Sarojini Sahoo

Sarojini Sahoo is a key figure and trendsetter of feminism in contemporary Indian literature. For her, feminism is not a "gender problem" or confrontational attack on male hegemony and, as such, differs from the feminist views of Virginia Woolf or Judith Butler.[11] Sahoo accepts feminism as an integral part of femaleness separate from the masculine world. Writing with a heightened awareness of women's bodies, she has developed an appropriate style that exploits openness, fragmentation, and nonlinearity.[12] Sahoo, however contents that whilst the woman identity is certainly constitutionally different from that of man, men and women still share a basic human equality. Thus the harmful asymmetric sex /gender "Othering" arises accidentally and 'passively'from natural, unavoidable intersubjectivity.[13]

Treating female sexuality from puberty to menopause, her fiction always projects a feminine sensibility. Feminine feelings such as restrictions during adolescence or pregnancy, fear factors such as rape or being condemned by society, the concept of the "bad girl," and so on, are treated thematically and in-depth throughout her novels and short stories.

Her feminism is constantly linked to the sexual politics of a woman. She denies patriarchal limits of sexual expression for a woman and she identifies women's sexual liberation as the real motive behind the women's movement.[14] In South Asian Outlook, an e-magazine published from Canada, Menka Walia writes: "Sahoo typically evolves her stories around Indian women and sexuality, which is something not commonly written about, but is rather discouraged in a traditionalist society. As a feminist, she advocates women's rights and usually gives light to the injustices Eastern women face. In her interviews, she usually talks about the fact that women are second-class citizens in India, backing up these facts with examples of how love marriages are forbidden, the rejection of divorces, the unfairness of dowries, and the rejection of female politicians."[15] For her, orgasm is the body's natural call to feminist politics: if being a woman is this good, women must be worth something. Her novels like Upanibesh, Pratibandi and Gambhiri Ghara cover a myriad of areas from sexuality to philosophy; from the politics of the home to politics of the world. According to American journalist Linda Lowen, Sarojini Sahoo has written extensively as an Indian feminist about the interior lives of women and how their burgeoning sexuality is seen as a threat to traditional patriarchal societies.[16] Sarojini's novels and short stories treat women as sexual beings and probe culturally sensitive topics such as rape, abortion and menopause – from a female perspective.[17]

Sexuality is something that can be related to many other aspects of culture, tightly-linked with an individual life, or into the evolution of a culture. Anyone's class or ethnic or geographic identity could be closely associated to his/her sexuality, or anyone's sense of art or literature. Sexuality is not just an entity in itself.[14]

Still, either in West or in East, there is a reluctant outlook towards sexuality. Society has always tried to hide it from any open forum. But neither society, nor the legislature, or even the judiciary stand by the side of sexuality to support it.

In the West, James Joyce's Ulysses or even Radclyffe Hall's Loneliness in the Well or Virginia Woolf's Orlando are some examples which have to suffer a lot for describing sexuality in literature. Sexuality in literature grew with feminism.

Simone De Beauvoir, in her book The Second Sex, first elaborately described the gender role and problem away from biological differences. In Odia literature, Sarojini is considered a key figure to discuss sexuality in her fiction with a sincere effort to express her feminist ideas.[18]

Her novel Upanibesh was the first attempt in Odia literature to focus on sexuality as a part of social revolt by any woman.[19] Medha, the protagonist of her novel, was a bohemian . In her pre-marital stage, she was thinking that it was boring to live with a man lifelong. Perhaps she wanted a chain free life, where there would be only love, only sex and would not be any monotony. But she had to marry Bhaskar. Can Indian society imagine a lady with bohemianism?

In her novel Pratibandi, Sarojini has also described the thematic development of sexuality in a woman. Priyanka, the protagonist of the novel has to encounter the loneliness in the exile of Saragpali, a remote village of India. This loneliness develops into a sexual urge and soon, Priyanka finds herself sexually attached with a former Member of Parliament. Though there is an age gap between them, his intelligence impresses her and she discovers a hidden archaeologist in him.

In her novel Gambhiri Ghara, she describes an unusual relationship between two people: a Hindu housewife of India and a Muslim artist of Pakistan. It is a net-oriented novel. A woman meets a very sexually experienced man. One day he asks if she had any such experience. The woman, Kuki, scolds him and insults him by calling him a caterpillar. She said without love, lust is like hunger of a caterpillar. Gradually they become involved with love, lust, and spiritually. That man considers her as his daughter, lover, mother, and above all these, as a Goddess. They both madly love each other, through the internet and on the phone. They use obscene language and they kiss each other online. Kuki does not lead a happy conjugal life though she has a love marriage with Aniket. But the novel is not limited to only a love story.

It has a greater aspect. It deals with the relationship between State and individual.[20] Safique is not a Muslim by temperament, but as a historian, thinks the Pakistan of today has separated itself from its roots and looks towards Arabian legends for his history. He protests that the syllabus of history for the school would start from seventh century A.D., not from the Mahenjodaro and Harappa. Safique was once arrested after the bomb blast of London for allegation of being associated with the terrorist, but is it a fact? Later Kuki came to know that Safiques is trapped by a military junta. The ex-lover of Safique's wife had revenged on Safique by arresting him with an allegation of terrorism.

Here, the author deals with the question of terrorism.[21] There is often discussion about terrorism caused by an individual or by a group. Society rarely discusses terrorism caused by a state.

What is a state? Is it a group of people that resides within political and geographical boundaries? Are a state's identity, mood and wishes separate from its ruler? Is the wish of George W. Bush not considered as the wish of America? Has it reflected the mood and wish of the people of America? So, every time, the state's arranged anarchism or terrorism is merely a reflection of a terrorism caused by an individual. The great truth lies beneath Safique, as a terrorist, develops from the mind of a military man.

The author has successfully painted the difference of sensibility towards sexuality between male and female and has her own credibility for the frankness to deal with sensitive matters, be they matters of politics or matters of sexuality. She has gained a reputation and has her own place in the history of Odia fiction.[19]

• Upanibesh (1998)
• Pratibandi (1999) ISBN 81-7411-253-7
• Swapna Khojali Mane (2000)
• Mahajatra (2001)
• Gambhiri Ghara (2005)
• Bishad Ishwari (2006)
• Pakshibasa (2007)
• Asamajik (2008)

She has published ten anthologies of short stories.

Her English anthologies of short stories are:

• Sarojini Sahoo Stories (2006) ISBN 81-89040-26-X
• Waiting for Manna (2008) ISBN 978-81-906956-0-2

Her some of short stories have been anthologised in Hindi:

• Rape Tatha Anya Kahaniyana (2010) ISBN 978-81-7028-921-0

Some of her short stories have also been anthologized into Bengali:

• Dukha Aprimita(2012) is one of her Bengali version of short stories, translated by Arita Bhoumik Adhikari and published from Bangladesh.[22]

Her other Odia anthologies of short stories are:

• Sukhara Muhanmuhin (1981)
• Nija GahirareNije (1989)
• Amrutara Pratikshare (1992)
• Chowkath (1994)
• Tarali Jauthiba Durga (1995)
• Deshantari (1999)
• Dukha Apramita (2006)
• Srujani Sarojini (2008)

• Sahoo, Sarojini. Sarojini Sahoo Short Stories. Grassroots, 2006. ISBN 81-89040-26-X
• Sahoo, Sarojini. Waiting for Manna, Indian AGE Communication, 2008. ISBN 978-81-906956-0-2
• Sahoo, Sarojini. The Dark Abode, Indian AGE Communication, 2008. ISBN 978-81-906956-2-6
• Sahoo, Sarojini. Mithya Gerosthali, Anupam Prakashani, Dhaka, Bangladesh, 2007. ISBN 984-404-287-9
• Sukhara Muhanmuhin (1981)
• NijaGahirareNije (1989)
• Amrutara Pratikshare (1992)
• Chowkath (1994)
• Tarali Jauthiba Durga (1995)
• Upanibesh (1998)
• Pratibandi (1999)
• Gambhiri Ghara (2005)

• Oriya Women's Writing : Paul St-Pierre and Ganeswar Mishra, Sateertha Publication, ISBN 81-900749-0-3
• The Amari Gapa (Odia Literary Journal), Special Issue on Sarojini: May–July 2006

• [http://womensissues.about.com/od/feminismequalrights/a/FeminisminIndia_2.htm Sarojini Sahoo interviewed at The New York Times portal, About.com
• Sarojini Sahoo interviewed at French portal Indereunion
• South Asian Outlook