Feminine

Identity

and

National
Art
Patricia Uberoi

Ethos

in

Indian

Calendar

Women have been and still are excluded from the production of and representation in many social and cultural activities, but even when they are included they do not receive their due recognition. In many genres of representation however, women are not only visible: they are prominent'objects of attention. The issue is then transformed into one of the correctness or incorrectness of the representation, or of the socially constraining nature of the stereotypical imagery, or of the relationship between women's subjectivity and objectivity. This paper looks at the representation of women in a little discussed genre of Indian popular art-what has been called 'calendar art' or 'bazaar art'. These representations are seen as instancing two processes, the commoditisation of women and the tropising of the feminine, within an overallculturalcontext that was both homogenising and hegemonising. I
Problematics of 'Invisibility' and 'Visibility'
IN India, as elsewhere, a Ilmost important thrust of feminist social science hlas been that it is possible to hold to both positions simultaneously in a form such as the followhave been and still are excluded ing: NWomen from the production of and representation in many social anid cultural activities, but even wheni they are included they do not receive their duc recognition. This doublebarrelled proposition lies at the base of a great deal of academic feminism and social activism. It is a plea for inclusion, for equality and for justice, and the.chief issue is to decide whether -remedy should be sought in policies of affirmative action ('reservations) or in conscientisation: provision trom above or action from below. In many genres of representation, however, women are not only visible: they are prominent objects of attention-even of admiration and of worship-and one can hardly complain of their invisibility and neglect. The issue is then transformed into one of the correctness or incorrectniessof the representation, or of the socially constrainiing nature of the stereotypical imagery, especially for those who do not naturally fit the bill (see the discussion of deviant personality types in Mead 1935), or of the relationship between women's subjectivity and objectivity. This latter is rather a vexed question, for it is patently not the case that all women at all times speak in women's voices. They, too, are captives of society's dominant ideologies, self-alienated as gendered subjects, and very often the most immediate and conspicuous oppressors of their own sex [see Nany 1980: 34-35]. The authentic voices and genres of women, and the modes and moments of their resistance to patriarchal domination have to be located and celebrated in a self-consciously subaltern project [e g, Chakravarti 1983, 1988; Das 1989a, 1989b; Karlekar 1989, etc], while conversely commending those males who, despite themselves as it were, have succeeded in expressing a genuinely feminine sensibility [e g, Millett 1969; ch 81. More than this, however, the 'objectification' of women in those genres where they are the prominent objects of attention is read as something problematic in itself, in particular as an indication that women have

'visible',their voices that of-makingwoomen audible,in historyand society [Sharma1982; Mazumdar1985;Banerjee1988;Chakravarti and Roy 1988, etc]. This is a project on which all are agreed, but it is one which is not, in fact, quite so straightforwardas it may at first appear. Some take the position, for instance,that women have alwaysmade a very significant contribution to their societies, but that a patriarchal conspiracy has prevented women'scontributionfrom receivingits due recognition. The reason is that society's legitimating myths, the creation of written historical records and the production of authoritative self-knowledge have all been controlledby males.The implicaenterprises tion is that a self-conscious effort must be made to locate women's voices within patriarchaldiscourse, to 'retrieve'women's' history, to bear witness to their contemporaryproductivityand to ensurethat threir labour is both recognised and properly rewarded[Kleinberg 1988; Lerner 1986]. The other proposition is signalled in the Quite to the con'marginalisation'. key-term traryit is maintainedthat women havenever lbeenallowed to make their full and proper contributionto society. They are not visible because, expresslyor by default, they have been excludedfrom certaindomains of activity, notably the politica,, and relatively speaking confined to doniestic space. This division of labour and of social hierarchical space constrains feminine activity and expressionand projectswomen as dependents of mren In this case the implication is that women should fight for the right to enter into those domains from which they were previouslyexcludedand to ensurethat their formal legal rights are actually availed of. The different groundings of these two arguments (i e, that women are unrecognised, or that women are excluded)are not usually interrogated.Perhaps the reason is Economic and Political Weekly

becomeobjectsor thingsto be appropriated, in the social relapossessed and exchaniged tions of co-operation and competition among men. Of particularinterestfrom this of point of view has been the interpretation the representationof womeil in one of the privilegedgenresof modernEuropeanartthe traditionof 'nude'painting,coveringthe period roughly from the 15th to the end of the 19thcentury.There seems to have been an historicalconvergenceinvolvingthe subject matter of painting (the nude female form being a major type), the establishment of the new medium of oil painting (giving texture,depth and a sense of tactility to the objectsdepicted),the masteryof techniques of perspective (creating a sense of verisimilitudeor realism)and the institution of a new socio-economic order, that is, capitalism. Indeed, the social order of capitalismis especially implicatedas one in which the objectificationand commodification of women has reached unprecedented heights. Originally,works of art displayed in the' homes of the aristocraticand the wealthy functioned as signs of individual rank and wealth, the nude female body an object of the privilegedgaze of the male patron and his friends [Berger 1972:ch 3]. Techniques of mechanical reproduction (lithography, oleography and photography) have been this mode generalising crucialin increasingly
of appropriation to a class of mass con-

sumers [Benjamin 1973], a process which reachedits apogee in the inventionof cheap ago. Colcolour photographya few-decades our photography, as John Berger has written: the colour and textureand Can reproduce tangibilityof objectsas only oil paint had beenableto do before.Colourphotography what oil paintwas is to the spectator-buyer Both media use to the spectator-owner. highlytactilemeansto playuponthe similar, the realthing senseof acquiring spectator's whichtheimageshows.Inbothcaseshis feeling that he can almosttouch what is in the image remindshim how he might or does 1972:140-141]. possessthe realthing[Berger In otherwordsit is arguedthat in modern WS-41

April 28, 1990

westernsociety the glossy 'pin-up' has the same social function as the nude once had, but on a mass scale, and that this is one of the characteristicmarkersof modern consumer societies (and of the socio-political of orderof capitalism)in theirconstruLction 'publicigenderrelations.The contemporary ty' (i e, advertising)industry and the commercialmass mediadependon and promote as objects of the 'objectification'of womren male desire('sex symbols',so-called) and of thus tend to potential possession. WNomen function as insiteria of the wealth, status, virility of the men who possess power an1d
themI, arid of the desires of those who would

want to possess thetii. Metonymically co-

associtated\ith a range ot consumerables. niot only those specitic to womnen-they

snbtlk atid

surely

*tbcorine coinmoditied

is all wcll known and widely ac-IThis of wornenas cepted, but thie'devalttation' that is so sex objects and as comimiwloditics a featurc of the corntemporary strikitilv ( nmassmnedtais not the on(! mode of objecthat one can ot woenmc tification/reificat'ion sce arouind. LquaIly significant is the deification of women in certainof veritable their social roles: the pure virgin, the loyal aridobedientwife and, most importantlyof
all, the 'mother'. All ot' ;hese figures, of

course, find divine excmplarsin the Hindu

pantheon.

T-hat wotmlenshould be so manifestly objects of worship seems to be something in an intelof aInesplanatorvembarrassment the actual and lectualenvironmentin wvhich symbolic denigrationof women ( essentialis seen as the primary ly, their victimisation) truth of gender relations.On the one hand,
it is often a soLurceof solace and of pride

women(or women'sroles)areheld that soome in great reverence in India, in contrast a ratherdifperhapsto the west, suiggesting f'erent trajectoryfor the women'smovement here [Chitnis 19881.Others see deification as yet aniother,andi even more insidious, form of patriarchalconstraint. And others argue that deification is but the 'flip' side of 'devaluation'in a bipolar-value scheme which rests on contrasting stereotypes of motherversuswhore,wife versusvamp,and so on [Nandy 1981: 93-941. 'The conceptual is with Victorian England aiialogy h-iere where, so it is alleged, the purity of the upper-class woman and the dignity of monoganious marriagewere upheld by the parallel institution of prostitution-as necessary a featureof Victorian society as sewers were of their town planning. But whether the problem is devaluation modelsjust the interpretive or overvaluation, at its face cited tend to take 'objectification' value. Other writers,however,suggest that women do not necessarilyrepresentthemselves, i e, as a gender. Nor do they simply index the power of the individual (male whose gaze they return,or spectator-buyer) serve as iconic objects of reverence just on this account. Rather women serve as signifiers of some other thing or quality. WS-42

This is the phenomenon referredto in the rather inelegant phrase, the 'tropising of women'. Anthropologistshavebeen especiallysensitiveto the tropisingof women as signifiers of caste status in South Asia. They argue that the caste systemrestsprimarilyon each community maintaining control over the purityand sexualityof its women (through and puberty suchas childmarriage, practices initiation rites, sati, purdah,the regulation of widows, marriage to divinities, etc [Yalman1963; Allen 1982: 4-8]. Similarly, community, womenmay signifythe religious the race and the nation,. while these new identities themselves come into being through (re)constructions of femininity. Undoubtedly,the natiosl is the most significant focus of identity in modern times. In this paper I will be looking at the representationof women in a little discussed genreof Indianpopularart-what I have called 'calendarart' or 'bazaar art'.' I see as instancingthe two these representations processes referred to above: the 'commoditisation'of women and the 'tropising' of the feminine, within an overall cultural context that was both homogenising and hegemonising. I make no apologies for the fact that these two perspectivesrest on very different conceptual foundations; one merely assumes that such synthetic approaches are justifiable in reference to a mixed economy/transitionalsociety. I begin with a discussion of the origins of the genrein the colonial period-in particular with a considerationof the work of the painterRaviVarmawho establishedthe representational stvle, defined the paraits mass anidpioneered metersof the archive, In this historical contextI conreproduction. sider also some relevant aspects of the of the calendarart trade,which organisation pertainswithinthe modernindustrialsector of the Indianeconomy.Though I havereferred to calendarart as a 'popular' art form, one should be clear that it is riota 'folk art' of the type assigned by anthropologiststo Likethe Hindi the localised'LittleTradition'. film, it seeks a mass, pan-Indian audience of consumerswhose tastesgenerate,and are simultaneouslymoulded by, the imageryit purveys. I then consider how the processes that I have posited at work in the production of art images of women are materiaCalendar lised in the artifacts themselves, Without presentationof the visuals, this requiresan act of imagination-to summon up images which are all around one but which are mostly unnoticed, unrecalled,unexamined. I first remark on the aspect of the comof womenand modification/objectification women'sbodiesthat is so conspicuousin this medium,and in relatedmediasuchas advertising, film hoardings,etc. I touch on this only briefly because the theme is, on the whole, a familiat one [see eg, Bhasin and Agarwal 1984: Ghadially 198e, section 4; and papersin Chanana 19881.1 then go on to consider at greater length the way in

which images of women work as tropes for the 'nation'. Though I have confined my attention to calendaror bazaar art, similar processesmust surelybe seen at work in the films, too-even in commercialadvertising. In a recentpaper,Monica Junejahas argued centuryEuropeanlandscape that nineteenth painting performed essentially the same function (19901,and there is clearly a case
for the extension of these perspectives to

other media, both mass media and elite art forms.

11 Ravi Varma and 'Invention' of Calendar Art

Recent writings on the cultuiral and ilntcl-

lectualhistoryof the colonial periodin Indiai have highlighted the centrality ot the of feminine in theisymbolic representation an Indiannationalidentitye g, Nandy 1980; Sangari and Vaid 19891. Conversely, the of modern Indianfemininiti were attributes
also being actively negotiated at this timlie.

is that thiecolonialencouniter The suggestiQn of Indianfeminiinity shapedthe construction still, today,an)d in waysthat areof relevance that an interrogation ot that process of becoming has to be an essential input into its ultimate undoing.
The ingredients in this Anglo-Indian joilnt

ventureweremultiplexand oftenlcontradiccolluisionand resistanceall tory: surrender, at once. Nonethelessit is possible to discern a common universeof discourse in which both rulers and ruled participated. This (i) by the shareduniversewas characterised privileging of the woman as an object of discourse[see Chatterjee1989;Tharu 1989; Sarkar 1985. 71ff]; (ii) by substantiveconof femininivergencesin the interpretation ty; and (iii) by agreementon the canon ot and ritualpracticethat was to define textuial and authorise an emerging Indian cultural 'tradition' [Chakravarti1989; Mani 19891. The 'recasting'of women that was the legacy of the colonial era depended on the positing or a set of identities on the one hand, and the operation of a set of exclusions on the other. Takethe equations first. To beginwith it is assumedthat the 'status signifierof the of women'is the pre-eminent nature and condition of society-Indian society in this case. The propositionmay be true, of course,but the measureof women's 'status'was also clearlygovernedby Orientalist stereotypes(i e, the assumption that the Oriental male is both unmanly and despotic) and pertained within a political economyof relationssuch that it legitimated the white man's burden: governance, discipline and intervention through the social reform of Indian women's lives.2 Thus the essence of Indian culture and society was to be locatedin the past and present(and future)of Indianwomen.This project crystallised in what Uma Chakravarti has aptly called the 'Altekarianparadigm' 1988;Altekar 19621-the con(Chakravarti structionof a classicalage of Indiancivilisa-

Economic and Pblitical Weekly April 28, 1990

tion and a narrative of its decline under the twin forces of Brahmanism and Islam. Second is the identification of the cultural 'tradition' with the sacred tradition,i e, with religion; and the sacred tradition in turn with Hinduism, whether in its Brahmanic or Rajput emplhases, but distinguished from its popular and regional manifestations [Nlarni and Islam Christianity, 1989]. Zoroastrianism cannot'serve the same function, being exogenous in origin; tribal and are merely localised; religions Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism can be appropriated as variants within the greater Hindu tradition. As art historian Geeta Kapur has written: The notion of the past usually dovetails with the notion of the classical. Both derive from a quite obvious desire to retrieve at tlhe imaginative level that golden age of Indian civilisation when it is said to have beeni purest, rmostprosperous anid suprenc. T lic period from the epics to the puranas, andcl then Kalidasa, usually provides the tianeframe as well as the wealth of legends that are to be glorified. (Ideologically speakinig. the classical past is set against the medicvi I which is regarded as havinigbeen corrupted by a medley of toreigin intluences and by the psychology of subordination show ing up in Hindu civilisation. Not only the Islamic but curiously also Buddhist culture, tlhough falling squiarelywithin the classical, is excluided from mainstream Indian culture, when a civilisational memory is sought to be awakencentury Ined. -Thetouchstone for ninieteenith is thus Hindu civilisation' dian rei-naissance (Kapur 1989: 681. h hus a national identity was constituted through the construction of the ideal Hindu woman, and her clharacteristics derived frotn a hierarchy of textual authorities: the Vedas. Shastras, epics, puranas, and so on. in the process, obviously, a ntumber of exclusions came into play: (i) of other religions and cultural traditions by the newly emerging Hindui tradition, as already suggested; (ii) of lower caste practices by Brahrfianical and Kshatriva models [Chakravarti 19891; (iii) of folk genres by the new genres of the compradore bourgeoisie IBanerjee 19891; and (iv) of indigenous aesthetic values by those.of the colonial power through the psychology of identity with the aggressor [Nandy 1983]. Simultaneously (v) regional varieties were transcended in the search for a pan-Indian cultturalreality, or appropriated and domesticated within an aggregative vision of nation such as is unfolded still in every Republic Day Parade 'an assertivc state-sponsored display of Indian Tratdition and Culture, especially of the classical, the folk and the tribal, intended as a saleable compensation for the lack of democratising initiatives on its own pait' [Sangari 1989: 3]. In all, it seems that the modern period has seen womanliness subjected to processes of he emonisation and homogenisation as the national culture seeks to stake its ideniity. The mass media, whether controlled by the

the phenomenon its precedents, Whatever of calendar art.is effectively coterminous with the artistic career of Ravi Varma (1848-1906),a memberof the ruling family particular state. RaviVarma's of Travancore
distinctionl

was that he was one of the first

native 'Indian painters to satisfactorily the techniques of westernacademic miaster oil painting and to receivecritical acclaim and recoginitionfor this both at home and abroad. Enicapsulating in decades the essence of four centuries of European art history,he then pioneeredthe setting up of one of the earliest lithographic presses in almost ninetyof his India,whichreproduced nmythologicalpaintings in thousands of to most art critics[see,e g, copies. According Chaitanya 1960: 5], the overproductionof paiiltirngsfor the press, together with the technical shortcomingsof the printingpro-

cess, were ultimately disastrous for Ravi artist, tor his as a seriouLs Varma's repuitationi work tended to bc jiud,ed oni the basis of the prints: vulgarised by T hat these distressing pictuLres, cheapalnd poI)ular oleographs, shouildreign home is a commentary on the in every Indcian perception of the time: that, indegenierahe a nationaliscidentallv, Ravi Varnia becanme ing in fluence or provided devotional sustenance to the masses is highly irrelevant to his aesthetic appraisement ... Arnuntrained, undiscerningpublic, valuing his paintings for their devotipnal content and utterly' ignorant of aesthetic criteria, worshipped Ravi Varna [Rao 1953: 9]. The point to be stressed, however, is that calendar art was not, in its origins, a popular art form, but a hybrid style produced for British patrons and the anglicised Indian elite in continuity with the so-called 'company' style of portraiture and Indian 'sceneries' [Thakurta 1986]. It was the outcome of a two-way process of the 'westernisation' of taste of the Indian aristocracy and upper bourgeoisie and of the domestication of a foreign medium in Indian soil, producing thereby quite new 'ways of seeing'. 'In India', writes Geeta Kapur: the modernising impulse is signalled into the visual arts in the use by Indian artists of the medium of oils and the easel format. There are several aspects to this choice. One, that the know-how is not easily obtained by an Indian. The fact and fiction of Ravi Varma's struggle to. learn oil painting becomes a legend. Here is not only the struggle of the artist to gain a technique but the struggle of a native to gain the source of the master's superior knowledge, and the struggle of the prodigy to steal the fire for his own people [Kapur 1989: 601. She goes on to stress the special characteristics of oil as a medium and the implications of these features for what we might call the 'politics' of representation: Oil as paint matter encourages the simulation of substances (flesh, cloth, jewels, gold, masonry, marble) and the capture pf atmospheric sensations (the glossiness of light, the stateor subjectto the demandsof the market translucent depth of shadows). Realism mechanism,havebeen the activeinstruments flowing from such material possibilities of of this transformation. paint is a way of appropriating the world,

saturating the consciousness with it. It is also a way of appeasing the acquisitive impulse. This realism is then inalienably related to bourgeois desire, bourgeois ideology and ethics [Ibid]. Avant-garde, indeed creative, in its time, the calendar art style is now sedimented as an authentic Indian 'kitsch' with an ephemeral past and an uncertain future. Though the religious icons continue to be in steady demand, becoming slicker with each passing year, the last decade has seen a notable attrition in the production of nonreligious calendars. Glossy colour photofilm and pop graphic reproductions-of stars, beautitul babies, cute children and pets, religious and political leaders, landof the scapes, etc, the typical subject mnatter non-religious calenldars, and decorative posters of westernl dcesign and origin have eased out the work of indigenous artists, or deflected their energies into other (evienmore ephemeral) media suchl as street hoardings, advertising, political propaganda, tic. The 'Victorian Indian' art style pioneered by Ravi Varnia has been (Icprecatcd as inauthentic by later art critics, seekinig an essential I ndianness in other ways, and denigrated for its conservatism and obsolescence in the light of emerging new trends within European art [Kapur 1989: 69; Rao 1953: 9]. The irony is that the Inidianising effort of these critics and their proteges now appear equally inauthlentic, if in different ways, and that in the ultimate arnalysis all movements in modern Indian art history have been parasitic on the west even while seeking to articulate a genuinely Indian sensibility [Parimoo 19731. The images that Ravi Varma created were shortly transposed into celluloid with the first motion pictures, since when the calendar art and film (and now television) induistrieshave existed in relations of symbiotic give and take. Now calendar representations of Ram and Sita look unashamedly like Arun Govil and Deepika, while conversely the latter are flesh and blood embodiments of the aesthetic canons of the calendar art style of representation. In his subject matter, too, Ravi Varina strangely prefigured the range of themes and stereotypes that were to become the staples of calendar art. Distributors of calendars informally classify their wares into four categories: dharmic (religious themes and icons and scenes from the epics, particularly the Ramayana and the Mahabharata); patriotic (portraits of national heroes and leaders, past and present); filmi (essentially pin-ups and portraits of movie stars); and scenaries (which differ from the former categories by expressly excluding depiction of the human form). In the first three of these categories, the representation of women is a central, though by no means exclusive, focus. The works of Ravi Varma and his so-called 'school' ('so-called' because they were mainly family members who col-

laborated with him on his major commissions, or carried on the tradition after his death) covered the same range of themes, WS-43

Economic and Political Weekly April 28, 1990

with a notable preoccupationwith feminine imagery tChaitanya 1960: 12-13;Thakurta ff. I 1986: 191 What is particularly noteworthy here is the fact that this rangeencompassesboth the sacred and the secular in a continuum. On the one end are religious icons, destined to be sacred objects of worship in homes and shrines;on the otherhand, purelydecorative pieces and almost erotic pin-ups.In the continnum from the dharmic through the patriotic to the 'filmi', the sacred and the secular poles appear to be mediated by the patriotic, as in the figure of Mother India. In another sense, the polar opposites mutuallyinvokeeach other-in calendarart paintings.Goddessesare as in RaviVarma's luscious women, and luscious women god[Parimoo desses,as has often been remarked 1973:31; see comparablyMode 19701.The 'motherwith child' is an Indian Madonna, or Yashoda and the infant Krishna-the 'mother' both earthly and divine, SenISUous

had etc), themes which incidentally enormous appeal for Europeans, too [Chakravarti 1989]; and (iii) the encapsulation of these thenes in significant dramatic episodes such as, e g, the 'swan messenger' bringing a message to Damayanti, or Shakuntala removing a thorn from her foot as pretext for a lingering backward glance at Dushyanta, or Ravana abducting Sita, etc [see the plates in Lalit Kala Academy 1960].3 Sets of paintings on mythological themes were among Ravi Varma's most important commissions, and one senses an almost religious 'mission' in their propagation to a mass public through thousands of cheap lithographic reproductions. The idea had first been put to him in 1884 by Sir Madhava Rao in the following words: "There are many of my friends who are desirous of possessing your works. It would be hardly possible for you, with only a pair of hands, to meet such a large demand. Send, theretore, a tew of your select works to Europe and have thenmoleographed. You and pure. This is one reason why the analysis of apparently secular images of Indian will thereby not onl! extend your reputation, women (see below) seems to spontaneously bllt will be doing atreal service to your councall forth the conceptual distinctions and try'" [Chaitanya 1960: 5, emphasis minel. The other aspect of Ravi Varma's project, oppositions that remergein analysis of the female deities of the Hindu pantheon [see again one consistent with the goals of e g, Gatwood 1985], in fact why so many cultural nationalism, was the construction discussions of Hindu women's lives today of a pan-Indian material representation of begin deconstruction of sacred imagery Indian womanhood through the creation of types that were both racially authentic yet [Wadley1977; Nandy 19801. The elision of the sacred and the secular universal, realistically individual yet typical and, more importantly, regional yet national is a peculiar and distinguishing feature of calendarart as a style, and one which makes [Kapur 1989: 621]. This rather paradoxical according ambition led Ravi Varma twice on major its analysissomewhatproblematic to certainof the generallyacceptedtheories tours of the country to record its physical of art history.Sociologistsare used to seeing types and landscapes, domesticating the of variety within a single aesthetic frame which the rise of modernity in the separationi the secular from the sacred, and there has was 'Aryanising' in its ideological thrust, been posited a similar process of 'desacra- uipper bourgeois in its taste (in costume, lisation' in art history too [see Benjamin jewellery, accoutrements and theatrical set1973:esp 225-228]. An examinationof the tings), and 'Orientalist' in its mode of apand propriation of other classes and ethnic types archiveof calendarart, on the contrary, of the Indian cinema for that matter [see for the 'genre style paintings [see also Berger Das 1981],wouldsuggestthat therehas been 1972: 103-104; Kapur 1989: 62-63]. over In 1892-93, Ravi Varma achieved the a continual processof 'resacralisation' the last century. This is consistent with highest international recognition yet accorded an Indian artist when he won several the formula of 'cultural nationalism' which identified 'tradition' with 'religion' awards for a set of ten paintings exhibited and 'religion' with a newly constituted at the International Exhibition in Chicago. 'Hinduism'.In the 'rescripting'of the past Significantly, all ten of the paintings had women as their subjects, including women through the self-conscious promotion of feminineideal typesone has both a represen- from different regions of India, from diftation of India to itself, and of Indiato out- ferent communities and from different walks of life,5 and the citation expressly comsiders as well. A first step in this processwas the identi- mended their ethnographic interest; an ficationof significanteventsand cameosout extension here, surely of the Orientalist gaze: of the greatcorpus of Indian myth, history The series of well-executedpaintings give an and legend. Specifically, the invocation of idea of the progress of instruction of art [in a notion of the 'classical' involved: (i) the India]. They are true to nature in form and colour, and preserve the costumes, current definition of the canon, especiallyemphasis fashions and social features... lThakurta on the 'Aryan'and the privileging of the 1986: 190 n 110]. as classics Ramayanaand the Mahabharata of pan-Indian reference;(ii) identification Similarly, a famous and now much comof central themes from the canon, for mented on painting of eleven Indian women instance, the romantic celebration of con- musicians, entitled 'The galaxy' [Kapur jugal love and self-sacrificing wifely devo- 1989: 73-75], on close inspection reveals a

tic physicaltype and dressedin recognisably regional apparel but subject to a single aesthetic. One is stroniglyremindedof the contemporary'Brides of India' calendars, parades and pageants, a self-conscious display of 'unity in variety',linkedwithin a bourgeois aesthetic and appropriately Aryanised as well. Wherewomenof othergroupsand classes are on display-women disqualified by reasonsof race,class or professionfromthe narcissisticself-imagingof modern Indliathey are either appropriated withinl a bourgeois mould (complexions made 'wheaten', for instance), or exoticised (eroticised)as ethnographiccuriosities-or both at once. The kitschy 'Vegetableselrer', youngerbrotherand otteniby RaviVarma's assistant,C Raja Raja Varma(see the tinmes
plate in Lalit Kala Academy 1960) is uncomfortably reminiscent of the sort of micddle class enactment of the woomen of

as one findsat everyfancy otherclassessuich public dress paradein an 'English mediumii school': typical 'genre'productions. III

Gender and Calendar Art

Now to the 'archive'of calendar art.6 First, it is obvious that women and women's bodies are very much on display, exhibited before the male gaze, objects of desire.They may boldly returnthe gaze, as in the case of the scantily clad reclining 'vamp' figure, surroundedby wine bottles and grapes (and looking remarkably evocative of Manet's 'Olympia'). Or the glance tnay be deflected, and near nudity drapedin clinging wet white garments,full breastsand erectnipplesshowingthrough,a hypocriticalmixtureof pureinnocenceand sensuality.The gopis covertheir nakedness with their hands and plead with a smug of theirclothes,neatly for the return Krishna folded beside him on the branchesof a tree [see Mode 1970: 27]. Adam and Eve hold their fig-leavescoyly in place, watchedby a of Draupadi serpent.The disrobing smirking is enacted before a court of spectatorsand The yeil of a burqais prothe voyeur-buyer. glance raisedto confera seductive vocatively on the viewer.A set of Muslim women of all ages are revealed at prayer. unveiled beforean invisiblebeholder.With the exception of Adam, whose predicamentwas the fault of Eve, men are not on display! In a sense, the 'commodification' of women through calendar art is implicit in the function of 'display: but it is made explicit by the consociation of images of women with a range of material products* rather after the manner of commercial advertising.A common reactionto a calendar art frameis: "Thatmustbe an adverisea product" (a watch, ment for such-and-such a tansistor,a bicycle, a pair of sandals, for instance), and in fact large firms do commission advertisementcalendarsfor publi-

tion (as of Rama and Sita, Nala and Damayanti, Shakuntala and Dushyanta,

tableauof womenfromdifferentregionsand communitiesof the country,each an authen-

uses advertising city purposes.7 Commercial

essentially the same languageand also
April 28, 1990

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Economic and Political Weekly

exploits images of women and displays of women'sbodies, whetheror not the product concerned is gender-typed. The consociationof women with material products has two distinct but related functions. On the one hand it reinforcescultural of women'sroles,with particular stereotypes stress on the domestic role [see also Mode 1970]. Little girls are 'cutified'8 as little while little women, playingat 'house-house', boys anticipate future careersin the armed forces and the professions. Of course, one also sees occasional self-consciousattempts to createnew associations. The little girl (or androgynous infant) playing doctor; the woman scientist at work in her laboratory; Indira Gandhi as the leader of a nation at war-these are all rather different images that are nonethelesssociallyacceptablefrom the standpointof a society addressingitself to 'modernisation',and they certainly have the none of the ambiguitythat characterises contemporary attempt to market a specifically 'woman's' cigarette. The constant reiteration of certain associations has the ideological function of making(culturallyconstructed)genderroles appear as 'natural' and the consumer products concerned 'naturally' and selfevidentlyfeminised.The shy bride is clad ill brilliant scarlet, and weighed down with ornate gold jewellery, The housewitfe is surrounded by a set of modern kitchen appliances, or is seen busily at work on her sewing machine. A college girl in tight and revealing salwar-kameez poses beside a bicycleor a scooter (a genreexpresslyentitlA film star ed 'cycle-wz 'i' or 'scooter-wAli'). of yesteryear stands before an array of feminine associated products and beauty aids.9 All very 'natural'. But the innocence is destroyedwhen one details the items involvcosmetics,lingerie, ed: fine clothes,jewellery, kitchen appliances and utensils, sewing machine,watch,table fan, TV, cycle,scooter, sofa set, dressingtable and coffee table-in -fact, the complete range of lower middle class dowry items of the day, minus the to this double bed. The womanis assimilated range of status symbol consumer products .and in the process she is commoditised herself. Neither the bicycle nor the scooter
is a 'feminine' product per se. They provide

the occasion or excuse for display of the female form, no doubt, and no doubt also psychologists would happily construe this image as a projection of the Indian male's But essentiallythe fa-,tasyof female 'power'. bfcycleand the scooter,and the radio or TV which may occupy the same frame,are consumer items that typicaily go along with

establishes a 'tradition' for the present, and recognisescertaintexts as authoritative, legitimatescertainideal roles. In additionto these positive moves, it also expresslyor by opposition creates a set of negative stereotypes. Within the hegemony of values so established, difference appears almost as resistance,and invitesinterrogation.In fact. the plurality of images offered in the total corpus provides alternatives within and of the againstthe homogenisingimperatives modern mass media. Whetherone chooses to locate these alternatives in (i) nonSanskriticinfluences;in (ii) popular or folk cultures; or (iii) in especially resilient elements in the indigenous 'tradition',still untouched by modern processesof hybridisation or westernisation is not important. Whatis importantis the 'space'thus created for different articulations, and this has special relevanceto the question of women. In fact, reading the general social science literatureon the 'status of women' in India for some of the leavesone ratherunprepared propositions that are very insistently stated in the calendar art medium. Two of these, I feel, deserve special attention: (i) the relationship; emphasis on the brother-sister and (ii) the celebrationof 'love'betweenthe sexes-of the female devotee for the male deity, or of man for womln, inside or outside marriage. It would seem that not all relatioils of the sexes can be construed as sites for the exerciseof patriarchalpower, and that interpretationof gender relations in terms of 'sexual politics' alone does not do justice to the totality of the.archive. Not unexpectedly, episodes from the Mahabharataand Ramayanatake pride of place, parallelingand evoking the television serials. To the extent that 'tradition' and 'femininity' are defined together with to such classic texts,the Ramayana reference appears to offer the most consistent set of feminine role images, focused on the figure of Sita: Sita accompanies Rama into exile; Sita is abducted by Ravana; the return to Ayodhya; the ordeal(s) of fire, and so on. The emphasis is clearly on the themile of wifely fidelity and subordination,aindalternative renderingsof the narrativeare suppressed [Chakravarti1983]. The inverse image is that of the 'vamp', [see a stock figureof the commercialciniema Nandy 1981].At one level,the vanipappears her as the pin-up par excellence,displayinig body before tie male gaze, a 'sex object' availableto male appropriation.At another ,. I, ii.-vever, this construction clearly misses the whole ambienceof the temptress'

mother Yashoda,especiallyof the disciplining of the 'Butter-stealer',are among the most charmingof the whole corpusof calendar art. Again it makes no sense to discuss the 'sexualpolitics' of the relationship,even if one conceded that the ideological compulsion for motherhood is experiencedby some Indian women as very constraining. Interpretationsof the Hindui pantheon frequently contrast 'consort deities' (those along with their husbands)with represented goddesses representedalone, and similarly 'mother-goddesses'depicted with children, and those without [e g, Wadley 1975; 1977, Babb 1975]. The criterion underlying this
classification is a differentiation in powveror,

women in the material transactions that accompany Indian marriage.1 The tropising of women as signiiiers of the national society is a more compiex, and to my mind more interesting,phenomenon, especially so because of the elision of the sacred and the secular throughout th genre. the projectbeg-un inlt;e nine(Continuings teenth century, the archive of caiendar art
Economisc

alternatively, relative 'autonomy' of male control,these beingthe chief concernsof the women's liberation movement. The powerful mother goddess (Durga/ Kali)is an importantfigurein the pantheon, at once nurturant and destructive. This imagerytends to invadethe seculardomain whenever the themne of patriotism is involved: the earthly mother/the mother goddess/the 'Motherland'/BharatMata all coalesce. To cite an example from the archive, a set of national heroes (Shivaji, Rana Pratap, Subhash Chandra Bose, Bhagat Singh, ChandrashekharAzad) surround the image of a beautiful woman carryinga lamp. By way of clarificationthe text tells us that 'the lamp of the heroes burns in the templeof the Mother'.One recallshere also M F Husain's response to the declaration of Emergency:a triptych of paintings showing Indira Gandhi as the goddess Durga.The imagerywas actuallyanticipated in bazaar art at the time of the Bangladesh war, when Indira Gandhi took on the role of the goddess to vanquish the country's foes. The relationship of brother and sisterthe exchange of metaphysical for material enactedin calenprotection-is prominently dar art. A possiblereasonis that the Bhaiyais thought to be Dhuj-festival (one wNhich assuming increasingimportancein contemporary India)" follows close on Diwali, when the calendars are normally sold and the distributed. However, it is clear fronm representations that the brother-sister relationshipis associated with the Rajput/ tradition within Kshatriya/non-Brahimiin Hinduism. I am remindedof one calendar The foregroundis occupiedby in particular. a brother and sister engaged in the rakhitying ritual.To the rear,witnessingthem, sits an old Rajput man, gun across his knees, woman(suhagin-type) a rightly-decked whiile looks on. In the background one sees role, for here it is she who has the power, and the male who is in dangerof appropria- evidence of agricultural prosperityBahadur bountiful fields and a tubewell.ILal tion. The distinction is telling! The life of Krishna, tying in with the Shastri (a rare figure in calendar art), who Mahabharata,is a second importantsource apparentlycoined the slogan Jai jawan, jai of authoritative imagery. Of particuilar kisan, pesides at the top of the painting. interest with reference to gender is the The total complex of features representsa privileging of the mother-son relationship statementof what one might call the Rajput as one of affection, tenderness and play- 'ethos', within which the brother-sister fulness, sometimes approachingeroticism. relationship occupies a special place. Every.year's collection of calendar art of Krishna and his fosterRepresenstations
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of Mirabai,ecstatic, yields a representation abandoned, oblivious to social decorum in her devotion to Krishna. The picture is almost erotic. Cynics might say, with some justification,that the storyof Mirais simply to exhibitthe expioitedby the manufacturer At the female body for the voyeur-buyer. same time, however, the uninhibited sensuality of Mirabai suggests an alterparadigm of native, relatively un&xplored femininity,2 as does the cternallove story or of Shah Jahan of Radha and Krishlna, and Muumtazl3egum. Female sexuality, transparenthere, conitrastswith the noisensuality of the faithful wife/devoted imothcr,and also with the negative and of the vamp/temptress.` sensuality dangerous In the popular cineina, the sensual woman be appearsto be an unsable role: she muLlst scriptedultimatelyas wife or vamp,or conle to a sticky end as a categoricalembarrassment. Here, in calenidarart, she enjoys a despite the brief moment of legitimnacy overall thrust of the medium towards the classical, the Aryan, the Brahmanicaland the bourgeois. In any case, like the brotherthe love of the devotee sister relationshiip, the and the passionof true loverslie ouitside hierarehicalparadigm provided by Manu.

sumer societies would seem to indicate. It is perhaps too earls! to answer this question-at least on the basis of the archive at hand-but some trends may be noted nonetheless. Recall Ravi Varma's famous painting, 'The galaxy' which presented the theme of 'unity in variety' through th; representation of women from different communities aud regions of the country. It appears that the celebrtion of rcgionial diversity is 1nows rather muted in caleldlir art. Ih1ollng it is imiplicit in thc total archive (i C,onel can finlld fenminine tigures in recognisisably regional attire-1Punjabi, Kashmiri, Maharashtrian, etc), one no loniger finds the deliiberate. assemnblage of regionial types as a way otf statinig thie mnessageof nationlal unity. (The Republic Day Paiade, however, still confornmsto its old format.) On the one hand there is the consolidation of a rieNscompromise/cosmopolitan type of femininity-a wooman marked by her class characteristics rather than regional origins: fair, plumpish, well-groonmed,ssharp-featLred, ornamented; both demure and confidenit (an ideal Air India hostess). Other classes and groups (the fisher girl, peasant girl, tribal girl, industrial worker), typical stibjects of 'genre-painitiig', the single text which is meant to suimmate are appropriated within this aesthetic the quialitv ot relation.s of the sexes and the scheme, or clearly identified as 'other'. Alter'status ot women' undler the traditional natively, a single temlininie tfigure-Bharat the Nlata/Durga/Indira Gandhdi-occupies the Hindu ideological order,against wvhich women s movement is pitted. These ar-c mlap of Inidia, holdinig aloft the tricolour/ themes which should suirely commrzand trident in a sign of symbolic protection, furthlerinterrogation. receiving the sacrifice of her 'sons' in a In its celebration of the brother-sister gestUreoft blessing. bond and of the relationiof true lovers, In contrast, the thcme of the unity, calendarart can appearas a site of resistance cqliValCnce and cquality ot all religionis has apainst dominant (patriarchal)ideologies, beci an imnportanlt alnd continiuous one-at cuIOuLs lealst unltil recently, This is implicit in the past anid present, While thle con1spi of femlalc 'power' confronlts representation range of caiendar art representations, the frequentconstructionof lndianiwomen including specifically Hinidu, Muslim, as powerless anldsubordinated.There is a Christian, Jaim,Sikh and Buddhist calendars danger here, however,of romanticisingthe (and within these categories, a certain catersimply because it is iion-elite. IPut ing to sectarian allegiance), and explicit in muedium crudely,one may be makingthe assumption the frequent consociation of different communitarian motifs within a sitigle framne. B3t (shall we call it the 'subaltern fallacy'?) that the masses can do no wrong, or that in the how this consociation is actively rendered is case they do, it is because they are a crucial coinsideration, for the 'message' manipulated by the power of the state, by may be one of parity, or it may be one of certainclasses, by vested interestsor by the appropriation within an hegemonic order. imperatives.of technology.'4 In fact, in In one case I have in mind, visual and text order to survive, the calendar art industry appear to indicate the parity of all paths to must give the public what it wants (print spiritual enlightenment: Hindu, Muslim, orders may run iilto a million); but at the Sikh and Christian women are portrayed same time it can manipulateor createthose again.st the background of their places of wants to some extent, accordingto the con- worship (temple, mosque, gurdwara, straintsof the culturalcode and the limita- church), the four paths converging to a single tions of the mode of representation. 'lamp'.'6 In another case, male represenMy own feeling is that the genreof caleni- tatives of the four communities (differena groundon whichthe ten- tiated by their headgear) partake of the milk dar art represents or between dripping from the udders of a cow. The text sion between'unity'and 'variety',

which constructionsof national ethos and understandingsof womanliness may tie in with each other in a single medium as mutually entailing aspects of a total identity. The consequences of this conjunction tor Indianwomanhoodhavestill to be spelt out. But in any case the suggestion is that ivisibility' may be as problematic a phenomenonas 'invisibility'from the point of view of women. Notes
[ihis paper is based oni an illuistratedlecture presenitc(l at the V KrishinaMemorial Seminar on 'Practices of Represeiltation in Art and History' held at N1irandaHiouse,University of Dellhi,Marchi22-23, 1990. 1 am grateful t tite participalnlts at thlizat semtiinarfor their comments, and especially to UmiaChakravartifor her encouragement itlihc project from its inception.] I By 'calendar'or 'bataar' art I referto a particular style otf popular colour reproductions, with sacred or merely decorative motifts,whilchmay or may not have an actual 'caletndar'attached to or printed on themii. (It is not known precisely when the 'calendar' becanme associated with the partietilar style of representation.) Calendars are usually marketed at the line of the Diwali festival, in advance of the solar new year,though posters in the calendar'artstyle now be found all the year round. The mnay art style extends beyond calendars and posters. In fact, it is a general 'kitsch' style which cani be found on street hoardings, filmii posters, sweet boxes, fireworks (again for Diwali), wall paintings and advertising, anid in the knick-knacks sold in fairs and melas. rhe literature on calendar art tS rather leagre. I can suggest only Varma 1976 and (Ghosh 1978. WVorks on popular bazaar paintings (e g, Archer 1953) are useful, as also are the studies on the founder of the style, Ravi Varma(1848-1906). Here I have relied heavily on two excellent new stuidies-Thakuirta 1986 and Kapur 1989and ailsoon Chaitanva 1960. I have not been able to conlsult Venniyoor 1981, on which both T'hakurtaand Kapur base many of their observations. Analyses of Indian popular cinema, particularly of the imythological' film as a type, are both useful and suggestive. See, e g, Kapur 1987; Das 1981; Nandy 1981, etc. 2 See my discussion of the paralleldiscourses on widow-immolation in India and footbinding in China (Uberoi 1990). 3 Present day 'classic comics' for children (Antar ChitraKatha)and storybook presentations of Indian culture for children go over mnuch the same ground. 4 I may have misconstrued Kapur here, but I find her categories suggestive. 5 According to Kapur [1989: 79, n 281 the set comprised: two paintings of upper-caste Kerala women; two paintings of women from the Muslim courts; a Parsi bride; a Maratha girl with her domestic deity; a Tamil Brahmin 'daughter-in-law'; an Ayyangar lady; a group of South Indian gypsies; and a Bombay nauitchgirl. 6 The 'archive' on which this discussion is based is a set of several hundred calendars

'hegemony' and 'pluralism'is played out, especially-though not exclusively-through the use of women as signifiers.The issue is wl,ther or nlot the tension is a stable attribute of the genre, or whether its resolution is tending in a particulardirection, as the mechanicalapplicationof some theories of the roleof the mass mediain modernconWS-46

ka nata hai;gai hamari reads:Desh-dharami

niata hai, and confirms the appropriative message of the visual. The corpus of calendar/bazaar art is open-ended, the nation an entity still under negotiation, and 'femininity' a quality in the

process of reconstruction. What one has tried to indicatehere,however,is the way in

Economic and Political Weekly April 28, 1990

jee, eds, Women in India and Nepal, collected over the last 25 years by J P S Canberra, Australian National University Uberoi and myself, with somrepieces from press, pp 1-20. the 1950s. Some of the calendars have been put on to film by Param Vir, Safina Uberoi, Altekar, A S 1962: The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation:From Pre-History to the and Janaki Ganesh. Present Day, 2nd ed, Delhi, Motilal 7 The most usual procedure, however, is that Banarsidas. a firm places an order with a wholesaler, who arranges to print the firm's name, logo Archer, W G 1953: Bazaar Paintings of Calcutta. London: Her Majesti'aStationery and other publicity material on the calenOffice for the Victoria and Albert Museum. dars. The calendars are than distributed to Babb, Lawrence A 1975: A Divine Hierarchy: clients. Popular Hinduism in Central India, New 8 In a recent lecture, educationist Krishna York, Columbia University Press. Kumar has described one aspect of the treatment of little girls in this society as Banerjee, Nirmala 1988: 'Methodology for Historical Research: Explorations in 'cutification' perhaps a reflectorof the senEconomic History of Women' in Maitreyi timentality provoked by the prospect of the New ed Evolving Krishnaraj, girl's eventual transfer to another family. I Methodologies in Research on Women's find the idea ot' cutification' quite useful Studies, SNDT Women's University,.Confor interpreting the images of girl children tributions of Women's Studies, 3. in the contemnporary mass media. Think of Banerjee, Sumanta 1989: 'Marginalisation of the I love you Rasna' girl! Women's Popular Culture in Nineteenth 9 The products are, as tollows: kitchen knife; Century Bengal' in Kumkum Sangari and steCC saucepan and jug; thermos and glass; Sudesh Vaid, eds, Recasting Women:Essays bra and panties; toothbrush, toothpaste and in Colonial History, New Delhi, Kali for toilet soap; handbag; talcom powder; face Women. creams; face powder; lipstick and nail Benjamin, Walter 1973: 'The Work of Art in polish; mirror and comb; and scissors and the Age of 'Mechanical Reproduction', thread. Walter Benjamin in Illuminations London: 10 1 was impressed to see most of these items Fontana/Collins, pp 219-253. in an anti-dowry hoarding displayed in Delhi some time ago. In the corner of the Berger, John, et al 1972: Ways of Seeing, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. frame, along with these items, was an image of a woman in flames. The hoarding Bhasin, Kamala and Bina Agarwal 1984: Women and Media: Analysis, Alternatives, was subsequeintly remove(l after protest, and Action, New Delhi: Kali for Women. since it seeiped possible to construe the message of the hoarding as: 'If you do not 'Chaitanya, Krishna 196(N'Ravi Varma',in Lalit Kala Academy, Ravi Varma, New Delhi, give all these things to VoLirdaughter, this Lalit Kala Acadcmy. is what might happen to her!', despite the Chakravarti, Uma 1983: 'The Development of conspicuous cross through the items. the Sita Myth: A Case Study of Women in 11 Personal communication, Kumkum Myth and Literature',Samya Shakti, I (1), Sangari, reflecting on the new fervour that 68-75. seems to surround this festival. It is generally assumed that the new religiosity has - 1988: 'Beyond the Altekarian Paradigm: Towards a New Understanding of Gender 'patriarchising' implications, but the Relations in Early India',Social Scientist 16 enthusiasm for Bhaiya Dhuj may challenge (183). this sinmpleformulation. - 1989: 'Whatever Happened to the Vedic 12 See the Atanushi special issue on women in Dasi: Orientalism, Nationalism, and a the Bhakti movement, Nos 50-51-52, Script for the Past' in KumkumSangari and Januiary to June 1989. Sudesh Vaid, eds, Recasting Women:Essays 13 See my gloss on a slogan chalked up in a in Colonial History, New Delhi, Kali for Delhii bus for the New Year of 1989: Women. 'Beautyfull wife, danger life' (sic) in Uberoi Chakravarti, Uma and Kumkum Roy 1988: 1989. 'Breaking Out of Invisibility: Rewritingthe 14 1 am thinking here of contemporary History of Women in Ancient India' in discourse on communalism. S Jay Kleinberg, ed Retrieving Women's 15 It may be a personal impression, but one History: Changing Perceptions of the Role feels that this theme no longer has the of Women in Politics and Society, Oxford, salience in calendar art that it earlier had. Berg/Unesco, pp 319-337. I date the decliine from 1984 (this is clearly Karuna 1988: Socialisation, EducaChanana, India a perspective from the Delhi/North tion and Women: Explorations in Gender region), after which one noticed also a Identity. Delhi: Orient Longman. change in Sikh self-representation in calenChatterjee, Ramananda 1903:Ravi Varma:The dar art. Indian Artist, Allahabad, Indian Press. 16 The text reads: 'O Lord, the different paths Chatterjee, Partha 1989: 'The Nationalist which men take through different tendenResolution of the Women's Question' in cies, various though they appear, crooked Kumkum Sangari and Sudesh Vaid, eds, or straight, all lead to thee'. Of course, it Essays in Colonial Recasting WVomen: might be argued that the diya flame which History, New Delhi, Kali for Women. crowds the picture is not quite a communalChitnis, Suma 1988: 'Feminism: Indian Ethos ly neutral symbol. and Indian Convictions' in Rehana Ghadially, ed Womenand Society in India: References A Reader, New Delhi, Sage,. pp 81-95. Das, Veena 1981:'The Mythological Film and Allen, Michael 1982: 'The Hindu View of Its Frameworkof Meaning: An Analysis of Women'.In Michael Allen and S N Mukher-

Jai Santoshi Ma' India InternationalCentre Quarterly, special issue on Indian Popular Cinema 8 (1), 43-55. - 1989a: 'Narrativising the Male and the Female in Tulasidas' Ramayana', Paper presented at the Workshop on 'The Female Body and Gender Identity',School of Social Sciences, JNU, January 18-19(Forthcoming in a collection to be edited by Ashis Nandy). - 1989b: 'Draupadi and the Breach of the Private and the Public', paper presented at the Indo-French Seminar on U'bmen: Myths and Rights, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi, November 16-17, 1989. Gatwood, Lynn E 1985: Devi and the Spouse Goddess: Women, Sexuality and Marriage in India, New Delhi, Manohar. Ghadially, Rehana, ed 1988 Women in Indian Society: A Reader, New Delhi: Sage. Ghosh, Shalil 1978: 'In Defence of Calendar Art', illustratedWeeklyof India, XCIX (13): 32-35. Juneja, Monica 1991: 'Landscape and Identity in Nineteenth Century French Painting', paper presented at the V Krishna Memorial Seminar, Miranda House, University of Delhi, 22-23 March 1990. Kapur,Geeta 1987: 'Mythic Material in Indian Cinema', Journal of Arts and Ideas, 14-15: 79-108. -, 1989: 'Ravi Varma:RepresentationalDilemmas of a Nineteenth Century Indian Painter', Journal of Arts and Ideas, 17-18, 59-80. Karlekar,Malavika 1989: The Slow lransition to Personhood: Can from WVomanhood Education Help? Ceintre for Women's Development Studies, New Delhi, Occasional Paper No 16. Kleinberg, S Jay ed 1988: Retrieving Women's History: Changing Perceptions of the Role of Women in Politics and Society, Oxford: Berg/Unesco. Lalit Kala Academy 1960: Ravi Varma, New Delhi: Lalit Kala Academy (Contemporary Indian Art Series). Lerner,Gerda 1986:The Creationof Patriarchy, New York: Oxford University Press. Mani, Lata 1989: 'Contentious Traditions:The Debate on Sati in Colonial India' in Kumkum Sangari and Sudesh Vaid, eds, Recasting Women: Essays in Colonial History, New Delhi: Kali for Women, pp 88-126. Mazumdar, Vina 1985: Editorial, Samya Shakti, 2 (1).

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Mead, Margaret 1935: Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies, New York: William Morrow. Millett, Kate 1969: Sexual Politics, New York: Avon. Mode, Heinz 1970: The Womanin Indian Art, New York: McGraw-Hill. Nandy, Ashis 1980: 'Woman versus Womanlinessin India: An Essay in Cultural and Political Psychology' in Ashis Nandy, At the Edge of Psychology: Essays in Politics and Culture, Delhi: Oxford University Press, pp 32-46. -, 1981: 'The Popular Hindi Film: Ideology and First Principles', India International Centre Quarterly 8 (1): 89-96. -, 1983: The Intimate Enemy: Loss and Recoveryof Self under Colonialism, Delhi: Oxford University Press. Parimoo, Ratan 1973: The Paintings of the Three Tagores:Abanindranath, Gaganendranath, Rabindranath: Chronology and Comparative Studcy,Barod-: M S University of Baroda. Rao, P R Ramachandra 1953: Modern Indian Painting, Madras: Rachana Press. Sangari, Kumkum 1989: 'Introduction: Representationsin History' Journal of Arts and Ideas, 17-18: 3-7. and Sudesh Vaid, eds Recasting Women: Essays in Colonial History, New Delhi: Kali for Woman. Sharma, Kumud 1989: Shared Aspirations: Fragmented Realities-Contemporary Women'sMovement in India, Its Dialectics and Dilemmas, Centre *for Women's Development Studies, New Delhi. Sarkar, Sumit 1985: A Critique of Colonial India, Calcutta: Papyrus. Thakurta, Tapati Guha 1986: 'Westernisation and Tradition in South Indian Painting in the Nineteenth Century: The Case of Raja Ravi Varma, 1848-1906',Studies in History 2 (2): 165-198. Tharu, Suzie 1989: 'Thinking the Nation Out: Some Reflections on Nationalism and Theory', Journal of Arts and Ideas, 17-18: 81-89. Uberoi, Patricia 1989: 'Beautyfull Wife, Denger Life: Meditations on the Theme of Female Sexuality',paper presentedat the workshop on 'The Female Body and Gender Identity', School of Social Sciences, JNU, January 18-19, 1980. -, 1990:'The Chinese Woman in the Construction of Western Feminism: A Case Study', China Report 26(1). Varma, Indira 1976: 'The Artist of the People and of the Gods'. Illustrated Weekly of India, XCVII, 22: 20ff. Venniyoor, E M J 1981: Raja Ravi Varma, Government of Kerala. Vitsaxis, Vassilis 1977:Hindu Epics, Alyths and Legends in Popular Illustrations, Delhi: Oxford University Press. Wadley, Susan S 1975: Shakti: Power in the Conceptual Structure of Karimpur Religion, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. -, 1977: Women and the Hindu Tradition. Signs 3(1): 113-125. Yalman,Nur 1963:'On the Purity and Sexuality of VNomenin the Castes of Malabar and CeySlon', Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 93 (1): 25-58.

N O TI C E
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It is hereby notified for the informationof the public that MANALI PETROCHEMICAL LTD proposes to make an application to the Central Governmentin the Departmentof Comparny Affairs,New Delhi, under sub-section(2) of Section 22 of the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act, 1969, for approval to the establishment of a new undertaking/unit/ division. Brief particulars of the proposal are as under: 1. Name and address of the applicant MANALIPETROCHEMICAL LTD 1, Club House Road, V Floor, Madras 600 002. AUTHORISED SUBSCRIBED PAIDUP CAPITAL CAPITAL CAPITAL (in lakhs) 4000 3726 2453.77 Sri A C Muthiah, Chairman Sri C V R Panikar,Director Sri S P Vairavan,Director Sri Chittaranjan Dua, Director Sri ParasmalLodha, Director Sri S S Sivaprakasa,Director Sri M Sivagnanam, Director Sri G Goswami, Director Sri R Subramaniam,Director Sri G Raghavendran,Managing Director NEW UNIT

2. Capital structure of the applicant organisation EQUITY 3. Management structure of the applicant organisation indicating the names of the Directors, including Managing/Whole-time Directors and Managers, if anv

4. Indicate whether the proposal relates to the establishment of a new undertaking or a new unit/division. 5. Location of the new undertaking/ unit/division. 6. Capital structure of the proposed undertaking

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7. In case the proposal relates to the production, storage, supply, distribution, marketing or control of any goods/articles indicate: (i) Names of ooods/articles 1. Diphenyl Methane Di-isocyanate (MDI) 2. Toluene Di-isocyanate (TDI) (ii) Proposed licensed capacity 1) 20,000 MTA 2) 10,000 MTA (iii)Estimated annual turnover Rs. 262 crores 8. In case the proposal relates to the provision of any service, state the volume of activity in terms of usual measures such as value, income, turnover, etc. 9. Cost of the project NOT APPLICABLE

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10. Scheme of finance, indicating the Internalgenerations and borrowings. amounts to be raised from each source Any person interested in tbe matter may make a representation in quadruplicate-to the Governmentof India,ShastriBhavan,New Delhi, Secretary,Departmentof Company Affairs, within 14 days from the date of publication of this notice, intimating his views on the proposal and indicating the nature of his interest therein. for MANAL]PETROCHEMICAL LTD -Sd/(E GOVINDAN) COMPANY SECRETARY Dated: 24.4.1990.

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Economic and Politi al WV6eklyApril 28, 1990