Personal Narratives

By choosing two dissimilar genres in the form of Kailashbashini Debi’s diary Janaika Grihabadhur Diary and Saradasundari Debi’s dictated autobiography Atmakatha , the chapter shows how the unmediated (diary) and the highly mediated (autobiography) are still ‘relational’ outputs. These fulsomely reveal fragmented subjectivities, dismembered recollections, slippages, and gaps that are as much a product of their interactions with ‘men’ as they are of their own creation. While Saradasundari surpassed the ideological constriction of Hindu wifehood and sculpted a defiant identity only after the death of her husband, Kailashbashini invented herself through marital love and the ensuing freedom, position, and authority that empowered her to speak. Embedded in the history of nineteenth-century Bengal, these personal narratives are candid enough to critically appraise the times, critique social relations, assess the efficacy of social reforms, and appeal for sociocultural changes. Though their life witnessed ‘big events’ and ‘illustrious men’, these are made insignificant in both personal narratives. The chapter provides vignettes of women’s experiences—negotiations, resistances, rebellions—and a range of emotions—resentment, anger, joy, sadness, rage, melancholy and resignation—which weave a masterpiece of history of emotions in colonial India.

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