Through a glass, starkly

What is the relevance of a well-written and translated biography from the past? The answer to this is best captured by C H Cooley's concept of the 'looking glass self'.

There are as many dimensions to the self as there are people one is capable of imagining and able to relate to in your life.

The self is a composite image of the reflections of all these social selves one chooses to capture.

The book captures these 'multiple- selves' in the biography that spans three generations of women, written by a woman, who is at one level tied to her time and social status and at the same time dared to go beyond it.

At one level it is an account of the births and deaths of people in her life. At another level it reflects on the narrator and what she chose to show in her reflections.

What is most striking is the dispassionate and distanced, almost detached (a detachment that comes out of a life well lived and ready to depart, like a yogi) account of the people that influenced her.

The narrative is controlled, mature and very well crafted and the economy of words is striking. A few carefully chosen words are able to reflect the objective reality and penetrating insights into the social structure of the household and women's life within it.

For example, the tension between the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law that she witnesses as a child is vividly sketched with few words and such penetrating insights without being judgmental: "she tormented her two daughters-in-law to the point of distraction".

And then, "in the end Grandma went blind and before that she witnessed the deaths of both her daughters-in law, my aunt after her twenty-first childbirth and my mother two years later".

None of the emotions and insights into the social milieu from the original script is lost in the translation.

Emotions are rarely expressed as was appropriate of that time and social strata, and where they are expressed, there is an almost apologetic explanation for why the emotions have been narrated.

The point of entry of the subject, Lady Yashodabai Joshi (1868 -1947), is no doubt the elite perspective coming from a specific social context.

Obviously a very intelligent lady with a sharp analytical sense, she was able to narrate the intertwining of custom and (social) environmental influence to explain the idiosyncrasies of the people she came in touch with and particularly her husband's motivation to work for women's causes.

It provides a perspective in the life of the elite. This is probably not the most fashionable thing to publish today, but the biography transcends that genera to capture other social historical dimensions which cannot be ignored.

It provides a unique gender perspective of domestic and personal everyday life and the changes in the social and political milieu of the time.

The images that are created by the narrative are beautiful and moving in a 'Monalisa' manner. There is no attempt to hide the baser emotions like violence against the women, or to highlight the grander achievements of the female family members.

The narration of her aunt's beating after she failed to open the door to her husband are narrated in the same detached and controlled manner summed up in the comment "such were the times and their customs" that makes it frighteningly powerful.

In addition to being an individual narrative, the book captures the details of social spaces and how they were shared and secluded.

The social structures and the social milieu captured in the narratives reflects the continuity with the past very effectively: "In the family Ganapati temple we housed several learned Brahmins and students learning Vedas. Grandmother personally took care of all their arrangements at her own expense."

This is still the practice in rural India among the better-off Brahmin families in more remote villages. Or, in the event of a wedding "everything had to be done by family, so all relatives were invited and came to help."

The most striking point was the duality between political life and social life maintained by the elite leaders of that time.

Since Sir Moropant had not performed the (religious) ritual of Parayaschita for his travels across the sea, even Lokmanya Tilak had to seat Moropant below his social stature during his son's wedding.

Numerous examples like this all throughout the book make for interesting reading. On a personal note, I gathered a good deal of knowledge about the social history of the Central Provinces and Berar, birth places of both my parents.

A MARATHI SAGA
The story of Sir Moropant and Lady Yashodabai Joshi

Yashodabai Joshi (translated by Maj. Gen. V. V. Bhide)
Namita Gokhale Editions/ Roli Books
Pages: 178/ Price: Rs 295