Tagore’s female oriented books showcasing Womenism!! 

Rabindranath Tagore….A Poet….A Writer….A Bengali Polymath….known by many names including Rabindranath Thakur and Gurudev.

Thakur Ji a person with different mindset and vibrant approach towards the society he used to live in. He showcased his society and its living before independence, its ups and downs keeping the Bengali essence alive. But the most attractive writings of his…the books written on females of the Bengali society. He portrays the inner soul of being a woman by his writings.

Five books who challenged the society :

CHOKHER BALI-

• Chokher Bali showcases a Widow(Binodini) who was of rebellious nature in terms of rules laid on a widow that time.
• She defied the customs followed by the widow in front of her feelings towards a man.
• The man she loved was married and was having a beautiful wife.
• This extra-marital affair goes well until the man she loved showed his true face.
• She come to know that this man was not in love with her soul but in love with her body.
• After that with a wrenched heart she comes back to a life she belongs ie ‘widowism’.
• But after some time she finds love and affection in her best friend.

Charulata-

• Charulata was a character who was married to a journalist by profession.
• This man was very practical towards life while charu was still believe in fantasies.
• She used to have love for singing and poetry for which his husband has no time.
• Her life changes when her brother-in-law arrived in her life.
• The man she always wanted in her life with the same taste and interest.
• He help her to sing music and motivates her to write poetry.
• After all this she fell in love with her brother-in-law.
• But that man was too much under the society pressure refuses her love.
• After that she broke into tears for her mistake she has done as her husband come to know about this.
• Her husband asks her to shift somewhere else to give their life a fresh start.
• But she refuses as she was too much into the guilt and his husband leave her there only and move.

SAMAPTI-

• This novel portrays a girl named Mrinmoyee, she was too innocent to understand the meaning of marriage.
• She used to live in a village and was the only child of their parents.
• She got married to a man who loves her but she don’t as to her she was a free bird who grown up climbing trees and playing cricket.
• But gradually she fell in love with her husband when he shifted to another city for his further studies.
• This was the time when she understood the meaning of love in her life.

A Wife’s Letter-

• Another character that lasts in the minds of readers was that of Mrinal,
• Who used the power of a pen to fight against society’s injustices.
• Unable to save her sister-in-law’s younger sister from setting herself on fire due to successive abusive marriages,
• She leaves her husband’s home leaving a letter for him.
• In a powerful letter to her husband, she accuses the society of not taking a stand against the practice of disallowing a girl to return to her home after marriage,
• Despite the nature of the marriage itself. She also indicts him of killing her talents and passions and only seeing her as a ‘bahu‘ of the house.

TYAAG-

• The story features a marriage between a Kayastha orphan girl and a Brahmin boy,
• A trick played by the girl’s uncle that hid her true caste.
• However, after getting married, the girl refuses to build a relationship based on a lie and reveals her true identity.
• After initial apprehensions about “polluting” his caste, the boy proclaims that his love for his wife is more important to him than his religious ties.