Study of Suchitra Bhattacharya and Kalpana Swaminathan of
Select Detective Fiction: A Comparative Analysis
Nibedita Karmakar,
Ph.D. Research Scholar,
Central University of Jharkhand,
Ranchi, Jharkhand, India.
&
Dr. Mayank Ranjan,
Associate Professor,
Central University of Jharkhand,
Ranchi, Jharkhand, India.
Abstract: The growing genre of detective fiction has
created its space for female protagonists, and these writers are creating more
prominent and promising sleuths for their readers. A comparative study of two
prolific writers from two different backgrounds of literature of the same genre
gives an image of the perspectives that bring the writers together. Suchitra
Bhattacharya and Kalpana Swaminathan have one thing in common, as both writers
fight back against their way to a genre which was once dominated by males. The
similarities are easy to find, but the differences are not. This paper will try
to find the differences through an analytic study of narrative techniques and
themes that new Indian writers have been concerned about.
Keywords: Woman, Detective
fiction, Woman Detective, Bengali detective literature.
Introduction:
The canon of detective fiction has traditionally been dominated by male protagonists and writers shaping the narrative structure and conventions. After translating Western works into regional languages, the Indian detective genre developed a trajectory of creating male detectives who reflected ‘Indianness’ in their works. Detective fiction in Bengali literature has iconic male detectives such as Sharadindu Bandopadhyay’s Bomkesh, Satyajit Ray’s Felu Da and Nihar Ranjan Gupta’s Kiriti Roy. This series of novels has taken socio-political and cultural issues into account, but failed to acknowledge the female voices. Satyavati, wife of Bomkesh, is an intelligent woman, but her existence remained confined within domestic life. This dis-acknowledgement of intellect and intelligence, or mentioned as a minor character of a specific gender, “against which lady detective fiction was developed” (Sagarika, 12).
The 19th and early 20th
century Indian Writing in English in detective fiction was “a dominant trend in
the development of the post-millennial writing scene” (Dawson Varughese 2013,
101).The post-millennial writers dealt with ‘recolonised’ issues that educated,
middle-class ‘New Indian Women’ encountered in society. Adultery, abuse,
domestic violence and plotting for murder are not new subjects for the crime
and detective genre, but the genre has certainly renewed its characters,
reversing the role of a gender that once suffered space within a novel, and are
now in empowered positions and reflecting broader social shifts.
In search of recognition, space, and
to counterattack the norms that women had historically been subjected to in
Bengali literature, iconic writer Suchitra Bhattacharya created Mitin Mashi, a
female detective, clad in a saree, married and yet an independent Private Eye
Investigator, young, sharp and a character way ahead of her time. Often mocked
by her husband for her intuitions on a case, Mitin proves him wrong at the end.
Whereas Kalpana Swaminathan’s Lalli is an old retired police officer who is
referred to as a ‘Last Resort’ (LR). This paper aims to discuss these two
writers who differ in language and cultural context but are united in their
thematic expression of the gendered space in detective fiction. Through a
comparative discussion of the narrative structure, Suchitra’s Bish
(poison), Trisha mara geche (Trisha has died) and Lalli’s The Secret
Gardener and Monochrome Madonna are being reread here to understand
the narrative techniques suggested by Todorov and if these contemporary writers
have obeyed the rules. The second section of this paper will try to understand
the ideas of femininity reflected through the sleuth heroines and other female
characters in these selected novels. Suchitra Bhattacharya and Kalpana
Swaminathan are two female writers from two different cultural settings and
language binaries who write to “shatter the glass ceiling of patriarchy,
bringing a new narrative” (Sagarika 12). Scholars like Lisa Lau, Minakshi
Thapanargue that women often carry the embodied representation of women in
literature as a medium of patriarchal norms; therefore, this paper seeks to
find whether these characters assert the agency of New, progressive, assertive
and women of modern India.
Narrative techniques of Suchitra Bhattacharya and Kalpana
Swaminathan
Charles Rzepka, in the introduction,
“What Is Crime Fiction”, to his book A Companion to Crime Fiction,
observes:
Detective fiction has invited a great
deal more critical discussion than fiction. The analytical feature of detective
fiction has made it more interesting to the theorists of language, form and
representation than crime fiction in general. (Rzepka, Introduction 1)
The genre of crime and detection is
interlinked and inseparable; the latter is the reason of the cause, the former.
The only difference between crime and detective fiction is that crime fiction
can be woven alone, but detective fiction is a compact course of crime and
action, where a special character called the sleuth, who would unveil the
crime. Todorov argues that the crime genre needs to have a rule “to establish a
structuralist framework within which the crime novel might be read critically
as a literary device with its own internal logics and conventions, as well as
being read for pleasure and distraction” (Todorov, 293). Tzvetan Todorov, while
explaining a classic ‘whodunit’, said it should have two parts: one, the crime
at first, and the second is the investigation of that crime. In a structure
like that, a detective should be immune; in Swaminathan's Monochrome Madonna
(MM 2012), Lalli remained unharmed and made sure to keep Remona, the cousin
of Sita, alive and unharmed. The story of MM, began with a phone call, a victim
who had been drugged and a corpse lying in her apartment. The story is built
around a murder, and Lalli is the Last Resort for the police. When the story
started to unfold as Todorov has suggested, “the discovery of the crime from
the revelation of the killer are devoted to a slow apprenticeship: we examine
clue after clue, lead after lead” (295). Which leads to the obsession of
husband with his wife becomes the first suspect of the murder. Similarly,
Swaminathan’s The Secret Gardener (2013): one murder and two deaths, a
story with lots of medical references and compact with suspense, which matches
one of the criteria of Todorov’s rule of detective fiction. Todorov, in his
essay, The Typology of Detective Fiction 1966, mentions that “The second
form is suspense, and here the movement is from cause to effect..”
(297). Kalpa Swaminathan, as a detective storyteller, has not failed to engage
its reader with the right amount of suspense and crime. Hernovel began with a
murder or corpse, which led to its many suspense and deep involvement of the
detective, who is immune to any danger.
Suchitra’s Mitin Mashi recollects the essence of early detective fiction by male writers, which followed Western trends. Mitin Mashi, as a narrative structure, has followed not only Todorov’s rule but also the ‘ten commandments’ suggested by Monsignor Ronald A. Knox in the book The Best English Detective Stories of 1928. Mitin’s encounters with crimes and solves with her intuitions, and like every other early male detective fiction, she reveals the culprit in a dignified way. Mitin Mashi is a Private Eye Investigator who is more trusted than the police. In Trish Mara Geche (Trisha has died), Tamal, a helpless landowner, called Mitin to inform her of the suicide of a tenant. Suchitra's stories are also divided into two sections, one of “This novel contains not one but two stories: the story of the crime and the story of the investigation” (295).Suspense and Thrill in the second part of these novels involved the author when the past of the characters encouraged them to question what happened and what will happen next. Trisha, in Trisha Mara Geche, in an interrogation, Mitin comes across that Trishahad a relationship with her third cousin sparked the interest as one suspect being identified.
Ajay- One thing is clear than Prashant can be the murderer.
Sukanya- May be! Could be, it's him!
(Trisha Mara Geche, 210)
Suchitra and Kalpana are two
exceptional writers in the detective genre; their narrative techniques use
multiple suspects and a character, which arouses the interest of the reader to
know what happened next. A third person writing, for Lalli, Sita, her niece, is
her assistant who glorifies Lalli and her way of deconstructing a case, whereas
Mitin Mashi has her niece, Tupur, though she is not a writer but a real
assistant who follows her in solving cases. The sleuth heroines solve crimes
like one solves puzzles. Todorov’s suggested rules were to engage the readers
through the narration, giving them space to solve the crime by themselves;
however, our female writers only focused on the narrative structure, following
the rules, also concentrated on the themes that the New Indian readers will
read.
Early 20thcentury writers,
especially women writers, emerged not only to reflect cultural specificities
but also to subvert the long dominance in a genre driven by male perspectives
and voices.“Indian crime fiction can certainly be read as ‘writing back’ to the
Western canon and can be analysed accordingly” (Meyer, 106).According to Neele
Mayer, post-colonial female writers strike their presence with a female sleuth,
who is the agent of femininity and modernity. The latter section of this paper
is dedicated to understanding the writers and their female sleuths, and will
try to analyse the differences they bring through the study from a feminist
perspective.
Suchitra Bhattacharya and Kalpana Swaminathan: New Indian
Female Writers.
In Bengali literature, women
characters have suffered their course as they did not have a prominent
character role in the Detective genre, as mentioned above, Sharodindu
Bandyopadhyay’s Satyavati, an educated, intelligent woman, young and dark
skinned, could not set out of the domestic scenes. Dr. Nihar Ranjan Gupta’s
Kiriti Roy’s wife, Krishna, was also a silent and confined character. Whereas
Feluda by Satyajit Ray had no female character either of love interest or any
other, than a few mentions of side characters. Earlier in Bengali literature,
women were the subject of Andermahal, popular fictions like detective
stories were out of their league as the bodholoks were the dominant, an
image of bhodromohilla in detection or as a writer could not even cross
their minds then (Chatterjee 61).The first Bengali lady detective is Prabhabati
Devi Saraswati’s ‘Krishna Series’, though it was less of a lady
detective story, rather about “how to escape from a dangerous situation if they
encounter a criminal or a venturesome situation” (Sagarika 12). Suchitra
Bhattacharya was a believer of the feminist perspective; her other novels,
other than Mitin Mashi Samagraha, Udo Megh dealt with the
dimensions of gender problems. Her remarkable writing on domestic problems,
emancipation and the dilemma of women in a modern world has created a unique
place in modern Bengali literature. Suchitra’s Miting Mashi was first published
in Anandalok magazine and was not in a book form at first; later, it
transformed into a book with a collection of Mitin’s stories. Mitin is a
middle-aged Private Eye Investigator, married to Partha, has a son, Bumbum and
a niece, Tupur. Mitin is a pakka detective, her eyes could not avoid a
single clue, she has a strong intuition, and never fails. Suchitra’s writing
skills are humble enough for her readers to become a part of the novel and the
crime. She cooks, she guides her son, takes care of the household, with her house
help, Minati. Partha might have doubted her intuition, but she believed in
herself so did the victims.
Kalpana Swaminathan’s Lalli has Sita,
her niece, being a good niece, Sita is, she writes glorious stories of her
aunt's success. Lalli is a retired police officer, in her sixties, called Last
Resort, as she connects with the criminals and certainly has more connections
from both worlds. The rise of Indian Writing in English opened a market for
many writers, and so did their readers. The first female detective fiction in
English is Detective Janki by Kamla Sathianandhan, published in 1944.
Scholars like Dowson have stated that in the past ten years, the crime fiction
genre has been a dominant trend and its market has grown prolifically (Dowson,
101). Lalli made her debut in The Page Three Murder (2006). Lalli is
unmarried, old and does not behave as her age, is a chain breaker character in
the milieu of detective Fiction.
Lalli and Mitin Mashi: A feminist Approach:
Lalli and Mitin Mashi are two different
characters, as mentioned above, this section will take two fictions, each from
the writers. in Bish (poison), a lady, Labanya Mukherjee, being judged because
of her personal life, a woman of around forty-five, visits Mitin to inform her
about her problems in her domestic life, she believed that she was being slowly
poisoned by her husband; to be investigated, she went to Mitin. In a world
where male dominates, a woman is easily judged and blamed for her deeds.
Labanya Mukherjee is being portrayed as a woman who believed in social
gatherings, parties, and her nature; therefore, she was not acceptable to her
family. Even her daughter believed that she was not a good woman. The police
officer also believed that Labanya is behind the murder, “Male characters view
her as a desperate over-sexualised woman and are depicted as someone not
normal, from the point of view of patriarchal social discourse, so the violence
done to her is justified, without any proper investigation” (Sagarika,13). In Trisha
Mara Geche, Trisha killed herself to protect herself from the predators in
the disguise of her lover. The two men she believed in have betrayed her: her
relationship with her third cousin, Prashant, who used her for money to keep
her secret safe, and her boyfriend, who was controlling her life. These
characters are subjected to suppression by the male. Labanya, who, tired of
finding love outside of the house, and become wrong for the world.
In The Monochrome Madonna, the story
deals with a psychological concept where Sitara is involved in a club, and to
hide her secret life, she frames her husband, Vinay. To punish her, Sitara
writes a diary and enters her journal in a way that tells that Vinay cheated
with multiple women and later killed them. She collects various products from
different sources and plants them in a way to looks believable. Sitara indulged
herself in a club where she met and satisfied her desires, which she could not
get from her husband. Whereas in The Secret Gardener, Varsha kills Rita,
who has an affair with her husband, Anil, in an unfortunate event, her plane
crashes and she dies, and her secret dies with her. Her body is found after 10
years. This novel has many references to medical logic (TSG, 209). With a
finger, Lalli found the body and later the story of a murder after a decade had
passed.
Lisa Lau, in her essay ‘No longer
good girls: sexual transgressions in Indian women’s writings’ writes about
‘good’ and ‘bad’ modernity, where women are expected to adopt the modernity in
such a way that it does not hurt the patriarchal sentiments. Thanapn writes
that women should be modern but should not forget their roots to traditions.
The above-mentioned novels and their characters are a different kind of ‘breed
of women’.
Conclusion
Suchitra and Kalpna are different; the
former is a woman who represents a woman who is smart and solves cases, yet she
is being questioned. Suchitra’s Writings are more concerned with family and
domestic issues, whereas Lalli is more concerned about the broader issues of
cheating and the psychology of a criminal. Studying these novels helps
understand the perspective of a woman in their world, being confined within a
language barrier. Lalli, written in English, has a broader readership. This
analysis also finds that Suchitra or Kalpana, these women writers took women as
their main ingredient to bring out the problems embodied by women in real or
fiction.
Works Cited
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the Politics of Gendered Space: Reading Select Indian Women Detective Fictions
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Klein, Kathleen Gregory. The
Woman Detective: Gender and Genre. Urbana: U of Illinois P, 1988. Print.
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