The Homemaker: Chastity as the Foundation of Marriage

Marriage was seen as utmost important in the life of an individual in the early nineteenth century in India, to be skipped by none, and is seen of high cultural value in the eyes of the society which is essentially patriarchal. In 'The Homemaker (Gharwali), Chughtai heaps scourn on the institution of marriage as a tool to restraint female desires, sexuality and physicality and most importantly the freedom of a woman. She is expected to abide by the wishes of the husband. In the short story, ' The homemaker', Laajo works as a housemaid, serving food in the dining room and serving her master in the bedroom 1'. When Laajo works for Mirza, he grows passionate for her and soon proffers Marriage to her. 'That evening, Mirza decided that he would marry Lajo, and to hell with family honour”2. This line by Mirza plainly states the Indecent or Improper marriage - the term commonly used by Ismat Chughtai to explicate a marriage without the consent of the elders, lacking dowry. Here Laajo was an orphan, outspoken, and not ashamed of her sexual choices and lacks respect in the society. She believes marriage is only for virgins and therefore is reluctant. Mirza tries to cultivate a decent behaviour in her, to tame and reform her. Dreading to be typecasted as uxorious, Mirza limits her liberty, neglects her, visits prostitutes. But on the contrary, Lajjo's freedom is curtailed by Mirza. 'Mirza puts ban on lehenga and instructed her to wear tight fitting churidar pyjamas. Lajo was used to open space between her legs. Two separate clothes joined by a strip of cloth were really bothersome”.

Mirza tries to cultivate a decent behaviour in her, to tame and reform her. This act by Mirza, according to Chughtai isn't his real self but under the influence of the patriarchal society he is a part of. Under the pretext of comforting her, he brings her a house help not understanding her love for her control over the household. Lajjo, vocal about about her sexuality gets attracted to Mithwa, a neighbourhood boy and ends up having sex with him. Upon getting caught, Mirza beats her in front of everyone and later divorces her. The society doesn't condemn Mirza for beating his wife publicly albeit he himself visits prostitutes but expects chastity from Laajo. When Mirza is unable to 'reform' Laajo, he decides to divorce her. In a discussion about the divorce with Mian, who initially supported the marriage now finds faults in women, 'Divorce the whore, and get rid of her. Had she been from a decent family, it would be different.' This proves the double standards of the society which condemns Laajo of having an affair with Mithwa but doesn't question Mirza who also visits prostitutes. The Mullaji also percieves it to be invalid since she is an orphan, 'The Nikah was not valid, brother. No one knows whose illegitimate brat she was. Nikah with a bastard is haram-strictly forbidden’. Miran Mian declared the verdict.'3 Since Laajo was not happy with the restrictions marriage had, she happily accepted the divorce.

The decisions of marriage as well as divorce were taken by Mirza alone, Laajo's choice or decision never really mattered. After divorcing Laajo for her extra marital relations, he tries to prove the marriage as invalid since she had no family or relatives. Mirza was guilty of divorcing Laajo since he was formerly aware of her being an orphan, but did so to justify his act of divorce in the society. The divorce too doesn't bring shame to Mirza since Laajo is ill-reputed in the society and the blame of the divorce goes onto Laajo. Thus in this way, Chughtai unveils how dominant the machismo society can be for women. Seemanthini Niranjana says marriage always brought many problems into women’s life and this marriage twisted their life. With the security of being married, came the dangers, such as chidbearing, divorce, domestic violence among others. Even then, Marriage was a safer bet in the early nineteenth century. Thus, Ismat Chughtai in this way satirises on the concept of marriage through the story Gharwali.