Thirst for Identity of Transgender in Mahesh Dattani’s Seven Steps around the Fire
Thirst for Identity of
Transgender in Mahesh Dattani’s Seven Steps around the Fire
Dr. B. Kathiresan P. Xavier
Associate Professor &
Head i/c Ph.D.
Research Scholar
Department of English Department
of English
Thiruvalluvar University Thiruvalluvar
University
Vellore – 632115 Vellore
– 632115
Abstract:
Mahesh
Dattani, a multifariousartistof contemporary Indian English drama, is a
director, actor, dancer, teacher and writer all rolled into one. This proposed
paper aims at Dattani’s ideas and concerns of transgender in Seven Steps around the Fire in order to
accept transgenderas a human being in the society. Transgender is considered as
neither male nor female in the society; rather they are looked down upon and
are marginalised and curbed. The society fails to offer equal rights to them.
It makes them feel inferior to the other fellow beings in the society mainly
because of the sex disparity.
In
this play, Kamala who is a transgender, gets married to a politically,
culturally, economically wealthy man named Subbu. Subbu’s father who is disgusted
by the act of their marriage kills Kamala as he thinks that his son shouldn’t
have married atransgender. In the great epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata transgenderis
considered equal to others in their courage and valour. Likewise, Dattani also
compares these transgenderto saints as in Ramayana and reveals his views
through his effective writing in his play Seven
Steps around the Fire. The proposed paper will concentrate on changing the
views about transgenderin order to accept transgenderas human beings and to be
recognised by the society.
Mahesh
Dattani is a man of drama with intelligence. Most of his
plays are related to the Indian middle class family. He shows gender issues,
problems of transgender community and place of women in Indian society. Dattani
concentrates on contemporary society and reality in the fast changing globe.
He’s a playwright on modern urban India and his plays are topical dramas. The
question he addresses in his plays is those of gender, sex, religion,
communaltension, feminine identity, same sex marriage and above all gay and
lesbian relationship but Seven Steps around the Fire concentrates on
identity crisis of transgender, male chauvinists and gender bias problems.
Transgender
is considered as neither male nor female in the society; rather they are looked
down upon and are marginalised and curbed. The society fails to offer equal
rights to them. It makes them feel inferior to the other fellow beings in the
society mainly because of the sex disparity. Mahesh Dattani’s plays often
feature characters who are questioning their identity and who feel ostracised
in some way (Jeremy Mortimer, “A note on a play, collected plays, 4). Mahesh
Dattani frequentlytakes his subjects as the complicated dynamics of the modern
urban family. His characters struggle for some kind of freedom and happiness
under the weight of tradition, cultural constructions of gender and repressed
desire. The most important aspect of Dattani’s plays is that they address the
“invisible issues” of contemporary Indian society. The second aspect of
Dattani’s playsis that they dive deep into human heart and create characters
true to life situations. Dattani brings out several contemporary major issues
in his plays: Tara, Dance like a man, Final solutions and Seven Steps
around the Fire.
In
Seven Steps around the Fire,Dattani portrays the
Eunuchs in allthe ways they suffer and questions why they are not considered as
humans. Eunuchs are socially andculturally marginalised and ostracised. Dattani
states the sufferings of Eunuchs,Munusamy, constable calls throughout the play
Anarkali as IT in neutral gender. Though they have all the feelings like other
genders, the society is not ready to accept them as human being.
But
Dattani in the play depictsthat each one of the societies treats transgender
equal to beggars.They don’t have own houses, and beg for food but our
government fails to providethem with basic needs. Whereas in the great epic
Ramayana,when Rama was about to bring Sita back from Sri Lanka, men and women
followed him out of love and devotion but Rama says “no man and woman should
follow me” (pg.no:239, collected plays vol.2) out of love the followers of Rama became transgender. Then they were
blessed by Lord Rama due to transgender’ love for him.On those days, they were
recognised as equal to the true followers of Rama which is exactly contrary to
the contemporary life. The society should provide them with equal rights,
opportunities and positions.
In
an interview conducted with Auro
(Transgender) by The Hindu( Source: The Hindu Magazine dated 17 January
2016) she replied that eunuchs were considered as women who gave pleasure for
the patriarchal society during night and not even considered as a human being
and added that they became invisible in the eyes of men during day.
Transgender
arenotblessed to get married and bear children.These two are important aspectsof
humanlife but unfortunately they are denied of these by the nature. In Indian
culture transgender are invited for many auspicious events tobless the celebrities
through which they receivemoney from the family. If the celebrities do not give
them any money the transgendermight curse them. May be because of these
activities the society refuses to accept them without understanding why they do
this and what their life style is.
The
play Seven Steps Around the Fire has a very strong exposition and we come
across Uma Rao, a teacher from Bangalore University, who is the wife of the jail
Superintendent, the daughter-in-law of the Deputy Commissioner and daughter of
a Vice- Chancellor. She belongs to reputed section of the society and she is
writing the thesis on class-gender basedpower implications. She is the model
for those womenwho wish to establish their individual identity in the
maledominated society. Instead of any conventional cases of domestic violence
and dowry deaths, she is interested in Hijra(Kamala)murder case for which one
of the Hijra of the community, Anarkali, has been arrested. The police had no
proof against Anarkali but as Suresh puts it, “we only arrested her because
there was no one else. There is no real proof against her. It could be any one
of them.”(CP p.33)
There
are no separate prisons for Hijras and she is put in a male cell. The play
reveals the chain of injustices that a Hijra has to encounter in the society
that has inborn bias against them. Anarkali is physically, mentally, verbally
and sexually abused in the lockup but nobody bothers about her. She herself is
fed up with the false information to meet Uma at first as she mistakes her for
a journalist. But Uma is able to win her confidence and assures her of her
release. She is the mouthpiece of the playwright and Dattani has projected an
image of modern Indian woman through her who fights against the traditional
useless values and questions the patriarchal system.
In
the play Anarkali is imprisoned for which she did not commit any crime and
there is no one to bail her even from her own social group. Champa is the head
of all transgender in the market area, though she receives all the income from
Anarkali, the head of Hijra is not ready to bail Anarkali out. Sothere is no
proper responsible means for the transgender totake care of them. They long for
love and money. Dattani attempts how far the transgender are socially and
psychologically affected individuals. Our society fails to provide and take
care of the transgender in order to mingle with other genders of the society.
The
powerful always exploit the weak. The transgender are not givenany respect in the society. They
have no right to be loved. If they tried to do so their fate will be like
Kamala. Not even they who try to give love to them have to suffer like Subbu in
the play. When the minister came to know about the marriage of his son, Subbu
with a transgender called Kamala, the minister burned Kamala to death, in order
tohide the secret marriage of his son fromthe society. From thisissueDattani
reveals that if wealthymencommit any crime, they will go to the extremeof
killingthe rival or the enemy.For which Government officials, police also help
them toescape fromthe criminalactivities. So thispaper aims to tell that viceis
punished and virtue is rewarded.
Man
will never accept his impotence, rather he will blamehiswife as Suresh denies
togoing to hospital, becausehe thinks that he is barren, if he goes to
hospital, it will be revealed. It is a domestic problem between Suresh Rao and Uma
Rao. So Dattani attemptsin his Seven Steps around the Firemany issues
like plight of transgender in the society, man’s inability to accept his
weakness. The powerful section of the society exploits the weak, police as
puppets in the hand of powerfulpeople. So Dattani tries to realise the plights
of transgender and accept them as one among the genders of us and emancipate
them from the socio gender bias.
References
Dattani, Mahesh.
Collected Plays. New Delhi: Penquin Books, 2000.
Das, Bijay
Kumar. Form and Meaning in Mahesh
Dattani’s Plays. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers,
2008.
Dattani, Mahesh.
Vol
II Collected Plays. New Delhi: Penquin Books,2000.
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