They say happiness and sadness come in a package deal but what if life threw both at you but in varying intensities? What if the weight of sadness is way heavier than that of happiness? Does life always strive for balance or is it a lie that we told ourselves to keep going? In the pre-independence era, when casteism was highly prevalent the society was constructed in such a way that this harmonious balance of joy and sorrow can never be attained by people belonging to the lower caste. Rudali by Mahasweta Devi and Usha Ganguli explores this theme in heart-wrenching details.
Rudali: A Glimpse
Mahasweta Devi was a prolific Indian writer whose work mostly focused on the lives of the marginalised communities of India. As a socio-political activist, she focused on bringing out the discrimination that a majority of the population in the country faced as a result of the caste they were born into. She had dedicated her life to fighting for them and her story Rudali just cemented her stance. Usha Ganguli on the other hand, was a celebrated theatre personality and social activist. Her background in the drama played its magic in weaving the threads of Rudali.
As with any other story trying to arouse sympathy in the minds of the readers, Rudali starts off by giving us a glimpse of Sanichari’s life, the protagonist of the story and a lady born into a low-caste community in India called Ganju. Mostly narrated in the third person, the tale draws our attention to the double oppression that Sanichari had to face every day as a result of depending on her oppressor for her income. Being a woman, especially one belonging to a lower caste didn’t help her case much either.
Her plight is vividly described in the book as everyone leaves her to fend for herself and she runs from pillar to post trying to ensure all of her relatives received a proper funeral. In order to ensure the same she had to ask for some financial help which only led to her getting caught in the vicious neverending cycle of debt. Entrapped and alone it was really hard for her to lead a decent life without being burdened with a streak of misfortune every step of the way. So, she decided to take the unconventional way to survive.
The Life of a Rudali
Rudali refers to a profession wherein women who act as professional mourners are hired to cry at someone’s funeral. This custom is prevalent among the lower-caste women of rural Rajasthan. Sanichari, a woman who didn’t shed even a single drop of tear on her close ones’ demise found her calling in the art of professional mourning.
Busy ensuring every funeral went smoothly and keeping herself alive, Sanichari never really got a chance to just take a break and be mad or sad about life in general. This further caused her to pent up all her emotions inside. So, when she realised she could earn good money by masking her frustration into sorrow in front of the shallow material world of the Malik-Mahajans, there was no time left to be wasted.
By building a union of rudalis by joining hands with the prostitutes who too were used and discarded by the social oppressors as and when they felt like it, Rudali managed to usher in an era where no voices went unheard. Sanichari turned the tide with the shrillness of her cry and made the upper-caste community watch in silence as she wailed decades’ worth of sorrow. She transformed from a naive, weak and dependent woman to an empowered shrewd businesswoman who could handle any curveballs that life threw her way.
Afterword
Clapping back at the double standards of the caste system which made a commodity out of grief, Rudali explores the themes of self-worth and makes one question how are the upper-caste any better than the oh, so, lower-caste people they look down upon if a grand funeral acts as their status symbol for the world to see. The story manages to showcase how the oppressed finally became liberated and empowered and found their voice in a cry that refused to be subdued. This tale is a true eye-opener for anyone who is unaware of the consequences of the highly prejudiced caste system which deprives one of their basic respect as a human being.
