UNHEARD VOICES: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF UPRISING MINDSET IN THE PROTAGONISTS OF INSIDE THE HAVELI AND A MARRIED WOMAN

Abstract

This study explores the uprising world of female protagonists in Inside the Haveli (1977) of Rama Mehta and A Married Woman (2002) of Manju Kapur through a comparative feminist lens. While each novel depicts the struggle of a woman in the confines of patriarchal society, the means of fighting are different too; Geeta’s resistance comes through negotiations and adaptation to a patriarchal Rajput milieu, while Astha faces the world openly, defying the societal norms both socially and sexually. While the study highlights the defiance east and west of submitting to those constraints—in Geeta’s case through a less radical burning of the bridge and more in Astha’s case in her rejection of heteronormative and marital expectations.

The study shows that women’s resistance is not one homogenous but rather numerous and circumstantial. Geeta’s journey follows the one of accommodationist feminism, while Astha’s transformation takes a more overt assault on patriarchal norms. By bringing into feminist literary discourse representations of women’s autonomy in Indian fiction through historical and contemporary renderings of such a theme, this study contributes to this discourse. Along with that, it highlights the role of literature to examine the gendered oppression and agency. The implications are that feminist narrative remains tied up in core tensions between what society asks women to be and what women want to be. It could be further researched how economic independence and digital feminism play the role of enacting modern Indian literary representations of female agency.