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Feminism and feministic writings in Indian context.
Feminism and feministic writings in Indian context.
Introduction:
Feminism is a standpoint that opposes
the subjugation of women in a patriarchal society. Feminism projects how
male-oriented society inflicts its hatred upon women. Women in the society have
been portrayed as “other” version of male. It is through “male-gage” that
society estimates women as ‘weaker sex’. Feminists argue that women are equal
to men in all aspects. They are falsely represents as material objects. What
their positions in society are man-made. Simone De Beauvoir said: “One is not
born but rather becomes, a woman”. Women from earlier times have been
represented as mere animal and forced to yield to their husbands and families.
Their hopes, aspirations and expectations all have been killed mercilessly by
this male-directed society. Feminists argue that society treats women as sexual
trigger, not as a wife and companion. Society forces them as a machine for
procreation by denying their self-dignity. It clarifies them as ‘pure’ if they
submit themselves to the society. Feminism says that women are essential to the
society because they educate its children and because they could be companions
to their husbands, rather than mere wives.
Feminism in Indian
Literature and society:
Feminism
in India like all its counterparts unveils the barbarism and narrowness of
patriarchal society which passes its cruel diseases upon women, and seeks
justice against these systems. In early times, women were kept behind ‘purdah’
systems and distinction made between them and men was great. They were far from
their right to education and freedom. In modern time India even does not emerge
out from its savagery. It tries to
impose its beastly attitude on women by snatching away their freedom of self
expression and voice of remonstration. In her 1988 Sahitya Academy Award
winning novel That Long Silence, Shashi Despande displays this binary and
cruel attitude of misogynistic society that denies self-honor of women by
suppressing their raising voices.
Despande sketches the conversion of an Indian housewife from
her traditional, confined married life to her awakening as a ‘new woman’. Jaya,
the central character of the book suffers at the brutal hands of her dominating
husband, Mohan who has no care and responsibility for her needs of both mental
and emotional. He is not companion to her but as a boss dominates her. He
disrespects her emotional plea of becoming a wife. He also does not like her
growing as a writer. So this clearly shows the narrow-mindedness of the
society. Jaya suffers from her identity crisis. She represents every Indian
housewife who wishes her husband to be faithful to her. She has a vision of
having a happy married life like every Indian woman. But the misogynistic
society always shows coldness towards them. Despande here asserts how the
patriarchal norms are only responsible for making women silenced, but also at
the same time she stresses that these women are able of erasing their ‘long
silence’. Jaya breaks through all the norms of the society that makes her a
‘new woman’. She can endure all but that doesn’t mean she has no language of
protest. She stands as the survivor of her family when it is in danger. Although
her husband hurt her, Jaya did not leave him for the support of the whole family.
Despande shows how Indian women are ideologically represented
as inferior to men. She exposes how the society gives privilege to men and back
steps women. Society prohibits women to access education and forces to get
married. We may go through Anita Desai’s 1999 novel Fasting Feasting which
gives also this similar where Uma did not get proper education but her brother
got the privilege of taking university education. Uma faced a life of tragic injustice.
Instead of schooling, her family decided to arrange a marriage for her at age
sixteen, but the groom cheated the family when he fell in love with her younger
sister Aruna. The next attempts to marry off Uma also were failures. Her lack
of success at school and in arranged marriages leaves her with little other
options within the constraints of her household, community and culture. The
narrow- minded society cannot understand that a girl can also have proper
education. It forgets that a woman can help society to be developed. ‘Purdah’
is not their proper embellishment for a woman. Anita Desai, like Despande,
responds to society’s denial of giving women access to education and general
intellectual life.
At the core of her journey, Uma finds problems in actualizing
her desires by obstacles. Neglected and confined, Uma tries to get away from home and wanders
around. Uma has lost faith in her. Desai exposes the hypocrisy in a family. She
has focused on how Uma bears many insults, blames and abuses. She also focuses
on many ups and downs in the life of Uma. Desai represents the deplorable
status of women in Indian society. Uma is a representative of all other women
who are suffering from bitter agony and sorrows caused by their parents and
relatives. Uma has argued with her mother to free her from unequal treatment
and justice. But her parents refused to act according to their daughter’s
desires. Her parents become an obsolete for her dreams.
As a young girl, Uma has her dreams, her desires but when her
dreams come in conflict with her comfort of her parents it is she who has to
sacrifice and she does. Her parents turn deaf ears to the needs of their
daughter Uma and consider her only a body, not a soul. Uma is even denied the
pleasure of ordinary living. If she enjoys the cheerful evening out with Ramu
bhai, she has to bear her mother’s curse.
In short, Anita Desai presents woman as an embodiment of
sacrifice, silent suffering, humility, faith and knowledge. The novel depicts
the unfair measures given to women seeking education and freedom. Desai’s novel
depicts Uma as a representative of every Indian woman who suffers and at the
end gets neutrality.
Bharati Mukherjee talks about the marginalization of woman in
Indian society. A society which does not give priority to the ideals of a woman
makes her escapist. Dimple, the protagonist of the novel expresses her deep
imagination for fantasies and love. But she brought up in a traditional and
conservative Hindu family. And all her dreams or fantasies remain unfulfilled.
She then finds her only way to escape is marriage. She married to Amit, a young
engineer in America with the hope of fulfilling all her dreams of freedom. But
all her hopes and expectations are destroyed. She even starts isolating herself
from new society. Bharati Mukhejee tries to explain that how a woman’s dream of
achieving freedom is destroyed by the society of both her own and the outsider.
Conclusion:
Feminism
seeks the equality of women in society. It breaks down the false ideology of
man-made society and gives a way of hope to women achieving their own access.
Writings of Despande, Anita Desai and Bharati Mukherjee approved the barbarism
of society on women and their emerging out from it are beautiful.
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