideologies of motherhood. The two landmark narratives in
such thematic areas are the famous short stories “The Goddess” by Prabhat Kumar
Mukherjee and “The Breast-Giver” by Mahashweta Devi. Although written during different
eras, these texts are replete with examples from lives of female characters
whose stories prove that a woman’s body is viewed only as a site of
productivity by the capitalist-patriarchal structure.
On the surface reading, “The
Breast-Giver” appears to be the parable of Jashoda, a Brahmin woman who completely
forgets her existence as a human being. Her ‘self’ culminates within the
defined parameters of a wife and mother. “It is as if she were Kanglicharan’s
wife from birth, the mother of 20 children, living or dead, counted on her
fingers” (Devi 38). She is called, a “professional
mother”, whose body has turned into a reproductive machine under the forces
of patriarchy, poverty and need for survival. Her deceased body wakes fainting
in the morning, drilled in the darkness of each night by her husband, with no
control and/or choice over her motherhood. Rachel Cusk, observes that
Being
a woman reveals a woman’s capacity for numerous things: virtue, anger,
self-sacrifice, foolishness, anger, love…..she ha slost the power of autonomy
and free will in her own life. From the first moment of her pregnancy, a woman
find herself subject to forces which she has no control, not least those of the
body itself. This subjection applies equally to the known and the unknown: she is
her body’s subject…., and in this biological work she has undertaken she has
become society’s and history’s subject too. (36)
But the tragic irony of her life lies in the fact that
although she finds no exit to the reproductive mechanism of her body, she
discovers that these children have been the only strength to fuel some life in
the corpse of her identity.
Jashoda is referred to as a “professional mother”, as opposed
to any “amateur mother” who could be “daughters or wives from the master’s
house”. Devi has very interestingly juxtaposed the weak position of the colonizer
to the strength of the colonized through such bold and revered representation
of Jashoda, who reminds of the mythic mother Yashoda of Lord Krishna,
reincarnated with all her fostering powers in the character of the Brahmin woman
protagonist. The story engages with the institution of motherhood that is subject
to patriarchal ideologies by bringing to fore the narratives of tyranny and compulsion,
by taking the readers on journey with Jashoda who is
..fully an Indian woman, whose
unreasonable, unreasoning and unintelligent devotion to her husband and love
for her children, whose unnatural renunciation and forgiveness, have been kept
alive in the popular consciousness by all Indian women from Sati-Savitri-Sita
through Nirupa Roy and Chand Osmani.(Devi 45)
Her unflinching dedication and her dutifulness towards
her husband and children prove aphorisms like-“A female’s life hangs on like a
turtle’s’. She is the repository of maternal warmth for both her husband and
children. Her thoughts and her stalwart
psychological and physical devoutness to her husband and children stand as a
testament to the psyche of an Indian woman whose mind and body are colonized by
the consciousness of the patriarchal society and its dogmas which circumscribe
her destiny, written with writs of subjugation and subservience as the reward
for being the product of Indian soil.
Jashoda is a woman who
confirms to the patriarchal notions for others as an object, rather than being
a subject. She becomes a signifier of various qualities that inspire striving
and performing activities aimed towards greater socio-cultural responsibility. Although she is the true representation of a
traditional Indian woman, she is celebrated as a source of strength, freedom
and agency for women, refuting the idea that a woman is trapped in the
biological structure of her own body. Rather, she transforms the symbols of
femininity into weapons to combat the hardships of her life.
Jashoda is raised to the
altar of the Divine Mother when she is portrayed by the writer as an object in the
context of her maternal powers in Indian culture where, “Each man is the Holy
Child and each woman the Divine Mother”(46). Interestingly, this status of
divinity must not be seen as the suggestion of their ability to attain freedom.
Sharon Jacob contributes to the similar idea and writes: “My assertion is that
both Mary and India’s surrogate divinity lasts as long as their
productivity…Unlike the “holy child” Jesus whose divinity comes with a lifetime
warranty, the divinity of Mary and the Indian surrogate comes with expiration
dates”(109).
Signifying an attribute,
she sets herself up as a series of adjectives to be emulated by millions of
Indian women aspiring to be good mothers-chaste, devoted, loving, charitable,
nourishing, tolerant, malleable, self-denying, self-sacrificing, finding solace
in family and maternal roles.(Aneja&Vidya 25)
Jashoda’s
miseries aggravate after the death of the Master. The children grieved for food
and Kangali was furious at his own helplessness. Realizing her responsibility,
she steps out of the threshold of her house and decides to be the bread-winner
of her house. The image of the ‘Divine Mother’ is explicable when she “clasps
Radharani to her bosom and went over to the big house” (47).
In
the story, the definition of a woman is that of a breeder, and their world is critically
deployed as the world of “breeders”. Devi writes, “The Mistress has six
daughters. They too breed every year and a half. So there is a constant
epidemic of blanket-quilt-feeding spoon-bottle-oilcloth-Johnson’s baby
powder-bathing basin”(48). Blessed with fostering powers and breasts full of
milk, Jashoda brings an air of relief to the Mistress’ face by consenting to
breast feed the grandchildren of the Mistress when she pleads, “You come like a
god! Give her some milk dear, I beg you”(48).
Stanley Kurtz opines that “In worshipping the Goddess, Hindus
recapitulate and reinforce their successful developmental journey through the
world of women” (174). The series of ascribed adjectives continue to raise
Jashoda to the pedestal of the “Cow of Fulfillment”(48) sent by the Lord.
According to Hindu mythology, Kamdhenu is the divine cow who yields all
enjoyments and fulfills all desires. But the Mistress’ conviction of Jashoda’s “mammal projections” and the “flood of milk” from her nipples are no
indicators that motherhood in India is revered and liberated from patriarchal
considerations.
Jashodra Bagchi comments
upon the ‘simultaneous privatization and institutionalization of motherhood’ as
the most ‘spectacular ploys’ of patriarchal society. “Patriarchy, whether in its
most traditional or modern form, constantly tries to glorify motherhood as the
most prized vocation for women” (159). A mother’s body is seen as bountiful,
productive, blossoming and fruitful. Anju Aneja and Shubhangi Vaidya write in
their book Embodying Motherhood that
A
critical analysis of mothering in nations such as India reveals that the
commodification of women’s bodies previously sustained by patriarchal forces
may only be exaggerated under the more recent influences of capitalism,
sustained by the increasingly contractual nature of motherhood. (135)
Jashoda’s story directs the reader’s attention to the
fact that the predominance of patriarchal notions in the society constraint a
woman’s liberty under the pact of defined gendered roles of motherhood. Further
inflated by capitalism, they are witnessed in the motherwork beyond the
boundaries of class and caste. According to a wide range of feminist
discourses, it was easy to relate the dominating characteristics of motherhood to
the private spheres where opposition is silenced and subjugation is relatively
easier to be covered under the appropriation of gender roles.
Capitalist societies
concentrate on the productive value of human resources, which result in the
condemnation of woman’s role as a mother. In the light of Judith Butler’s
conception of ‘gender performativity’, the term ‘mother performance’ identifies
with less independence to females, observance to socio-cultural norms and
endorsement of patriarchal thoughts. Early Indian history documents the
transition of a woman from an independent person to a lesser important
character in their roles of wives and mothers. Jashoda is also one such woman
who has become a puppet under the agency of willful submission to her husband
in the private sphere, and in the hands of the Mistress in the Haldar house in
the public sphere.
Mahashweta Devi employs
the cult of goddess Yashoda to construct a sense of ironic tensions under the
light of mythological idealizations of the maternal. Jashoda is proud of her
recognition as a fruitful Brahmin woman and “thought of her breasts as most
precious objects”(50). They were not
only the symbol of her womanhood and maternity, but an object of values within
the premises of associations between capitalism, patriarchy and motherhood.
Jashoda’s life is further complicated because pushed by economic exigencies,
she is forced to sale her maternity and motherwork to the extended domestic
economy. She is born to bear a child in her belly, and thus Kanglicharan
understands his role as the ‘Purush’ or ‘Brahma, the creator’ to keep Jashoda’s
breasts full of milk. He associates the fostering power of her breasts with the
procreative powers of her womb. The discourse on relation is shifted to the
discourse on capitalism.
You’ll
have milk in your breasts only if you have a child in your belly. Now you’ll
have to think of that and suffer. You are a faithful wife, a goddess. You will
yourself be pregnant, be filled with the child, rear it at your breast, isn’t
this why Mother came to you as a midwife? (50)
The four walls of the Haldar house are altered to a
work space for Jashoda, providing more sexual and financial autonomy to her
with regards to her feminine powers. The portrayal of Jashoda with her suckling
power establishes the notion of the dual roles of a woman who is both a
homemaker and a bread-winner, and simultaneously preserves her conventional
subservience to her husband by giving birth to Kangli’s children every year.
By
suckling the children of the Haldar house, Jashoda becomes the domestic maid
who is restrained within boundaries in imperceptible ways despite the class and
caste difference. Jashoda’s body is doubly exploited by Kanglicharan and the
Mistress. She is a victim to the capitalistic society and patriarchal ideology,
fulfilling her duties obediently as a “professional mother” in harmony with
Kanglicharan who was the “professional father” (50). She becomes the devoted
wife and nurturing mother incarnate. Her existence confirms the essence of the
song that questions: “Is a Mother so cheaply made? Not just by dropping a
babe!”(50). She is revered, interestingly a little more than the “Mother Cows”
in the Haldar house. The men there became the creators of progeny and Jashoda
preserved them because she had to feed her own family by suckling the progeny
of the Mistress’s house. In a mocking and ironic contrast to the mythic mother
Yashoda of Lord Krishna, she embodied a subaltern’s self whose body was crushed
and trampled by the pact of motherhood. But Jashoda’s mind is so blinded by the
pride she feels in her motherhood that under the “electrifying influence” of her “goddess-glory”, she fails to see
the capitalist concerns of the society and assumes her position as a subject
and
constantly
suckling the infants, she opined as she sat in the Mistress’s room, A woman
breeds so here medicine, there blood-peshur, here doctor’s visits. Showoffs!
Look at me! I’ve become a year breeder! So is my body-failing, or is my milk
drying? Makes your skin crawl? (53)
Jashoda’s
world of power and financial autonomy comes to a disastrous end with the death
of the Mistress when the doors of the Haldar house close on her fate. In pain
and misery she turns to her husband, but is left alone to endure all ill- fate
as her body is now no more productive, her breasts are no longer full of milk.
The burden of empty womb and “ageing, milkless, capricious breasts breaking in
pain” (57), redirected the course of the last phase of her life to unspeakable,
unbearable physical and psychological pain as her female body was a depreciated
object with no use value for the capitalist patriarchy. Now she was neither the
breeder of Kanglicharan’s household, nor the suckler of the Mistress’s house.
The narrative of Jashoda’s story compels the reader to question the
significance of a woman’s body when it transforms to a barren land, void of its
reproductive powers, further eliminating a woman’s existence as a subject that
she had earlier acquired in her role of a mother.
The
blur created by her lactating powers between her identity and the lion-seated
goddess eventually diminished when her body started failing with the breaking
of prism created by the captivating seduction of maternal powers. Carrying the
burden of her carcass and her demolished soul, she returned home as an epitome
of the sexually oppressed subaltern who was objectified both in the hands of
elite woman and patriarchy. Her barren womb and dry breasts created a
psychological vacuum, gazing on the body as some old outdated entity with no
one to love or embrace it with desire and/or affection. Jashoda is shaken to
the horrific reality of life; left dejected by the world, her story unfolds the
hypocrisy of the culture in which a woman who succumbs to an emulation of the
patriarchal notions is finally left deserted in the end as her productive value
is now exhausted. Her life seems purposeless when she realized that
Whether
it suckled or not, it’s hard to sleep without a child at the breast. Motherhood
is a great addiction. The addiction doesn’t break even when the milk is
dry….Her breasts feel empty as if wasted. She never thought she wouldn’t have a
child’s mouth at her nipple.(60,62)
The foster mother of the Haldar house is pushed to
margins. No one respects her, no one reveres her. Her destiny disowns her, and
she is given a corner to be shared with the Basini of the house whose community
once used to wash her feet, but now orders Jashoda to wash her own dishes.
Jashoda’s
body betrayed her with breast cancer. Her breasts that once suckled 50 children
were now painful, full of sores and smelling foul. When Kangli came to meet
her, she ridiculed at her own body and “showed him her bare left breast, thick
with running sores and said, See these sores? Do you know how these sores
smell? What will you do with me now? Why did you come to take me?”(65). Jashoda’s
question is simply about the productive value of her rotting and deceasing
breasts and body. It can neither pacify the children of the Haldar house, nor
satisfy the desires of her husband Kangli. Her weak body and foul smelling
breasts with sores “kept mocking her with a hundred mouths, a hundred eyes”
(66). In a strikingly ironic contrast with Yashoda, our Jashoda in the story
deconstructs the myth of motherliness by her cancer affected body, defying the
story of the milk of prosperity flowing through the breasts of Mother Yashoda.
The
deceased condition of her breasts shakes its readers to perceive and
interrogate the contested limits of socio-cultural norms which have inscribed
such tragic destiny. “Jashoda thought, after all, she had suckled the world,
could she then die alone?...One must become Jashoda, if one suckles the world.
One has to die friendless, with no one left to put a bit of water in the
mouth”(73). The image of the Mother transformed from that of a strong woman who
suckled the children of two houses to someone who was desensitized with
medicated sleep. Even those, whom she had given birth, turned their faces from
her because “Their mother had become a distant person for a long time. Mother
meant hair in a huge topknot, blindingly white clothes, a strong personality.
The person lying in the hospital is someone else, not Mother”(72). Then who is
this person lying in bed, covered in white bed sheet with “the breast now
looking like an open wound…covered by a piece of thin gauze soaked in antiseptic
lotion” (70). The question remains
unanswered.
The
text resonates with the silence of suffering Jashoda who, with her silence,
internalizes the pain of a woman whose maternity is inscribed with white milk
flowing from her own body. Choosing its own path of resistance, her body
responds to the engraved maternal identity beyond paradigms of female
oppression. Nabin’s words towards the end echo the vanity of human desires,
illuminating with the philosophy of life that facilitates to delve into the
revised subjectivity of a woman in front of him. He interrogates his pleasure
instincts: “I lusted after her? This is the end of that intoxicating bosom? Ho!
Man’s body’s a zero. To be crazy for that is to be crazy”(71). The repulsive
thoughts on seeing Jashoda, map the treachery played on her body by cancer,
making it a symbol of gendered and marginalized Jashoda who desires to be
liberated and alienates herself from her body and its stinking smell along with
the unbearable pain of her breasts despite
Knowing
these breasts to be the rice-winner, she had constantly conceived to keep them
filled with milk. The breast’s job is to hold milk. She kept her breasts clean
with perfumed soap, she never wore a top, even in youth, because her breasts
were so heavy. (72)
Contrastingly, she
universalizes the concept of ‘foster mother’ and thinks that “The doctor who
sees her everyday, the person who will cover her face with a sheet, will pull
her on cart, will lower her at the burning ghat, the untouchable who will put
her in the furnace, are all her milk-sons”(74). The death of Jahoda is the
death of the cult of ancient religious icons who die in the portrayal of strong
woman like Jashoda. Mahashweta Devi concludes the story but laments the decline
and death of motherhood in the deceased body of Jashoda.
Works
Cited:
Aneja, Anu & Shubhangi Vaidya. Embodying Motherhood:
Perspectives From Contemporary India. SAGE Press, 2016.
Bagchi, Jashodra. “Representing Nationalism. Ideologyof
Motherhood in Colonial Bengal”. Motherhood in India: Glorification Without
Empowerment, edited by Maithreyi
Krishnaraj, Routledge, 2010.
Cusk, Rachel. “From Liberty and Equality to the
Maternal Grind”. Rev. of Shattered:
Modern Motherhood and the Illusion of
Equality, by Rebecca Asher. The New
Review, The Observer. 3 April 2011:36.
Jacob, Sharon. Reading Mary Alongside Indian Surrogate
Mothers. Violent Love, Oppressive
Liberation and Infancy Narratives. (The Bible and Cultural Studies). Palgrave
Macmillan, 2015.
Kurtz, Stanley. All
the Mothers Are One: Hindu India and the
Cultural Reshaping of Psychoanalysis.
Columbia University Press,1992.
Murphy, D. Patrick. Literature, Nature and Culture. SUNY Press,1995.
Spivak,
Gayatri Chakravarty, translator. “The Breast- Giver”. Breast Stories. By Mahashweta Devi, Seagull Books, 2010. 
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