Tradition and Modernity. Changing the Images of Women in Selected Fiction by Manju Kapur and Anita Nair

Alagiri, Sasikala

Tradition and Modernity. Changing the Images of Women in Selected Fiction by Manju Kapur and Anita Nair

Summary

Along with a range of socio-cultural, political and economic concerns, the focus on ‘self’ has been an inevitable assertion of writers during the last quarter of the twentieth century. Individualistic in tone, the contemporary women novelists are trying to portray realistically the predicament of modern women torn between the forces of tradition and modernity, their sense of frustration and alienation, the emotional and psychological turmoil and complexities of man-women relationships and subtleties of feminine consciousness against the persistent patriarchal social set-up. Cognizant of the evils originating from patriarchy, a positive sense of feminine identity has been recognized by them and the result is the emergence of a new woman in Indian society and its concept in the Indian English novel which has assumed a strident posture in the contemporary writings by women. The shift from submission to assertion, acquiescence to resistance and obedience to rebellion, however, has not been abrupt and effortless. Women are still in the process of negotiation with different limiting factors and thresholds of patriarchy to claim their due space and affirm their identity.
The present study is an attempt to critically investigate the negotiations with cultural norms by the women characters in the selected novels by the contemporary novelists, namely Manju Kapur and Anita Nair. Almost all the women characters, major and minor, from the selected novels have been considered and positioned as per their ideological leanings and convictions under two thematic chapters namely “Women in the Clutches of Traditional Norms,” and “Tradition to Modernity.” The major issues around which the novels move – education, marriage, gendered space and mother-daughter relationships – are taken up to put them within the contemporary social conditions in which women characters live. The present book is divided into five chapters to make a critical and analytical study of the select novels of these contemporary Indian women writers in English. The present work is focused on five selected novels: Manju Kapur’s “Difficult Daughters”, “Home” and “Custody” and Anita Nair’s “Ladies Coupé” and “Mistress”.

Excerpt

Alagiri, Sasikala: Tradition and Modernity. Changing the Images of Women in Selected

Fiction by Manju Kapur and Anita Nair, Hamburg, Anchor Academic Publishing 2017

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Dedicated to

Beloved Parents

Sri. A. Krishnaiah

Smt. A. Vijaya Lakshmi

My Dear Husband

Dr. R. Neelaiah

Preface

Along with a range of socio-cultural, political and economic concerns, the focus on `self'

has been an inevitable assertion of writers during the last quarter of the twentieth century.

Individualistic in tone, the contemporary women novelists are trying to portray

realistically the predicament of modern women torn between the forces of tradition and

modernity, their sense of frustration and alienation, the emotional and psychological

turmoil and complexities of man-women relationship and subtleties of feminine

consciousness against the persistent patriarchal social set-up. Cognizant of the evils

originating from patriarchy, a positive sense of feminine identity has been recognized by

them and the result is the emergence of new woman in Indian society and its concept in

the Indian English novel which has assumed a strident posture in the contemporary

writings by women. The shift from submission to assertion, acquiescence to resistance

and obedience to rebellion, however, has not been abrupt and effortless. Women are still

in the process of negotiation with different limiting factors and thresholds of patriarchy

to claim their due space and affirm their identity.

The present study is an attempt to critically investigate the negotiations with

cultural norms by the women characters in the selected novels by the contemporary

novelists, namely Manju Kapur and Anita Nair. Almost all the women characters, major

and minor, from the selected novels have been considered and positioned as per their

ideological leanings and convictions under two thematic chapters namely "Women in the

Clutches of Traditional Norms," and "Tradition to Modernity." The major issues around

which the novels move- education, marriage, gendered space and mother-daughter

relationship are taken up to put them within the contemporary social conditions in which

women characters live.

This study examines two different stages in the growth of woman's awareness of

the self. In the first stage, woman senses the coercive role of Cultural norms yet,

gradually succumbs to it by making `excepted choices' to cater to men's world. In second

stage a point of departure is seen when she revolts against the subjugating and

discriminating norms Cultural norms and openly registers protest against it.

The present book, Tradition and Modernity. Changing the Images of Women in

Selected Fiction by Manju Kapur and Anita Nair, is divided into five chapters to make a

critical and analytical study of the select novels of these contemporary Indian women

writers in English. The present work is focused on the selected novels- Manju Kapur's

Difficult Daughters, Home and Custody and Anita Nair's Ladies Coupe and Mistress.

The first chapter Introduction defines the topic and traces the development of

Indian English Novel, along with the feministic phases. It incorporates social reforms to

uplift women. It focuses on portrayal of women in the fiction of major Indian English

novelists, both men and women writers.

The second chapter Making the Novelists elaborates the parameters chosen

related to the feminine perception. It also deals with the biography of the chosen writers

and all their novels were looked at glance and the novels selected are discussed.

In the third chapter Women in the Clutches of Traditional Norms, deals with

the life of women positioned within the traditional norms are analysed. They believe in

abstract meaning of the ancient past (Traditional norms) which seeks to retrieve and

revive in order to place themselves firmly within it. They work religiously to nourish

these roots and make sure that they do not get fossilized. The realization brings a change

in the prominent women characters and they begin to negotiate with age old traditions

and customs.

In the fourth chapter Tradition to Modernity traces the journey and travails of

such women who do not merely acknowledge the existence of crossroads of choices in

life but evolve the spirit of rebirth to explore an abstract meaning of various existing

threshold models of patriarchy and beyond. These women who transgress the boundaries

of old traditional norms can be seen in the context of their restless, unending quest to

understand and locate the identity of womanhood. Sometimes out of their own volition, at

others impelled by the circumstances, their individual attempts to redefine the patriarchal

matrix, place them in the category of non-conformists or deviants. Their behavioural

patterns also highlight the childhood dismay, physical and mental suffocation at

adolescence due to patriarchal notches as well as irreversible dogmatic forces of a

traditional marriage in the lives of these emergent women.

The fifth chapter Conclusion is in the way of summing up the entire work. A

comprehensive attempt is made in locating and analyzing varying shades and canters of

traditional norms and the negotiation patterns adopted by women characters in the

selected novels of Manju Kapur and Anita Nair.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am so much indebted to many people who extended their help to make this work

possibility. Especially, I would like to place, on record, my gratitude to my research

supervisor Prof. P. Padma, Department of English, Yogi Vemana University, KADAPA,

(A.P) INDIA for the enthusiasm and inspiration, which was always there when I needed

them.

I would like to express gratitude to Dr. P. Obula Reddy, Department of English,

S.K.University, Anantapur for his valuable suggestions to produce this book. I am

grateful to Prof G. Gulam Tariq Chairperson, BOS, Dr. J. Mercy Vijetha, Co-Ordiantor,

Department of English, Dr. N. Ankanna and Dr. R.V. Jayanth Kasyap for their kind co-

operation.

I thank Librarians for permitting me to use the libraries of Y.V.University,

S.K.University, Anantapur, S.V.University and S.P.M.V.University, Tirupati, Central

University of Hyderabad, EFLU and Osmania University of Hyderabad.

I thank my parents Sri. A. Krishnaiah and Smt. A. Vijaya Lakshmi who educated

me in the best possible for them. I thank my husband Dr. R. Neelaiah for his

encouragement, patience and help throughout my research work. I am thankful to my

sisters Smt. A. Harathi and Kum. A. Girija for their kindness in taking care of my

children R. Likhil Raj and R. Varshini and also for their cheerfulness.

A. SASIKALA

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page No.

Preface

3-5

Acknowledgements

List of Abbreviations

Chapter

Title

Page No.

Introduction

9-36

Making of the Novelists

37-68

III

Women in the Clutches of Traditional Norms

69-99

Tradition to Modernity

100-145

Conclusion

146-158

Bibliography

159-186

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Difficult Daughters

Home

Custody

Ladies Coupe

Mistress

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

`Negotiation' is not a natural pre-existing entity but a social structure, generally

considered a business or commercial term used to bargain financial matters or to settle

down certain issues among the people. In literature written by women, it is used to assert

the identity and the rights of women to bargain her position in the society to be on par

with men. The early twentieth century, India witnessed many changes which gave a

stimulus to creative artists in English. Phallo-centric version of literature and language

paved way to gyno-centric version of literature in patriarchal society. Most of the Indian

male writers who write in English represented women from their point of view and

regarded the western feminism as a threat to the Indian culture. Especially, when popular

writers as Raja Rao discussed extensively the duties and responsibilities of a woman

towards her husband and family, and when major critics affirmed their views, they have

become established norms. Then the validity of the established norms has come to

question and in the process the lapses were held high both by feminists and humanists.

Feminists believe that the opposite gender cannot explore the inner psyche of women, as

women themselves do. Thus have emerged voicing the voiceless, the Indian women

writers not only tried to put forth the sufferings and pain, but to enlighten and awaken

women about their suppressed, subjugated and exploited situation in the society, and have

marched ahead to assert their right position and thus have reached a point where their

negotiation with the cultural change cannot be neglected or rubbed away as an imported

western concept. In Post-Colonial India, social reformers as Raja Ram Mohan Roy, M.K.

Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru etc., had their unforgettable part in the negotiation of position

of women in the society. Consequently the increased percentage of literacy in English

among the Indian women, clubbed with the fast changing social, economical and political

conditions, fostered the position of women both as a `producer' and `consumer' of

literature.

Culture is dynamic, it changes with time and yet times get modified to become

totally different from what it has been earlier. Breaking the shackles of the traditions,

customs and beliefs which erased the identity of women and curtailed their position in the

society, the image of `New Women' has emerged by the efforts of both the genders. In

Post-Independence era after women in India began to get educated, they felt the need to

voice the voiceless. Women writings now reflect their experience or understanding of

their surroundings. Judicial, political and economical acts to reform facilitated women

upliftment. The press, print and the society have also made their contribution to alter

patriarchal society. In literature women writers grew in number and Feminism emerged

as a genre. Major Indian Women Writers are focusing on various women issues.

Feminist's writers have become conscious of women's identity, their position in family

and society. Asserting their rights, writers like Kamala Markandaya, Ruth Prawer

Jhabwala, Anita Desai, Nayantara Sahgal, Kamala Das, and Shashi Deshpande negotiated

with the established patriarchal power structure.

Negotiation with culture is delineted by the contemporary Indian women writers

in three different locales by the different categories of women. The high-class or highly

educated women's negotiation is discussed in the context of migration to the financially

advanced western countries as America, Canada, and Australia etc in this era of

globalisation and liberalization. The second type is at home in India, the raising middle

class house wives or educated working women's negotiation is focused and is chronicled

by writers. The third type deals with the fourth world Dalit feminism also called

Subaltern history of feminism. For the present study the Negotiation with culture at home

the second type is selected.

`Feminism' means different things to different people, ranging from a wish to

change and challenge the existing order of things to achieve a more balanced and saner

parity and equality between sexes and to work for human dignity as an individual and as

a woman. Feminism is defined thus:

Feminism in India is set of movements aimed at

defining, establishing, and defending equal

political, economic, and social rights and equal

opportunities for Indian women. It is the pursuit of

women's rights within the society of India. Like

their feminist counterparts all over the world,

feminists in India seek gender equality: the right to

work for equal wages, the right to equal access to

health and education, and equal political rights.

Indian feminists also have fought against culture-

specific issues within India's patriarchal society,

such as inheritance laws and the practice of widow

immolation known as Sati. (Wikipedia)

The term `feminism' was first used in nineteenth century by a French dramatist,

Alexander Dumas, to refer to the emerging movement for women's rights, but mostly

limited to politics. Women constitute roughly half the world's population, but their

contribution in various fields of activity has been totally disproportionate to their

numerical strength. As the weaker sex they have been subjected to social, economic and

political injustices. An awareness of the inequalities present in society resulted in the

`Women's Liberation Movement' as late as the mid nineteenth century. Simone de

Beauvoir, as the pioneer of the movement contested the belittling of women in her book,

The Second Sex, first published in French in 1949, and subsequently translated into

English to make it accessible to the rest of the world. It gradually swept across the world

advocating rights for women political, social, economic, educational, cultural and

psychological. In the later part of the twentieth century, it became more vigorous to make

people examine their age old beliefs and concepts. According to Linda Gordan, historian

feminism is "an analysis of women's subordination for the purpose of figuring out how to

change it."(8) Alice Jardine views feminism as a movement by women which takes on

different and very specific forms in different contexts. Jardine views feminism as a

"movement from the point of view of, by, and for women."(15) The Women's Movement

was also inspired by many feminist novelists like Betty Friedan, Kate Millet, Dorris

Lessing, Sylvia Plath, Iris Murdoch, Marilyn French, Margaret Atwood etc. these

feminists have made commendable contribution to the spread of feminism. Women

earlier did not dare to defy the rigid norms laid down by the society due to cultural and

social constraints. While men were allowed to ignore social decorum and prudish notions

of morality, a woman writer could not go beyond certain limitations in her portrayal of

women characters. Even this liberty she got by sacrificing her individuality and by

subjecting herself to greater humiliation.

Feminist literature itself is a negotiating literature. Women writers negotiate for

change in patriarchal society unlike in the Western countries, in India; it is started by

male writers just before the Independence Movement and it moves a head along with the

National Movement. The First phase (1850-1950) of Feminism in India was started by

social reformers to eradicate social evils like Sati, widow remarriage, to abolish child

marriage and to reduce illiteracy. The British colonial venture brought concepts of

democracy, equality and individual rights. In this phase mostly the upper class Brahmin

Hindu men and women fought against the problems faced under the Brahmanical

traditions. The end of the phase the fight for women's rights and their status began in the

society to improve. Social reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Mahatma Gandhi,

Kandukuri Veeresalingam, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Subramnya Bharati, D.K. Karve,

and Pandit Rama Bai appeared in the social and political arena of the country and have

not only inspired the men and women of Indian to participate in the freedom struggle, but

also have inspired people to march ahead forgetting discrimination of all sorts, be they of

even gender for the progress of the country.

Raja Ram Mohan Roy (1772-1833) was the first person who recognized social

evils as `sati pratha'. `polygamy', `child marriage', `caste system', `religious

superstitions' `disfigures the widow', `denying education' and `property to women' etc.

He is considered as the architect of Indian Renaissance and Father of Modern India for

the remarkable reforms he brought in the eighteenth century India. Like the abolition of

`Sati Pratha' a practice in which the widow on the funeral pyre of her husband was

compelled to sacrifice herself.

Sati has reduced women to the status of man's property, the act so inhuman. It has

direct effect on the psychological set, of the whole society. That was the age when

women were married early to aged man at times. Compelling young girl to practice it was

still more inhuman. It was recorded by the British that it had been more in practice in the

upper class. Even men like Raja Ram Mohan Roy got moved by that evil practice. Sati

was practiced by Madvi, Panduraja's wife while Kunti was left to look after the children

in Mahabharata. People were made to believe that it was written in scriptures. Raja Ram

Mohan Roy read the scriptures and made it clear that it was not sanctioned by the Vedas.

Thus the evil acts as `sati', `child marriage' `ole system' were attacked mainly by men as

the emancipation of women in India has come along with the Freedom Movement in

India, unlike the situation in the West, where the Liberation Movement had come through

the ventures of women. He began a movement to abolish `Sati Pratha' and for that

purpose he persuaded the British Government to pass an Act abolishing `Sati Pratha'; the

Governor General of Bengal Lord William Bentinck passed the Bengal Sati Regulation

Act in 1829.

Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar (1820-1891) is considered one of the pillars of

Bengal renaissance. He brought a revolution in the marriage system of Bengal. He was a

well-known writer, intellectual and above all humanistic; he managed to continue the

reforms started by Raja Ram Mohan Roy. They carried out large scale campaigns in this

regard mainly through books, pamphlets and petitions with of signatures. J.P. Grant a

member of the Governor-General's council passed an act supporting `Widow

Remarriage' and it came to be called the `Widow Remarriage Act', 1856. Similarly, in

the same way voices were raised against the practice of child marriage. At first the

minimum marriageable age for a girl was only ten years; in 1891 it was raised to twelve

years.

In the second phase (1915-1947) Nationalism became the prominent cause.

Women began to participate in the organizations like All India Women's Conference and

National Federation for Women was grappled with the issues related to the women

participation in political affairs, women's franchise, and leadership role in the political

parties. 1920-1930 was a period of a new era for Indian women. Through associations,

women emphasised education issues and strategies for working-class woman. After

independence the government gave importance to women to uplift them in all spheres of

life. Thus Indian women did not have to struggle for basic rights as women did in the

West. But the woman began to fight against the cultural and traditional norms. Through

`Sharda Act' it was raised to fourteen years in 1930 after independence it was raised to

eighteen years.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948) has played an important role in the

emancipation of Indian women. He was influenced by his mother, wife, and the

Liberation Movement of the West. Gandhi became uncompromising in the matter of

woman's rights. According to him woman is companion of man, gifted with equal rights

of freedom and liberty along with him. He is of the opinion that if woman is educated, the

whole family is educated and if man is educated, only he is educated. Thus his role in the

emancipation of woman is note worthy. Several schools for girls were opened separately

for women; education plays a key role in bringing the knowledge approachable to

women. Women organisations were started at that time and All India Women

Conferences were held. Gandhi included these organizations in the `Quit India

Movement'. Civil disobedience was carried mostly by women in villages.

The past two centuries has witnessed how Indian Feminist discourses are shaped

by the colonist and Freedom Struggle. The Freedom Movement provided space for

women to emerge out of their restricted space `home' to fight for the freedom in the

public space. Religious restrictions and imposition of culture was put aside in search of

`the big morale' attaining freedom to the Indians. Rao Bahadur Kandukuri

Veeresalingam (1848-1919) was a social reformer of Andhra Pradesh. He encouraged

women education, and started a school in Dowlaiswaram in 1874.

In 1890, Christian Missionaries established school for girls separately but they

were limited to cities. As education was not considered important to women, women as a

producer of literature could not emerge in the beginning stages when writing in English

flourished in India. Even when woman got educated and started, writing, her sphere was

limited to domestic life only as is the life of women in society or she continued in the

pattern men have written projecting ideal women. Though male writers found fault with

the limited space in which their novels move, they have voiced of the voiceless and their

own feelings, where as in men's writings they were mostly invisible or objects of man's

desire or very submissive. The male could not write the feeling of other gender.

Women acquired education and began to feel an increasing urge to voice their

thoughts and feelings. In the words of Meena Shirwadkar

The awareness of individuality, the sense of

incompatibility with their tradition bound

surroundings resentment of male dominated ideas

of morality and behaviour, problems at home and

the place of work or in society all come up in

better projection. (201)

In the third phase that is Post Independence phase (1947 - ) Indira Gandhi became first

woman Prime Minister of India. In this period woman began to extend their rights in the

workforce, for equal wages, restricting women as a reserve army for labour. In this phase,

in 1970's `Feminist class-consciousness' also came into focus, with feminists recognizing

the inequalities not just between men and women but also within power structures such as

caste, tribe, language religion, class region etc.

Education for women paved way for economical freedom of women in the

modern days. Economical freedom works wonders for the raise of confidence in women

and she gets respect and the financial stability of women has grown. But at the same time

the problems turned to be different for women. Ole is replaced by dowry system and still

it continues to be a social evil. In spite of several acts which have come in favour of

women, still the dowry deaths of women are recorded at high rate in India. The problems

of women have not diminished on the other hand, they have to play multiple roles as

bread winners, family managers, child-bearers and as such she has to balance her `work'

in the office and duty in the house and has to prove to be a super woman.

The space also has grown; Gandhi felt that if a woman can move on the street at

midnight then, it means that the people of the country have acquired the real freedom.

When woman has started working, she has begun to move as men, but the safety of

woman is still questionable. Hence the problems outside have increased. Woman is still a

sex system and so evil acts as `rapes' still continue. `Nirbhaya' act has come to save

women and girl from the evil behaviour or dominant nature of men.

In the first phase, Feminist fought against the social evils, in the second phase

from 1915 to the time of Independence, Women organisations emerged and Gandhi

incorporated them into the `Quit India Movement' and in the Post Independence era

security of women in private space home, on the individual health, social and political

rights and then in the public sectors are considered. Every year `Womens Day' is

celebrated on March eighth and every year a special focus is given to improve the status

of women. First it was on wages and right to vote, then to health and property right, now

for emancipation and empowering women on par with men. When the decade 1975-1985

was declared by the United Nation's as `Decade of woman', the country had prepared a

report on the status of women and had recognized that the structural hierarchies are the

root cause for injustice caused to women.

Thus education, space, marriage and relationship between parents and the girl-

child have altered a lot in the modern days. The social, political and legal conditions are

enforced to bring a change in the lives of women. They are formed to uplift women and

their position in society is negotiated to be on par with men.

The feminine sensibility has been an appealing aspect of Indian writers ever since

the Vedic period. Novel as a narrative form further supplemented to the store house of

literature in the recent past as Indians became acquainted with immense potentialities of

novel as a literary genre through their contact with the English language and its literature.

While the major Indian languages have had an uninterrupted literary tradition in poetry

and drama, which in some cases is older than that of English, the history of Indian novel

is barely more than a century old, yet its creditable stride ahead reflects dynamic

attitudinal changes wrought in the Indian social structure and psyche over the last

decades. Since its inception in the Indian soil, Indian English fiction has grown

considerably in bulk, variety and maturity. As R.S. Pathak says, "Its development can be

traced from imitative to realistic to psychological and experimental stage." (50) It has

received increasing critical attention both within the country and abroad during the past

decades.

A remarkable fact about the Indian novel in English is that it is not an isolated

phenomenon; its success corresponds with the coming of age of fiction in almost all the

major Indian languages. The Indian novel is replete with a keen awareness of the day-to-

day world and is impressive in its improvisation of techniques and supple in its graft of a

new language which provides vivid reflection of the shifting social realities. Lionel

trilling rightly affirms that the purpose of novel is "a perpetual quest for reality."(51)

The themes in the early Indian novels in English are mainly historical, sentimental

and romantic emerging the British models of eighteenth and nineteenth century as Daniel

Dafoe, Fielding's and Scott. It is after the Renaissance in India, Indian themes are taken

up. Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was far ahead of his times as a feminist writer.

Though born in an orthodox Brahmin family, he was unorthodox in his portrayal of

assertive women. He has projected man-women relationship in his stories and novels. In

his novels he was against the patriarchal society, he has given equal rights and

importance to women on par with men, which shaked the society to its foundation. The

social reformer in Rabindranath Tagore gave priority to women. He went twice to

England, first to study from 1871to1880 and later after achieving the award, there he got

influenced by the Women Movements and `Feministic Movements'. Tagore portrayal of

women characters in his stories and novels changed consequent to the contemporary

changes in society and women characters were no longer the submissive sufferers of

patriarchy. Tagore created heroines in the twentieth century, as to start to assert their

individuality and they were more emancipated and empowered to transform themselves.

It can be said that in the Indian society the women had no value as daughters, as wives,

and as mothers. Though men worship Gods like Lakshmi, Saraswati and Shakti in reality

in society woman is treated as a slave, without rights to get educated, to own property and

to express her will freely.

Tagore proves himself as a mature novelist with the novel Binodini (1905) in

which he portrays the inner conflicts of the women characters. Tagore in his novels,

projects abolition of child marriage, widow remarriage and gave importance to women's

education. Binodini (1905) is one such novel, in which he represents the social condition,

clashes in conjugal life and perplexity of human psychology. The whole story revolves

around three main characters Binodini, the widow, Mahendra and his wife Ashalata. In

the novel, Binodini was a well educated girl and Mahendra's mother, Rajlakshmi choses

for his son, but he refused to marry Binodini. She was married to an elderly person, at an

early age and became a widow. As a young widow she had lustful desires, and she also

had desires for family and motherhood and desires to be as Asha. Unable to lead such a

life she became jealous of Asha, an uneducated woman. Binodini with her tactfulness

attracts all the people and when Mahendra proposes her to marry him, she refuses due to

social restrictions and finally at the end of the novel she leaves for Kashi. Here in the

novel the widow, Binodini struggles with her own zeal and unfulfilled love. Escaping

into religion is a way to get rid off authoritative pressures that subjugate them.

Tagore's Chaturanga (1916) is a short novel; it also portrays the widow

remarriage like Binodini and the issue of sexuality. Tagore questions the issues of identity

and sexuality in relation to contemporary debates about widow remarriage, religion and

interpersonal relationships. Damini the protagonist of the novel is a young widow and she

rebels against the patriarchal system. At every stage she rebels against the Hindu

traditional norms and to lead a life of her own without fear of the society. Metamorphosis

of Tagore is clear in these two novels. So are his characters who changes with

experience.

Celibacy has important to the feminists as a way to escape from motherhood and

marriage. Metamorphosis of womanhood is important to him like Nora in Ibsen's A

Doll's House (1879). In his twenties he was annoyed with the ending in A Doll's House,

at the age of fifty three, he could understand what freedom means to women and how

precious is freedom to women.

Tagore through his novels has tried to build new female role models to motivate

new generation of women. He has also written many short stories on emancipation of

women. Later, he started a `Shantiniketan school' for admitting women and also started

co-educational schools. Whether it is male or female, he set out to create a substitute

model of education where the whole personality is learned. He has done more to

emancipate the women's academic position and also in sports, dance and creative

expression of women. His novels are mostly novels of ideas. He adapted the genre to

depict the inner changes in the lives of characters in relation to time and space. Tagore's

influence is all pervading, as can be seen in the novels of his successors Mulk Raj Anand,

R.K.Narayan and a score of regional writers as Sarat Chandra and Premchand who write

in Hindi.

In 1970's the rise of liberal feminism in the West focused on gender

discrimination in various spaces and spheres as education, employment, in the marital

relations and on violence against women. In these aspects Indian feminism is influenced

by the West, at the independence time women are given the right to vote on par with

women unlike in many of the Muslim countries, where the Franchise was not granted till

late.

The three great pioneers of Indian novel in English, Raja Rao, R.K. Narayan and

Mulk Raj Anand (1905-2004) have focussed more on the Indian Freedom Struggle but

failed to record the significant contribution of women to the Freedom Movement. Mulk

Raj Anand is an Indian English novelist who portrays the lives of the poor and the

downtrodden in his novels. Dalit Feminism can be traced in his novel Untouchability.

Mulk Raj Anand's women are passive suffers whose destiny lies in the hands of men,

they are victims of male domination or aggression. Women speak rarely in the novels of

Mulk Raj Anand. The novel which focuses on feministic prospective is The old Woman

and the Cow (Gauri) (1960)... The novel depicts variety of female characters from all

classes, from city lady to simple village girl and from high class to low class. The novel

Gauri deals with the suffering of Gauri and her rebel against patriarchal norms. Gauri a

peasant woman is married to Panchi, an impatient, narrow-minded man. After her

marriage with Panchi, she is suppressed both by Keasaro, her mother-in-law and her

husband, Panchi, they torture and abuse her, and she bares all the suffering with silence.

When she comes to know she is a pregnant, she feels happy like any other women, but

her husband suspects her and she is driven out of the house. She goes to her mother

Laxmi, expecting that her mother would rescue her, but Laxmi, her mother sold Gauri to

a Sheth Jai Ram Das for the sake of money. Then Gauri to express her mother how cruel

is she, selling her like a cow, for the sake of money. Then Jai Ram Das tries to touch and

seduce her, but she violently reacts and escapes throwing him on the floor. Later,

Mahindra takes her to his hospital and makes her realize her self-worth and her rights.

She lives in the hospital serving the patients. Then again Gauri goes to her husband like

any typical Indian house wife, but he (Panchi) rejects her and suspects her chastity again.

Gauri rebels against him and leaves the house to live her own life.

R.K. Narayan (1906-2001) belongs to the first generation of Indian English

writers who focused mainly on social issues and have given less importance to feministic

aspects. His women are not barrowed from the West. They are traditional women but, are

resourceful in their own way in his novels. His The Dark Room (1938) has been inspired

by Ibsen's A Doll's House a drama in which the protagonist steps out of the house for

self-education. The Dark Room deals with the gender equality and raises many questions

regarding marriage institution. It is about Savitri and her dominating husband Ramani

who strictly follows patriarchal norms and treats Savitri with rudeness and negligence.

He doesn't want to hear any suggestion from Savitri; she should be like a home pet.

According to Ramani, Savitri should not have any desires she should adopt the desires of

her husband. She should not interfere in any affairs except kitchen work? Savitri silently

follows all the rules to do her best. When she comes to know that her husband has an

affair with a newly appointed employee called Shanta Bai, she rebels against him and the

patriarchal norms. She walks out of the house leaving her children as Nora in Ibsen's A

Doll's House. R.K. Narayan has brought Ibsenism in his novel. Through this novel he

portrays the predicament of women in Indian society. It is this novel which has traces of

The Women's Movement in the 1930's. The impact of the West is felt in this aspect; he

is a traditionalistic and humanistic in his approach to women. In a broader sweep

feminism has humanistic concerns. Feminism has a role destined to it. Before trying to

access the role of women and the responsibility of the society, it scrutinizes the position

of the women the causes behind the subjugation and how they struggle to change her

condition.

Raja Rao (1908-2006) is different kind of writer in portraying women. While

Mulk Raj Anand and R.K. Narayan are more traditional and humanistic, Raja Rao is firm

in his views on women and from feminist point of view; he is a writer who propagated

with male chauvinism. The study of gender construction in Raja Rao's works gains

importance owing to his popularity and to the contemporary relevance. More than any of

his other works, The Serpent and The Rope and The Chess Master, there is extensive

discussion about women and reviving of the image of women as projected in the mythical

works and in the Indian tradition. He defined the role of women and used the concepts as

Purusha-Prakriti and Shiva-Shakti. This kind of colonization has accorded authority and

status to him as a leading novelist and the validity of these ideas sound dangerous to the

feminists as the impact of it on the subjugation in vast.

Indian tradition adopted by Raja Rao is based on Advaita, Manusmriti and the

two great epics of India. Woman is considered as the other and man is the main concern.

Man is placed in contradiction with the woman. Her attitude is based on her

responsibilities and on her biology. Savitri in The Serpent and The Rope says, "No

woman, who is a woman can chose her destiny. Men decide their destiny as fathers,

husbands and sons. For a woman to choose is to betray her biology (SR: 291). She has

no option. Lithe mother says, "for a woman the sacred feet of her husband be paradise

(SR: 294) Marriage therefore is considered as absolutely necessary to woman. Lithe

mother echoes the myths, when she says that "a woman has to marry whether she is

blind, deaf, mute or tuberculosis. Her want is her life" (SR: 258). She gains knowledge

worshiping her husband. Women are revered as she bears children. From her pregnancy

she is given special status. She protects and takes care of children. He elaborated woman

dharma towards man but not vice versa. Women duties are elaborated in The Serpent and

The Rope more than in The Cat and Shakespeare. In The Chess Master and his Move,

Jaya Lakshmi holds Indian tradition and it is a matter of pride. She is uncorrupted by

western culture. She gives respect to Siva even when in France. Men need woman to

inspire them. Heterosexual experience is necessary to man to pursue the salvation as he

says through the protagonist Sivaram. His love Jaya Lakshmi is already married, so

Suzanne and Miveilla provide relief both sexual and emotional, while Uma adores him.

Jaya Lakshmi and Uma are considered superior because they are Indians and their

devotion to their husbands is admirable. He did not of course support young ladies

marriage to the old men in the novel. Thus his version is phallocentric and was adored

and followed by the other writers later in their creative works. When they got established,

they threatened the women's position in the society.

In Bhabani Bhattacharya's (1906-1988) novels, woman is the epitome of all

virtues and plays an important role in bringing about social reform as men wished. His

novels such as So Many Hungers, He Who Rides a Tiger and Shadow from Ladakh

present a kaleidoscopic picture of reality. However, it is said that the picture he paints of

the woman in them is idyllic, tender and charming, sometimes event too optimistic to be

realistic. Manohar Malgankar (1913-2010) focus on religious tolerance among Hindus

and Muslims required for harmony and unity.

Salman Rushdie's (1947- ) The Ground Beneath Her Feet (1999) is a vivid

account of love, death and rock's roll that is set in India, England and America. The

novel presents not only the family saga but also presents feministic theme through the

character of Vina. Vina, the legendary of rock music, is the central character that runs the

entire action of the novel. Literally self-less, her personality is smashed like a mirror by

the fist of her own life. All the things had been pulled out from her life her name,

family, sense of place and home, safety, belonging, being loved, future and belief.

Experiencing sexual exploitation, racial discrimination and parental apathy, she carves a

niche for her life in the world of music and money. Vina is fore grounded as a feminist

icon in the novel. Sexual promiscuity is adopted as a means of survival to rise in the

materialistic world.

In Arvind Adiga's White Tiger, which has won the `Booker Prize' in 2007,

women are `invisible'. Though marginalised people are potrayed in this recent Indian

English Fiction, portrayal of women remains marginalised. Even in his Between Two

Assassinations, women do not play even the side role, they are not individualized.

Amitav Gosh women are placed in historical and political context and they belong

to three generations as in Githa Hariharan's The Thousand Faces of Night and in Manju

Kapur's Difficult Daughters and Home. In Amitav Gosh novels women do not live

passively as subjugated women, neither do they fight with men as radical feminist but

they are independent, assertive, strong, and live as they pursuing their ideals. The role of

women in his novels is limited and their number too, but, they are independent characters

they fight against social evils as dowry system, sati, widowhood, poverty, injustice and

oppressive forces in their social milieu. Women characters break the pattern of sexuality;

search their soul's ambitions to lead life with honour on par with men.

In his popular novel, The Glass Palace, Raj Kumar, an orphan, stands for famine

virtues as courage, honour, and sacrifice to lift other characters. Uma Dey collector's

wife and her niece Jaya, a widow, search for their independent space and ethical identity.

They negotiate with their social milieu to find justice or resolutions as they aspire.

In The Hungry Tide, Kusum a tribal woman's assertion changes her as a helper of

the refugees. Nilima Mashima who belongs to an educated aristocratic family is placed in

the time just before Indian independence. Having got influenced by the Liberal Women

Movements and social reforms of the time, she says:

I am not capable of dealing with the whole world's

problems. For me the challenge of making a few

little things a little better in one small place is

enough. (The Hungry Tide, 387)

Piyal Roy of present generation tries to find meaning in her career as a scientist

and at home and she stands on the threshold of life. Piya and Moya also stand for self-

respect.

In Sea of Poppies, Deeti, a suppressed village wife of opium addicted husband, is

exploited by her husband's brothers sexually and financially and her mother-in-law also

joins with them to compel her to commit sati as was the tradition of the times. The family

members compel her thus: To have a sati in the family will make us famous. We'll build

temple for you and grow rich on the offerings. (The Sea of Poppies, 155) When a dalit

saves her from the sati pyre, she marries him and finds family life as she desires.

In The Shadow Lines is an old lady determined to preserve marital relations while

Ila is a modern westernized young lady who loves to dance in a club. She cries out: Do

you see why I have chosen to live in London?... it's only because I want to be free.... free

of our bloody culture. (The Shadow Lines, 88) May, the British lady is an idealist but she

soon realises that she can do very little to do justice to suffering poor women in India.

Kalidasa's Shakuntala is an epitome of nurturing domestic set up with self respect

and fights for moral rights; she tries to stick to the domestic values without a total

surrendering to the male authority. Even in Bhakti Movement, women without fighting

against the political or social domination of men have achieved gender equality. They

challenged of course the patriarchy which divides people on the cast system. Unmarried

Meera Bai has subverted the hegemonic structure. Yet woman in these contexts struggled

for "breathing space". They love to set themselves free of oppressive social conditions

and have set as models enriching the world of women. But the history has treated women

as `objects' of men's desire. Feminism is attached with `protest' and theorization.

The nascent footsteps of novel as a genre in India almost paralleled the growth of

women's education and various reform movements to ameliorate their plight. It provided

opportunity to many young Indian women to write about the changing socio-cultural

environment in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Since then they have tried

to keep a steady pace with their men counterparts and the genre of novel in the hands of

contemporary women novelists has gained a new direction, a new dimension and a

new expression. H. Scott rightly says; "The mere fact that there are two sexes' gives rises

to two ways of perceiving human life: the 'us' of one view and the `them' of the

other."(92)

Feminism, Feminist, or Female, the woman's novel has always had to contend

with the cultural and historical forces that consigned women's experiences to the

sidelines. The issues raised by the Western feminist inspired the feminists in India and

the women novelists have dexterously championed the cause of women in Indian fiction.

To go back to the history of women's writing, it was Toru Dutt (1856-1877) who first

wrote both in French and English about women and other women writers followed her.

Cornelia Sorabji tried to penetrate the silken curtain of the `Purdah' and reveal the

nuances of feminist. A later writer, Iqbalunnisa Hussain her Purdah and Polygamy: Life

in an Indian Muslim House hold has also tried with commendable success to present the

inhibitions and self-imposed inhibitions in atypical Muslim family. Toru Dutt in her two

novels Bianca and Le Journal de Made Moiselled Arvers presents almost a traditional

type of women like hear Raj Lakshmi Devi in The Hindu Wife (1876). Krupa

Biasatthianyadhan in her Kamala (1894), H. Caveribai in her Meenakshi's Memories

(1937) had presented the agony of the Indian woman.

It is only after Independence, Indian women novelist may also be said to have

been highly conscious of the women's liberation movement. By and large they have

portrayed women and their stories with a consciousness of the injustices being meted out

to women in patriarchal society. These novels have, more often than not, a feminist

undercurrent. Usually these novels have a woman protagonist, a majority of them

rebelling against the existing social setup. They discard the idea of being submissive,

suffering, and sacrificing. The entire process demands determinations and a will to stand

by the cause of rebellion at any cost. Most of these protagonists are found paying a heavy

price of their rebellion rather than submitting.

The age old traditions, myths and folk lore invariably become an integral part of

the women in society. Earlier the women writers like Kamala Markandaya, Ruth Prawer

Jhabwala, Anita Desai, Nayantara Sahgal, Kamala Das and Shashi Deshpande in their

novels potrayed women in the areas of struggle and in negotiation of relationship

between genders, they were passive. In their novels women have been treated as value-

holders of society, and performing their duty as daughter, wives and mothers. They have

lived by their role-appropriate feelings and by the wisdom of the cultural role. This belief

has been shaped over centuries by the ancient Indian normative texts and holds sway

even today. Hence the modern women voice the voiceless and the character try to mould

the situation under the changed cultural situations. Modern women writers negotiate

cultural situations, so that they can think of standing on par with their opposite gender for

the well being of the family. The modern socio-economical and political situations

provide them ample space for negotiation.

The writer's awareness of the individual needs of women like self fulfillment and

identity formation have resulted in patterns of alienation, communication gap, broken

relationships and identity crises. The major Indian women novelists who have been

concerned with these themes are Kamala Markandaya, Ruth Prawer Jhabwala, Anita

Desai, Nayantara Sahgal, Kamala Das, and Sashi Deshpande come out with their deep

insights into the female psyche. Nectar in a sieve, A Handful of Rice, Nowhere Man,

Pleasure city, Possession, A silence Desire, Some Inner fury, Two virgins and The Coffer

Dams are the representative novels of Kamala Markandaya who opens a new dimension

to Indian novel in English. The characters in the novels of Kamala Markandaya range

widely from the illiterate poor peasent women to the westernised women of the cities.

Ruth Prawer Jhabwala (1927-2013) is not so much concerned with the personality

development of her women as she is with the double standards of Indian women in

general. She deals with distortion of modernity and women's liberation. To whom she

will, The Nature of Passion, The House Holder Get Ready for the Battle, A Backward

Place, Heat and Dust are some of her novels which present the despicable state of

woman in an uncongenial domestic situation. Her portrayal of women is very limited and

narrows that Shantha Krishna Swamy comments:

her examples of women in her fiction seems to make

people unacquainted with India believe that all

Indian women are contemptible, flighty or neurotic

and pathetic creatures.(50)

Nayantara Sahgal (1927- ) stands out in the field of woman's writing in English as a

prolific writer revealing in her fiction a concern with contemporary social and political

changes in India. She is essentially a writer who enriches the Indian creative tradition, a

tradition upholding the humanistic values. Her novels show a remarkable degree of

continuity in their thematic concerns. They are first unified by the background of Indian

politics. This background supplies one major thematic crux: the plight of the individual in

the power-hungry and materialistically oriented society witnessing a rapid retreat from

Gandhian ethics. Nayantara Sahgal's portrayal of the Peace Institute in This Time of

Morning reveals a basic dichotomy found at the heart of the contemporary political and

social situations. In novel after novel, Nayantara Sahgal shows her concern with the

themes of sacrilege and sacrifice and the efflorescence of immaterial non-utilitarian

values as opposed to stultifying materialistic values. In her latest novels, Rich Like Us,

Plans for Departure and A Mistake Identity has established herself as a writer with a

growing concern for the novel as an art form. In articulating some of her concerns,

Sahgal offers valuable fictional correlatives of urban Indian life in a phase of industrial

development but marked by transistorizes of the immemorial values of the human heart

enshrined in Gandhian ideology. Nayantara Sahgal does not however adorn the role of a

feminist. Infact the early women writers refused such kind of labeling.

Anita Desai's (1937- ) novels belong to the modernist phase and they have been

favourable for their formal coherence and lyrical texture. The lyrical texture of her novels

unravels the complexity associated with women who are burdened with problems arising

from familial relationships. Nanda Kaul expresses her feelings of loss of privacy she

experiences while discharging what is assumed to be her social responsibility as the Vice-

Chancellor's wife:

There had been too many guests coming and going,

Tongas and rickshaws piled up under the

eucalyptus trees and the bougainvilleas, their

drivers asleep on the seats with their feet hanging

over the bars. The many rooms of the house had

always been full, extra beds would have had to be

made up, often in not very private corners of the

hall or veranda, so that there was a shortage of

privacy that vexed her. Too many trays of tea would

have to be made and carried to her husband's

study, to her mother-in-law's bedroom, to the

veranda that was the gathering place for all, at all

times of the day. Too many dishes on the table, too

much to wash after.

The burden of being a wife to a high cadre man is explained here. This is

the unknown and weaker voiced part of the high class women's life.

They had so many children, they had gone to so

many different schools and colleges at different

times of the day, and had so many tutors one for

mathematics who was harsh and slapped the unruly

boys, one for drawing who was lazy and smiled and

did nothing, and others equally incompetent and

irritating. Then there had been their friends, all of

different ages and sizes and families.

Similarly, Clear Light of Day reveals the family as an essential part of a woman's

consciousness and the past always has an inextricable link with the present. Bim in this

novel is in a mood of reminiscence and thinks of the house and the family in the

expanding awareness of the complexity and richness of family life. She sees with her

inner eye how "her won house and its particular history linked and contained her as well

as her whole family with all their separate histories and experiences." while the

obsessions of Anita Desai's protagonists in general suffer from self-introversion as can be

seen in Voices in the City, Clear Light of Day and Where Shall We Go This Summer? As

V.V.N.Rajendra Prasad rightly observes, Anita Desai's "themes seem to direct her

narrative mode which may be called psycho-narrations." Anita Desai's novels centre on

city life in India in all its variety and detail. Voices in the City dramatizes The Waste Land

motif of the city as a place of intense aridity of feeling which strikes at the roots of all

values of life. Her narratives emerge from a family saga and show wounded self in

particular socio-cultural milieu.

Anita Desai and Nayantara Sahgal look at woman through their sensitive psyche,

their emotional breakdowns, and psychic turmoil's. Women in their novels

pass through a process of transformation which

signifies for them a change from bondage to

freedom, from indecision to self-assertion and from

weakness to strength.

Women in Anita Desai's novels make a journey through the landscapes of their inner

psyche and finally arrive at a moment of discovery. As the journey advances, the novel

constitutes the conflicts, tensions, confusions, uncertainties and indecisions on the part of

the protagonists. The novels of Nayantara Sahgal are by and large a social phenomenon.

Sahgal acknowledges that "... Each of the novel more or less reflect the political era we

are passing through", and has established herself as a contributor to the "genesis of the

political novel". Her novel Rich Like Us is set against the backdrop of the emergency in

India. In this novel, both Rose and Sonali struggle against the hardships and injustices

imposed by social and political conditions. Their struggle to retain their individuality and

foster the values that they cherish makes them emerge as strong willed independent

individuals in a patriarchally dominated society.

Other novels that throw ample light on the direction of sensibility that woman

novelists have been carving out for themselves are Rama Mehta's Inside the Haveli and

Kamala Markandaya's Nector in a Sieve and A Handful of Rice. In almost all her novels

Kamala Markandaya has particular end in view: "autonomy for the self, nurturance for

the family and through feeling for the community of men and women". Kamala

Markandaya won international recognition with the publication of her very first novel

Nector in a Sieve in 1954. When she started writing novels, the theme of hunger and

degradation, East-West encounter, rootlessness, politics and human relationships had

already been dealt with by a number of Indian English novelists. In her novels the themes

include in the villages and cities, social conflicts and the lure of modernization. In Nector

in a Sieve, Nathan and Rukmani symbolize the East whereas Dr.Kenny who dislikes the

Indian philosophy of fasting for the purification of the soul symbolizes the forces of

industrialization and the West. If A Silence of Desire reflects Kamala Markandaya's

depiction of the conflict between Indian spiritualism and western modernism, A Handful

of Rice projects the East-West encounter in terms of cultural differences which cause

disharmony. H.M.Williams says of Possession that "the novel is one of the most forceful

artistic explorations of the distortion of India's national character in the British embrace."

While Possession is a commentary on Indo-British relationships, as Meenakshi Mukherji

terms it, Kamala Markandaya's characters are "particular human beings rooted in their

narrow regional identities".

Bharati Mukherji (1940- ) is another most significant contemporary novelist

whose novels express the nomadic impulse of Indians, who in their quest for a material

advancement migrate to the west and consequently face a lot of excitement and problems

in adopting themselves to the new milieu and to assimilate alien culture. Mukherji is at

her best in the depiction of cultural clash between the East and the West. She has indeed

become a celebrity for her distinctive approach to expatriate hood as a unique of exile.

Her novel, The Holder of the World reinforces expatriation as a journey of human mind.

The marginalization of women and their continuing subordination and suffering are

recorded in the feminist discourses of Shashi Deshpande, Nina Sibal, Githa Hariharan,

Arundhatai Roy, Manju Kapoor, Jaishree Mishra and Anita Desai. In fact the fiction of

the 80s and 90s reveals the female protagonists who are quite conscious of their identity

and are no longer meek and submissive. There is a marked difference in their attitude as

compared to the heroines of the womanist texts of the earlier decades.

Shobha De, (1948- ) a gifted writer discusses many sensitive aspects of human

relationship in general and man-woman relationship in particular. De portrays the myriad

facets of contemporary social reality. De is "Among the first to explore-the world of

woman in India."(8) Within a span of ten years, she has produced twelve books, each

running into several editions and reprints. "Subjectivity, Class and Feminism in Shobha

De's Sultry Days" is an essay by Anitha Myles, who has observed that while men pose to

be the masters and claim to be in complete command over all situations in life, in reality

they are like misguided pampered, spoilt children, who need support and sustenance from

a woman whether she is a mother, a wife or a sister.

In Shashi Deshpande's (1938- ) novel Roots and Shadows (1983), the female

protagonist Indu asserts her individuality and realises her freedom by breaking away from

her family out of resentment and marrying for love. Realisation dawns upon her that

freedom lies in having courage to do what one believes is the right thing to do. There is a

greater chance of happiness for women if they learn to conquer their fears and assert

themselves. Her second novel The Dark Holds No Terror (1990) is about gender

discrimination and marriage on the verge of break down. Here also the protagonist, Saru,

is fully determined to take control over her life by shedding passivity. One will have to

share as well as face the events of one's life. There is no refuse, other than one's self.

Realizing that she cannot attain happiness either through her husband or the father, Saru

seeks to attain peace of mind by her own effort which is to be created within. She

confidently faces life fearlessly by balancing her multiple roles as a member of the

family, as a professional and basically as a human being. Her novel The Long Silence

(1989) is about the journey of Jaya towards self-actualization. Jaya concludes that a

holistic approach towards life is essential to obtain a self-actualized individuality in the

world of pre-fixed norms and standardized behavior. Life has always to be made

possible. Long hours of contemplation enable her decide to give up the role of a silent

and passive woman. Her predicament proves that balanced fulfilled life is not merely a

utopian fancy. If she decides to realize her creative energy, to erase her conditioning

forces and frees her from her psychic fears and bondage of centuries-in short Self-

actualization is possible if a woman decides to be herself and to exhibit her free, innate,

uninhibited personality in totality. In The Binding Vine (1992) Deshpande presents "the

talking woman" in the protagonist Urmi, who, unlike the other muted sufferers of her

earlier novels, takes up cudgels against male atrocities and fights on behalf of the rape-

victim, Kalpana and encourages her friend Vanaa to assert herself. Urmi's sexuality, her

passion is revealed with a measure of unrepentant concern. In A Matter of Time (1996), a

story about the callousness of marriage, Shashi Despande grapples with the theme of

alienation and presents a man as the protagonist, who without any grave reason, deserts

his wife and daughters and brings a lot of despair to them. Sumi, in the manner of a stoic

hero, provides emotional and financial security to her daughters. Her novel Small

Remedies (2000) is a story of fractured memories of Madhu, a biographer who writes

about a Goan Christian family and a Muslim tabla player and presents in one large sweep

the plurality, diversity and contradictions of our composite culture against the

background of classical music. Savithri Bai, a classical singer, walks out of the family

with a Muslim tabla player, for she is a woman of immense courage and does not care for

male-dominated societal laws. Leela, a believer in the communist ideology fights against

male-dominated political chauvinism. Madhu, the biographer, is deserted by her husband

Som, who is doubting Thomas and always thinks of purity, chastity and intact hymen.

Manju Kapur's Difficult Daughters (1998) is set at the time of partition. The central

character, Virmati, is made a cult figure to fight against taboos, social and joint family

restrictions and man-made rules in the traditional society. Women education and freedom

are highlighted. Patriarchy usually denies women freedom, education, career and love-

marriage. Githa Hariharan's The Thousand Faces of Night (1993) when read in the

feminist perspective brings out the concept of motherhood which has a limited meaning

in a patriarchal discourse and possesses neither economic nor social status and is kept

away from the notion of sexuality. By reconceptualising mother-daughter bond, Gita

Hariharan, challenges the generalised definition of motherhood. The protagonist, Devi,

instead of sinking into a despairing isolation walks towards her mother Sita, to learn

about her womanness and to find a renewed meaning in the female-female bond. Her

marital discord, quest for identity and happiness outside marriage are symbolic of

collective struggle of women for self-liberation from male dominated restrictions.

Jaishree Misra's Ancient Promises (2000) is the moving story of Janu's painful

journey of self-discovery. It is about a marriage, a divorce and the motherhood. It is about

why we love and lose, sometimes seeking to have little control over our destinies. Forced

loveless arranged marriage ends in divorce and force the shackled women into the arms

of freedom and love. Even in literate Kerala where matriarchal order is stronger; there are

a lot of prejudices about what they should be. Women's life is not the roses all the way.

Arundhati Roy's (1961- ) The God of Small Things (1997) is a multi-dimensional

novel offering different perspectives. Male chauvinism, patriarchal forbidden societal

laws, power politics, sexual politics, marginalisation of women, conflict between

tradition and modernity and quest for female identity are the thematic layers embedded in

the narratorial matrix of the novel. The feminist element throws on the predicament of the

protagonist, Ammu, a divorcee, who breaks the love laws by having sex with the

untouchable Velutha and rake on the big themes-love, madness, hope and infinite joy.

Love redeems human life. In the novel The God of Small Things believes that the society

can successfully achieve its goal only when there is no disparity between the rich and the

poor, between the dalit and the privileged between the `Latain' and the `Mombatti'. It has

become a literary phenomenon in the literary world. Her intense and charged style is

commendable. In one of her interviews she says:

Fiction for me has been a way of trying to make

sense of the world as I know it. It is located very

close to me this book. It is located in the village I

grew up in. If I had to put it very simply, it is about

trying to make the connections between the smallest

of things and the biggest ones and to see how they

fit together.

On the whole post independent fiction, especially the novel displays stylish confidence

coupled with bold experimentation. The old sociological, historical and political modes

of writing have been transformed by the use of new techniques.

Dalit literature is the liberation of dalits, the struggle against casteism tradition

has a long history .writers like Maha Swetha Devi, Bama, Namdeo Dhasal, Dayapawar,

and others have contributed a lot to Dalit literature. Maha Swetha Devi's (1926)

Draupadi displays the discourse of the disposed and triggers the traumatizing experiences

of male voyeurism and chauvinism that indulge for a national debate of dalit feminists.

Bama (1958- ) is known for Dalit literature; she is provoked by facing the ills of the

society and as pen is mightier than the sword she has registered, all her sufferings, agony

and anguish. Her famous works Karukku (1992) and Sangati (1994) comes under dalit

literature. Karukku is an autobiographical novel; it focuses on two essential aspects

namely: caste and religion which caused great pain to Bama. She explores and voices her

frustration of being ill treated. Karukku is voice of an individual; however Sangati is the

autobiography of a community. In Sangati she presents the yearning struggle of women

to establish an identity. Bama in these both works shows marginalization of Dalits.

The inflow of diasporic writings also provides a variegated picture of resistance.

Of the many like Randhawa, Shona Ramaya, Jhumpa Lahiri and others, a major body of

fiction comes from Bharati Mukherjee and Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. Diasporic writers

have advantage of standing on the brink of two worlds and to experience two cultures.

They are more exposed to influences and have more space to interact. Bharati

Mukherjee's Dimple in Wife (1975) is far removed from her later heroines who resist

being hyphenated Americans. Her Jasmine (Jasmine, 1989) appears to resist her native

culture at every step and with every bold assertion but all her native culture at every step

and with every bold assertion but all her moves and thoughts border on fantasy.

Divakaruni, Randhawa and many others offer resistance to their "otherization"-as

diasporic subjects in the host country they are the `other' being ethnic/ Asians; in their

native culture which they carry with them, they are the `other' being women. Their

resentment can be studied as multifaceted and multi-layered.

Though men could write something of women's experience they could not write

as women themselves do. After receiving education, educated women could not get

satisfied by just imitating the men. They began to voice the voiceless and their feelings.

They began to look from the other side that is the neglected side of woman, be they even

in the classics or epics. `Deconstructional' approach flourished as the critical approach of

feminists in the beginning. When they began to write, they reflected the cultural changes

and have taken part in the negotiation itself. Their spheres of exploration are explained in

next chapter.

Work Cited

Anthony Burgess, ed., "Introduction," All About H.Hatterr, London: The Bodley Head,

1970.

Bama, Sangati (Events). Trans. Lakhmi Holmstrom. New Delhi: Oxford University

Press, 2005.

Barat Urbashi, "History, Community and Forbidden Relationships in The God of Small

Things," in R.K.Dhawan ed. Arundhati Roy The novelist Extraordinary, New

Delhi: Prestige Books, 1999.

E.Barucha, Nilufer, "The Charting of Cultural Territory: Second Generation Postcolonial

Indian English Fiction" in Kirpal Viney ed. The Postmodern Indian English

Novel: Interrogating the 1980s and 1990s. Bombay: Allied Publishers Ltd., 1996.

Gosh, Amitav, The Glass Palace, New Delhi: Ravi Dayal, 2000. Print.

Gosh, Amitav, The Hungry Tide, New Delhi: Ravi Dayal, 2004. Print.

Gosh, Amitav, The Sea of Poppies, New Delhi: Penguin Viking, 2008. Print.

Iyengar, K.R. Srinivasa. Indian Writing in English. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers Pvt.

Ltd.; 1984.

Krishna Swamy, Santa, The Women in Indian Fiction in English. New Delhi: Ashish

Publications, 1984.

Kirpal, Viney ed. The New Indian Novel in English A Study of the 1980s. New Delhi:

Allied Publishers Ltd.; 1990.

Kripalani Krishna, Indian Literature: A Panoramic Glimpse, Bombay: Nirmal Sadanand,

1969.

Lionel Trilling, The Liberal Imagination, Qtd. Pathak. New York: Doubleday, 1953.

M.K.Naik, Gandhi in Literature, Mysore: University of Mysore, 1971.

Mukherjee, Meenakshi, The Twice Born Fiction, New Delhi: Arnold-Heinemann, 1971.

Mukherjee, Meenakshi, ed. Early Novels in India. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 2002.

Narasimhaiah, C.D. "Kanthapura: An Analysis," Critical Essays on Indian Writing in

English, ed.M.K. Naik, Dharwar: Karnataka University, 1968.

Pathak, R.S. Modern Indian Novel in English, New Delhi: Creative, 1999.

Pico Iyer, "The Empire Writes Back", Times International 8 Feb.1993.

Raja Rao, Contemporary Novelists, ed.James Vinson, London and Chicago, 1972.

Rukum Advani, Novelists in Residence, Seminar, August, 1991.

Scott, H. "Eastern European Women in Theory and Practice," Women's Studies

International Quarterly, 1, 1978. Qtd. Pathak, "Anita Desai's Fiction: Characters,

Semantic Space and Linguistic Correlates,"92.

Shirwadkar, Meena, "Indian Women English Novelists", Perspectives on Indian English

Fiction, ed. M.K.Naik. New Delhi: Abhinav Publications, 1985.

Singh, A.K. "Upamanyu Chatterjee's Agastya: A New Voice's Angst", Quest for Identity

in Indian English Writing Part-I: Fiction. Pathak.R.S. ed. New Delhi: Bahri

Publications, 1992.

Tagore, Rabindranath, Binodini, New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 1959.

Tagore, Rabindranath, Chaturanga, New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 1963.

Walsh, William, Indian Literature in English, Harlow: Longman, 1990.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminism_in_India.

CHAPTER II

MAKING OF THE NOVELISTS

The present study is an attempt to explore, examine and critically investigate the

changing images of women under taken by the women characters in the selected novels

by the contemporary novelists, namely Manju Kapur and Anita Nair. Almost all the

women characters, major and minor, from the selected novels have been considered and

positioned as per their ideological leanings and convictions. The major issues around

which the novels move

education, marriage, gendered space and mother-daughter

relationship are taken up to put them within the contemporary social conditions in which

women character live.

This study examines two different stages in the growth of woman's awareness of

the self. In the first stage, woman senses the coercive role of patriarchy yet, gradually

succumbs to it by making `excepted choices' to cater to men's world. In other words, she

does not traverse the limits prescribed by the patriarchy. The second assumed point of

departure is seen when she revolts against the disciplining and discriminating norms of

patriarchal structure and openly registers protest against it.

Women search for equality and their justified space within the set norms of male-

dominated world. To attain this aim they significantly struggle individually and

independently to change and evolve a new system, not radical, but within the normative

sanctions of patriarchy. They fight against the "dependence syndrome" (Chaman Nahal,

17) to gain individually and freedom from oppression. The keyword remains `change'

from a self-effacing, subaltern, subjugated, dominated and dwarfed woman to

independent, autonomous woman of selfhood, who can also contribute equally in the

holistic development of society as a person in her own right. Gayatri Chakravarty Spivak

comments: "the agency of change is located in the insurgent or the subaltern." (8)

Moreover, "in any society women are the chief preservers of tradition, and in a sense no

change howsoever momentous becomes complete or real unless it involves them and

carries them along."(Naresh K. Jain, 9)

The life and experiences, the resistance, aspirations, privations, failures and

achievements of these women characters also reverberate and reflect the women writers'

lived experiences and struggles as they strive to assert and establish their identity and

space through their writings in the andocentric world. For centuries, human experience

has been synonymous with the masculine experience and the collective image of

humanity has been one-sided and incomplete. Mostly woman has been defined only in

relation to man and not as a subject in her own right. Systematic subject-deprivation of

woman has been a reality as much in life as in literature.

Writing being an entirely and exclusively male forte till the recent past, women

were kept away from it methodically and deceitfully. Still, there are instances of

women's writings throughout the history. Susie Tharu and K. Lalita's seminal work talks

that

The testimonials of Buddhist nuns from the sixth

century B.C., rebel medieval poets, sixteenth-

century court historians, many unknown women

poets, novelists, and polemical writers of the

nineteenth and twentieth century, and several

published memories. (xvi)

The history of women's writing itself is a testimony to their latent yearning to voice their

innermost selves in the highly prejudiced male-centric world where "it was widely

believed [till]... the late nineteenth century that educated women became widows and

therefore the alphabets of learning were seen as codes for enticing the devil."(Malashri

Lal, 13) It was nothing but a contrivance to keep women in perpetual state of ignorance

and marginalization. Almost the same situation prevailed in the West where women

writers like Bronte Sisters had to adopt pseudonyms to get their works published. Jane

Austen, in her Persuasion writes: "Men have had every advantage of us in telling their

own story. Education has been theirs in so much higher a degree; the pen has been in

their hands." However, the women novelists have succeeded in projecting and delineating

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Type of Edition: Erstausgabe
Publication Year: 2017
ISBN (PDF): 9783960677093
ISBN (Softcover): 9783960672098
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Language: English
Institution / College: Yogi Vemana University
Publication date: 2017 (November)
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Keywords: Feminism Literature India Indian novelist Contemporary literature Difficult daughters Home Custody Ladies Coupe Mistress Indian literature Traditional norms Patriarchy feminine identity Female identity Woman

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Dr. Sasikala Alagiri (Author)

Tradition and Modernity. Changing the Images of Women in Selected Fiction by Manju Kapur and Anita Nair

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Dr. Sasikala Alagiri (Author)