Penalty (Jurmana): a story by Premchand.
1
Summary
Munshi
Khairat Ali Khan was the inspector of Sanitation and hundreds of
sweeper women depended on him. He was good-hearted and well thought
of--not the sort who cut their pay, scolded them or fined them.
But
he went on regularly rebuking and punishing Alarakkhi. She was not a
shirker, nor saucy or slovenly; she was also not at all bad-looking.
During these chilly days she would be out with her broom before it
was light and go on assiduously sweeping the road until nine. But all
the same, she would be penalized. Huseni, her husband, would help her
with the work too when he found the chance, but it was in Alarakkhi's
fate that she was going to be fined. For others pay-day was an
occasion to celebrate, for Alarakkhi it was a time to weep. On that
day it was as though her heart had broken. Who could tell how much
would be deducted! Like students awaiting the results of their
examinations, over and over again she would speculate on the amount
of the deduction.
Whenever
she got so tired that she'd sit down a moment to catch her breath,
precisely then the Inspector would arrive riding in his ekka. No
matter how much she'd say, 'Please, Excellency, I’ll go back to
work again,' he would jot her name down in his book without
listening. A few days later the very same thing would happen
again. If she bought a few cents worth of candy from the
sweets-vendor and started to eat it, just at that moment the
Inspector would drop on her from the devil knew where and once more
write her name down in his book. Where could he have been hiding?
The minute she began to rest the least bit he was upon her like an
evil spirit. If he wrote
her
name down on only two days, how much would the penalty be then! God
knew. More than eight annas? If only it weren't a whole rupee!
With her head bowed she'd go to collect her pay and find even more
deducted than she'd estimated. Taking her money with trembling
hands she'd go home, her eyes full of tears. There was no one to turn
to, no one who'd listen.
Today
was pay-day again. The past month her unweaned daughter had suffered
from coughing and fever. Several times she'd come to work late. Khan
Sahib had noted down her name, and this time she would be fined half
her pay. It was impossible to say how much might be deducted.
Early
in the morning she picked up the baby, took her broom and went to the
street. But the naughty creature wouldn't let herself be put down.
Time after time Alarakkhi would threaten her with the arrival of the
Inspector. 'He's on his way and he'll beat me and as for you, he'll
cut off your nose and ears! 'The child was willing to sacrifice
her nose and ears but not to be put down. At last, when Alarakkhi
had failed to get rid of her with threats and coaxing alike, she set
her down and left her crying and wailing while she started to sweep.
But the little wretch wouldn't sit in one place to cry her heart out;
she crawled after her mother time and time again, caught her sari,
clung to her legs, then wallowed around on the ground and a moment
later sat up to start crying again.
'Shut
up!' Alarakkhi said, brandishing the broom. 'If you don't, I’ll hit
you with the broom and that'll be the end of you. That bastard of an
Inspector's going to show up at any moment.'
She
had hardly got the words out of her mouth when inspector Khairat Ali
Khan dismounted from his bicycle directly in front of her. She turned
pale, her heart began to thump. 'Oh God, may my head fall off if he
heard me! Right in front of me and I didn't see him. Who could
tell he'd come on his bicycle today? He's always come in his ekka.
‘The blood froze in her veins, she stood holding the broom as
though paralyzed.
Angrily
the Inspector said, 'Why do you drag the kid after you to work!
Why
didn't you leave it at home!'
'She's
sick, Excellency' Alarakkhi said timidly. 'Who's at home to leave her
with!'
'What's
the matter with her?'
'She
has a fever, Huzoor.’
'And
you make her cry by leaving her? Don't you care if she lives?
'How
can I do my work if I carry her?'
'Why
don't you ask for leave!'
'If
my pay is cut, Huzoor, what will we have to live
on?'
'Pick
her up and take her home. When Huseni comes back send him here
to
finish the sweeping.
She
picked up the baby and was about to go then he asked, 'Why were
you
abusing me!'
Alarakkhi
felt all her breath knocked out of her. If you'd cut her there
wouldn't
have been any blood. Trembling she said, 'No, Huzoor, may my
head
fall off if I was abusing you.
And
she burst into tears.
In
the evening Huseni and Alarakkhi went to collect her pay. She was
very
downcast.
'Why
so sad?' Huseni tried to console her. 'The pay's going to be cut,
so let
them
cut it. I swear on your life from now on I won't touch another
drop of
booze
or toddy.'
'I'm
afraid I'm fired. Damn my tongue! How could I....’
'If
you're fired, then you're fired, but let Allah be merciful to him.
Why go
on
crying about it?’
'You’ve
made me come for nothing. Everyone of those women will laugh
at
me.
'If
he's fired you, won't we ask on what grounds! And who heard you abuse
him' Can there be so much injustice that he can fire anyone he
pleases!
If
I'm not heard I’ll complain to the panchayat, I'll beat my
head on the
headman's
gate--'
'If
our people stuck together like that would Khan Sahib ever dare fine
us
so
much''
'No
matter how serious the sickness there's a medicine for it, silly.'
But
Alarakkhi was not set at rest. Dejection covered her face like a
cloud. When the Inspector heard her abuse him why didn't he even
scold her? Why didn't he fire her on the spot! She wasn't able to
work it out, he actually seemed kind. She couldn't manage
to understand this mystery. She was afraid. He had decided to
fire her- that must have been why he was so nice. She'd
heard that a man about to be hanged is given a fine last meal, they
have to give him anything he wants-so surely the Inspector was going
to dismiss her. They reached the municipal office building. The
pay began to be distributed. The sweeper women were first. Whoever's
name was called would go running and taking her money call down
undeserved blessings on the Inspector and go away. Alarakkhi’s
name was always called after Champa's. Today she was passed over.
After Champa, Jahuran's name was called, and she always followed
Alarakkhi.
In
despair she looked at Huseni. The women were watching her and
beginning to whisper.
One
after another the names were called and Alarakkhi went on looking at
the trees across the way.
Suddenly
startled, she heard her name. Slowly she stood up and walked ahead
with the slow tread of a new bride. The paymaster put the full amount
of six rupees in her hand.
She
was stupefied. Surely the paymaster was mistaken! In these three
years she had never once got her full pay. And now to get even half
would have been a windfall. She stood there for a second in case the
paymaster should ask for the money back. When he asked her, 'Why are
you standing here now, why don't you move along!' she said softly,
'But
it's the full amount.’
Puzzled
the paymaster looked at her and said, 'What else do you want--do
you
want to get less!'
'There's
no penalty deducted?'
'No,
today there aren't any deductions.
She
came away but in her heart she was not content. She was full of
remorse
for having abused the Inspector.
2. A force that gravitates.
Everyone
wears a mask in society. This story also puts a mask per se for the
readers so that they may plumb the truth of human behavior. We do not
want people to glimpse our self doubting within us. The story demands
a diligent effort for underpinning the complexity of human behavior.
Our personality and ego are much fragile than they appear to be.
Bringing doubt and anxiety will make people feel gravitated towards
the force that attracts them. Most people want to be liked by others.
But they tend to generate dislike in others around, too.
Occasionally, people may resort to ingratiation- an attempt to
increase a target person's liking for them.
The
most annoying question in the story is why does not Khairat
Ali Khan punish Alla Rakkhi for abusing him. How does a man like him
come to be set up against the traditional practice of punishment? The
story represents him a modern employer, the inspector of Sanitation,
on whom hundreds of sweeper women depend for their livelihood. The
antagonism between the employer and the employee is as sure as the
sun rising from the east. It is only invisible on the grounds of
social cohesiveness. However, its manifestation is universal.
“Visibility is a trap.” Says Michel
Foucault, in Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison.
He was very interested in the way in which punishment
had changed in different historical periods. According
to his notion the concept
of modern punishment involved much less
physical cruelty, but was more psychological in nature.
Punishment designed to demonstrate the power of the
sovereign and often involved severe physical punishment was a
pre-modern notion. Therefore,
eye for an eye is a classical way of punishment.
Khairat
Ali Khan punishes Alla Rakkhi in a disguised form. The "leniency"
is a calculated economy of power to punish. This power is applied not
to the body but to the mind as a play of representations or signs. It
is generally designed to observe and control the individual, to limit
their movements, and in effect to take over all aspects of their
lives. 'There's no penalty deducted'
means an economy of punishment. Alla Rakhi thinks herself not less
than 'a man about to be hanged is given a fine last meal'. She gets
the full amount of her salary which makes her 'full of remorse for
having abused the Inspector'.
Foucault
analyzed the people in power moved from attacking bodies to seizing
goods. For him the soul is the prison of the body. Alla Rakkhi
is preoccupied by the changed way of punishment and 'She
couldn't manage to understand this mystery'. Her preoccupied
situation is a stance for psychological imprisonment. She is
amazingly being hooked and the story does not tell us that she is on
the point of revolt understandably. Rather, there is a probability
that she will comply with the authority of her boss, Khairat Ali
Khan. She suffers a mirror defect. When she sees him she sees
herself: her values and her flaws. 'I'm
afraid I'm fired. Damn my tongue! How could I....’
she tells her husband.
The
story closes with author's supporting comment-
She
was full of remorse for having abused the Inspector.
What
gravitates her towards the authority of the inspector is what because
of the art of seduction. It is a game of psychology, not beauty.
Seducers are people who understand the tremendous power contained in
such moments of surrender. They see themselves as provider of
pleasure. They are never self-absorbed. Their gaze is directed
outward, not inward. (Green: preface. xi). Seduction is an induced
surrendered in one's target (person). The wound of her abuse at him
seems no such deeper than the effect of lull created for her. The analysis, before
be foisted as biased toward Khairat Alli Khan, worth it would be to
see three variables below- A,B and C, affecting one another.
A
'Khairat
Ali Khan was good-hearted and well thought of--not the sort who cut
their pay, scolded them or fined them.'
B
'Alla
Rakkhi was not
a shirker, nor
saucy or
slovenly; she was
also not at all
bad-looking. During
these chilly days she would be out with her broom before it was light
and go on
assiduously sweeping the road until nine
'
C
but
it was in Alarakkhi's fate that she was going to be fined. For others
pay day was an occasion to celebrate, for Alarakkhi it was a time to
weep. On that day it was as though her heart had broken. Who could
tell how much would be deducted! Whenever she got so tired that she'd
sit down a moment to catch her breath, precisely then the Inspector
would arrive riding in his ekka. No matter how much she'd say,
'Please, Excellency, I’ll go back to work again,' he would jot her
name down in his book without listening. With her head bowed she'd go
to collect her pay and find even more deducted than she'd estimated.
Taking her money with trembling hands she'd go home, her eyes full of
tears. There was no one to turn to, no one who'd listen.
Human
expectation is that good begets good. But, C is the discrepancy of
the expectation between A and B. it is also a further precursor of
what Alla Rakkhi would find herself scrupulous to accept her full
payment without any deduction in amount. Not surprisingly,
human behavior is non-linear. The
intersection of her experience sets her rationality in ambivalence.
She is in search of a center of meaning of this ambivalence. Brooding
over her flaws that she mirrors in the kindness of her boss who
bestows on her a full payment, she is gravitated toward him. she is
pushed ahead for she is under the force of poverty. Her husband is
drunkard. She has a baby girl who is sick, yet she brings her along,
instead of taking to treatment. She is virtually imprisoned for she
has become an object of the art of seduction. The author's comments
on her at the beginning versus at the end is interesting.
But
though she put up with just about anything she had managed not to let
Khan Sahib put his hands on her.
(Before
Alla Rakkhi speaks rude about Khairat Alli Khan)
Versus,
She
came away but in her heart she was not content. She was full of
remorse
for having abused the Inspector.
(After
Alla Rakkhi finds herself not being punished by Khairat Alli Khan)
Alla
Rakkhi is a serpent that hisses- 'That
bastard of an Inspector's going to show up at any moment.'
But then, a serpent that refuses to bite the charmer- The
blood froze in her veins, she stood holding the broom as though
paralyzed.
'Why
were you abusing me!'
Alarakkhi
felt all her breath knocked out of her. If you'd cut her there
wouldn't
have been any blood.
Trembling
she said, 'No, Huzoor, may my head fall off if I was abusing you.'
And
she burst into tears.
People
are narcissist – they are drawn to those most similar to themselves
(Green: The Charmer.p.41). Alla Rakkhi thinks about herself much why
she abused her boss and yet he does not punish her. On the contrary,
to punish her, Khairat Alli Khan must have used the art of seduction
borrowing the opium from Ovid
Go
with the bough, you'll bend it;
Use
brute force, it'll snap.
Go
with the current: that's how to swim across the river.
Fighting
up stream's no good.
Go
easy with lions and tigers if you aim to tame them;
The
bull gets inured to plough by slow degrees
So,
yield if she shows resistance:
That
way you'll with the end.
(Ovid,
The Art of Love. Translated by Peter Green)
