Investigating
Menstrual Taboos in India: An Exploration of the Representation of Menstruation
in Literature and Cinema
Dr. Monica Khanna,
Head,
Foreign Language Department,
Ratan Tata Maharashtra State Skills University,
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.
Abstract: Menstruation, which
is a natural function of a woman’s body, just like respiration, digestion or
excretion, has been subject to differential treatment. Associated with being
impure or inauspicious, it has led to various taboos that have been imposed on
women over the years, ranging from social isolation to prohibition from entering
certain places and touching objects or people, to being treated as outcastes
and untouchables. Despite being an integral part of a woman’s life, the topic
has not been widely depicted in literature or cinema. This paper explores the
representation of menstruation in three selected literary texts from different
genres and periods, namely Kamala Das’s autobiography My Story, Shashi Deshpande’s novel The Dark Holds No Terrors and one story from Shahina K Rafiq’s
collection of short stories The
Menstrual Coupé. The paper further examines R. Balki’s film Padman, which revolves around the
theme of menstruation. Through a critical analysis of these four texts, the
paper emphasizes the need to discuss an issue that has been neglected, ignored
and disregarded, yet is responsible for the unjust ill-treatment meted out to
women over centuries.
Keywords – Menstruation, Taboos, Impurity, Representation
Methodology
The paper uses secondary research to explore the
representation of menstruation in Indian literature and cinema. It presents a
critical analysis of three literary texts from different genres including an
autobiography, a novel and a short story, as well as one cinematic text, from a
feminist perspective. It asserts the
importance of initiating a dialogue in order to bring about social change, and
to put an end to the shame, psychological trauma, unhygienic practices and
constraints that women face in their day-to-day lives.
Introduction – Origins and Manifestation of Menstrual
Taboos
Menstruation in various parts of India has for years been
synonymous with impurity, and associated with taboos that have their origins in
ancient times, but continue to be practiced even today.
The most popular explanation of menstruation in Hindu
mythology is found in the Vedas, which trace menstruation to the slaying of the
demon Vitra (Visvarupa) by Lord Indra. Aghast at the discovery that he has
slain a Brahman, Lord Indra divides his guilt between the earth, water, trees,
and women. When women accept the guilt,
it takes the form of menstrual flow that recurs each month, while also giving
them the privilege of bearing children. “Once women took on Lord Indra’s guilt
‘it’ [the guilt] became (a woman) with stained garments; therefore, one should
not converse with (a woman) with stained garments, one should not sit with her,
nor eat her food, for she keeps emitting the colour of guilt” (qtd. In Jairo,
210). It is this guilt which then becomes associated with impurity, turning
women into untouchable creatures during menstruation.
The ancient third century text Manusmriti regards
menstruating women as impure, compares them with people belonging to the lower
castes, and states that they should be avoided during this period. It advises
men to refrain from sexual intercourse with menstruating women “viewing
conception during menstruation as an omen that results in ill-behaved children”
(qtd. in Gopee 5). In fact, Jairo points out that, “Preventing from being in
presence of a menstruating woman even increments a man’s wisdom and long life”
(210), implying that staying away from a woman who is on her period can
actually benefit men.
Given the perception of menstruation as unclean, there
are multiple taboos that menstruating women are associated with, For instance,
women are forbidden from entering the kitchen, places of worship, or touching
holy books. It is also believed that the touch of a menstruating woman can turn
a cow infertile. Moreover, it is believed that menstruating women should not
touch pickles as apparently menstrual odour negatively affects preserved food,
turning it bad. Consumption of sour food like tamarind, pickle and curd is said
to impact the menstrual flow, and should supposedly be avoided.
Menstruation is also perceived as dangerous, and linked
to evil spirits. Apparently, women bury the cloth used during menstruation so
as to ensure that it cannot be used by evil spirits. “In Surinam, menstrual
blood is believed to be dangerous, and a malevolent person can do harm to a
menstruating woman or girl by using black magic (“wisi”). It is also believed
that a woman can use her menstrual blood to impose her will on a man” (Anand
and Garg).
The restrictions during menstruation are not limited to
Hinduism alone. Christianity also perceives the menstruating woman as impure, and
according to the guidelines of Leveticus, a person touching any object that a
menstruating woman has sat on would remain unclean until the evening. Sexual
intercourse with a menstruating woman would transmit menstrual impurity on to
him (Ott 4). Similarly, Islam also suggests that women stay away from praying
five times, fasting and sexual intercourse. However, women could offer duas and
offer praises to God. Sikhism, on the contrary, does not perceive menstruation
as unclean, and women can go about their daily routines, including visiting a
Gurudwara when they are on their period (Gopee 6).
While there are numerous taboos associated with
menstruating women, there are also communities where the onset of menstruation
is a time for celebration. The Dehast Brahmins follow a period of seclusion in
menarche, but follow it up with rejoicing, wherein the girl sits on a throne,
is bathed in ceremonial oil and showered with presents by her relatives. Nayari
girls follow a similar celebration at the culmination of the seclusion period.
They are dressed in new ‘womanly’ garments, and enjoy a feast which is
accompanied by drum beats of jubilance (Gupta 11). In Mahadevar temple in
Kerala, for instance, the menstrual cloth used by Goddess Parvati, is regarded
as auspicious, and is supposed to be instrumental in curing infertility or
menstrual irregularities (Gopee 5).
Diversity of Perspectives - Representation of
Menstruation in Literary Texts
Despite being such an integral part of a woman’s life,
menstruation has not been a topic of repeated discussion or representation in
literature. However, a few Indian women writers, over the years, have explored
the experiences of menstruation in various genres of literature. This section explores the depiction of
menstruation in the writings of Kamala Das, Shashi Deshpande and Shahina K.
Rafiq.
Kamala Das, in her autobiographical work My Story,
traces the events in her life from her early childhood to adulthood, narrating
not only her personal experiences, but also the impact of those experiences on
her personality and thought process. In the chapter ‘I prayed to the Sun God to
give me a male child’, she narrates her attainment of puberty, an event that
she has obviously been unprepared for. She is horrified to see the large spots
of blood on her frock, and to feel blood trickling down from her thighs on to
the floor. “I am ill, I am dying, I cried to my mother. Something has broken
inside me and I am bleeding,” (56). It is evident that her mother has never
discussed menstruation with her, and therefore her reaction to the blood is
that of fear and anguish. Interestingly, the reaction of the mother is
nonchalant, and she treats menarche as a natural event in the life of a girl.
“My mother lifted my dress, and said with a laugh, it is
nothing to be worried about, it is what all girls get at twelve or thirteen…
She asked me to change my dress and taught me to wear sanitary pads. She told
me that the blood only showed that I was ready to be a mother,” (56). She seems amused at the girl’s distress and
anxiety, but puts her at ease with her by responding in a matter-of-fact
manner.
Ankita Gupta points out, “not only is Kamala’s narrative
devoid of the taboos of menstruation; but, also that at the time of her period
her maid servant carried her to the prayer room, which shows a lack of
menstrual taboo on the account of religious impurity in Kamala’s social and
cultural setting” (12).
Das therefore defamiliarizes the taboos associated with
menstruation, by treating it as a natural biological phenomenon which is an
inevitable part of transformation from a girl to a woman – a transformation
that enables a girl to bear children. The role of the mother becomes crucial in
defining the implications of menstruation for a girl.
Unlike the mother figure in My Story, the mother
of the protagonist Saru in Shashi Deshpande’s The Dark Holds No Terrors,
imposes restrictions on her daughter, turning menstruation into a traumatic,
dreaded experience. While the narrator in My Story is shocked and taken
aback when she gets her first period, Saru is aware of menstruation as she has
heard about it from older girls. Yet, she prays for evasion of this curse. “It
was like death. You knew it was there, you knew it happened to others, but surely
it couldn’t happen to you!” (62). Her prayers for a miracle to be “the one
female to whom it doesn’t happen” (62) go unanswered, and she is forced to
undergo torture, which is not restricted to bleeding alone, but extends to the
taboos that she is forced to deal with:
Not just the three days when I couldn’t enter the kitchen
or the puja room. Not just sleeping on a straw mat covered with a thin sheet.
Not just the feeling of being a pariah, with my special cup and plate by my
side in which I was served from a distance, for my touch was, it seemed,
pollution. No, it was something quite different, much worse, A kind of shame
that engulfed me, making me want to rage, to scream against the fact that put
me in the same class as my mother.
(Deshpande 62)
She resents the ostracism, isolation, and feeling of
untouchability and impurity associated with menstruation, besides the fact that
it puts her in the same category as her mother with whom she has a complex and
disturbed relationship. Menstruation appears to be something to be ashamed of -
a factor that differentiates women from men, deeming them inferior, destroying
their self-esteem, and emphasizing inequality in a patriarchal society. Jairo
discusses the experience of shame, and quotes Lee who states that “instead of
embracing menstruation as an affirmative experience, young women undergo
menarche as a dirty and shameful process, feeling that their bodies have been
contaminated” (212).
Another more recent book that discusses menstruation is
Shahina K. Rafiq’s The Menstrual Coupé. This collection of short stories
is a narration of personal experiences of women of different age groups,
religions, backgrounds and castes. The story ‘The Menstrual Coupé’, set in a
train compartment, offers diverse perspectives of women on the topic of
menstruation.
Triggered by the stomach cramps of Mithra, women seated
together begin sharing their own experiences of menarche. Jalpa narrates how she hid her periods
because she did not want to face the restrictions her cousin had faced. Her
cousin was forbidden from stepping out alone. “I began to believe menstruation
was a monster which would take away my freedom” (169). Zuhara talks about her
childhood when girls did not have access to sanitary pads, and had to use cloth
strips. She recalls covering her breasts with a ribbon. “I had to hide my
feminine growth as I lived in a house that got girls married when they matured”
(170).
Pramila reminisces about a girl in her class who became
the object of a children’s game. Anyone who touched her would have to wash
their hands to cleanse themselves, and the children played this game without a
tinge of sensitivity or empathy. “Vasanthi was an untouchable for a week. We celebrated
the week like a festival. We were too young to think about her feelings.
Vasanthi was forbidden from even drawing water from the well” (172). She
recounts the horror stories she was told about snakes getting enticed by the
smell of blood and searching for the cloth used during menstruation. “I
couldn’t go to the toilet or have a bath without imagining a snake lying in
wait for me. Snakes slithered in my dreams. Even today I am afraid of snakes”
(172). The trauma which manifests itself in childhood turns into a phobia, and
continues to haunt girls even in adulthood.
Other women talk about the problems they face in their
day-to-day lives. For instance, Vismaya remarks that they are not allowed to
use the bathroom at work. A North Indian
woman reveals that in her village, women who did not have enough money for
cloth, used mud and old sacks, and did not even have water to wash
themselves. Unlike the others,
Radhamani’s narrative is devoid of negativity and views menstruation as a
positive affirmation of womanhood, “The red energizes us and makes us women.
Even though we did not have the conveniences that you do, we never found it
unendurable. After bathing on the fifth day using herbs and green leaves, we
would be filled with energy. Each cell of our body would be filled with the
exhilaration of being a woman” (178).
The literary texts thus present a multiplicity of
perspectives on menarche and menstruation. Although none of the texts overtly
question or challenge the practices, they express the torment and mental
torture that menstruation brings with it. They trace the psychological impact
of menarche on young girls, and how the girls deal with their predicament.
Padman – Breaking the Silence on Menstrual Taboos in
Cinema
Menstruation, which is an integral part of a woman’s
life, has been virtually absent in Indian cinema. R. Balki’s Padman,
however, broke the silence on menstruation by cinematizing the story of
Arunachalam Murugantham, who brought about a transformation in the lives of
women through his innovation of creating affordable sanitary napkins for
menstrual hygiene. While the film has been lauded for its efforts in attempting
to start a dialogue around an important subject that has been swept under the
carpets, it has also been critiqued for simplifying a problem of great
magnitude, as well as for promoting a product that is not eco-friendly.
The film revolves around Laxmi, who is aghast to see the
dirty rag his new bride Gaytari uses during menstruation, recognising the
danger and risk it poses to her health. He is further perturbed to see her
isolating herself and sleeping in a secluded area outside the house when she is
on her period. When Gayatri rejects the sanitary pads he buys for her on
account of unnecessary and excessive expenditure, Laxmi takes it upon himself
to create cost effective sanitary napkins not only for his wife, but also for
the other women in his family. However, his actions embarrass the women in the
household, and Gayatri tells him that she would rather die of disease than live
with the shame that his actions cause her. She insists that he should not get
into women’s issues, and give up his endeavours.
It is interesting to note that all the women in his
family condemn his actions, and accuse him of being perverted. They distance
themselves from him, leaving him to embark on his journey alone. He garners
support from Pari, who encourages him to participate in an innovation
competition on social development, and goes door to door educating women on the
importance of feminine hygiene, consequently helping them earn money and become
independent by taking loans to start factories for manufacturing pads. The contrast between the women in his family
who initially reject him, and strangers who support him, is stark indeed, and
points to the resistance of women who wish to adhere to traditions and are
unwilling to accept transformation.
The film also juxtaposes the seemingly contradictory
customs of the seclusion and ostracism of menstruating women on the one hand,
and the celebration of puberty on the other. When a girl in the neighbourhood
attains puberty, it is celebrated with great fanfare, and all the women get
together to dance, rejoicing in her transformation from a girl to a woman.
According to Shailendra Kumar Singh, “the myths, taboos,
and restrictions surrounding menstruation in India are radically deconstructed
in the film through its emphasis on interrogating the idea of menstrual stigma
and period shaming vis-à-vis popular culture. The epistemological implications
of such destigmatizing representations are both profound and far-reaching even
as they effectively contribute toward the widespread proliferation of
grass-roots activism, menstrual counter-cultures, and third-wave feminist
practices” (118).
The film’s attempt to question and eradicate taboos not
merely through its narrative, but also its promotional tactics, wherein
Bollywood celebrities posted pictures of themselves holding sanitary napkins on
social media, have come under attack by theorists who feel that the problem is
far more complex and deep rooted than what it appears. Prasad states, “the
challenge claims to eliminate the stigma and taboo surrounding menstruation.
This is not only untrue but also reduces the problem to something exceedingly
simple that can be solved with a few pictures, and most importantly, it takes
away from the real efforts put in by several people working against
menstruation taboos.” She claims that it would not be appropriate to normalize
menstruation, which is perceived by Indian society as disgusting, merely by
taking photos of celebrities. She adds, “In a country where people aren’t even
educated about menstruation and constantly buy into myths about it, educating
people against taboos should be the first and foremost priority.”
Another challenge that critics have observed is the
sustainability of sanitary napkins, and their impact on the environment. As
Namita Bhandare points out, “A pad, made of superabsorbent polymers with a
plastic barrier, can take as long as 250 years to fully decompose. These are
now clogging urban sewage systems, landfills, rural fields and water bodies”
(Bhandare). Although there are alternate products available, she claims that
these are either too expensive or still unacceptable by a “a country obsessed
with sexuality and virginity” (Bhandare).
While one film may not be able to alleviate period
poverty or create environmental awareness, Padman definitely questions
age old practices and traditions that have ostracized and isolated women for
their natural bodily functions, psychologically impacted women by making them
feel inferior, impure and uncomfortable, and also given rise to multiple health
complications, putting them at risk. Since popular culture plays a major role
in influencing the perceptions of people, this film is a significant milestone
and achieves in bringing a neglected issue to the forefront.
Conclusion
Menstruation has largely been regarded as a curse in
Indian society, and its association with impurity has impacted millions of
women over the centuries, both physically and mentally. While the use of
unhygienic products has taken its toll on their bodies, social taboos have
impacted them psychologically, causing them to feel ashamed of their own bodies
and its natural functions. The ostracism and isolation have destroyed their
self-esteem, reinstating the belief in gender inequality and subservience of
women.
The taboos around menstruation are not limited only to
practices and social customs, but exist even in terms of representation.
Menstruation as a theme is largely absent from literature and cinema, despite
the fact that it affects half the population. The paper has explored the
representation of menstruation in literature and cinema through a critical
analysis of selected texts. While the autobiography of Kamala Das treats
menstruation as normal, Deshpande’s novel explores the constraints that
menstruation poses for a young girl. Rafiq’s short story provides a multitude
of perspectives, each being defined by the socio-cultural background of the
woman sharing her experience. While all three literary texts merely touch upon
menstruation as a passing phase of a girl’s life, it becomes the central theme
of Balki’s film, which is also rare for being a cinematic text to explore the
issue. By merely taking up the taboo
subject in its narrative, all the texts pave the way for dialogue, conversation
and social change. It is difficult to achieve a metamorphosis in attitudes
overnight, but at least by initiating a discussion on the taboo topic, the
process of transformation has begun.
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