Of Famines and Females

The Politics of Laksmi Bratakathas of Bengal

Authors

  • Saswati Sengupta University of Delhi Author
  • Sharmila Purkayastha University of Delhi Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/rosa.34408

Keywords:

Bhadralok, colonialism, famine, hunger, goddess, Lakṣmī Bratakathās, ‘New Woman’

Abstract

Laksmi Bratakathas in Bengal are religious narratives of the eponymous Hindu goddess who presides over prosperity symbolized through an abundance of rice. The reciting of these Laksmi Bratakathas is a sacral duty of the women of the Bhadralok, which remains a popular practice even today. The period of rise and proliferation of these specific narratives, from the eighteenth century onwards, coincides with catastrophic famines with which imperialism in Bengal starts and ends and which provide the historical motivations for requesting the intervention of the goddess of plenty. But there is a deliberate mystification of hunger as Laksmi displaces the problem of famine onto the axes of vice and virtue, which are specifically located in the transgressive figure of the 'New Woman'. Since this is also the period which ushers in a new construction of gender relations, the displacement in these Bratakathas is of critical importance. The article examines the ideological framing of hunger by locating the matrices of the colliding and colluding histories of colonialism, class and gender.

Author Biographies

  • Saswati Sengupta, University of Delhi

    Saswati Sengupta teaches English in Miranda House (Delhi University). She researches the relation between myth, literature, history and social relations and her publications include both academic work and fiction.

  • Sharmila Purkayastha, University of Delhi

    Sharmila Purkayastha teaches english in Miranda House (Delhi University). She researches the relation between literature and social movements.

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Published

2017-08-10

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Sengupta, S., & Purkayastha, S. (2017). Of Famines and Females: The Politics of Laksmi Bratakathas of Bengal. Religions of South Asia, 10(2), 172-192. https://doi.org/10.1558/rosa.34408