Nuleeni as a modern rule breaker

• Course No. 4-A: Indian Writing in English – Pre Independence:

• Unit-1• Name: Trivedi Hezal K.

• PG Reg. No. PG15101040• Roll No:39

M.A. – English Regular, Semester-1 Year: 2015Submitted to: S.B. Gardi Department of English

Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University (Gujarat – India)

Nuleeni : The heroin

• A young widow• Victim of Sati pratha• An upper caste Bengali

Hindu family woman.• A "perfect" Bengali

beauty• Emotionally controlled• Hopeless• “Spotless loveliness"

but a "purchased flower“

The protagonist of The poem

A robber fakeer or a mendicant

Belongs to some unidentified Muslim sect

A lover and a warrior: (Stanza XXV)

The (evil) Rules

In early 19th century sati pratha became a social malpractice making it a compulsive immolation of widows including young women. In the name of religion these widows were burnt alive along with their husband’s corpse.

Caste systemReligion

As a (evil) rule breaker

• Present time love stories does not exist in early 19th century. Nuleeni was young married Hindu widow. Her love with other religion guy (fakeer) was like a inexcusable sin in that time.

• She doesn't want to end her life behind a person (her dead husband) whom she never loved. Her true feelings were for someone else.

• She does not reflect upon death but upon love, especially the "blissful hours" she spent in those scented "bright bowers" with her lover.

• she suffers from pain not at the loss of her husband but the pain of separation from her beloved.

Continued..

• When Nuleeni taken to the funeral pyre for immolation, her mind is on rescue and escape by her crafty lover (a Muslim fakeer) who does not disappoint her. He comes like a "tempest," in the evening, kills and wounds a few and takes her away to Jungheera's inaccessible caves. That’s affirms her role as a brave women as well evil rule breaker.

• At the end, Nuleeni becomes a free agent to choose her destiny; she prefers to die together with someone she loves than with her husband whom she does not. It provides a fitting conclusion to the tragic death of the fakeer in the arms of his beloved Nuleeni.

The reformers responsible for the abolition of the sati-pratha in 19th

century