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The Feminist Roles In Ahmad Ali's Twilight In India

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Discussion: Ahmad Ali’s novel Twilight in Delhi presents a sad picture of the decline of Delhi and the climax of the British conquerors who stripped the Delhi of its glory and grandeur that was typically Indian. The old values and life styles that were venerated by the Indian people, were seen giving way under a foreign life style. In analyzing this fall of Delhi, Ahmad Ali’s feminist stance is also explored where he compares the beauty of a woman with the beauty of the Delhi city. That’s why female characters prevail the whole novel whether they are courtesans or domestic women. The gradual fall of the women in the form of their marriages, ailments and deaths, is paralleled with the gradual fall of the Delhi city. This paper will explore and analyze the parallel images that establish Ahmad Ali as both a feminist writer who brings out the voice of the marginalized and suppressed women as well as a novelist who laments the transition that the people of India and the city of Delhi were …show more content…

The relationship between Mir Nihal and Begum Nihal represent the twilight state of Delhi. The extra marital affairs of Mir Nihal with courtesan Babban Jan and Dilchain mare the purity of their relationship. Here Ahmad Ali’s main focus is on the plight of woman in patriarchal society where Begum Nihal is driven to madness due to disloyalty of her husband. Mir Nihal’s extra marital relationships with courtesans highlight the male domination in the society where men can do whatever they desire. Moreover , it serves as a starting point for the other digressed relationships. Ahmad Ali through these digressive relationships points out how the new life style was replacing the old values, and how the people of Delhi were affected by the new culture of the colonizer. He writes, ‘………a new Delhi meant new people, new ways and a new world altogether.’ ( Ali, 2007,

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