Nayantara Sahgal Essay

Rajam Krishnan occupies an important place among Tamil women novelists. She was born in 1925 Musiri, Trichy district of Tamil Nadu. Her childhood and early adult life were remarkably traditional. Her education was interrupted by her marriage at the age of fourteen. Rajam Krishnan writes that it was “unthinkable that a girl brought up in a conventional middle-class Brahmin family in a village would become a writer”- especially in her case, since she was the youngest member of a joint family. “I had to toil with humility and perseverance, obeying all my husband’s people, to earn a good name and add to my family’s honour and pride…I was calm outside, discharging my duties in the house, but there was a turmoil inside.” Things eased a little within the household when, in 1950, one

In the short story The Shame, author Yusuf Idris illustrates diverse female personalities in a realistic manner. To begin, the majority of the women on the farm are ignorant and oblivious to the gender inequalities and discriminative standards in their culture. They loved Fatma, but when she is accused of committing The Shame, the women do not believe in Fatma and force themselves on her. Although this characterization of the population is necessary for plot development, it further reinforces the stereotype that farmers and workers in the agricultural sector are less-educated than those from cities and villages. In addition, while Om George, the bailiff’s wife, is characterized as a literate, devoted, and trustworthy lady, Sabha is notorious for her “shady character” (Idris 64) and rumours of her tolerance and facilitation for affairs. This reveals the difference in status, education, and religious beliefs between female characters and contributes to the overall diversity of the work. On the other hand, Fatma is a beautiful young women because of her intense femininity - “[a] gushing, throbbing, devastating force which it was hard to trace to any definite force” (Idris 59). Such description of women is rather rare, especially in literature, because they are traditionally perceived as the weaker vessel dependent on men. By expressing femininity as a powerful force, Idris contrasts the conventional stereotypes of women being powerless and insignificant.

This paper attempts to examine the fictional projections of Indian girls, to see how they emerge in ideological terms. Their journeys from self-alienation to self-adjustment, their childhood struggles against the hypocrisies and monstrosities of the grown-up world, eventually demolishing the unjust male constructed citadels of power that hinder their progress- are the highlighted issues. The point of comparison between the two novels focused on here is the journey of Rahel in The God of Small Things and Sai in The Inheritance from a lonely childhood to a tragic adulthood passing through a struggle with the complex forces of patriarchal society. Both the novels portray the imaginativeness, inventiveness, independence, rebelliousness, wide-eyed wonder and innocence associated with these young girls.

Kapur has explored the agony of a woman under patriarchal pressure and state of social ostracism. In their search for individual identity, the women characters prove themselves as real women of flesh and blood who have their own emotions and sentiments and urge for new identity in the life. The novelist explores their yearning for intellectual space in the traditional society. Kapur’s novels reveal disintegration in woman’s life, her struggle for basic rights and quest for identity and survival. She portrays how women are suffering from economic and socio-cultural lacunas in the male governed society. They have been still deprived for their basic rights, their aspirations to their search of individuality and self-reliance.

Anita Desai stands apart from other female Indian writers due to her involvement with the life of young men and women in Indian cities. She discards all social concerns and asserts that she is interested in individual and not in social issues. She is concerned with psychic life of her characters. Her concern is the ‘why’ and the wherefore of the external action rather than the action itself. Her forte is the exploration of mind and soul and not the body. While dealing with the psychic problems of her characters, she finds longing her freedom in them. Desai stands apart from other women novelists for she throws light on the inner mental conflict which her characters undergo. Narrating the mental agony

R.K. Narayan is not a feminist even then he has shown his sympathy for the exploited and oppressed class of women in Indian society. The helplessness and miserable condition of a Hindu housewife is brought to the forefront in Narayan’s The Dark Room. In an interview Narayan explained, “In The Dark Room I was concerned with showing the utter dependence of women on man in society. I suppose I have moved along with the times.”1

The present article depicted how far Githa Hariharan had succeeded in picturizing the concept of womanhood and describing the relevance of this concept in the modern Indian society. It attempted to delineate how women dealt with the sanction of space in Indian society. Her novels presented the efforts of patriarchy on women of different social classes and ages particularly the varied responses to the restrictive institution of marriage especially in The Thousand Faces of Night. Through her novels Hariharan contrasted the role and position of women in our society. Gita Hariharan delineated the concepts of woman in a traditional society and the responsibilities and services expected from women.

Shashi Despande is an Indian women novelist who is famous for her novels portraying the piteous plight and presentation of women under the patriarchal domination. She believes that men and women are the two wheels of the same chariot. She has depicted women in many roles like mother, wife, daughter, and an individual. Like typical new women Despande’s protagonists are modern, educated and career oriented middle class women who are sensitive to the changing scenario and are in search for their roots and identity. They fight against the traditional convention of slavery and suppression. Being the archetypal of the new generation of self-accomplished women, they come out with new ways of handling their problems, rather than running away from them, they realize that the solution lie within themselves. She creates new spaces within the old discourses thereby recreating new worlds in which women are no longer

People are neither inferior nor superior and should have the freedom to express their authentic selves without fear of being negatively judged.These rules are violated only when powerful elite believe that they can rule over the masses. 1984 is a work of fiction, providing a stark view of the thriving culture of totalitarianism, symbolizing as a reflection of modern fact in the USA and the world today. The Freedom of Speech has become so restricted that the only one source of news is operated by the governing body; whereas Kamala Markandaya writes about changing economic and political situations in her country, her novel which was published in 1954 - seven years after India gained its independence from the British Imperialism. Industrial revolution lured Indians away from their traditional roles to participate in the new economy. She emphasis on issues like the importance of Freedom of Rights alongside the importance of goodness and spirituality.The poor suffer at the hands of the strong but some of them understand that knowledge is a powerful tool for change, and redefine the dishonor, repudiates their caste and crosses their skin color difference. In both novels, people struggle for their rights. Whether it’s a patriarchal society in which the right to property and right to make important decisions rests with the eldest male members of the society as in Nectar in a Sieve or in 1984 where woman are defined in a role of nurturer, procreate and espionage. Although 1984

Literature provides a window into the lives, thoughts and actions of women during certain periods of time in a fictitious form, yet often truthful in many ways. Through submissive natures, complaint men, using only silent means of escape. Literature forms a means to express the pent up feelings of women and women worldwide have used literature as a tool for expression. Many Indian writers have established a place for themselves by voicing out their cries on behalf of the Indian women. A close reading of British literature up to 19th century reveals that social issues and challenges faced by women form a part of it but they were represented by male writers, the validity of which is ambiguous. Women’s literature which Jane Austen gave rise in true sense, flourished not only in English Literature but also in other literatures.

The Indian society believes that men have the facility and cultural hegemony in the group. An odd feature of the Indian action is that men defend maleness and deem women not manly which is not basically human. Women are marginalised through cultural institutions and religious rituals. Feminist movements have been maddening for removal of this marginalisation. The hermetic salutation of feminism in the 1960s and 1970s helped theorize a girl 's discourse. A feministically right to use text can gain to a better covenant of the woman 's condition. Feminism in Indian English literature is focused so many years back. Feminism refers to the support of women’s right. This right is to remove gender discrimination and gives equal

The traditions, culture and society in India have given precedence to men over women in multitude of issues concerning family, administration, decision-making and several other matters of high magnitude. This gender bias has gradually taken a shape as male chauvinism, which resulted in the oppression of women and subjected them to insufferable physical, psychological, moral and ethical castigation. Women, albeit contribute equally with men in societal and domestic affairs, are not allowed to enjoy equal status with men in traditional India. Indian society has always manifested them as obedient daughters, dedicated mothers, devoted wives and loving siblings. The funniest thing in Indian culture is a mother, being a woman, alienates her daughter and manifests antagonism to her, if she makes attempts to question gender-bias in her family or in society. The novel is an impeccable manifestation of post colonial period where a woman is fighting for her constitutional rights for education and power. The female protagonist Saritha in the novel acquires good education and becomes a doctor despite her mother’s antipathy to girl education. She sustains her mother’s antagonism to her who perpetually maltreats her with her offhand attitude to her very existence in the family as she wrongly concludes her as the murderess of her dear brother, Dhruva. Further, she is estranged from her family as she marries a person of her choice. Her husband, Manohar is a school teacher. Saritha, being a

Anita Nair is a name indelible in the arena of female Indian writers in English. Her books, set in the everyday world of India, mesmerize the reader with evocative language and descriptions. For Bangalore based author Anita Nair Kerala is the source of inspiration, weakness and strength. In her works Nair presents the dilemmas that women face in their relationships with parents, husbands, siblings, friends, employers and children and their struggle towards self-realization. It is not easy to be a contemporary Indian woman. On the one hand

Anita Desai is recognized as the first Indian author writing in English who delineates feminist themes seriously, focusing on the conditions of women in India. The conflict of her characters is noted to be as one, between reason and instinct, the will and reality, involvement and detachment. She is deep rooted in her native culture that is evident from her themes, style, landscape, images and of course, in her successful experimentation with English novel. Her novels raise many issues of universal relevance and its beauty lies in the fact that it can be interpreted from various angles. All her novels have themes chiefly exploring the human psyche to its deepest depths. Anita Desai’s exploration of female domains historically,

Her character typifies the rise of individualism and the liberation of the Indian women from the yoke of age-old submissiveness and self-annihilation. In this character we find an early statement about the helplessness and claustrophobia of women in incompatible marriages that was going to be a recurrent concern of Indian fiction for many years to come. Mantagini was only a forerunner of many more women characters of great, independent and revolutionary spirit to follow in the novels of his successors. The creation of a character like Mantagini in the first Indian Novel in English was certainly a good beginning for that class of writing to be followed in India.