Men as Feminist
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, “we all should be feminist”
In the recent times, it is observed that there is a change, a change
from the side of opposite gender, the male who is changing in the
personal and social relations based on gender. These changes to some
extent support feminism and stand by the sex that is considered the
other in the ideological construct of the society.
In the early 1980s, Friedan announced the arrival of a ‘quiet revolution
among men’, and Goode cited what he saw as a ‘grudging acceptance’ by
men of more egalitarian (725)
It is observed from the studies that the father of today is more
indulgent with the children than the earlier times, more than his father
would have been with him. These “New Men” are closely associated with
the domestic fronts whether one talks of lower or upper -class men.
There has been a shift in the ideology and now men too think as
feminist.
If one focuses on the play Tara, there is a different perspective
of feminism which is brought by the male characters Mr Patel and
Chandan. These characters support the daughter and the sister
respectively whereas the woman of the play Mrs Patel is the one who,
being a mother is on the other side of the table supporting patriarchy
and the male gender.
Chandan, the twin of Tara is always in support of his sister whenever
she faces the crucial question of identity in the play; he urges Tara to
go to college for her further studies and supports her wit and
intelligence. He tells his father to take her to office as she is better
than him in calculations.
Tara the protagonist of the play is a smart and intelligent girl, she
may be better than her twin. Chandan also tells Mr Patel to take her to
the office instead of him as “She’ll make a great businesswoman”. In
the play, it seen is that Mrs Patel is the one who is constantly after
her daughter as she wants Tara to have all the special attention.
She cooks for Tara her favourite meal, makes her forceful drink milk,
and wants Tara to be financially strong. The mother tries to win friends
for her daughter by bribing Roopa with videos and lipsticks. Mrs Patel
is often concerned about Tara; she worries about her weight even when
she loses a pound. In a way, one can say that Mrs Patel is obsessed with
her daughter. This obsession with her daughter leads her to her illness.
It is possible that Mrs Patel does this, as she feels guilty for the
conduct of her past. The past haunts her. The reason behind all the
concern is, when the question arises to whom the third leg should be
given, it is Mrs Patel who along with her father decides to give the
privileged leg to the son because of the sex he belongs.
Patel. … “Your grandfather and your mother had a private meeting
with Dr Thakkar. I wasn’t asked to come .That same evening, your mother
told me of her decision… I couldn’t believe that she told me-
that they would risk giving both legs to the boy. I tried to reason with
her that it wasn’t right and that even the doctor would realise it was
unethical!” (CP 378).
The father of Tara supports the ethical means of survival, and wants the
same for the children as well; Mr Patel does not want any injustice to
be done. He does not support the decision of his wife, and wants things
to be as they are, as the leg belongs to the girls should be hers and
nature wants. The father wants a normal life for the daughter and wants
Tara to decide her likes and dislikes, her present and future.
It is the mother who wants a special attention and wants to put her
choices on Tara as she is also in the sense of guilt from the past. It
is noticed that it is not only the lower class that succumbs to
patriarchy and oppress women but the upper class too who with the
privilege of having money and wealth show their power too much extent
than the lower class.
It happens in the play where the grandfather of the children w money and
political influence bribes the doctor to perform a surgery by all
unethical means to give the leg to the male child. It is the woman, the
mother is shown complicit in patriarchy she is the one who plays the
active role in the play and damages the lives and her children and the
relationship with her husband.
The guilt inside the mother, from her doings in the past makes her
obsessive for Tara and she neglects Chandan. Tara too adores her mother
and enjoys the attention given to her by her mother. Mrs Patel is framed
to be an ideal mother in the beginning of the play where she shows love,
affection, care and concern for Tara it is revealed in the end that all
her doings to be a perfect mother for Tara is her guilt.
The guilt of being complicit and committing a crime to her daughter
makes her psychotic, her obsession with her daughter makes her mentally
ill. Even Mr Patel is worried about the mother more than he is for his
children. She worries about Tara but one can make out that all this is
because of the guilt. Bharati believes that giving her one kidney or
making favourite dishes of Tara would make her crime and guiltless to
some extent. In a conversation with Chandan;
Bharathi. …I plan for her happiness. I mean to give her all the
love and affection which I can give. It’s what she…deserves. Love
can make up for a lot. (CP 349)
Mrs Patel in the past commits serious crimes which affect the present
and future of the characters. She being complicit in patriarchy puts her
at the stage and conflict and guilt with the people she is associated.
She has two conflicts simultaneously running in her life one is the
tangible one, the one with the husband and the society and the other is
inside her affects her psyche resulting in a separation from her family
and finally neurosis.
Now if a character like Tara exists today or a play like Tara is
performed what impact it can have on the society, today? A subject like
Tara, in the society would be looked as a matter of concern because, at
the present, she would find it difficult to exist. The time of present
is harsh and would be harsher for a subject like her. Often people with
disabilities, especially if it’s a girl are looked as a matter of worry
and deep concern, sometimes even threatening. In the play, even Mrs
Patel is worried about her daughter more than her son, as she also
believes it will be difficult for her as a girl to survive in the
society because of her disability. In a conversation with Chandan:
Bharathi. It’s all right while she is young. It’s all very cute and
comfortable when she makes witty remarks. But let her grow up. Yes,
Chandan. The world will tolerate you. The world will accept you- but not
her! Oh, she pain she is going to feel when she sees herself at eighteen
or twenty. Thirty is unthinkable. And what about forty and fifty! Oh
God! (CP 349)
In the essay, ‘Treating Members of the Disabled population as our Equals
by Kelly L. Sydow it is observed that ‘There is a tendency to patronize
people with disabilities; you can either be treated like a child or like
an idiot’.
A play like Tara can stir the minds of the people to think about
the subjects like Tara who is disabled physically but mentally they as
intelligent. These people can also live a normal life like normal
people. Today a play like Tara can be of significance which can
normalize the lives of people who are challenged physically. It is
important to realize like people like Tara and Chandan are individuals
who too want to live a life without any constraints of physical barrier
that they have from birth.
”The personal is political” stressed the interconnection between public
and private and suggested that politics could be at play even in the
most intimate interpersonal relationships”. ( 404-411).The most ‘
intimate relationships’, the relations that exist between individuals in
a family, the relations in which we are comfortable, where there is
believe and trust in such relationships. These relations become
political, sometimes which led to further complications in the
relationships. When these relations become political they tend to
dominate relationships either by oppression or by the emotional psyche.
In the play, Tara Mrs Bharathi is the one who indulges in making
relationships political. She with her father, a political person tends
to become the one who challenges relationships and become political.
There is Discourse of Power at work which create subjects like Mrs
Bharathi, where her thought and action work in the position.
Discourse is not just a way of speaking or writing, but the whole
’mental set’ and ideology which encloses the thinking of all members of
a given society… …there is always a multiplicity of
discourses - so that the operation of power structures is as significant
a factor in (say) the family as in layers of government. (Barry 118)
Hence the personal space becomes a possible area of political function.
When political power works in different spheres the prospect, of a
fundamental change and shift may come in a much -hidden ways or remote
ways. Foucault believes that through an ideology people are driven into
a thinking which further makes them as individuals and who become the
vehicle to pass the ideologies constructed within a discourse. These
ideologies function in a system through power. Power executes through
ways, in which an individual is placed. Power determines the position of
an individual which operates within a social circle.
Foucault challenges the idea that power is wielded by people or groups
by way of ‘episodic’ or ‘sovereign’ acts of domination or coercion,
seeing it instead as dispersed and pervasive. ‘Power is everywhere’ and
‘comes from everywhere’ so in this sense is neither an agency nor a
structure (Foucault 1998: 63)
In relationship, the reason to become political is that of power at work
which ‘comes from everywhere’. The power outside the house, outside a
family, impacts power dynamics of the house. The political power in the
family comes through the most unexpected ways, the personal ways. The
power at work then affects the roots and work in such a way, making
everyone its object.
The mother, Mrs Bharathi is the one who shows concern for her daughter,
Tara. She is flights for her present and future. She indulges in all
kinds of acts to make her daughter happy. She makes sure that Tara gets
everything she desires. The mother has affection and love for her
daughter. There is much more than Mrs Bharathi desires for her daughter
but in the past, she chooses the leg for the son. This act of the mother
in the past was dominated by the flow of power and discourse at work.
She became a part of the patriarchy. The power outside the family made
her function in a way that she became political. The society, its
ideology and the influence of a patriarchal figure in the form of her
father were the reasons that made her function as a political power
inside her family. The decisions she took in the past affects her
present, she died of the helplessness and guilt as she was not able to
help her daughter in the present.
Frug contends that women’s experiences are constituted by the
”discourses” in which we think of them. Discourses such as law not only
construct gender identity, but also construct women as ”terrorized,”
”sexualized,” and ”maternalized” (129). For Frug, interpretation and
reinterpretation are political tools for criticizing and politicizing
gender arrangements.
The political affairs are constructed within the personal affairs, where
the politics affect the relationships in a family. The subjects created
by the circulation of power on the personal front tend to become
political. The subject created, and then become a part of the political
system which affects other relations. The play Tara is based on
such political framework which happens due to the construction of a
political subject, the mother.
This construction of the subject is governed by the political power
which has constructs subjects like Mrs Bharathi. The theorist, Foucault
believes the power is always relational and produced through a
discourse, through power relations. ‘The Subject and ‘Power reverts to a
more familiar language of human agency and freedom to describe the
conditions under which power is exercised’. (2)
The discourse creates relationships where ideology is expressed. The
relationship of power and knowledge develops certain methods and
practices which a subject has to deal with. The knowledge plays a major
factor in the discourse of power. “Every point in the existence of
power is a site where knowledge is formed. Conversely every established
piece of knowledge permits and assures the existence of power”. (8)
The subject is a plurality of possible positions and of discourse in
which the pawn is constituted by the rules of chess, and one has
(allegedly) fully described the subject when one has elaborated the
rules of discourse just as one has fully described the pawn when one has
elaborated the rules of a chess. (116)
A human is placed within the power relations which are complex. It tends
to become a pawn at the hands of its ruling class which exits within the
relationships. The individual is then played as a game of chess which in
is again political. The mother of Tara is a pawn in the hands of her
father, the patriarchal figure who used his daughter in the game of
chess as a pawn. The father of Mrs Bharathi is the chief player of the
game with Dr. Thakkar as a partner in crime. It is observed that the
object never got a chance to play her own game as she is a mere pawn.
The essay Power and identity by Michael Foucault highlights the
point how the relationship between knowledge and power, are used
together to form a social control through society. The control and
domination of power upon the individuals are always relational and
intersubjective. In the play, Mrs Bharathi is initially dominated by her
father, the society which is the power controlling her.
‘Power is the ability to control others or one’s entity. Accordingly, it
can be defined as a kind of strength’ – Bartleby.com
The power is something, which ‘comes from everywhere’, according to the
French theorist Foucault. Power exerts itself on the subjects which are
supported by the knowledge. Power is never tangible nor it is in
someone’s hands but it is something that works in our imagination and
encumbers one in the way she or he acts.
It is visible in the play that power operated through the father, of Mrs
Bharathi the patriarchal figure but it should also be kept in mind that
the father was also part of this power that circulated in the society.
Power is intersubjective; it is not constituted by one. It is always
unintentionally bought into action.
[Grief] is not linear…Someone did us all a grave in justice
by first implying that mourning has a distinct beginning, middle, and
end. That’s the stuff of short fiction.
-Hope Edelman, Motherless Daughters: The Legacy of Loss
She deserves something better. She never got a fair deal. Not even from
nature. Neither of us did. (CP. 330)
Dan, who is a now grown up to be a writer in the present, is Chandan
from the past. He writes about his sister who is now lost among the star
long ago. He in present highlights the point that his sister never got a
fair deal neither from her family, the society nor from nature. The
moment she was born, as a conjoint twin to her brother she lost the leg
that naturally belonged to her. Nature also did not play a fair game
with Tara.
The clash that took between nature and culture is possible because of
the individuals who challenge nature. When Nature is challenged it gives
negative impact on the people. As it happened with the Protagonist Tara,
who lost the leg that was her. Nature had created the leg for the female
child but the culture being male- dominated demanded the male child to
have it. This is how the natural order was disturbed.
But even God does not always get what he wants. Conflict is in the crux
of life. A dual to the death between God and Nature on one side and on
the other – the amazing Dr Thakkar. (C.P 330)
Dr. Thakkar is the one who often is looked upon as a ‘presiding deity’,
‘the one who is a marvel in the World of Medicine’. He has a God-like
stance in the play and is responsible to challenge the nature with the
culture. Dr. Umakant Thakkar with the father of Mrs Bharathi tries to
separate the twins, through unethical ways. This is done through the
dual practice of the medical science and other through the power of
money. The result in end is a disaster as the leg does not survive with
the boy; it had blood supply through the body of the girl child.
Further feminist research about the public/private split revealed that
one of the costs of a depoliticized conceptualization of the private
sphere was precisely the inability to talk about women’s problems in
political terms. That is, since most women exist (or existed then)
primarily in the private realm, the conceptualization of this arena as
apolitical meant it was impossible to analyze the power relations that
existed therein except as they related to ”personal choices” or
”psychological problems.” Conceptualizing private issues as political
facilitated the view that women’s subordination to men was not simply
the ”natural order of things”. (405)
In the play, Tara the discourse of patriarchy plays an important
role. It is through the discourse of patriarchy that the subjects are
formed and work through the influence and effect of power. A subject
works within a discourse and it cannot come out of it as it is
determined by the discourse it lives in. The subjects are discursively
constituted. Allen Luke says that, ‘Discourse theory examines how
narrative codes and conventions used in speech and writing not only
transmit ideology but mediate and create social and cultural practice’.
Power, in Weedon’s (1987) interpretation of Foucault is:
…a dynamic of control and lack of control between discourses and
the subjects, constituted by discourses, who are their agents. Power is
exercised within discourses in the ways in which they constitute and
govern individual subjects (113).
Power is exercised within a discourse, in which an individual is
constituted. A discourse shapes and creates meanings, which become true
when practiced in a social order. Foucault believes that there is no
static or fixed way of constructing any social or personal identity or a
pattern. There is always a socially determined way in which an
individual is completely dissolved in the society. It is the discourse
that exerts a pressure of power on the individuals which determines the
place and identity of an individual in a social system. A discourse
functions by existing closely with a social order fixed by the cable of
power.
In the play Tara , the characters especially the mother of Tara is
shown as, involved within the discourse of patriarchy where she works
through the network of power. This power which determines her as an
individual, in a social order makes her an object through which power is
circulated. It is through the power that Mrs Bharathi chooses the leg
for her son in the past. This power with a specific position shapes a
social order and influences the people. The play by Dattani, Tarais a perfect example of how power regulates in a discourse through
various ways and constitutes or constructs individuals as subjects or
objects. The power also determines how people as individuals see the
world, the society and others around themselves.
Foucault explores how power circulates in a society, how various types
of institutions contribute in the development of this structure of
power. In The Archaeology of Knowledge, “Foucault discusses how
discourse, operating in and through institutions, establish the growing
terms upon which subjects understand, texturize, and represent the
‘truth’ of self”. (Waugh 434). The French theorist believes that power
does not exert itself by norms in the present times but it is normalized
by the society that we live in. The social order in which one lives
regulates the power structures.
The mother of Tara is also a subject through whom this power is
exercised in a social order where she becomes complicit in the society.
The social order in which she lives in exercised through the power of
patriarchy. Tara deals with the personal becoming the political
which is exercised through the circulation of power. This power in the
modern times, as Foucault says does not function through the norms but
is normalised by the society. The power which regulates Mrs Bharathi in
a society is also normalized by the people which are her personal. The
father of Mrs Bharathi is the person or rather a personal that becomes
political for her as well.
Mahesh Dattani as a playwright will never be a brand. His plays have
varied content and varied appeal. His characters seldom mouth lines,
which will be quoted by just about everyone, nor does his thematic
content rise to extraordinary heights. But what makes Mahesh Dattani one
of India’s finest playwrights is in the manner that he speaks to the
audience straight from the heart. Anita Nair
Mahesh Dattani, the Indian writer has a unique way to deal with his
plays. This uniqueness is the change that he brings in the Indian
contemporary society with realistic taste. Dattani won acclamation
worldwide because of his technique of mixing the reel and the real. The
plays of Dattani connect with every other individual, society, gender or
character. The prolific writer is an established international
playwright as he is a part of BBC and other international ventures.
Dattani believes that it is important to have new techniques and
playwrights in a country … ‘who reflect honesty and purely our
lives, because … that is our contribution to the world’. (C.P
329)
Dattani sees Tara as a play about the gendered self, about coming to
terms with the feminine side of oneself in a world that always favours
what is ‘male’; but many people in India see it as a play about the girl
child. (C.P320). There are many interpretations attached with the playTara. Some look it as a play of gender discrimination, about
unethical ways of medical practice, the emotional break between the
twins…but if one looks beneath the surface there is politics
attached to the main play.
Tara is a play where the twins live without any personal history;
they live in a safe, comfortable world. Their world comprises of their
parents who love them and care for them, and Tara is given special
treatment by her mother. The problem arises when a shocking fact of
their history is revealed to the twins. It affects Tara more than her
brother as she believes she was her mother’s ‘star’(C P 379). She tastes
the bitter truth about her mother who is the world to her. Her world is
shattered in those few moments of truth; her death and doom seem to be a
natural course. Her life is to take from then on, in the end, Tara dies.
Tara is a strong girl, who has survived a multitude of surgeries,
transplants and emotional upheavals and several bitter battles. The past
confronts most unsparingly, that her mother has chosen the leg that
belonged to her for her brother. She comes to know how; her mother
chooses the leg for her brother which belonged to her. The love and care
the mother has for Tara was only a because of her past guilt.
Tara has a very close relationship with her mother. They share a bond
where Tara feels protected under the care of her mother. She enjoys all
the special treatment given to her by her mother. Tara often tells her
readers and audience that it is her mother who has made her strong. She
is the most beautiful girl for her mother. They share a beautiful mother
and daughter relationship, according to Tara. When Tara learns the truth
the image of her mother vanishes, she is left with nothing.
The personal relationship of Tara or rather the most personal one
becomes political for her. Tara a kind, innocent, gentle girl would have
never believed in her mother’s bias attitude towards her son. The most
personal, intimate relationships tend to become political. One often
wants to remain aloof from all the political manoeuvres that happen
outside. One wants to remain safe in their own space with the family.
The safest place is naturally assumed to be one’s home but sometimes the
home becomes the source of politics. The family is the one that becomes
political as it happens in Tara .
Tara centres on the emotional separation that grows between two
conjoint twins following the discovery that that their physical
separation is 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. (CP. 320)
Tara is a strong, intelligent and sensible girl who lives her life with
a positive attitude. She remains bold when a person like Roopa makes fun
of her and her brother. Tara knows how to fight and live in this
society. Had she been given a chance, Tara would have shone just like
her name. She has all the qualities of being a successful woman, even
her mother says, ‘… she has her talents. She can be very witty
and of course she is intelligent’. (CP 340) .She is an energetic girl
who also encourages her brother to be one. She lights up the home of the
Patels and shines like a star.
In the Indian tradition and culture, Goddesses are worshipped as Durga,
Kali, and Laxmi… On the other hand girls and woman are also
considered a burden and liability to family. In the play, the
grandfather and Bharathi decide to give the leg to a male child because
of his sex. A male is the one considered as superior, and he receives
all privileges, as it is in the play. The grandfather leaves all his
wealth for only his grandson and nothing for Tara. It shows how a
society thinks and places a girl child in a social order. Tara does not
receive, the minute she is born, any substantiate from the society. In
fact, even what belongs to her, is quite simply taken away.
The position of a girl child is always at a stake. She never receives
any good from her surroundings for example, as Tara did not. Tara is
only valued by her family, though her mother has had a past that seeks
of the guilt of patriarchal bias too. In the play, during a conversation
between Tara and her friend Roopa, she tells Tara how the Patels used to
drown her baby girls in milk, as they were unhappy to have a girl child.
Dattani here highlights a social problem of female infanticide, which is
among masses. Tara luckily is not the one, who faces such an evil, but
in the end, her life waste.
The current work opens up other areas of research work in Tarafor example, the characters of Mr Patel and Chandan whether and how they
are/ or not complicit in patriarchy.. Mr Patel in the play does not
support his wife and her father in deciding whether to give the leg to
the boy. Being a male he does not take part in giving the leg to the
boy. On the other hand, Chandan’s voice is missing in the play. He has
moved to London to be a writer. He is somewhere extremely hurt and
traumatized by his guilt hidden- past.
Dan at the beginning of the play says, ‘Conflict is in the crux of
life’. He highlights the point that ‘dual to death between life between
God on one side and on the other- the amazing Dr Thakkar’ (CP 330). He
believes that the two could have died in their mother’s womb but it was
Dr Thakkar who gave them a life or rather destroyed it. Dr Thakkar is
one of the most famous and renowned personality in the field of
medicine. He is the one who separates; the Patel twins At Queen Victoria
Memorial Hospital in Bombay. He is the surgeon-in chief and has led the
surgery.
Dr Thakkar is placed next to the God his connection in the play,
‘… is asserted by his sheer God-like presence’. He is the one,
who with the grandfather in the past decides to give the third leg to
the male child. He is also a figure of the society who will prefer a
male over a female. In the end, the audience comes to know that the
doctor agreed to the terms of ‘… three acres of prime land-in the
heart of the city-from the state’. (pg. no 378) The doctor is also
unfair with Tara. He neither did justice with the girl nor his
profession. He is also one of those who sell their profession in the
market. A doctor is considered to be God on earth but people like Dr
Thakkar deny the presence of God.
The personal is the political, in the play Tara ; the mother of
Tara becomes complicit in patriarchy being a woman. In a male dominated
society, the male is always a powerful figure, subduing the other gender
where the ‘other’ or female is often complicit ___covertly overtly in
patriarchy. It is seen in the play that it is the mother Mrs Bharathi
who being a woman challenges patriarchy to become complicit. She is the
one who becomes bias, when taking a decision for her children. A male
gender is the one who should get all privileges and attention. Therefore
under the influence of her father and society at large, Mrs Bharathi
chooses the privileged leg for her son, Chandan.
The personal problems are political problems; it means that the problems
woman face in their lives is not their fault but an oppression they
suffer in a system in which they live. The society in an Indian context
is based on certain notions which lead to preferential towards the male,
more and always than a female. In the Tara, the mother being a
woman, becomes biased towards her son and the daughter is the one to
whom injustice is muted out.
The political in the personal is a glaring reality of our society and
suggests that politics plays a part in our most intimate relationships.
The personal relationship is one of complete comfort where there is
enduring trust and belief. The fact of social reality is grounded in
patriarchy and its multiple__often insidious__ manifests. This
cannot happen unless both genders are complicit in patriarchy. In the
gutty realism of everyday life, one encounters the personal as
political.
In the play, Mrs Bharathi is the one who becomes political. Along with
her politically influential father, Bharathi manages to manipulate the
politics of gender, her own advantage, to disadvantage of her girl
child. The mother of Tara in past indulges to make relationships
political. The play illuminates the fact that the mother too stimulated
being a part of discourse of patriarchy. Discourse according to Foucault
is:
ways of constituting knowledge, together with the social practices,
forms of subjectivity and power relations which inhere in such
knowledges and relations between them. Discourses are more than ways of
thinking and producing meaning. They constitute the ’nature’ of the
body, unconscious and conscious mind and emotional life of the subjects
they seek to govern (Weedon, 1987, 108).
A personal space becomes a possible area for political actions. The
personal space is the family where actions are determined through
functioning of a discourse. ‘Discourse manages and label subjects on the
basis of definitions which simultaneously produce the identity…’
(Waugh 434) Political power functions in and spreads to various spaces,
where there is potentiality of an essential change and transmutation.
Therefore there can be basis for ‘political optimism’. Discourse creates
relationship of power and knowledge which then become framework, within
which human thought and action is possible. Foucault believes power is
always relational produced through a discourse. It ‘comes from
everywhere’ which is always relational and intersubjective.
The political power comes from anywhere, sometimes from the most
unexpected areas. It is sometimes from the most personal ways, where
everyone becomes an object to the power. Power is exercised through
numerous ways.
… Power is exercised through networks, and individuals do not
simply circulate in those networks; they are in a position to both
submit to and exercise this power. They are never the inert or
consenting targets of power; they are always its relays. In other words,
power passes through individuals. It is not applied to them. (Society
Must be Defended 29).
Tara explores a fact that, power ostensibly comes from the
matriarch-Mrs Bharathi. A scratch on the surface shows Bharathi herself
is complicit in the discourse of patriarchy. Her choosing the leg for
her son is to ultimately affect her children for their entire lives.
Mrs Bharathi engages in power relations which are complex and affects
her and the people around her. According to Foucault, power and
knowledge function in a society to exert focal areas of social control.
This control of power on people is always relational and
intersubjective. The society and the father of Mrs Bharathi are
responsible factors in making her complicit in patriarchy.
The function of any social system is governed through a system of power
which works within a discourse. A discourse or discourses at work
function in way which constitutes subjects in a society. A society is
based on male gender where his power is absolute and unquestionable. He
dominates other individuals in his power. In the play initially the
mother of Tara is complicit. Later in the play the mother under the
influence of guilt and helplessness, turns neurotic and dies.
The current research has dealt with several areas like the body image,
men as feminist and Tara as received by the audience. These themes
illuminate facts about the society, individuals, and the flow of power
through relation affect and place individuals in a social system.
Mahesh Dattani through the play Tara brings the attention of his
audience that politics is a part of a social system. It works through
power that comes from everywhere. Power is not present within one source
but it present everywhere, it is always relational and intersubjective.
Michel Foucault rightly says, ‘Power is not an institution, and not a
structure; neither is it a certain strength we are endowed with; it is
the name that one attributes to a complex strategical situation in a
particular society’.
Power sometimes, inheres in institutions, through which it works upon
individuals. A society is on such medium or institution through which
power works and creates subjects like Mrs Bharathi. Power functions in a
way and creates subjects that are a part of a discourse. Mrs Bharathi is
a part of one such discourse, the discourse of patriarchy she has
internalized as a subject.
Power is associated with control and authority, which is again
associated with the male gender. Max Weber defines power as; ‘the chance
of a man or a number of men to realise their own will even against the
resistance of the others who are participating in the action.’(Hindess,
1996:2)
The current research, gives a further step to some other scenarios to be
discussed from play. The play highlights how gender roles are
constructed in a society. ‘ Dattani focuses on the family as a microcosm
of society in order to dramatize the ways we are socialized to accept
certain gender roles and to give preference what is male’. (CP 320) A
further study can be done on the twins, as they are considered as ‘two
sides of the same self’ (CP 320) where the alter ego of Tara and Chandan
can be explored.
It is interesting to know that the play expresses the personal meeting
into the political as subjects are discursively constituted. They are
involved in relations of power that are dynamic. Tara opens up
the debate about the personal becoming the political in the light of an
urban contemporary Indian culture.