Indian Women by Shiv K Kumar

 

Indian Women

In this triple-baked continent
women don’t etch angry eyebrows
on mud walls.
Patiently they sit
like empty pitchers
on the mouth of the village well
pleating hope in each braid of their mississippi-long hair
looking deep into the water’s mirror
for the moisture in their eyes.
With zodiac doodlings on the sands
they guard their tattooed thighs
Waiting for their men’s return
till even the shadows
roll up their contours and are gone beyond the hills.

Author

Shiv K. Kumar was an Indian English poet, playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was born in Lahore, where he recived his school and college education. He obtained his doctorate in English Literarture from the university of Cambridge. He was honoured with the Sahithya Akademi Award in 1987 for his collection of poems Trapfalls in the Sky and also recieved Padma Bhushan in 2001 for his contributuion to Literature.

Themes 

• Life of women in India
• Oppression of women
• suffering of women
• Plight of women in India, where male chauvinism is ingrained in the society.

Summary 

The poem deals with the endless stories of sufferings of women of Indian subcontinent.It is about the exploitation and oppression of women in a highly structured patriarchal and chauvinist society. Poet points out the fact that even though the situation is really toxic to the women of Indian society, they accept this as their reality and express infinite patience and tolerance.

In this triple-baked continent
women don’t etch angry eyebrows
on mud walls.

Critics identify this 'triple-baked' as to indicate the intensity of the sufferings Indian women go through, suffering at the hand of sun, sex and poverty. These women have to walk miles in the burning sun to collect water, which is scarce in many villages of India. They are exploited in the name of sex as well, begin women in such societies are being second class citizen. Women do not have any rights or voice, they are mere servants of their husbands. More or these sufferings if they are bond with poverty also their live became miserable than stray dogs. They don't own any land or belonging instead they are being possessed by the opposite sex. Even though these women do not protest, they do not etch angry eyebrows on the mud walls.

Patiently they sit
like empty pitchers

Women walk miles to collect water every day in the baking sun, even when they reach their destination the water may not be enough for every one so they have to wait till water oozes in to the well in many other villages women treks mile with these pitcher to collect water from the public tap, in which water may or may not be available. Here women is compared to an empty pitcher, her life is as empty as the pitcher in a village effected by drought. Both does not have a meaning in their existence, as the drought makes the existence of pitcher essence-less the chauvinism of the society takes out essence of women's existence

guard their tattooed thighs

Tattooed probably refers to the name of husband inked on their thighs to indicate ownership. From this act we can understand in such a society women are seen as mere objects and something to be owned by the man. They don't have individuality or any identity of their own. Who knows whether they have any name, because they may be addressed by the name of their "owner" that is this persons wife, that person's daughter and so on.

Waiting for their men’s return
till even the shadows
roll up their contours and are gone beyond the hills.

These are the concluding lines of the poem, its now dusk and all the women are at home waiting for their men to return, who have gone beyond the hills. Now they have to prepare the food for their men and wait for their return. Every day this same actions repeats. 

Analysis

It is a single stanza poem with 14 lines written in Free verse. Poet has used a simple language and has employed metaphors in it. This poem tries to recreate a typical scene of the life of an Indian women in a language which is highly metaphorical. In a deeper sense the poem can be considered as the poets response to the injustice done against women in Indian society.

By portraying life of Indian women like this the poet actually criticise the society for their plight. Poet speaks for a group of human who have been marginalised by the dominant patriarchy. This poem can be considered as a feminist piece of art because simply by painting the life of Indian women the poet makes the reader think why the situation is like this? who is responsible for this state.

We can move even further to question why many Indian women have to travel miles to collect water? why cant the people in power take measures to ensure water availability in all the villages? Is it a because of a mentality that there is women in every house to fetch water by walking miles in the burning sun?

Conclusion

This is a poem which seeks to recreate a typical scene of an Indian women’s life in a language which simple yet have many levels of interpretations. It explores the sufferings of women in a patriarchal society and how women are objectified in real life by inking their "owner's" in in their thighs. At a deeper level the poem is a projection of the poet’s response to the injustice done against women in our society.