(Dis)honourable paradigms: a critical reading of Provoked, Shame and Daughters of Shame

Abstract

The construction of an ethnic identity is based on the confluence of self and culture. Ethnic groups in the diaspora preserve ethnic identity by expecting adherence to communal and social codes and the Punjabi community in the UK is no exception. The construction of women as the repository of honour or izzat is the most important construct used to establish cultural order. This equates women with collective honour resulting in extreme psychological, mental and physical control over them. Therefore, they are unable to dissociate themselves from this construct and find themselves trapped within its confines. This paper locates Provoked by Kiranjit Ahluwalia and Rahila Gupta and Shame and Daughters of Shame by Jasvinder Sanghera in this context outlining the establishment and exertion of this construct, which perpetuates patriarchal order. It argues that the act of utterance through the autobiographies creates a space for alternative means of self-definition and presents counter-narratives to this hegemonic discourse.

Keywords:

• diaspora
• Punjabi
• women's writing
• honour
• autobiography

Notes on contributors

Dr Shweta Kushal holds a doctorate in English Literature from the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India. She works on intercultural spaces that migrants inhabit and the manner in which gender affects the experience of these spaces. Her work has been published in refereed international journals. Her research interests include related areas of partition literature, culture studies, film studies, ethnicity, race and identity.

Evangeline Manickam is Professor of English in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. A Flannery O'Connor scholar, she has been Senior Fulbright Scholar at the University of Georgia and Louisiana State University, 1984–1985, and Fulbright Visiting Lecturer in South Asian and South Asian Diaspora Literature focusing on Punjabi Diaspora Writing and Film at the University of Hawaii, Manoa, 2011.

Notes

1. Provoked is a 2007 UK-based film that was inspired by Kiranjit Ahluwalia's autobiography, Circle of Light. The popularity of the movie has resulted in post-production editions of the text to be titled as Provoked. Further, Kiranjit Ahluwalia's case, known in British legal textbooks as R v Ahluwalia, changed the definition of the word ‘provocation’ in cases of battered women, which reclassified her crime as manslaughter instead of murder. This paper uses the nomenclature Provoked for the discussion of the text in order to draw attention to this change in definition in the legal system. However, there are no references to the feature film of the same name.

2. Kiranjit Ahluwalia was married to Deepak Ahluwalia at the age of 23, in the year 1979. After 10 long years of an abusive relationship in which she suffered physical violence, food deprivation, confinement and marital rape, she burnt her husband alive. He suffered severe burns over 40% of his body and died 10 days later as he developed complications and sepsis. Due to his death, Kiranjit Ahluwalia was arrested and charged with murder. She was sentenced to life imprisonment at Lewes Crown Court on 7 December 1989. At that time, her counsel failed to emphasise the severe violence she had endured and her mentally unstable condition in court. The intervention of the Southall Black Sisters on her behalf resulted in an appeal on the case as they continued to press for a mistrial. Her conviction was overturned in the year 1992 on the grounds of insufficient counsel and was replaced with manslaughter.

3. Jat is an upper caste in Sikhs.

4. Chamar is a prominent caste in India, Pakistan and Nepal. It is a Dalit sub-caste mainly found in the northern states of India such as Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Delhi. The traditional occupation of this caste was processing, manufacturing and trading in leather and leather goods. Due to their association with tanning, they have had a low social status traditionally. They are still considered as untouchables in some parts of India.