Peer Seminar (Chapter 2) On “Tagore’s Jogajog and the Perils of Hindu Conjugality in Colonial India”

The second chapter of Peer Seminar for the month of May was organized by the Department of English, The Bhawanipore Education Society College on 23 May 2023 from 3:45 pm. In this session Puja Saha, Faculty of the Department of English, The Bhawanipore Education Society College delivered a lecture entitled “Tagore’s Jogajog and the Perils of Hindu Conjugality in Colonial India”. The seminar commenced with an opening address from Soumyajit Chandra, Faculty of the Department of English. He also provided an overview of the topic of the seminar. The speaker was felicitated by Prof. Ananyya Banerjee, Associate Professor, Department of English, The Bhawanipore Education Society College. The seminar was attended by faculty members and PG Semester II students of the Department of English.

Peer Seminar is a unique monthly endeavor by the Department of English, The Bhawanipore Education Society College. It provides an encouraging academic ambience to the students for critical academic dialogue that would help them in their academic growth. The lecture critically explored Tagore’s novel, Jogajog in the light of changing social and moral concerns regarding Hindu conjugality in late colonial India. The lecture began with a critical discussion of the Hindu domestic space in nineteenth century India from postcolonial and feminist perspectives. The speaker cited a few instances, such as the Rukmabai case, where the wife faced severe backlash from society for seeking legal separation from her husband on grounds of emotional incompatibility. The paper also delved deep into other controversies surrounding Hindu marriage, such as the age of consent debate, which brought the Hindu conjugal life to public space for debates and opinions. Here the speaker put light on the Phoolmoni case which triggered debates surrounding the age of consent. She discussed the role of popular newspapers of the time, for example, The Bangabasi Patrika, in such debates. She also cited examples where Hindu women converted to other religions in order to seek freedom from their troubled marriages. Incidents from Tagore’s personal life where his own daughter, Atasilata aka Meera, sought legal separation from her husband Nagendranath Ganguly due to emotional incompatibility in their married life were also discussed.

In the second segment the speaker went on to analyse the conjugal space as portrayed by Rabindranath Tagore in his renowned novel Jogajog. The novel addresses several debatable issues surrounding Hindu conjugality through its portrayal of the problematic relationship that its protagonists, Madhusudan and Kumudini, shared after their marriage. The speaker rounded off her lecture citing excerpts from the novel to show how Tagore blends Kumudini’s personal history with the social reality of women of his time. The domestic life of Kumudini and Madhusudan represents the micropolitics of personal life which at large reflects the gender politics and double standards present in Tagore’s contemporary society.

The seminar ended with the question answer session where critical questions were asked by faculty members and students that addressed several issues regarding gender discrimination prevalent in our society. The peer seminar was organized to encourage critical thinking amongst students and to motivate them to exchange their ideas on this platform.