94. Prathibha P

Abstract 94
Prathibha P                                                                                                           

Positions of Dissent and Modes of Expression in
Indira Goswami’s The Moth-Eaten Howdah of the Tusker and the film Adajya

Abstract

This paper aims at a  comparative  anlaysis of the renowned Assamese  writer Indira Goswami’s  novel The Moth-Eaten Howdah Of The Tusker (1988) and its  film version titled Adajya (1996) directed by Santwana Bardoloi. The purpose of the study is to delineate how the author has successfully portrayed the lives of Brahmin widows, especially the character of Giribala, who challenges the norms of the patriarchal society thereby exalting the issues of widowhood from a regional perspective to that of universal concern as is suitable for a global atmosphere. The film supports the novel in making the concerns generated through a literary medium more immediate through a visual medium. Widows have always been ‘endowed’ with a marginal status more so in a pre-independent Indian context. Goswami’s protagonist wavers between the traditional and modern social set-up and how she strives for transition is what sets the novel apart. A clash between the orthodox beliefs and a few glimpses of liberal outlook that struggles to compensate for the isolation enforced on the lives of a few women, characterize the dissenting attitudes adopted by its central characters.  Several other significant social issues are broached in this work.  Set in 1940s Assam context, this story indisputably owes its root to specific time and place.