A STUDY ABOUT THE LIFE AND

WORKS OF KAMALA DAS

Project submitted to the THIRUVALLUVAR UNIVERSITY
In the partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of the degree of
BACHELOR OF ARTS IN ENGLISH
By

JAYAKUMAR.M
(Reg. No: 10520U04068)
Under the Supervision of
MRS.K.GURULAKSHMI

POST GRADUATE AND RESEARCH DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

PERIYAR GOVT ARTS COLLEGE
(AFFILIATED TO THIRUVALLUVAR UNIVERSITY)
CUDDALORE-607 001
APRIL 2023

HOD OF DEPARMENT SIGNATURE GUIDES SIGNATURE

 Introduction

Intensely poignant, deeply psychological, madly emotional, truly confessional, passionately

sexual in her literary oeuvre, Everyone wants to express one’s self identity, emotions, feelings,

thoughts, perceptions, artistic sense, profound and trivial ideas through some means including

various art forms such as novel, short story, painting, plays, poetry, autobiography, short stories,

sculpture etc as the modern life of human beings, is becoming more and more complex in every

sense the word, the 20th century, ever in the history of the human civilization, especially after

the two great world wars and after various revolutions which are both industrial and political

in nature, is becoming quirky, zappy and funnier in one sense and more philosophical and

psychological in other ways. Through the various vicissitudes of life, every stage of man is full

of a strange feeling having a touch of esoteric, exotic, a sense of déjà vu.

The existentialist problem is gripping every man and woman and the advancement of

science is making it more intricate. The psychological and social aspects of human life is facing

ever more challenges and bottlenecks. In this context, a woman’s position is not an unenviable

one given the oppressive forces working against them. Their marginalized position at home and

social ladder make them more vulnerable to all sorts assaults in every direction. And the

suppressed and shackled mind wants to release from the prison of oppression. Across the world,

many women began to break the shackles and began to express their suppressed feelings and

emotions and wanted to express their identity. In India too, there were many women who

attempted to boldly express their identity and one among them is Kamala Das. What did Kamala

Das make to come out brazenly and break the social taboo? What were the obstacles and

difficulties she faced? How was the writer ostracized in the Nair society which is matriarchal

basically? And how was she received in the feudal-like society with her new writings which
some termed sexual, obscene, and sometimes pornographically explicitly and graphically

portrayed in her works of poetry, autobiographical novels and short works of art? Some of these

issues have already been dealt with but a relook has become essential and a revaluation has

become critical as new books have been published about her after her death. And as any

canonized literary work needs to be re-evaluated in a new context to ferret out the inner and

hidden meanings as the author intended. Now and then articles and news items appear in news

papers about the creativity of the author. As a scholar, I became interested in Kamala Das and

her works of art which span many decades.

Now, even after 10 years, exactly after a decade, her life story is currently being paid

homage to in two rival biopics that will showcase different aspects of her life – one by Tamil

filmmaker Leena Manimekalai and the other by Malayalam director Kamal which will star

Manju Warrier as Kamala Das. This is really a great way of paying to the homage to one of the

greatest Indian woman author. After reading “The Love Queen of Malabar – Memoir of a

Friendship with Kamala Das” written by Merrily Weisbord, a Canadian writer who befriended

Kamala Das and had a friendship for more than a decade, it could be understood that the ideas

and perceptions Kamala Das had on her life and her literary works have changed to a level

which could be said that mellowness has set in her later life. She is talking to Ms. Weisborad in

freewheeling mode for nearly 10 years after they started a friendship. Published in 2011 in

India, the book reveals the changes from inside out and how she perceives after the publication

of “My Story- An Autobiography” which shook the Indian literary world with groundbreaking

openness. Her frank and no-hold-bar confession in the autobiography stunned the readers for

its openness. Merrily Weisbord shrewdly enters into the heart and mind of Kamala Das, broker

a deal for a long term friendship and share their experiences in which Kamala Das relooks at

her life, love and her literary oeuvre. This seminal work has thrown in more lights on Kamala
Das who impulsively and innocently wrote many things in her autobiography and poetry and

other works. After reading the book , my interest in her increased and the dormant feeling i had

for many years came out and i decided to explore her works of art again in tandem with new

findings about her and her complex and controversial life.

A brief sketch about Indian Writing in English

In this context, it must be admitted that she was one of the writers whose artistic output such

as poetry and novels helped to put Indian writing in English in the world arena.

The seed of Indian Writing in English was sown during the period of the British rule in India.

Now the seed has blossomed into an ever green tree, fragrant flowers and ripe fruits. The fruits

are being tasted not only by the native people, but they are also being 'chewed and digested' by

the foreigners. It happened only after the constant caring, pruning and feeding. Gardeners' like

Tagore, Sri Aurobindo, R.K.Narayan, Raja Rao - to name only a few, looked after the tender

plant night and day. In modern time, it is guarded by a number of writers who are getting awards

and accolades all over the world.

Indian Writing in English, from being a singular and exceptional, rather gradual native

flare - up of geniuses, it has turned out to be a new form of Indian culture and voice in which

India converses regularly. Indian Writers - poets, novelists, essayists, and dramatists have been

making momentous and considerable contributions to world literature since pre - Independence

era, the past few years have witnessed a gigantic prospering and thriving of Indian English

Writing in the global. It has already put an imprint as an independent status

in the realm of world Literature. Wide ranges of themes are dealt with in Indian Writing in

English. While this literature continues to reflect Indian culture, tradition, social values and

even Indian history through the depiction of life in India and Indians living elsewhere, recent

Indian English fiction has been trying to give expression to the Indian experience of the modern
predicaments. There are critics and commentators in England and America who appreciate

Indian English novels. Prof. M. K. Naik remarks "one of the most notable gifts of English

education to India is prose fiction for though India was probably a fountain head of story-

telling, the novel as we know today was an importation from the west".

Tagore and Indian Writing in English

In the long line literary luminaries in Indian Writing in English, Rabindranath Tagore is

a celebrated name in the sphere of English literature. He was born in 1861 and died in the year

1941 spanning long years of creativity. His creative genius is so much accounting and his

literary output is so much rich and varied that the phrase 'myriad - minded', which

Mathew Arnold had used for Shakespeare, can aptly be used for him also. He won Nobel Prize

for literature in 1913, for his immortal poetic work Gitanjali (1913). Besides being a great

universal poet, the genius Tagore is also a novelist, dramatist, Short - Story writer, musician,

philosopher, painter, educationalist, reformer and critic in every field and had earned a niche

for himself. The setting of his novel is representative and reflective, their characters are natural,

realistic, full - blooded and life - like. The socio - religious culture of Bengal is brilliantly

portrayed in his novels. Through his novels he brings out some of the problems of the woman

of his age. Different kinds of human relations are portrayed and analyzed through the different

social settings. Some of his novels deal with the modern problems of our society and the interest

in them centers round the psychological development of characters under the compelling stress

of circumstances. To his credit, there is a long list of poems and plays, both in Bengali and

English which had made his place among the world's greatest writers.

Indian Women writers and IWE

In the twentieth century, women's writing was considered as a powerful medium of

modernism and feminist statements. The last two decades have witnessed phenomenal success
in feminist writings of Indian English literature. Today is the generation of those women writers

who have money and are mostly western education. Their novels consist of the latest burning

issues related with women as well as those issues that exist in the society since long. The

publishers feel that the literature actually survives because of these types of bold topics and

commercials used by the women novelists. They describe the whole world of women with

simply stunning frankness. Their write - ups give a glimpse of the unexplored female psyche,

which has no accessibility. The majority of these novels depict the psychological suffering of

the frustrated housewife.

A Relook at the Contribution of Kamala Das

Critiquing about Kamala Das’ poetry is most moving and tortured. There is a sexual

‘brazenness to her persona’, which barely hides her inmost ferment. Credited as the most

outspoken - and even controversial writer, Kamala Das now earned fame as the ‘voice of

women’s sexuality’. Apart from writing in English, Das also wrote under the pen name

Madhavikutty in Malayalam before her conversion to Islam ten years ago . She had not only

established herself as an English writer. Her popularity in Kerala was credited mostly to her

short stories and the autobiographical My Story, which was translated into 15 languages, a book

where she openly discussed her unsatisfactory sexual life with her husband Madhava Das.

While her autobiography My Story gives several descriptions of her own marriage as

unsatisfying and unfulfilling, her poems presented an image of a marriage with lifeless, empty

and dull. Born into a literary family, Kamala Das’ mother, Balamani Amma and Uncle Nalapat

Narayana Menon, were both leading poets. Das began writing only after her early marriage –

only to cope up with – the emotional strain she was undergoing. She was born on March 31,

1934 in Malabar, Kerala.

Das once herself said in an interview to the Warrior, "I always wanted love, and if you don't

get it within your home, you stray a little". Though some might label Das as "a feminist" for

her candour in dealing with women's needs and desires, Das, according to many others has

never tried to identify herself with any particular version of feminist activism. Poet Eunice de

Souza claims that Das has "mapped out the terrain for post-colonial women in social and

linguistic terms". Kamala Suraiyya Das had ventured into areas unclaimed by society and

provided a point of reference for her colleagues. She had transcended the role of a poet and

simply embraced the role of a very honest woman. Kamala Das has published many novels and

short stories in English, as well as in Malayalam. Some of her work in English includes the

novel Alphabet of Lust (1977), a collection of short stories called Padmavati,

The Harlot and Other Stories (1992), in addition to five books of poetry: Summer in Calcutta

(1965), The Descendants(1967), The Old Playhouse and Other Poems (1973), The Anamalai

Poems (1985), and Only the Soul Knows How to Sing (1996) - a collection of poetry with

Pritish Nandy (1990) and her autobiography, My Story (1976). Some of her novels in

Malayalam language Palayan (1990), Neypayasam (1991), and

Dayarikkurippukal (1992). Kamala Das lived alone in her world with feelings of loneliness

and yet she maintained her tradition, the security of her home. She always felt that poetry meant

studying life and its objectivity in a very realistic way. Kamala Das died at the age of 75.

One of the important components of research action is preparing, collecting and storing the

review of related literature about the topic the scholar has chosen for pursing research in that

particular area in order to find out what other scholars have done on the particular topics and

how they had already dealt with it. This component of research would be a guiding force to the

scholar as their ideas would be a sort of guiding force as pointed earlier. Therefore, the scholar

is supposed to give much importance and prepare the ground before jumping into the other
components. In order to prepare and study and review the related literature, the scholar has go

far and wide and attempt to collect as much literatures as possible leaving no stone unturned

otherwise the attempts by the scholar would a repetition of the research work. Therefore, this

has taken particular interests and paid serious attention to the collection of primary and

secondary data about the related literature. One must the question what is the definition of a

review of related literature. It means a relentless search and evaluation of the available literature

in the given subject or chosen topic area. It documents the state of the art with respect to the

subject or topic you are writing about.

My Story: An Autobiography
This is what Sheryl Sebastian paints about Kamala Das autobiographical story in “My

Story: An Autobiography” which was published in 1973, her autobiography ‘Ente Kadha’ (My

Story) was released in Malayalam. It consisted of a compilation of her weekly columns in

Malayalanadu that had already become a sensation across the state. Fifteen years later, it was

translated into English with more text added, many parts rewritten and published with the title

‘My Story’. Among the major critics on Kamala Das, K.Sachithananthan, is a very important

one with his bold views on her literary works. In the beginning of her career itself, it was he

who paid much attention to critique her works.

This is how she continues to explore about Kamala Das’ autobiography. The book is

about her personal and professional experiences as a woman in a patriarchal society and her

quest for love in its truest form. Her writing consisted of vivid descriptions of menstruation,

puberty, love, lust, lesbian encounters, child marriage, infidelity and physical intimacy. She

introduced her readers to the concept of female sexuality, a notion that was nonexistent until

then. She talked of her ‘brush with love’ with an eighteen year old girl, right before Das was

about to be married off. She talked of having to look for love ‘outside its legal orbit’ because
she was unhappy in her loveless marriage. She talked with an audacity never seen before as she

wrote unapologetically about everything the conservative Kerala society had managed to box

in for very long. It managed to evoke such a widespread reaction which was equal parts shock

and equal parts adoration that it has become a cult classic in the genre of Indian autobiographies

ever since. On being asked why her book shocked the Malayali audience, she felt that it never

actually did, that they were pretending to be shocked to prove their ‘innocence’. She believed

she was merely being vocal about things that had been happening for years.

Critical Views on Other Works

In her critical review of Kamala Das, Ms. Sebastian opines that Das went on to produce

what is considered some of the best work in modern Indian literature. Some of her notable

works in English are the novel Alphabet of Lust (1977), the collection of short stories

Padmavati the Harlot and other stories (1992) and a compilation of her poetry Summer in

Calcutta (1973). In Malayalam, they include Balyakalasmaranakal (The Memories of

Childhood), Chandanamarangal (Sandalwood Trees) and many more. Her literary work earned

her a lot of recognition and won her numerous accolades. She won the P.E.N.’s Asian Poetry

Prize in 1963, the Kerala Sahitya Academy Award in 1969 for the short story Thanuppu (Cold)

and the National Sahitya Academy Award in 1985. She was also shortlisted for the Nobel Prize

for Literature in 1984. So wide was her reach that much of her work has been translated into

numerous foreign languages including French and German.

Assessment of Devindra kholi on Kamala Das

Devindra kholi , one of the early critics who assessed the literary of oeuvre of Kamala

Das at the beginning of her writing career, has come out with excellent and incisive critical

analysis all these years. His critical assessment about Kamala Das’ works is being considered
the touchstone for measuring the literary values. In 2011, in a freewheeling recollections, in the

Hindu, Kohli summed up succinctly about Kamala Das and her works

as :

In 1968, 10 years before I first met her, in response to my rather harsh criticism of some

of the poems in The Descendants in comparison with what I considered the more

accomplished Summer in Calcutta, Kamala wrote to me attributing the fallingoff of her

poetry, paradoxically, to a “curled like an old mongrel” contentment in love.

Significantly, this posited a connection between discontentment and poetry. Is poetry,

and love poetry in particular, nourished by dissatisfaction, a sense of unattained or

unattainable love and happiness? The question, “Does the imagination dwell the most/

Upon a woman won or woman lost?” haunted W. B. Yeats throughout his poetic career;

and Maud Gonne, his unrequited Muse, applauded him for making “beautiful poetry

out of what you call your unhappiness and you are happy in that”.

Merrily Weisbord’s “The Queen of Malabar – A Memoir”

One of the most important books on Kamala Das was published by Merrily Weisbord

in 2010 in Canada and in 2011 in India after the author’s death. The book came to be necessitated

after Merrily Weisbord brokered a friendship deal with Das to share their experiences each other

and have good literary career. Therefore, Merrily Weisbord came to Kerala and live with the

author and Das went to Canada to live with Merrily Weisbord. It was a wonderful friendship

while both of them were widows, writers and had lots of time to share their experiences as

feminists too. The Love Queen of Malabar: Memoir of a Friendship with Kamala Das

presumably the last of the critical analysis in full book length. Earlier there have been critical

essays being done on Kamala Das. There have been re-interpretations, relooks, reinventions and
a kind of rewriting on her literary oeuvre. This particular book The Love Queen of Malabar:

Memoir of a Friendship with Kamala Das raised literary storm by bringing in new ideas and

perceptions which Das shared with Merrily Weisbord especially at the fag end of her life. Das’

conversion to Islam and her subsequent marriage were surprises to Merrily Weisbord as she was

in dark even though both of them had close relationships for more than 10 years viz., 1995 -

2005. Weisbord’s account and assessment of Kamala Das’ life and literary works throw new

lights which are attention seeking and demand a new look at her ideas and perceptions. At one

point, Das informs Weisbord that she was happy with her married life, for she enjoyed the safety

and security and love and care given by her husband even though she accused of marital rape

during her first night after marriage at a tender age 16. When asked if she changed her view, she

informs her that she had per se safety and security and love from her husband (The Love Queen

of Malabar: Memoir of a Friendship with Kamala Das).

Significance of the Study

T.S. Eliot wrote that he wrote poetry which is complex and abstract because modern life is

complex and abstract. Kamala Das, even though her style is minimalist, took upon herself and

began to redefine about the human relationship between husband and wife, between friends,

between man vs. Woman in general. The significance of this research work is that Kamala Das

chose many media to express herself through poetry, prose, stories and even autobiography

which she was compelled to write on her deathbed. With various aliases, Kamala Das has

chosen to primarily write poetry to express her feelings, emotions, ideas, thoughts and passions.

She took this mode to express herself identity and thereby free herself from the shackles of

social oppressions and suppressions. In each and every poem or work of art, Kamala Das

attempts to articulate the inner meaning of relationship on various plane i.e., between man and

woman husband and wife, father and mother, father and sons, mother and sons and vice versa.
Between friends and between man and animals and plants, man vs nature - all kinds of

relationship is investigated at various layers. Both on the surface and subtext level, the authors

attempt to uncover the inner feelings and hidden human thoughts. The psyche of woman with

various personas is being expressed in her poetry and other works of art. The significance of

this study is that the interpretations being already advanced need to be relooked and

reinterpretated taking into account the new studies coming out recently. As the studies have

close relationship with the writer, there is much significance in this study to the effect that new

ideas about Kamala Das and Her literary works would come out.

Need for the Study

It is true that the works of Kamala Das been researched in a substantial level. To prove the fact

that she is a still great writer to reckon with, her has been in news and in the academic circle all

these years even after her death. However, there has been a new set of articles, research studies

and full length books and biopic Kamala Das which have helped to stoke the embers of literary

values of Kamala Das. Every literature which has undergone various investigations and

measured on various benchmarks, the works of Kamala Das need to be re-evaluated critically

in the light of new publications and old critical analysis.

Everything has a second opinion. Therefore, the scholar felt that the literary oeuvre of Kamala

Das , especially after her death, need to have a relook and her literary works must be made to

be put on the literary anatomical table and dissected to have new ideas and interpretations

about her poetry and autobiography. Of course, Das has been condemned, praised, ridiculed,

reviled, denounced and criticized unfairly and unfairly. Without her, there is no Indian Writing

in English which has come a long way after the British left India leaving a great legacy which

is the English language. In the anthology entitled “ Twelve

Modern Indian Poets” edited by Aravind Krishna Mehrotra and published by Oxford

University Press in 1993, she was touted as an indispensable poet in the arena of Indian literary

scene.

Statement of the Problem

One of the main objectives of this dissertation is to look into the odyssey of Kamala Das to

find out herself and self identity. She pours out from her heart her passions, emotions, feelings,

intense thoughts and ideas the raison d’ etre of human life. There is a sort of existential problem

in her inner self and she seeks answers for all. Through her literary works, she seeks to show

who she is, what the constitution of her mind and body and her purpose of life in this planet.

That is why she goes on in many plume de noms including Madhavikutty, Kamala Das, and

Kamala Surayya. And one must remember that she was earlier eulogizing Lord Krishna in her

poems and later she converted to Islam dumping Hinduism. How such a metamorphosis was

possible is big question for any serious reader of Kamala Das. What went on her mind and what

inner thoughts drove her to drastically change her ? As is bound by a sort of witchcraft , how

Kamala Das metamorphosed from one persona into another persona ?

These issues are really interesting for any reader of Das.

Research Methodology

The original text books of Kamala Das were are to be taken up for a close reading to reassess

critically textually and contextually. How she has transformed herself would be assessed to

have relook and rereading of her literary works. All the major secondary sources would be

taken up for discussion including printed books, journals, magazines, dictionaries,

encyclopedia, yearbook, online sources, audio and video sources available in the web and

dissertations done on her works.

Hypotheses

There are five hypotheses of this research dissertation as following:

1. That Kamala Das needs to be relooked in the context of new articles and books

published recently especially after her death.

2. Kamala Das is an author who has been negatively riled for wrong reasons and that

should be set right.

3. That Kamala Das was a victim and the victimhood made her to go through various

persona and that was expressed in her literary works.

4. All through the poems of Kamala Das, she endeavored to express herself identity

and seek a sort of fulfillment through her works of art especially her poetry.

5. There is an urgent need to put her in proper perspective by investigating her works

of art textually and contextually.

1.15 Social Significance of this Research Study

In this age of digital era, women’s rights group are voicing their concern over the safety

of women and girl children. That many accuse and confess that harassment of women and

children start at home is true in many cases. Women , in spite of their progress economically

and socially, still feel they are being oppressed and suppressed and are not given equal

opportunity like the male children. There are lots of partialities even at home. Even in highly

educated families, women complain of harassment. Now many women are attempting to come

out of their chained self and seek freedom of thought and equal opportunity. The study of

Kamala Das who was a pioneer as feminist and fighter for women rights through words and

deeds would help the womenfolk to have relook at their own lives and the awareness would

help them to adjust according to the context. The beginning of the

21st century is not supportive to women as violence against women and girl children are

increasing incessantly. Therefore, the research scholar is confident that the outcome of the study

of Kamala Das about how she struggled against male dominated society and how she could

singlehandedly won the battle would be a great strength to the womenfolk.

Frame Work of the Thesis

In Chapter One the scholar has earmarked for a comprehensive survey of Indian

Writing in English and the role of Kamala Das and her contribution to it. The chapter also

discusses how every human being wants to express emotions, feelings, thoughts, perceptions,

artistic sense, profound and trivial ideas in some ways. There are a slew of ways to express their

identity such as art, photography, dramatic arts, poetry, prose, stories etc., as the modern life

of human beings, is becoming more and more complex in every sense the word, the 20th

century, ever in the history of the human civilization, especially after the two great world wars

and after various revolutions which are both industrial and political in nature, is becoming

quirky, zappy and funnier in one sense and more philosophical and psychological in other ways.

Through the various vicissitudes of life, every stage of man is full of a strange feeling having a

touch of esoteric, exotic, a sense of déjà vu. In the Chapter Two, the review of related literature

is discussed in detail. Furthermore, the significance of the study, the need for the study, the

hypotheses of the dissertation, the social significance, the objectives of the study are being

given. In the Chapter Three, the works of Kamala Das have been taken up for detailed

discussion and the scholar has attempted to have second look at the critical knowledge about

the literary oeuvre of Kamala Das. In the Chapter Four the scholar has evaluated in the context

of new ideas generated after and before the death of Kamala Das. After the publication of My

Story- An Autobiography, lots of new ideas and perspectives regarding her life and literary

oeuvre have come out. The literary works have been taken up and investigated textually. How
she herself has self-contradicted in her persona and literary works and her perspectives on

various issues including religion and culture have been put forth to the readers. All her major

literary work has been taken up for investigation individually and discussed critically.

Das’ Literary Works

Kamala Das, to her credits, had touched almost all genre viz., poetry, prose, short stories,

novels, autobiography and was bilingual - Malayalam and English. The following literary

works to be taken up for discussion and for reinvestigation are given here in under. The genre

has been taken for revaluation in the order of autobiography, poetry, novel, short stories and

travel writings.

My Story – An Autobiography – A Psychological Critical Relook

Before Kamala Das, some other Indian women writers have been lauded for their

psychological approach to their characters in their novels and works of art. Among them, Toru

Dutt stands first with her two literary outputs. Even though young, she was able to create two

important novels which were published posthumously. One was written in English language

and another one was written in French language. In both the novels, Dutt had attempted to

explore the inner recesses of feminine characteristics. Her psychological description even in

those olden days was critically acclaimed but unfortunately, she died very young. Even her own

father came to know of her literary value only after her death. Therefore, in the history of

modern India, Toru Dutt could be counted as the first woman writer to explore female

characters’ psychological working of the minds. Meena T. Pillai, renowned writer and critic,

“Kamala Das : On translating My Story “ postulates that an autobiography is considered a genre

of literature where the umbilical cord between the story and the reality, the writer and the text,

the signifier and the signified is yet intact. Kamala Das is one of the few writers in India who

could snip this cord with élan, explicating in the process that all writings are constructed and
all realities staged in language. Further, she notes that James Olney speaks of how it is

impossible for an autobiographer to write the image double of her life instead having to create

herself afresh at every moment within the text. This might be the reason why Das chose not to

go for a literal translation of Ente Katha into English but a creative retelling aiming towards

textual equivalence. This is what she has to say in an interview “.

In “My Story By Kamala Das- An Intense Autobiographical Account,” Anushri Mondal

asserts that the entire account written in the format of a novel is captivating with all the intimate

details of her childhood followed by her youth and middle age. Born with skin not so fair–a

dusky complexion to be precise, Kamala portrays herself as an inquisitive child who faced the

triggers of race especially when India was gripped by the British imperialists.

Brought up in convent schools Kamala faced discrimination at an early age when the word

“racism” probably did not enter her vocabulary. Struggling through her life amidst the

parochial, patriarchal society, Kamala had to submit when she had to marry an almost brutal

man against her wish, that too, at the tender age of sixteen. Almost molested and raped by this

insensitive man in the name of a husband, Kamala makes an attempt to find happiness in the

world of her own–the world inhabited by the muses of literature enabling her in poetic and

prosaic compositions. It will be wrong to say that she found bliss only in the world of creation.

This is because, frustrated and exasperated by husband’s treatment and doomed in an unhappy

marital bond, Kamala determines herself not to be tied up by the established norms of a

‘pativrata naari’ (a women devoted solely to one’s husband) and makes every attempt to

respond to the charms bestowed upon her by other men. In this manner, she is shown to have a

string of short and long term relationships, perhaps in on her way of being the rebel in a society

of the late 20th century when traditionalism was the established norm and rebellion, that too

among women, was considered a taboo. The scenario has remained almost the same in the
present day to a large extent. Such acts reflect the spirit of boldness and a complete disrespect

for the societal norms.

The novel comprising of 50 chapters, consist of self composed poems expressing the

core of meaningfulness or meaninglessness pervading her life at large. The poems occurs in the

last 13 chapters (from chapter 27 onwards) when her life becomes preoccupied with greater

responsibilities and when she starts fearing the presence of the Spiritual power controlling all

our lives, the power whom we are unable to fight with our meager human prowess. Other than

the relationship with her husband at home with whom she starts inhabiting from an early age,

her relationship with her great grandmother is given prominence. For her, the figure of the great

grandmother is portrayed as a silent listener who listened to her disturbed soul without any

interruptions as she was unable to move under the burden of perpetual paralysis that confined

her to the bed. But such a lack of response didn’t prevent her to develop an intimate relationship.

This was precisely the reason that helped in nurturing the relationship in a way she wanted. The

old lady due to her paralyzed state was the only one whom she could trust and open her heart

out without the fear of being punished for her actions.

Sylvia Plath and Confessional Mode

In this context, the research would like to throw some lights on the definition of

confessional poetry as it directly deals with psychological aspect of a character or content. This

is a style of poetry that emerged in the United States during the 1950s. It has been described as

poetry of the personal or "I", focusing on extreme moments of individual experience, the

psyche, and personal trauma, including previously and occasionally still taboo matters such as

mental illness, sexuality, and suicide, often set in relation to broader social themes. It is

sometimes also classified as Postmodernism. It also may be noted here that ‘the school of

"Confessional poetry" was associated with several poets who redefined American poetry in the
1950s and 1960s, including Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, John Berryman, Anne Sexton,

Allen Ginsberg, and W. D. Snodgrass.’ Among other key texts of the

American "confessional" school of poetry include Plath's Ariel, Berryman's The Dream Songs,

and Sexton's To Bedlam and Part Way Back, though Berryman himself rejected the label "with

rage and contempt". In this genre, another significant, if transitional figure was Adrienne Rich;

while one of the most prominent, consciously "confessional" poets to emerge in the 1980s was

Sharon Olds whose focus on taboo sexual subject matter built off of the work of Ginsberg.

However, among the confessional writers, Sylvia Plath was one of the prominent women

writers in the confessional mode.

Sylvia Plath is commonly seen as a confessional poet, although some critics dispute her

placement within this movement, arguing that her work is more universal than commonly

assumed. Nevertheless, Ariel, published posthumously in 1965, deals with the very personal

issues of suicide, sex, her children, and, most dramatically, her complicated relationship with

her deceased father. Poems like "Daddy," "Ariel," and "Lady Lazarus" are stunning in their

originality, wit, and brutality.

Anne Sexton and Confessional mode

According to Grade saver, Anne Sexton wrote poetry that dealt with her personal life,

including her experiences with psychotherapy, sex, depression, and rage. One of her most

significant works, To Bedlam and Part Way Back (1960), dealt with such excruciating topics

as molestation by a father. The confessional poets have garnered a lot of critical interest, but

there is a tendency to conflate their art and lives too fully - the usage of a personal pronoun in

their work is not an unequivocal invitation to assume that the subject of the poem is always the

poet.
 Earlier from the Hindu outfits, she faced death threats. And more intrigue in the life of

Kamala Das is that she, at the verge of her death, she almost disowned Islam. And she confessed

to Merrily Weisbord that it is not she wants to disown Islam but the religion as a system. But

happily, she met death and willed that she should be buried in a graveyard near a mosque. That

was how Kamala Das change from persona to persona and went through a troubled life. If one

reads Merrily Weisbord’s “The Queen of Malabar- A Memoir of Friendship”, her life and story

entirely different from what one reads her “My Story”. In the former, she repudiates many things

which she has confessed in My Story which includes her rubbishing her husband and his

loveless attitude towards her. Later she confided to Merrily that she was grateful to Mr. Das for

having provided a safe and secured live with, of course, love.

One of the mysterious and inexplicable things in her life her conversion to Islam. Born

in a conservative Hindu Nair (Nallappattu) family having royal ancestry, After being asked by

her lover Sadiq Ali, an Islamic scholar and a Muslim League MP, she embraced Islam in 1999

at the age of 65 and assumed the name Kamala Surayya. After converting, she wrote:

Life has changed for me since Nov. 14 when a young man named Sadiq Ali walked in to

meet me. He is 38 and has a beautiful smile. Afterwards he began to woo me on the

phone from Abu Dhabi and Dubai, reciting Urdu couplets and telling me of what he

would do to me after our marriage. I took my nurse Mini and went to his place in my

car. I stayed with him for three days. There was a sunlit river, some trees, and a lot of

laughter. He asked me to become a Muslim which I did on my return home.( TOI, 2001)

Das’ conversion was rather controversial, among social and literary circles, with The

Hindu calling it part of her "histrionics". She said she liked being behind the protective veil of

the purdah. Later, she felt it was not worth it to change one's religion and said "I fell in love

with a Muslim after my husband's death. He was kind and generous in the beginning. But I now

feel one shouldn't change one's religion. It is not worth it.".

 Her desire to revert to Hinduism was discouraged by her eldest son, who feared that

Muslim radicals would murder her and the entire family. Though never politically active before,

she launched a national political party, Lok Seva Party, aiming asylum to orphaned mothers and

promotion of secularism. In 1984 she unsuccessfully contested in the Indian Parliament

elections. She had a sexual relationship with Sadiq Ali, an Islamic scholar who was much

younger in age. She herself describes her visit to Sadiq Ali's home as follows:

“I was almost asleep when Sadiq Ali climbed in beside me, holding me, breathing softly,

whispering endearments, kissing my face, breasts ... and when he entered me, it was the

first time I had ever experienced what it was like to feel a man from the inside."

Kamala Das’ Poetry – A Critical Relook

She once claimed that "poetry does not sell in this country," but her forthright columns,

which sounded off on everything from women's issues and child care to politics, were popular.

Das' first book of poetry, Summer In Calcutta was a breath of fresh air in Indian English

poetry. She wrote chiefly of love, its betrayal, and the consequent anguish. Ms. Das abandoned

the certainties offered by an archaic, and somewhat sterile, aestheticism for an independence

of mind and body at a time when Indian poets were still governed by "19th-century diction,

sentiment and romanticized love." Her second book of poetry, The

Descendants was even more explicit, urging women to:

Gift him what makes you woman, the scent of

Long hair, the musk of sweat between the breasts,

The warm shock of menstrual blood, and all your

Endless female hungers ..." –

(The Looking Glass)

 Kamala Das expresses the identity and distinction both as a woman and writer. Her other

works are good but her autobiography is certainly better. It is written in the form a novel, well

designed, informative, and delightful. It can be read as a confession. She has never tried to hide

anything from her readers. In other way, this is a revolutionary book. It is a story of a shameful

society where males do not properly respect women. Women writers focus on the conflicts in

man-woman relationship and the female psyche conditioning it to survive the oppressive forces.

The post-independence Indian woman is aware of her rights, virtues, and duties and of

convention. She has complete knowledge of her heritage and is proud to be part of the great

tradition. Social obligations and moral responsibilities have conditioned her .she is also aware

of her fears, weaknesses and limitations; the length of the road she can tread upon, the dangers

she has to overcome. An Apology to Cantama deals with the adultery of the woman persona.

While her husband holds her woman form, her lover holds her very soul. The Testing of the

Sirens also deals with adultery. The husband persona says to his wife :

I’m happy just being with you. But….

You love another.

Das’ Lord Krishna's Vision vs Prophet Mohammed’s Luminance

In her poem "Love", we find the same note of religious dilemma. It ironically depicts

the mood of confession and revulsion that takes possession of the poet. Once again, she

compares the mouth of the lover to the sun which brings both the heat and the loss of love and

due to failure in achieving fulfillment of love, she longs for God's love i.e., Krishna's love: Of

what does the burning mouth Of sun, burning in today's sky Remind me oh yes his mouth and...

His limbs like pale and carnivorous Plants reaching out for me The sad lie of my unending lust.

Although Das regards the rituals and observances of Hinduism and it shows that she is a

believer of Nirguna-Brahman, the Distinctionless Reality (attributeless). God is the one unified
force the primal flood, the moving fount of Being in Hindu mythopoeia, the Brahman of the

Advait philosophy:- "The undying reality/Which doesn't dissolve though?/All beings dissolve".

(150) It is obvious that Das does not look for God head in the figure of Lord Krishna, she rather

seeks for an ideal lover in the figure of Krishna. In fact, her search for an ideal lover is rooted

in her deep sense of alienation. She languished in the folds of a matrilineal society that was

quickly shifting its centre of gravity towards a male hegemonic society.

Conclusion

“Allah told me that in order to be effective, you should have political power” , this is

what Kamala Das told when she was asked why she converted to Islam. Kamala Suraiya in her

pre-Islamic days) continues to shock the straight-laced Malayalees. One of India's bestknown

English poets and short story writers, Kamala Suraiya, who abandoned Hinduism to convert to

Islam last December, launched a national political party last week. Christened as the Lok Seva

Party, the new political party, she says, emerged from her conviction that social change could

be possible in India only through political power. But Suraiya, 68, and with near-blind eyes

puts forward another reason that compelled her to embrace the political vocation -- Allah.

"Allah inspired me to launch this party," she says. Before embarking on the political mission,

Suraiya says she carried out three months of meditation and prayer before Allah. In an exclusive

interview with Senior Associate Editor George Iype, Suraiya, clad in a black purdah and her

hands adorned with colourful bangles, spells out how her conversion to Islam forced her to take

the plunge into political life. When he asked her “What compelled you to launch a political

party?”, Kamala Das replied that the degeneration of the present set of political parties is the

main reason why I decided to start my own party. We have to give truth some importance in

political life. I have given truth a special status in my life. So it pains me when our political
parties continue in the most degenerated forms. But what is gladdening is that a number of

youngsters came to me with a request to start a political party. These youngsters, most of them

college boys and girls, are tired of the falsehood and avarice which politicians display in great

abundance these days. I thought it might be a good reason to start a political party. Importantly,

she was asked “So you never felt this strength and faith as a Hindu?”, to which she replied that

for me, all gods are the same, whether you are a

Hindu, a Muslim, a Christian or anyone. I believe in the concept of god. For me, god is the

guardian. When she was confronted with another intimidating question “Do you think that

these changes taking place in your life are out of your conviction?”, Das candidly replied that

“My conviction is growing. Islam has grown on me. In the beginning I was not at all religious.

Now I am really religious because of Islam.” When he asked her “Are you happy with your

new religious status? Are you happy with your new life as a Muslim?”, Das gave antithetical

reply : If happiness is the negation of unhappiness, I am happy as a Muslim. To the question

“You had said you were depressed and disappointed as a Hindu all these years. What were the

reasons behind this disappointment?”, she replied that :

Kamala Das’s literary writings reproduce external reality in its mental aspect. She

employs the presentation of this mental aspect the literary products of kamala das’s are mainly

objective on character .but there is a controlled infusion of subject vision in her representation

of life that she witnesses around her own self in her period of life. Thus literature of kamala

Das’s is helpful in guiding reader to discover their inner strength through self-definition and

self-discover. Thus the literature of kamala Das’s awakens in the hearts of all perceptive reader

a stronger sense of justice and a more Christian like humanity.Iin all these respect it has proved

itself to be educative instructive and trendsetting. Addressing the controversies surrounding her

she once said in an interview with Shobha Warrier:

 “[It is] probably because I have some courage to be what I am, and I don’t see my faults

as faults – I see them as characteristics; strengths too. Why not, if you realise that you

are only a human being?”.

Other than the some limitations faced the research scholar, the whole of journey of

investigating and exploring the Das’ work is challenging and rewarding. The new writings have

put Das in higher pedestal than earlier. There are more fresh avenues to do more research and

reassess her literary works in terms of new approaches and principles such as Cultural theory

and Ecocritical theory. Since most of her works are replete with the place and she is in love

with her own place, Kerala , which is in other words known as God’s Own Country. Kamala

Das’ literary works are erotic, sexual, confessional, feministic, psychological but a voice for

the Indian women to show the world the suppressed cries and she took upon herself the task of

working as a mouthpiece for women’s freedom and the psychologically and emotionally

oppressed women not in only in India but also to the whole world.

WORKS SITED

Das, Kamala. The Best of Kamala Das. Ed. P.P. Raveendran. Calicut: Bodhi Publishing House.

1991. Print. Das, Kamala. Only The Soul Knows How TO Sing. Kottayam: DC Books. 1996.

Print. ---- My Story. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers, 1998. Print. ----.Collected Poems Volume

I. Trivandrum: The Navakerala Printers. 1984. Print. ----.Kamala Das Poems. Classic Poetry

Series. PoemHunter.com-The World’s PoetryArchive. 2012. PDF. Kumar, N. Prasantha.