The Revolutionary Spirit of the Contemporary Women Writers of India

The feminist always tries to restore the tarnished image of the woman and make it glorified. One evident trait among all the contemporary women writers in Indian writings in English is the revolutionary spirit with which they strive to write. It is an explosion of pent up feelings that has long been gathered. Women writers have proved their stuff to be more serious and that which requires attention (Singh, 1996). They handle things efficiently balancing tradition and womanhood. To be a feminist is to be able to create a feminine mode of writing, fighting for the liberation of women and all that crap that destroyed the family and mutilated the feminine side of a woman. The infiltration of the western culture gave a serious blow to the Indian traditional life. The work of Indian women writers is significant in making the society aware of the women's needs and demands in providing a medium for self-expression and assertion. Traditionally, the work of Indian women has been underrated and devalued on mere assumption about the superior worth of the male (Rao, 1972). Majority of the contemporary Indian women writers like Anita Desai, Shashi Deshpande have focused on the psychological sufferings, oppressions of the frustrated housewife whose only option was to suppress the storm within, the inevitable existential predicament of women in a male dictated society. The neglected women as characters in their novel attempt for better way of life mentally and physically. We clearly see a “creative release of feminine sensibility” in the novels of Anita Desai. Cultural clash suffered by the women swinging between two cultures has also been a prominent theme in the writings of the Indian women writers - a state of in-betweens which was explored with utmost care and accuracy. They have described the apathy towards women with simple and stunning frankness. Their writings act as windows to view the unexplored female psyche which is unfortunately beyond the reach of most of the male understanding. “Feminine and masculine represents social construct- pattern of sexuality and behavior imposed by cultural and social norms (Kanwar, 1991).”

Today’s Novels act as a mirror reflecting the protest and the outburst of the suppressed feelings of women which has never been taken care for ages. Shashi Deshpande’s novel That Long Silence begins with the sentence “To achieve anything, you’ve got to be ruthless.” Deshpande’s The Long Silence revolves around the ongoing problems and predicament of the middle class households (Despande, 1989). Her writings are like case studies of women full of reality. Her women are real flesh and blood characters from whom one cannot take one’s eyes of. One can visualize with clarity, the struggle and trauma they go through in their relationships pertaining to their surroundings, their society, their families, their children and especially with their men. In The Long Silence Deshpande has depicted the Character of Jaya as a educated typical middle class house wife with lots of love and affection for her children who is dutiful and respectful to her husband and in-laws but neglected when it comes to her feelings and emotions (Despande, 1989). Her sincerity, honesty to express themselves as an individual. This silence gives her way to search for Identity. She says, “Worse than anything else had been the boredom of the unchanging pattern, the unending monotony" (Despande 1989). She desperately wanted a change and fought for it. “Deshpande teaches women to fight the silence and express themselves. Deshpande is not unconcerned about Indian reality in respect of the lot of women, but she is not a strident and militant kind of feminist who sees the male as the sole cause of all her problems. Her concern, in fact, is nothing less than the human predicament (Maharshi Dayanand University 2004). As a chronicler of human relationships she is superb. The interplay between tradition and modernity and tensions generated by it has been faithfully presented. Deshpande does not offer readymade solutions, for she believes, in literary writing “one does not pose a problem and present a solution. It’s not maths. The value based fabric of life that she projects are of great significance.” Shobha De has gone a step ahead of the man-woman relationship in marriages (Arndt, 2000). Women ought to discuss about their priorities and prerogative. 20th century saw a phenomenal change in woman’s writing. De has moved away from the usual regular track and has actually made a serious analysis of the man woman relationship (Ba, 1989). In Socialite Evenings De has described in the background of Bombay high profile society, the lives of rich house wives spending their lives in loveless marriages whose self-centered husbands treat them more like commodities than human beings. The so called hi-fi wives are used by their husbands more for social respectability than for love. De has vociferously and strongly advocated that a woman ought to tell her partner not to take her for granted, she should assert for her rights and boldly speak to her man regarding her main concern and choices (Dunbar, 2004). She should make her point clear to one and all that she also has the right to be happy like anyone else. Sex is implied more explicitly in Socialites Evening (1989) by De which describes the erotic sex lives of the high society in Mumbai. De expresses the innermost desire of wishes of modern women, the women who were brought up in conservative environments turns up as enlightened women with strong determination and freedom along with their responsibilities, where the middle class always wants to have the lifestyle of the elites. These women novelist write about women who try to fit themselves in the shiny version of globalization (Maraire, Nozipo, 1996). They talk about people who have lived their life in east as well as west and their emotional results. Kamala Das is a confessional poet whose treatment of female sexuality is free from any sense of guilt happens to be the basic ingredient of her writing style. Her main theme revolved around love, its betrayal and the subsequent anger. Her frankness in relation to sexual matters expressed with dignity is remarkable. She focused on the marriage, motherhood, women's concerns to their bodies and sexual explorations in the backdrop of traditional ruthlessly.

Women writers were mostly known to write about their enclosed domestic spheres. They were ranked below the male writers who supposedly dealt with „weightier themes. As they started venturing out of their enforced comfort zones and charting virgin territories of extra-marital affairs, new found love, the sight and quest for an identity, the so called male bastion stating falling apart. Women now desirous of proving themselves and their acumen, walked shoulder to shoulder with men proving they equal and even better sometimes. Thus emerged women literature and contemporary women writers were no more the “second sex”. The social contracts of man and woman as separate entities in the binary oppositional structure fell apart and women no more subjugated to the whims and fancies of the male society. She had emerged from the cocoon of her existence, the beautiful butterfly ready to take on the world. Her writings in English- the language of the cosmopolitan society gave her wings to fly. The woman was ready to explore the pathos, the humility, the subjugation of her existence and lend it a voice which would prove to the world at large that she was an equal, in some instances she could challenge the suzerainty of man and emerge victorious. The woman as a writer had appeared on the world scenario and contemporary woman’s writing is a tribute to the resurrection of women power and talent.

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