Land : Women’s Breath and Speech - Summary

Title Significance – Land : Women’s Breath and Speech

The title Land: Women’s Breath and Speech is translated from Tamil Title “Nilam: Penkalin Moochum, Peachum”.  The title delineates the crux of the essay. Throughout the essay P.Sivakami talks about the term “Land”. She Interrogates “Can we measure a colossal force by a narrow term ‘Land?” As the main title suggests she talks primarily about the term “Land”. She associates the term with Thinai which includes not only the land but also the living organisms and plants. She negotiates the culture of naming the land based on the plants growing there. Then she traces the history of naming the land and proclaims it was named after the language is spoken by a man and his linage.

Term and Naming of Lands

After discussing the term and naming of land, she surveys how man possessed the right to hold private property. She traces it back to the beginning of Human civilization when human beings began to appropriate lands. She suggests the land should have been divided based on the source of living.

History of Private ownership of land in India

Finally she talks about the history of the system of providing land. She asserts that its the British Land disbursement system which began private ownership of land in India. She also talks of the history of properties of caste groups. She articulates that it began with Mughals rule. Zamindari system is explained. Zamindars are given land in order to assist the king with armed forces during war. When the government is weak the Zamindar claims the land to be his own. She says, In Tamilnadu, those who possessed such lands were called as Mirasdars. Then begins leasing the land to formers. But according to her, untouchable formers were denied the right to hold the land.they reminded as landless coolies and bonded labors.

Controlling acts

The essay can be read with the Marxist perspective by the application of cultural deprivation theory. She furthermore talks about the Land Ceiling act of 1961 which fixes the maximum size of land holding that an individual/family can own. Land over and above the ceiling limit, called surplus land. if the individual/family owns more land than the ceiling limit, the surplus land is taken away (with or without paying compensation to original owner).she censures the politicians of land looting.

Women and Land

Thus, as it is mentioned in the title the essay is about Land... Land.. and Land. The land in India is also possessed by the nation residential Indians who never visit the land. But those who need land and for whom it is the source of livelihood does not possess the land. Thus she ironically ridicules the system. She complaints that the land is not given to those who carry out the agricultural labour and furthermore, the land is never given to a woman.

The subtitle “Women’s Breath and Speech” comes of Tamil idiom which means life. The breath and speech symbolically denote being alive. Here, in the context of the essay, the land is considered as a livelihood of women which provides her a place to “fall back upon”. She insists the system to provide land for the women.

Land and Symbolism (Title)

The title can be interpreted with a deconstructive reading in which the land becomes a space where women can exercise her freedom. The land symbolically means financial stability. In the Marxist view, the land as a commodity gives the women confidence and pride. The space can be anologised with the space which Virginia Woolf demands a woman to have, in her remarkable essay “Room of One’s Own”. In a material feministic way the space (land) is what gives the women freedom. The true liberation comes of materialistic developement. The land which is associated with Woman also has a feminine quality in the tamil culture as well as Indian culture. The land which is called as mother earth and boomathevi paves way to an ecofeminstic standpoint where the land as well as women are worshiped. Thus the ‘land’ must be taken as a metaphor rather than a literal space. The land is seen as a third space which gives freedom to the women through economical independence. The land is not a mere land but an identity. The land which is not a mere commodity but source of pride and confedence.