Rajmohans Wife Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay Jolly Das Associate Professor

Rajmohan’s Wife Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay Jolly Das Associate Professor Department of English Vidyasagar University Midnapore

Instructions • The contents of this presentation are the exclusive property of Vidyasagar University, Midnapore. They must not be used without seeking prior permission of the University authorities. • The contents are not answers to questions. They are lecture notes serving as guidelines for further study. • This presentation is in consonance with the Registrar’s Notification No. VU/R/Noti. /366/2020 dated 19. 03. 2020.

A General Introduction has already been made in detail in the classes in which I could meet the students before classes were suspended owing to the threat posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. [Reference: Notification No. VU/R/Noti. /355/2020 dated 14. 03. 2020]

Acknowledgement • All the pictures / images have been borrowed from various available sources in the internet. • This is to humbly acknowledge my gratitude to all of them for facilitating the preparation of this presentation. • A special thanks to Wikipedia for information on the author and the text. • This presentation depends heavily on the Introduction and the Afterword, by Meenakshi Mukherjee, to the Penguin Classics edition (2009) of Rajmohan’s Wife.

Further Reading: • Rajmohan’s Wife. Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay. Introduction and Afterword. By Meenakshi Mukherjee. New Delhi: Ravi Dayal, 1996. • Introduction. Raja Rao. Kanthapura. • Bankim Chandra: A Study of His Craft. Sunil Kumar Banerji. Calcutta: Firma KLM, 1968. • A History of the Indian Novel in English. Ulka Anjaria. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. [Chapter 6. The Beginnings of the Indian Novel. Meenakshi Mukherjee] • “The Allegory of Rajmohan’s Wife (1864): National Culture and Colonialism in Asia’s First English Novel”. Makarand Paranjape. [makarand. com]

General Introduction Continued from what has already been done in class. . .

Learning Material: On the chronological development of Indian fiction in English. • The History of Indian English Literature. Shodhganga

Introduction to the Author Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay (1838 – 1894)

Learning Material: On the biographical elements which are of significance for an understanding of Rajmohan’s Wife. • Bankim Chandra Chatterjee. Encyclopaedia Britannica. [available online]

Rajmohan’s Wife (1864)

Audio-Text is also Available in separate chapters for making the text available to the students who may not have been able to get a copy of the text owing to the lockdown across the nation

• The first novel to be written in English, which bears all the characteristic features of Indian Writing in English. • Learning Material: Preface to Kanthapura, written by Raja Rao. [This is acknowledged by most scholars as the manifesto of Indian writing in English] • This novel has interesting features, a few of which are: o It was Chattopadhyay’s first attempt at writing fiction. o It was the only novel he wrote in English. o It looked forward to all his subsequent novels—most of the important elements in his later novels have been dealt with in Rajmohan’s Wife. [Learning Material: Introduction. Meenakshi Mukherjee. P. viii]

The Protagonist

• Rajmohan’s Wife is the title of the novel, not ‘Matangini’, although the two are the same person. • But, the novelist, Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay, did have a definite purpose in giving this particular title to his debut novel in English. • Matangini was just another ordinary girl who was extremely beautiful, graceful and brought up in keeping with the social and familial expectations of late nineteenth century Bengal. • Her first presentation anticipates Chattopadhyay’s method in his subsequent Bengali novels. [Learning Material: audio-text –Rajmohan’s Wife LM 2] • Besides, as in the case of most Brahmin families, her father was a poor man with two daughters. This meant that he would have to find suitable groom for them, which was very difficult for a poor man like him.

• Therefore, Matangini’s father was compelled to marry her to Rajmohan who was actually waiting for such an opportunity. [Learning Material: audio-text –Rajmohan’s Wife LM 5, 7 & 11] • From Mukherjee’s Introduction: “Inscribed in the text we also find an early statement about the helplessness and claustrophobia of women in incompatible marriages. ” (viii) • Mukherjee points out that this would be the staple of many future Indian English fiction.

• But Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay made her different. • This marriage changes Matangini who was groomed to be a submissive and docile wife. • But, Rajmohan was an out and out villain. [Learning Material: audio-text –Rajmohan’s Wife LM 5] • Being Rajmohan’s Wife made all the difference. • Being a very intelligent woman, she knows what family and society expect from her. • She knows how to respect others. • She also knows that she should not allow wrong-doing and unjust practices, particularly where the well-being of her sister, Hemangini, and her husband, Madhav (with whom she had a youthful affair before she was married to Rajmohan), are concerned.

• The way in which Rajmohan behaves with her and how she responds. [Learning Material: audio-text –Rajmohan’s Wife LM 4] • Her practical sense and intelligence are revealed in the tensionpacked eavesdropping episode. [Learning Material: audio-text –Rajmohan’s Wife LM 7] • Thus, she does what would be considered outrageous for a woman of her social status in the nineteenth century in Bengal. [Learning Material: audio-text –Rajmohan’s Wife LM 7, 8, 9 & 11]

• Her vital role in averting the dacoity in Madhav’s house, specially the robbing of the important document. • [Learning Material: audio-text –Rajmohan’s Wife LM 9] • Her exceptional courage and commonsense which enable her to escape certain death. • [Learning Material: audio-text –Rajmohan’s Wife LM 12] • She is given shelter by Tara, the elder of Mathur’s two wives. • [Learning Material: audio-text –Rajmohan’s Wife LM 14 & 15] • But her inability to see through Suki’s mother’s cunning and its consequences. She escapes Rajmohan only to fall a prey to the trap laid by Mathur (which is revealed later In the narrative) [Learning Material: audio-text –Rajmohan’s Wife LM 15, 19, 20 & 21]

• Mukherjee: • “Given the rigidness of the power structure within the family among upper-caste Bengalis in the nineteenth century, it seems surprising that the first Indian novel in a contemporary setting should have focused on a woman of uncommon vitality who refused to be completely subjugated either by her brutal husband or by the expectations of society. ” (viii)

• Matangini’s unrequited love for her own sister’s husband is presented with authorial sympathy, . . . ” (Introduction viii-ix) [Learning Material: audio-text –Rajmohan’s Wife LM 9, 10 & 11] • “. . . but the abruptness and the ambivalence of the ending may be the result of an anxiety such women of energy generated, by posing a threat to the social order and creating a moral dilemma for the author. ” (Introduction ix) [Learning Material: audio-text –Rajmohan’s Wife LM 23]

The other women in the novel

• Kanak • Rajmohan’s aunt • Hemangini • Madhav’s maternal aunt • Ambika [A Letter—A Visit to the Zenana] • Srimati [A Letter—A Visit to the Zenana] • Karuna • Suki’s mother • Tara • Champak

For preparing for the forthcoming examination. . .

• For long answers: • Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay’s depiction Matangini’s character • Any two women other then Matangini • Madhav’s character

• For comments: • The role of Karuna • The role of Suki’s mother • The role of Bhiku • Matangini’s escape from her chamber, as the men fought

• For short questions: • Names of the two rivers mentioned in Rajmohan’s Wife. • The pictures which adorned the walls of Mathur’s bedchamber. [RW LM 14] • The name of the pool by which the women met. The names of the women who met there. [RW LM 14] • What happened to Mathur and Madhav in the end.

Creative Writing • You could write a skit on any one episode (of your choice) in Rajmohan’s Wife for performance in the Department’s cultural programme