Associate Professor

Dept. of English & Other Foreign Languages

Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapith

 Varanasi, U.P., India 

The Bible says:

"Then the Lord God made the man fall into deep sleep, and while, He was sleeping, He took out one of the men's ribs and closed up the flesh. He formed a woman out of the rib and brought her to him."

This is a humble attempt to deal with the plight of women in a patriarchal society from the Vedic period to modern contemporary society. On the one hand, a woman is extolled to the heights of heaven by epitomizing her as a goddess; on the other hand, she is damned as an abla, a weakling who depends upon man for her existence and sustenance. A woman emerges despite all obstacles to hold her own identity in personal and professional life. Women are intrinsically artistic in nature. Women are an integral part of human civilization. Women's literature is intimate, confessional, and autobiographical.  No society or country can ever progress without an active participation of women in its general development. Women play a considerable position in our society from their birth till the end of life. Even after playing all their roles in a proficient manner in the modern society, they are considered feeble.

India is a patriarchal society where men occupied a very prominent position as compared to women. Although the place of woman in society differs from culture to culture and from age to age, yet one fact is common to almost all societies is that women have never been considered equal to men. Her status largely depends on the simple biological fact that she is the bearer of children whose care is her responsibility and her sphere is usually restricted to the familial roles. On the whole, it can be said that from ancient times women are continuously trying to find a place in this orthodox society. Both men and women are congratulatory to each other.

In Indian classical literature a woman is always shown in relationship to man. Womens' literature provides role models. The husband and wife relationship is given more importance than the daughter, father, sister, and brother and mother relationship. Since ancient time, a good woman is always synonymous with a good wife. A good wife must be chaste and loyal like Sita or Savitri. Literature always bears its social significance and it cannot be and should not be preserved in ivory towers.

From time immemorial India has predominantly been a patriarchal society. Man occupied a prominent place in every sphere of life leaving woman as a fragile creature to depend upon him for everything beginning from her existence to her sustenance. In such a circumstance, a woman's struggle in a male dominated society is considered good for nothing when it came to do something intellectual or artistic. Womens' only work was to bring for the children, rear them up and look after household works. Operating with such background, it was inconceivable that women were able to think, study or able to make decisions.

Hearty thanks to the British rule in India, it became a blessing in disguise for it gave glimpses of possibilities that women could be allowed to get formal or innovative education. In the midst of such inner struggle, India found a prophet Raja Ram Mohan Roy who being inspired by the English education and their world planned to bring about a change in the condition of women in India. He was a man of intellect and foresight. He was aware that the English language is a key to progress. His contributions must be lauded because he was convinced that if society is to be transformed to uphold the dignity of women and their emancipation are obligatory rather than imaginative. He asked the women to come out of the four walls of their homes and acquire knowledge of the modern world. He also advocated widow remarriage and has been instrumental in propagating against social evil like child marriage. Gradually, women understood that they have equal rights and opportunity with men as human beings as well.

Women have certain characteristics gifted by nature, particularly physical and emotional, which are different from men in many ways. The Vedas, the Puranas and the Upanishads are the mirrors, as it reflected the glorious past of India: its history, its civilization, its language and literature, philosophy and theology. The Vedic tradition has held a high regard for the qualities of a woman who is portrayed as the feminine embodiment of important qualities and powers. These forms include those of Lakshmi (the goddess of fortune and queen of Lord Vishnu), Sarsvati (the goddess of learning), Durga (the goddess of strength and power) and the like.

The position of women in Hinduism is mixed and contradictory. Probably dating to the beginning of Christian era, the Manusmriti affords glimpses into the severe restriction of womens' activities and status. Their world was unsympathetically limited. Women were seen primarily as wife, mother and a sex object. Their role as an individual thinker or one capable of articulating their ideas was miserable.  They were not allowed to express their thoughts and feelings in male dominated ambience.

Medieval period could be seen as a watershed in terms of art, literature, poetry and drama although folk plays continued to entertain the audience. India's middle ages brought about a very rich tradition of devotional literature of remarkable merit which dispels the superstitious assumption of a dark period of India's history. The contribution of women in different areas during the period deserves special attention. However, it did not offer solutions to any of the problems which women face concerning their rights. Women are multifaceted and perform significant role in society. Across the world women have their challenges to face in this man's world.  A woman plays a pivotal role in her family.

The dawn of the new era of modern Indian literatures may be said to ignite in the late nineteenth century. In the writings of these times, the impact of Western civilization, the rise of political consciousness, and the change in society was perceptible. A large number of thinkers made synthesis between Indianisation and Westernization in their search for a national ideology. In the meantime, the Indian feminism too advanced by the stimuli of Western feminism, however it took slightly different route from that of the West. The majority of some books/novels depict the psychological suffering of the frustrated housewife and this subject-matter has been considered superficial compared to the depiction of repressed and oppressed lives of women. Reformers supported female education in India, believing that social evils could be eliminated through the education of the women. Indian women writers gave a new dimension to the Indian literature, in that they vented their deep seated feelings by way of art and literature. Contemporary writers too have challenged the society for metamorphosis of women's status. It is to be noted that the level of status of women varies from country to country, the widest difference in levels being between women in developed and developing countries. Even within a country, the status of women differs from rural to urban areas.

The patriarchal society prevalent in India had jeopardized and crippled the Indian mind to such an extent that no woman was found worthy of education. Men considered themselves independent, superior and even almighty. A man was invariably the breadwinner whereas the woman was supposed only to share what the man had earned with his sweat and blood. It looked as though, a man's world would continue even without a woman. Traits are visible, that in ancient India, women though having an enormous potential, were being unutilized and underutilized. Customarily women were treated as 'abla' which means a weakling, dependent on men and confined to the four walls. As the civilization changes, the societies go through transformation. Today, women dare to walk shoulder to shoulder with men and are ready to expose the splendour and beauty of the world. The men who thought that they were superior to women have now recognized the potentialities of women; women are not just spectators but partners and coworkers. Women are not inferior to man in rank or performance in anyway. This is true in the field of literature too.

Women are showing their spirit in every field, and in some respect they are far better than the men. Their contribution not only flourishes the English literature but also coloured the life of women in particular. Women find literature the most expressive form of art, which is true to women's experience. Indian women have contributed significantly as equivalent to men authors to the global literature. Today, women are not the puppet in the hands of men. They have realized that they are not helpless and weak but are proficient like men. They have become self- dependent and earn money equal to the men and they are not restricted only to household works. They have set their identity in almost every field. In this man-centered world they are trying to bring out the feminine identity through their works. Indian literary scene has seen a complete change as far as women writings are concerned. It has got quite richer in the span of time. The ultimate aim of womens' literature is to create a new awareness for men and women. They have found a new medium for self-expression, to raise a voice of protest against the injustice and inequalities in the treatment of women. It seeks to influence public opinion in order to change women's status.

Taking the case of India, though perennial efforts are made in the awakening and emancipation of Indian women but majority of them are still not aware of their rights, not provided with facilities and opportunities to exercise them. In recent years a greater emphasis on inter sectionalist has encouraged exploration into the relationship between race, gender, religion, and class to even further prove the importance of the acknowledgement of the place of marginalized groups in literature.

Gradually the women writers have come to the force and claimed their rightful place in Indian literature. A number of women writers have arrived on the literary scenes and set out making new ways into the world of women. Kamala Das is the most outspoken and outstanding writer of the present generation who has given birth to a host of women characters of unique distinction. Other women writers like Shashi Deshpande, Kiran Desai, Anita Desai, Gita Mehta, Shobha De, Gita Hariharan, Bharati Mukherjee, Mahasweta Devi etc. have made feministic and women writing popular in the world.  We must say :

"A man's life without a woman is like flower without fragrance, a ship without a rudder or a body without spirit."

References:

1. Ajit Kumar Sinha, New Dimensions of Women Empowerment, New Delhi: Deep & Deep Publications Pvt. Ltd. 2008, p 27.

2. Firoz Alam, Great Indian Personalities, The World's Greats also, Delhi: Sahni Publication, 2011, p. 301.

3. Nishikant Jha, "Women Empowerment", in "New Dimensions of Women Empowerment, New Delhi: Deep and Deep Publications Pvt. Ltd., 2008, p. 55.

4.  Ramond Kerobin, Sant Daria Sahab, New Delhi: Gautam Prints, 2013, p. 2.

5. M.F. Patel, Feminism in contemporary Indian women writers, Jaipur: Avishkar Publishers, 1998, P. 5.

6. Priya D. Wanjari, Understanding Feminism, Philosophy, Waves and Achievement, Nagpur Dattsons, 2014.

7. The Holy Bible (Good News Bible), The Bible Society of India, Bangalore, 1977, p.5.

8. A.N. Prasad, ed. Indian Women Novelists in English, Atlantic Publishers Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, 2001, p 3.

9. Roy, Arundhati. The God of Small Things. New Delhi: IndiaInk. 1997. Print

10. Recent Indian Fiction edited by R.S. Pathak, Prestige books: New Delhi. 1994. Print.

11. Lalita, Susie Tharu and K., Women Writing in India Vol. I New Delhi:Oxford University Press, 1991.
12. Menstruating Women/Menstruating Goddesses: Sites of Sacred (www.metaformia.org, 2016).
13.  Journal of Humanities and Social Science (IOSR), Issue- 8, 2016.