In
this paper I contest the dominant feminist reading of “A Prayer for my
Daughter” as conservative and patriarchal. Performing a close reading of stanzas
6-9, in conjunction with Yeats and Purohit Swami's translation of the
Upanishads, I focus on the tropes of the tree, the bird and the source of
abundance (Kamadhenu/Kalpavriksha/cornucopia), all of which I trace both in
Indian and in Western literature. I suggest that the prayer is as much for the
speaker as for his daughter, and that the gendering and ungendering of the
words "soul" and "self," along with their conflation,
invoke Western and Indian ways of conceiving reality, and work to build a
vision of freedom, autonomy and joy in the relation between the individual and
the universe.
Prof. Ruth Vanita, former Reader in English, University of Delhi, founding co-editor of Manushi from 1978 to 1991, is the author of several books, including Same-Sex Love in India: Readings from Literature and History (2000, with Kidwai), Gandhi’s Tiger and Sita’s Smile: Essays on Gender, Sexuality and Culture (2005), and Gender, Sex and the City: Urdu Rekhti Poetry in India, 1780-1870 (2012). She has translated many works of fiction and poetry from Hindi and Urdu to English. Her next book will be on Bombay cinema. She teaches at the University of Montana, Montana, United States of America and divides her time between Gurgaon and Missoula. She can be contacted at Ruth.Vanita@mso.umt.edu.