Foreword by Malathi Nidadavolu
In the history of Telugu fiction, one quarter of a century following the achievement of our
independence in 1947, from 1950 to 1975, stands out as unique for women’s fiction writing. Contrary
to the popular belief that, women’s writing suffered for want of a room of her own and/or lack of
economic resources, Telugu female writers wrote and published their fiction with extraordinary
success. Sitting quietly in their kitchens or on the back porch, they wrote and rose to a level where
they could dictate the terms to magazine editors and publishers, demand contracts without
submitting complete manuscripts, and were paid higher than their male counterparts were. Using
female pseudonyms by male writers became common during this period. To the best of my
knowledge, this is unique and happened only in Andhra Pradesh.
In the past several centuries, women writers were quiet and anchored in religion. Present day
writers are highly vocal, and are anchored in their ideologies. Historically positioned between these
two groups, approximately, one hundred women had created distinctive fiction for a period of two
and a half decades. This book is an attempt, however small, to examine their contributions
contextually, and demonstrate that they, quiescent on the surface, had raised potent questions and
expressed unconventional views powerfully in their fiction. I started out with a couple of premises:
first, in our culture, which evolved over a period of several centuries, the demographics have played a
vital role in formulating the familial and societal values. Secondly, women in the past had created
their own world imbued with rituals, stories and songs, anchored in religion. Their literature was
conformational. Present day writers, beginning in the eighties, women writers, called themselves
feminists, created a world of their own, with separate magazines, organizations, literatures and
websites, anchored in their ideologies. Their fiction and poetry are confrontational.
Positioned between these two groups, the women writers of the fifties and sixties created fiction,
taking a significant part of the past tradition in expressing their views yet deviated from the beaten
path, laying ground for the latter writers. It was a period of silent revolution. By that, I mean, they
had departed from the traditional past in their choice of themes and language, while continued to
cherish the traditional values in real life. Owing to the democratic principles put in place in 1947, the
female writers were able to set a new trend and evolve a new culture, and enlist the support of men
in the process.
This book addresses one more need. During the nineties, two major works, Women Writing in India
(1993) and Knit India through Literature by Sivasankari (1998), have been published on women’s
writing in India. Both the volumes set Telugu women’s writing in the larger context of Indian
literatures. This book, on the other hand, offers exclusively an in-depth analysis of Telugu women’s
writings. This is a product of my personal knowledge and experience, and my standing as a writer
from the period under discussion.
Some of my friends in the United States asked me why I had chosen this particular period for my
study. The one simple answer is, as a writer, I belonged to that generation, and therefore, am
interested in examining how they/we had fared in the history of Telugu fiction. However, more
importantly, lack of an all-encompassing critical work on this segment of Telugu literature, namely, the
fiction by women writers during the period, 1950-1975, and, thirdly, the fear that it might disappear
completely in course of time if somebody had not brought it to the fore. Yet another reason is, while
the academic studies are focused on the literature of the past, and the current literature is featured
in magazines and the media extensively, a well-balanced critical analysis of the fiction by women
writers of the immediate past is sadly missing.
I must admit that this book raises more questions than provide answers. Due to severe constraints
of resources, financial as well as academic, this book is nowhere near being complete. Nevertheless,
it provides valuable information and lays the ground for further research. I have put forth a few of my
arguments and raised a few questions, with the pious hope that our Telugu scholars will continue to
explore and examine this area of study further. I attempted to trace the familial, social, and economic
conditions that contributed to the success of women writers during this period; also, various stages
in the development of women’s fiction—from encouragement and praise at home and in the society to
reward, and later to ridicule and even to damaging criticism in the final stage.
This is also a personal journey for me. For that reason, I chose the style of narrative nonfiction in this
book. The intended audience for this book is non-native speakers and non-Telugu readers. In that, I
may have given more details than necessary in explaining the cultural nuance at times.
Organization: I started out with a brief history of women’s writing identifying the areas their values
came from, and discussed their familial and social conditions. In chapter 3, I gave the synopses for a
few short stories and novels in order to familiarize the readers with our fiction, assuming that
readers are not knowledgeable in Telugu language, and thus not in a position to read the original
texts. The synopses are intended to facilitate further discussion in the next chapter. In chapter 5, a
brief note on culture and humor was given and conclusion in chapter 6.
Originally, I planned to include a few stories in translation, in support of my views on the fiction under
discussion. However, while finalizing this manuscript for self-publishing, I realized that it would serve
my purpose better if I made the stories in translation available separately. I urge you to visit my
website, www.thulika.net, for stories discussed in this book and several other stories.
Data gathering: I started on this project nearly twenty-five years back. In additional to reading the
books I had access to, I wrote to writers, invited readers to write their opinions on the women
writers of the period under discussion, and also traveled to India to interview writers, magazine
editors, and publishers. Although I had started in the early eighties, I had to put away for several
years in between for personal reasons. Again, in the summer of 2000, I had the opportunity to revive
the project. Thus, part of the data may be dated. However, I have revised this version, based on the
discussions I had with several writers, male and female, in the past six years.
The Telugu and Sanskrit words in this book, I gave the words per pronunciation, following our
practice in Andhra Pradesh. Being unfamiliar with the use of diacritical marks, and uncomfortable with
the transliteration used by some writers, I decided to avoid both the practices.
One more note regarding the form of address. In referring to the authors, I used the first names, as
is common in our country. For us, the established practice is to address a person by his or her first
name, with the suffix, garu, in the case of adults.
It is my sincere hope that my venture of recording a piece of history that might otherwise be lost for
future generations will encourage scholars to undertake further research.
Kalpana Rentala, a promising feminist writer from the current generation, has taken the time to write
the foreword to my book, as soon as I asked. Thanks, Kalpana, for the informative foreword. I wish
you all the best in your writing activities.
My daughter, Sarayu Rao, is a big part of my life and activities. She has watched me through my
triumphs and travails of this undertaking. Therefore, I asked her what she thought of it. Her
observations in her own words are fascinating. Thanks, Sarayu! I wish you all the best in your acting
career.
Malathi Nidadavolu
Madison, Wisconsin
July 2008