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Chapter- 3
Patriarchy and Gender Discrimination:
Bravely Fought the Queen, Dance Like A Man and Tara

Gender is something inseparable from the structure of Indian society. In

Indian context, it is a universal phenomenon. When we dress a girl child in soft

colours and filthy clothes, buy a male child a gun, when we rebuke girls for

behaving like boys, or tease boys for behaving timid ‗like girls‘, we are ‗doing‘ this

on the basis of gender. That is, we are distributing specific roles and attributes to

the male and female sexes; likewise we also impose different sets of expectations

on them. Basically, the Indian society is male dominated and it is He who is

considered as the head of the family. It is said that God has made women different

from men. Women are physically weak and less capable in comparison to men. In

fact, they need men to take care of them. Since men have to be protectors and

caretakers, it is natural that they exert power and authority over women. In this

power execution process, men overlook the interests and freedom of women. This

leads to men treating women unjustly.

In its most commonplace sense, gender is a grammatical commodity. It

exists in most languages and divides up objects into masculine, feminine and

neuter. There is no reason behind it as to why certain objects are considered

masculine, feminine and neuter. In language gender is the matter of habit and

convention – this is how things have been referred to and this is how they ought to

be referred to. However, the term ‗gender‘ has other meanings. It has come to be

associated with ‗biological sex‘. Sex is considered a fact- one is born with either

male or female genitalia; Gender is a socially constructed phenomenon- it grants

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meaning to the fact of sex. In the sociological context, the word gender refers to the

socio-cultural definition of man and woman, the different social roles associated to

them by societies. It was believed for long ages that the different roles, status and

characteristics assigned to men and women in society are determined by sex, that

they are natural and therefore cannot be changed. Thus, sexual differences play

vital role in the allotted social status and power of men and women. As soon as a

child takes birth, the process of gendering starts by the families. The birth of male

child is celebrated while the female child filled with pains. The parents encourage

boys to be tough and outgoing and girls to be shy and homebound.

Gender is an aspect of our everyday lives as well as a social, economic and

cultural category that colligates and re-writes the meaning of human sex, the fact of

being masculine and feminine. The identities, roles and relationships that are

associated with gender have come about as a result of human agency. That is they

are neither innate, nor given but constructed, made and re-made by human beings as

they lived, loved, worked and procreated. It is a lived and experienced relationship

of power and love, authority and intimacy.

Historical explanations of gender are diverse. It is assumed that gender

differences that mean masculinity and femininity are not biological or physiological

aspect. Neither are they God-given. Instead they are parts of system of thought and

action which have been constructed by human beings over centuries. It refers that

the meaning and significance associated to them are myriad, dependant on time and

place, influenced by geographical and historical facts both. The emergence of

gender based issues in contemporary literary scene has become the burning topic

which tries its best to diagnose the malaise of the gender discrimination within

patriarchal based society. The gender based approaches comprise feminist issues,
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lesbian/gay issues, issues of hijras, alternate sexuality, child sexual abuse etc. It is

significant to note:

Basic to patriarchy is the conflation of sex and gender roles. The

biological sexdistinctions of male and female are by and

largeacceptable to feminists, thoughwith the increasing attention

paid to homosexuality even these distinctions are beingexamined

afresh.But the invariable association of socially established

gendercharacteristics of masculine and feminine with thesebiological

sexdistinctions iswhat feminists challenge together with the

sexualdivision of labour. The social roles of wife, mother, and

housewife,assigned to women go hand in hand with the divisioninto

publicand private domains, the first being the sphere considered to

women, the second to men. Women become the ‗second sex‘ in

Simon de Beauvoir‘s telling phrase. Milton‘s line ―He for God only,

she for God in him‖ could well cited as anexample of the almost

universally held assumption that man‘s purpose in life is toserve

God, the state, society, not least his self-advancement, while man‘s

purpose is to serve man. Man is seen as the norm, woman as the

‗other‘ not merely different but inferior, lacking. Personality traits

are distinguished in terms of polar opposites of masculine and

feminine. Men are considered to be bold, strong, assertive,

independent, aspiring, rational and logical women, on the contrary

are considered to be timid, yielding, dependent, self-sacrificing,

emotional, intuitive. Though allcultures claim to praise and value the

‗womanly‘ quality, one can cite an equal number of passages

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denigrating women while the verbal praise masks the

actualrelegation to a secondary position. Literature, of course, amply

reflects these stereotypes. (ShirinKudchedkar33)

Though the biological differences between male and female are accepted

facts yet the notion that female or woman is inferior to male or man has no causal

explanation. And it is Simon de Beauvoir who declares that ―one is not born but

become woman‖(273). The old prejudice against woman as being weaker than man

in all respects is the ideal traits of feminists.

One of the greatest theatre personalities of modern Indian English drama,

Mahesh Dattani is significant not only for his wide-spectrum of interest in

contemporary socio-political problems but also for his bold treatment of virgin and

taboo subjects in his plays. The preoccupation with marginal issues forms an

important element in Dattani‘s works—issues that remain dormant and suppressed,

or are pushed to the periphery, come to occupy centre stage quite literally. Dattani

is of the view that these ‗invisible‘ issues should be pushed forward to create an

acknowledgement of their existence. Dattani‘s plays reveal his preference for the

fringe and virgin issues, the issues least discussed or not discussed at all such as

Homosexuality, Eunuchs, Child-sexual abuse etc. In Indian context of writing,

these issues come into the realm of taboo.

To relocate the position of women in the patriarchal order has been the

persistent effort of the thinkers and writersin post-colonial India. MaheshDattani

expanded the horizon of theatre by introducing the issues that are judged to be

taboos. To break the taboos, to expose the misery of sexually marginalised sections

and to reflect man‘s consistent struggle with his inner self, confronting with socio-
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ethical restrictions constitute a specific strain in the dramatic art of Mahesh Dattani.

Gender is representation and Dattani‘s theatre is a representation of representation.

It is a product of social practices. The media, the families, theschools, the literature

and art all construct the notion of gender. Dattanitries to unfold the excesses and

repressive forces behind such constructions.

Bravely Fought the Queen (1991) has been critically admired all over the

world including Britain‘s prestigious Leicester Haymarket Theatre. The play is set

in Bangalore of the 1980s and 1990s and charts the emotional, financial and sexual

workings in the lives of an urban Indian family. The play focuses on the wrapped

contours of a conjugal relationship plagued by the homosexuality of a husband. In

the alternative sexuality which is obviously the matter of choice for Nitin, we see

how the conjugal relationship with his wife Alkaloses its normal colour because of

her husband‘s homosexual relationship with her brother.

The play is divided into three acts, entitled ‗Women‘, ‗Men‘ and ‗Free for

All‘. The first act remains focus on the home-confined identity of women. In the

second act there is a fine exposition of the world of men representing the outer

space of the business world and third act lays bare characters and their two worlds.

The fissure between conventional and modern cultures having thrown up a new

social landscape, the play races towards a brave culmination, laying bare the

gruesome truth that lie behind the pretence of conservative Indian morality. The

play concerns itself with question of gender, sexuality, alternate sexuality and

identity, although the approach is perhaps secondary to the more open themes of

gender differences and the rupture between the male and female world. While the

main setting of the play is the politics of the Indian joint family, it constantly point

at the division of and the dominance of the one over the other. This is made clear
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from the title that Dattani gives to his three acts: ‗Men‘, ‗Women‘ and ‗Free for

All‘.

The title of the play, Bravely Fought the Queenis derived from the famous

Hindi poem ―KhoobLariMardani‖ by SubhadraKumariChauhan. The poem is based

on the great Rani LaxmiBai of Jhansi and her name in the play is invoked as an

ironic parallel to the women in the play who are passive, helpless and victims of

male tyranny. All the three women in the play, Baa, Dolly and Alka suffer in their

own ways. The oldest of them, Baa, suffers from the disloyalty of her husband. He

abandons her in favour of another woman. So she now lies bed-ridden and aged,

and no one responds to her call. Baa‘s eldest daughter-in-law, Dolly is a meek and

pale character and is beaten by her brutal husband when she was in her advanced

stage of pregnancy. Such cold-blooded beating of Dolly in pregnancy period results

in the deformed birth of her daughter, Daksha. Alka, the younger daughter-in-law

has her own cross to bear; her husband has a homosexual relationship with her own

brother, Praful, who has planned this marriage to carry on this relationship, right in

the house and outside the house.

Mahesh Dattani, in Bravely Fought the Queen presented multi-level stage to

expose the juxtaposition of past and present. The realistic events and imaginary

events are beautifully mingled in the play without breaking the flow of interest. The

gradual evolution of the psyche of the characters in context of their social

significance is marked in the play as it is clear from the title of the three acts. While

the first act throws light on the identity of women confined to home only, the

second act focuses a fine exposition of the business world of men. Both these

spaces are pre-conceived and well defined by the society. However, the third act
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proceeds with the belief that distinction between male and female spaces is an

illusion because the essential human experiences are always alike.

The play deals with three couples, Dolly and Nitin, Alka and Jiten and

Lalitha and Sridhar, each existing in a hierarchical relation with others. The play

centres onTrivedi family with their two brothers Jiten and Nitin and their wives

Dolly and Alka. Both the brothers are genetically right descendants of their

tyrannical father who always tortured their mother physically causing deep hatred

in Baa. Jiten, the elder son exercises control over the family as son, brother and

husband. He is sadistically aggressive and kicks her wife brutally even in her

pregnancy. In the same way the younger son Nitin subjects his wife to

psychological torture by inflicting sexual deprivation. All the relations in the play

are maintained strictly under the dictates of patriarchy. The gender division is

neatly worked up by Dattani in order to show how man-woman relationship is

skewed up under patriarchal hegemony. The familial space is presented as an even

more fraught, as the characters struggle under the domination of individual as well

as the institution of marriage. They are trapped in stereotypical roles in familial

space- those of the ideal husband, faithful and docile wife, responsible and caring

brother and loving mother.

Bravely Fought the Queenis a play about sinners and their secret guilts; it is

about violence against women, about exploitation of the weaker and about the mean

squalid corporate world. It approves Freud‘s theory about repression. Dattani,

through the medium of his plays, focuses on relevant issues of society. He does not

provide any resolution but leaves it to the audience to discern for themselves their

own space and its problems. His interest of writing always centres on the area of
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gender and class-based politics. As he admits it in a conversation with Utpal K.

Banarjee:

I am strongly affected by social issues, especially when it comes to

power play class and gender. A lot of my plays deal with them and

they remain the leitmotifs of my plays…‖ He further adds ―I am

However not a social activist…my first service is to the story and I

believe that the form should serve the content. (Indian Literature

2004)

Dattani, in Bravely Fought the Queenpresents a classic example of the way

in which the process of female silencing is at work. The play exposes the position

of women in traditional Indian society. The presence of women like Dolly and Alka

is taken for granted. They are expected to remain present at home, to understand the

requirements of the ones who are really in charge and to be always ready to obey

their commands. It is said:

In Indian society wherereligious values dominated woman‘s

position,and gave the status of ‗goddess‘ to her, surviving with the

ideals of sacrifice, love, sensibility, patience and resistance did not

permit her freedom and independent identity.(BeenaAgarwal69-70)

Thus, Dattani, in his plays becomes the mouthpiece of the muted, subalterns and

marginalised as all subjugated class of society are not permitted to speak of their

rights and duties. They have to survive in the home-confined spaces and are kept in

dark to bear the burden of patriarchy in silencing and sobbing.

The first act of the play entitled ‗Women‘ presents the position of women in

a naturalistic scenario—thedrawing room of the refined Trivedi family in urban

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India. Women in the play are subjected to different level of hierarchies; domestic,

professional and social level that is closely connected with class concerns. All the

three women in the play suffer in their own way. The old Baa unknowingly married

an already married man. Her husband, after giving birth to three children, deserted

her to live with his former wife. Thus, she is the victim of man‘s debauchery. She

was thus left alone to fend for herself and her three children. The Indian society is

unnecessarily cruel to such lonely women. She must have face many problems in

bringing up and educating her children. Dolly, the other female member of the

family has her own cause to suffer. She, beaten by her husband Jiten while she is

pregnant, delivers prematurely and consequentlythe child is mentally retarded.

Alka‘s husband is gay and maintained a relationship with her own brother Praful.

Thus,Alka, who longs for her brother‘s acceptance for herself, silently suffers her

fruitless marriage with Nitin. Nitin‘s homosexuality is revealed in the play when he

says:

…and I would go back to Praful‘s room…and kneel…At times he

would wake up immediately…At other times I would lean forward

to look at him. Close enough for my breath to fall gently on his face.

And he would open his eyes…I loved him too. He is…was

attractive. And he responded. (314)

All the three women try to escape the confines of their claustrophobic world

in various ways: Alka with alcohol, Dolly with her fantasizing about Kanhaiya and

Lalitha with her obsession with bonsais. The challenge for the characters in the first

act is to carve individual spaces out of their oppression and live lives of their own.
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The remarkable element which Dattani highlights in the play is the absurdity

of the situation in which the women are trapped by birth. As Gauri Shankar Jha

writes:

In Bravely Fought the Queen, he presents the same picture

traditionally bound, organised and manipulated bypatriarchy inall

ages by established values, norms, roles and gender perceptions,

they are guided by idealism that prescribes unequal means, methods

and routes to achieve the so called ‗wholeness‘forwomen,

motherhood and wifehood being the dual crown of womanhood. It

is the man who has defined this unequivocal term, asmotherhood is

disciplined by males and they further justify themselves through

religion, myths, science, politics, economics etc. (155)

Act first begins with Lalitha‘s entry into the Trivedi household. All the

women meet one another and in this meeting women relate to each other in terms of

their patriarchal identity as wife as also their capitalist identities as employer and

employee, an extension of the relationship with their respective partners. As Dolly

on seeing Lalitha, tries to relate her identity with her husband:

Dolly: No, no I did. What I was trying to remember was- whose wife

are you? You know we met at the office partylast month so you must

be somebody‘s wife. (Pause) what I mean is your husband- I know-

is working for my husband. Jitendid mention that Lalitha will be

coming and she happens to be so-and-so wife. Which is that I have

forgotten? Whose wife are you? (256)

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This shows that women do not realize their individual identity; they try to introduce

themselves with the relative identity of their male partners. So in the play both of

the sisters try to place Lalitha in the context of her husband. But the presence of

Lalitha in the Trivedi household, where women have well-defined roles to play,

create a space that is her own. When Alka asks her identity, she says:

Alka: So what do you do with yourself, Lalitha Lalitha:

Oh, I keep myself occupied. I do a bit of writing. Freelance. I write

an occasional women‘s column for the times. Sometimes I review

cultural events. I am in the meditation. And, oh yes, I grow bonsai

plants- I‘ve been growing them for years. I do a bit of creative

writing as well. (243)

It is Lalitha‘s attempt at formulating an identity of her own that dissolves the class

hierarchy between the women of the Trivedi house and Lalitha. She is an emissary

from the male world. Dolly finds it difficult to praise her over involvement in

business world. The presence of Daksha, Dolly‘s daughter, in the play is silent but

is very pertinent for the painful reminder of violence wracked by her husband. The

old Baa, mother of Jiten and Nitin, also asserts paternal authority and does not

allow freedom of choice to her daughters-in-law. Besides being diverse in their

mental thinking, all the three women try to escape the frustration of their

claustrophobic spaces. The bonsai is the only significant metaphor integrated in the

play. It unveils the attitude of power- ridden society towards women. Their roots of

desires are constantly cut like bonsais to create the desired effect. PayalNagpal

aptly says,―Alka, Dolly and Lalitha are all bonsais each of different kind, with one

difference. Unlike the bonsai their nurturing needs are also not taken care of. But
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like the bonsais, they too reflect on the beauty and class quotient of their male

counterparts.‖(80)

Act second entitled ‗Men‘ transforms the sets from family world of women

to the office world of men. Jiten dominates the business world and is highly

egoistical. Nitin seems almost ineffectual while Sridhar tries to be assertive in

various ways. Meanwhile, in their business settlement men discuss the psyche of

women and Re-VA-Tee brand of lingerie. Jiten argues the whole matter on the

item, they are trying to sell -women‘s lingerie, from male point of view whereas

Sridhar tries to argue for the female as it is female product. Sridhar was of the view

that the advertisement would not attract women to buy the product. But instead of

agreeing they should work again, Jiten argues that they should try to attract men

and not women:

Jiten: Yes! Men would want to buy it for their women! That is our

market. Men. Men would want their women dressed up like that.

And they have the buying power. Yes! So there is no point in asking

a group of screwed-up women what they think of it.They will

pretend to feel offendedand say, ‗Oh‘, we are always being treated

like sex objects. (276)

Sridhar warns him, ―They‘ll screw us! If we do not come out with a compaigne idea

that works, we‘ll be dead!‖ (279). Jiten presents male chauvinism and asserts the

idea that women‘s identity is subordinated to desires of their male counterparts.

Baa, in spite of being his mother, has a realization of weakness of Jiten. She admits,

―Jitu is just like his father. Just like him.‖ (284). There is an obvious parallelism
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between two tales of suffering of Baa and Dolly. Baa, being beaten and ill -treated

by her husband slips into nightmare of the past and expresses her delirium:

You hit me? I only speak the truth and you hit me? Go on. Hit me

again. The children should see what a demon you are. Aah! Jitu!

Nitin! Are you watching? See your father! No! No! Not on the face!

What will the neighbours say? Not on the face.Ibeg you! Hit me but

not on…aaaah! (278)

In the third act, entitled ―Free for All‖, all the characters are exposed and the

false appearances are lost. Dolly, who in the first act appeared as meek, passive and

tortured character, emerges here as the strongest character, supporting drunken

Alka, revealing the torturous truth about Daksha and exposing the horrors of her

brother Praful. The play ends with Nitin‘s acceptance of his ‗gay‘ relationship with

his brother-in-law. He confesses it to his wife:

How can you still love your brother after what he did to you…?

That‘s right. Don‘t answer. Just sleep. (Laughs) You always were a

heavy sleeper. Thank God. Those times when I used to spend the

night at your place, I used to sleep on his cot. And he would sleep on

a mattress on the floor beside. (314)

Sridhar, who has already revealed himself to be every bit as egotistical as Jiten

seems now to don the mantle of the stereotypes as he proposes to leave with

Lalitha.

In Bravely Fought the Queen, Dattani, in very realistic mannerpresents the

layers of exploitation in the advertising world and the way it seeps into the

domestic scenario. His choice of the advertising agency as a patriarchal

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construction, the selling of women products, and most of all women as target for

the male gaze is appropriate and suits his motto. According to Jiten his Ad-

Campaigns of women‘s lingerie should satisfy the perversities of male gaze as

women are expected to dress themselves and throw themselves at their male

partners. All the three chapters reveal different aspects. First act reveals location to

which the women are tied down; they remain at home most of the time. The

cloistered female world of act first clashes with wheeling and dealing, corruption

and adultery of act second of male world. The revelation is made as to the nature of

their true selves in the confrontation of act third; the realities of their lives come

out.

The play exposes male chauvinism and women as the colonized victims in

the male dominated society. Women in Indian society are considered as rude,

uncivilized and ill-mannered and needing to be polished and refined. The

refinement process of their actions and behaviour that men apply on them horrifies

our eyes. The tool which is used for the civilization and socialization of women is

nothing but violence. Alka‘spresent condition in the play is the result of this

civilizing process which also creates a rift between Dolly and Alka. Like Tara this

play also depicts woman as preparator of patriarchy. Baa exercises patriarchal

control over the affairs of the family. She is not merely a woman but patriarch in

the guise of a man. She has become a repository of all the male values in the family.

Like Vijay Tendulkar‘sKanyadan, this playalso dramatizes women as commodity

of male gaze. Jiten and Nitin gratify their sexual desires with market girls. They are

pleasure seeker in prostitution.In PayalNagpal‘s words

…The patriarchal system with its subtle and devious manifestation

in the Trivedihousehold tries to render Dolly and Alka passive. The

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women are expected to pickon the dregs of conversations and

understand their jobs, keeping in mind the hectic work schedule of

the ones in power. Dolly‘s refusal to accept the cancellation of the

program is an act of resistance to accept her passive identity. (80)

The least that Dolly is asking for is the recognition of her status as a

member in her own house. Alka, in the play is presented as confirmed boozer and

hence an utter misfit in the family. Her case gained a certain kind of poignancy in

the fact that she has been used by her own brother as a veil behind furtive gay

relationship may continue. Yet in comparison Lalitha seems more compatible than

the other two due to her total absence of any visible manifestation of physical

violence. There is certainly more room for Lalitha‘s independent endeavours.

PayalNagpal depicts clearly the position of Lalitha vis-à-vis the other women in the

play:

In this neatly stratified system where women have well-defined

roles to play, Lalitha is able to create a space that is her own. She

nurtures her bonsais, is a freelance writer for women‘s magazine and

is also well-versed with the professional affairs of her husband,

Sridhar…It is Lalitha‘s attempt at formulating an identity of her own

that dissolves the class hierarchy between the women of the Trivedi

house and Lalitha. Infact as a woman she appears to be more

conscious and aware than Dolly and Alka. (78-79)

Dattani, in Bravely Fought the Queenpresents women in a fractured social

space that constantly shifts them to a patriarchal space of control. The play

uncovers the women‘s position in conventional Indian society. Dolly and Alka are
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first managed by their brother and then by their husbands. Praful, as a brother in

patriarchal society has full right to exercise violence on their sisters, if he feels they

are going astray. The pain of women living in so called globalised world of

civilization is stated in Alka‘s words:

I told him to drop me before our street come. He did not understand

and dropped me right at our doorstep. Praful saw. He didn‘t say a

word to me. He just dragged me into the kitchen. He lit the stove and

put my face in front of it! I thought he was going to burn my face!

He burnt my hair. I can still smell my hair on fire. Nitin was

rightbehind us. Watching! Just…Praful said, ‗Don‘t you ever look at

any man. Ever.(257)

After marriage guardianship of Alka is transferred from Praful to Nitin, a

trusted friend. In Trivedi household she is considered as amoral drunkard. In the

new scenario, her oppression takes new form. Here she does not have right to feel

free or to express herself. As she dances in the rain, she is considered as boozer, an

immoral and an uncivilized woman. It is however ironic that Jiten who himself has

secret relationship with other woman, is now making sweeping claims of morality

and is trying to polish the action of Alka.

Trapped in a patriarchal matrix that allows little space for female world, the

women in the play seek alternative ways of expression, despite the fact that women

have been conditioned at the hands of patriarchal oppression for many years, they

still have potential to resist deteriorate social forces. The women in the play identify

themselves with the bravery of Rani of Jhansi but at the same time they find it

difficult to relate to her as she was ―manly queen‖. Her bravery has been
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appropriated into a matrix of patriarchal power that recognizes only men as brave.

Dattani subtly reveals how even in the course of history, the immense bravery of

women has been grudgingly acknowledged and appropriated as a male prerogative.

This suggests that there is a need to locate areas for empowering female identity as

a dynamic trope and not one that remains developed in the folds of patriarchy and

gender.

Mahesh Dattani, the most serious contemporary dramatist in Indian English

drama takes up serious problems prevailing in urban India. He, very successfully,

gives voice to the problems and sufferings of marginalized people of India. He

possesses an exceptional sensibility for the sufferings in society born out of gender

discrimination. He delves deep to examine the psychic reaction of those who are the

victims of discrimination. He believes that ‗society‘ and ‗self‘ are two different

entities and without the harmony of the two human lives cannot constitute the

balance.

Dance Like a Man, one of the most wonderful dramatic creations by

Mahesh Dattani was first performed at Chowdian in Bangalore Memorial Hall on

22 September 1989, as a part of the Deccan Herald Theatre festival. The play was

staged to public and earned a critical acclaim in India as well as abroad. Dattani has

written three types of plays: Stage plays, Radio plays and Screen plays. Dance Like

a Man is a stage play in three acts. It opens questions on hypocrisy and gender

inequalities that have become naturalized in Indian society. The exercise of

patriarchal authority has been brought out effectively in the play. The protagonist

Jairaj and Ratna, Bharatnatyam dancers, come under the pressures of patriarchy and

Jairaj is worst hit by it. Jairaj could not become successful dancer because of his

father, Amritlal Parekh who did not allow him to pursue dance as his career. In his
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effort to break away from the imposition of his father and form an identity of his

own, Jairaj gets caught in the web of his father‘s politics.

The play Dance Like a Man conceptualizes the gender issues with an

exceptional originality. The role of male and female in Indian society is

preconceived and predetermined and the efforts to cross the boundaries pose threats

to their individuality and identity. The confrontation between choices of individuals

and the noesis of society is the central motif in the play. It is a fact that when one

refers to gender as a principal concern, the automatic assumption is that the

exploration would be of women‘s issues. About this play Dattani says, ―I wrote the

play when I was learning Bharatnatyam in my midtwenties.[…] a play about a

young man wanting to be a dancer, growing up in a world that believes dance is for

women.‖ (Ayyar 2004). It suggests that Dattani was inspired by two irresistible

passions: dancer and dance i.e. to be a dancer, an individual choice and the fear of

society that ‗dance‘ is a feminine art and man‘s attempt to be a dancer would be a

prelude to the tragedy of man. Characteristically, Dattani raises a few unlikely

questions about the sexual construct of man. The stereotypes of gender roles are

pitted against the idea of the artist in search of creativity within the restrictive

constriction of the world that he is forced to inhabit. Jairaj with his obsession for

dance is all set to demolish these stereotypes gender roles.BeenaAgarwal points

about gender:

The issue of gender discrimination is not only a socio-cultural

phenomenon but it is integrated in human consciousness and is

closely associated with individual choices, self-development and

self-identity. It is a strong determinant of human personality and its

suppression is bound to lead to terrible consequences. The role

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models, professional achievements, habits, dress and morality, are

expressed in terms of gender bias. (97)

In the play Dance Like a Man, Dattani gives a twist to the stereotypes

associated with ‗gender‘ issues that consider only women at the receiving end of

oppressive power structures of patriarchal society. The play rejects this notion and

explores the nature of the tyranny that even men might be subject to within such

structures. The play is a self-discovery of Jairaj‘s ideals of life and the burden

thrusted in his life from outside world. It deals with the lives of the people who feel

exhausted and frustrated due to hostile surroundings and unfavourable

circumstances. Jairaj, the central character of the play sees himself as a big failure

partly because of his father‘s autocracy and partly due to his wife‘s ambition.

Amritlal Parekh is the representative of the stereotypical society of nineteen thirties

and forties. He is a freedom fighter and a reformist but he curtails the freedom of

his son who wanted to become a Bharatnatyam dancer. He in the view of his son

was ―as conservative and prudish‖ as the white rulers. The clash of motives of Jairaj

with his father involve the issue of identity crisis, the stigma of gender binary

existing at the centre in socio-cultural thought and perpetual conflict of man‘s

desires and forces of destiny. The perpetual clash of human motives with the

traditions of family, prejudice of society and the code of culture constitute the

dramatic structure of the play Dance Like a Man.Jairaj, having a passion for dance

is ready to challenge his father‘s restrictions imposed on him who is an embodiment

of patriarchal authority. His antipathy to a great many things that concern the

activities of his son and daughter-in-law draws the boundary line for their

behaviour within the sphere of influence. For him dance is the profession of

prostitutes and so improper for his daughter-in-law and absolutely unimaginable for
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his son. He fails to tolerate that Ratna, his daughter-in-law should learn dance from

a ‗Devdasi‘, the temple dancer who is traditionally looked down upon as prostitutes

in society. He, thus, feels that no self-respecting person should perform such a

dance, particularly a man. The decision of Jairaj to become a Bharatnatyam dancer

and the idea of honour of an artist to a ‗Devdasi‘ was a challenge for person like

Amritlal. He, being disgusted with the effeminate nature of the art of dance, tries

his best to dissuade his son from pursuing his career in dancing. Making a reference

to the conscience of Amritlal, AshaKuthari remarks, ―The underlying fear is

obvious that dance would make him ‗womanly‘—an effeminate man – the

suggestion of homosexuality hovers near, although never explicitly mentioned.‖

(68)Amritlal Parekh replicates an authoritative Indian father whose definition of

manhood and employment is rooted in the age-old belief of Indian society.

Dance Like a Man is a powerful human drama that provides an insight into

the contemporary Indian social scene, reflecting the aspirations of a middle class

South Indian couple, who by their choice of profession as dancers, mirror the past

and the present Indian culture, identities and gender roles. The play revolves around

the life of 62 years old Bharatnatyam dancer, Jairaj Parekh and his wife Ratna who

is also a Bharatnatyam dancer. They are living with their only daughter, a

promising dancer. The play begins with Latawaiting for her parents‘ approval of

Viswas, a young Mithaiwala whom she wishes to marry. The very first observation

of Viswas shows male prejudice against dance as he says, ―Dancers stay at home

till its show time.‖ (387) Lata too is apprehensive about her future as a dancer, if

her fiancé Viswas would not permit her for dancing profession, ―Actually they

could not care less who are what you are. As long as you let me dance.‖ (388) The

feeling of insecurity always hovers on Lata‘s mind. She thinks that the
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responsibility of married life would ruin her career, freedom and her individuality.

The conversation between Lata and Viswas prepares a background to expose the

crisis of Jairaj and Ratna.

The play encapsulates Jairaj and Ratna‘spresent tension and past struggle as

well as their present efforts and past discontentment. They reflect upon their past

struggle, failure and success as dancers. They got married much against the wish of

his father. The father, who claims to be a freedom fighter social reformer, is a

manipulator by nature. He does not permit his son to exercise his own will. The

gender defined roles are so deeply rooted in Indian society that Amritlal do not like

Guruji‘s long hair, criticizes his way of walking. Dattani interrogates the

stereotyped gender-roles within the family structure. As Jairaj‘s childhood dance

interest becomes a passion, it becomes a social stigma for Amritlal. He says, ―My

request is that you finish with your session as quickly as you can and see that your

Guruji leaves before my visitors arrived. God forbids that they should bump into

one another. (422) While Jairaj wants to be a dancer, Amritlal feels embarrassment

for his dancing Bharatnatyam whose earlier practitioners were devdasis and the

prostitutes, a dance form that is mostly performed by women in India. As a

progressive social reformer Amritlal has no objection in accepting a girl of different

community as his daughter-in-law but when it is stretched to learning ancient

secrets of dance form from person like devdasis, it becomes stigma for him. He

discouraged Jairaj by saying:

Amritlal: Where will you go being a dancer? Nowhere!

What will you get being a dancer? Nothing!

People will point at you on the streets and laugh and ask.

(397)
 91

Amritlal contrives a conspiracy with Ratna to disempower his son‘s passion of

dancing. He makes a pact with her that he will consent to her career in dance if she

helps him in pulling in Jairaj out of his dancing obsession and make him a ‗manly‘

man. He grants his permission to Ratna to dance with the condition that she should

restrain Jairaj. The following conversation between Amritlal and Ratna makes it

clear:

Amritlal: Do you know where a man‘s happiness lies?

Ratna: no

Amritlal: In being a man …I have any intention of stopping

you. I will let you dance.

Ratna: And Jairaj?

Amritlal: A woman in man‘s world may be considered as

being progressive. But a man in woman‘s world is

pathetic.

Ratna: May be we aren‘t ‗progressive enough‘.

Amritlal: That isn‘t being progressive, that is…sick…help

me make him an adult. Help me to help him grow

up…(I will) make him worthy of you. (425-26)

In this conflict of ‗patriarchal stereotypes‘ and ‗progressive thoughts‘ represented

by Amritlal and Jairaj respectively, Jairaj suffers both as a dancer and as a human

being. He does not take up the manly path that his father thought that he would and

that is why he has to pay ultimate price of sacrificing his dream.

The issue of gender construction explored in Dattani‘sDance Like a Man is

not of female but of male. The receiving end of the politics of gender is not Ratnaso
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much as is Jairaj: kept on a leash by his father, eclipsed by his wife, a failure as a

dancer and an alcoholic. His father and wife have conspired to achieve their own

selfish ends, to prolong the old stereotypes and reinforce their own sense of security

at his expense. Jairaj‘s tragedy is that he chooses a career that is accepted ‗right‘

only for women. That is why his father permits Ratna to be the dancer but not

Jairaj. In conservative Indian society we see when men take up dancing as their

career, there is heavy parental and social pressure on them to become engineers,

doctors, businessmen and teachers so that a lucrative is assured. The male dancers

who wish to excel in this field are considered as an effeminate and alien ‗other‘.

Dattani, in this play questions the norms and criteria of being a man. If the question

remains of social acceptance and strict adherence to the patriarchal gender construct

then Jairaj‘s view regarding ‗erotic numbers‘, reveals that Jairaj has hardly accepted

his father‘s proposal of gender construct.

Lata: Daddy, you make it sound so crude. ‗Erotic numbers‘

Jairaj: There is nothing crude about it. I danced the same item for

the army. A friend of ours arranged a programme and the money was

good. Your mother was too scareand they only wanted a woman. So

I wore your mother‘s costume, a wig and…whatever else was

necessary to make me look like a woman and danced. They lovedit.

They loved it even more when they found out that I was a man.

(435)

Thus, Dattani believes that the categorization of masculinity and femininity

within an Indian family is set against the idea of creative artist searching for

creative accomplishment. Such endeavours of the artists are often pushed to a state
 93

of helplessness where the artist has to confirm to the stereotypes within their

claustrophobic belongings. Tutun Mukherjee points out:

Jairaj is a victim of stereotypical Indian patriarchy and prejudice. He

struggles to prove his manliness despite his choice as Bharatnatyam

as a profession but the social conventions hamper his growth as an

individual and disenable him to fulfil his dream. In this conflict he

loses his identity as an artist and most importantly as a man. (95)

The second part of the play where Jairaj speaks against the negligence of

Ratna and domination of his father proves that his external consciousness cripples

at the face of the odds of life. Ratna humiliates him by addressing him a spineless

boy who couldn‘t leave his father‘s house for more than forty-eight hours. This

affects their personal relationship and creates disharmony between them that ends

up in extreme bitterness. He complains Ratna:

Bit by bit. You took it when you insisted on top billing in all your

programmes. You took it when you made me dance my weakest

items. You took it when you arranged the lighting so that I was

literally dancing in your shadow. And when you called me names in

front of their people. Names I feel ashamed to repeat in private.

(443)

Thus, Jairaj‘s life is shaped and reshaped according to others desires and dreams.

While his father wants to shape him according to his desired shape, Ratna, his wife

carves out her own method to give a shape to the manhood of Jairaj. He is not

allowed to shape his own desires. This is pathetic and makes his tragedy, a tragedy
 94

of soul. The feeling of being inadequate overpowers him all the time and he

surrenders himself to drinking.

By juxtaposing Ratna against Jairaj, Dattani unwraps the gender differences

and questions the discrepancy between the man‘s world and woman‘s world. She is

undoubtedly the most dominant character in the play. She married by her own

choice in a Guajarati family, dominates their taste by her own South-Indian plate of

dosa, idli and coffee. Unlike Jairaj, she protests to make her space, to defend her

rights. She is very assertive and more competent to fight for her identity, ―You

cannot stop me from learning an art.‖ (421)The argument she makes against

Amritlal, impresses us as rational and logical and justifies her progressiveness but

she also was not ready to accept her husband as dancer:

Amritlal: How do you feel? How do you feel dancing with your

husband? What do you think of him when you see him all dressed

and…made up

Ratna: You seem to forget. I married him because he is a

dancer.Amritlal: That is what he believes. I am a little harder to

convince. Ratna: It is the truth.

Amritlal: Is it?

Ratna: Yes. Amritlal:

Or did you marry him because he would let you dance Ratna: That

too. Amritlal: More of that

than the first? Ratna: (A little ruffled).

Well…Yes. (426)
 95

The action in the play moves between the past, present and future

synchronically, dissolving the different time shifts and anticipating the fate of three

generations. As soon as Jairaj recalls his past, his conflict gets internalised. He

recalls the crucial juncture from where he and Ratna started their lives. They dreamt

to perfect their art as both of them were Bharatnatyam dancers. Ratna accomplishes

her art but Jairaj couldn‘t as he becomes the victim of patriarchal authority of his

father. After her accomplishment as a dancer, Ratna concentrates all her hopes on

the performance of her daughter Lata. What she had lost in her life, wanted to

achieve through Lata. With the success of Lata, she strengthens herself but makes

Jairaj more and more helpless.

Gender discrimination is one of the prominent themes in Indian writing in

English and in other Indian vernaculars. Tara is also a problem play which centres

around the theme of gender discrimination and identity crisis of a girl child

in a family. It reflects the reality of Indian society as to how women have been

subjected to persecutions and sufferings right from the birth to death. In the twenty-

first century, too, women are discriminated on the gender basis. Society has always

tried to define her role, confined to the four walls of her home. Although many

movements came into existence to empower women‘s condition, yet patriarchy

remains strong rooted in India. Despite the fact that in our ancient books and

scriptures, sometimes women have been admired in a hyperbolic terms. Manu, the

greatHindu saint of India, in his famous book Manusmriti writes that where there is

worship of women, there the gods dwell. But it is unfortunate that women in most

of the classes have been treated as weaker sex or second sex or flower vase or a bird

caught in the cage of patriarchy.

 96

The plays of Mahesh Dattani are significant for their innate freshness and

candour. The social issues which entangle our lives are discussed in his plays. The

play Tara shares the anguish of gender discrimination in Indian society. It was

performed as TwinkeTara at Chidian Memorial Hall, Bangalore on 23 October

1990 by Playpen Performing Arts Group. Dattani himself directed the play at first

time. It is a stage play in two acts. When Uma MahadevanDasgupta asked a

question related to his most famous and performed play, he replies that his play

Tara is always assumed asthe most performed play. He further said that its former

title was Twinkle Tarabut by the suggestion of AlyquePadmsee, he modified it into

present title—Tara.

The story of the play Tara is centred on the issue of gender preferences. The

play centres on the emotional separation that grows between two conjoined twins

following the discovery that they were born with three legs and at the time of the

operation, arranged by their mother and maternal grand- father, the boy was given

third leg though the major blood supply to that third leg was provided by the girl.

Thus, the play questions the role of society that treats the children of same womb in

two different ways. It is a play about two children, joined together at the hip. Out of

them one is boy and the other is girl, they can be separated only surgically. This

surgery means the death of either of the two. The patriarchy and injustice starts

here. Bharti, the mother gives preference to the male child and thus strengthens the

chain of injustice. Thus, Dattani‘s play Tara sets under the background of a middle

class family in which a girl child suffers because she is not productive for the

growth of the family. She wants to blossom in the family but is pruned by her own

near and dear. As Erin Mee writes:

 97

Taracentres on the emotional separation that grows between two

conjoined twins following the discovery that their physical

separation was manipulated by their mother and grandfather to

favour the boy (Chandan) over the girl (Tara). Tara, a feisty girl who

isn‘t given the opportunities given to her brother (although she may

be smarter) eventually wastes away and dies. Chandan escapes to

London, changes his name to Dan, and attempts to repress the guilt

he feels over his sister‘s death by leaving without a personal history.

Woven into the play are issues of class and community, and the

clash between traditional and modern lifestyles and values.(319)

Thus, Tara shows the picture of Indian girl‘s life which is that of subjugation and

preferences, which is given to male child.

Tara gives us a glimpse into the modern society which claims to be

advanced and liberal in its thought and action. Therefore, it is evident enough to

confirm male chauvinism prevailing in our day to day life. The play revolves

around the Siamese twins, Chandan and Tara Patel, an operation to separate the

twins at birth, leaves Tara crippled for life. In the operation it is Tara‘s own mother,

Bharti who prefers Chandan to provide third leg. In a society which claims that its

mothers are educated today and have ‗Devis‘ like Durga, Kali, Laxmi, Saraswatietc

whom not only women but men also pay reverence and obeisance, differentiate

between male child and female child. All the propagandas of equality between male

and female, equal opportunities to women in the entire field are belied. Thus, the

injustice perpetrated by herownmother whose preference is to the male child makes

the play more powerful.

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The play opens with a scene in which Dan, changed name of Chandan, a

playwright recalls his childhood with his sister, a Siamese twin. He begins to write

his story of past. Patel and Bharti have two children, Tara and Chandan, conjoined

twins. They share third leg. Now the time comes for surgery and the big question is

with whom the third leg lie. All the members of family knew that the third leg can

survive only with Tara. Even the second God on earth Dr.Thakkar knows this fact

but under the influence of money he becomes ready for this unethical surgery.

The preference for the male child is so common in the society that the

surgeon could be easily managed for the wrong doing to the girl child. The master

plan of conspiracy was arranged by Bharti‘s father, who being rich and influential

in the society, badly needed heir, as he was without son, his grandson was the next

preference and so he tried his best to see Chandan standing on his two natural legs.

Hence the surgeon, Dr.Thakkar was bribed to doing the unethical job and since the

medical science has not yet been able to exercise total control over Nature, the

operation was unsuccessful and both the twins had to depend on artificial leg. It is

clear that if the leg had been given to Tara, it would have suited to her but nobody

thinks about her and wrong thing happens.

Thus, Dattani is of the view that in spite of the fact that Indian culture is one

of the most ancient and loftiest cultures of the world, it has not been able to

progress in its age-old beliefs on the subject of gender differences. So Tara, being a

girl gets secondary position in the society. It is all due to stereotypical thinking of

traditional people like Bharti and her father. Anita Myles opines, ―Tara is the

portrayal of woman as a victim and she was denied the opportunity to become a

normal human being because she was a female and preferences had to be given to

her twin brother.‖(59)

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In Tara, Dattani has presented an ideal patriarchal society, a society where

male members dominate female members. They have the supreme power to take all

decisions related to their family. In such patriarchal societies, the identity of woman

is defined as others in terms of her relationship with men. Patel who is the

representative of the patriarchal authority in the play, makes a clear differentiation

between the role of his son and daughter. There are certain gender roles associated

to men and women in the society and hardly anyone bothers to go beyond those

accepted norms. Thus, Patel could not bear the scene in which Chandan was

helping Bharti to sort out her mistake in her knitting.

Patel: Let Tara do it.

Chandan: It‘s okay.

Patel: Give it to her.

Chandan: Why?

Patel: Chandan, leave that damn thing alone!...

Patel: (To Bharti): How dare you do this to him?...you can think of

turning him into sissy teaching him to hit! (351)

The preferences for the beneficence of male child while staking the life of female

child is pathetic and takes to culmination the feeling of rejection felt by women in

our society. Though Tara is no less intelligent than Chandan, Patel thinks only

about Chandan‘s career. When Chandan says that he will not go to college without

Tara, Patel feels unhappy. He says again and again that he has some future plans for

Chandan, but he hardly shows any interest in the future of Tara who is crippled and

needs more secure future. Tara is the victim of male chauvinism. It is social reality

that a girl is always given next position to boy and is considered as second grade

citizen. The helpless condition of Tara is revealed in Bharti‘s words, ―Yes,

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Chandan. The world will tolerate you. The world will accept you—but not her! Oh,

the pain she is going to feel when she sees herself at eighteen or twenty. Thirty is

unthinkable. And what about forty and fifty!‖ (344) Though Tara and Chandan both

were crippled yet Tara‘s condition was more pathetic and precarious so needs more

financially secured future to survive in the society. But unfortunately nobody in her

family thinks for Tara‘s future because she was a girl. Patel is the manager of the

family and is a firm believer in old values. He has fixed opinion regarding women‘s

position. Due to Bharti‘s dominating nature, he feels helpless and confused. He was

not able to tolerate a woman‘s domination over family. Next is Dr.Thakkar who

operates upon the conjoined twins of Bharti and Patel. He knew the consequences

of the decision to transplant the third leg to Chandan. But his overpowered ambition

to establish the bigger clinic made him performed this operation.

It is interesting to note that the girls have become the most vulnerable

section of our society. They are dependent and need utmost support in the bad time.

There is no differentiation between male and female in Indian constitution and they

are given equal opportunities to develop in healthy, free and dignified way. It is

thus, the responsibility of parents and society to follow to the principles of ‗First

Call for Girl‘. But in Tara another reality comes in front of our eyes. In the play, we

find that it is the parents and family members who exercise dual morality for male

and female child and give something more to male child.While in doing so they

totally ignore the aspirations and wishes of girl child. It is evident that Patel is

desirous to send Chandan to his office but does not think to call his twin sister Tara,

who is more interested in learning the art of business. He agrees only on Chandan‘s

insistence.
 101

Patel: (firmly): Chandan, I think I must insist that you

come.

Chandan: We‘ll both come with you.

Patel: No!

Tara looks at Patel slightly hurt.

(Softness) Yes. You may both come—if you want

to.(352)

Thus, Patel, a stereotype male, cannot think of associating Chandan‘s going

to the office and college with Tara. Chandan, a representative of new values, is

surprised and shocked when he comes to learn that there is no reference to Tara‘s

share in the Will, but Patel considers it quite natural. His reaction is that of typical

Indian male adhered to old values.

The play raises a few questions of discriminations, i.e. religious prejudice,

gender discrimination. It deals not only with gender issues and the treatment of girl

child in male dominated society, but also with gender biases and prejudices which

still affect several girl children‘s lives even amongst educated urban families like

Patel family in the play. The most striking part in the play is Tara‘s betrayal by

Bharti, her own mother who herself is a woman. Thus, by making the woman

destroyer of another woman, Dattani brings out the root of gender discrimination.

Though Bharti‘s father also plays a part in this crime, it is Bharti who has to bear

the brunt of blame ultimately. In this way due to her mother‘s one wrong decision,

Tara has to carry the burden of being physically disabled all through her life. She

becomes the innocent victim of society‘s injustice. Dattani is thus, concerned not

only with the issue of gender discrimination in Indian society but also with the

contribution of the female to the injustice towards women. In the male dominated
 102

society, a woman is valued for her beauty and sex appeal. Tara possesses

potentiality which Chandan does not possess. Tara is intelligent, energetic and

without fear. When Chandan says that he will not join college without Tara, she

tells the truth on his face that he cannot do very much on his own and is therefore

afraid.Chandan accepts angrily that everyone is not supposed to get her strength.

Tara tells her, ―You are afraid. Afraid of meeting new people. People who don‘t

know you. Who won‘t know how clever you are.‖ (361) When such a girl fails to

do anything positive and it is learnt that she was denied her right to stand on her

own feet only because she was a girl, Dattani succeeds in showing how her

potentiality was sacrificed on the altar of gender. It is taken for granted that a

woman has to do all the odd jobs at home such as sewing, cooking etc. and the man

must come out of home to be engaged in other works. As Tennyson, a great

Victorian poet says, ―Man for the field; Woman for the hearth‖ (The Princess). Tara

taunts this age-old concept when Roopa enters the room and asks if she disturbs

them:

Tara: Not at all. The men in the house were deciding on

whether they were going to go hunting while the

women looked after the cave. (328)

Ours has been a patriarchal society where men have always enjoyed a

privileged position. Like men, women also need space to breathe freely and

flourish. But it is unfortunate that female feticide has become very common of late.

People are degraded to such an extent that they kill the fetus of the male child even

before it takes shape in the uterus. The play Tara directly indicates the gender

prejudices prevailing in Indian society. The society is made of man and woman.

One is incomplete without the other. But man always gets better deal while woman
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generally gets partial treatment of the society. They are killed even in the womb. As

AshaKuthariChaudhari opines:

Dattani plays with the idea of female infanticide that is prevalent

among the Gujrati‘s through the various insinuations that Roopa

makes, and also suggests Patel‘s hegemonic patriarchy when she

insists that ‗proper division in the gender roles be made—with

different sets of plans for the boy and the girl.‘ (89)

Social, political, religious, economic and cultural forces play an important

role in gender discrimination in almost all societies and the subsequent

development of a girl child. Strong patriarchal traditions, carried forward in India

by men and women from one generation to another, make it difficult for laws to be

implemented and also for social reformers to bring about meaningful change in the

mind set of common people. There are many reasons for the displacement that Tara

undergoes. First and foremost is that she is a girl child. In a patriarchal society the

fate that a girl child meets is not congenial for her survival. Most of the time they

face the pain of female feticide. Sometimes, they are abandoned after birth to be

picked up by orphanages. Roopa‘s statement in the play reveals Patel‘s attitude

towards girl child.

Roopa (to Tara): Since you insist, I will tell you. It may not be true.

But this is what I have heard. The Patels in the old days were

unhappy with girl babies—you knowdowry and things like that—so

they used to drown them in milk. So when people asked them how

the baby died, they could say that she choked while drinking her

milk. (349)
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Tara is not just the story of the protagonist of the play but it is the story of

the every girl child born in Indian family whether urban or rural. The play is

narrated through the consciousness of Chandan who emotionally suffers after the

forced separation. Although Chandan lives in a patriarchal society, he remains

untouched by the poison of gender discrimination. He loves his twin sister very

much and believes in her talent. But the stereotypical people like Bharti and her

father snatch her zest of life. It is interesting to note how the patriarchal system

undermines the women folk despite their calibre and potential. If Tara had been

given the leg that was rightfully hers, perhaps she might have had a different

destiny. However gender- politics wilfully disabled her.

Though it was Bharti‘s decision to provide third leg to Chandan, she was

not the master planner of this unethical decision. She, under the authority of rigid

parents unknowingly does injustice to her own daughter. This guilt was rooted in

her psyche even before the operation. She knew well the trauma of the

consequences of her decision, finds herself too weak to resist social forces. Her

motherhood was subordinated to the expectations of the patriarchal society. But,

after sometime, she feels guilty and tries to shed her burden of guilt by showing

maternal love and concern for her daughter. She also donates her kidney to Tara,

which was ultimately futile. This was Bharti‘s repentance but unfortunately it was

not very beneficial for Tara. On the other hand, Patel, the father of Siamese

children, is not free of blame himself. He believes in patriarchal values and treats

Chandan differently from Tara. He thinks future plans only for Chandan. He never

shows his love and sympathy towards his daughter but gives full attention to his

son. He too believes in gender hierarchy and, thus, his protestations are ultimately

hollow and his rejection by Dan seems apposite. Bharti‘s father further
 105

strengthenshis indulgence for male grandchild by leaving his property after his

demise to Chandan and not a single penny to Tara. Sangeeta Das opines:

The gender crisis which has given rise to identity crisis among our

women folk is heart- rending when so much social propaganda along

with prospective marathon undertaking to strengthen women‘s

progress has been proposed in the country‘s agenda. Dattani has just

made the effort to highlight one of the atrocities done towards a

female and belie all the hue and cry for female emancipation

andequality with men on all grounds. (57)

The gloom in the play emerges as a consequence of the character actions,

which turns human existence quite ‗absurd‘. Happiness seems transitory, deriving

from false reality. Tara, who believes in her mother‘s love for her in the beginning,

realizes the truth towards the end of the play. Tara is surprised when she comes to

know about the motif behind the love and affection of her mother. She is shaken to

learn from her father, Mr Patel that her mother and grandfather had deprived her of

the leg and crippled her—as all women are crippled by patriarchy. Tara was denied

the opportunity to live like a complete human being as she was a girl. After the

revelation of her mother‘s truth, Tara stands alone in a daze.Chandan moves to her

and a gesture to her to hold her hand, but Tara turns away from him. She utters in

sorrow, ―And she called me her star.‖(379) Thus, the love Bharti displays for Tara,

loses meaning in essence and displaced by Tara‘s feeling of disgust and treachery.

As G.J.V. Prasad says, ―This is a play about the injustice done in the name of

construction of gender identities—this hierarchisation and demarcation of roles

does as much harm to men as to women.‖ (141) It is unfortunate that Tara and

Chandan both are born in the same society but the society does not accept her as the
 106

other part of the same coin. A girl is not thought productive for the family as well

as for the society and Tara is doomed to oblivion. Everyone uses her for its own

sake. Her parents use her for a male child, Dr Thakkar uses her for money and all

where the looser is Tara whose only mistake is—she is a girl.

Dattani, through his play Tara reveals the reality of so-called modern Indian

society in which the entrenched social biases regarding gender roles are responsible

for creating and perpetuating male/ female binary. In such a social milieu, a male

child is seen to possess a profit making potential while the abilities of female child

are underestimated or negated and they are relegated to inferior position of service-

provider. In the play, the fateful leg which was the cause of Tara‘s bad health and

consequent death could not be given to the boy as it became useless after few days.

The leg would have been complete success with Tara‘a body. The leg would not

only save her life but also made her a complete person which she very much desired

to be more than her brother Chandan. The theme of the play is based on the

mentality of Indian society. It shows that the sons may be less talented and less

intelligent than their female issues, but parents always prefer spending money and

giving more attention on their male issues. Despite being enthusiastic and full of

zest of life, she was deprived of the life she deserves, by her own mother. Dattani,

on the basis of Indian experience, claims that even a woman makes difference on

the matter of gender- discrimination. As AshaKuthari states:

That the injustice is perpetuated by Tara‘s own mother who

professes to belong to the more ‗liberal‘ community, rather than the

father, who actually belongs to the more rigidly patriarchal social

milieu, gives immense power to the play. It suggests that it is the

women who continue to be willing instruments in the vicious cycle.

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Dattani, however, counters one woman with another; Tara herself—

spirited, tough, a survivor with a sense of humour and delightful

repartee—fighting against prejudices the society has against the

crippled and the female.‖ (35)

Identity crisis is strident in our society. The title of the play stands not only

for its protagonist, Tara but it is the story of every girl child born in Indian family.

The situation is aggravated if the girl is physically challenged. Dattani hints through

Tara that every girl child suffers some kind of exploitation and if there is boy in the

family, the exploitation are very much visible as the privilege.

Though Tara is a play about the injustices done to women, it is also a play

about the injustices to men such as Chandan for no fault of his goes through a sea of

agony and spends his life in guilt. Although he was not guilty cause, he could not

forgive himself for the wrong doings done towards his sister. He considers himself

responsible for Tara‘s death. In order to escape the horrors of situation created by

others, Chandan leaves to London in a new identity ‗Dan‘. He becomes writer and

withdraws himself from the external world but he finds it difficult to compromise

with the injustice. Tara was an inseparable part of his inner-self. As Erin Mee in the

‗introduction‘ of the play points out:

…Tara and Chandan are two sides of the same self rather than two

separate entities and that Dan is trying to write the story of his own

childhood, has to write Tara‘s story to rediscover the neglected half

of himself, as a means of becoming whole. (320)

Chandan suffers for the wrong choices of his parents. The dictum, ‗more

sinned against than sinning‘ can be used to reveal his condition. Chandan wants to
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twist his grief into drama by writing about his sister‘s childhood. Even of the

unethical and manipulated partition of them done by their dear one, which is made

against the law of Nature, they are emotionally united. They share the same agony,

which Dan, tries to describe by writing an autobiographical drama. But the

untimely death of Tara shatters him and he feels alienated from the society. Tara‘s

sufferings become a prelude to his own doom. As he confesses:

Moving in a forced harmony. Those who survive are those who not

defy the gravity of others. And those who desire even a moment of

freedom find themselves hurled into space, doomed to crush with

some unknown force. I no longer desire that freedom. I move, just

move without meaning, I forget Tara. I forget I had a sister—with

whom; I share the body in one comfortable womb. Till we were

forced out…and separated. (379-80)

Chandan is much perplexed by the practices of gender discrimination

prevailing in the society. Thus, Dattani through Chandan reveals the fact that

gender discrimination is an artificial difference. Biologically there are

categorizations between the genders, but there cannot be anything which is called

cultural polarity. Besides Tara‘s case Dattani also introduces other cases of gender

discrimination in the play. Thus, there is a scene in the play in which Chadan and

Roopa talk on the film Sophie’s Choice, Dattani allows Chandan to bring in the

horrific choice between sexes that people may be forced to make. In the scene,

Sophie, the polish immigrant, faces the problem of choosing one from her two

children, a boy and the girl.

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Chandan: What would you do if you had to choose between a boy

and a girl? Who would you choose? Roopa:

A boy definitely! Chandan:

Definitely? Roopa: Yes. It‘s bad

enough studying in all-girls school. I would definitely want a

boyfriend. Chandan: No,

No. I did not mean that! Roopa: Then what did

you mean! Chandan: I meant a son and a

daughter. Roopa: Oh, boy child and girl child.

Say that! Chandan: What would your choice be?

Roopa: I would be happy with either one.

Chandan: That is not the point. In the film, I mean. The

Nazis will only allow her to keep one child. The other one would be

taken to a concentration camp or something. (364)

As we know Sophie chose her boy, but comic misunderstanding between

Roopa and Chandan makes the point clear that this answer is not articulated.

However, what we get is a little bit of necking that goes wrong. The play is not only

about gender- discrimination but about our notions of normality and disability as

well.

Dattani seems to send the message that gender discrimination is artificial and as

long as we continue to do this kind of differentiation, we live in a meaningless

condition. SantwanaHalder writes:

…Unlike the radical feminists, who are seriously concerned with the

tortures inflicted on the female in the patriarchal society, Dattani

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projects a world in which both male and the female are looser as

they are forced to stay under the illusion that being biologically

different, the male and the female are also compelled to accept

cultural polarities. To reveal the cultural polarities imposed on the

male and the female in the society Dattani creates a real world—

Indian society, infamous for bringing atrocities against its female

members—and also introduces a dream world at the end of the play

when Tara and Dan are seen hugging each other in some other place.

A project combination of the real world and the dream world in Tara

helps the dramatist pave out a new way for projecting his views on

gender discrimination. (101)

Thus, all the three plays reveal the issues of gender discrimination. Protagonists in

the plays, Alka, Dolly, Jairaj and Tara are the victims of the social systems which

control the minds and actions of the people. Women also play significant role in the

degradation of their own groups. According to Dattani men and women ought to

complete each other in their lives only then life can run smoothly. A successful life

is possible to us only when we learn to give importance to our both aspects,

masculine and feminine.