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III

Rabindranath now points out, this power difference exists also within a society. In this connection we may refer to his letters and short stones where he discloses this power asymmetry in a more lively, touching and humane way. In his collection of letters, Chhinna Patrabali, we find him saying: 'All these peasant continuing their lives with their children and ploughs do not know me properly. They don't consider me as their equals. Hence they have to remain careful to keep this distance..'⁶ Again, he also talks particularly about male-dominated society and the tragic, helpless surrender of women to its power. They can open no dialogue with males. They are always in the margin, and never considered as genuine, useful partners. Thus in 'Dena Paona' Nirupama was without any care, nourishment and medical treatment simply because her poor father was unable to give dowry. She could not know why this humiliation for no fault of her own. She had no power to protest against her father-in-law or mother-in-law, Nobody cared to talk to her sympathetically, At last she had to embrace premature death. And we arrive at the shuddering climax in the letter to the husband of Nirupama: 'I have arranged another bride for you'. In 'Streer Patra' we encounter the tragic end of Bindu who is a cruel victim to the dominant male society, to the power differential that provides the semantic of male-centric society. Similarly in 'Haimanti' we have me same story of one way movement of power. Rabindranath's point is that control of members of subordinate groups by members of dominent groups is effected by 'explicit manipulation' and by the creation of a world in which 'inequitable relations are presented as given and inevitable'. This comes with dramatic force and sharpness in the conclusion of the story when the disillusioned father is departing from his daughter's father-in-law's house where she has been subject to torment and humiliations, where she is deprived of her dignity as an indispensable inmate:

' 'The daughter pretended to rebuke her father with a laugh, 'If you come again to see me in this house. I will not open the door'.
The father also laughed and said, 'If I come again, I shall bring a burglar's rod with me'.
After that I have not seen any smile on her face. What happend even after that I shall not be able to say.
I have come to learn that my mother is looking for another bride for me."⁷

The contention of Rabindranath in all such short stories or letters is identical: that is to drive home absence of dialogue which presupposes equal partners.

Historically, insistence on the inequality between men and women   formed   the   major   theme   (sometimes   coven   and sometimes overt) of Neo-Hinduism that revolved, during the time of Rabindranath, around Bhudeb Mukhopadhyay, Chandranath Basu and others. In their writings women were apparently held in highest esteem. Thus Bhudeb Mukhopadhyay writes: 'In Hindu system emphasis is on religion; while in European system it is on worldly pleasure. In Hindu system a woman is a goddess, and not a partner and comrade of a male as in European system.'⁸

Again, Chandranath Basu urges: 'In Christian religion women arc given equal place with men; but Hindu religion has made women not equal to men, but objects of worship of the latter.'⁹

Evidently all such eulogies of women were merely strategic device to hide the existing power differential, and lo keep status quo intact, Of course, sometimes this belief in inequality of power is also unveiled in a straightforward way; 'When A and B are not equal, they cannot have same status. The Hindus arc against equality of men and women.'¹⁰

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