Summary of Rabindranath Tagore, "Broken Ties and Other Stories" (1925)
“Broken Ties” (Tags: Religion, Atheism, Caste, Untouchables, Dalits, Muslims, Plague, Illness, Calcutta, Suicide, Religious fervor, Conversion narratives, Romantic melodrama, Romantic Suicide)
"Broken Ties" is a four-part narrative that explores the ideological and emotional shifts of its central characters, primarily Satish, his friend Srivilas (the narrator), and a woman named Damini. The story moves through themes of radical atheism, the intense religious fervor associated with a conversion experience, and finally, a grounded humanism.
Part I: Uncle
The story begins with the friendship between Satish and Srivilas during their college years. Satish is a dedicated atheist, a philosophy instilled in him by his uncle, Jagamohan. Jagamohan is a radical thinker who believes in serving humanity, specifically the marginalized "untouchable" leather-workers and Muslims, as a form of "stainless" good because it expects no reward from a deity:
The positive side of Jagamohan's atheistic creed consisted in doing good to others. He felt a special pride in it, because doing good, for an atheist, was a matter of unmitigated loss. It had no allurements of merit and no deterrents of punishment in the hereafter. If he was asked what concern he had in bringing about'the greatest happiness of the greatest number,' he used to answer that his best incentive was that he could expect nothing in return. He would say to Satish:
'Baba, [Footnote: A term of endearment, literally 'father.'] we are atheists. And therefore the very pride of it should keep us absolutely stainless. Because we have no respect for any being higher than ourselves, therefore we must respect ourselves.'
There were some leather shops in the neighbourhood kept by Muhammadans. The uncle and nephew bestirred themselves with great zeal in doing good to these Muhammadans and their untouchable leather workers! [Footnote: As leather is made from the hides of dead animals, those who work in leather are regarded as unclean by orthodox Hindus. Only the very lowest castes are tanners.] This made Harimohan beside himself with indignation. Since he knew that any appeal to Scriptures, or to tradition, would have no effect upon these two renegades, he complained to his brother concerning the wasting of his patrimony.
This stands in stark contrast to Satish’s father, Harimohan, a man obsessed with religious orthodoxy, caste purity, and superstitious rituals.
The family is eventually split by a legal battle over a temple endowment; Jagamohan loses his share because he refuses to hide his atheism for financial gain. Satish chooses to stay with his uncle in poverty rather than return to his wealthy father. The central tragedy of this section involves Nonibala, a pregnant girl abandoned by Satish's brother, Purandar. Satish and Jagamohan provide her shelter despite a massive social scandal.
A girl named Nonibala had taken shelter with her widowed mother in the house of the mother's brother. So long as her mother lived, there was no trouble. But a short time ago her mother had died. Her cousins were rascals. One of their friends had taken away this girl. Then, suspecting her of infidelity, after a while he made her life a constant torture. This had happened in the house next to the one where Satish had his tutorship. Satish wanted to save her from this misery, but he had no money or shelter of his own. Therefore he had come to his uncle. The girl was about to give birth to a child.
Jagamohan, when he heard the story, was filled with indignation. He was not the man to calculate coldly the consequence of his deeds, and he at once said to his nephew: 'I have the room in which I keep my books. I can put the girl there.'
'But what about your books?' Satish asked in surprise. Very few books, however, were now remaining. During the time when he had been unable to secure an appointment, he had been obliged to eke out a living by selling his books.
Jagamohan said: 'Bring the girl at once.'
In an act of extreme compassion, Satish offers to marry her to restore her social standing, but Noni, still haunted by her love for her seducer, commits suicide on the night she is meant to talk to Satish.
Part II: Satish
Following Noni’s death, the plague breaks out in Calcutta. Jagamohan turns his home into a private plague hospital, nursing even the "untouchable" leather-workers. He eventually contracts the disease and dies, refusing traditional funeral rites:
Harimohan left Calcutta. The plague and the preventive officials duly made their appearance in the locality; and for dread of being dragged off to the plague hospital, the wretched victims dared not call in medical aid. After a visit to one of these hospitals, Jagamohan shook his head and remarked: 'What if these people are falling ill,--that does not make them criminals.'
Jagamohan schemed and contrived till he obtained permission to use his own house as a private plague hospital. Some of us students offered to assist Satish in nursing: there was a qualified doctor among our number.
The first patient in our hospital was a Mussulman. He died. The next was Jagamohan himself. He did not survive either. He said to Satish:
'The religion I have all along followed has given me its last reward. There is nothing to complain of.'
Satish had never taken the dust [Footnote: Touching the feet of a revered elder, and then one's own head, is called taking the dust of the feet. It is the formal way of doing reverence.] of his uncle's feet while living. After Jagamohan's death he made that obeisance for the first and last time.
Satish is devastated by the loss of his "father and friend" and disappears for two years.
Srivilas eventually discovers that Satish has undergone a radical transformation: he has become a leading disciple of Lilananda Swami, a Vaishnava revivalist who emphasizes ecstatic kirtans and emotional religious communion. Satish explains that while his uncle gave him "freedom on shore" (logic and action), the Swami gives him "freedom on the high seas" (emotion). Srivilas, initially skeptical and offended by Satish's submissiveness to the Swami—such as massaging his legs—eventually joins the group, drawn by the same intoxication of communal emotion.
Part III: Damini
The group moves to Calcutta, staying in the house of Shivatosh, a deceased devotee who bequeathed his property and his widow, Damini, to the Swami's care. Damini is portrayed as the "Artist of the Art of Life," a woman of fire and independence who initially resists the Swami's attempts to force her into a life of asceticism:
The name of the widow was Damini. We could catch momentary glimpses of her through opening doors and flapping curtains. But the two of us grew to be so much part and parcel of the Master as to share his privilege, [Footnote: Women do not observe purdah with religious ascetics.] and very soon these doors and curtains were no longer barriers in our case.
Damini [Footnote: Damini means Lightning.] was the lightning which gleams within the massed clouds of July. Without, the curves of youth enveloped her in their fulness, within flashed fitful fires. Thus runs an entry in Satish's diary:
In Nonibala I have seen the Universal Woman in one of her aspects,--the woman who takes on herself the whole burden of sin, who gives up life itself for the sinner's sake, and in dying leaves for the world the balm of immortality. In Damini I see another aspect of Universal Woman. This one has nothing to do with death,--she is the Artist of the Art of Life. She blossoms out, in limitless profusion, in form and scent and movement. She is not for rejection; refuses to entertain the ascetic; and is vowed to resist the least farthing of payment to the tax-gathering Winter Wind.
She treats the devotees' rituals with contumely and focuses her energy on worldly things, like tending a wounded kite or a mongoose.
The tension rises as Damini falls in love with Satish, who is torn between his burgeoning feelings for her and his desire for spiritual "emancipation" from worldly ties. During a trip to a sea-coast cave-temple, Satish becomes terrified of "Passion" after Damini touches his feet in the dark. He panics, kicking her away in the darkness, and later attempts to have her sent away to avoid the "noose of Maya".
The section concludes with a profound psychological shift. After witnessing the suicide of a neighbor’s wife due to domestic betrayal, Damini is struck by the destructive nature of "Passion". She begs Satish to be her guru and save her from herself, leading to a temporary period of extreme self-suppression and religious devotion where she even destroys her modern books to please the Swami.
Part IV: Srivilas
The final chapter, narrated by Srivilas, details the end of their stay with the Swami. Satish realizes that his spiritual search is failing because he is trying to "fashion God to suit himself". During a violent storm, Damini follows Satish to the riverbank and begs him not to punish her for her feelings. Satish admits his own spiritual need is too great to accommodate her, telling her, "leave me to Him".
Damini finally turns to Srivilas, the man who has silently loved her and supported her throughout. She leaves the Swami’s group and returns to Calcutta, but find herself ostracized by society and even her own aunt due to the scandal of her travels with the devotees. To save her from a return to the Swami, Srivilas proposes marriage, which she eventually accepts.
The couple moves into Jagamohan’s old house, which Satish has inherited and dedicated to being a school for leather-workers. They live a life of simple, "confluent" labor, where Srivilas works as a professor and journalist while Damini teaches. However, Damini suffers from a chronic pain in her breast—a lingering injury she calls her "touchstone"—which she likely sustained during the emotional and physical rigors of their travels.
In the spring, Damini dies, taking the dust of Srivilas's feet and expressing her hope to be his again in the next birth. Satish remains a wanderer, seeking his "support" in the world of the spirit, while Srivilas stays behind at the old factory site, reflecting on the reality of his love for Damini, which he believes is more than just a "trembling dewdrop" of maya.
The Editor (Tags: Single dad, Masculinity, Men dressed up as “dolls”, Raising children, illness, Print culture)
This story explores the delicate relationship between a widowed father and his young daughter, Probha, who becomes his "guardian" and housekeeper after her mother's death. Initially, the narrator finds his daughter's assume role as his caretaker charming, as she takes great pleasure in feeding, dressing, and "parenting" him like a doll.
However, as Probha grows, the narrator becomes consumed by the need to secure a dowry for her future, leading him to seek fame and fortune through literature. He begins writing farces and eventually accepts a position as an editor for a newspaper in Jahirgram.I smiled inwardly but surrendered myself completely to her hands. I soon saw that the more inefficient and helpless I was the better pleased she became. I found that even if I took down my own clothes from the peg, or went to get my own umbrella, she put on such an air of offended dignity that it was clear that she thought I had usurped her right. Never before had she possessed such a perfect doll as she now had in her father, and so she took the keenest pleasure in feeding him, dressing him, and even putting him to bed. Only when I was teaching her the elements of arithmetic or the First Reader had I the opportunity of summoning up my parental authority.
His professional life quickly devolves into a bitter, mud-slinging war with a rival newspaper from the neighboring village of Ahirgram.
Next to Jahirgram was the village of Ahirgram. Between the landlords of these two villages there was a constant rivalry and feud. There had been a time when they came to blows not infrequently. But now, since the magistrate had bound them both over to keep the peace, I took the place of the hired ruffians who used to act for one of the rivals. Every one said that I lived up to the dignity of my position.
My writings were so strong and fiery that Ahirgram could no longer hold up its head. I blackened with my ink the whole of their ancient clan and family.
The narrator becomes so obsessed with crafting stinging satires and defending his reputation that he begins to neglect Probha, often treating her presence as a nuisance. The climax occurs when the rival paper launches a personal attack against him. As he wanders his garden, feverishly plotting a "stinging reply," he is interrupted by Probha’s soft touch.
Just as I had come to this conclusion, a well-known voice came softly through the darkness of the evening, and immediately afterwards I felt a soft warm touch in the palm of my hand. I was so distracted and absent-minded that even though that voice and touch were familiar to me, I did not realise that I knew them.
But the next moment, when they had left me, the voice sounded in my ear, and the memory of the touch became living. My child had slowly come near to me once more, and had whispered in my ear, 'Father,' but not getting any answer she had lifted my right hand, and with it had gently stroked her forehead, and then silently gone back into the house.
For a long time Probha had not called me like that, nor caressed me with such freedom. Therefore it was that to-day at the touch of her love my heart suddenly began to yearn for her. Going back to the house a little later, I saw that Probha was lying on her bed. Her eyes were half closed, and she seemed to be in pain. She lay like a flower which has dropped on the dust at the end of the day.
Putting my hand on her forehead, I found that she was feverish. Her breath was hot, and her pulse was throbbing.
Realizing she is suffering from a severe fever, he is struck by his own neglect. In a moment of profound clarity, he burns all his newspapers and abandons his literary feud, finding more joy in acknowledging "defeat" than in his hollow professional victories.
In the Night (Tags: illness, doctors, infidelity, hauntings, ghosts, supernatural, romantic suicide)
In this psychological horror story, a landlord named Dokhin Babu confesses a dark secret to a doctor in the middle of the night. Dokhin Babu recounts how his first wife had been intensely devoted to him, nearly sacrificing her own life to nurse him through a serious illness. However, as she herself became a chronic invalid, Dokhin Babu grew weary of his duties and became infatuated with Monorama, the beautiful daughter of his physician. His wife, sensing his inner weariness and infidelity, eventually commits suicide by drinking a poisonous liniment to "cure" the situation by removing herself.
After his wife's death, Dokhin Babu marries Monorama, but he cannot escape a haunting sense of guilt. His romantic life is plagued by auditory hallucinations; whenever he tries to express love to Monorama, he hears a ghostly, piercing laughter echoing across the river. Most chillingly, he begins to hear a hoarse, phantom whisper asking, "O ke?" ("Who is that?"), which were the very words his first wife uttered when she first saw Monorama standing in her doorway. The story concludes with Dokhin Babu in a state of terror, as even his clock seems to tick out the same accusing question. The narrative suggests that his betrayal has manifested as a permanent, supernatural torment that follows him regardless of where he flees.
The Fugitive Gold (Tags: Astrology, supernatural, ghosts, property/inheritance, treasure)
This story depicts the tragic downfall of Baidyanath, a simple man who is content with his modest life and his hobby of carving walking-sticks. His peace is shattered by his wife, Sundari, whose bitter dissatisfaction with their financial status compared to their neighbors drives her to obsession. She constantly belittles their home and furniture, eventually pushing Baidyanath to seek "unearned increment" through supernatural means. After being swindled by a fraudulent mendicant, the couple's domestic harmony is further strained by Sundari's relentless pursuit of hidden wealth.
Driven by an astrologer’s prophecy, Sundari forces Baidyanath to purchase a reputedly haunted house in Benares, believed to contain treasure. Baidyanath lives there in solitude and mounting dread, listening to a mysterious metallic clanking in the night. He eventually discovers a hidden, flooded chamber beneath the floorboards. Inside, he finds a copper cauldron chained to the wall, but it is empty except for a human skull. The clanking he had heard was merely the empty vessel hitting the wall as the river current surged into the room. Broken and mud-bespattered, he returns home only to face his wife’s cold hardening of heart. When she realizes he has failed to find the treasure, she locks him out of their bedroom. The story ends with Baidyanath disappearing into the night, leaving his children and a life ruined by greed.
Giribala (Tags: Adultery, Alcoholism, Domestic violence, Theater, Performance, Spurned wife goes on stage, Revenge)
Giribala is a beautiful woman living in a wealthy, neglectful household. Her husband, Gopinath, once doted on her with tinted letters and excessive attention, but as he inherits his father's fortune, he becomes consumed by a desire for social status and eventually surrenders to an obsession with a famous actress named Lavanga:
But the woman to whom her husband Gopinath has surrendered himself as a slave is Lavanga, the actress, who has the reputation of playing to perfection the part of a maiden languishing in hopeless love, and swooning on the stage with an exquisite naturalness. Before her husband had altogether vanished from her sphere of influence, Giribala had often heard from him about the wonderful histrionic powers of this woman, and in her jealous curiosity had greatly desired to see Lavanga on the stage. But she could not secure her husband's consent, because Gopinath was firm in his opinion that the theatre was a place not fit for any decent woman to visit.
At last she paid for a seat, and sent Sudha to see this famous actress in one of her best parts. The account that she received from her on her return was far from flattering to Lavanga, either as to her personal appearance or as to her stage accomplishments. Since, for obvious reasons, she had great faith in Sudha's power of appreciation where it was due, she did not hesitate to believe in her description of Lavanga which was accompanied by mimicry of a ludicrous mannerism.
Left in solitude, Giribala listens to her maid Sudha’s praise of her own charms and develops a secret fascination with the theater. She realizes the power of female beauty on stage and begins visiting performances regularly, finding it a realm where dreams and reality merge:
When at last her husband deserted her in his infatuation for this woman, she began to feel qualms of doubt. But as Sudha repeatedly asserted her former opinion with a greater vehemence, comparing Lavanga to a piece of burnt log dressed up in a woman's clothes, Giribala determined secretly to go to the theatre herself and settle this question for good. And she did go there one night with all the excitement of a forbidden entry. Her very trepidation of heart lent a special charm to what she saw there. She gazed at the faces of the spectators, lit up with an unnatural shine of lamplight; and, with the magic of its music and the painted canvas of its scenery, the theatre seemed to her like a world where society was suddenly freed from its law of gravitation.
Coming from her walled-up terrace and joyless home, she had entered a region where dreams and reality had clasped their hands in friendship, over the wine-cup of art.
The bell rang, the orchestra music stopped, the audience sat still in their seats, the stage lights shone brighter, and the curtain was drawn up. Suddenly appeared in the light from the mystery of the unseen the shepherd girls of the Vrinda forest, and with the accompaniment of songs commenced their dance, punctuated with the uproarious applause of the audience. The blood began to throb all over Giribala's body, and she forgot for the moment that her life was limited to her circumstances, and that she had not been set free in a world where all laws had melted in music.
The domestic situation reaches a breaking point when Gopinath, reeking of liquor, demands Giribala's keys to fund his dissipation. When she refuses to hand them over unless he stays with her, he pinches her to the wall and snatches her jewelry by force, even giving her a parting kick before vanishing. Following this humiliation, Giribala leaves her home under the pretext of visiting her father. Later, Gopinath’s mistress Lavanga deserts him, leaving his favorite theater in a lurch during the rehearsal of a new play, Manorama. Curious about the play's unexpected success, Gopinath attends the premiere. The drama follows a neglected wife who returns to her husband in majestic splendor. At the climax, the lead actress—revealed to be Giribala herself—takes off her bridal veil and shoots a triumphant, fiery glance at Gopinath:
The play opens with Manorama living in her husband's house neglected and hardly noticed. Near the end of the drama her husband deserts her, and, concealing his first marriage, manages to marry a millionaire's daughter. When the wedding ceremony is over, and the bridal veil is raised from her face, she is discovered to be the same Manorama, only no longer the former drudge, but queenly in her beauty and splendour of dress and ornaments. In her infancy she had been brought up in a poor home, having been kidnapped from the house of her rich father. He, having traced her to her husband's home, brings her back to him, and celebrates her marriage once again in a fitting manner.
In the concluding scene, when the husband is going through his period of penitence and humiliation, as is fit in a play which has a moral, a sudden disturbance arose among the audience. So long as Manorama appeared obscured in her position of drudgery Gopinath showed no sign of perturbation; but when after the wedding ceremony she came out dressed in her red bridal robe, and took her veil off, when with majestic pride of her overwhelming beauty she turned her face towards the audience and, slightly bending her neck, shot a fiery glance of exultation at Gopinath, applause broke out in wave after wave, and the enthusiasm of the spectators became unbounded.
The audience erupts in applause as Gopinath realizes his wife has achieved the independence he never imagined, leaving him publicly humiliated.
The Lost Jewels (Tags: Marital dysfunction, Submissive men, Hoarding jewelry, ghosts, supernatural)
A schoolmaster recounts the tale of Bhusan Saha and his wife Mani to a traveler at a ruined river ghat. Bhusan is a modernized, gentle man whose submissiveness leaves his beautiful wife Mani "out of employment" in the traditional dynamics of love:
'In his own home, too, he had another drawback. His wife was beautiful. With his college education on the one hand, and on the other his beautiful wife, what chance was there of his preserving our good old traditions in his home? In fact, when he was ill, he actually called in the assistant surgeon. And his style of food, dress, and his wife's jewels were all on the same extravagant scale.
'Sir, you are certainly a married man, so that it is hardly necessary to tell you that the ordinary female is fond of sour green mangoes, hot chillies, and a stern husband. A man need not necessarily be ugly or poor to be cheated of his wife's love; but he is sure to lose it if he is too gentle.
'If you ask me why this is so, I have much to say on this subject, for I have thought a good deal about it. A deer chooses a hardwood tree on which to sharpen its horns, and would get no pleasure in rubbing its horns against the soft stem of a plantain tree. From the very moment that man and woman became separate sexes, woman has been exercising all her faculties in trying by various devices to fascinate and bring man under her control. The wife of a man who is, of his own accord, submissive is altogether out of employment. All those weapons which she has inherited from her grandmothers of untold centuries are useless in her hands: the force of her tears, the fire of her anger, and the snare of her glances lie idle.
Consequently, Mani becomes cold and obsessed with collecting and saving jewelry, viewing her husband merely as a machine to provide them. When Bhusan faces a sudden business crisis requiring a large sum of money, he tentatively asks Mani for her jewels as security. Mani, suspicious and fearing the loss of her wealth, secretly flees by boat with her cousin Modhu, wearing all her ornaments on her person to ensure they cannot be taken.
Bhusan is devastated by her distrust and even more so when he discovers her room empty upon his return. Mani never reaches her father's house, and she and Modhu vanish without a trace. Bhusan becomes haunted by the jingling sound of ornaments at night, imagining Mani returning to the house. In a final vision, he sees a bejewelled skeleton with living eyes that beckons him from his chair and leads him down the garden path to the river. He follows the apparition into the water and is plunged into eternal sleep. After the story ends, the traveler reveals a shocking truth: his name happens to be Bhusan Saha, though he claims his wife’s name was Nitya Kali, suggesting the schoolmaster’s narrative was a legendary distortion of his own tragic life.
Emancipation (Tags: Romantic melodrama)
Vajrasen, a foreign horse merchant, is falsely accused of theft from the king’s treasury and sentenced to death. Shyama, a woman of immense beauty and influence, sees him in chains and instantly falls in love. Desperate to save him, she offers the officer of the guards a victim to take his place. Uttiya, a young boy who is hopelessly in love with Shyama, agrees to sacrifice his life so that Vajrasen can go free, presenting his life as a gift to her. After the execution, Shyama and Vajrasen flee the city by boat.
Vajrasen is deeply in love but remains curious about the "untold wealth" spent to buy his freedom. Eventually, in the stillness of the night, Shyama confesses the truth: that Uttiya took his place, charging himself with the theft to save the man Shyama loved. Vajrasen recoils in horror, unable to accept a life bought at the price of such a "greatest sin". He attempts to abandon Shyama in a forest, but she follows him, begging him to strike or kill her rather than leave her. In a moment of blind rage and moral agony, Vajrasen attempts to kill her, leaving her body on the withered leaves. However, he returns to the boat, overcome by the memory of her touch. Shyama suddenly reappears, having survived his attack, and stands before him. Despite his love, Vajrasen cannot bridge the gap created by her crime; he banishes her from his sight, sentencing them both to a life of silent, aching separation.
This page has paths:
- Detailed Summaries of Works of Fiction (and some selected nonfiction) Amardeep Singh
- Writers of the Bengal Renaissance: an Overview Amardeep Singh