Mukto Manuh: Chandraprava Saikiani’s Writings

Abstract

Abstract The fifth and the last chapter explores Saikiani’s extensive range of writings through five decades, from the 1920s to the 1960s including her letters, reports, essays, speeches, poems, short stories published in contemporary periodicals; novels, books, translations; select issues of edited journals Abhijan (1941–, perhaps the first Asamiya-Hindi Bilingual) and Abhijatri (1947–, mouthpiece of the APMS); handwritten manuscripts of novellas and a memoir Jail Kahini among others. The chapter discusses that the appearance of Saikiani’s early writings in periodicals, such as Banhi, Chetana, Awahan in the 1920s and the 1930s, is symbolic of the selective democratisation process unleashed by print culture where a female headmistress of a girls’ school in Tezpur could jostle for print space with contemporary luminaries. Though Saikiani was celebrated among noted Asamiya women writers by her contemporaries, most histories of Asamiya literature written in the late twentieth century do not acknowledge her among significant litterateurs; some even fail to mention her altogether. The chapter explores how Saikiani’s writings examine, conceptualize, and critique institutions such as marriage, family, patriarchy, and social divisions of caste and class through perspectives of the social ‘other’, the ‘fallen’ woman. The chapter argues that Saikiani’s vision for ‘revolutionary social change’ is part of a larger imaginary of freedom and liberty, ‘mukto manuh’.