Lebia and Dasi

Social discrimination was a widely spread plague during the post-colonial era.
This was due to the

impact of colonization which carried the main ideology of discrimination between the west and the
east. This social discrimination which passed through generations, was uprooted in terms of slavery,
suppression, migration, race , gender, culture and education.
Divorcee by Kan Saro Wiwa explores the gender issues in the post-colonial context. It reveals how
the female characters were dominated, discriminated and degraded by the gender marginalized
Chauvinist society. Dasi the Bride Groom by R.K Narayan reveals the plight of a mentally
handicapped individual who falls prey to a prank of his neighbours and finally driven to complete
madness. Through the story Narayan deeply criticizes the social discrimination in the society that can
manifest its nasty tentacles on innocent individuals.
In ‘Divorcee’ , Lebia gets victimized in all 3 phases of her life. Before marriage, in the marriage as
well as after getting divorced. IN Dasi the Bride Groom, Dasi gets mocked and neglected by the
elementary school children, passes-by and hawkers and also by senior citizens who gathered at
Mantapan. He got neglected and mocked by all three generations of the society.
Lebia before her marriage, was a faithful daughter learning at her mother’s’ feet’. She grew up
doing what her mother asked her to do. the only time she enjoyed her life with freedom was when
she joined the youth of Dukana to play in the sand. “She loved those evenings most” In Nigeria,
women were not provided with education and were not able to stand alone in their lives. Instead
she was raised with the mere intention to be the only wife of a poor man or one of the many wives
of a rich man. In post colonial Nigerian society, economy played an important role in female’s life in
deciding the nature of her husband. The rights and the freedom of women were disregarded up to
the level that even the selecting of the life partner was not given in the female’s hand. She had no
room for questioning or changing things. When her uncle asked whether she would like to marry the
young driver, “she as she was expected, refused to say a word”
In her marriage life, as for her it was a “nightmare” of “brutality” She was a faithful wife who
“cooked his meals, washed his clothes… And at night, after he had his meal and his bath, she did her
duty faithfully, loyally, everyday”. She didn’t do anything other than what is told by her husband.
Instead of giving her love and gratitude, her husband made her the sole offender of childlessness
without being clinically determined. The fault was thrown up on weaker gender. Hence women were
subjected to social inequality, where the weaker gender was socially condemned. When her
husband asked her to pack her things and drove her to her mother’s home without discussing
anything regarding the matter, she was quiet in the same way she was at the beginning of her
marriage. To her mother he said “I am returning your daughter. I want my money back” The act of
her husband gives the reader the impression that marrying a woman was like a transaction in trade
during the post colonial Nigerian society. If a product you purchased is not productive you will return
it and ask your money back. This was the plight of socially condemned weaker gender in Dukana.
Dasi , being a devoted servant, irrespective of his mental retardation, served the masters family with
all his strength from “dawn to midday” Dasi’s victimization in this post-colonial, highly industrialized
society, where people were emotionless and insensitive, is clearly portrays when he says “see my
hand is……..all skin gone” Dasi doesn’t know that he is being exploited. He has to be given with
“three thousand rupees” but none has given him money for the labour he renders. Dasi was a source
of “Great joy” for the Mantapans who believed to be reputed senior citizens, played with the basic
sentimental needs of Dasi. They induce ideas of marriage in Dasi by knowing that “he thought very
deeply and earnestly of his marriage” dasi , being a mentally handicapped, gets more confused and
mentally weak by chasing after “Bamini Bai” a mirage that he can never be reached.
The fun that Mantapans made out of Dasi ended up tilting his whole world upside down towards
more darkness. “He hardly felt numerous blows from all sort of people, but his soul revolted against
the memory of the slap he had received from Bamini”
Dasi who was logically weak, but had much patience and strength to bear, lose all of his human
qualities and “Lept about like a panther “destroying everything on his way. The cruel act of the
society made him confined to a mental hospital. The society is responsible for his act. He became
what society made out of him.
The lives of Dasi and Lebia are being consumed by the asymmetrical society that they live in. lebia
being a victim in her male chauvinist society will lead her life unsmilingly, just as Dasi, victimized in
several ways in which his mentality goes through catastrophic trauma. The materialistic society fails
to see the needs of innocent individuals behind flesh and blood. Even today, discrimination plays its
secret role in almost every society. The pitiful reason is that discrimination has camouflage its true
identity behind one’s traditions and culture.

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Social discrimination was a widely spread plague during the post-colonial era.

This was due to the

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