by
Laxmibhai Tilak a new translation from the Marathi Original
by Louis Menezes SJ
(New Delhi: Katha Publications, 2006)
The English translation of social reformer Laxmibai Tilak’s
autobiography Smritichitre dwells on the savagery of
patriarchy and ritualism of her era and her resolve to follow
her conscience.
Despite all one knows about domestic violence, there are
scenes in Laxmibai Tilak’s classic autobiography, Sketches
From Memory, just published in a new translation by Louis
Menezes, a Jesuit pries that stay in the memory as icons of
savagery.
Laxmibai’s mother-in-law is summoned by telegram to attend to
her husband who is allegedly ill. She trudges for miles with a
water-pot on her head, a baby in her arms, and young Tilak by
her side. After the journey they wash at the well, and she
carries the wet clothes as well. Approaching her husband she
says, “My pitcher needs to be set down.” In a rage he replies,
“I’m not any servant of yours!” and he “caught her by the neck
and kicked her in the back viciously.” Within a few days she
dies of the blows.
Set against this arrogance of power and twisted religiosity,
is the power that both Laxmibai and Tilak have to think for
themselves. When Tilak decides to become a Christian, she is
traumatized, and has no plans to follow him. But she continues
to work out her own values. She reaches a point when she
thinks that caste distinctions were made by man, not god, and
from that day on “eats and drinks from everybody’s hand.” She
attends Tilak’s prayer services, and chooses to become a
Christian as well.
It so happens that they chose to be Christians.
But what is important is that they chose, despite hardship, to
follow their consciences, to re-define for themselves what
religion and spirituality meant. This is what makes the book
relevant for our times. Susan Sontag has written somewhere,
“Every age has to reinvent the project of ‘spirituality’ for
itself.” Given the hordes rampaging through the country in the
name of religion, purity, anti-obscenity, authentic Indian
behaviour and the rest, it’s a project we are in urgent need
of undertaking.
Laxmibai and Tilak had a relationship of equals. But after his
death, she had the last word. “Tilak dragged himself to
death,” she said to her son. “When I meet him in heaven, I’ll
quarrel with him.”
Events
by
Laxmibhai Tilak
It so happens that they chose to be Christians.
But what is important is that they chose, despite hardship, to
follow their consciences, to re-define for themselves what
religion and spirituality meant. This is what makes the book
relevant for our times. Susan Sontag has written somewhere,
“Every age has to reinvent the project of ‘spirituality’ for
itself.” Given the hordes rampaging through the country in the
name of religion, purity, anti-obscenity, authentic Indian
behaviour and the rest, it’s a project we are in urgent need
of undertaking.