RELATIONSHIP
Extracts From a Correspondence
New Delhi-110049 1994
It is rare to find someone with whom you feel free to be totally honest, with whom you are not afraid to be who you are, with whom you are able to share your feelings, thoughts, ideas and are understood and appreciated. Rarer still to find the other so passionately interested in getting to know everything there is to know about you, what and how you do, what you think, etc., from the most profound and beautiful to the most ordinary and mundane, not out wanting to or presuming to possess, but as part of desiring the fullness of a relationship with the wholeness of a person. It is beautiful relationship which combines love and friendship and makes possible such depth of trust and confidence, comfort, assurance, honesty, integrity and caring that brings out the best in people and allows the worst to be revealed, understood, accepted and if necessary, also forgiven.
Perhaps many go through their lifetimes never having this chance, never knowing what it is like, never even imagining that it could be possible. The web of structures, cultures and norms that divide people and determine their relations, including love and friendships between and among men and women, whether individuals are conscious of these or not, alienate people from themselves and from each other, making it difficult to achieve wholeness arid fullness of both being and relations. This is especially true for women, whose lives are mainly defined by roles - wife, mother daughter, single woman, married woman, widow; whose relationships with others are expected to be within the confines accepted behavior associated with the roles one is supposed to assume especially when it comes to relationships with men; whose worth are determined in terms of how they measure up to the standards and pattern of behavior associated with each role. Who you are, what you can be, is chopped up into little pieces that fit into these various roles, and pieces of you that does not get lost or submerged in the day to day effort to play your various roles. It is overwhelmingly difficult to affirm who are much less have a sense of your wholeness.
The letters between Tara and Bunchi chronicle a relationship that is precisely so special that it was pursued and sustained despite the pain and suffering it extracted from them both. The pain is not simply because they are not free to pursue it as freely and fully as they wish, but because they have already other commitments and roles both public and especially private that they are committed to honor and fulfill.
Tara, or Nayantara Sahgal, comes from a distinguished family in Indian society. She is the daughter of Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, once a governor of Maharashtra, and a niece of Jawaharlal Nehru, first Prime Minister of India. More than this, Tara is a writer of several novels, political commentaries and nonfiction essays and articles. Bunchi, or E.N. Mangat Rai was a respected public servant until his retirement in 1971. Also an author and writer or several books in various capacities in the Indian Civil Service for over three decades including Chief Secretary for the most part or Pratap Singh Karon's tenure. Both Tara and Bunchi were married to other people. Tara is also mother to three children, who were of minor age when their relationship started
Like many women, Tara was married to a man who had very traditional concepts and expectations of marriage and wife. Unfortunately, her marriage is a familiar story. Tara had a relationship including sexual with another man prior to their engagement and marriage. It was a source of deep resentment for Gautam, her husband and the cause or their first crisis and contributory to the bigger perpetual crisis in their marriage. She was deemed less valuable, even unworthy, because she did not come into marriage pure arid virginal. The usual restrictions surrounding a married woman were further reinforced by this "past". The possessive nature of Gautam's attitude towards his wife was punctuated with bouts of violence whenever his fragile male ego was challenged and his claim to ownership of Tara was threatened. "Peace and harmony" prevailed only when Tara obediently complied with all the "duties" of a wife. To Gautam, as with many men, the measure of the health and happiness of marriage had to do with the fulfillment of his expectations and how neatly and well the marriage fell within the pattern of his life, the needs and expectations of the woman, his wife, either does not come into the picture at all or are assumed to jive with his own. While he allowed for a certain freedom for Tara, this permitted freedom can only be intellectual in nature, enough only for her to pursue her vocation as a writer, and only enough so it does not threaten what he sees as her main reason for being - that of wife and mother -- and the stability of their marriage as he sees how the institution should be.
Beyond the beauty, fierceness and strength of Tara's and Bunchi's relationship and their struggle to strain against the restrictions of their other roles and commitments, the letters are a story of Tara's struggle with her marriage. This struggle was a struggle by itself and not as an outcome of her relationship with Bunchi. It was a struggle with her own concepts and values about marriage vis a vis Gautam's. it was a struggle with the actual realities of their marriage. But all the more made intense and painful because of the threat Tara's relationship with Bunchi presented to Gautam, and the contrast it showed to Tara against the state of her marriage. It was a struggle all the more complicated as Tara tied to reconcile her effort to sustain her marriage with the pursuit of the other relationship, tried to bring some rationality to her actions. Bunchi seemed to have much less difficulty in reconciling her relationship with Tara with the reality of his marriage to someone else. Men usually seem to have less qualms about claiming happiness for themselves even if it may go against their other commitments. But it is touching to have genuinely felt Tara's pain as his, and how he was willing to restrict his happiness and the fulfillment of his needs for her own protection and safety.
Inspite of Tara's anger and frustrations about her marriage, her recognition of the dehumanizing state which Gautam and the kind of marriage he insisted subjecting her to, and her identification of Gautam's flaws, she did not lose sight of his humanity. Part or her struggle was to try to understand him, even empathize with his pain, to be critical of her own weaknesses and mistakes which contributed to his behavior and the nature of their relationship. This echoes how many women are. This ability is at once a strength of women as well as what can sometimes hamper them from seeking freedom.
Coming back to the relationship between Tara and Bunchi. the letters depict not only its special nature but also the pressures it underwent. Such a relationship could not be celebrated openly, had to hidden from society and more painfully from other loved ones and friends, can only be sustained on stolen time and space. Such a relationship could have easily been eroded by shame or guilt, could have easily been rendered ugly by society's unforgiving and prying eyes. Its strength is also expressed by the fact that it did not succumb. But then, one can also wonder that perhaps such relationships are not subject to the normal stresses, to the ordinariness, of day to day living that it can remain to be seen as always special. That perhaps in such relationships, one is never able to get enough of the other person and the relationship that it remains to always be so passionate.
The story in these letters on the surface is not extraordinary: two people trapped in unhappy marriages, forging and pursuing a relationship with each other from which they are able to fulfill needs their marriages cannot, a story of marriage and extramarital relationships. People are usually predisposed to passing simple judgements on such stories, from whatever perspective: traditional, feminist, conservative, liberal, progressive ... but this book shows you why one cannot, maybe should not.
The letters show that the authors must indeed be good writers. They are articulate, vivid, coherent, whether they are communicating ideas, random thoughts, describing their feelings, talking about ordinary situations in their lives or their major crises. One might sometimes experienced some slight degree of difficulty in reading owing to the peculiarity of Indian English and references to events and contexts in Indian society. But the main reason why the book is not easy reading is because every so often one is made to stop and reflect.
Reading the book, one is not simply allowed to take a close look into the intimacies and problems of other peoples' lives, one is not simply an audience to their life situations as these are unfolding. The feelings, ideas, insights, experiences, particular anecdotes, joys and pains etched in these letters cannot but resonate with some aspects in our lives and in the lives of other people, other women we know. Tara and Bunchi's historical and cultural context, social and economic standing, family backgrounds and education of course define the parameters within which their problems and struggles are concretely shaped and pursued. But certainly there are human yearnings that are universal.
At Seventy, A Journal
WW Norton and Company, NY, London. 1984
At seventy, is a woman on a post-menopausal decline? Is a writer's literary work on a denouement!" Are the adventures that spice up "the seasons of women" over?
Not so, says May Sarton who "feels younger at 70 than at 50 or 60." In her journal, AT SEVENTY, she writes:
"Those previews of old age were not entirely accurate, I am discovering. And that, as far as I can see, is because I live more completely in the moment these days, am not as anxious about the future, and am far more detached from the areas of pain, the loss of love, the struggle to get the work completed, the fear of death."
The journal, started on her seventieth birthday is a day-to-day account oi an entire year. It was not an exceptional year in what, on the surface, is an ordinary life in a quiet village in England. The journal has no dramatic highlights, no moments of great passion (except, perhaps, that one poignant entry on the day she was told of the death of her "one true love").
But it is written by an extraordinary woman with enough jure de vice to last another seventy years. One comes across the words "happy" and "good" so often and she is so appreciative of people, of nature and of her blessings, big and small.
"Now I wear the inside person outside, and am more comfortable with myself," she writes. In some ways I am younger because I can admit vulnerability and more innocent because I do not have to pretend."
The journal almost makes me look forward to being old. Which is wonderful news to women who have been duped into considering youth and beauty essential to their happiness.
She writes mostly about her "priorities" - "first, friends, then work, then the garden."
The friends are many; the friendships deep and warm and strong. Some were nurtured over the years, some are newly rnade. Regrettably it was not her "year for passion" or the reader might have gathered valuable insights into a mature lesbian relationship. May Sarton handled this aspect or her reality with subtle delicacy, mentioning it ever so casually, even while sorrow over the news of the death of her lover gives us a glimpse of the depth of her capacity to love.
Work during this period consisted of poetry readings, lecture, a novel and this journal which went into publication shortly after the year s end. She would go on to write more books, validating the claim that age is no hindrance to creative productivity.
The journal is strewn with little poems and quotations. These spice up the text as well as illustrates her points.
And the entries on her garden, the "secret extravagance" where her "madness lies", will delight the reader who would share her concern for the nurture of nature's beauty and bounty.
As journals go, AT SEVENTY tells us not only what sort of a person but also how good a writer she is.
"Writers must write journals the way painters are driven to do self-portraits," to check their development as artists and persons and to chart the direction they are taking.
May Sarton's journal is not, we find, an exercise in self-indulgence. She has, after all, at this point gained stature and some fame as a writer. Thus at seventy, she is well within her right to publish a journal and to share her spontaneous intimate thoughts and feelings with those of us prepared to enjoy the company of a wise and happy woman.
Economists and the Environment
What the top economist say about the Environment
Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey 07716 USA, 1995
Economists and the Environment is a crisp compilation of economists' views on the environment. The book is on the main compilation of interviews with leading economists in the world today. Carla Ravaioli, a feminist and former Italian senator interviewed the likes of mainstream economists Samuelson and Friedman and staunch environmental economist Georgescu-Roegen. The transcripts of the interviews were both arnusing and revealing in seeing the unease with which most 'big-shot' economists relate to the environmental issue.
The book's format allows the reader to imagine sitting in the middle of a roundtable discussion with all of these economists whom one have known only through the vast books and articles which they have written. The style of exposition which simulated a dialogue among the economists effectively enjoined the reader to this rich exchange of ideas.
A caveat, however, is that it started out from a certain antagonism against the economists and this somehow got in the way of encouraging a bond between the economists and the environmentalists. In this regard? mainstream economic doctrines have always been attacked by those in alternative fields of studies such as by the environmentalists. When asked to comment about "consumerism", for example, and its subsequent contrary effects on the environment, most of the economists tended to start off from a premise that government interventionist policies aimed at curtailing consumption impinge on economic freedom which in turn induces more economic distortions, when asserting this position, economists sound like the lovers of the obscure and the abstract which they are often accused of.
Nevertheless, Carla Ravaioli cautions in her concluding chapter against out-rightly assuming that economists are completely indifferent to environmental concerns. Much of the impression of "indifference" in the part of economists is perpetuated by their fetish for neo-classical economic models and the silence of grand mainstream theories and economic methodologies to social realities. Even as such, theorizing on environmental economics has flourished over the years, though most hypothesis may be on the "fringe" - the evolution of new methods and theories and the propagation of new economics will take time. Still, the beginnings that have been undertaken are enough to catalyze the dissemination and distillation of new ideas towards environmental enlightenment. The second part of the book, written by Mr. Paul Ekins is a good survey of theories on resource and environmental economics.
The discussions in Economists and Environmentalists cover a wide field of issues. First of all the environmentalists premised their position on the observation that environmental degradation has been increasing exponentially. This is so because, according to them, costs to the environment are not imputed into the prices of goods. The externalities produced by either consumption and production activities are unvaluated in an economy. Thus, if a person invests in a logging firm, the only costs included in its computation is the labor and equipment being used.
But, the continued denudation of forests has wide and far reaching consequences which no single person takes responsibility for. According to some economists, a way to put a handle on this situation is through government intervention regulations and policies. However they also recognize that leaving the logging industry alone to the market would mean the rapid depletion of trees and the subsequent destruction of the ecosystem surrounding it. Hence, the type and extent of government intervention is a point of contention. Some economists who are believers of the free-market argue that intervention should be minimal. In fact, an extreme position would be that, as long as a system of property rights are in place, then the resulting level of environmental degradation is optimal. This level is what the people have chosen. On another level, to be able to prevent pollution in production, government support to training and technological innovations should be funded.
Two important issues raised in the discussions were sustainable development and "consumerism" Sustaining development, according to the environmentalists, would mean accepting that the world is finite and thus, development should consider this constraint. Merely depending on national income as a measure of economic well-being is myopic. The fixation with economic growth without looking into the core of an economy's resource base is a prescription for disaster. While production growth should reach infinity, resources are finite and therein lies the contradiction.
On the other hand, the economists argued that the exploitation of natural resources is imperative for economic growth. One should not prevent the growth of incomes. This same growth-centered development paradigms complements the rising consumerism", an attitude promoted in the present world economic order. In this regard, the views of environmentalists and economists regarding the role of advertisements also differ from each other. To many of the economists, advertisements only influence consumers in as much as they are informed of the possible. To the environmentalists, advertisements imbibes a quality of life and therefore, heightens the sale of products through a conscious creation of demand for these products.
To weave these concerns raised in the Economists and Environmentalists with the basic environmental problems that confront Third World Countries is necessary. As the breadth of proposals which have been forwarded by the world's premiere economists provide compelling insight, the dynamics of the environmental problem in Third World Countries needs to be considered. Tax policies on pollution is widely recommended. When applying this to the Third World Situation, the effect becomes distraught and taxes on pollution may only imply more costs to the poor. On the other hand, for government to properly regulate polluting activities and to invest in technological advance towards less environmental hazards would mean that government should be willing to channel more of its budget for environmental protection. With basically cash strapped governments the environment is left to be exploited. Moreover, the fact is that developed countries relegate polluting activities to developing countries.
The roundtable discussions and interviews conducted by Clara Ravaioli with premier economists and environmentalists has bridged the large gap between mainstream economic theorizing and environmentalism. On this note. Economists on the Environment should be treated as an enlightening introduction towards further reflections.
Bamboo Shoots After the Rain
Contemporary Stories by Women Writers of Taiwan
The Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 311 East 94 Street, New York, N.Y. 10128 1990
"Bamboo Shoots After the Rain" reflects much of the post war cultural-evolution of Taiwan. Edited by Ann C. Carver and Sung-Sheng Yvonne Chang, the title suggests birth, and new life. Its depiction of the travails, aspirations and persuasions of Chinese women from Taiwan is a welcome introduction to their everyday situation and literary life.
The.collection also managed to provide the reader a strong sense of history by covering the works of three generations of women writers--the first generation of the 1950s - 60s. middle generation of the 1960s, and the younger generation of the 1970s,--and in the process, highlighting the value systems in each. Carver's essay, "Can One Read Cross-Culturally? and Chang's critical introduction of the work are by themselves illuminating. Chang provided the background by which these works were produced but also outlined the specificities of each generation. Also useful are the writers' personal introductions via the biographical headnotes in each of the works.
The writings of the older generation who are described as "largely privatistic, non-subversive and uses idyllic lyricism and sentimental structure of feeling" comprise descriptive short stories portraying the status of the Chinese women in Taiwan. "The Candle" by Lin Hai-Yin indicts the feudal Chinese family system through its portrayal of the wasted years of the mistress of a Mandarin family who retreats from life after her husband takes a concubine. P'an Ten-mu's "A Pair of Socks With Love" is about an upper class Chinese family living through the revolutions of China affirms the shared humanity or oppressed and privileged.
The writers of the mid 1960s use wide-ranging themes which reflect their generation's quest for challenging boundaries. "A Woman Like Me by Hsi Hsi, is a story of a woman cosmetician caught-up between her romantic passion and profession. This piece comes out strongly in an unusually skillful piece.
Set in the time of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, "Chairman Mao is a Rotten Egg" by Ch'en Jo-hsi, revolves around a child who's playful remark about the "great Helmsman" gets her and her family into trouble. Oppression remains in revolutionary China, and this is the unequivocal statement of this story published a year after Mao's death.
Stories by the younger generation attempted to raise gender issues and concerns, although the topics-- women-bonding, singlehood, old age, and teen-age suicide-are still limited. In "The Mulberry Sea" by Yuan Ch'iung-ch'iung, two very different women-the willful Yang Ch'iang and the traditional Mrs.Lu-with very different lives are shown to share the same fate: the harsh double standard of society. In "Journey to Mount Bliss" by Chiang Hsiao-yun, the lively Sister Chang encounters the cantakerous Mrs. Fu, and the each struggle to cope with their twilight years. For Mr. Fu, growing old meant losing a male's central role both in and outside the family. It is the independent and lively Sister Chang who pushes Mr. Fu's character to redefine his life based on his new situation. Significantly, the collection ends with this comic and optimistic look at aging, and at life in modern China.
Reversed Realities:
Gender Hierarchies in Development Thought
1994. Kali for Women. New Delhi. 346pp.
The book by Kabeer argues that mainstream development thought, largely informed by neoclassical economics with its emphasis on market forces, is inadequate to address the problem of power relations and gender inequality which are the roots of the marginal status or women in development policy and practice. Most development models informing development policy are couched in abstract and apparently gender-neutral concepts (the economy, the GNP, the market, the formal sector, the informal sector, poverty line and so on). On closer analysis it becomes apparent, according to the author, that these supposedly neutral terms are in fact imbued with male bias, presenting a view of the world which obscures and legitimates ill-founded gender asymmetry. These forms of analysis help to disguise and legitimate the gender asymmetries which are embedded within the central concepts of development.
The book advocates the reversal of several aspects of development thought
First, a reversal in the hierarchy of knowledge that informs development thought. The new development paradigm would start from the vantage point of the most oppressed - women who are disenfranchised by class, race and nationality - so that the complexities of subordination can best be grasped and strategies devised for more equitable development. This viewpoint from below can help to realign development paradigms more closely to the real order of things. This is not to signify that only the dispossessed women of the Third World matter, but rather that without a structural transformation of the lives of the poorest and^most oppressed sections of all societies, there can be neither development nor equity.
A reversal of allocational priorities is also advocated. If the satisfaction of human need rather than the exercise of market rationality is taken as the criterion of production, then clearly a much more holistic view of development becomes necessary. Human well-being would be the measuring stick for development rather than the volume or marketed goods and services alone. Activities which contribute to the health and well-being of people would be recognized as productive, regardless of whether they are carried out within the personalized relations or family production, the commercialised relations of market production or the bureaucratized relations of state production. Markets would take their place as simply one of a variety of institutional mechanisms through which human needs could be met, rather than as the sole arbiter of 'value'. Such an approach would promote both class and gender equity and women, particularly poor women long disenfranchised by growth-dominated development strategies, would be key actors in the development process.
Within this reversed hierarchy of development priorities, a different notion of gender equity from that promoted through early WID advocacy becomes possible. Current development policy defines women's economic agency as equivalent to that of men, ignoring their greater embeddedness in familial and domestic responsibilities. If the care of human life and well-being were to be given the same value in development priorities as the production of material resources, then the provision of welfare services (which decreases efficiency of the market) would be seen as complementary to development goals rather than antithetical to them. It would free women to pursue economic livelihoods if they choose to, or were compelled to by their circumstances, rather than imposing a predetermined set of life choices on them. Planning for gender equity on the basis of social justice, rather than of formal equality requires recognition of the full weight and implications of the gender division of labor in the lives of women and men, and of the different needs, priorities and possibilities that it gives rise to. Gender equity requires that welfare is seen as complementary, rather than in opposition to efficiency.
The earlier stress by WID advocates on equality of opportunity for women was premised on the belief that the problem lay in discriminatory barriers to women's employment and education which would enable them to compete with men. But the author emphasizes that public institutions have not evolved neutrally but in deeply gendered ways. They reward certain kinds of skills and abilities over others and certain kinds of economic agents such as those unencumbered by bodies, families or sexual identities. Consequently, problems of sexual harassment, the need for separate toilets or breastfeeding facilities, provision of paid leave to have children, absenteeism due to illness in the family, only emerge as problems when women join the workplace. Thus, the author concludes that training women in marketable skills and abilities will not put them on an equal footing with men in the public domain as lone as public institutions do not accommodate the different bodies, needs and values that they bring to the workplace. Gender equity thus goes beyond equal opportunity; it requires the transformation of the basic rules and practices of public institutions.
The book is a rich source of fresh ideas and critical viewpoints. It dissects household economics and critiques the assumptions neoclassical economics holds about the household which have informed and shaped a range of different policies that have so often overlooked women's needs and interests. Population policies espoused both at the national and international levels are analyzed for their failure to address women's rights and needs. Moreover, the different viewpoints regarding fertility control among feminists are given space and analyzed.
The book is replete with examples of development projects that have failed because they failed to consider the specific needs of women and the existing relations which define these needs. It is a convincing argument for continuing critical analysis of mainstream development policies and practices which seemingly promote women's interests but in truth impede or derail the progress towards women's full enfranchisement that women's groups have painstakingly achieved.