Radhakrishna Prakashan has brought out the second edition (the first edition was published in 2009) of Mannu Bhandari’s Sampurna Upanyas. As the title suggests, the book comprises Bhandari’s limited but highly significant oeuvre of novel writing—Ek Inch Muskan (1963), an experimental novel, written in collaboration with the famous writer and her husband Rajendra Yadav, Apka Bunty (1971), Mahabhoj (1979), and Swami (1982).
Since Bhandari belongs to the older generation of women writers in India, it is possible that many contemporary readers may not be aware of her literary merit and legacy. Thus it becomes all the more important for us to read her novels which are known for their witty, conversational style, and for foregrounding contemporary socio-political, gender issues, including the rights of the minorities and Dalits. I would like to begin this review by briefly introducing Mannu Bhandari and her literary oeuvre. Bhandari was born on 3 April 1931 in Bhanpura, Madhya Pradesh. She did her B.A. and M.A. from Calcutta University and Banaras Hindu University respectively. She taught at Baliganj Shiksha Sadan and Rani Birla College before finally joining Miranda House College in 1964, which is a ‘constituent college’ of the University of Delhi. She also worked in the capacity of the Director of the Premchand Srijanpeeth (Ujjain) after her retirement in 1991. Apart from the novels mentioned above, her major short story collections include Main Haar Gayi (1947), Ek Plate Sailab (1962), Yeh Sach Hai Aur Anya Kahaniyan (1966), Teen Nigahon Ki Ek Tasveer (1969), and Trishanku (1999).
Bhandari, in her novels like Apka Bunty and Swami, interrogates the unambiguous discourse of the patriarchal nation-state that cultivated such gendered contexts post-Independence wherein women felt discouraged to achieve a just and equal position in society. The familial and state ideology, contingent on moral regulations of wifehood and motherhood often restricted women’s attempts at carving out an independent selfhood. For instance, the socio-political and economic policies, which were implemented in post-Independence India firmly ensconced women into the role of mother. They were supposed to be good at running the home and nurturing their children, which would eventually create a better society and better nation out of it.