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language: Bengali (English tr. Barnita Bagchi)
country: Bangladesh/India
year: 1924
form: novel
genre(s): literary
dates read: 16.1.24-21.1.24
Rokeya Hossain’s Padmarag (translated by Barnita Bagchi) was a delightful surprise. the novel follows a group of women associated with the Tarini Bhavan, a group of charitable institutions — a school, a hospital, a sanatorium / asylum, and an effectively-workhouse — established by a wealthy widow named Tarini Sen with the goal of promoting women’s agency through education and vocational training, as well as providing healthcare and other support to the poor. the staff are almost entirely women, and the novel is told episodically through a series of interactions between various subsets of them.
“Padmarag” is the nickname given to a young woman, Siddika, whose brother begs a group of staff members to take his sister in. slowly, she finds her place in their community, but she is both haunted and pursued by her past — her murdered brother and nephew (killed by a white man who wanted their property), and her contractual fiancé-slash-husband, who believed her dead but slowly comes to the realization that she is alive.
in many ways, Siddika’s story feels like a very conventional romantic novel plot: the couple separated by the cruelties of fate and family machinations triumphantly realize their love for one another and reunite. but! Siddika emphatically — and in spite of her own feelings — rejects this framing, even when it’s being pushed on her by her closest friends: the novel is a strong rejection of the institution of marriage as a tool for the patriarchal subjugation of women, such that even a loving relationship between husband and wife would be marred by this structure. Siddika wants instead to dedicate herself to feminism and the advancement of women — something she realizes would be impossible if she married.
the romantic plot is also complicated by being interwoven with a collective story about the women of the Tarini Bhavan — their daily trials and tribulations as they deal with the realities of patriarchy and colonial-era political structures, as well as a catalogue of different women’s experiences. colonialism itself is mostly not foregrounded, but the novel is explicit in its critiques of white supremacy (“It is not, after all, an easy task to arrest white folks”) and of police (both colonizers and locals); it also criticizes the native Indian feudal aristocracy and bourgeoisie, although it’s less attentive to the status of servants (“coolies” are present throughout the novel but it never engages with them). notably, one of the women at the Tarini Bhavan is an Englishwoman who is just as legally trapped in a marriage she doesn’t want as some of the Indian women.
aside from its content, it’s also formally really cool: much of the dialogue is not written in the form of “‘[dialogue],’ Latif said. / ‘[response],’ Siddika replied.”, but rather almost in the form of a play, complete with “stage directions” indicating who is addressing whom and how they do so:
Siddika (absentmindedly): “That is why a fire burns even in Saudamini.”
Helen: “Why only in Saudamini—there is fire even in the cheerful lotus, Nalini.”
Siddika gazed at Helen’s face in amazement. What was Helen trying to imply? Was that supposed to be a metaphor? Had she probed into Siddika’s heart?
Helen: “What are you brooding about?”
aesthetically really neat, great (and at times surprising!) plot, definitely recommend.
moods: inspiring, reflective