Narrating Resistance: Representation of Nineteenth Century Bengali Muslim Women in Akhtar Mahal's Niyantrita

Abstract

The participation and Muslim women’s contributions of the nineteenth and the early twentieth century in the social reform movements in India have remained largely unexplored. The documented literary history of the period till date furthermore does not accord a reasonable space for Muslim women authors. The present paper attempts to intervene in the context of the gaps throughout recorded history where women, especially Muslim are posited almost overlooked in the discourses of society, religion, and literature. The paper intends to examine how Muslim women are portrayed in the social and religious discourses of India and/ or undivided Bengal, marking their challenges at multiple levels in literary and socio-cultural history. It intends to critically examine the Bengali Muslim writer Akhtar Mahal’s pioneering novella, Niyantrita (1926) that explores Muslim women’s aversion to hierarchical structures of the contemporary Indian society. Begum Akhtar Mahal (1901-1928) was an eminent Muslim writer who continued writing despite the adversities she faced after her early marriage at the age of fourteen. Born in 1901 in an aristocratic and educated family, Akhtar was introduced into an atmosphere that was truly conducive to literary and artistic pursuits, even though there was no question of sending the girls to school or college in the initial decades of the 1900s. But the feudal environment of her in-laws house was absolutely different from her paternal home. Women keen on education or music or art were not appreciated in her marital home. These are the aspects that led her to raise her voice of resistance against patriarchal oppression. Two of her seminal works are Niyantrita and Maran Baran. The Bengali Muslim negotiation with modernity and even with anti-colonial struggles has not been well recorded. Most accounts speak of ‘backwardness’, where the Bengali Muslim ‘renaissance’ takes place about fifty years after the Bengal renaissance. The institutionalized patriarchal setting was held responsible for an “enforced” seclusion. This rendered Muslim women significantly less visible to historical and social analyses than their Indian counterparts. Akhtar Mahal intricately weaves a tapestry of romance entangled with the heart-wrenching realities of forced marriages that often plague Muslim societies. The tale chronicles a life filled with sorrow, delicately narrated in a poignant and mournful fashion. This narrative touches upon the experiences of Muslim women, colonialism, patriarchy, and the echo of resistance.