Shashi Deshpande's the Dark Holds No Terror

According to Hinduism the female was created by Brahman as part of the duality in creation, to provide company to men and facilitate procreation, progeny and continuation of family linage. The Vedas suggest that a woman’s primary duty is to help her husband in performing obligatory duties and enable him to continue his family tradition. Her primary duty is to give birth to his children and take care of them. Hinduism is a predominantly male dominated religion. Woman play a secondary role. The situation is gradually changing. It is difficult to draw generalizations about the status of present day Hindu women because of society is complex. In general, life in cities is much different from life in the rural areas. Those who live abroad live in different conditions than those who live in the country. Yet, we have ample indications that women are still subject to many restrictions and disabilities in rural area as well as urban areas. The financial independence of woman and the education levels of the family play an important role in this regard. Women in urban areas face numerous challenges in their professions and personal lives. But overall, life is better for them compared to the past. Love marriage outside of the caste or community are scorned and sometimes the couples are killed or excommunicated by the elders in the family or village. Widows can now have a life of their own and even remarry. They draw a lot of sympathy. But

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.

As a result of these reviews, the ongoing reconstruction of the social status and roles of Hindu women has brought about many new changes in Hinduism. Some of these changes include changes in education, health measures, problems of early marriages, the positions of widows, and the representation of women in governing bodies (Desai, et al., 1995). For example, within Hinduism now,

Gender inequality is displayed in many countries around the globe. In India, the society begins gendering as soon as a child is born. In most cases, the birth of a daughter is unwelcome but that of a son is celebrated. The boys are brought up bold and outgoing while the girls are expected to be at home and do chores. While the other discriminations like economic or social discriminations are present outside the home, but gender discrimination is present outside and inside households. In a familial setup, the father is the head of the family and decision maker. The mother generally performs the ‘home making’. Even if the woman is employed, she is expected to do the domestic chores, in addition to her job. Even though she earns, she does not have the freedom to plan her salary or decide anything.

Mohandas K. Gandhi once proclaimed, “There is no occasion for women to consider themselves subordinate or inferior to men” (Gandhi n.p.). Women all throughout the world have been forced to endure innumerable hardships and struggles. Merely accepting women as a rightful component of society and a necessary aspect of culture has taken countless numbers of years. And to this day, unfortunately, gender equality has yet to become a reality for many. Certain judgments and stereotypes have been placed onto women from the very beginning of time. The belief that the female gender should only be seen in society as homemakers is something that is widely accepted by people in a multitude of countries and places. Despite the setbacks, various

In a critical analysis, India has been subjected and thrown into the fire as many continue to thrive this uphill battle of inequality and gender relation issues. Although inequality is a largely debatable issue, especially when convoluted

In today’s society, women impact the world around them in many different and significant ways. Some women influence their communities with great force while others never notice their true importance in their societies. In India, Mishri Yadav is bound to her life as a modest, confined woman who cannot talk to men and must remain in the shadows. In the United States, Michele Noonan is bound to her life as a caretaker for her family who can express herself in whichever way she feels. These two defined people show the importance of how women are viewed extremely different as their countries vary. Some women, such as those in India, are viewed as lower than men with less value, knowledge, and potential. These places do not believe that women contain

Many women today have high profile and high paying jobs, have acquired an education and there are women in government. They have a right to express themselves freely in society today. Although society still objectifies women in several aspects of modern culture, society has developed much higher expectations for women than for men. In order to understand where women

“For much, if not all, of human history, women have been little more than property — subjected by men, bought and sold (in the name of “marriage”) and viewed as not much more than vessels for procreation.”(Faraj) “For much, if not all, of human history, women have been little more than property — subjected by men, bought and sold (in the name of “marriage”) and viewed as not much more than vessels for procreation.”(Faraj) Although both of these statements were very true there has been a lot of progress made since that period of time. Women are no longer reliant on men for anything but reproduction. They are capable of making their own money, having their own household and property, and having the same rights as men in most

The women community has faced some harsh times, even to this day, they still face harsh obstacles that lets them not able to improve themselves from a male dominated world. The notion that women from the common knowledge, most believe that women should stay home, take care of the children and cook breakfast, lunch, or dinner. In this day of age, women barely have any freedom with gender discrimination - involving around the gender gap, being fairly and proportionally represented in the media, occupational sex segregation - sexual violence, getting blamed and shamed, the lack of basic feminine hygiene in the American prison systems, restriction to contraceptives, political agenda depriving women of essential health services, objectification

Throughout the course of history, women have widely been relegated to a position inferior to their male counterparts. Mothers, wives, caretakers of domestic life—they were expected to fill these roles and fully devote themselves to the men in their lives, all the while not considered equal to them, but rather man 's property to care for; however, in recent centuries, the status quo has started to change. As an increasing number of women sought equality among the sexes and the realization of their worth as individuals, the role of women in society adjusted to expand beyond traditional notions. While their position in the world remains unclear, it certainly continues to be questioned and challenged by millions of people around the world.

Gender inequality has been a crucial issue throughout the years all around the world for the past few decades. Women are mistreated and often oppressed by patriarchal societies. Women’s rights are often dismissed and it is believed that women are not capable of being independent which has highly affects women population.

In the world today, there are also many countries that consider women to be in a lower social class than men. In fact, on January 22 last year, the Indian Times released this statement: “A kangaroo court last Sunday decided that the victim be raped by 10 men as she had committed a crime by having an affair outside the community. The tribal heads had found that the sin of the 20-year-old can be only undone if she gets raped by 10 tribal men.” Gender inequality is not just seen in India, but also around the world. They are denied any power or any string that ties them to being a valued human life. In Saudi Arabia, women are denied a driver's license. In China, female babies are being killed because of the “one-child” policy and their preference

She makes an important point when trying to go beyond the female (otherness), by paying careful attention to differences among women themselves, and by putting emphasize on the multiple realties that women faces, and by that trying to uncover universalist interpretations (Parpart and Marchand 1995:6). She reveals the inadequacy of binary categories by showing us how power is defined in binary terms, between the people who have (men) and the people who do not (women). This is a consequence of seeing women as a homogenous group, and contributes to the reinforcement of the binary division between men and women (Mohanty 1991:64). By assuming that women are a already constituted group with the same experiences and interests, gender is looked upon as something that can be applied cross cultures (Mohanty 1991:54), and it also produces an assumption about the “average third world woman” as poor and uneducated, in contrast to the educated, modern Western women (Mohanty 1991:56). Implicit in the binary analytic lies the assumption that the third world woman only can be liberated through western rationality. Mohanty is making an important point when emphasising the need to challenge these objectifications (Udayagiri 1995:163).

It is general belief in our society that role of women is restricted in four walls of home or for mainly household activities. Economy of any country can’t boom without contributing women. The growing industrialization, urbanization and social legislation and with the spread of education and awareness women have shifted from kitchen to higher level of professional activities. Today’s women are taking more and more professional and technical degrees to cope up with market need.The position of women and their position is any society is an index of its civilization. Women are to be considered as equal partner in the process of development.