The Sandal Trees Poem
Madhavikutty (Kamala Das) explores the innermost recesses of the female psyche in her uninhibited portrayals of man-woman and woman-woman relationships, says K.Sachidanandan, the poet-editor. The political ramifications of the woman-woman relationship posited alongside man-woman relationship has been noted by Rosemary M. George in her essay ‘Queernesses All Mine: Same-sex Desire in Kamala Das’s Fiction and Poetry’. ‘’Chandana Marangal’, written by Kamala Das in 1988 and translated into English as ‘The Sandal Trees’ in 1995 by V.C.Harris and C.K.Mohammed Ummer, charts the complex love life that spans five decades of two Nair women who are unable to ignore the attraction and love for each other even as they fall in and out of love from their …show more content…
Having been denied even sexual agency in the heteropatriarchal paradigm, the existence of a lesbian identity and culture has been invisible on the public domain. Dreaded on the social domain as an intrusion into the established relations of power, lesbianism is assumed as heralding the end of the normative institution of heterosexual family. The heterosexual family has held an uncompromising position in the Indian culture since recorded times. The institution of heterosexual family is very entrenched into the culture and reigns undisputed; and a family derived from this union is considered sacrosanct. The Sandal Trees was published at a time when a gradual transition from the joint family system to the nuclear family system and the cries against this disintegration of the family were already loud. Homosexuality is not alienated in Das’s writing. Depicted as normative and entangled in the heteropatriarchal relationships it is posited alongside the dominant structures of sexuality. In ‘The Sandal Trees’...this backtracking and crisscrossing into same-sex relationships and back to heterosexuality with the possibility of return left open is greatly intensified... Das presents in same-sex desire a pleasurable alternative to socially sanctioned heterosexuality. (George 118). The fluid nature of an individual’s sexual identity and the notion of sexuality as a cultural construct as contended …show more content…
Kalyanikutty opts for a lifestyle based on her own terms and her choice of sexuality. As opposed to the subtle representations and images of same-sex desire and sexuality in other works of Das , in The Sandal Trees, homoeroticism cannot be marginalised as insignificant or an adolescent phase. To Sheela, the heteronormative familial institution turns out to be a disappointment after her pleasurable initiation into homosexuality by
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