THE HANGWOMAN
The Hangwoman
-K.R.Meera
K. R. Meera is an Indian author, who writes in Malayalam. She was born in Sasthamkotta, Kollam district in Kerala. She worked as a journalist in Malayala Manorama but later resigned to concentrate more on writing. She started writing fiction in 2001 and her first short story collection Ormayude Njarambu was published in 2002. Since then she has published five collections of short stories, two novellas, five novels and two children's books. She won the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award in 2009 for her short-story, Ave Maria.
Aarachaar, widely regarded as her masterpiece, was originally serialised in Madhyamam Weekly and was published as a book by DC Books in 2012. According to noted literary critic M. Leelavathy, Aarachaar is one of the best literary works produced in Malayalam. The novel received the 2013 Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award. It was also awarded the prestigious Odakkuzhal Award in 2013, Vayalar Award in 2014 and Sahitya Akademi Award in 2015. Aarachaar was translated into English by J. Devika as The Hangwoman. The novel has sold more than 38000 copies (2015 January). The Hangwoman was shortlisted for the prestigious DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2016. Her latest novel Sooryane Aninja Oru Stree is being published in Vanitha magazine.
Brief Summary
The family has fallen on bad times, with no executions to fall back on after 1990, but Chetna's grandmother Bhuvaneswari Devi continues to hold on to perceptions of bygone glory (mirrored in a solitary gold coin left over from a purse gifted by a raja of Gwalior) and dins it into her grand daughter that it is the Grdha Mullicks' karma to kill, "for the sake of justice". Novel begins with the rejection of the mercy petition sent by Jatindernath Banerjee to stay his death sentence and Phanibhushan Grdhha Mullick got the duty of execution. As there was no job for last many years due to poverty Phanibhushan Malik has become a drunkard and the duty was given to his son whose limbs have been chopped off later, who cannot take over the profession. The mantle of hangman is thrust upon Chetna’s shoulders. he demands that his daughter, the 22year old Chetana be given a government job if he has to carry out the execution.
Her grandmother told Chetna that, hanging is in her blood – after all, she even came out of her mother’s womb tying a noose with her umbilical cord. In one fell swoop, Chetna Grdha Mullick finds herself pitch forked into media fame as the world's first ever woman executioner. But Sanjeev Kumar Mitra, the anchor of CNC channel takes it upon himself as a media stunt to advocate the cause of Chetana as Phanibhushan Grdha Mullick’s successor. She becomes the focus for a series of debates ostensibly having to do with the need, or otherwise, for capital punishment but actually dealing with more fundamental issues relating to gender, class, punishment and crime in contemporary Indian society. Chetna’s “love-affair” with the dashing Sanjeev Kumar Mitra becomes the occasion for a series of acute reflections on the nature, the variety and the perversions of erotic relations between women and men. In an ironic twist of fate, Chetna remains the only person who can conduct an impending hanging. She breaks free from the shadow of an imperious father and exploitative lover and puts up a stellar performance as she conducts her maiden execution.
Critical Review
Set in Bengal, it tells the story of a family of executioners with a long lineage, beginning in the fourth century BC. The protagonist of the novel, Chetna, is a strong and tenacious woman who struggles to inherit this profession. The novel reads like a legend, with the narrative constantly switching between past and present, recounting tales from the centuries long history and myths surrounding the Mallick family. It is also the story of the sheer power and defiance of a woman in a man's world and in front of his pride. Set in Chitpur, Kolkata, it brushes against the burning ghat of Nimtala by the Ganga, and bristles and hisses with the sights, sounds and stench of death around every corner.
Chetna is hailed as a symbol of strength and self-respect for women, but in reality, she is just a cog in the machinations of the men around her. She is hurled into a whirlpool of media frenzy, amidst which she tries to make sense of her own awakening sexuality, questions her own ability to execute a condemned man, and watches as her family is hit by a series of tragedies. She flounders at first, but then slowly extricates herself, and takes charge of her own life, which finally leads to a perfectly executed conclusion.
There are chillingly clear-eyed vignettes, such as this one of Chetna's first encounter with the tool of her new vocation
"I stepped into the room on trembling feet. The awful scent of the air trapped in the room assailed me. I too sneezed four or five times. Father paid no attention; he opened the lid of the box. My hair stood on end. Inside the box, ropes that were a century old lay coiled, like enormous black cobras preparing to lay eggs. 'This will do, Sibdev babu do you know what this is? It is the one with which we hung two fellows together the best stuff'".
The narration is eccentric and complex and is rich with legends and myths about the Grdha Mullick ancestors. These stories alternate with current events in the novel, and form a wonderfully layered narrative, thick with symbolism. Imagination is at its best in the novel . The novel also deals with poverty, gender, society, media manipulation and is a study of the place of a woman in today’s society. The characters are hauntingly well-etched, and present-day Kolkata is also a tangible character in the story. Death looms in every page, leaving a dark trail through the novel. But even something gruesome and depressing as hanging, and death, and details of the dead – is dealt with elegantly. It shocks, but doesn’t disgust. Sanjeev Kumar Mitra apart from planting a seed in Chetana’s father’s head throws a noose around her heart. Chetana is stricken not knowing if she loves or hates him.That sets the tone of the narrative.Chetana shrugs aside her tyrant father, and her slick, brutal and unscrupulous lover. A woman who is at equal ease under the harsh lights of a tv studio as she is fashioning a noose or embracing the man whom she is to execute in a few hours. Chetna becomes a symbol of woman empowerment. The last bastion is broken when Chetana becomes the hangwoman for never before has there been a hangwoman anywhere.
Conclusion
Some books have to be read, others have to be experienced. This book falls under the latter category. K.R Meera’s The Hangwoman, originally Aarachar in Malayalam, and translated by J.Devika, is a complex and detailed saga of a woman who breaks free from the clutches of her controlling father, overcomes the manipulation of a man she both desires and detests, and comes into her own.
J.Devika’s description of The Hangwoman as “Malayalam’s ultimate gift of love to Bengal”, novel that explores the place of women in India, which is both a testament to the “strength” of its author’s “wayward dreams” (Meera again, p. 435) as well as the power of fiction to make us take a fresh look at our own, teeming, multitudinous reality.
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