Gujarat

Weddings among the Patidars

Author: 
Gangaben Patel

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Editor's Note: This article is in Gujarati. It was originally written in 1964. It has been scanned from વીસમી સદીનું ગુજરાતી નારીલેખન ("Vees-mi Sadee-nun Gujarati Nari-lekhan", 20th Century women's writing in Gujarati). Nikhil Desai has provided this brief description of the article.

 

Gangaben Patel (1890-1972) wrote this essay "Dharmaj" (a village) in 1964. She describes how a young bride was brought to her new home, what she brought with her, and the customs of greeting her. She says she was only nine when she came to Dharmaj, implying that's when she got married. She describes various jewelry pieces in detail.

Toward the end, she writes "Because of these customs, if a girl arrived in a poor home, she was just returned. A quarter's worth of opium, and she went from the womb to the earth."

She also describes how sometime in the 1860s her caste group had passed, under her grandfather's lead, some reforms limiting the cost of marriage to a girl coming from a particular "six village" grouping (and presumably marrying in those villages). Then she mentions how this in turn led to some families looking for brides outside those six villages and collecting more money than they were allowed under their caste group's rules.

A few months ago, I heard my mother say that in the caste group we belong to, "Girls could marry into the village, but not could marry out." I asked her if this was because of a shortage of girls. She said, "Who knows? Back then, people wanted to keep an eye on their daughters after they were married, and make sure they were treated well or else complain to the caste council."

Women in the Partition

Author: 
Kamalaben Patel

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Editor's Note: This article is in Gujarati. It has been scanned from વીસમી સદીનું ગુજરાતી નારીલેખન ("Vees-mi Sadee-nun Gujarati Nari-lekhan", 20th Century women's writing in Gujarati). Nikhil Desai has provided this brief description of the article.

This untitled essay by Kamalaben Patel (1912- ) is excerpted from her writings in 1977 and 1985 under મૂળ સોતાં ઉખડેલા ("Mool sotan ukhadela", pulled from the roots). The story is about one of the most painful aspects - recovery and repatriation of women left behind - of the Partition of India and Pakistan.

She was with the Indian government on the Punjab border at the time, guiding the women social workers who were recruited to work with the police in repatriation of women, and occasionally went back and forth, working with the Pakistani authorities as well.

Sisters, daughters, wives, and mothers were lost, kidnapped, or simply fell behind when families ran from one side to the other. The author mentions an incident where a village well was filled with bodies of dead women who had jumped in to avoid assault and rape. She also mentions how in the midst of then ongoing war in Kashmir, tensions were high on both sides and made the repatriation work more difficult.

Some related articles selected by Nikhil Desai:

Gireesh J., "Gendered Violence, Nationalism and the Hegemonic Projects of Modern Nation States: A Reading of Kamalaben Patel's Partition Memoir Torn from the Roots". Samyukta, July 2009.

Aparna Basu (1996) Rebel with a cause: Mridula Sarabhai. Oxford University Press. Excerpt at http://www.rediff.com/freedom/1111mig3.htm.

A peek into the future

Author: 
Shantabahen Gandhi

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Editor's Note: This article is in Gujarati. It was originally written in 1948. It has been scanned from વીસમી સદીનું ગુજરાતી નારીલેખન ("Vees-mi Sadee-nun Gujarati Nari-lekhan", 20th Century women's writing in Gujarati). Nikhil Desai has provided this brief description of the article.

This essay -  ભવિષ્યમાં ડોકિયું ("Bhavishya-man doki-yun", a peek into the future) ­- is taken from ગુજરાતણને પગલે પગલે ("Gujaratan-ne pagale pagale", along the footsteps of a Gujarati woman). It is notable for the ambition of an educated urban (Ahmedabad) woman just after India's Independence.

She enthusiastically notes that the new Bombay Government (the erstwhile Bombay State included parts of current Gujarat, including Ahmedabad) has formulated laws to outlaw polygamy and permit divorce, and that the issue of  bride/groom payment is also under consideration in the state legislature. She is proud that Indian women are being sent to international conferences to represent the women of India, and that new authors and performance artists are emerging, though they are still just a few in number.

Family crisis

Author: 
Sharada Mehta

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Editor's Note:This article is in Gujarati. It was originally written in 1938. It has been scanned from વીસમી સદીનું ગુજરાતી નારીલેખન ("Vees-mi Sadee-nun Gujarati Nari-lekhan", 20th Century women's writing in Gujarati). Nikhil Desai has provided this brief description of the article. .

This memoir - કૌટુંબિક આપત્તિ (Family crisis) - is by Sharada Mehta (1882-1970), who was one of the first Gujarati women college graduates in Ahmedabad. The memoir begins with her circumstances in 1901.

The author's wedding had taken place, but she had continued to stay with her parents to complete her last college examination . Just then, her mother-in-law passed away, leaving behind two sons studying in England (one of them the author's husband), a daughter, three young children including a four-year old daughter, and three other children. She mentions how her mother-in-law was enthusiastic about her going to college, and her father-in-law insisted she complete her college examinations before moving in to help with the young children.

She also describes her experience with running a remedial class for a year or so for girls who had dropped out of school, before moving to Vadodara (former Baroda) when her husband returned. She found the Vadodara environment more conservative than in Ahmedabad. She and her husband were unusual in going out for walks together, and even the king seemed to have not been favorable to it initially. She does mention, however, that within a year, a lot many more couples had started taking walks together near the Race Course.

My Memories of Dr. V. Kurien

Author: 
A H Somjee

A.H. Somjee received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the London School of Economics. He is a charter member of the Simon Fraser University, Canada, where he is also an Emeritus Professor of Political Science. He has taught at the University of Baroda, the London School of Economics, University of Durham, and the National University of Singapore. He was also appointed as an Associate Fellow at the Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford University, and was invited to Harvard University, several times, as a Visiting Scholar.

When I was a faculty member of the M.S. University of Baroda (now Vadodara), from 1956 to 1964, I had heard the name of Dr. V. Kurien from various colleagues and people in surrounding villages.

The man in charge of AMUL did seem to me to be worth meeting in Anand, which was then a small town, less than 30 miles from Baroda. I worked with my students in surrounding villages, one of which is Boriavi, hardly a few kilometres from Anand, but still I could not meet him, despite my great desire to do so.

In 1964, I left India to teach in Durham University in Britain, and in 1965, I joined Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. In Vancouver, I was very keen to find out how the villages of free India were shaping up. In 1968-69, I got an official opportunity to travel to India. I selected Anand for my study and landed there.

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