Old Norms in New Bottles: Constructions of Gender and Ethnicity in the Early Tamil Novel

Abstract

This article concerns four Tamil novels, which upper-caste men who used the Western novel to publicize contemporary problems concerning women's education and sexuality, composed between 1879 and 1924. The author demonstrates connections among reform for women, the Dravidian ethnic and literary revival, and the overarching national awakening during colonial rule in Madras, India. The male authors drew moral and literary validation from contemporary recompilations of classical Tamil texts when they articulated their views on improving modern women's lives, but they also reaffirmed patriarchal notions of female chastity and domesticity. Bourgeois Victorian ideas on women's domesticity and sexual restraint reinforced traditional Indian views. Thus, while these male novelists successfully challenged unjust customs, such as girls' illiteracy, child marriages, and widow abuse, their paradigms on modern womanhood inhibited the full development of gender equality. Their heroines irrevocably shaped public perceptions of the female persona, and they became blueprints for modern Tamil fictional characters.