Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T20:32:26.377Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

House/Daughter/Nation: Interiority, Architecture, and Historical Imagination in Janaki Majumdar's “Family History”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2010

Get access

Extract

My mother grew up in a small Punjabi village not far from Chandigarh. As she chopped onions for the evening meal or scrubbed the shine back onto a steel pan or watched the clouds of curds form in a bowl of slowly setting homemade yoghurt, any action with a rhythm, she would begin a mantra about her ancestral home. She would chant of a three-storeyed flat-roofed house, blinkered with carved wooden shutters around a dust yard where an old-fashioned pump stood under a mango tree.… In England, when all my mother's friends made the transition from relatives' spare rooms and furnished lodgings to homes of their own, they all looked for something ‘modern. ’ “It's really up to date, Daljit,” one of the Aunties would preen as she gave us the grand tour of her first proper home in England. “Look at the extra flush system … Can opener on the wall … Two minutes' walk to the local amenities …” But my mother knew what she wanted. When she stepped off the bus in Tollington, she did not see the outside lavvy or the apology for a garden or the medieval kitchen, she saw fields and trees, light and space, and a horizon that welcomed the sky which, on a warm night and through squinted eyes, could almost look something like home.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1997

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, Annmarie. 1996. Architecture in the Family Way: Doctors, Houses, and Women, 1870–1900. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ahmad, Aijaz. 1992. In Theory: Nations, Classes, Literatures. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Appiah, Kwame Anthony. 1992. In My Father's House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Askeland, Lori. 1995. “Remodeling the Model Home in Uncle Tom's Cabin and Beloved.” In Subjects and Citizens: Nation, Race and Gender from Oroonoko to Anita Hill, edited by Moon, Michael and Davidson, Cathy N.. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Auslander, Leora. 1996. “The Gendering of Consumer Practices in Nineteenth-Century France.” In The Sex of Things: Gender and Consumption in Historical Perspective, edited by Grazia, Victoria De. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Azim, Firdous. 1992. The Colonial Rise of the Novel. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bagchi, Amya Kumar. 1990. “Wealth and Work in Calcutta.” In Calcutta: The Living City, vol. 1, The Past, edited by Chaudhuri, Sukanta. Calcutta: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bannerji, Himani. 1995. “Attired in Virtue: The Discourse on Shame (Lajja) and Clothing of the Bhadramahila in Colonial Bengal.” In From the Seams of History, edited by Ray, Bharati. Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bhabha, Homi K. 1994. “Of Mimicry and Man: The Ambivalence of Colonial Discourse.” In his The Location of Culture. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bonnerjee, Sadhona. n.d. Life of W. C. Bonnerjee, First President of the Indian National Congress. Calcutta.Google Scholar
Bonnerjee, Sadhona. and Majumdar, Janaki. 1975. W. C. Bonnerjee and Hemangini. Calcutta: New Sakti Press.Google Scholar
Borthwick, Meredith. 1984. The Changing Role of Women in Bengal, 1849–1905. Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, Judith. 1988. “The Mahatma in Old Age: Gandhi's Role in Indian Political Life, 1935–1942.” In Congress and Indian Nationalism: The Pre-Independence Phase, edited by Sisson, Richard and Wolpert, Stanley. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Burton, Antoinette. Forthcoming. At the Heart of the Empire: Indians and the Colonial Encounter in Late-Victorian Britain. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Chakrabarty, Dipesh. 1989. Rethinking Working-Class History. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chakrabarty, Dipesh. 1993. “The Difference-Deferral of (A) Colonial Modernity: Public Debates on Domesticity in British Bengal.” History Workshop Journal 36: 133.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chatterjee, PARTHA. 1989. “The Nationalist Resolution of the Woman Question.” In Recasting Women: Essays in Colonial History, edited by Sangari, Kumkum and Vaid, Sudesh. Delhi: Kali for Women.Google Scholar
Chaudhuri, Nupur. 1997. “Nationalism and Feminism in the Writings of Santa Devi and Sita Devi.” In Interventions: Feminist Dialogues on Third World Women's Literature and Film, edited by Ghosh, Bishnupriya and Bose, Brinda. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc..Google Scholar
Coffey, John. 1996. “Democracy and Popular Religion: Moody and Sankey's Mission to Britain, 1873–75.” In Citizenship and Community: Liberals, Radicals and Collective Identities in the British Isles, 1865–1931, edited by Biagini, Eugenio F.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Dasgupta, Keya. 1995. “A City Away from Home: The Mapping of Calcutta.” In Texts of Power: Emerging Disciplines in Colonial Bengal, edited by Chatterjee, Partha. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1995.Google Scholar
Dutton, Ralph. 1954. The English Interior, 1500 to 1900. London: B. T. Batsford, Ltd.Google Scholar
Dutton, Ralph. 1954. The Victorian Home: Some Aspects of Nineteenth Century Taste and Manners. London: B.T. Batsford, Ltd.Google Scholar
Forbes, Geraldine. 1988. “The Politics of Respectability: Indian Women and the Indian National Congress.” In The Indian National Congress: Centenary Hindsights, edited by Low, D. A.. Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Forbes, Geraldine. 1996. The New Cambridge History of India, v. 4, Pt. 2: Women in Modern India. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grewal, Inderpal. 1996. Home and Harem: Nation, Gender, Empire and Cultures of Travel. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Hong Kingston, Maxine. 1976. The Woman Warrior. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Jameson, Frederic. 1986. “Third-World Literature in the Era of Multinational Capitalism.” Social Text 15 (Fall): 6588.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karlekar, Malavika. 1993. Voices from Within: Early Personal Narratives of Bengali Women. Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kishwar, Madhu. 1986. “Gandhi on Women.” Race and Class 28, 1: 4361.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kosambi, Meera. 1996. “Anandibai Joshi: Retrieving a Fragmented Feminist Image.” Economic and Political Weekly 31, 49 (December 7): 3189–97.Google Scholar
Koshy, Susan. 1997. “Mother-Country and Fatherland: Re-membering the Nation in Sara Suleri's Meatless Days”. In Interventions: Feminist Dialogues on Third World Women's Literature and Film, edited by Ghosh, Bishnupriya and Bose, Brinda. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc..Google Scholar
Kumar, Radha. 1994. The History of Doing: An Illustrated Account of Movements for Women's Rights and Feminism in India, 1800–1990. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Lessard, Suzannah. 1996. The Architect of Desire: Beauty and Danger in the Stanford White Family. New York: The Dial Press.Google Scholar
Light, Alison. 1991. Forever England: Femininity, Literature and Conservatism Between the Wars. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Majumdar, Janaki Agnes Penelope. 1935. “Family History.” Manuscript and typescript copies held privately.Google Scholar
Majumdar, Janaki Agnes Penelope. c. 1974?. Pramila: A Memoir. Privately printed.Google Scholar
Marangoly George, Rosemary. 1996. The Politics of Home: Postcolonial Relocations and Twentieth-century Fiction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Mazumdar, Shudha. 1989. Memoirs of an Indian Woman, edited with an introduction by Forbes, Geraldine. New York: M.E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Mclane, John. 1988. “The Early Congress, Hindu Populism, and the Wider Society.” In Congress and Indian Nationalism: The Pre-Independence Phase, edited by Sisson, Richard and Wolpert, Stanley. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Mcclintock, Anne. 1993. “Family Feuds: Gender, Nationalism and the Family.” Feminist Review 44: 6180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitchell, Sally. 1996. Daily Life in Victorian England. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press.Google Scholar
Morrison, Toni. 1987. Beloved. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Mukherjee, Manickal. 1949. W. C. Bonnerjee: Snapshots from His Life and Letters. Calcutta: Deshbandhu Book Depot.Google Scholar
Muthesius, Hermann. 1979. The English House. New York: Rizzoli.Google Scholar
Nair, P. Thankappan. 1990. “The Growth and Development of Old Calcutta.” In Calcutta: The Living City, vol. 1, The Past, edited by Chaudhuri, Sukanta. Calcutta: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Patel, Sujata. 1988. “Construction and Reconstruction of Women in Gandhi.” Economic and Political Weekly (February 20): 377–87.Google Scholar
Pearlman, Mickey, ed. 1996. A Place Called Home: Twenty Writing Women Remember. New York: St. Martin's Press.Google Scholar
Pollock, Sheldon. 1995. “Literary History, Indian History, World History.” Social Scientist 23, 112 (October-December): 112–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pollock, Sheldon. 1995. “Literary History, Region, and Nation in South Asia: Introductory Note.” Social Scientist 23, 112 (October-December): 1–7.Google Scholar
Raha, Kironmoy. 1990. “Calcutta Theatre, 1853–1944.” In Calcutta: The Living City, vol. 1, The Past, edited by Chaudhuri, Sukanta. Calcutta: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rapoport, Amos. 1990. “Housing as Culture.” In Housing: Symbol, Structure, Site, edited by Taylor, Lisa. New York: Cooper-Union Museum with the Smithsonian.Google Scholar
Ray, Bharati. 1987. “Calcutta Women in the Swadeshi Movement (1903–1910): The Nature and Implications of Participation.” In The Urban Experience: Calcutta, edited by Sinha, Pradip. Calcutta: Riddhi.Google Scholar
Rich, Adrienne. 1986. “Notes Towards a Politics of Location.” In Blood, Bread and Poetry: Selected Prose, 1979–1985. New York: W. W. Norton.Google Scholar
Rodriguez, Ileana. 1994. House, Garden, Nation: Space, Gender and Ethnicity in Postcolonial Latin American Literatures by Women. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Rosselli, John. 1980. “The Self-image of Effeteness: Physical Education and Nationalism in Nineteenth-Century Bengal.” Past and Present 86 (February): 121–48.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sangari, Kumkum. 1993. “Relating Histories: Definitions of Literacy, Literature, Gender in Early Nineteenth Century Calcutta and England.” In Rethinking English: Essays in Literature, Language, History, edited by Joshi, Svati. New Delhi: Trianka.Google Scholar
Sangari, Kumkum. 1991. “The Politics of the Possible,” In Interrogating Modernity: Culture and Colonialism in India, edited by Niranjana, T., Sudhir, P. and Dhareshwar, V.. Calcutta: Seagull.Google Scholar
Sarkar, Tanika. 1993. “A Book of her Own. A Life of Her Own: Autobiography of a Nineteenth-Century Woman.” History Workshop Journal 36 : 3565.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sinha, Mrinalini. 1996. “Gender in the Critiques of Colonialism and Nationalism: Locating the ‘Indian Woman.’” In Feminism and History, edited by Scott, Joan Wallach. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Steedman, Carolyn. 1987. Landscape for a Good Woman: A Story of Two Lives. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Steedman, Carolyn. 1995. “Inside, Outside, Other: Accounts of National Identity in the Nineteenth Century.” History of the Human Sciences 8(4): 5976.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Syal, Meera. 1996. Anita and Me. London: Flamingo.Google Scholar
Tarlo, Emma. 1996. Clothing Matters: Dress and Identity in India. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Tharu, Susie, and Lalita, K., eds. 1991. Women Writing in India 600 B. C. to the Present, vol. 1, 600 B. C. to the Early Twentieth Century. New York: The Feminist Press, 1991.Google Scholar
Visweswaran, Kamala. 1996. “Small Speeches, Subaltern Gender: Nationalist Ideology and its Historiography.” In Subaltern Studies IX, edited by Amin, Shahid and Chakrabarty, Dipesh. Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Walsh, Judith. 1983. Growing Up in British India: Indian Autobiographers on Childhood and Education under the Raj. New York: Holmes and Meier.Google Scholar
Wiley, Catherine, and Barnes, Fiona R., eds. 1996. Homemaking: Women Writers and the Poetics of Home. New York: Garland.Google Scholar
Yung, Judy. 1995. Unbound Feet: A Social History of Chinese Women in San Francisco. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar