Mamta Kalia's Aapki Chhoti Larki : (Your Young daughter)

The current issue of Sanglap carries the translation of the Hindi writer Mamta Kalia’s story, “Aapki Chhoti Larki,” as “Your Younger Daughter.” It focuses on the internal hierarchies and dynamics of power that exist within an Indian family and interrupts the idea of a prelapsarian state of innocence associated with Indian childhood. It is a story which also shows the structural violence against women within the family where women are not only victims but, through their perpetual circuit of oppression, often naturalise the socially accepted gender roles to become perpetrators by imposing such roles on younger and more vulnerable women. The story is about Turna/Tuniya Sahae, who is a girl in her early teens and is shown to be thoroughly exploited by her parents to perform domestic work. Her mother is seen to be already overworked by doing cooking and other household chores and needs the support of her domestic help, Collins, and younger daughter, Turna. The expected roles of women in the family become more laborious due to the caste rules, and we note how the domestic help Collins could perform all household chores except cooking because of her lower caste status. Turna’s mother not only exploits Turna’s labour and keeps her away from all kinds of childlike enjoyment but also fails to understand her adolescent sexual precarity, and we observe that when a neighbour makes an obscene remark to Turna as she goes to collect water. The story shows Turna’s father as a learned man who is into literature and cinema but is more absorbed in his own world of literary discussions and friendly gatherings than caring for the female members of his family. Turna’s college-going didi (elder sister) is celebrated in the family as an exceptional woman who is supposedly more modern and devoted to studying literature and philosophy and achieves good grades and awards. Therefore, she is spared from all domestic work and, as a result, turns self-centred and insensitive. Despite being a woman, her status in the family is like that of an elder son, with whom the parents have a lot of expectations and pride. The story is important to show such implicit violence during childhood is capable of lowering the self-esteem of a girl. The story shows how Indian parents are often blinded by a certain idea of academic success and undervalue different qualities and interests that may exist in one of their children, who is not a significant achiever. The story is significant as a critique of Indian society and the institution of the family often hailed as sacred and unquestionable.