"That Little Boy": An English Translation of Jyotirmoyee Devi's Bengali Short Story "Shei Chheleta"

FICTION "That Little Boy" An English Translation ofJyotirmoyee Devi's Bengali Short Story "Shei Chheleta" DEBALI MOOKERJEA Introduction The existing historiography on the partition ofBengal in 1947 locates the experience of trauma almost exclusively in the loss of homelands, the resultant migration and refugee dilemmas, and the dispossession of property. Except for a few token references in Bengali fiction, the experience of specifically gendered violence has been largely unaddressed. Jyotirmoyee Devi (1894-1988), a distinguished Bengali feminist writer, addresses in her fiction this representational deficiency in the social and cultural historiography of Partition. Unlike Bengali udbasru (refugee) fiction that focuses on nostalgia and the ensuing economic struggle of refugees, Jyotirmoyee studies the society-wide repression ofmemory of the transactions ofnational borders performed on the bodies ofwomen. The critique ofthe absence ofgendered histories was radical at the time her partition writings were published in the 1960s. But more radical was the embedding ofthe histories ofwomen's bodily experiences ofviolence in the context of the national struggle at a time when the euphoria of Independence had not faded. The republication ofherwritings under the aegis ofthe Jadavpur University School ofWomen's Studies, Calcutta, in 1991, and subsequentEnglish translations from feministpresses like Kali for Women and Stree attest to the pivotal position ofher work to feminist scholarship in India. It also coincides with the rising curiosity regarding South Asian women's writings, and a renewed interest in Partition since the 1980s. [Meridians:feminism, race, transnationalism 2002, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 128-45]©2002 by Wesleyan University Press. All rights reserved. 128 Born in 1894, married and widowed at an early age, Jyotirmoyee's life was largely structured by the cultural demands made on women by Hindu nationalistpatriarchy in Bengal. Heraccess to economic privileges, as the granddaughter ofthe Deiuan (Prime Minister) and to the Prince ofJaipur averted the crises affecting the lives ofpropertyless Hindu widows, and enabled her to pursue a literary career. Nevertheless, she lived within the narrow circumference of rituals and prohibitions that ordered the social existence ofwomen, and especially ofwidows. Embedded within the social context she generated a keen critique ofthe constructed nature ofgender and systemic oppression ofwomen. Her essays "Narir Katha" ("A Woman's Words"), "Narir Jibán o Adhikar" ("Women's Lives and Rights"), "Meyeder Uttaradhikar" ("Women's Rights to Succession"), "Nari Shekale o Ekale" ("Women, Then and Now"), "Aurat o Hatiyar" ("Women and Weapons"), "Parityakta o Bibaha-bichchhed" ("Deserted and Divorced Women"), "Swadhin Bharate Meyeder Adhikar" ("Women's Rights in Independent India"), "Narir Itihash" ("Women's Histories"), "Patita Prasange" ("On the Subject of Prostitutes"), "Asabarna Bibaha" ("Intercaste Marriage"), and others combine insights gleaned from Indian and European philosophical traditions. Jyotirmoyee 's writings—essays, poetry, novels, short stories, and memoirscover a wide terrain of subjects ranging from education and gainful employment for women, Hindu women's rights to property and to divorce in the Hindu Code Bill, the Jaipur aristocracy, the condition of prostitutes and "untouchables," to the Partition of India. She engaged actively with debates in political forums on issues that are still in the process ofbeing resolved in India today. Both in her individual capacity as a writer and the co-President ofthe All India Women's Conference she worked towards restoring women's civil, political, and human rights. I came across this story while researching the partition ofBengal. A rare example of a Bengali woman writing on the event, what drew my attention was Jyotirmoyee's sensitive handling of the predicament of women sexually compromised during the violence precedingand following the Partition ofIndia as well as the general social intolerance victims experienced. The events around Partition—the migrations, mass killings, and abductions—spurred the state to assume responsibility for the restoration of its citizens. The Indian state entered into an Inter-Dominion Agreement with Pakistan in November 1947 and mounted the recovery mission for abducted women and girls in early December 1947. The "THAT LITTLE BOY" I29 compelling question that spurs Jyotirmoyee Devi's Partition-writings, however, is not so much how state intervention affected the lives of women, but rather: And then what happened? Her writings focus on the reception—or non-reception—ofwomen in the communityto which they had returned (or had been returned...