Ismat Chugtai's The Quilt
Ismat Chugtai, (1915-1991) was an eminent Indian writer in Urdu, known for her indomitable spirit and a fierce feminist ideology. Chugtai 's most celebrated work is the short story, ‘Lihaaf’ (‘The Quilt’) published in 1941 in the Urdu literary journal Adab-i-Latif. However ‘Lihaf’ seems to be her most controversial work being charged of obscenity for which she had to fight a case in the Lahore court in 1944. Her work was largely inspired by Rasheed Jahan, a leading writer and political revolutionary of the time. Most of her stories are based on themes drawn from middle class households and ‘The Quilt’ is no exception apart from the fact that it is a story of a lesbian relationship between the wife of a wealthy landlord and her maid servant, a huge social taboo in the time that it was written. It has however been presented to us tactfully by a child narrator, who sees it all, but makes no conclusion and judgements.
In my humble opinion, through her story ‘The Quilt’, Ismat Chugtai has possibly tried to illustrate the close agency between gender and culture and how it manifests under patriarchy. It is important to note the difference between sex and gender, sex, is a biological construct and gender is a social (man-made) construct. This installs the idea of femininity (delicate, soft etc.), and masculinity (powerful, dominating etc.) have come about. This is avidly present in the lopsided Indian culture where men and women are segregated on the basis of the above argument
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