Indian women novelists have given a new dimension to the Indian literature. Indian English literature has developed over a period of time and writing in English did not start in a day. It took many years and several distinguished personalities to bring the present status and distinction to Indian English literature. Indian literature is not only about novels, it is also about poetries and short stories. Before the rise of novels, several women writers composed songs, short stories and small plays.
The Indian woman has for years been a silent sufferer. While she has played different roles-as a wife, mother, sister and daughter, she has never been able to claim her own individuality. Shashi Deshpande has emerged as a writer possessing deep insight into the female psyche. Focusing on the marital relation she seeks to expose the tradition by which a woman is trained to play her subservient role in the family. Her novels reveal the man-made patriarchal traditions and uneasiness of the modern Indian woman in being a part of them.
In western countries empowerment of women is linked with personal recognition segregated from the society irrespective of their kinship where as a woman in India is associated recognition with cooperation from members of family and society. As for the women novelists who focused on the problems regarding women are Kamala Markandaya, Nayantara Sahgal, Anita Desai, Bharati Mukherjee, Shashi Deshpande, Githa Hariharan, Arundathi Roy, Manju Kapur, Shobha De etc. Shashi Deshpande is a prolific writer reflecting the role played by the middle-class educated women in the hegemonic Hindu society in majority of her novels. Her characters seem natural ,and so come as typical stereotypes of the modern generation. Her novels bud natural and effortless throwing light on the common problems faced by women in the society.
17/PELA/003 IDENTITY CRISIS AND ASSERTION OF THE ‘SELF’ IN THAT LONG SILENCE In the novel That Long silence Shashi Deshpande has created a powerful character Jaya who tries to erase a long silence and fight the problems of self-revelation and self-assessment. Jaya is a representative of the entire female community who never broke their silence. The author attempts to point out how Indian culture and society remains silent and indifferent on the subject of women. Shashi Deshpande shows how social institutions like marriage and family affect the free expression and identity of an individual. The novelist shows the transgression of the protagonist from victimisation to emancipation.
Basham whose book, The Wonder That Was India (1951) was an early attempt at extending the parameters of Indian historiography. His book surveyed the different facets of ancient Indian culture without the prejudices that marked earlier European works. By the 1980s, there was another spur in Indian history writing that were influenced by the earlier nationalist historians. This genre of history is often referred to as communal history as it overplays myths and legends, while censuring all critical studies of the Brahmanical social structure and even support the caste system laid out in the manusmriti. The communal writers are heavily influenced by Hindutva ideologies and heavily criticise eminent historians that adhere to objective standards of historiography.
Recent writers depict both the diversity of women and the diversity within each other. Rather than limiting the lines of women to one idel. The novel emerging in the twenty first century furnish example of a whole range of attitudes the imposition of traditions, some offering an analysis of the family structure and the caste system as the key element of patriarchal society. A number of Indian women Novelist made their debut in the 1990s, producing novels which reveals the true status of Indian society and its treatment of women, these writers were born after independence, and their writings do not have colonial associations for them. Their work is marked by an impressive feel for the language, and an authentic presentation of contemporary India, with all the regional variations.
The anthology is considered one of the best for projecting the feminism in recent Manipuri literature. This collection will connect the old values and modern values of Manipuri women. It talks about womanhood, feminine emotional, dreams, desires and aspiration of a woman. Today generation women are more advance in their outlook towards life. But somehow I feel that there is something lacking which needs to fill
The study of Indian English poetry is incomplete without the study of women poets. In the poetry of Indian women poets of modern age, their silences speak more and better than the words do. The women poets in the post-independence India emphasise their feminine sensibilities vis-á-vis search for identity in a unique and creative way. Apart from the expression of self and identity, their poetry captures the moments of intense experiences of private life with all its uniqueness and immediacy. The confessional
Women in Indian cinema: representation of women and representation by women. Indian films have great impact on its lives. The unique religious diversity of Indian is very much evident in the popular films also. Only after two decades, the first film made, caste became the central issue in the in films. The first Indian film show in the year 1896 made a tremendous introduction of visual pleasure to Indian soil.
Several reviews of the novel bear to this view which emphasizes the fact that the central theme in That Long Silence is to highlight the grossly unequal status of woman in our society. For instances TapanBasu says that this novel is the story of Jaya, “who has spent a lifetime in surrender of her will to social mores and customs that had regulated women to a second class status”