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Representation of Feminism in the Novels of Nayantara Sahgal

Dr. Nancy Agens, Head,

Technical Operations, Phdassistance

info@phdassistance.com

I. INTRODUCTION

In the world, women have been suffered

for a long time since the human specie

evolved from monkeys, and some people

are constantly raised the voice against the

suppression of women. In India, Nayantara

Sahgal, an English Writing, is one of them

who wrote many novels that depict the

social condition of women in India and

advocates how to demolish the

enslavement of women.

II. FAMILY AND BACKGROUND OF

NAYANTARA SAHGAL

Nayantara Sahgal was born on 10th

May

1927 in Allahabad, India to orthodox

Hindu family. Her mother Vijaya Lakshmi

Pandit was first Ambassador to UN, and

her uncle was Jawaharlal Nehru, and her

cousin was Indira Gandhi. Even though

she born in orthodox Hindu family, she

raised the voice against oppression of

women in Indian society.

III. REPRESENTATION OF FEMINISM

IN HER NOVELS

Nayantara Sahgal has written eight novels,

two collections of memories, and some

non-fictional works. She is one of the few

authors who has written about feminism in

her novels. She has written about female

child murder, female child marriage, and

purdha (disengagement). Nayantara

Sahgal, in her novels, depicts the actual

status of women in Indian, and she

stressed that women should raise to break

the barriers that were set by our

forefathers. In her novels, she has

portrayed women as a strong personality.

She created “Rose” and “Smitri”, the

female characters which had the strong

will power and ability to live

independently without male companion.

Amanjeet (2018) said Sahal has dived deep

into the female mind, that is why she could

depict female mind clearly. Sahgal, in her

novels, stresses the equality of men and

women, and she opposed the customs that

worship husband as God. Prasanth and

Ambika (2018) said: “Nayantara wants to

bring out the rule that man women (sic)

relationship with perfect equality.”

IV. CONCLUSION

Nayantara Sahgal is one of the few writers

who work for women empowerment. Even

though she born in orthodox Hindu family;

she fights for women equality. She

dedicates her life to women empowerment,

because of his works she won Sinclair

Fiction Prize and the Sahitya Akademi

Awards, but one thing she forgets that

without demolishing all religions, women

empowerment cannot be possible. Most

religions in the world treat women as

second-class citizens and properties to

male.

REFERENCES

[1] Amanjeet, K., (2018). “Feminist perspective and

approach in the novel of Nayantara Sahgal: a review”.

Journal of Advances and Scholarly Reviews in the allied

edition. 15(6): doi: 10.29070/JASRAE

[2] Prasanth, K. and Ambika, G., (2018). “Portrayal of

feminism in Nayantara Sahgal's the day in the shadow.”

Research Journal of English Language and Literature:

http://www.rjelal.com