Education for women, their freedom to choose, like any other freedom, came after a long and hard struggle. And still, it remains elusive to many.
The eight stories in Laxmibai Abhayankar's The Stepmother and other stories, first published during 1900-14 in popular Marathi magazines, offer a vivid portrait of life in this period in the Bombay presidency and Deccan states and of social reforms that worked as an antidote to rigid orthodox practices that enslaved women.
This was a time when child marriages were rife, when a girl aged 14 was expected to mother at least two kids, and if still unmarried, deemed fit to be a second wife/stepmother, when widows lived through hell on Earth to ensure their dead husband's easy passage to heaven. By delving into marriages, relationship of a woman with her husband, parents and parents-in-law, the author shows a society in throes of change, torn between vices and virtues, torn between vehemently sticking to traditions and slowly embracing literacy & logic.
Demure daughters-in-law slogging away at home from dawn to dusk, cunning mothers-in-law lashing their whip like tongues, sons in rich households squandering away wealth, poor & educated young men upholding morals, educated women doing the tightrope walk between tradition & modernity, following and flouting conventions populate these stories. But before you hastily conclude that the collection is a ubiquitous Grand Indian Family Drama, the author's sincerity, in showing how changes though infinitesimally small have compounded over time to make the world we know today, wins our hearts. She points out that though people from upper echelons had the privilege to effect a change in the society, they had too many obstacles to overcome in their own households while aspiring for political freedom with social equality.
In a translation that offers a delectable reading experience and retains local flavor with a sprinkle of Marathi terms, this collection is a slice of our history, one we would have missed out on if not for the publisher's endeavors. The author, a prolific writer and staunch Nav-matvadi (new thinker), born in 1884 in Sangli was nominated the first woman member of Sangli municipality. She was the first woman official visitor to Sangli central jail and Sangli state's sole representative to 1927 All India women's conference at Pune. Born into a family of social reformers, the granddaughter of Lokhitvadi Gopal Hari Deshmukh, married to a lawyer who pioneered Sansthani Praja Parsihad movement, she fought fiercely for the rights of women, their education and emancipation. Reading stories penned by her, in translation rendered by her granddaughter, feels really special.
