Women 's Rights Of Women

Women in India were unaware of their miserable condition. It is in the post independence period the women’s quest for identity of her own commenced. The 20th century saw the shift from outer to inner sensibilities and no one can better understand a man or woman better a feminine writer. In modern English fiction a number of women novelists have arrived on the literary scene, they have set out making new forays in to the world of women. Nayantara Sahgal being a feminist writer has emphasized in her novels on freedom and a new definition of the New Women. Sahgal’s heroines are well aware of the injustice done to them in their marriage and they come out of this traditional bond.

Women are humans, humans with emotions and the need for self expression. The men, throughout history, have degraded the female sex, they have always seen women as objects and a machine that helps reproduce and carry on their blood. Society formed the ‘perfect’ role for women and it was expected that they follow it. They were expected to be the loving, responsible, obedient, stay at home wives. Due to such an inequitable lifestyle given to women, they decided to fight for equality and defend their gender. They will later be known as feminists. According to Literary and Cultural Theory by Donald Hall, feminists focal point is to investigate the various ways women have been limited to social power and the liberty to self

Before understanding what the women's liberation implies and what sort of part it has on the planet history it is vital to illuminate unmistakable parts of its advancement and after that discover the impact it made on these days society.

Before the rise of the feminist movement in the late 19th century, women were denied social power and the ability to self-express which led women to desire a voice of their own. Since then, feminism has been widely perceived and controversial which provoked feminists to emphasize women’s needs by confronting the social oppression of women and analyze how their feeling of self-doubt results in response to the constant power struggle between the two sexes. Not only did women protest for more rights, but men also sought equal rights, thereby strengthening the feminist movement further. In Donald Hall’s book Literary and Cultural Theory, he explores the various lenses of feminism by discussing how patriarchy affects the social, economic, and psychological

Using the elements of fiction and truth a mass amount can be gained from understanding how women fit in with the government/patriarchy. From novels comparably, A Passage to India and A Handmaid’s Tale, these two reflect different times: a realistic time of Indian Imperialism and a Utopian fantasy that could indubitably become the future of tomorrow. How do they correspond with the role of women? Both either represent or differ from the true, unseen representation of women amongst the power of the elite, against the suppressors of the minority, and the

The idea of “Feminism” is seen in the eyes of many as “women who want to be more masculine” whenever its true meaning is just women who want equality and the same respect and opportunities that men have. This belief has been built up over time through many different perspectives which is why it had turned into the negative idea of what it is. This idea of “Feminism” affected the social hierarchy and system where people were categorized based upon their sex and the social impact it made created and resolved multiple social issues. The idea of “Feminism” impacted the interactions between men and women and the morals of society and through this created power in women as well introduce a long needed new peace amongst the sexes.

Traditionally, an Indian woman had only four roles and those were; Her role as a daughter, wife, sister, and lastly, a mother. The women in today’s time however are experiencing far reaching changes and are entering into new fields that were unknown to them. They are actively participating in social, economic and political activities. Unlike the older times, women today have received higher education.

Feminism by definition means the advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of political, social and economic equality to men. But many a time’s people restrict the boundary of these forgetting the very important element of diversity of women living in different places and in varied situations.

Women in Indian society belong to the category of the unprivileged, the suppressed, the downtrodden and the marginalised. She has been suffering for long being socially, politically as well as financially marginalised. In simple terms a woman in Indian society is deprived of opportunities and freedom to go with her own preferences and choices and thus marginalised at every front. Woman suffers some or other sort of marginalisation whether she is educated or illiterate, dependant or independent, traditional or modern, rural or urban. Despite of our advance in the 21st century, women in our society is still subjugated and placed at a secondary position to men. She has to follow the path of men whether her father, her husband or her son forgetting her personal identity. Women’s struggle for identity and emancipation has long been treated as one of the major thematic concerns in Indian English writings. Indian English writers of fiction have written variously highlighting the women issues. Shashi Deshpande, an Indian feminist fiction writer has dealt the issue of women being a marginalised figure in a phallocentric world.

After Independence Indian writers focused on the construction of imaginary communities and individuals, but the focal point of women writers of twentieth century is the issue of marginalization of women and a struggle for gender equality (Tharu and Lalitha

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.

Feminism in India is a set of movements which defining, establishing and defending equal political, economic and social rights and equal opportunities for Indian women. Feminist criticism was not inaugurated until late in the 1960s.Behind it, however lie two centuries of struggle for the recognition of women’s cultural roles and achievements and for women’s social and political rights marked by such books as Mary Wollstone Craft’s A Vindication Of The Rights Of Women (1792), John Stuart Mill’s The Subjection Of Women (1869), and the American Margaret Fuller’s Women in The Nineteenth Century

His decision was of utmost importance and the same could generally be rebutted by only other male members of the Hindu family. The role in the decision making of the women members was kept at the minimal. The role of the women was apparently confined to household/ domestic chores. This system has prevailed for a very long time in India. It cannot be said that the said system is per-se ineffective or per-se bad. However, wanton use of this system has indeed apparently contributed somewhat to the weaker status of the Indian women. The biased use of the said system by some section of Indian men has further led to the subjugation of the Indian women. In the male-dominated society, women suffered to extreme levels of exploitation. Some factors- like death of bread winner, sudden fall in family income or inadequate family income – forced women to seek employment in informal sector (small trader, artisan or field labourer on a family farm) but yet, that did not result in women empowerment (Dr. K. Sundar & Ashok Kumar, 2012). A woman, in India, has always been seen as only a home-maker, or as a wife, or as a mother. The women psychology has been adversely affected by this.

In India, a woman is always considered as an embodiment of muted or not listened to. Women’s identity is seen through her husband, she becomes an object for men’s ownership and sexual gratification. In the nineteenth century, many social reforms like Raja Ram Mohan Roy (1772-1833), Rama Bai Ranade (1862-1924), Pandita Rama Bai (1858-1922), and Jyotirao Phule (1827-1890) etc. came forward to fight for the

Tagore’s portrayal of underprivileged women like Chandalika, Chitrangada or Srimati is a reflection of the idea of the ‘new woman’ that had emerged from the time of the Bengal Renaissance, and feminism in Rabindranath challenges the traditional view of women as the weaker sex. He urged women to step out of the precincts of their home to pursue education and cultivate their intellect stressing the importance of their autonomous self development. So he chooses the icons of marginality-warriors, untouchables, dancing girls in his women centred dramas to portray the radical nature of his conception of women and the maturation of their self hood. This paper is a humble attempt to showcase how the underprivileged women protest for establishing their identity as ‘new women’ as reflected in Tagore’s Chandalika and Natir Puja.