Chapter I

Introduction CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Psyche, in literature means ‘the human soul’, ‘mind’ or the inner world of a
person. It is one’s inner self that is badly tormented and affected by the
customariness
of everyday life. It also meant the personality, individuality, the deepest
thoughts,
feelings or beliefs of a person or group. The term Psyche was borrowed
from the
Greek ‘psyche’ during the sixteenth century, which means the mind, soul,
or invisible
stimulating object which occupies the physical body. It is responsible for
one’s
thought and feelings and it is the central force in the behavior of an
individual. In
other words, psyche denotes to the psychological, mental and emotional
elements that
make us a human being.
Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, describes Psyche as
“Not
only what we generally call ‘soul’ but the totality of all psychic processes,
conscious
as well as unconscious, hence something broader and comprehensive than
the soul”
(5). It is the totality of the human mind, both conscious and unconscious.
The psychic
process of an individual makes everyone to understand the human nature.
It also
refers to the forces, both internal and external that influence individual’s
thinking,
actions, attitudes, and personality.
Psyche originally means the Greek goddess of soul. According to Greek
mythology, Psyche represents a woman’s search for authentic personal
growth, a
reminder that the integration of our experiences, however sad or
frightening may be,
matures and transforms like the symbol of butterfly emerging into the
light from its
dark cocoon. In general, the female psyche conforms to the social order
defined by
men. Several social, economic, cultural and political issues are confronting
women and are affecting the female psyche and development. As a result
women struggle to
achieve psychic harmony.
Psyche has always been a part of political and literary writings. It
describes the
spheres of the oblivious and the world of imagination. Literature
expresses the
creative imagination conjoined with social transformation and social
consciousness.
From time immemorial, it reflects and records the embodiment of life and
reality.
Literature also outlines the intricate and interpersonal relationships of
men and
women, the complex ways in which they reconstruct their space and their
view of the
socio - cultural reality. In its most general sense, literature comprises of
a vast
repository of human experiences carried out through the medium of
language, in both
oral and written forms. “ It is a record of man’s dream, ideal, his hopes
and
aspirations, his failures and disappointment, his motives and passions, his
experience
and observations, his assertion and strife. It appeals to the widest of
human interests
and the simplest of human emotions” (Anita Singh 137). The literary
production is
undoubtedly the outcome of the human wishes to leave behind a trace of
oneself
through creative expression which will exist always and thus outlives its
maker.
In literature, a woman is the powerful medium to showcase the writer’s
perception. She plays an important role, at times passively and at times
defiantly in a
web of family, society and cultural tradition. The docile and subservient
female has
yielded place to a more liberated and progressive woman. The awakening
of the
feminist movements and female consciousness results in changing ideas in
woman.
This provides a new insight and innovations in literary expression. Women
have
always been the subject matter in literary production. As most literature
is produced
by men, there rises a reliable question that how much men discern the
female psyche.
In the article “The Psychology of Feminism” Hugh E. Stutfield writes:The
Soul of woman, its Sphinx-like ambiguities and complexities, its
manifold contradictions, its sorrows and joys, its vagrant fancies and
never-to-be longings, furnish the literary analyst of these days with
inexhaustible material . . . Psychology . . . is their never-ending delight;
and modern woman, who if we may believe those who claim to know
most about her, is a sort of walking enigma, is their chief subject of
investigation. Her ego, that mysterious entity of which she is only just
becoming conscious, is said to remain a terra incognita even to herself;
but they are determined to explore its innermost recesses. The pioneers
of this formidable undertaking must necessity be women. Man, great,
clumsy, comical creature that he is, knows nothing of the inner springs
of the modern Eve’s complicated nature. (104)
Obviously, only a woman writer can comprehend the agonies and
aspirations of a
female psyche and suggest solutions to it. Hence, a prerequisite factor
arises to focus
on a writer who forefronts the female psyche. Manju Kapur is one such
writer who
has emerged as the most reflective voices of Indian English Writing. The
Indian
English literature offers a great insight into the minds of women.
Indian English literature originated after the collision of “a vigorous and
enterprising Britain and a stagnant and chaotic India” (Naik 1). It is the
offspring of
English impact on India. English language has gained a special place in
India after
Macaulay’s ‘minute’. It made a significant landmark in the history of
English
education in India. Day by day, the English language thrived and today
India
contributes a lot to the field of English Literature called Indian Writing
in English.
The Indian writers, from the first decade of the eighteenth century, are
using English
as their medium of expression for every possible genre: prose, poetry,
drama and fiction. But it is strongly marked by Indian color and ethos.
Now, Indian Writing in
English has occupied a pivotal place in the world literary canon.
Among all the literary forms, fiction is a unique form of literary
expression. It
mirrors the social condition of the past and present vibrantly. Literary
fiction is the
best medium to delineate life and moreover it reflects life as it is. It is
one of the
prominent sources to project the social, political, cultural, literal and
mental changes
of the society. Regarding the significance of fiction, Mikhail Bakhtin says,
“It is only
in the novel that discourse can reveal all its specific potential and achieve
its true
depth” (130).
Fiction, in India, has been an authentic portrayal of the metamorphosis of
the
people as they progressed from diverse sorts and shades of economic,
social, cultural
and political suppression. The origin and growth of Indian English fiction
dates back
to late nineteenth and early twentieth century. It has coped the testing
period of trials
and challenges and has proved its worth and relevance during the recent
decades.
Today Indian fiction has unquestionably become “the most popular vehicle
for the
transmission of Indian ideas to the wider English speaking world”
(Williams 109).
The first novel in India was written in Bengali and then in a number of
other
Indian languages and in English. Alaler Gharar Dular, written by Pyari
Chand Mitra,
the first Bengali novel appeared in 1854. But it was critiqued as it lacked
structural
unity and rather it was episodic in character. It was Bankim Chandra
Chaterjee who
established the novel as a main literary form in India. He is considered as
the father of
the Bengali novel. Besides, he is the first Indian to write a novel in
English. His first
and only English novel Rajamohan’s Wife came in 1864. He has shown that
religious
and social views can be dealt in novels without damaging their artistic
merit. The
impulse of social reform was the significant trait of the Indian
renaissance of the nineteenth century. Other issues like the position of
women, the plight of the peasants
and the decay of the old aristocracy also became an important theme in
some early
Indian fiction.
In the pre-independent period, the Gandhian movement made an
inevitable
impact on Indian literature. The novelists were not only inspired by the
nation-wide
movement of Gandhi but also turned their attention to the prominent
issues such as
the freedom struggle, the East-West encounter, the communal and
wretched condition
of the untouchables, the landless poor, the economically exploited and the
oppressed.
K.Venkata Reddy rightly says:
Parallel to this struggle or political freedom was a social struggle- a
fight against superstition, casteism, poverty, illiteracy and many other
social evils that were eating into the vitals of Indian society. The socio
political movement that had caught the imagination of the entire nation
also inspired the Indian novelists in English who rightly realized the
novel too had a vital role to play in it. (1-2)
The impact can be sensed in K.S. Venataramanai’s Murugan, the Tiller
(1927) and
Kandan, the Patriot: A Novel of New India in the Making (1932), K.A
Abbas’s
Inquilab, Bhabani Bhattacharya’s So Many Hungers and Kamala
Markandaya’s
Some Inner Fury.
In the meantime, many Bengali writers also become active in writing
English
novels. Toru Dutt, a poetess, wrote a novel, Bianca or The Young Spanish
Maiden. It
is about fervors and pains of love. Rabindranath Tagore’s novels such as
The Wreck,
Gora, The Home and the World and Binodini are translated into English.
The current
social, political and economic problems are dealt in these novels. In South
India, B.R.Rajan was the earliest to write an English novel titled Vasudev
Sastri. T. Rama
Krishna’s Padmini (1909) was a historical romance. The age-old
superstition in the
South Indian society was the theme of The Dive fur Death. Thillai
Govidan by P.A.
Madhivah, Sugritha written by J.R.Durai and Indira Devi by
A.Subramaniyam are
some of the remarkable contributions to Indian fiction during the early
decades of the
twentieth century.
In the nineteen thirties, Mulk Raj Anand, R.K. Narayan and Raja Rao, the
three great writers, were the forerunners of the Indian fiction. They
were regarded as
the true founders of the Indian English novel. They imparted a dimension
of
individuality to the Indian experience based on their approach to content
and form.
They realistically portrayed the village life and the associated effect of
freedom
movement. About the “Big Three”, William Walsh writes:
It is these three writers who defined the area in which the Indian novel
was to operate. They established its assumptions; they sketched its
main themes, freed the first models, its characters, and elaborated its
peculiar logic. Each of them used an easy, natural idiom which was
unaffected by the opacity of a British inheritance. Their language has
been freed of the foggy taste of Britain and transferred to a wholly new
setting of brutal heat and brilliant light. (27)
Mulk Raj Anand is a prolific and realist among these three writers.
Undoubtedly there
is a strong sense of humanism and a touch of social reform in his novels.
His
important novels such as Untouchable, Coolie, Two Leaves and a Bud,
Across the
Black Waters, The Sword and Sickle, The Old Woman and the Cow, etc.
graphically
depict the poor condition of rural society and sometimes the political
oppression of
the individuals. His fictional world exposed the suffering of the lower
castes and classes of India. According to him, the class, class system,
poverty and other social
evils are like venom that wreaks society. His wide-ranging humanism and
his
compassion for disinherited, poor and weak are clearly visible on the very
surface of
his novels.
R.K.Narayan is the most natural and greatest of the Indian novelist. He
explored the South Indian middle class milieu in his novels. He creates an
imaginary
village of his own called Malgudi. All his novels are set in this fictitious
town where
people live an ordinary life. His grand successes are Swami and Friends,
The English
Teacher, The Financial Expert, The Guide, Waiting for Mahatma and
Painter of
Signs. His fictional writings displayed Narayan’s quality of blending irony
and
humor, realism and fantasy. M.K. Naik aptly remarks that “Narayan’s
fiction
consistently creates a credible universe observed with an unerring but
uniformly
tolerant sense of human incongruity; but gains in stature when, at his
best, he is able
to hitch the wagon of his ironic action to the star of moral imagination”
(174).
Raja Rao, the most ambitious and outstanding novelist of the twentieth
century, is the youngest luminary of the brilliant three but he presents in
his works
“his charismatic religious consciousness, his essential Hinduism” (Williams
45). His
fictional corpus includes only five novels viz. Kanthapura, The Serpent and
Rope,
The Cat and Shakespeare, Comrade Kirillov, and The Chess Master and his
Moves.
He gives fine introspective and private reflections of a Brahmical life in
his works.
Even though his literary output is meager, he is probably a great stylist,
symbolist,
myth maker, philosophical novelist, the best painter of East-West
confrontation, and
unquestionably an original voice in Indian fiction.
K.A. Abbas’ Inquilab: A Novel of the Indian Revolution is an ambitious
work
and offers a panorama of Indian political scene during nineteen twenties
and thirties. N.S. Phadake’s Leaves in the August Wind (1947) and The
Whirlwind (1956), both
translated from Marathi, is set against the backdrop of Quit India
Movement of 1942.
They are deeply influenced by the epoch making ideological turmoil
caused by
Gandhian Movement.
Another interesting occurrence in the pre independent period is the rise
of the
ethnic novels. A group of Muslim novelists wrote expressively about life in
Muslim
households. The novels of Ahmed Ali’s Twilight in Delhi and Ocean of
Night depict
middle class Indian Muslim family and loss of culture in their society.
Iqbalunnisa
Hussain’s Purdah and Polygamy: Life in an Indian Muslim Household gives
an
intimate picture of the conventional Muslim family. Humayun Kabir’s Men
and
Rivers paint the changing disposition of river Padma and its effect on the
lives of
fisher folk. Other notable writer of this period, Gopal Mukherji’s novels
like Kari, the
Elephant, Hari, the Jungle Land, Gay-Neck, the Story of Pigeon , etc.
centers on
jungle and rustic life. C.S. Rau, J. Chinnadurai, V.V. Chintamani and D. F.
Karaka’s
Just Flesh and There Lay the City are worth mentioning in the period of
Gandhian
whirlwind. These novels created indelible mark in the minds of the
readers by its
powerful narrative technique. In this regard, Satish Kumar states:
During this era the toddling Indian English novel, in spite of many
hindrances and handicaps, has learnt to stand firmly on its legs. A
conscious and artistic pattern has evolved itself. The novel has become
a great literary force, a powerful medium for creating social and
national awareness and for suggesting ways of changing society. (53)
After Independence, India confronted many challenges and barriers in
social, political
and cultural spheres. Indian fiction, during post-independent period, grew
both in
variety and achieved renowned place in world literature. During fifties
and early sixties, through the works of Bhabani Bhattacharya, Manohar
Malgonkar, Chaman
Nahal, Khushwant Singh, and many others, the theme of social realism
which is well
established by Mulk Raj Anand continued.
Bhabani Bhattacharya was the social realist of the period and his fiction
was
marked with social purpose. The first novel, So Many Hungers (1947), set
against the
background of Quit India Movement and the Bengal famine of 1940’s,
depicted the
theme of exploitation. It also highlighted the reign of terror during pre-
independence
days. In Music for Mohini (1952), he tried to connect the Eastern view of
life with the
new semi-western attitude. The misery of the poor and the cruelty of the
rich and
religious hypocrisy formed the subject matter in Bhattacharya’s He Who
Rides the
Tiger (1952). In Shadow from Ladakh (1966), he used symbolism against
the Chinese
invasion in 1962. The theme of East-West encounter has been highlighted
in A
Dream in Hawaii (1978). His works have been translated into over two
dozen
European languages. So his contribution to the development of Indian
fiction is
significant. It is apt to quote the words of M.K. Naik, “His sense of
situation and
mastery of narrative mode, the realism of his locale, his judicious use of
Indianess and
his easily identifiable character types have perhaps have created a
picture of India
which fits in admirably with pre-conceived foreign notions about this
country” (226).
Monohar Malgonkar has started his career after independence and
certainly an
artist of the first order. He has shone in literary sensibility and created
a revolutionary
breakthrough as a historical novelist. He believed that art has no purpose
to serve but
to provide entertainment. His fictional narratives are male dominated one
and women
are merely instruments of masculine pleasure. However his major
preoccupation was
the role of history in the individual and social life in India. His first novel
Distant
Drum (1960) was a documentary of army life. His other novels were
Combat of Shadow (1962), The Princes (1963), a successful political novel,
A Bend in the
Ganges (1964), a partition novel, and The Devil’s Wind (1972).
Kushwant Singh came into limelight as a realist after the publication of
his
first novel Train to Pakistan in 1956. The impact of partition was
presented with
crude realism and graphic detail. I Shall Not Hear the Nightingale (1959),
his second
novel, gave an ironic picture of the Sikh joint family signifying different
Indian
reactions to the freedom movement, including double dealing and treason,
of the
nineteen forties. His later novels are Delhi and The Company of Women
(1999).
Another novelist of this era is J. Menon Marath. As Kushwant Singh’s
realism is
rooted in Punjab, Menon’s realism is rooted in Kerala. His novel, Wound of
Spring
(1960) describes the disintegration of a traditional matriarchal Nayar
family.
Balachandra Rajan blends the visible strains of realism and fantasy in the
Indian
fiction. The Dark Dancer and Too Long in the West, in these two novels,
he dealt
with problems of Indian society. Sudhindra Nath Ghosh’s four novels,
namely - And
Gazelles Leaping, Cradle of the Clouds, The Vermilion Boat, and The Fame
of the
Forest express the Indian ethos. A stylistic landmark in the history of
Indian novel
began with the publication of G.V.Desaani’s All About H.Hatter. Anthony
Burgess, in
his introduction to the novel, aptly reveals the stylistic attraction of the
novel as, “it is
the language that makes the book, a sort of creative chaos that grumbles
at the
restraining bank . . . It is not pure English: it is like the English of
Shakespeare, Joyce
and Kipling, gloriously impure” (10).
The Indian English fiction, after 1950s, attains maturity and achieves
wide
acclaim. The themes moved from public to private sphere. The novelists
began to
expose in all varied complex forms the individual’s quest for the self. The
various
themes in the novels of post- independence, according to Chandra Bhusan
Singh are:The inner dilemma – anxiety, alienation, frustration,
detachment,
involvement, self- condemnation, self-approval, restlessness, sense of
guilt, loneliness, nausea, etc. became the pinpoints for the themes of the
novels of this age. With them the themes of current happenings, cross
cultural conflict, realism and fantasy, rural events, the traumatic
experiences in the form of partition, communal carnages, loss of faith
and values, curse of industrialization and materialism, growing hostility
among men, the growth of Indian ethos and sensibility, etc. (12)
The most prominent novelists of the late sixties and the seventies are
Arun Joshi and
Chaman Nahal. Arun Joshi analyzes the inward nature of persons, places
and things.
His famous novels are The Foreigner, The Strange Case of Billy Biswas,
The
Apprentice and Last Labyrinth. The leading characters, all males, are
unable to adjust
in a culturally corrupted and dehumanized social milieu. Chaman Nahal, an
academician turned novelists, started his literary venture with the novel
My True
Faces in 1973. The painful partition of the country is realistically and
artistically
rendered in his second novel Azadi. Since the eighties and after, novelists
like Salman
Rushdie, Viram Seth, Sudhir Ghose, Manoj Das, Shiv K.Kumar, Amitav
Ghose,
Upamanya Chatterjee, Vikram Chandra, Shashi Taroor, Amit Chaudhauri,
etc have
arrived in a big way. Due to this the introduction of new themes and
techniques has
been seen in Indain fiction.
The key feature of the Indian English fiction is the arrival of the women
novelists during the last quarter of the nineteenth century, from 1874 to
1900. Though
the fictional output was scanty but their works are qualitatively superior
to many
others. The women novelists give voice to their imagination, to social
reform and
feminist ideas. From time immemorial, Indian women “. . . have left their
indelible imprint on the pages of history – an imprint which is suffused
with such a powerful
and beautiful colour which can’t be erased and darkened by Time”
(Amarnath Prasad
1). Several women writers created songs, short stories and plays much
before the
appearance of novels. The works are considered to be the supporters of
the rich Indian
tradition of myths and fables. Gradually the women writers included the
persisting
experiences of women in their writings. It very soon influenced and
altered the
tradition and language patterns of Indian literature. Further, Anees Jung
rightly holds
the view:
In this complex pantheon of diversities the Indian woman remains the
point of unity, unveiling through each single experience a collective
consciousness prized by a society that is locked in mortal combat with
the power and weakness of age and time. She remains the till centre,
like the centre in a potter’s wheel, circling to create new forms,
unfolding the continuity of a racial life, which in turn has encircled and
helped her acquire a quality of concentration. (26)
Toru Dutt was the first Indian women, who wrote novels and followed by
Krupabai
Sathianadhan, Sorbji Cornelia, Mrs.Ghosal and Rokeya Hossain. It symbols
the
beginning of a new epoch for the Indian women. Toru Dutt’s two novels,
Bianca or
The Young Spanish Maiden written in English and Le Journal de
Mademotselle in
French deal with the autobiographical projections of Toru herself.
Though the
characters are Spanish and French, yet, the delineation is entirely an
ideal Indian
woman with full of love and affection. Both these novels are a symbol of
Toru’s sense
of displacement.
Krupabai Sathiandhan is considered as a forerunner among Indian women
novelists. She wrote two stories with an autobiographical touch, Saguna
and Kamala. But these stories were published in the form of book only
after her death. Margaret
Paul Joseph, while surveying the women’s fiction in India, fittingly
observes that,
“Molded by a Western-oriented education and courageous in examining
the
restrictions imposed on women by Indian society, Krupabai Sathiandhan’s
writing is
forthright in championing the need for social reform” (74). Chandani
Lakuge, the
editor of her novels calls her an example of the “New-Woman”.
Cornelia Sorabji, a Parsi Christaian, is famous for her three important
works –
Love and Life Behind the Purdah (1901), Sun-Babies in the Child of India
and
Between the Twilight (1908). She ridiculed the hypocrisy and the
hegemony of the
patriarchal Indian society. “She reveals in her novels the various moods
and vestures
going under the ‘purdah’ – the ecstasy, tragedy, comedy and many more
things which
are unnoticed even by feminist philosopher” ( Prasad 4). Mrs.
Swarnakumari Ghosal
wrote three novels – The Fatal Garland (1910), An Unfinished Song (1913)
and An
Indian Love Story (1910). The Fatal Garland is a historical romance. An
Unfinished
Song is reflected as a lyrical novel and has some of the features of
Stream of
Consciousness technique. Rokeya Hossain’s novella, Sultana’s Dream:
Purdah
Revisited has a touch of both social reform and a sense of humour. She is
the candid
champion of women’s rights. None of her fore runners gave such a
vigorous voice for
the defense of female authority.
All these women novelists made a phenomenal contribution to the rise of
the
Indian novel. For them novel is the instrument of social reform and social
rejuvenation. The Indian woman, particularly the advent of new woman in
the fast
changing society is unvaryingly the subject of these novels. In all the
novels of these
women writers, a notable trait is the abundance of personal memoirs and
autobiographical elements. However, it is apt to call these women
novelists as the direct precursors of the women writers of fiction in the
post-independent Indian
literary scene. In spite of this, there is hardly any woman writer worth
mentioning
between 1915 and 1950.
After independence, the Indian women novelists have given a new track
and
vision to the Indian literature. Joseph says that, “The novel is beginning
to change:
there is a wide range of character and situation that is new; the two
races, British and
Indian, are shown as individuals as well as representatives of power and
powerlessness; and fiction now assumes an identity that defines
experience as
adapting to a post- colonial world” (87). The post -colonial fiction
attempts to study
the image and space of women in the prevailing socio-cultural standards
of India. In
this period Kamala Markandaya, Nayantara Sahgal, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala,
Shashi
Despande, Anita Desai, etc. are the most exceptional personalities in the
field of
social and artistic novels.
Kamala Marandaya’s first novel Nectar in a Sieve (1954) deals with the
realistic picture of the customs and cultures, rites and traditions of the
Indian village.
Social injustice, economic hardship and the break-up of traditional values
form the
basis of the novel. Her novel Some Inner Fury (1957) “is a tragedy
engineered by
politics” (Iyengar 440). The Silence of Desire (1961), Markandaya’s third
novel
discloses the layers of spiritual reality and mystic vision of India. The
conflict
between a woman’s faith in traditional healer and a man’s belief in a
modern
medicine is the central theme of the novel. A Handful of Rice (1966)
explores the
social results of unemployment and poverty. Racism and the conflict
between the
modern and the traditional is the subject of The Coffer Dams (1969). In
Two Virgins
(1972) and The Golden Honeycomb (1977), she has handled the themes of
poverty
and weaker sex. She projects an image of the changing traditional
society. Her novels have also a wide-range of women characters. S.
Krishnasawmy, about Marandaya’s
female characters, says, “In all her novels the author sets forth an
inspiring goal
autonomy for the self, nurturance for the family, and fellow feeling for
the community
of men and women” (163). The protagonists try to find consolation in the
old dictum
of love, compassion and sacrifice.
Nayantara Sahgal is regarded as the champion of freedom, both political
and
personal freedom. She narrows her novels to the affluent family involved
in politics.
She has mainly depicted the human values and human relationships in her
novels.
Neena Arora notices “a juxtaposition of two worlds: the personal world of
man
woman relationship and the impersonal world of politics” (3). Also she is
greatly
concerned about the oppressed condition and the dreadful experience of
women in the
male dominated society and advocated the liberation of women and has
demanded
equal rights at home and society. The first three novels of Sahgal , A
Time to be
Happy, This Time of Morning and Storm in Chandigarh are political
portraits. The
Day in Shadow deals with the theme of broken marriage. Her novels are
also
engrossed “with the modern Indian woman’s search for sexual freedom
and self
realization” (Naik 250). Her women do not throw away tradition but
struggle to
balance it with their desires.
After the arrival of two writers, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and Anita Desai,
the
Indian fiction in English has changed remarkably in the nineteen sixties.
Ruth Prawer
Jhabvala occupies a substantial place in the history of Indian women
novelists in
English. She writes about the interface between two cultures – European
and Indian.
Meenakshi Mukherjee observes, “Jhabvala brings a European sensibility
to work on
the material which is non-European” (84). Further she realistically reveals
the actual
customary difficulties of the middle and lower-middle-class people in her
novels. Jhabvala’s novels deal the life of middle class families in Delhi
after the
independence. Her novels fall into two different groups, namely the
comedies of
urban middle class Indian life and ironic touch of East-West encounter.
The novels To
Whom She Will, The Nature of Passion, The Householder and Get Ready
for Battle
comprise the first group and the novels like Esmond in India, A Backwater
Place, A
New Dominion and Heat and Dust fall into the second group. The two
subjects are
also combined in some of the novels. The striking feature is her gentle
irony and
good-humored satire.
Anita Desai is an important figure in the evolution of Indian fiction. Anita
Desai’s novels comprise figures suffering more from the raging battle
with in their
internal world than the outer. She focuses on the mind of an individual
rather than a
society. She delineates a woman’s inner world, her emotions and
frustrations. Her
women aspire for emancipation and self-dignity. “What she portrays is
the deeply felt
and suffered rebellion against the entire system of social relationships,
the passive
feminine ceased to exist” (Krishansamy 238). Her novels Cry, the Peacock
(1963),
Voices in the City (1965), Bye-bye Blackbird (1971), Where Shall We Go
This
Summer (1975) The Zigzag Way, In Custody, Clear Light of Day, and
Fasting,
Feasting (1999) depict intensely the inner trauma and agony of middle
class women
and men. Desai’s leading characters are women, who are all fragile
introverts
confined in their own emotion. Maya, in Cry, the Peacock is all emotional
and
preoccupied with death and haunted by an astrological prediction that her
marriage is
going to end in its fourth year. In Voices in the City, Desai chooses an
Indian city as
symbolic of the consciousness of the individual. The protagonist Monisha
has to lead
a submissive life within the confines of a traditional Hindu family. Sita, in
Where
Shall We Go This Summer, unable to bear the violence around her, shows
the attitude of defiance towards the women of her husband’s family.
They strive for a high degree
of emancipation in a society which chains them with its conventions and
creed. So,
this leads to high psychological pressure, neurotic symptoms and even
death.
In the next thirty years, Indian fiction written by women has undergone a
vast
change. Much narrower and deeper subjects are dealt in their novels.
Shashi
Despande, the novelist with most sustained achievement, begins to
examine not just
the family but the individual within the context of the family. Pointing to
the themes
in her novels, Margaret Paul Joseph says, “Highly subjective, brutally
honest, and
ferociously rebellious, she analyzes the women who are no longer pawns on
a colonial
chess board, but victims of another sort. The absolute powerlessness of
the female
within orthodox Hindu society is Despande’s over-riding concern” (133).
Her novels
have a great deal of feminine angst. Despande’s novels include: The Dark
Holds No
Terror (1980), If I Die Today (1982), Come up and Be dead (1983), Roots
and
Shadows (1983), That Long Silence (1989), A Matter of Time (1996), The
Binding
Vine (2002), Moving On (2004), In the Country of Deceit (2008) and
Shadow Play
(2013). In all her novels, women struggle against power in their yearning
for inner
freedom. They are conscious of their oppression and gradually begin to
shape their
life according to their cravings.
A number of women writers have made their debut in 1990s. Their novels
are
really effective in exposing the true condition of Indian society when it
comes to the
treatment of women. They are marked with all its regional variations and
present a
completely real picture of contemporary India. Mostly, they write about
the urban
middle class. The notable writers are Arundhati Roy, Anita Nair, Gita
Hariharan,
Shoba De, Manju Kapur, Anjana Appachana, Kavery Nambisan, Gita Mehta,
Namita Gokhale, Dina Mehta, etc. They have enriched the Indian fiction
and took it to new
heights. In this regard, Gajendra Kumar observes:
The second half of the twentieth century witnessed a surprising spurt in
women writing in Indian English fiction. There is a galaxy of Indian
women fictionalists who have contextualised the women problems in
their inbetweeness, plurality of thought, hybridity of vision and multi
religious social dimensions. The gyno-critics candidly advocate that a
lot of women in several countries speak the same language of silence,
suppression and undue suffering. (14)
The God of Small Things (1997) written by Arundhati Roy has obtained
the
Booker prize for best fiction. The book has been translated into more
than 40
languages in the world. The novel looks into the life of the people who live
in Kerala,
a South Indian state, their rituals and customs, traditional and
patriarchal domination,
child psychology, etc. On the whole it is a protest novel, which pictures
the
transgression against the powerless: children, women and untouchable.
Roy has
developed a new style, “. . . a style that turns and twists language to
conform to the
feeling particularly the jolly and jocund mood of the twins; a style that
has
paradoxical coinages, ungrammatical constructions, unconventional
rhythm, bizarre
phrases, uninvited capitalizations” (Prasad 17).
Anita Nair’s first novel, The Better Man (2000), is a frank story set in a
village
in Kerala. It authentically describes the violence and conflict in a sleepy
village.
Unpityingly, Nair portrays the customary Indian ladder of caste and
class. Her next
novel Ladies Coupe (2001) explores the life of six women on a journey by
train. The
work sensitively presents the dilemma of a woman who is torn between
her aspiration
for self-actualization and familial responsibility with in the traditional
frame work. Mistress (2005) and Lessons in Forgetting (2010), Idris:
Keeper of the Light (2014)
and Eating Wasps (2018) are some of her outstanding works.
Gita Hariharan has pushed the gender issues to the center and
decentered
patriarchal authority. Her novel, The Thousand Faces of Night (1992)
represents three
women belonging to different generation. She beautifully blends the
myths and
legends of Hindu mythology to allegorize three women. The second novel
The Ghosts
of Vasu Master (1994) depicts the life of retired school teacher Vasu.
Hariharan’s
When Dreams Travel (1999) is a kind of feminist restating of The
Arabian Nights.
The contemporary India and its uproar of communalism, extremism and
political
violence are the context of themes in In Times of Siege (2003). Her
Fugitive Histories
(2009) deals with the destructive effect of riots on the lives of the
people of Gujarat.
The women writers have made an outstanding contribution to the
development
of Indian fiction in English. All of them have authentically exposed the
pictorial
image of the Indian society. Beginning with Kamala Markandaya, up to the
present
writers of the first decade of the twenty first century, a number of
women writers have
very boldly projected, analyzed and discussed the real status of women in
India. The
status of women has undergone a drastic change in India. Women saw
glorious times
as well as they were submerged into utter misery until the middle of the
nineteenth
century and are now on their way to recapturing their lost glory. During
Vedic times,
women are held in high esteem and are glorified. Women are not
discriminated on the
basis of gender and are allowed to perform the Upanayana ceremony,
essential for
pursuing Vedic studies. Women enjoyed complete freedom in the choice
of their
husbands. Divorce and widow remarriage was allowed.
But during the post-Vedic period, (between 300 BC and the beginning of
Christian era), the status of women gradually deteriorated. Women were
regarded as barriers to the attainment of spiritual knowledge and were
kept under strict control by
family and society. They did not enjoy any rights and privileges. The
inferior and
subordinate status of women is best revealed in Manusmrithi, the Hindu
law code
written by Manu in verse 9.3. “In childhood a woman must be subject to
her father, in
youth to her husband, and when her lord is death, to her sons. A woman
must never be
independent”. The ‘pativrata’ woman, an ideal womanhood, who worshipped
her
husband as God was stressed during this period. Sita and Savithri are the
most famous
example of the ideal wife and in literature most of the female figures
have been
shaped and created after them. Clara Nubile, observing the position of
women in this
period, states that “Rights and privileges enjoyed by women in the earlier
period were
abrogated: the prohibition of widow remarriage, the practice of polygamy,
the
tonsure of widows and austerity of widows were thus introduced” (5).
Women were
discriminated on the basis of gender and were considered as mere
commodities
belonging to men.
At the arrival of the British rule, many of the social evils registered
above
continued unabated and even took on more malicious forms. The condition
of women
had worsened deeply “from the point of view of literacy, individuality,
health, social
status, freedom of movement and economic independence” (Cousins 15).
Women in
India were inculcated that submission, tolerance, self-sacrifice, docile,
passive and
self-effacement were the virtues of womanhood. However, nineteenth
century
witnessed a turning point with great reforms for women. One of the
greatest reformers
was Raja Ram Mohan Roy, who campaigned for the freedom and equality
of women.
In the post-independence period, the Indian women broke out the
blockades of
isolation and seclusion. A number of women’s organizations were formed
which
endeavored for both social reforms and education for women. With the
advent of education the situation has changed drastically. The position of
middle class and
upper middle class women in urban areas has been highly altered. Now,
women
challenge men in all spheres. The contemporary woman is avant-garde in
nature. She
is intelligent and indulges in self-introspection. All these diverse images
of women,
both in pre and post-independent India, are represented in the novels
written by
women writers. Smriti Singh in her article “The ‘New Woman’ in Post-
independence
Novels: An Emerging Image” indicates that:
In both the periods, women characters have been shown to be
searching for identity, for self-awareness. In the early novels women
rebelled against major social issues like child marriage, denial of
education to girls and atrocities suffered by a woman in her husband’s
house. In contemporary novels, there is more depth and complexity in
the choice and treatment of women. Just as modern society is complex,
so are the women. . . . They have challenged the accepted ideals of
marriage and maternity, and have chosen to work for a living instead.
They refuse to conform to the image of the effeminate, docile, silent
and long suffering woman, a picture invented and nurtured through a
male oriented culture. (153)
Indian fiction has always explored the gender relations and sexual
differences in a
society. The status and the inner or psychic fragmentation of the woman
have to be re
defined and re-examined in order to comprehend the prejudice of women
rather than
the traditional dogma and the issue of social oppression. The inner
turmoil,
aspirations, agonies and conflicts within splits the mind of women. Anita
Myles
rightly remarks that “Psychotic rupture is perhaps the most repressive
aspect of female subjectivity” (2). The suppression of women is a
psychological event as it
depends on the relationship and compassion between men and women.
The existing Indian writers are frankly pointing and assessing the
conventional
ideas and beliefs about women. Particularly the women writers, as the
society no
longer considers it as a taboo for a woman writer to think of writing,
portray the inner
self and so called private and personal experiences. And they are giving
unrestrained
articulation and expression to the feelings, aspirations and longings of
women. The
women writers are now bestowing due importance to the inner feelings
and agonies of
women who wish to affirm their autonomy and selfhood and are perfectly
ready to
assume new roles and responsibilities. B.R.Agarwal affirms that “. . . The
Indian
novel in recent years emerges as a powerful assimilation of hopes and
fears, a
powerful approximation of human passions and feelings, an optimistic
image of self
size articulation and above all a genuine evaluation of the mood of millions
of
Indians” (261).
The recent novelists are focusing the inner world of women with a full
range
of female experience in order to explore the unexplored torn psyche and
so their
fiction is deeply a personal conflict within one’s inner self or psyche. A
woman’s
psyche is constructed on her experiences of life. Other features like her
individual
circumstances and society’s anticipations related to age, class, etc. also
restraints her.
The inward turmoil and turbulence suggest what happens to them on the
external
world. Their novels have the inner excitement of a psychological tale told
with a new
articulation and literalism. They portray a ‘new woman’ who tries to
deconstruct the
existing myths of woman as set by the phallocentric ideology.
The ‘new woman’ is not ready to accept the submissive domestic role but
they
are preoccupied with the thought of autonomy and self-fulfillment. The
women writers, in their endeavor to elevate the consciousness of woman,
probe into the
female psyche and bring about the full range of the experiences of
women. The
psyche of women living under patriarchy tends to be the psyche of
oppression. Due to
the repressive forces of the society and family they suffer from internal
traumas but
they do not surrender to the will of the family and try to assert their
individuality.
Indian English women novelists try to destroy the subsisting myths
related to women
and strive to bring a new social order and harmony which is compatible to
the social,
physical and psychic well-being of women. Many Indian writers, who are
bold and
fervent naturally, unveiled everything that openly proved them a
committed lot to
solely explore into the ills and miseries of Indian women. One such
outstanding writer
is Manju Kapur.
Manju Kapur holds a unique place in the modern Indian novel in English.
She
emerged on the Indian literary scene on the last decade of the twentieth
century. She
is a versatile genius who has presented the intangible realities of life, the
unknown
facts concerning the innermost depths of woman psyche and an individual
journey for
meaning in life. Kapur was born on 25th October 1948 at Amristar, Punjab.
She
completed her graduation from Miranda House College, Delhi. She then
went to
Canada in 1972 to do her post-graduation from Dalhousie University,
Halifax. Next,
she did her M.Phil from Delhi University. She worked as a professor of
English as
Manju Kapur Dalmia at the prestigious Miranda House College, Delhi.
After
completing over twenty five years of teaching career, Kapur took a
voluntary
retirement in the year 2009 only to dedicate all her time and excel in
novel writing. In
her interview with Jai Arjun Singh, she discloses that “In my work, I aim
to show
rather than tell” (Kapur 179).Manju Kapur tried her hand in creative
writing at the age of forty one. First
she tried to write poetry and then drama and now she is a successful
novelist. Her
literary output comprises of six novels. They have acclaimed
internationally and won
many coveted awards and recognition. Her first novel , Difficult
Daughters (1998)
became one of the best- sellers. It received the prestigious
Commonwealth Award for
first fiction for Eurasian region in 1999. A Married Woman (2002), her
second
successful novel was nominated for the Encore award. Kapur’s third novel
Home
(2006), was nominated for the Hutch Crossword Prize for fiction. The
Immigrant, her
next novel was published in 2008 and short-listed for the Indian Plaza
Golden Quill
Award and the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature in 2010. Custody
(2011),
Kapur’s fifth fictional narrative has been adapted on several Indian
television
channels in various languages. The sixth novel Brothers was published in
2016. It is a
skillful delineation of ambition, aspiration, infidelity and anguish. It
highlights the
lives of women in rural and urban location
Kapur has edited an anthology titled Shaping the World: Women writers
on
Themselves (2014). It contains narratives about twenty four women
writers, who are
popular both nationally and internationally, from India, Pakistan,
Bangladesh and Sri
Lanka. These writers namely Ameena Hussein, Amruta Patil, Anita Nair,
Anjum
Hasan, Anuradha Marwah, Bapsi Sidhwa, Bina Shah, Jaishree Misra,
Janice Pariat,
Kavery Nambisan, Lavanya Sankaran, Maniza Naqvi, Manju Kapur, Meira
Chand,
Mishi Saran, Moni Mohsin, Namita Devidayal, Ru Freeman, Shashi
Deshpande,
Shinie Antony, Susan Viswanathan, Tania James and Tishani Doshi shared
their
uncertainties and accomplishments they face on their voyage to become
writers. It
offers close, honest and brave accounts into the sphere of writing. In
addition, she has
also written short stories like The Necklace and Chocolate. The stories
provide a deep insight into the gender implications enforced on women in
the name of tradition and
conventions.
Manju Kapur is a unique story teller who presents the post- modern novel
in a
traditional narrative idea. She is regarded as a chronicler of urban middle
class milieu.
Manju Kapur’s debut novel, Difficult Daughters is set at the scenario of
India’s freedom
struggle. It describes the life around a Punjabi family containing women
of three
generations. The story moves around Ida, the narrator and divorcee, her
mother named
Virmati, born into austere Arya Samaji household and Kasturi, Ida’s
grandmother who
is conventional and has a conflict with her difficult daughter Virmati. Ida,
in order to
know the story of her mother she could never understand, sets out on a
journey to
Amritsar searching of her mother’s past. Virmati is torn between her
devotion and
loyalty to family, the desire for education and her illicit affair with the
professor Harish,
who is already married. Virmati, the eldest daughter of Kasturi and Suraj
Prakash is
troubled with household activities because of her mother’s continuous
pregnancies. She
seemed to be the second mother of her ten sisters and brothers. Due to
her busy routine
domestic deeds she fails in her FA exams. Her family wants her to get
married as they
considered that the duty of each girl is to get married. She is engaged to
a canal
engineer. However, her cousin Shakuntala has sown the seeds of
aspiration in Virmati.
She realizes that only education can liberate her. So, she not only clears
her FA exams
but also joins A.S College.
Meanwhile, she falls in love with the romantic-Oxford returned Professor
Harish Chandra, who is already married. She denies marrying the canal
engineer and
drowns herself. She is saved by the servants and she declares that she
wants to study
further. She is sent to the college at Lahore. Her affair with the
professor still
continues and during this period she becomes pregnant. Swarnalatha, her
roommate helps her to get aborted as she becomes impatient and
restless. When completing her
B.T., she is offered a principal ship of a college. Harish visits here too and
so she is
dismissed. Both of them get married and Virmati comes to the
professor’s house as
his second wife. She gets hateful gestures and pariah status in her
nuptial home.
She has to lose the relations she had with her family because of her
marriage against
the social values prevalent in the society. During her marital life Virmati
senses the
restricted physical space. Harish denies to leave his first wife and the
effects on
Virmati are harsh. Virmati loses all her sense and identity. She is
psychologically
tormented by her own family and her husband’s. Nirjharini Tripathy
summarizes the
novel thus, “The saga of Virmati’s journey from a homely daughter of a
traditional
Hindu, Punjabi family to a dispossessed woman ostracized by family and
society
alike” (28).
A Married Woman traces the societal and psychological emotions, changes
and challenges faced by Astha. The story revolves around the pre and
post marriage
phases in the life of Astha, an educated, upper middle-class woman and
the only child
of her parents. Her mother imbibes deep values of the family in her.
Astha marries
her mother’s approved man Hemant, an MBA from US. From here the
journey of a
married woman begins. She leads a blissful life in the beginning and is
blessed with
two children. Hemant’s attitude to her changes after some years. She
feels incomplete
as an individual, still repressed and anguished due to the household
drudgeries. This
gradually leads her towards psychosomatic depression. She longs to be an
independent woman. Astha’s life takes an unpredictable turn when she
meets Aijaz, a
political activist and the founder of The Theatre Group. Suddenly her life
seems less
constricted. But soon Aijaz is killed in a horrific act of communal violence.
She
actively involves with the activities of Mukti Manch. The Manch asks her
to create a picture. She finds her ‘self’ in her paintings. Astha traverses
all the limits in order to
fulfill her duties related to Manch.
Astha’s aspiration for independence begins with her trip to Ayodhya. She
meets Pipeelika, Aijaz’s widow. Pipeelika makes a major influence on
Astha’s quest.
She is attracted towards Pipeelika. They share an intimate love and
concern. The
relationship is a challenge for her husband and family. From a self-
effacing self, she
discovers her true and strong self in the company of Pipeelika. Astha’s
gradual
maturity empowers her from within. She returns to her marital home and
her children
when Pipee leaves India to study abroad. Astha tries to be a typical
Indian traditional
woman at home. At the same time she tries to reshape her own self. She
struggles
against the patriarchal norms for her identity.
Kapur has set the novel against the backdrop of the most controversial
Babri
Masjid issue. The social and political disarray of the nation is as
complicated as the
internal aspiration and anguish of her protagonist. Manju Kapur, through
Astha
portrays the dilemma of the urban middle class educated women who
experience
discontent in their lives as they suffer from identity crisis in spite of
their material
comfort. Further, the novel constructs a deep understanding on Indian
women, their
longings, view of companionship, idea of freedom and the need to be
accepted and
respected as a human being with equal rights and aspirations.
Kapur’s third novel Home revolves around the joint family of Banwari Lal,
the
patriarch of a cloth business at Karol Bagh, Delhi. It brings to lime light
the still
existing parochial attitudes towards the upbringing of a girl child. The
story weaves
around three female characters: Sona, Rupa and Nisha. They try to
assert their identity
in their own way. Rupa is childless throughout the story, but she is not
subjected to
taunts of the in-laws for having no child. Sona is insulted and sneered for
barrenness for years. Soon she is blessed with a daughter Nisha and son
Raju. Nisha is sexually
abused by her cousin Vicky. She feels mentally disturbed, so she grows
under the care
of her aunt Rupa. Here she gets education and grows as a rebel. While in
college, she
meets a boy named Suresh and decides to marry him but he betrays her
at the time of
crisis. Then she suffers from the growth of poor skin condition that
increase her
mental agony. It also delays her marriage prospects.
Although she is suppressed of her self-respect and individuality over the
years,
it triggers her to become a successful business woman by starting
“Nisha’s
Creations.” She designs suits and markets to top seller. She is married to
a widower,
Arvind. While she is in the family way, she hands over the business to her
sister-in
law. Finally Nisha leaves aside her business and joins to accept the
responsibilities of
motherhood. All her dreams vanish and she feels that “her body again
decided her
fate” (Home 324).The power struggles of a joint family, conflict between
tradition
and modernity, gender discrimination, the age old conventional beliefs and
psychological trauma have been graphically presented by Manju Kapur.
The Immigrant, Kapur’s fourth novel is the story of two immigrant
Indians,
Nina and Ananda. “The Immigrant is the portrayal of the stereotypical
perspective of
women in the patriarchal form of society where discrimination is integral
to the
female life percolating down to education, grooming and even education”
(Tripathy
160). By providing a glimpse into the life of Nina and Ananda, Kapur
portrays the
inner turmoil of the immigrants. Nina, thirty years old English lecturer,
marries
Ananda, a dentist in Canada and moves to Halifax, Canada. She faces
humiliation at
the immigration clearance counter. She does not like the new country
because of the
bitter experience she faced at the entrance to the new world. Her
disagreement to the
new surroundings drives her to isolation. She feels more alienated and
lonely and experiences the double process of immigration. Eventually Nina
also tries to
assimilate with the western culture. But time and again she is confronted
with the
question of belongingness. Nina yearns to have a child and fill the vacuum
in her life.
But she fails to conceive. Barrenness brings boredoms in her life. Besides,
the sexual
dysfunction of Ananda causes discontent in the life of the couple. She
feels like a
shadow. Kapur skillfully brings out the psychic conflicts of an immigrant
wife.
Nina, in a way to evacuate her loneliness, decides to do a degree in library
science. There she meets Anton and in his company she feels relaxed. An
alienated
and dissatisfied Nina gets into physical relationship with Anton. Ananda
too has an
extra marital affair with Mandy. The secrets of them increase the
distance between
Ananda and Nina. Nina wants to get rid of all the dirt and decides to make
a fresh
start to which Ananda did not react much. She gives up her marriage and
western life.
She finally takes the decision to stand on her own. Nina heads out for the
job
interview at the University of New Burnswick. She looks forward in the
direction of
reorientation to stabilize her socio-psychological conditions.
Manju Kapur’s fifth novel Custody reveals the unimagined insecurities of
married life, the divorce and the battle for custody of the children and
its
consequences on them. Besides, the themes of infertility and infidelity
runs
undercurrent in this novel. Dr. R. Janatha Kumari expresses, “Custody
deals with
marriages that collapse, social hypocrisies and battles for children that
intertwine with
anguish and conflict depicting a worldwide reality of the politics of
possessiveness
and unequal power relation in patriarchal families” (59). The story weaves
around the
lives of two women, Shagun and Ishita. Shagun, the beautiful woman
having
uncommon green color eyes, is the wife of Raman, the intellect. They are
blessed with
two children, Arjun and Roohi. They lead a happy life until Raman
introduces his wife to Ashok Khanna, his new chief market executive. The
marriage that is smooth
so far gets shattered after Shagun gets attracted towards Ashok and
enjoys the
moments in the company of him. Raman discovers his wife’s love affair but
Shagun
does not sustain it and asks for divorce. On the other hand, Ashok is
ready to accept
the two biological children of Raman and Shagun. As per the judgment of
the court,
Arjun is given under the custody of Shagun and Roohi under the custody
of Raman.
Parallel to this story, the author introduces Ishita, a kind and generous
woman.
She leads a happy married life. The happiness slowly fades away when she
is diagnosed
as infertile and the conjugal cord ends in divorce. She meets Raman and
fate unites
them together. She showers true love towards Roohi. Shagun settles with
Ashok.
Manju Kapur mainly explores the emotional world of women in her works.
Her narratives display a rare imaginative knowledge of various forces at
work and a
keen understanding of feminine sensibility. She gives voice to the mute
miseries and
helplessness of women tormented by pragmatic problems and
predicaments. Her
central characters are mostly women and she portrays the inner conflicts
of her
protagonists in a male-dominated society and also underlines their
individuality and
quest for freedom. The inner and outer turmoil is very vividly depicted in
her novels.
They are subjected to gender bias in lieu of their sex and they are in the
verge of
losing their identity. The novels trace the painful voyage of the female
characters
from childhood to adulthood. She presents different facets of
womanhood and her
greatest ability lies in depicting real to life characters. They confront
the patriarchal
notions and assert their individuality through education. Kapur has
presented a very
rebellious and revolutionary image of women in the scenario when women
are not
allowed to cross the threshold of thei houses. About her female
characters, Khushbu
Mahendrakumar Swami, states:Her female protagonists challenge the
male domination and patriarchal
system. Her real heroes are female and not the male in her fictions. . .
She (Kapur) explores the bold woman eventually breaking traditional
boundaries for autonomy, freedom and self-respect. Her characters show
that the true independence and freedom for them are too far from
desired
destination. . . She has created an image of New Women particularly
after the globalization period in India through her novels. They try to get
a respectful position ‘in’ as well as ‘outside’ the family. (33-34)
Her novels are mostly set at the backdrop of pre and post independent
India, where
there are two –fold struggle. While trying to unshackle themselves, both
emotionally
and physically, the female protagonists without any kind of hesitancy and
bondage
from within the family or society defy the conventional customs to find
their true
‘self’ and to enter into the new world of their own.
Kapur’s novels provide a glance into the omitted, trivialized and distorted
woman’s experience. She realizes the inequality of social and institutional
power
between men and women and studies women’s behavior and experiences
with social
contexts across the life cycle. All the novels of Kapur explore the whole
gamut of
human emotions with special focus on the female characters. They are
shaped by the
social and cultural codes of the Indian society and further she deeply
concerns with
their personal agonies and aspirations, financial and emotional
dependence, carnal
desires, etc. She fathoms the inner conflicts, traumatic experiences,
agonies and
aspirations of her women and plunges into the limitless depths of the
mind and brings
into lime light the buried contours of female being. Her acute vision at
the inner
psyche of her female characters and its working shows her efforts to
delineate the spaces women deal in diverse relationships, strange
situations and emotions which
hide their identity.
The above vision at the inner self has prompted the researcher to carry
out a
full length study on the title “An Exploration on the Female Psyche in
the Select
Novels of Manju Kapur”. Through the novels chosen for study, namely
Difficult
Daughters, A Married Woman, Home, The Immigrant and Custody the
researcher
analyzes the agonies, aspirations and the evolutionary process of the
psyche of
Kapur’s protagonists. Initially the female psyche is repressed by the
various forces of
the society and family as they are ignorant of their existential crisis,
anxieties and
agonies. In due course they suffer from intense physical as well as mental
trauma. But
the female psyche does not succumb to the forces of the social paradigm.
The
heroines of Kapur try to assert their individuality either by deviating or
adhering to
the set path of the societal norms.
The current study has been divided into five chapters. The first one is
the
introduction and the last one is summation. The introductory chapter
gives an
overview of Indian Writing in English particularly, the origin and
development of
Indian fiction in English and the image and space of women in Indian
fiction. It
further probes the selected writer and the novels chosen for this study.
The second
chapter entitled, “Repressive Forces” discloses the initial repressive
forces prevalent
in the society that disturbs the harmony of the psyche. The mental,
emotional and
physical trauma undergone by the female characters are depicted in the
third chapter
titled, “Psychological Trauma”. The following chapter, “Assertion of Self”
reveals the
drive towards fulfillment and quest for individuality of the characters as
the psyche
overcomes the oppressive forces and traumas and attains maturity. Based
on some of
the theoretical explanations by the various psychoanalysts, feminists,
social and cultural theorists, the psychic behavior of the female problems
are explored. The three
principal chapters begin with an introduction, followed by the in depth
explanation of
the topic and the content and ends with summation, where the concepts
of these
chapters are summed up respectively and the need for the following
chapter is
highlighted.

Chapter 2, “Repressive Forces” expresses the myriad repressive forces

working on women in Indian scenario in the novels of Manju Kapur that
causes
psychotic rupture. The predominant patriarchal oppressive forces which
impose
restrictions on women’s psyche are discussed in its varied manifestations.
The
paternalism, sexual stereotyping and its imposed definition of female
roles, sexual
politics in marital relationships, the repression and marginalization of
women in the
traditional social set up are foregrounded in order to suggest the
universality of these
forces. These depicted forces differ from one individual to other and
generation to
generation according to their age and condition.
The subsequent chapter entitled, “Psychological Trauma” delves deep into
the
minds of Kapur’s leading women characters. A psychological outlook is
followed
inorder to bring out the working of women’s psyche when it comes into
contact with
the oppressive forces such as those imposed by gender, race, and
oppression and
stereotyping. Women are not merely traumatized by single experience or
incidence,
but by a sequence of events and conditions that are both personalized
and
collectivized. The experience of psychological distress is unavoidable for
women.
Manju Kapur has given voice to the voiceless traumas that alter their
attitudes
of her heroines. The angsts they face earlier causes the struggle with in
later. Kapur
very strikingly shows the connection between the mental state and
physical being of
women. Acute headaches, loss of sleep and skin problems are the physical
illness of these women and anxiety, guilt, stress and indecisiveness are
the symptoms of mental
disturbances. The mental and physical sicknesses are the indications of
the
psychological trauma undergone by her women. By representing the
trauma, Manju
Kapur throws acute vision into the internal world of women and facilitates
a path
towards healing and holds the potential for individual and social change.
Chapter four under the title, “Assertion of Self” refers to the symbolic
mobility
gained by women which assists them in redefining their space at home and
society.
According to Carl Jung, the self was the sum total of psyche, with all its
potential
included. This part of the psyche contains the drive towards fulfillment
and wholeness.
The journey towards self-fulfillment may be regarded as the mental
readiness of the
female figures of Kapur to break away from the familial and social spaces.
The need for self-assertion under some circumstances provokes the
central characters to challenge
the familial status. Her characters do not succumb themselves but they
negotiate for
their emancipation and self-respect. They display the courage to defy the
norms of
society, a stubborn refusal to allow the self to be drowned and
destroyed. It is through
the signs of protest that women can construct new lives for themselves.
The concluding chapter attempts to encapsulate the observations of the
previous chapters and points out the findings of the study. Manju Kapur
has
realistically presented the mental growth and progress of her
protagonists. In the
present scenario, a study on the world of women helps to direct and widen
our
thoughts to pertinent problems distressing the society. It also refers to
the scope for
further studies to probe in to the same themes of different writers and
thus it would
become a beacon light in the study of women.