Kerur Vasudevacharya’s “Indira” – Part 2: Social change and other issues

In between the many fluctuations in the romance between Indira and Ramakanth, Vasudevacharya introduces a group of ‘social change agents’ with whom Indira and Ramakanth are seen engaged in debates regarding women‘s freedom, women‘s education, widow remarriage, language issues, and so on.  Many well-known reformers and their reform activities are lampooned here.  

Pandita Ramabai, who, through her social service activities and writings and campaigns for emancipation of women, came to epitomize the ‘female social reformer’ and who became well-known across the major cities of India during the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, is lampooned by Vasudevacharya as Pandita Radhabai, a social reformer.  Pandita Ramabai‘s work was positively acknowledged in Gulvadi Venkatarao‘s Indirabai, where her book Streedharma Neeti is introduced as an essential reading for young women and through Pandita Anandibai‘s character, who establishes a home-cum-school for young widows.

Cover of recent edition of Indira

In Indira, Vasudevacharya rewrites Pandita Ramabai‘s character as Pandita Radhabai, a caricature of Ramabai.  To add insult to injury, he makes Radhabai speak about herself. Pandita Ramabai‘s widowhood and her conversion to Christianity are satirized.  In Indira, Pandita Radhabai is shown as having married three times, each time after being widowed and her conversion is shown as coming after her marriage to a Father Cunningham in America. Seshadasacharya Adya (author of an early Kannada social play, Suvadana Bhaskara) is lampooned here as Phanindracharya Adya.  

Phanindracharya is shown here as marrying Nagalakshmi, who has been widowed thrice and that he is not bothered about her not being a virgin-widow.  The exaggeration and the language used for this description are gross and also show Vasudevacharya‘s unconcealed rage at these acts. Nagalakshmi is described as a woman who was ‘savoured’ by three husbands previously.

The meetings of the reformers at the Upasana Samaj is described by Ramakanth as being similar to Church sermons and rituals, with chapters being read out from The Bible. Vasudevacharya makes it clear that he sees all the reform activities as Western and more specifically Christian and that he would not have anything to do with such reforms.

Vasudevacharya was a student at Pune during the years 1889-1890 and was witness to the reformist-conservative debate between Agarkar and his followers demanding reforms and supporters of Tilak who wanted to uphold Hindu values.  Pandita Ramabai‘s activities were reported in their respective periodicals/ newspapers —Maratha, Kesari and Indu Prakash of the Tilak group and Sudharaka and Subodha Patrika of the reformist Agarkar group.  These debates would have influenced Vasudevacharya and coming from an orthodox, priestly family, he seemed to appreciate Tilak‘s views. This exposure could be the cause of his anger towards Ramabai and other reformers.

Apart from presenting the contemporary conservative attitude towards reforms, Vasudevacharya makes the novel topical by introducing elements like the names of newspapers that Ramakanth reads, the Kannada-Marathi language debate, Venkatacharya‘s popular translation of Bankimchandra‘s Vishavriksha that Indira reads, names and activities of religious and social reformers and long discussions on reforms.