The Interplay of Desire and Repression in Ismat Chughtai’s ‘The Quilt’ Ramika Sehgal College

The Quilt or ‘Lihaf ’ as popularly known is a short story by Ismat Chughtai which was published in the year 1941 in a leading urdu magazine of the time and was received amdist a lot of controversy and chaos. And rightly so, given how much the concept of sex and sexuality especially in terms of women was out of bounds at the time. Women then, were considered as objects that can be tucked away in a corner; in such a time frame Ismat Chugtai created this female centric wonder, with both a female antagonist and a protagonist exploring the themes of repression and desire.

Chughtai's narrative centers around the ties of a few characters - namely Begum Jaan, the Nawaab, Rabbu and the unnamed little girl who is just where she shouldn’t be. Chugtai’s story explores the psychological stance of desire and repression in the aforementioned characters life. The story is set in Pre-independence India and takes place through the due course of one week when the little girl has come to stay with her aunt. The entire story is written through the perspective of child, which enabled Chughtai to put forth a lot of open ended observations which are open to the reader’s interpretation of them. Every detail in the story is not stated, rather it is...