Criticism Of Rudali

Mahasweta Devi’s short story, “Giribala,” is about the life of Giribala, a girl of Talsana village located in India. Born into a caste in a time when it was still customary to pay a bride-price, Giri is sold to Aulchand by her father. From this point on, we see a series of unfortunate, tragic events that take place in Giri’s life as a result of the circumstances surrounding Giri’s life. There are many issues in Giri’s life in India that Devi highlights to readers. First, the economic instability of the village leads to an extremely poor quality of life for the lower, working classes. Next, the cruel role of women determined by men in society is to either satisfy the sexual desires of men or to reproduce offspring who can work or be sold off to marriages. There are also other social norms and beliefs which discriminate against women that will be discussed.

The novel The Sari Shop focuses on the disproportionate distribution that exists in society. Both Kamla and Ramchand are representative of it. They revolt against the higher classes. Kamla’s prolonged revolt ends with her death. But on the opposite side, Ramchand’s revolt-lasts for twelve days and he locks himself up in his room. Ramchand very soon realizes about the futility of human endeavor and the inability of the under privileged. He apologises before Mahajan and gets back his job. Here the condition of the working classes gets reflected and the need to bring about reforms is highlighted. Bajwa uses the symbol of the lathi to depict the cruel domination of the rich class over the feeble, and brings into notice the exploitation of the poor at

The short story Rudali is a heart wrenching tale written by Bengali author and Magsaysay award recipient Mahashweta Devi. The title of the story refers to a class of women called Rudalis (professional mourners) who are called to cry at funerals of upper caste men.Rudali records the transformation of Sanichari from a mere widow to a woman who is equipped to adapt and manipulate the

Shashi Deshpande is one of the famous contemporary Indian novelists in English. She writes about the conflict between tradition and modernity in relation to women in middle class society. Shashi Deshpande’s novel deals with the theme of the quest for a female identity. The complexities of man-woman relationship especially in the context of marriage, the trauma of a disturbed adolescence. The Indian woman has for years been a silent sufferer. While she has played different roles-as a wife, mother, sister and daughter, she has never been able to claim her own individuality. Shashi Deshpande has emerged as a writer possessing deep insight into the female psyche. Focusing on the marital relation she seeks to expose the tradition

There are many who believe that it was her headstrong actions that brought about the destruction of the Third Age of Man and she is known to be a Kritya, one who brings doom to her clan. But Chitra Banerjee moves away from such interpretations to provide a new outlook on Draupadi. She portrays Draupadi as a powerful, strong and independent woman, an equal to the men around her, rather than subservient. The novelist presents Draupadi‘s life as a series of choices made by herself, and not by her written fate. She is the one who writes her own story and gives herself a voice in the overwhelmingly patriarchal society in ancient India. She is the protagonist of her

Mr. Argyle focuses on various themes and comparisons presented in Nectar in a Sieve and juxtaposed them to the ones in Thomas Mann’s poems. By doing so, he elucidates that there is another way to perceive life and not to mundane idea that the destiny of a man is determined by the politics around him. Based on the depth of the analysis he makes, the author’s intended audience would include scholars, and people who are familiar with Indian culture and the distinct association of poverty with social classes. Additionally, he does assume that his audience is familiar with the religious aspects on Indian life. He presents a critical view on how fate and time play crucial roles in this ever-changing life Rukmani and her husband, Nathan experience.

Lahiri subtly presents the issue of Mrs. Sen missing her home in bits and pieces, allowing readers to catch onto the well of loss within her, which symbolizes Lahiri’s opinion on how difficult transition to a new world can be. Through the differences of cultural elements between India and the United States, Lahiri displays the difficulty of this transition. Mrs. Sen reminisces about how

Women characters, Aai, Vahini, Anjali and Ranju are shown at the receiving end. Hearth and child is what they have to look after. Prabha, the daughter in the family, is the tragic sufferer of male dominance. She is denied education because she is a woman. However, she rises as a rebel and rejects the proposal of marriages brought to her. She wants an educated husband; wants to learn; wishes to earn on her own. Prabha, thus, represents an urge of Indian woman for emancipation challenging the male orthodoxy. Her appeal to her mother in private arouses sympathy for her. She says, “Let me get out of here, Aai. This wada will devour me. I feel so stifled in this darkness. Let me go to Amravati” (Elkunchwar 56). Ranju is not allowed to go outside for taking her English tuitions because “Deshpande girls don’t run around to people’s houses” (Elkunchwar 32). Top of all, Aai is shown to have borne the brunt of patriarchy. First, her husband muted her voice; afterwards she became dependent on her sons. It refers to the very common situation for women in

The immensely heart-throbbing and extremely thought provoking book, Sold, tells the story of a young girl, Lakshmi, who was sold into sexual slavery in India, unintentionally. The story takes place in Nepal where Lakshmi lives with her mother, stepfather, and little brother; times are hard and they have very little. They live in a hut with a mud roof that drips during the raining season, they only have a small portion of land to grow on which is their main source of food, and Lakshmi's stepfather does not work and spends most of their income on himself. For the most part they are able to struggle through and make ends meet, but there comes a time when that’s just not enough anymore. With much reluctance from her mother, Lakshmi and her stepfather agree that she will go work in the city as a maid and send back her earnings for the rest of her family. After leaving her small town and travelling with a lady she is told to call “Auntie”, Lakshmi starts to question “Auntie”s real endeavours with her. When “Auntie” leaves her with a strange man who takes her over the border into India and leaves her at a questionable looking house,

In the first instance Rukmani had to deal with a husband that was several castes below her. Usually if the woman was below the man she could probably do the work that he does, being used to the labor that is. Yet in Rukmani’s instance the man was below her,

1.) In Kamala Markandaya’s Nectar in a Sieve, we are never told the exact location of Rukmani’s whereabouts or the time period in which she lived. This lack of details allows for the reader to be open-minded about the struggles they face. If the reader didn’t know the story took place in India, it is easier to see that the hardships Rukmani experiences such as infertility poverty, and invasion by foreigners could happen to any family around the world, in any agricultural nation or in any urban poor. By avoiding specifics, more than one time period could be the background to this novel.

Thus, to give voice to the suffocated psyche and suppressed desire of woman and lay bare ambitions and frustrations and soothe the aches and pains has been primary focus in Deshpande’s writing. Her works show that compromise is what characterizes the life of the common run of the middle-class women in India. Unable to defy social conventions or traditional morality,

The political and social events of the sixties and the seventies along with growing opportunities of education and employment for women encourage women belonging to the urban middle class to engage in literary activities. The thematic concerns of these women writers have been cantering around women related issues. The social setting for most of these writings is the urban middle class and the protagonist is, more often than not, a woman. Indian Culture treats women with utmost reverence. Women are identified with Adi Shakti or the primordial energy. Woman’s avatar as mother treated as highest manifestation of human relationship; It is the mother who gets precedence over all other principles of life including father and god in importance. She

To love and to be loved is elementary to human mind just as food, clothing and shelter are to the body. Family emerges as a powerful nexus in Indian society simply because it ensures the existence of somebody who needs to be loved and who reciprocates the love. All nine stories in Lahiri’s collection present characters who consciously or unconsciously crave for an adherence to a strong and stable root – a nation, a culture, a religion or a family– while longing to nourish and support a dependent soul within the familial institution; an intense desire for being rooted and being the root.

In the short story The Red Sari by Apriana Taylor, there are many themes being conveyed in the story, the most prominent being the cultural conflict and tension between the narrator and the Indian beggars. Language features play a vital role in the story, and Taylor uses language features to convey his important ideas and messages to the reader.