The Other Half of the Coconut: Women Writing Self-Respect History

186 Pages·2003·1.5 MB·English

by  Edited & translated from the Tamil by K. Srilata

The Other Half of the Coconut:
Women Writing Self-Respect History
An Anthology of Self-Respect Literature
(1928-1936)

Edited, Introduced and Translated from the Tamil by
K. SRILATA
ZUBAAN
128-B Shahpur Jat
First Floor
New Delhi 110049
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.zubaanbooks.com

First published by Kali for Women, 2003
Ebook published by Zubaan Publishers Pvt. Ltd, 2020

Copyright © This translation K. Srilata, 2003

All rights reserved

Print ISBN 978 81 86706 50 3
eBook ISBN 97 893 90514 22 9

Zubaan is an independent feminist publishing house based in New Delhi,
India with a strong academic and general list. It was set up as an imprint of
the well known feminist house Kali for Women, and carries forward Kali’s
tradition of publishing world quality books to high editorial and production
standards. ‘Zubaan’ means tongue, voice, language, speech in Hindustani.
Zubaan is a non-profit publisher, working in the areas of the humanities and
social sciences, as well as in fiction, general non-fiction, and books for
young adults that celebrate difference, diversity and equality for and about
the children of India and South Asia under its imprint Young Zubaan.

Ebook conversion by Digiultrabooks Pvt. Ltd
Contents
Acknowledgements
Preface

SECTION I
Stories, Treatises and Essays by Women Self-Respecters

Introduction: Getting Past the Legacy of Periyar:
Women and Agency in the Self-Respect Movement

The Self-Respect Journal: A Note

What is In Store For Us?
(Enngall Gathi Yenna?)
KAMALAKSHI

Womenfolk and Self-Respect Principles
(Penn Makkallum Suyamariathai Kollgaigallum)
TRICHI NEELAVATHI

Pankajam’s Tragic Death
(Pankajatin Paridaba Maranam)
ANONYMOUS

Rituals
(Sadangugal)
NEELAVATHI RAMASUBRAMANIAM

Which Grew Bigger—the Ring or the Body?
(Vallarnthathu Modirama Udamba?)
JANAKI

The Women’s Movement
(Penngall lyakkam)
MU. MARAGATHAVALLIYAR

Vignettes
(Kadambam)
NEELAVATHI RAMASUBRAMANIAM

The Skies Won’t Bring Forth Rain
(Mazhai Peyyathu)
JANAKI

The Sufferings of the Adi-dravidas
(Adidravidarin Thuyaram)
MU. MARAGATHAVALLIYAR

Half a Coconut
(Thengai Moodi)
JANAKI

Is Widowhood a Question of Fate?
(Vidhavaigall Aavadu Thalaividiyal)
TRICHI NEELAVATHI

The Ritual of Garuda Sevai
(Garuda Sevai Sadangu)
MISS AND MRS KAMALAKSHI

The Progress of Women
(Penngall Munetram)
MU. MARAGATHAVALLIYAR

Why Was Woman Enslaved? Muslim Women are
Slaves Too! The Plight of Muslim Widows
(Penn Yenn Adimai Aanaalll Muslim Penngallum
Adimaigalle Daan! Muslim Vidhavaigallin Nilamai)
ALHAJ SUBAKO

Is the Bliss of Freedom Not For Us?
(Inba Suthanthiram Yengallakku llaiyaa?)
NEELAVATHI RAMASUBRAMANIAM

A Bundle of Grass
(Pullu Kattu)
JANAKI

Will Educated Women Take the Initiative?
(Padittha Penngall Munvaruvargalla?)
TRICHI NEELAVATHI

Women in the Socialist World
(Samadharma Ulagil Penngall)
JAYASEKARI

SECTION II
The Self-Respect Novel
The Dasis’ Wicked Snares Or The Playboy Who
Came To His Senses
(Dasigal Mosavalai Alladu Madipettra Myner)
MOOVALUR A. RAMAMRITHAMMAL

Lobbying For Devadasi Abolition: From Artiste
to Prostitute

Excerpts from The Dasis’ Wicked Snares or the Playboy Who Came to His
Senses
(Dasigal Mosavalai Alladu Madipettra Myner)
MOOVALUR A. RAMAMRITHAMMAL

Conclusion
APPENDICES
Essays, Speeches and Letters by
Periyar E.V. Ramasami Naicker

An Introduction
The Law Prohibiting Pottukattu
(Pottukattu Nirutthum Shattam)
PERIYAR E.V. RAMASAMI NAICKER

No More Thali-Tying
(Thali Kattudal Ennum Sadangu Ozhindadu)
PERIYAR E.V. RAMASAMI NAICKER

Self-Respect Marriages and Marriages Devoid of
Self-Respect
(Suyamariathai—Suyamariathaiattra Thirumanangal)
PERIYAR E.V. RAMASAMI NAICKER

Biographical Notes

Bibliography
Acknowledgements
I thank the Professor V.S. Sethuraman Centre for Culture Studies at Mozhi:
Resource Trust for Language and Culture, Chennai for a book grant that
gave me the confidence to take on a project of this kind with its lengthy
gestation period, its uncertainties and attendant frustrations. The Mozhi
Trust and the Sethuraman Centre helped me in several ways. Firstly, they
gave me much needed institutional support which I would have lacked
otherwise as an independent researcher. Secondly, they ensured that I
received feedback from experts in the field of translation studies. Thirdly,
they took off my hands the difficult task of finding a suitable publisher. For
all these reasons, I am grateful to Mozhi and to the Professor V.S.
Sethuraman Centre for Culture Studies.
I wish to thank Professor C.T. Indra, Head, Dept. of English, University of
Madras for her support, encouragement and feedback.
To Mr S. Theodore Baskaran of Mozhi, I owe a huge debt of gratitude. He
has been an excellent and wise friend.
Dr Tejaswini Niranjana of the Centre for the Study of Culture and Society,
Bangalore belongs to that category of friends and mentors whom it is
impossible to thank adequately. This is but an inadequate attempt at
recording my gratitude. She was among the first to urge me to take up this
project. Her extensive comments on an early version of this book were
extremely useful.
Preeti Gill, Urvashi Butalia and Ritu Menon of Kali for Women, New
Delhi were both professional as well as prompt in their response and
feedback to various drafts of this manuscript. I thank them for the
enthusiasm with which they entered into the project of publishing this work
as well as for their suggestions and advice.
A recent grant from the Sunya Foundation, Ahmedabad has allowed me to
work on a related project that has also enriched this current one. I thank the
foundation for extending its support.
Vatsala, my mother, helped out extensively with the translation. She made
Dasigal Mosavalai come alive for me. Her insights on the particular
historical period in which some of the pieces in this book have been set,
were very valuable and have influenced the translation in no small measure.
Writing this book would have been a far lonelier process but for the
support I received from my collegues Roselin, Krupanidhi and Sujata at
Malarchi, a women’s resource centre in Chennai where I was working at the
time. Roselin was a willing and wonderful research assistant, and a great
friend.
Discussions with V. Geetha over my work have been unfailingly
productive. I owe her many thanks for her refreshing perspectives on the
Self-Respect movement as well as for her extensive and incisive
scholarship.
Dr Gita Krishnankutty was among the first to read and comment on my
work. I thank her for her extensive comments on the first (and in retrospect,
almost unreadable!) draft of my work and for her support and warmth.
Anita Cherian and Rekha Pappu took time off to read earlier drafts of this
work. Their friendship has kept me going through difficult times.
I thank P. Radhika for giving so generously of her time and commenting
on my work in its early stages.
Mr Ramakrishnan of Cre-A, Mr P.R. Subramaniam of Mozhi and Mini
Krishnan of the Oxford University Press have helped me in various ways. I
thank them for their encouragement and kindness.
I thank Subashree Krishnaswamy for her friendship and her insights into
the professional side of publishing.
Srividya Natarajan lent me her thesis on Bharatanatyam. In some ways,
the insights in her work have changed the structure of this book
Mr C.K. Sundararajan, the librarian at the Perasriyar Research Library at
the Anna Arivalayam, Chennai for the enthusiasm with which he sourced
out books and other material relevant to this project. He made the library a
happy place for me.
The librarian and staff of the Roja Muthiah Research Library for an
excellent work environment.
The librarian and staff at the Periyar Thidal library for their support.
By choosing to be born in 1999, a year when I foolishly hoped to tie up
this project, my son Aniruddha threw both my life as well as this book into
a state of general confusion! But for the unstinting support of my husband,
Mani, and my mother, Vatsala, this book would not have seen completion.
They have helped out in so many ways that to simply thank them seems
completely out of place. So I will let that be.
My parents-in-law Smt. Sobha Balaramamoorthy and Shri K.
Balaramamoorthy for their affection and support.
Jyoti for taking care of Aniruddha, leaving me a sacred two hour slot free
each day to do this work.
My friends Anuradha Shyam, Hema, Murthy, Meena, Madhavan, Sonati,
Sundar, Kakoli, Rana, Usha and Shiva for the bonhomie and good times.