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Jane Tagore 's The Living And The Dead Essay

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Even though women were center stage in the 19th-century colonial nationalist conversation in Bengal, they were not invited to be a part of it. High caste, Brahmin Hindu traditionalists had a strong foothold on not only women’s freedom, but their simple value as individuals. The woman went from an innocent child-bride, to being a confined wife, and then an outcaste widow. Against their policy to stay out of the conversation, the British colonizers finally decided to step into the growing dialogue. Even though there were advocates for them, women continued to be discussed as objects between the British colonizers and Indian men, not as an individual to be considered. Exploring the literature of the time, written both by men and women, shows that though the women may not have been summoned to speak, their voice was being raised. In his short stories, “The Living and the Dead” (1991) and “Exercise-book,” (1991) Rabindranath Tagore brings forth the unnoticed woman’s voice in the Bengali nationalism colonial conversation, and he does so specifically through references to nature imagery. Through this imagery and in contrast to men’s conservative, oppressive, and “pure” desire for women in the nationalism conversation, one is able to realize what each woman was uniquely able to call out and contribute- the desire for societal, individual, and intellectual freedom.
Within “The Exercise Book,” Tagore uses nature imagery to both express how young brides felt, but also to critique the

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