Layers of Displacement Through Imperialism: “The Hungry Stones”
“There happen more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are reported in your newspapers” (Tagore).
Editorial Team: Tabitha Gruen, Laney Hein, Talon Nicosia, Olivia O’Shields, Emma Strzepek
Additional editorial support by Dr. Heidi L. Pennington
Within “The Hungry Stones” by Rabindranath Tagore, hauntings manifest through layers of displaced knowledge and identity. The objective is to argue that the narrative’s main impact lies in what cannot be empirically proven. In this short story, imperial traumas persist in the present life of the framed narrator, and even in death in the ghostly encounters he has. Written in 1895, almost fifty years into full British colonial rule over India, the story conveys the impact of imperialism through its two major levels of narration, the framing narrator, and the framed narrator. The majority of the story events are told by the mysterious framed narrator. His identity is influenced by an amalgamation of complex knowledge of European and Indian literature and philosophy, service to the British Raj, Hinduism, and the extent to which he engages with or resists differing aspects of imperialism in the events he tells. He remains unnamed but identifies himself within the narrative as “Srijut so-and-so”. This is a Hindi honorific, meaning Sir or Mr. so-and-so, thus signaling aspects of his identity (linguistic and status affiliations), but still in the absence of a personal name. Srijut so-and-so is a tax collector in India, thus he is of direct service to the British Empire. During his work as a tax collector, Srijut so-and-so stays in a palace that is haunted by secret histories of past imperial traumas. Throughout the narrative, the layers to the haunting are progressively revealed, yet as histories are revealed, larger gaps are formed. The narrative depicts the layers of imperialism that persist in Srijut so-and-so’s daily life and identity. This includes the extent to which he questions and thinks about what it truly means to be an imperial subject. Tagore, through the framed narrator, uses gaps in the narrative and layers of uncertain identity to highlight how imperial trauma and displacement haunt the present through the disruption of the senses and the failures of empirical standards of knowing to explain them. Our exhibit attends to the information we are provided in this layered narrative to illuminate how the gaps in knowledge disrupt assumptions about identities under imperial systems.
As the haunting unfolds, it is repeatedly made clear to the audience that the narrator cannot trust his own senses. There is no empirical, logical explanation for the apparitions he experiences and the obsession he begins to develop with the house, and he is aware of this fact. At separate points, he describes the house as having a strange or otherworldly influence over him. First, he acknowledges the absurdity of the claim, saying that “before a week had passed, the place began to exert a weird fascination upon me. It is difficult to describe or to induce people to believe, but I felt as if the whole house was like a living organism slowly and imperceptibly digesting me” (Tagore). Later in the narrative, he describes feeling this pull again while at work, stating that “before it was dark I was strangely drawn to my house” (Tagore), to such an extent that he abandons his work to return home early. There is no empirical, measurable cause for this pull, but to him, it is real enough to inform his actions and begin to alter his thought process. While the house does not belong to him, he quickly starts viewing and referring to it as ‘his,’ reinforcing the imperialist view of possession as being a matter of claiming an object or place, regardless of its history or who else may have a claim of ownership. Although he thinks of the house as his, this is not true, and his perception of the house is untrustworthy because of it.
In addition, the house is haunting and consuming in and of itself, but the haunting of the house by other spirits further proves that the narrator's perceptions are not accurate. One night, compelled by a force or spirit he cannot explain, the narrator describes the “endless dark and narrow passages” (Tagore) he was led through. His view of the vastness and darkness of the passages is not representative of the house as it is in reality, but rather representative of the circumstances that caused it to become haunted. The key word is “endless.” This is allegorical to the portrayal of displacement and the manifestation of past traumas related to imperialism. The palace and its former residents’ histories of cultural erasure through imperialism were not plainly recorded, but still left a clear impact on everyone involved, even centuries after the fact, through both imperial attitudes of the time and the haunting that would occur in the future. While the trauma of imperialism and its legacy is not scientific or measurable, it is real enough to alter understanding of the house and those who once lived in it through erasure of their identities, as well as influence the main character through his own subjective perception of the house and its power over him.
One specific expression of imperial trauma in the story is the apparition of the ghost woman, and the way women like her are spoken of throughout the narrative. When comparing the history of the palace to its current state, the narrator says that “About 250 years ago the Emperor Mahmud Shah II had built this lonely palace for his pleasure and luxury. In his days jets of rose-water spurted from its fountains, and on the cold marble floors of its spray-cooled rooms young Persian damsels would sit” (Tagore), but the image of the “damsels” as the narrator calls them is heavily sanitized. These women were slaves, and the way in which the narrator focuses only on their physical appearance to create a romanticized image of the palace is an extension of the objectification they would have faced in life. The reality of their position is not addressed, only how they add to the beauty of the palace, treating them like decorations instead of people. The framed narrator goes so far as to describe men in his current, unaccompanied position as “oppressed with solitude and deprived of the society of women” (Tagore), confirming that it is the presence of women, not their lives or personhood, that is valuable to men in power under imperialism. This is also demonstrated by the narrator’s fantasy of the palace’s history, when he says the women “would sing, to the tune of the guitar, the ghazals of their vineyards” (Tagore). The form of poetry they are singing is historically and culturally significant, being popularized by Persian poets in the Middle Ages, and the subject matter typically deals with deeply personal topics like spiritual belief and erotic/romantic desire (“Ghazal” Poetry Foundation), but the focus is only on how pleasant their voices are to listen to, not the stories they are telling. The feelings, art, and cultures of imperial subjects are ignored in favor of the superficial entertainment of those in power.
By placing focus only on the physical appearances of women and what services they can provide to those in power, women are reduced to a commodity in high demand but short supply. This places women as objects rather than subjects within Empire, their identity is related to their use. This is blatantly demonstrated when the apparition of a young woman appears to the narrator. Her visible pain is directly contrasted with her appearance in a way that implies her suffering makes her more beautiful. The ghost is described as appearing with “a quick eager glance of intense passion and pain glowing in her large dark eyes, just a suspicion of speech on her dainty red lips, her figure, fair and slim crowned with youth like a blossoming creeper, quickly uplifted in her graceful tilting gait, a dazzling flash of pain and craving and ecstasy” (Tagore), before disappearing. The pain she carries is mentioned twice, but not commented on beyond its presence, and it is instead included alongside a list of reasons why the narrator is enticed by her. The narrator shares the imperial viewpoint that the woman’s feelings are not worth caring for, as long as she serves her purpose of looking beautiful. Her trauma draws him to her, but in a manner that borders on voyeuristic instead of caring or empathetic, and this fascination with dark history while disregarding its consequences is encouraged by the house itself. In the palace, the narrator can see and hear the ghosts of women moving throughout the passages and can imagine how the rooms might once have looked, but the lives, histories, and identities of the women are erased due to their place within the empire. While the framed narrator is led deeper into the passages of the palace’s history, the women’s stories are still never told. Their desires, culture, and presence within the palace are not only de-emphasized, but outright disregarded alongside their suffering, unless it benefits those in power.
A central theme within this narrative is the layers of the framed narrator’s displaced identity. The narrator is described at the beginning of the narrative as a man with esoteric wisdom pertaining to a variety of cultures, philosophies and religions. The framing narrator, a man returning from a Hindu religious pilgrimage who admits never to having traveled before, positions him the stranger this way: “From his dress and bearing we took him at first for an up-country Mahomedan, but we were puzzled as we heard him talk” (Tagore). This stranger, who will become the framed narrator, turns out to have quite the complicated relationship to Empire, to the point that we argue his identity is entirely displaced. He identifies himself with a Hindi honorific, yet he dresses and has knowledge of several other cultures of the Indian subcontinent, as the framing narrator indicates: “Be the topic ever so trivial, he would quote science, or comment on the Vedas, or repeat quatrains from some Persian poet; and as we had no pretence to a knowledge of science or the Vedas or Persian, our admiration for him went on increasing,” (Tagore). What we know about this man is limited, yet provides us with more questions than answers. We see the ways in which the narrator upholds imperial values and habits, for instance, in his rhetorical treatment of women, and his various acts of entitlement: he mainly cares about the ways in which people of lower status are useful to him. The narrator is also directly an agent of the British Empire through his duties as a tax collector. When local people share their knowledge of the house, the narrator disregards their warnings—a common trope in narratives of Empire: "Pass the day there, if you like," said he, "but never stay the night." I passed it off with a light laugh” (Tagore). Here, the narrator disregards the local knowledge of the hauntings in the palace. Despite this, there are clear moments where the narrator questions his place in the Empire and his values because of such. The narrator at some points expresses frustration with his position and his life of service to the Empire: “Then I was filled with a lively fear that it was the Muse that had taken advantage of my solitude and possessed me—the witch had evidently come to ruin a poor devil like myself making a living by collecting cotton duties”(Tagore). This line depicts the narrator pondering to what degree he engages with and participates in Imperialism. We do not know to what degree this narrator is involved with Imperialism after the events of the narrative, there is a gap in our knowledge, yet his identity from what can be known remains hybrid and multiple—as the framing narrator indicates in his description of this man. This manyness might suggest the ways in which layers of Imperialism create displacement.
This essay has discussed the topics of trauma, identity erasure, and the effects of imperialism on those living under it as they are presented within the narrative. Throughout the rest of our exhibit, the gaps are highlighted in the narrative in order to demonstrate these themes and how the layers will be explored in greater detail. Photographs included in our gallery will provide context for the structure of the story, assisting the audience in determining which parts of the narrative are factual history, which are fictional pieces specific to the story, and what is inspired by history but is not strictly factual. In addition, these photos will provide context for elements mentioned in the narrative that are not explained in detail, such as the appearance of the setting. With these photos, readers will be better able to understand what is discussed in quotes and annotations without prior knowledge of the setting and period or the larger text on hand to refer to. Said annotations provide analysis of key quotations, chosen for their demonstration of layers of narration, identity, or erasure. Combined, these three interpretive threads provide a detailed exploration of the gaps written into the narrative of “The Hungry Stones” and the imperial causes behind them.
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