WOMEN’S WRITING: THE INDIAN CONTEXT

 With cultural norms becoming an important concern within feminist enquiry, the need for feminist and cultural theories, that could cater to the needs of specific groups of women (intersectional feminism) such as Blacks, Indians, lower-class women etc., was deeply felt. 

To steer clear of essentialism, and of the oversimplification of the experiences of women, became the major focus. The influence of Western feminist philosophy has been unmissable in the way Indian feminism has taken shape but the critical theories of the first-world countries are absolutely divorced from the circumstances of women who are operating at the grassroots. 

The whole idea behind ‘feminism without borders’ is to widen the scope of feminism and to not privilege feminist theories about and by White, middle class women. It thus emphasizes on the need to maintain culturalspecificity when talking about women’s experiences. 

To state an example, in nineteenth century Britain and America, the problems addressed by feminists included the right to vote, to be free from wearing corsets, to be allowed to hold meaningful occupations outside of the home etc. At about  the same time in India, feminism encompassed such causes as the abolition of the practice of sati, child marriage, female infanticide, restrictions on female education, inheritance laws, etc. Even then, the reformatory efforts were largely limited to upper class, and mostly Brahminical women. 

It was only later that issues like women’s health, domestic abuse, wage legislation, the rights of the tribal and the Dalit women were acknowledged. Such wide-spread disparity in the issues being addressed speaks volumes about the need for culture-specific feminism and women’s writing. Hence, the syllabus of this paper has been designed in a manner that takes into account the various perspectives of women’s writing to highlight the richness and diversity of women’s voices across temporal and spatial boundaries.

 It brings together a spectrum of texts by and about women. The world of literature in the Indian subcontinent was for long marked by an overpowering presence of male writers with women appearing on the scene late, and garnering popularity and critical acclaim even later. 

When observed under a feminist stance, the trope of having a voice and being listened to generally serves as a symbol of agency, a trait which has originally been understood as a masculine attribute. Most contemporary Indian women writers have emphasized on the woman as an individual in her own stead, attempting to give their women characters the freedom of self-definition, or in some cases, self-redefinition. 

In the latter half of the twentieth century writers like Kamala Markandaya, Anita Desai, Shashi Deshpande, Nayantara Sahgal, Githa Hariharan, among others, became popular for exploring middle class women’s quest for fulfilment. But there were authors like Ismat Chugtai, Amrita Pritam, Krishna Sobti, Gaura Pant, Rashid Jahan who had dealt with women’s issues with unconventionality and rigour in pre-Independent India as well. The Bhakti tradition has also been an inalienable strand of India’s religious and literary tapestry and the writings of women Bhakti poets like Akka Mahadevi, Andal, Jana Bai, Mira Bai, Lal Ded, and Bahina Bai can be seen as the earliest manifestations of autonomy and liberty in the face of the arbitrary and unbridled religious authority of the high-caste Brahmin male. Active resistance, as opposed to passively accepting oppression, has become one of the major hallmarks of modern Indian women’s writing. They have reiterated through their works the importance of bringing ‘women’ into the category of ‘human’. Authors like Mahasweta Devi and Arundhati Roy have managed to bridge the gap between activism and the academy and have employed their works of fiction to voice their concerns about marginalized communities such as women, Dalits, transgenders, tribals and have also levelled their strident criticism against bureaucrats, policy makers, police officers and upper caste men. 

Modern-day critic-writers like Nivedita Menon and Namita Gokhale have dealt with other issues such as the threat that caste politics pose to women empowerment, sexual harassment in the workplace, politicization within households, intersectionality and queer identities. Activist-writers like Laxmi Narayan Tripathi (the first transgender to represent his/her community at the United Nations Organization) and Aka Revathi (the first transgender person to write an autobiography) have also contributed to the amelioration of the circumstances and status of gender-queer persons in India. However, queer theory emerged in the West in the 1990s and most of what is identified as queer theoryin India today is an interpretation of the views of Western theorists rather than it being a culture-specific framework. 

Feminism in India has come a long way with the setting up of centres of research devoted specially to women, women’s organizations, NGOs fighting domestic violence and child abuse, and the pioneering of women’s journals such as Indian Journal of Gender Studies and ANTYAJAA. Critics and scholars like Rajeshwari Sunder Rajan, Susie Tharu, Kumkum Sangari, K. Lalita, Nira Yuval-Davis and Chandra Mohanty have published politically informed and nuanced works of feminist enquiry rooted in the Indian context. Nonetheless, many critics are of the opinion that feminism in India still has a long way to go especially with respect to the intertwined areas of criticism and interpretation. In India, the idea of the nation and the home surfaces time and again when examining issues related to gender.

 Critics like Partha Chatterjee and Sudipta Kaviraj have emphasized on how the “inside” was marked as the domain of women–they were responsible for maintaining the home’s purity and sanctity. The “outside”, on the other hand, was the man’s domain and a part of their task was to shield the “inside” from the corrupting influences of the “outside”, especially during the colonial regime. Likewise, the practice of looking at the nation as being synonymous with a mother figure has been a source of debate among feminist critics. Many of them have argued that it allows the man to control the woman and the country under the guise of shielding her/it from harm. 

Further, even if the nation state promises certain rights to women, these rights are in conflict with the personal laws of their community and the latter often take precedence over the former. Gayatri Spivak used the term “asceticism” in elucidating the manner in which the men of the house tried to exert as much control within the house by regulating female desire. This ascetic self-control was supposed to perpetuate a certain ideal of womanhood embodied by such mythical figures as Sita and Savitri. Nira Yuval-Davis has also suggested that “women are constructed as the symbolic bearers of the community’s identity and honour, both personally and collectively”.

 Consequently any moral lapse on their part is treated more harshly. This centrality of the family and the community gives rise to an important challenge to Indian feminism–autonomy and liberty for women in India needs to be established in a manner that does not alienate them from their family, community and culture. Modern feminists have also tried to engage with issues related to sex work. While many consider it as an extension of patriarchy’s crimes against women and their tendency to relegate women to the status of a mere object, others have suggested that sex work should not be treated differently than any other profession and should be seen as what it is — work. Interestingly, since these women never make it to mainstream feminism, gender violence against these women is often overlooked.