Alternate Realms of Authority

Chapter 5 examines two landmark Hindi short stories that contested aspects of Dwivedi’s literary agenda. In ‘Dulāīvālī’ (quilt-woman), Banga Mahila used regional and domestic women’s speech in addition to Dwivedi’s preferred standard, Khari Boli prose. Her fictional exploration of the impact of nationalist ideals on middle-class Bengali women in the Hindi-belt further challenged the patriarchal authority with which Dwivedi and other nationalists sought to shape an emergent nation. Chandradhar Sharma ‘Guleri’, in ‘Usne kahā thā’ (she had said), employed regional/ethnic speech that was also gendered, as masculine and vulgar, once again flouting Dwivedi’s preferences for an upright, Khari Boli standard. His story, featuring a Sikh soldier fighting in Europe during World War I, upheld some nationalist ideals, but also defied conventional mores. Both stories underwent extensive editorial revisions, yet there remains a record in their final published versions of their authors’ defiance, and of Dwivedi’s strategic responses to such challenges.