An equal death: Satyendranath Dutta’s poem on sati and widow remarriage

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Bengali poet Satyendranath Dutta (1882–1922) is admired for his mastery of prosody and metre. “Sahamaran” – first published in 1906 and translated here into English – is one of his memorable poems centring on the themes of child marriage, sati (widow-burning), and widow remarriage, social issues that engaged the attention of the colonizers and Bengali intelligentsia alike in the heyday of British rule in India. Retaining much of 19th- and early-20th-century Bengali literature’s social reformist zeal, the poem spotlights the complicity of patriarchy and religion in the victimization of women and conveys the message that transgressing socio-religious codes is the only means of overcoming patriarchal oppression and violence. It further suggests that a woman’s financial independence is vital to supporting herself and her family and having equality in her relationship with her husband. The poem, however, falls short of envisaging a female subjectivity that is not male-defined.