Problems and Struggle of Indian Women in the Novels of Shashi Deshpande

Abstract

This paper is the display of oppression and conflicts of women protagonist of Shashi Deshpande’s novels, in the name of traditions and modernity as well as the paper discusses about response of the protagonist to emergence of all the obstacles she faces in the modern Indian society. Also the paper discusses about their intellect and patience of the characters to deal with the problems that somehow reflects positive vibes for the women in contemporary Indian middle class society. For this article, I have taken three important novels The Dark Holds No Terrors, Roots and Shadows and That Long Silence in particular but discussed almost all the works in general.

 If I were a man and cared to know the world I lived in, I almost think it would make me a shade uneasy–the weight of that long silence of one-half of the world.”- Elizabeth Robin

 Shashi Deshpande has one of the unique ability to portray different characters from the modern urban families and she displays these characters in a very realistic manner to connect directly with the readers. Her novels firstly explore the tension, sorrow, pain, agony, struggle and deceit of the protagonist in Indian society who always oscillates between traditional moral and modernity, freedom and restrictions, freedom of sex and prestige of the society, desire and despair, orthodoxy social practices and expectations etc. But somehow the protagonists struggle and focus to get place as a good daughter, wife, and mother.