Chapter 1

Introduction

Patriarchy is a social system in which the role of male as the primary authority is

central. It refers to a system where men have authority over women, children and

property. As an institution of male rule and privilege, patriarchy is dependent on

female subordination. Historically, it has manifested itself in the social, legal,

political, and economic institutions of different cultures. Patriarchy also has had a

strong influence on modem civilization, notwithstanding the fact that many cultures

have moved towards a more egalitarian social system over the past century (Malti-

Douglas). Literally meaning "rule of fathers," (Ferguson 1048), the term 'patriarchy'

was initially used to refer to autocratic rule by the male head of a family. However, in

modem times, it more generally refers to social systems in which power is primarily

held by adult men. (Meagher 441-42)

Anthropological and historical evidence indicates that most prehistoric

societies were relatively more egalitarian and that patriarchal social stmctures did not

develop until many years after the end of the Pleistocene era, following social and

technological innovations such as agriculture and domestication (Kraemer 377-92).

However, according to Robert M. Strozier, historical research has not yet found a

specific "initiating event" of the origin of patriarchy. Some scholars point to the

concept of 'fatherhood root' as the beginning of the spread of patriarchy as it came

into being six thousand years ago. Domination of women by men is found even in the

Ancient Near East as far back as 3100 BCE, as there were restrictions imposed on a

woman's reproductive capacity.There is also the evidence of her exclusion fi-om "the

process of representing or the constmction of history." With the appearance of the

Hebrews, there was also "the exclusion of woman from the God-humanity covenant".

(Strozier 46)

The Aristotelian philosophy viewed women as morally, intellectually and

physically inferior to men.Besides women were seen as property of men by society

thereby suggesting that women's role was to reproduce and serve men in the

household.lt was believed that male domination of women was natural and virtuous

(Fishbein 27).

Most forms of feminism characterize patriarchy as an unjust social system

that is oppressive to women. As a feminist and political theorist, Carole Pateman

writes, "The patriarchal construction of the difference between masculinity and

femininity is the political difference between freedom and subjection" (Pateman 207).

In feminist theory, however, the concept of patriarchy often includes all the social

mechanisms that reproduce and exert male dominance over women. Feminist theory

typically characterizes patriarchy as a social construction, which can be overcome by

revealing and critically analyzing its manifestations (Tickner 1197-98).

Most sociologists reject predominantly biological explanations of patriarchy

and contend that social and cultural conditioning is primarily responsible for

establishing male and female gender roles (Sandersom 198). According to standard

sociological theory, patriarchy is the result of sociological constructions that are

passed down from generation to generation. These constructions are most pronounced

in societies with traditional cultures and less economic development. However,

gender messages conveyed by family, mass media and other institutions largely

favour males having a dominant status.

 Some socio-biologists, such as Steven Goldberg argue that social behaviour is

primarily determined by genetics and that patriarchy comes into being more as a

result of inherent biology than social conditioning. He also contends that patriarchy is

a universal feature of human culture. In 1973, Goldberg wrote: "The ethnographic

studies of every society that has ever been observed explicitly state that these feelings

were present and there is literally no variation at all" (Goldberg). Any attempt to

define patriarchy explains the reasons for the subordination of women through the

ages and its bearing on their future and success in life. Patriarchy not only explains

how our society functions but also as to how it controls women. It is best defined as

'control' by men. Its opposite is 'matriarchy,' where women are in charge and act as

heads of families. The culture of the majority of the countries including India is

patriarchal as men arguably have power and control over women.

Women must constantly fight for their rights and at times even struggle just to

survive without power. The majority of the world leaders are a living testimony to the

fact that patriarchy reigns supreme. Nevertheless, given an opportunity, women can

be as powerful as men are. For average women, on the contrary, it would be a distant

dream to be on par with men simply because men have the advantage of a culturally

conditioned mindset.

Majority of religions have contributed their bit to perpetuate patriarchal

norms. With such beliefs instilled into cultural mindset, women scarcely stand a

chance of gaining strength in this male-dominated world. Patriarchy is also manifest

in family traditions and gets reinforced through practices such as women adopting the

surname of their husbands and children too carrying their father's last name. This

practice is gradually on the wane as more women are now choosing to keep their

maiden names, or hyphenate it via prefixing it with their married name, so that they
can retain their individual identity. In majority of families, the man financially

supports a family while the woman stays at home taking care of children.

There is considerable ambiguity about the status of women in Indian society.

Some sacred texts accord them an exalted status by stating that gods live where

women are worshipped. In her various manifestations as Mother Goddess (namely

Durga, Kali, Chandi, etc.), woman is believed to represent power (Shakti), and evoke

both fear and reverence. She can protect and at the same time can also wreak

vengeance. If pleased, she can fulfill every wish, but when annoyed, she can unleash

unimaginable terror. Male gods at times find themselves helpless before her and

cannot dare to intervene especially when she has decided to act as power incarnate.

Most of her attributes are believed to be embedded in every woman. However, there is

yet another profile of woman sanctified by religious writings and folklore wherein she

is believed to be fickle and fragile. She is represented as sensuous, tempting, given to

falsehood, folly, greed, trickery, impurity, and also thoughtless action. She is also

regarded as the root of all evil.It is because of her supposedly inconsistent character

that she has to be kept under strict control. Being fragile, she needs protection at all

stages of her life, for instance, in childhood by her father, in youth by her husband,

and in old age (after the husband's death), by her sons. As evident, these two images

are contradictory—the tilt in the accepted stereotypes being toward the negative and

derogatory aspect. Tulsidas, the well known poet, in one of his oft-quoted stanzas,

lumps women with the dumb, the unlettered, the shudras (outcastes) and cattle, who

deserve persecuted.Being allegedly the inferior sex, women have had to forego

privileges and rights that are regarded as exclusively the male prerogative.

The ideology of subordination, linked to Hinduism, Islam and Christianity, is

pervasive and has invaded the worldview and ethos of almost the entire Indian
society. There are, of course, some exceptions which permit a greater measure of

equality and freedom to women. There are certain areas in which control is exercised

on women. First of all their sexuality is controlled much more strictly than men's.

Women are defined homogeneously as well as reductively and are attributed certain

attitudes which bring disgrace both to the family in which they are bom and the one

into which they are married. Their marriage before the onset of puberty is a ploy to

ensure their virginity as well as control their sexuality and over reproduction, i.e.,

ensuring birth of male progeny particularly in the Indian context. Moreover,

restrictions are imposed on woman's movement and the contact that she

maintains/wants to maintain with the outside world. Implicit in this are the attempts to

ensure that woman should not yield to any temptation and must not transgress sexual

norms. Women, at the lower rung of society have to take up all kinds of work to meet

their family needs and this necessitates their movement outside the precincts and their

home. They are vulnerable and are subjected to various types of discrimination and

exploitation by the society steeped in patriarchal ethos. Women from middle and

upper middle class families are not spared by the patriarchal set-up.

It is believed that woman's resources need regulation and control. For a

majority of women, skilled labour is their main resource. They may be wage-earners

engaged in outdoor work, or participants in family craft, or may have special skills

that bring them recognition and can be gainfully used. However, one may pertinently

ask: a) how much of their earnings can they spend at will? b) how much can they

save volitionally? and c) how much do they have to contribute to the pool of family

earning? The answer to all such queries has to be in the negative especially because

there is nothing such as 'woman's will' existent in the world we live in.
 The manner in which control is exercised on women in particular largely

depends on social structure. The interplay of historical, economic, social and political

forces contributes significantly to the shaping and re-shaping of gender equations in a

society. The Indian socio-cultural setup is characterized by patriarchy, upholding male

dominance and female subordination. Upon getting married, the bride leaves her

paternal moorings and becomes member of the family into which she is married.

Children bom to her belong to her husband's lineage. Authority within the family is

vested in the males, most often in the eldest male who is the principal decision maker.

Women's role in decision-making process remains conspicuously invisible,

irrespective of heir being experienced, strong-willed and mature.Most often they are

relegated to the background.

In India, most tribal groups are patrilineal, but interestingly, patriarchy is not a

clearly pronounced trait in them—the exceptions being the families of rulers and

chieftains which are male-dominated. Since the tribal women have to work in the

forests and fields, they have considerable freedom of movement and share economic

responsibility equally. They may outwardly seem to accept male superiority but

enjoy more freedom compared to their urban counterparts. India has small pockets of

matrilineality. In matrilineal communities, descent is traced through women, but

political power generally rests with men. Land alongside other property is inherited

through female lineage; but its management rests with men. The matrilineal system

does endow women with special sense of dignity and status; however, male and

female spheres of activity and control continue to be separately demarcated. There is a

Khasi saying: "War and politics are for men while property and children are for

women" (Dube 109). Among them, the rulers, the chiefs, and power-wielding

"elders" are all male, but women have important economic roles to perform. Khasi
women, for example, run small shops and engage in local trade. The Nayar women,

who form part of the Hindu society of Kerala landlords or non-cultivating tenants,

were home-bound whereas their men took up military service. In their Tarawad

(matrilineal joint household among Nayars of Kerala), property was owned and

inherited by women, but it was looked after by the Kctrnovor (the manager) who

would always be a male. This practice is much the same among the matrilineal

Muslim families of Lakshadweep Islands. Only in some matrilineal socities in Kerala

and Kamataka where women were entitled to headship of the family. Matrilineality is

under stress as contemporary social practices have been effecting certain changes in

its functioning. The market economy, modem education, increased geographical

mobility and new employment opportunities are some of the major factors for change.

In units comprising husband, wife and children especially located in alien settings,

matrilineality cannot work in quite the same way as it did in a traditional setting. Even

the Nayar Tarawads are disintegrating because new legislation has altered the

underlying principle of marriage and has conferred on individuals the right to a share

in ancestral property. Taking into account self-earned property, the Khasis have also

been initiating changes in their law. However, matrilineal ideology is not likely to be

totally eroded because women who will continue to perpetuate the line, will have a

share in ancestral property, and will demand the status and respect that was conferred

on them by their traditional norms and values.

In respect of role allocation, distinction is made between "men's work" and

"women's work" (Dube 110). The management of the household invariably remains

within women's sphere. If they cannot hire domestic help (as only a few can afford

it), women must handle aJJ the domestic chores like drawing water, cooking, cleaning

the house, washing the clothes of men and children as well as their own, and looking
after the children. Men are usually ridiculed if found undertaking any of these

fianctions. A man may do so only when the wife is away or ill and if there is no other

woman to take charge. This notion is so deeply ingrained that even working women

are expected to continue looking after household affairs in addition to their jobs.

Notably, many women have a sense of inadequacy, if not of guilt, when they cannot

attend to their domestic responsibilities. Men, on the other hand, are supposed to look

after the affairs of the world outside the home. They are expected to provide for the

family and to function as arbiters of its discontents and conflicts.

However in the lower strata of society women have a substantial share in the

economic pursuits of the family. They may not till the land, but contribute in diverse

ways in agricultural operations. Women in the families of artisans have well-defined

roles in carrying out the traditional craft. Their contribution to the household

economy thus, cannot be ignored. In social groups at the higher rung of society, men

used to be the providers, but even this scenario is undergoing change as women are

entering public services and professions thereby earning as much as men do. The

trend has to be accepted; partly because of increasing cost of living and the demands

of higher-standard of living. The emerging ethos does not favour patriarchy, but the

vestiges of the past refiise to disappear completely. Society too trying hard to adapt

itself in accordance with the altered scenario, howsoever slow the pace of adaptation

may be.

The patrilineal Hindu society expects a woman to have certain virtues, chastity

being one of them. Before marriage, a woman is not allowed to think of any man in

sexual terms. Secondly, she has to be a devout wife—the notion of Pati-Parmeshwar

(husband as God) reigning supreme in the popular mindset. Women observe several

fasts to ensure that they get the same husband life after life. Such fasts also include
prayers for the long life of the husband, so that the wife does not have to undergo the

sufferings of widowhood.Though, there is a legal ban on the practice, Sati sites are

often developed into shrines where fairs are held to attract huge crowds. The third

virtue is that, a wife is expected to mould herself as per the traditions of the family

into which she is married and merge her individual identity into that of her husband's.

After all, she is meant to be her husband's "shadow" who is supposed to follow him

all through her life and who must stand by him come what may. The infertility of a

woman is considered a curse as in patrileneal groups she is expected to produce a son

to continue the patriarchal lineage. In matrilineal societies, however, this is not

considered a necessity, though it is desirable. But even among them, as in patrilineal

societies, procreation is a social necessity to which value is attached.

The implementation of patriarchal norms and values depend to a great extent

on the strength and weakness of control mechanisms. For instance, articulation of

patriarchal values and the prescription of norms through socio-religious texts

command natural observance. At times, family honour is protected by wife-beating. It

is all too visible in the lower classes, but also persists in upper strata of society. Even

after six decades of independence, one frequently reads of bride burning and dowry

deaths. Other forms of violence are: heaping indignities on the wife and her relations

by the in-laws, making her do physical work beyond her capacity, failing to provide

her adequate nutrition, and even torturing her mentally on several pretexts. Even

highly educated and well-placed women are amenable to such maltreatment.

Unequal gender relations and injustices perpetrated against women have

attracted the attention of social reformers, many of whom have come out in support of

their cause. Some of the medieval saint-poets preached the gospel of extending more

humane and just treatment to women. Social and religious reform movements like
 10

Brahmo Samaj, Prathana Samaj, and Arya Samaj emphasized the rights and status of

women in their agenda. These were generally against social injustice and were

especially mindful of the problems of women viz., child marriage, ill treatment of

widows, denial of property rights to women, and women's education. Several

instances of gender discrimination become evident through certain provisions in our

constitution. It ensures equality for all before law and prohibits discrimination on

grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth. It also guarantees freedom of

religion, i.e., the right to freely profess, practice, and propagate religion. This

provision of religious freedom takes away much of the freedom and equality accorded

to women by the constitution especially because family and personal law is rooted in

socio-religious codes denying women equal rights within the family, or to property, or

to seek divorce, etc. (Dube)

The women's issues remain centrestage on account of their plight which

remains as frustrating as ever. Throughout history, woman was confined to only

family. The rising democracies dominated by capitalism opened a window for her to

get acquainted with the political world but she was denied the right to exercise her

franchise in the male-dominated democracies. As such, she remained marginalized

and detached from the process of decision making. Marxist revolutionary

interpretations of social dynamics took women's cause along with the cause of

proletariat but she still remained on the periphery of politics of power. In India too,

the position of women was no better as a peculiar claustrophobia confined her within

the premises of the household. Notwithstanding rapid growth and advancement of

democratic ideology, existing institutions of political power have been apathetic to

women, thus denying independent entity to women.

 11

The freedom struggle in India did not lead to the awakening of women to the

possibility of their own emancipation, except in a limited sense. In 1931, the

Fundamental Rights Resolution of the Indian National Congress stated that freedom,

justice, dignity and equality for women were essential for nation building. These ideas

were also enshrined in the constitution of India. However, in the decades after

independence, women found to their dismay that, as in case of other deprived sections

of society, the rights that were guaranteed in the constitution remained on paper alone.

Merely right to vote did not change their marginalized status. The right to decision

making or liberation from the traditional constraints imposed by patriarchal norms

remained distant dreams. Even though Indian woman is gradually becoming visible

on all the indices of social growth, yet her upward mobility remains seriously

restricted only to big towns and cities where women feel academically and

economically empowered. Economically independent women in big cities have

acquired a modicum of individual liberty also as the urban environment accords them

more space in comparison to closed rural societies. Nevertheless, even urban women

also find themselves in fetters as their families are embedded in patriarchal values.

Rural women, on the other hand, have to follow the age-old routine of performing day

today family chores alongwith enduring domestic violence which is not only verbal

but may also assume horrifying physical proportions.

Kate Millet in Sexual Politics blamed the social scientists who helped create

ideology of sex roles disguised as scientific description (25). Freud not only reduced

the role of female life to sexual re-production, but also stated that women live at a low

cultural level. For Erikson too, woman is "destined to bear the offspring of chosen

men and with it, a biological, psychological and ethical commitment to take care of

human infancy" (Erikson). According to Joseph Rheingold, "Anatomy decrees the life
 12

of a woman" (Rheingold 714). These views from men, who are assumed to be

experts, reflect in a surprisingly transparent way, the cultural consensus vis-a-vis

perception of woman. They not only view woman reductively but also evince paucity

of other alternatives. Family, the fundamental unit of society, can also be seen as

perpetuating patriarchal power structures alongside the institution of marriage which

reduces woman to an object of barter thereby undermining her right to name children

after her.

The societal set-up unfortunately is not liberal enough to seriously address the

problems faced by women. It still conforms to archaic patriarchal laws and customs.

Compared to man, woman is systematically denied every opportunity to forge an

identity of her own. If at all she dares to question the patriarchal norms, she has to

face violence, which takes many forms from physical assault to psychological

subjugation, social domination and cultural oppression. In today's society, violence is

fast becoming a synonym for power {Taxmann 's).

Like all patriarchal concepts, exploitation has emotional, psychological and

economic aspects to it. Since woman is an object not only of lust, but of vanity as

well. Her value as a property is largely determined by her desirability as a commodity

in the society at large. Through romantic love too, man manipulates her emotionally

and exploits her endlessly. As long as patriarchy treats woman as a sexual commodity

for consumption, she can never think in terms of attaining selfhood and actualizing

her real potential. In the past, control over women's sexuality was linked to hereditary

rights, but women no longer wear chastity belts in the present times. However, one

has to be mindful of the fact that the control now is subtler, more complex. The early

feminists' emphases remained on the right of the woman to refusal of sex rather than

her right to seek sexual satisfaction on her own terms. They knew as to how the body
 13

and its pleasures acquire a certain historical and cultural significance contrary to

patriarchal belief, and also that sex is not merely a biological conditioning but also

socially specific as per patriarchal prescriptions.

Feminist research intends to challenge such assumptions pointing out how

these ideas seem to 'naturalize' male sexual behavior. To view women as responsible

for men's violence enables men to evade responsibility and insist that they were

misled or provoked. A wide range of coercive practices are regarded as normal form

of heterosexual behavior. For instance, the notion that women are incapable of

deciding for themselves their state of sexual arousal prompts the idea that they have to

be seduced by a man into wanting sex. Moreover, linking of sex not only to the

physical but also the emotional aspect, or the assumption that sex is a bargain, results

in woman paying a heavy price. Apart from this, woman (as wife) is also impelled to

perform sex as a 'duty,' or as part of what the 'husband' expects of her in return to the

financial support he extends. The inequality of opportunity for woman in work

situations is largely due to the monopolization of privilege by men. Woman is often

perceived as unsuitable for management tasks. Thus, a womzin socialized into roles

that train her to be co-operative, finds herself in conflict with the work situation that

expects her to be competitive.

Patriarchal economy made man ambitious and selfish and that is why he

exploited his most eternal and intimate partner, 'the woman'. He made her an object

of barter, distorted the system of marriage by undermining the right of woman to

name children after her. In this way, the entire class of women lost its identity in

socio-political and economic terms and was rendered vulnerable to exploitation.

Patriarchal norms have also disturbed the balance of equation between the sexes.

Precious economic and monetary resources by and large tilt the balance in favour of
 14

the male sex. Other factors such as the sexist stereotyping of woman in many sectors

such as educational, labour market, political, etc. effectively suppress woman's

growth thereby disallowing her free choice. Moreover, power has always been

associated with patriarchy and women have never been allowed to wield the sceptre

of power; instead they have been manipulated via emphatic attribution of the qualities

such as beauty, purity, virtue, virginity, etc. The politics of this all becomes largely

evident as the intention remains only to confine rather than emancipate her from

patriarchal clutches by empowering her.

The frustration caused by living under patriarchy impels a woman to make

several compromises. She sacrifices her individuality to uphold certain patriarchal

values. The envisioning of four stages of human life as per Hindu way of life has no

meaning for a woman as she is endlessly tethered to one stage all her life as a home

maker. Thus, the choices offered to woman are limited. Howsoever hard she tries,

woman has to remain subservient to man -be that father, husband, or son—all through

her life.

The idea of a male sex role goes back to the 19"^ century debates about sex

difference, where resistance to women's emancipation was reinforced by scientific

doctrine of innate difference between the male and female sex. Women's exclusion

fi-om universities was justified by the claim that the feminine mind was too delicately

poised to handle the rigours of academic work. And that the resulting mental

disturbance would be impairing their capacities to be good wives and mothers. The

first generation of women who violated this doctrine questioned its presuppositions by

researching the differences in mental capacities between men and women. They found

very few.
 15

Sex role is another concept which is intimately related to the concept of

patriarchy. There are two ways in which this concept can be applied to gender. In one,

the roles are seen as specific to define situations by detailed descriptions of script

following the courtship with marriage. Much more common, however, is the second

approach, in which being a man or a woman means enacting a general set of

expectations that are attached to one's sex - the 'sex role'. According to this

approach, there are always two sex roles in any cultural context—male and female.

Masculinity and femininity are conveniently interpreted as internalized sex roles,

which is the byproduct of social, cultural and patriarchal conditioning. Change

remained the first theme in the initial detailed discussions about male sex role. For the

most part, the first generation of sex role theorists assumed that the man-woman roles

were well defined, that socialization went ahead harmoniously and that sex roles

contributed to social stability, mental health, and the performance of necessary social

functions. However, the functionalist theory assumed a concordance among social

institutions, sex-role norms and actual personalities. It was, however, the political

complacency of this framework, rather than the 'sex role' concept itself that was

disrupted by feminism. Indeed sex role research bloomed as never before with the

growth of academic feminism. But it was now generally assumed that the female sex

role was oppressive and that the role internalization was a means of putting girls and

women in a subordinate position.

The picture of the male sex role painted in most of literary works was quite

conventional and it was not surprising as social dynamics changed. Rather, the male

sex role literature assembled familiar items such as feminist criticism of men, media

images of masculinity, paper and pencil tests of attitudes, findings of sex differences

and autobiographical anecdotes about sport, and called the assembly a 'role.'
 16

Expectation management between the sexes escalated and there was little attempt to

investigate the effects of this expectation in social life. The novel in particular made a

connection between the subordination of women and the hierarchy of power among

men, especially the oppression of women. But in other parts of the male role genre,

there was ambivalence about woman and a cunning willingness to silence the

commitment to feminism.

Women's liberation defined the concept of 'oppression' and stressed the

structural position of men. Feminist researchers documented men's control of

governments, corporations, media, better jobs for men, incomes, and command of

wealth, men's control of the means of violence and the entrenched ideologies that

pushed women into home and dismissed their claims for equality. There is, of course,

a personal level of patriarchy. Early women's liberation writing emphasized the

family as the site of women's oppression. Theorists and activists documented wives'

unpaid labour, mothers' imprisonment in the house, and men's prerogatives in daily

life. Many feminists experimented with new family arrangements often trying to

negotiate with men a new division of labour and a new system of child care.

With the passage of time, however, western feminism's picture of men shifted

from the domestic patriarch consuming unpaid labour to focus on men's aggression

against women. Women's shelters spread awareness about domestic violence and

campaigns against rape argued that every man is a potential rapist. Anti-pornography

feminism carried these further, seeing men's sexuality as pervasively violent and

pornography as an attack upon women. The view that it is mainstream masculinity

that is violent and not just a deviant group also spread in feminist peace movements

and the social environmental movement. Feminist theorist's perception of masculinity

is defined as being fundamentally linked to power, organized for domination and

 17

resistance to change because of power relations. So much so that in certain

formulations masculinity is virtually equated with the exercise of power in its most

naked forms. Men continue to draw a patriarchal dividend in the metropolis as well as

in peripheral locales. In almost all regions of the world, men virtually monopolize the

elite levels of the corporate and the state power. Heterosexual men of all classes are in

a position to command sexual services from women, through purchase, custom, force

or pressure. Men still virtually monopolize weapons, heavy machinery and

technology. The extension of this pattern of patriarchy across the world often erodes

local bases of women's authority, if any.

Almost everywhere, historicity of gender was first registered as an issue about

women in the 19"^ century. This follows from the patriarchal structuring of culture

itself, as well as from the fact that gender politics first became a mass politics in

women's struggle, or a series of struggles for property rights, for their suffrage and for

equal pay. This consciousness erupted in the women's liberation movement.

Millennia of patriarchal domination could now be brought to an end. In some women

writer's works, this sense of unfolding of a great historical drama gave resonance to

otherwise modest reform proposals and vague rhetoric of change. Most of the writers

implied that masculinity was in crisis and that crisis itself would drive change

forward. In other words, the bell of resisting patriarchy started ringing, howsoever

faintly.

Opposition/rebellion may not be just resistance as it brings new social

arrangements into being. Thus, feminism is more than just contesting the discursive

positioning of women; it involves building new health services, pecuniary benefits,

creating peaceable households and co-operative child care, and so on. If labour

movement tried to create more democratic work places, anti-colonial movements built
 18

structures of self-governance. All of these movements created new cultural forms and

circulated new knowledge.

In gender relations, issues related to equality affect different structures within

the gender order. Pursuing social justice in power relations means contesting men's

predominance in the state, professions and management and ending men's violence

against women. It also means changing the institutional structures that make elite

power and physical violence possible in the first place. Social justice in the gender

division of labour means ending the patriarchal dividend in the economy, sharing the

burden of domestic work and equalizing access to education and training. However,

pursuing social justice in the structure of catharsis implies ending the stigma of sexual

difference and the imposition of compulsory heterosexuality and reconstructing

heterosexuality on the basis of reciprocity, not hierarchy.

Men's interest in patriarchy does not act as a unified force in a homogeneous

structure. Recognizing this, we can move decisively beyond the one-dimensional

strategic thinking that flowed from earlier models of patriarchy. In the context of the

broad de-legitimizing of patriarchy men's relational interests in the welfare of women

and girls can displace the same men's gender specific interests in supremacy. The

pattern of change in patriarchy in metropolitan cities means that the familiar array of

masculinities will continue to be produced and institutionalized but a cultural

reconfiguration of these elements has become possible.

There exists the paradox of the politics of masculinity and the reactionary

gender politics in the state and mass media alongside the displacement of the pro-

feminist groups. Nevertheless, one may also observe progressive shifts in many

relationships outside state control along with critical analysis of hegemonic

 19

masculinity reaching new levels of precision and sophistication. The current decade

has not seen any lessening of patriarchal politics than the previous decades. Men

continue to be detached from the defense of patriarchy by the contradictions and

intersections in gender relations. The present era evinces considerable strain between

men and women. It is because both sexes have started to reassess old roles, and men

in particular have started to try to come to terms with the changes demanded by

women of them. Here is an opportunity for men to redefine themselves in accordance

with their own values and needs, casting aside old role models. Men must introspect

and understand women in order to know who they are and what they expect from life.

In other words, it is high time that men redefine their masculinity.

India is phallocratic in nature where sexual colonialism operates. To be a

woman in such a situation is to occupy a subordinate position. A sexist culture exists

where there is an imbalance of power between the two sexes, man being the colonizer

and the woman colonized. Women in ancient India were relatively freer and more

emancipated, well-educated and respected members of the society (Sengupta). A

woman shared all her husband's privileges and was his companion and helpmate in

most of his activities. This situation continued even after the Vedic age (1500-500

BC). It is only when we reach the time of Manu (supposed to have lived in the 5"^

Century BC) that we find women regarded as a property. To quote Manu: "Her father

protects (her) in childhood, her husband protects (her) in her youth and her sons

protect (her) in old age; a woman is never fit for independence."

Now the question arises as to why did women lose their high position; and

why did Manu deprecate them? Historians point that it was after the Aryan invasion

(before 1500 BC) that women started losing their high status in society. Whatever be

the cause, women were gradually denied rights and were given a status inferior to that
 20

of men. Many norms and conventions restricted an orthodox Hindu woman's life until

very recent times. But with the arrival of the suffragette movement in England in

early 20'*' century, Indian freedom movement and the Feminist movement in France

during the 1960's which had a global impact, women in India seem to have risen from

hibernation and have responded positively to feminist issues in the recent decades.

The present day Indian middle class woman seems to be torn between western

practices and Indian culture. She appears to be in a dilemma. The situation has

become even more volatile with dowry deaths, rapes and increased atrocities against

women. Perhaps it is this situation which has made educated women articulate about

their marginalized status through writing. In a phallocratic culture, what forces a dis-

advantageous psychological frame of mind in a woman is the act of relegating her to

the margins. Hence, it becomes imperative for her to demand recognition.

Incidentally, it is this effort to mark her as inferior, which provides a woman the

necessary impetus to express herself, to voice her opinions.

It can easily be comprehended from research on women that feminism is

perhaps the resultant factor of women's concerted efforts against patriarchy for the

past two hundred years or so. Broadly speaking, feminism is the fight for equality

with men or women's struggle to establish themselves as human beings and not to be

treated as "second sex," to erase marginalization. Seen from this perspective,

feminism is a socio-political movement whose objective is equality of rights, status

and power for men and women, challenging both sexism and the capitalist system,

which prompts phallocracy. As a movement, feminism is not anti-men, but fights

against any social setup which produces female subordination. Defining feminism is

at times a complex exercise. In Shoshana Felman's opinion, "Feminism can be

defined as a reaction against the Western phallagocentrism which becomes manifest

 21

in man's claim" (Felman). J.R. Richards is of the view that "Feminism is a belief in

the unjust treatment of women by the society" (Richards). There are complexities

involved vis-a-vis a precise definition of feminism.

Feminism is a weapon to resist patriarchy. It is a global phenomenon of the

1960's, and has certainly paved way for an initiative by women to voice their

opinions globally; since feminism is always vulnerable to containment by dominant

ideologies of gender like motherhood, mothering, marriage, etc. First world feminism

attempts to locate the alliances, blindness and successes of the early feminist

practices/texts and negotiates other practical ideologies and discourses of gender.

Being advanced, women in the West perhaps enjoy better privileges than their Indian

counterparts regarding personal decisions such as choosing a career, a husband, jobs,

academics, and motherhood. The suffragette movement and feminist movement are

testimonies to this, having their roots in developed countries. Hence, majority of

issues related to women's emancipation have been dealt with in developed countries

like Britain, France, America - issues such as abortion, child bearing, lesbianism,

marriage, femininity and its construction, sexuality, gender construction and bias.

Thus, it is quite apparent here that the cardinal aim of the first world feminism

perhaps had been to emancipate women all over the world, establish harmony and

facilitate a homogenous universe where male and female complement each other as

human beings and live in peace.

Kate Millet, one of the chief spokespersons for the Anglo-American criticism

radically explores the power hierarchies prevalent in a sexist culture. Her Sexual

Politics (1969) is the elaboration of a single statement: "the process whereby the

ruling sex seeks to maintain and extend its power over the subordinate sex" (Moi).

Mary Ellman, another prominent Anglo-American critic highlights the fact that
 22

Western culture posits things which Ellman calls 'thought by sexual analogy'. Her

Thinking about Women (1968) is a pointer to a heavy reliance on irony, providing

ample evidence for thought by sexual analogy - feminists indenting occur through

expressions of anger only. Interestingly, the approaches and views of Millet and

Ellman provide the basic ground for women criticism, where the art of reading is

viewed as an interface between the life of the author and the life of the reader. But in

the works of Elaine Showalter, Ellen Mores, Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar, one

witnesses a shift from the condescending studies of images of women in literature

towards women centered perspective. Their writings attempt to re-define women's

goals and activities from a gynocentric standpoint, driving home the point that

women's culture should not be mistaken for a sub-culture. They try to exhibit the

paradox that living is for a woman an inscription in general culture as well as a

partaker of women's culture. Elaine Showalter's "Towards a Feminist Poetics" (1979)

attempts to define effective feminist pre-occupations as that which projects a powerful

projection of personal experiences in a societal construct while Annette Kolodny's

"Some Notes on Defining a Feminist Literary Criticism" (1975) was one of the

earliest works to quash the theoretical pause by offering a paradigmatic prescription

like: "The abiding commitment in [feminist criticism] is to discover what, if anything

makes women's writing different from men's. If we insist on discovering something,

we can clearly label as 'feminine mode', then we are honour bound also to delineate

its counterpart the masculine mode." (Kolodny)

Innumerable initiatives and movements were started for the liberation of

women, but sadly most Indian middle class women still appear to be contented and

happy as daughters, wives and mothers in an overall patriarchal society, and any

feminist ideology could not free them from the chains of segregation. The educated
 23

urban women in India are hardly aware of the living conditions of the masses of the

rural women. There seems to be among them, however, a growing frustration about

patriarchal and 'feudal' customs and institutions like dowry and the marriage system.

Often these frustrations come out in an indirect and subdued way when questions of

marriage or employment arise, i.e., when they face an actual conflict between their

own expectations and the patriarchal role definitions.

It seems that the number of urban middle class women, who are complaining

about contradictory stress and strain upon them, has been on the rise. This may be

because of the fact that due to economic crisis more middle class women are forced to

seek employment out of economic necessity, but traditional patriarchal expectations

regarding their family roles have not undergone much change. The spread of

education among middle class women coupled with a shrinking job market has not

reduced but rather sharpened the conflicts between a rigid patriarchal family system

and the new expectations of women. So far these conflicts have remained on the

individual level. They have not generated a broad movement of protest against

patriarchal customs and institutions. Yet it would be a mistake to underestimate this

individualized and hidden rebellion which has not yet found a manifest social

expression. On the contrary, it can be considered as the subjective pre-condition for

the mobilization of broader sections of women.

Compared with the problems of sheer survival which a large section of Indian

women face, the issue of the role conflicts of the educated urban middle class women

appears to be peripheral. In these role conflicts, the broader and older contradictions

of the social system find their manifestations within the life of the individuals. These

contradictions in the contemporary Indian society, sharpened under the impact of the

economic crisis, are not to be understood if one looks at them only fi-om an economic
 24

point of view. They are as much due to the pervasiveness of a system of male

dominance, which is much older than the present economic system. It is precisely the

patriarchal system which constitutes the link between rural and urban women, though

both are affected by it in different ways and in varying degrees. The deterioration of

the living conditions of the rural women is not only an outcome of the overall

pauperization process affecting the poor Indian peasants but also of the specific

oppression of women which is part of'feudal' and patriarchal structures. On the other

hand, no matter how educated they are, urban women are still tied down by the same

feudal and patriarchal norms.

The present study does not mirror only the cases of Indian society, but also

suggests that women all over the world remain a widely oppressed section. The

principle of patriarchy accentuates male domination and female subordination.

Women in India constitute a great mass of illiterate and powerless humanity. Female

literacy is quite low as compared to males' literacy. In the post independence era,

women were chiefly seen as recipient of benefits and welfare measures. But it was in

the late seventies that they began to be seen as agents of development. Their clarion-

call could be felt through their writings. However, the development process was

afterwards intertwined with complex forms of discrimination, exploitation and

violence hampering the progress of women. Rising incidents of female foeticide,

dowry deaths, custodian and gang rape is a mere preview into the much deeper

oppressive conditions of women waiting to get addressed effectively.

Even development policies have failed to give justice to women. Family is a

place where woman should have security and care but unfortunately it is a place

where she suffers discrimination, harassment and violence. Traditionally, they have
 25

been conditioned to accept an inferior role and dependent status. Tliere is a strong

preference for the male child, whereas the girl child faces discrimination from birth.

Friedrich Engels wrote extensively on the matters of female subordination and

he also made a compelling study of the process of social formation of male and

female identities and gave the basic Marxist explanation for the oppression of women.

According to him, within the frame work of industrial revolution, the fundamental

reasons for the subordination of women were the marginalization of their

contributions to society, the devaluation of their role in the production process, man's

superior status hinging on patriarchy along with the reduction of women to their

reproductive worth. He also located male supremacy in the monogamous family

structure. In fact, Engels characterized the transformation of women into property and

the disappearance of mother's rights as the world's historical defeat of the female sex

(Engels, 189). He said thus:

The emancipation of women and their equality with men are impossible and

must remain so as long as women are excluded from socially productive work

and restricted to housework which is private. The emancipation of women

becomes possible when women are enabled to take part in production on a

large social scale, and when domestic duties require their attention only to a

minor degree. (Qtd. In Geetha 59)

The words of feminist novelist, Virginia Woolf resonated with the same ideas in

1929 when she emphasized the importance of women having money and a place of

their own. Addressing an audience of young girls, she said, "Women have always

been poor, not for two hundred years merely, but from the beginning of time. Women

have had less intellectual freedom than the sons of Athenian slaves. Women have not
 26

had a dog's chance of writing poetry. That is why I have laid so much stress on

money and a room of one's own" (Woolf 80). The importance of having one's own

money has been a recurrent theme in the writings of women in literatures across

cultures and countries. Personal wealth and the freedom to use it will eventully

translate for women into independence, autonomy and confidence. Therefore,

women's movements have concentrated on ways to access it through as many

methods as they can and feminism often views women's empowerment through the

lens of finances. As the women's movements grew in Britain, they inevitably made

their impact in the colonies, especially in India.

Feminist consciousness had been in existence in India since a long time as

evident in ancient and medieval writings. The rights of women were never considered

seriously as the majority was also constituted by the men-folk, and patriarchy always

reigned supreme. Patriarchy, entrenched as it is in our conditioning and thought

processes, plays a major role in the dynamics of power equations between men and

women. As a social system, however, patriarchy is almost universal. Adrienna Rich

defines patriarchy as "philosophical and social systems in which men by force, direct

pressure, ritual, tradition, law and languages, customs, etiquette, education or division

of labour determine what part woman shall play or not play, and in which the female

is everywhere subsumed by the male." (Qtd. in Kaushik33)

Several critics see the genesis of patriarchy as the major cause of man's

dominance over women because it established male control. Gradually, as it took deep

roots, it concretized practices which led to the steady disempowerment of women as

gifts. This led directly to their subordination and objectification and was concomitant

with the loss of autonomy and sexuality (Geetha 64). In the Indian context, the

intersections of patriarchy with caste and religion created distinct social

 27

configurations which both paradoxically contested and reinforced these formations.

V. Geetha elaborates the broader implications of the term in the following words:

"What is patriarchy? Where does the word come from? At its simplest, the term

means 'the absolute rule of the father or the eldest male member of the family' .

. . not only over all women in the family, but also over younger and socially or

economically subordinate males."

[. . .] However, today the term 'patriarchy' is used somewhat differently. It is

not only a descriptive term that explains how specific societies construct male

authority and power, but also an analytical category critically deployed, chiefly

to impack the key constituents of authority and power in any social system,

which automatically privileges men over women and in which women can lay

claims to material, sexual and intellectual resources, only through fighting for

them. (Geetha 5)

Reduced thus to a humiliating powerlessness, women frequently resorted to flattery

and fawning over males as survival strategies. Since patriarchy did not recognize the

woman as an independent entity but saw her primarily as daughter, wife and mother,

the loss of a husband led women to become an object dependent on the charity of

others and sometimes even sexual exploitation. The stories of exploitation of young

widows reduced to the status of servants in the family and obliquely, to sexual objects

are several. Thus, if a woman paid careftil attention to the well-being of her husband,

fasted to appease the gods and prayed for his long life, there was a pragmatic

consideration in her actions. Virginia Woolf was scathing in her comment on the male

need of assurance and flattery when she compared women to mirrors:

 28

Women have served all these centuries as looking glasses possessing the

magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural

size. . . . For if she begins to tell the truth, the figure in the looking glass

shrinks; his fitness for life is diminished. How is he to go on giving judgment,

civilizing natives, making laws, writing books, dressing up and speechifying at

banquets, unless he can see himself at breakfast and at dinner at least twice the

size he really is? (Woolf 86)

Periyar, the great Tamil reformer too held patriarchy responsible for

subjugating women. As early as in the 1920s, he advocated that the purpose of

educating women should be to enable them to find employment and become

economically independent rather than to simply train them to be good housewives. In

analyzing marriage in the framework of patriarchy, he commented that "The concept

of the husband-wife relationship has been one of a master-slave relationship. The

essential philosophy of marriage has been to insist on woman's slavery . . . why

should human beings alone keep such contract of one-man-one-woman relationship ..

. until women are liberated from such marriages and fi-om men, our country cannot

attain independence" (Sarkar 116).

By confining women to the precincts of the house and privileging the roles of

mother and wife above all, patriarchy effectively prevents other possibilities for

development and growth of women. It is 'natural' for women and girls to want to be

mothers and wives; it ordains their sacred responsibility to fulfill these roles. The duty

of man is to safeguard the woman from the dangers of the outside world and perform

the role of protector and provider while his essential domain of activity becomes the

world outside the home. Although not enough research has been done in this area,

feminists (both men and women) have steadily and dispassionately examined social
 29

systems and structure, thereby critiquing them. This has helped them create a unique

body of knowledge that interrogated-and continues to interrogate-the certainties of

our individual and social relationships and roles, beliefs and attitudes. The

questioning of patriarchy, thus, helped - and helps - to produce knowledge about it

(Geetha 9).

There is enough evidence to establish the fact that both male and female roles

are socially constructed and the process of construction begins soon after birth.

Inevitably, differences in the manner of bringing up a girl and a boy become evident

to the small child who begins to imbibe these subtle indications. Starting from small

things and simple do's and don'ts, as Beauvoir says, the 'construction' of the girl

child begins as she is tutored in the ways of becoming a woman. Instructions,

admonitions, warnings start to come her way. These inscribe a certain "acceptable

code" of conduct for her which, she is told in subtle and sometimes not so indirect

ways, she must adhere to. From avoiding strenuous physical activity and loud laughter

to keeping the body covered and learning to control her temper, the little girl is

gradually initiated into a world where all her actions must fall within a prescribed

social framework.

Writing in the early part of the 20"^ century. Begum Robeya, in a remarkable

essay called "Nari-Puja," "The Worship of Women" (Sarkar 17), brilliantly exposed

the deceptions society practiced on itself by denying some of the facts that stare it in

the face regarding the actual treatment meted out to women. She ridiculed the

widespread assumption that woman has been held in high regard in traditional Hindu

and Muslim society through insistence on seclusion. Similarly, Kate Millet's Sexual

Politics (1969) makes a stinging critique on patriarchy and focuses on how the

portrayal of women in literature is stereotyped and sexually defined. Though Millet

 30

confines her examination to literature, there is enough evidence to conclude that these

stereotyped images are carried over to films, magazines and television as well. The

amount of social conditioning that they do in influencing young boys and girls to

perceive themselves and each other in certain set ways cannot be underestimated.

Religions too, have been notoriously unkind to women, though ironically,

women are often the ones who embody religious practices the most. One of the most

effective forms of socialization happens through religion and culture. Often, women

are the bearers of culture and faith; they actually take charge of most family rituals

and observe religious codes faithfully. Most religions perpetuate patriarchal structures

of power and are hardly progressive. This is due to the fact that although religions

claim divine revelation as their source of authority, they are in actuality historically

orientated and profoundly interlinked with patriarchy. In fact, the histories of

civilizations indicate that whenever there have been debates regarding the position of

marginalized castes, communities or women, religions have invariably thrown their

weight against these and reinforced existing and traditional power configurations. In

the case of women and girls too, religion is used to impress upon them the necessity

of continuing with the old and traditional ways.

The well known hypothesis that the inferior position of women in family and

society goes hand in hand with their exclusion from social the economic process is

confirmed by the Indian social history since the early times to the present day. In the

lower castes, where they take active part in the economic life, women enjoy more

freedom and more independence than in the higher castes (Gore 13), where they were

up to recent times, excluded not only from the production process, but also from the

right to property and inheritance. It is therefore no wonder that in the old sources there

is hardly any mention of the economic activities of women.

 31

Modem education and modem economic life compel the Indian women more

and more to leave the narrow sphere of the family and work side by side with men.

This breaking down of the traditional segregation of male and female domains of life

must give rise to completely new problems for women. Among the various social

evils which the reformers of the 19'*^ century attacked as degrading and unworthy of a

human being was the purdah system, which to a great extent regulates the life of

women in North India. But purdah also signifies a comprehensive system of mles,

codes of conduct, folk cultural ways, and also the principle which is the most radical

form of sex segregation and seclusion of women.

The Indian women could see a ray of hope only with the freedom movement

which brought about a decisive change in the social, political and religious status of

women. From the early 19"^ century onwards, when national consciousness began to

develop among the educated Indian elite, up to the final attainment of Independence,

the women's question was most closely connected with the political freedom stmggle

(Cousins 24) and the active participation of women in this stmggle has made

important contribution to its success. The awareness that they fought side by side with

men against an overwhelming colonial power and took part in the building up of a

new national order has since remained with the Indian middle-class women and has

strengthened their self-confidence.

In the course of the 19'*' and 20* centuries, they became more and more

involved in the political and social sphere. The stmggle for the upliftment of women

took place mainly in three major fields which included legislation, education and

politics. Efforts were made for the introduction of laws for social reform and women's

education. The political emancipation of women took place in the active phase of the

independence movement in the first decades of the 20"' century. The introduction of
 32

English education in India opened the eyes of the Hindu elite (Mazumdar et al 812-

13) to the disgraceful social conditions of their own people. Educated Hindus began to

view the practice of killing female children the practice of Sati (burning alive of

widows), prohibition of widow marriage, child marriage and in general the

degradation of the woman in Hindu society as shameful practices. One of the first

fighters for the cause of women was the social reformer and nationalist Raja

Rammhan Roy, who in 1828 founded the Hindu reform movement, the Brahmo

Samaj. It fought for the emancipation of the woman against the old "social evils" like

sati (Mazumdar et al 812-13). Also other religious and social reform movements

which came up in connection with the Hindu revival like the Arya Samaj, the

Ramkrishna Mission and the Theosophical Society, contributed to the women's cause

and advocated reforms and women's education despite ideological differences (ibid.

878-82). Vina Mazumdar points out that more radical social reformers like

Vidyasagar, Jyotiba Phooley and Lokhitavadi Gopal Hari Deshmukh fought for the

amelioration of the lot of women. Phooley, above all, saw a close connection between

casteism and patriarchy; he attacked both as instruments of Brahmanism. Vidyasagar

exposed the patriarchal bias in the Ramayana by pointing out that Sita, though proven

faithful had been repudiated by Rama. (48)

Interestingly, the patriarchal attitude made sure that the women's movement

did not go beyond the basic structures of family and caste system. Nowhere have the

leading women of this epoch tried to transcend the area of political and theoretical

activity which had been carved out for them by men. This area is by and large

circumscribed by their family. Therefore, Vina Mazumdar rightly points out that the

reformers hardly cared about liberating women from age old bonds; they were rather

concerned about "the women's roles within the family as wives, daughters and
 33

mothers" (63). To draw women into the political struggle is a tactical necessity of any

anti-colonial or national liberation struggle. But it depends on the strategic goals of

such a movement whether the patriarchal family is protected as the basic social unit or

not. The fact that women themselves accepted their limited tactical function within

the independence movement made them excellent instruments in the struggle for

freedom. But they did not work out a strategy for their own liberation, or struggle for

their own interests. Even today, the ideal of womanhood is widely accepted and

appreciated by the so called educated middle class. Ironically, women never reaped

the harvest of movements started in their favour either by the government or by

individuals. They remained weak because they were projected as weak characters by

the male writers in their writings. Consequently, they felt it rather strongly that they

have to take the initiative themselves and work towards creating woman's identity in

literature. It is genuinely felt that women writers from across the globe have created a

niche for themselves in the recent years, which seems to be the perfect way to resist

patriarchy.

The themes and concerns of women writers have changed over the years. For

instance, in the 1950's, critics-both men and women-felt that women wrote only

about female-oriented subjects, limiting themselves to domesticity or their personal

experiences as women. In the following decades, they started addressing broader

spectrum of themes and exploring social and political issues. Though they were more

open to exploring the 'dark' side of life, many still felt hesitant in dealing with

homosexuality, lesbianism and sexual aberrations in their works.

Women writers of the last quarter of the twentieth century have come a long

way and the writers like Carol Ann Daffy, Dorris Lessing and African American

writers like Tony Morrison and Alice walker among others have dominated the
 34

literary scene. In postmodern and postcolonial literature, images of women have been

destabilized, deconstructed and reconstructed. No longer does the writing of women

concerns itself with the search for identity alone. Increasingly, women's literature has

striven to establish a separate ethos, an exclusive feminine myth as a counter-point to

the existent myth of male standards. Adrienne Rich, the feminist writer observes that

"for women writers in particular, there is the challenge and promise of a whole new

psychic geography to be explored." (Rich 19)

The Women's Liberation Movement of the late 1960s in the First World

empowered women with self-confidence as never before. Women writers like Kate

Millet, Erica Jong, Diane Johnson and Marilyn French interrogated and rejected

conventional images of women. Even before the Movement, however, Margaret

Fuller, Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath, Doris Lessing and Simone Beauvoir among

others registered their sense of outrage against attitudes towards women in their texts

in no uncertain terms.

Feminist writing is not merely by women but for women as well. Ecriture

feminine, as defined by the French feminist writer, Helene Cixous relates to writing

by women which is typically feminine in theme, style and approach, steering clear of

phallogeocentric features. Ecriture feminine establishes a bridge of communication

and communality between women irrespective of race and colour. This is realized

through projection of exclusive feminine codes of responses peculiar to women

writers, free from the influences of phallocratic, bourgeois ideologies and male power

structures.

Feminist writing whether radical, socialist or liberal forges new directions in

thought and expression. Helen Cixous states in her seminal essay, "The Laugh of
 35

Medusa:" "By vvriting herself, woman will return to the body which has been more

than confiscated from her and has been turned into the uncanny stranger on display -

the ailing or dead figure. . . . Write yourself your body must be heard" (qtd in Bigsby,

Modern American Drama 88). Such discourses expose gender inequality

sexual/textual politics and marginalization, encouraging in women the confidence and

courage to speak out in their true voices of power regarding self and the other.

Muriel Rukeyser's slogan, "No more masks! No more mythologies," can be

regarded as an appropriate and significant call for women's writing since the

seventies. The impact of the movement can be perceived from the serious emphasis

on the re-conceptualizing of the role of women and their gradual inclusion in the

mainstream socio-economic, political and cultural constructs. Increasing awareness

about the false separation of public and private spheres, emphasis on the fact that the

personal is the political has led to women recognizing themselves as independent

individuals and not property and labour dependent upon patriarchy. In the past two

and a half decades, literature in general and fiction in particular has reflected the

rejection of certain patriarchal traditions and stereotypes summarily: "The influence

of feminism has meant that women no longer have to see motherhood, heterosexuality

and marriage as the only possible lifestyle and myths portraying women's happiness

as being confined within these parameters have now been exploded." (Richardson

322)

The new woman has come into being because of the impact of feminism

which implies the assertion of human rights by women who have dismantled the myth

propagated by patriarchy that women are weak, docile, dependent, subservient and

demure and that they require protection by men. The roots of feminism lie in the

distant past when woman was regarded inferior to man both physically and
 36

intellectually. She was rated somewhere between man and child. The assertion of

rights by women dates back to 15"^ century and Christine De Pilan of France is

regarded as 'the first modem woman'. Present day feminism is rooted in French

Enlightenment (Mary Wollstonecraft) and British Liberation Movement (J.S. Mill).

Mary Wollstonecraft (1750-1797) and J.S. Mill (1806-1875) were the early crusaders

for the emancipation of women. Struggle for equal rights attained new heights with

the publication of Mary Wollstonecraft's "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman"

(1792). It proved to be the first major feminist manifesto which influenced thinking

men and women both in the U.S. and U.K. It anticipated all the major demands of

women's movement i.e., education, legal representation, the right to vote, the right to

property and admission to professions. She argued that women were endowed with

reason and man's superiority over woman was not justified and hence subjection of

women was unnatural and unjust.

J.S. Mill, one of the first eloquent spokesmen of the rights of women, came

out with his essay "The Subjection of Women" (1869). This was the first suffrage

petition presented to the Parliament where he pleaded for women's rights. This essay,

a kind of "Feminist Bible", created an enormous impression on the minds of women

all over the world. Mill argued that subjection of women; legal and social was

indefensible. He demanded full equality for women so that society could be made

perfectly human as development of society needs liberty of individual.

The aftermaths of movements and initiatives taken or started in favour of

women supplied a great deal of courage to women and they started resisting

patriarchy through their literary endeavors. As literature is the image of society, the

position of women and their treatment is reflected in literature. In feminist literature,

women refuse to be passive, docile and self-annihilating creatures. They are out to
 37

subvert the patriarchal norms to reject marginal position and come to centre stage. It

is based on the assumption that gender is not a given sex. It is a construct, a historical

construct which can be deconstructed. Patriarchal literary tradition defined women as

men viewed them and since 'feminity' is always associated by men with passivity.

The male literary tradition presents women as victims and as helpless beings.

Feminist literature, which is a reaction against the entrapment of women in male

literary constructs, presents women as heroes, as agents - trying to create feminist

worldview. It helps in raising consciousness amongst women and enables them to

develop faith and their own power and potential refusing subordination, deprivation,

marginalization and victimization. They aspire for subject position and establish their

ovm individuality and identity and prepare men to treat women as complementary.

This type of literature got under way with Virginia Woolf s A Room of One's

Own (1928) and Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex (1949). In A Room of One's

Own, Woolf brings forth the reasons behind the conspicuous absence of women from

the sphere of creativity in the previous centuries. Simone de Beauvoir, an early

prophet of feminism created ripples with the publication of The Second Sex (1949).

She strongly criticized and rejected the mainstream thought where man is the norm

and woman is defined negatively in relation to that norm. "He is the 'subject' the

'Absolute', and she is 'other'" (Beauvoir 1949).

During late 1960's, the feminist movement got impetus from the works of

Betty Friedan and Kate Millet. Betty Friedan, through her Feminist Mystique (1963)

suggested women to shed the image created for both by men. She asserted that

women should come out of the private world of domesticity into the public world.

Culturally and politically, public sphere dominates and hence men dominate women.

Kate Millet's Sexual Politics (1970) drove home how foundational and manipulative
 38

the image of woman actually was. Millet held literature as mirror in which this image

making was reflected. Further manifestation of this view came in Patricia Spack's The

Female Imagination (1975), Ellen Moers' Literary Women (1976), Elaine Showalter's

A Literature of their Own (1977) and Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar's The Mad

Woman in the Attic (1979).

To understand feminist literature, certain terms like female, feminine,

feminist, sex and gender require elaboration. As 'female is related to biology, so all

women are undoubtedly females but every female need not be feminine. In the same

way, it is not necessary that all females are feminists. Having the same body does not

necessarily make them one political group. Toril Moi makes a clear distinction in the

meaning of these terms in her essay 'Feminist literary criticism. "Female is a matter

of biology and therefore represents 'Nature'. Feminine is a set of culturally defined

traits. It refers to the patterns of sexuality and behavior imposed by cultural and social

norms. So, feminine represents 'nurture'. Feminism/feminist is a political position, a

political label, indicating support for the aims of new woman's movement which

emerged in late 1960's. Accordingly, a feminist is one who advocates equality for

women" (Moi 204).

Patriarchy creates a series of feminine characteristics and makes women

believe that they are natural. Patriarchal oppression consists in imposing certain social

standards of femininity on all biological women and one who refuses to conform to

these chosen standards is labeled as both unnatural and 'unfeminine.' Patriarchy

makes women believe that there is such a thing as an essence of femaleness called

femininity having a whole series of traits like sweetness, modesty, subservience,

humility etc.
 39

Sex and gender are the two sides of a same coin. Gender is not a given but a

construct, a psychological or cultural construct. Social construction of gender takes

place through the working of ideology. Male and female are the categories according

to sex while those according to gender are masculine and feminine: "One is not bom

but rather becomes a woman. It is civilization as a whole that produces this creature"

(Beauvoir IX).

Patriarchy links masculinity with power, independence, self-assertion,

domination and activity. Feminine is linked with weakness, dependence, helplessness,

docility, passivity and subservience. She is always required to find fulfilment in

submissive domesticity. Gender defined roles serve male need for domination. This is

what Kate Millet calls sexual politics. Patriarchy provides congenial environment for

the exploitation of women thereby promoting sexual politics. As patriarchy promotes

feminine qualities, women also see themselves in the image created for them and the

myth of masculinity does not let them enjoy equality and fi-eedom. Rather, it silences

and marginalizes them and makes them believe that femininity is inherently linked

with inferiority and that their inferiority is natural.

The terms 'female,' 'feminine' and 'feminist' also apply to literature. "Female

refers to the writing by women. This label does not say anything at all about the

nature of writing. Feminine stands for the writing which seems to be marginalized by

ruling social/linguistic order. Feminist writing takes a discernible anti-patriarchal/

anti-sexist position" (Moi 220). As all females need not be feminists, in the same way,

all female writing need not be feminist. The attitude of the author towards the gender

defined roles is the basic criteria to decide feminine text. Women must occupy central

position in it.
 40

Feminist literary criticism is an offshoot of women's liberation movement of

the sixties. It responds to the way woman is presented in literature. Feminist criticism

probably began when the woman became aware of her relationship to language and

consious of herself as writer or speaker. Its aim is subversion of patriarchy. Elaine

Showalter divides feminist criticism into Feminist critique and Gynocriticism. It has

two basic premises: women presented in literature by male writers from their own

point of view i.e. Phallocentricism while women presented in the writings of female

writers from their own point of view is Gynocriticism. It is focused on women's

writings. The very act of dealing with the woman writer is a feminist one. In Feminist

Critique, woman is the reader of male authored texts and interprets it from women's

point of view whereas Gynocriticism refers to women writings.

In the writings by men, women are presented from men's point of view and

therefore lack authenticity. Through feminist critique, women re-write and re-create

the male created text from feminist perspective. Jonathan Culler defines "Feminist

Criticism" as a political act whose aim is not simply to interpret the world but to

change it by changing the consciousness of those who read and their relation to what

they read" (Culler 67). Feminist literary criticism is a combination of feminism and

the literary theories. Feminists in the women's movements fight for social and

political change that would liberate them from patriarchal oppression. There are

different schools of feminist thought, namely: Liberal Feminists, Radical Feminist,

Socialist/Marxist Feminists, Psychoanalytical, Black and Lesbian Feminist. Feminist

literary criticism does not privilege any one school of thought over the other. All of

them provide tools to counter patriarchy. As feminist criticism is committed to the

struggle against patriarchy and sexism is not just a concern for gender in literature, the

task of feminist critics or theorists is to expose the way in which male dominance over
 41

females constitutes perhaps the most pervasive ideology of our culture, and provides

its most fundamental concepts of power. Given the all pervasive nature of patriarchal

power, feminists have to be pluralistic. All kinds of feminisms and feminist theories

probe into the causes of women's oppression and try to find remedies.

Feminist movement though originated and developed in the west, but its

presence can be felt as well as seen across the globe and in India. It has generated

awareness amongst women about their rights. Echoes of feminism are visible in

Indian writings in English and consequently women have started resisting patriarchy

through their writings. By depicting the status of women in family as well as society

and raising voice against their age old exploitation by the patriarchal society, the

Indian women's writing has emerged powerfully. Eminent Indian women writers like

Kamala Das, Anita Desai, Kamala Markandaya, Ruth Prawar Jhabwala, Nayantara

Sahgal, Shashi Deshpande, Bharati Mukharjee, Rama Mehta, Manju Kapur, Shobha

De, to a name a few, have given full expression to the problems faced by women.

Now, women are in a position to express their own experiences and feelings. They are

both the subjects and objects of study. Literature is not just a mirror of the society for

these writers as it reflects, guides and shapes the relationships for the balanced growth

and development of a healthy society.

Indo-English literature, in the last few decades has gained a wide-spread

popularity, both in India and abroad. It has carved a permanent and sure niche for

itself in world literature. From a sapling, it has grown into a huge tree. In the

beginning, its position had never been clearly grasped because the critics who set the

standards and perspectives in European literature were not closely acquainted with

non-European cultures and the vital elements of its philosophy. It is with the spread of

culture that a great deal of interest has been generated in the Indo-English and other
 42

commonwealth literatures. The writers, readers, scholars and even critics have started

realizing that the literature written in Australia, New Zealand, West Indies, South

Africa, Canada, Nigeria and India is in no way inferior and the writers from these

countries have contributed significantly to the modem English literature. They have

won prestigious prizes in the field of literature, which speaks volumes about its

significance and authenticity. In the present scenario, fiction is considered the most

powerful and popular medium of expression in Indo-English literature.

It is believed that novel is the most acceptable way of embodying experiences

and ideas in the context of the contemporary times. It gives a peep into the modem

civilization. The creative Indian English writers have been attracted to the genre and

adopted this form generously and skilfully. Therefore, the most remarkable

contribution of Indian English writing can easily be traced in the genre of fiction.

The maiden Indo-English novel was written by B. C. Chatterjee, who left his

first-ever attempt incomplete and preferred to switch over to Bengali, his mother

tongue. The fact remains that he was the first modem novelist of India and

Chatterjee's Rajmohan's Wife paved the way for Anand Math (1884), India's first

political novel. In the nineteenth and early twentieth century, only historical romances

were added in the world of fiction i.e. S.K. Nihambe's Ratanabai (1885) S.K.

Ghosh's The Prince of Destiny (1909), S.K. Mitra's Hindupur (1909) and R.C. Dutt's

The Slave Girl of Ara (1909). But these historical romances could not gain the

desired momentum. Nevertheless, the seeds were sown which started sprouting

between the two World Wars and rich harvest was reaped in the form of Mulk Raj

Anand's Untouchable(J935), and Raja Rao's Kanthapura(1938). In this context ,

William Walsh comments: "It was in 1930's that the Indians began what has now
 43

turned out to be their very substantial contribution to the novel in English and one

peculiarly suited to their talents" (Walsh).

Although the Indian novel was internationally accepted, it progressed at a slow

pace, and gained momentum only during the last decades. The international critical

standards with standardized and defined parameters placed it in the aesthetic tradition

of literature. Salman Rushdie's novel Midnight's Children received wide acclaim

when it won the coveted Booker for the year 1981. In 1985, Nayantara Sehgal was

awarded the Sinclair prize for her novel, Rich Like Us. For her work. The Middle Man

and Other Stories, Bharati Mukherjee was also awarded The National Book Critics

Circle Award for 1988. Arunaditi Roy also won the prestigious Booker Prize for her

novel, The God of Small Things in 2000 which has flirther given boost to the Indian

English novel. Gradually, this genre became a popular platform for the literary

expression. Novelists like Anita Desai, Nayantara Sahgal, Shashi Deshpande, Shashi

Tharoor, Amitabh Ghosh, Vikram Seth, Manju Kapoor and many others appeared on

the scene after the 1980's. They dealt with burning issues like colonialism,

globalization, immigration, feminism, patriarchy, love, marriage and sex through their

fiction. Khushwant Singh has aptly pointed out that "The writers writing in English

have put India on the literary map of the world" (Singh 3).

The present thesis proposes to analyse the selected works of the contemporary

Indian English novelists. Out of the three novelists whose works are being critically

analysed in the present thesis, Rama Mehta stands out as least appreciated. Barring

few insightftil articles that have been written on her novel, Inside the Haveli, there is

nothing written about her that may command serious critical attention. One such

perceptive article figures in Malashri Lai's The Law of the Threshold. It presents a

well argued critical discourse on gender and class as depicted in Rama Mehta's novel.
 44

To quote Malashri Lai: "To situate herself 'inside' the haveli, literally in the

depictions of picturesque physical space and metaphorically, in the mindset of the

women who led secluded lives, she had to devise a novel which turned out part

sociology, part a masking of autobiography."(Lai 83) Besides Lai also works out

Rama Mehta's remarkable combining of issues pertaining to her protagonist's growth

as a woman living in urban setting and nurturing as the one who has progressive

views about the world outside the haveli entrapment. Geeta's mediation between old

and new values has been convincingly underscored by Lai (Lai 81-103).

Vrinda Nabar in her article on, 'A kind of safety': The Rationalisation of

Purdah in Rama Mehta's Inside the Haveli dwells on issues such as gender

discrimination against women alongside their alienation and marginalization through

historically and traditionally loaded metaphor of Purdah/veil (Nabar 60-70). Nirja

Misra also throws light, "On the portals of change" in her analysis of Purdah culture

in this novel (Mishra 71). Another critic namely Kamal Bhasin also discusses

retrogression from modernity to purdah via critically assessing the use of

"acculturation" in Rama Mehta's novel. Bhasin does this by tracing the female

protagonists' journey from "Bombay, a 'modem' city, to a Haveli in Udaipur - which

is a symbol of old traditions and values" (Bhasin 114). Usha Bande too, in her book

Writing Resistance, touches upon the issue of female resistance by observing that

"Rama Mehta creates a world of female understanding that stands in good stead to

counter the dominant [patriarchal] culture." (Bande 116)

From the above critical survey it becomes evident that Rama Mehta's Inside

the Haveli has not been critiqued from the view point of patriarchal resistance.

Malashri Lai does take up the issue of gender and class but an exclusive thrust on

crossing patriarchal threshold remains absent which is a pre-requisite for 'new

 45

womanhood.' Moreover, the applicability of the concept of the new woman has

neither been attempted nor envisioned by any critic so far. As such, in the present

study, the novel has been taken up for elaborate critical analysis from the view point

of patriarchal resistance as well as the concept of the new woman whose characteristic

traits have been amply depicted through the portrayal of Geeta in Rama Mehta's

Inside the Haveli.

Contrary to Rama Mehta, Shashi Deshpande has received much critical

attention. Her fiction focuses on unconventional marriage leading to conflicts and

problems of alienation and adjustment. She makes all her protagonists come to terms

with their dilemmas and conflicts and reach an understanding of themselves as well as

the world around them without any help from outside. Through these efforts they

emerge as new women who resist the patriarchal barriers and prove themselves as

winners in their own way.

Deshpande also deals with the new consciousness that her protagonists are

able to acquire in rapidly changing scenario of the modem women world. S. Prasanna

Sree has also done a fiill length study of her novels in her book Women in the Novels

of Shashi Deshpande: A Study (2003). Her thurst is on understanding Deshpande's

women protagonists who face various problems due to conflicting influence of

tradition and modernity. She also minutely examines as to how they cope with the

emerging situations in their lives thereby preparing to deal with society in a non-

violent, mellow, mature and refined manner.

Jasbir Jain's critique of Deshpande's fiction in her book Gendered realities,

human spaces: the writings of Shashi Deshpande (2003) is very powerful as she has

done a close reading of her fiction to interrogate strengths and limits of the 'feminist'
 46

positions thereby extending its scope to be appropriated from aesthetic as well as

socio-cuhural perspectives. Shashi Deshpande's fiction represents the contemporary

woman's struggle to define herself in the patriarchal set up and attain an autonomous

self-hood as observed by scholars like Bhatnagar, Alka Saxena, T. Ashok Rani and

Anita Singh in women in The Novels of Shashi Deshpande (2001), edited by Suman

Bala. T. Ashoka Rani talks about the problems of Shashi Deshpande's middle class

career women such as "Indu, Saru and Jaya [who] succeed in constructing a self

through individual professional achievements. They also manage to come to terms

with themselves by redefining their relationships, accepting at the same time social

constraints and emerge as new women doing justice in their domestic as well as,

professional fields" (Rani 32). Another aspect that has been repeatedly examined in

Deshpande's novels is the problem faced by the career women in the Indian society.

Premila Paul shows in her study of The Dark Holds No Terrors as to how Deshpande

"explodes the myth of man's unquestionable superiority and the myth of woman

being a martyr and a paragon of all virtues" (Paul 30). Nalinabh Tripathi also

evaluates The Dark Holds No Terrors as the projection of "the post modern dilemma

of a woman who strongly resents the onslaught on her individuality and identity"

(Tripathi 43). R.K. Sharma studies That Long Silence as the protagonists' journey

ft-om silence to self-assertion. (Sharma 107)

From the forgoing critical survey , it becomes evident that there is a vast

range of issues in Deshpande's fiction that has been critically appreciated by

several scholars and critics, such as status of women in Indian society, its feminist

dimension, issues pertaining to gender discrimination ,patriarchy, conflict between

tradition and modernity, and native and western cultures, etc. Much has been written

about varied thematic dimensions of Shashi Deshpande's novels, but no full length
 47

Study has so far been undertaken about the emerging new woman who musters

courage to cross the patriarchal threshold.

Unlike Shashi Deshpande, Manju Kapur has not been been examined critically

as there are only few critical articles dealing with diverse thematic strands in her

fictional universe. Whereas Suneeta Aggarwal offers a feminist perspective in Manju

Kapur's A Married Woman (Dhawan 172-176) Pushp Lata negotiates the image of

'Mother India' in her perceptive article on Difficult Daughters. (Dhawan 155-162)

Suman Bala critiques Manju Kapur's Difficult Daughters in view of the

defiance depicted through daughter figures bordering on patriarchal resistance

(Dhawan 150-154). Nevertheless, the daughters' defiance as delineated in Bala's

article has negligible magnitude. Therefore, the present thesis proposes to take it up at

greater length. Pushpa Mohandas's article explores the concept of selfhood in Kapur's

A Married Woman. Interestingly, it touches, even though marginally, the core concept

of the new woman as Mohandas aptly observes, "Kapur portrays a woman who has

become aware of the biased attitude of her husband and stands for the modem

emancipated woman, asserting her individuality by challenging the taboos and

destructive social norms." (Dhawan 297)

Seema Malik in her brief write up, "Crossing Patriarchal Threshold: Glimpses

of the Incipient New Woman in Manju Kapur's Diffiicult Daughters" deals with the

concept of new woman and its feminist implications in the portrayal of Kapur's

women characters. For her, "Manju Kapur's Diffiicult Daughters is a feminist

discourse not because she is a woman writing about women but because she has

understood a woman both as a woman and as a person pressurized by all kinds of

visible and invisible contexts. She presents feminism at its most sane, keeping in mind
 48

the Indian context." (Dhawan 137). Bhagabat Nayak's article lends thematic thrust on

"Love and Longing" in Kapur's Difficult Daughters. He views it as "invested

dichotomy" in the novel based on the moral responsibility "between a spinster and a

married bachelor" (Naikar 156-157). Thus we see that barring single article by Seema

Malik, there is scarcely any criticism available on the notion of the new woman as

represented in Manju Kapur's novels under study. As such, it becomes evident that

the motif of patriarchal resistance and the concept of the new woman have not been

duly considered and hence need to be critically explored.

As such, the focus of the present study is to show the emergence of the new

woman in select fiction of Rama Mehta, Shashi Deshpande and Manju Kapoor via

demonstrating as to how she resists patriarchy. It seeks to prove how and to what

extent the novelists through their women characters have been able to portray the

image of the new woman. The new woman is the one who has come of age, who has a

status that is not subservient to patriarchal norms, who is watchful and aware of the

environment she lives in and who has the capacity to live life on her own terms in a

male-dominated society. The study also includes the social analysis of the patriarchal

set-up as reflected in the novels of these women novelists. The study also deals with

the psychological growth of the new woman who resists dominance of patriarchy and

tries to open the doors which have been closed for her for centuries. The thesis also

involves an intensive study of the selected novels of Manju Kapur, Rama Mehta and

Shashi Deshpande in order to arrive at a conclusion to show as to how the new

woman has come to occupy a prominent space in the Indian English fiction.

The thesis has been divided into three chapters. In chapter 1, which is

"Introduction," an attempt has been made to discuss the concept of patriarchy from

the historical and theoretical perspective. The feminist theory has also been discussed
 49

at length to foreground the concept of the new woman which is germane to the

present study and has been explored at length. Chapter 2 entitled ''Inside the Haveli:

From Margin to Centre" deals with Geeta, the female protagonist in Rama Mehta's

Inside the Haveli, who breaks the patriarchal cage open and manages to move to the

centre from the margin. The protagonist emerges as the new woman as she fights the

battle of her life and wins it by using the weapon of education. Chapter 3, "Crossing

The Patriarchal Threshold" deals with the protagonists of Shashi Deshpande namely

Saru in The Dark Holds No Terrors and Jaya in That Long Silence who refuse to be

the victims of social oppression by the age old patriarchal society. They resist and

question the role assigned to them as daughters, sisters, wives and mothers and reftise

to be mute witnesses in the face of oppressive patriarchal system, and emerge as new

women resisting these norms relentlessly. Likewise, Chapter 4 has been titled as

"Exploring New Vistas" and it deals with the protagonists (Virmati in Difficult

Daughters and Astha in A Married Woman) of Manju Kapur who refuse to be puppets

in the hands of patriarchy and muster courage to cross claustrophobic patriarchal

space and stage a formal walk out to explore new world around them as new women.

This chapter will be followed by chapter 5, "Conclusion" which will sum up the entire

conceptualization and theorization of the concepts delineated in "Introduction" as well

as the following chapters thereby enlarging scope of further research particularly from

the viewpoint of the core concept of 'the new woman'.