The history of Indian women novelist is thought to be started with Taru Dutt.

After the second

world war,Indian women novelists got a new trail, a new vision. Kamala Markandaya, Ruth rawer
!halawala and "ayantara #ahgal are the chief writers of this $eriod. %omen in K.M.&s novels is
mostly the long siffering wife and sacrificial mother figure, a traditional Indian women su$$orting
her husband and family both emotionally and $hysically like Rukmani in 'The "ector in a
#ieve&.%hile the ma(or theme of "ayantara #ahgal&s novels is $ro(ection of contem$orary incidents
and $olitical realities. Then comes Anita Desai, #hashi Des$ande, Rama Mehta,Arundhati Roy etc.
And it is in the novels of Anita Desai that feminisha and feminist s$irit are for the first time frough
vividly centre stage.
The feminist school of thought can be devided into two distinct varieties. The first ty$e is
concerned with women as reader, women as consumer of male $roduced literature and the second
is concerned with women as writer who $roduces te)tual meaning with the history, theme, genres
and structures of literature. "ovelists like Desai and Des$ande fall second category.
*orn in Dharwad in +,-., Des$ande is an award winner novelist. #he was conferred #ahitya
academic Award for her novel 'That /ong #ilence&. #he is a daughter of the famous Kannada writer
and dramalist shriranga. #he is a renoreded novelist and a short story writer.#he has to her credit
some foremost novels like, The Dark 0old no Terror& 'The *inding vine&. 'That long silence&, 'A
Matterof Time&, '#mall Remedies& and many others. #he with her s$lendid fictional works has
added a new feather to the ca$ of Indian 1nglish "ovels. As feminist $er e)cellence she defines
feminism as a com$onent of enlightened modernism in which meaningful relationshi$ need to be
built u$ between male and female in terms of socio2cultural amity It should be $ro2women not anti2
woman. #he believes that a woman is also an individual like man, with lot of ca$abilities and
$otentials. #he should not be o$$ressed or su$$ressed (ust because she is a female. #he has
every right to live her life to develo$ her 3ualities, to take her decisions, to be inde$endent and to
take charge of her own destiny.#o all these things to her are $art of her being a feminist. All her
women characters are morally very strong and have the ability of self analysis. They don&t rush to
changethe society,rather they change their attitude their views and their ways to $erceive life.
They don&t run away. They don&t breaku$ their marriage but with all the social terms and conditions
they try to $rove their individuality. The $resent $a$er aims at focusing on saru and sumi the
$rotagonists of her novels. 'The Dark 0old no Terror& and ' A Matter of Time& There are four
common features through which Des$ande has $resented her woman characters.
+ %omen as victims of genderbias42
The term gender is being dismissed as a grammatical term from most of the dictionaries
however it has meaning beyond grammer.It is vieved as a culturally im$osed and as different from
se) which is biologically determined. In this sense gender is $urely a social and cultural
construction and is based on domination and o$$ression 5ender discrimination is one of the ma(or
theme of shashi Des$ande&s novels and it is very effectively highlighted in The Dark 0old "o
Terror.#aru suffers a lot and suffers beyond limits because she is a girl.Ironically she is treated as
'other& by her own mother. *eing as a child she is never given im$ortance no $arental love is
showered u$on her.#he is always neglected and ignored in fawour of her brotherDhruver.
6"obody likes me, nobody cares for me."obody wants me789.:; she has written down in her
notebook once. The childishgrief of being unwanted swam$edher unreasonably again and again
she is a de$ressed gorl as she is constantly reminded by her mother, 6<ou will never be good
looking. <ou are two dark for that.7 #he feels intense (ealousy when she finds Dhruva setting on
*aba&s la$ and talking to him. %hile she des$erately wants to do something by drawning her
mother blames her, 6%hy didn&t you die= %hy are you alive and he dead=7 9->; %omen
themselves are 3uite res$onsible in certain conte)t in treating the other woman as inferior
unim$ortant and subordinate to man. #aru&s mother doesn&t want her to (oin medical college
instead #he wants her to get married within two years and ends uo with her $arental
res$onsibilities. ?ltimately saru starts hating her very woman2hood. 0er mother hates her so much
that even during her last days she doesn&t want to see a doctor 6"o doctor for me, I don&t want to
see their faces79+@.;. #he never wants to reconcile with her 6what daughter= I have no daughter7
9+@,;.#aru feels that it is her mother who has taken ha$$iness away from her and she is doing so
even after her death.
%hile in 'A matter of time&it is in the case of Kalyani,#umi&s mother.#he is tortered, neglected
and hated by her mother Manorama who des$erately wanted a son instead there was Kalyani, not
beautiful, not intelligent, not graceful but dark, weak,feeble girl Manorama, Kalyani becomes the
visible symbol of her failure to have a son. #he becomes the victim of Manorama&s myriad acts of
cruelty. %hen vithalrao,Kalyani for vithalrao&s sufferings.#he wants to $unish Kalyani by kee$ing
her away fromher father *ut to her disgust Aithalrao seems soothed in the $resense of Kalyani
that fills her with angry grief. 1ven in her own last illness Manorama being sus$icious and fearful
charges Kalyani with trying to kill her. Manorama is so much obsessed with that she has sto$$ed
all her social activities when Kalyani returns home deserted by her husband.Bor Manorama,Klayani
has always brought disgrace to her family that she has failed Manorama in all her e)$ectations
and ho$es about her. 1ven Kalyani herself suffers a lot for not bearing a male child. Binally when
she gives birth to a son he ha$$ens to be an idiot.And it is his inner fury of loss and ho$lessness
that #hri$ati is not on talking terms with kalyani for the last -@ years as he blams her when they
lose the child on the railway station.#ince the day they lost their mentally retated son #hri$ati has
inthcted this silence as a wea$on and a $unishment on Kalyani and she has endured it silently,
without any re$roach.
Thus, both #aru and kalyani suffer because of gender discrimination but they face this
challenge of life with courage and $atience and $ass through it trium$hantly2 #aru as a successful
doctor and Kalyani as a ha$$y grandmother of there granddaughters. They don&t get disa$$ointed
and withdraw from such social taboos instead they endure with com$osure and wait $atienty for
time to turn its whel. They learn in the course of time 9life; to be contented with themselves, to have
faith in themselves that hel$ them survive in the most adverse situation.
%omen as $rey of $atriarchy42
Indian society from time immemorial is known for its male domination. Though there are
different laws and constitutional safeguards in favour of the Indian woman, #he is still defined with
reference to man and not man with reference to her. Ins$ite of having all the energy and latent she
is still regarded as subordinate to man. Through the character of #aru Des$ande has showed how
emanci$ation and success for a woman in the $atriarchal Indian society can cause subversion of
roles in the family and destroy ha$$iness.Ins$ite of being a successful and res$ectable doctor saru
becomes the victim of se)ual harassment. #aru&s was a love marriage with Manohar and getting a
handsome and virile man for husband her ha$$iness knows no limits.Marriage with Manu e)ultes
her It becomes an o$en sisema of all en(oyment for her.#he feels, it was im$ossible for anyone to
want me, love me and need me8. "o one has felt2 this way before, not with this intensity surely we
were uni3ue&& 9CC;.*ut ha$$iness is always so unreal,so full of illusions after marriage she
discourse to her horror that Manu is a sadist. #he regrets 6he was the figure I fantasies about, the
$erson round whom I were my foolish dreams. "ow the fantasies and the dreams faled into
ghosts8 It was like having a crush on a movie star.It was not $art of my real life7 9D@, >D; The
financial ascendance of #aru comes to have a terribly negative im$act on Manu. It renders Manu
im$otent.The only way he can regain that $otency and masculinity is through se)ual assault u$on
#aru which for him becomes an assertion of his manhood. 1very night the successful doctor turns
into a terrified animal. #he wants to #hout,7 I can&t Iwon&t endure this anymore.I&d rather die,I can&t
go on7*ut her social $osition and the mother inside her $inion her to a terrified silence. 0er
frustration develo$s to such an e)tent that she is ready even to leave him, 6Ean I divirce my
husband79,F;2 #he thinks at one stage. #he comes back to her father&s $lace to final comfort and
solace.#he bitlerly realiGes that a woman must necessarily remain a ste$ behind her husband. #he
remembers #hakes$eares&s $lays and thinks how cordelie,H$helia,Desdemona recede into the
background. oor,feeble shadows8The man at the centre, the woman always on the
$heri$hery.7a I b they told us in mathematics is e3ual to b I a. *ut here a I b was not, definitely
not e3ual to b I a. It became a monstrously unbalanced
e3uation,lo$sided,une3ual,im$ossible.79D:;
#aru becomes the victim of se)ual harassment which #umi in 'A Matter of Time& becomes the
victim of mental agitation and alienation.*oth of them find recluse at their $arental houses. #aru is
a rebel,a revolutionary. In(ustice to women agitates her $atriarchal Indian society disturbs her,
infuriates her %hile #umi remains indifferent to such intringment. #he has no com$laints, no
re$roach against society as well as her husband 5o$al.#he is com$osed and calm,slowly and
firmly sha$ing her own way of life ca$ricious husband who suddenly thinks of leaving his wife and
family without any logicalreason. 'A Matter of Tome& is a novel woven around human $redicament.It
is a fascinating story hot only of #umi but
There generations of women Kalyani, #umi and Aru.It is a story of their grief, tolerance, love
inderstanding, sufferings and su$$ort e)tended to one another.#umi&s is a love marriage with
5o$al and so she is leading a ha$$y, contented married life. They now have three grown u$
daughters Aru, Eharu and #eema. *ut life is tickle and one morning with no warning 5o$al,
res$ected $rofessor, devoted husband and caring father walks out on his family for reasons he
himself can not articulate. 5o$al&s absence leaves #umi who has no other career but her marriage,
in a state of vast em$tiness. #he feels a sense of alienation #he is immensely hurt by 5o$al&s
action but endures the $ain within herself and tries to kee$ the things normal for her daughters
Though having no contem$t for 5o$al she atleast wants to ask him how he has taken the decision
to disown things and $eo$le in this age of ac3uisilion and $ossession. %hen her daughters are
worried about his being dead or alive, 6#umi has no fears of his death, on the contrary there is the
certainty of his being alive of his steadily $ursuing his own $ur$ose7.This shows the freedom
en(oyed by man, that he came do whatever he likes, can go wherever he wants and at any $oint of
time, unlearning of his family and the so called society. #umi is dee$ly hurt and shattered. %ith
5o$al&s going it was as if the swift2flowing stream of her movements, her thoughts, her very $ulse
and heartbeats seemed to have slowed down79:.;