The Predicament of Woman in Indian Society: A Study of Shashi Deshpande’s That Long Silence

Pages:58-61
Vandana Beniwal and Itika Dahiya (Department of English and Foreign Languages, MaharshiDayanand University, Rohtak, Haryana)

Indian mythology presents completely opposite mystical images of woman one is that of the almighty but fierce and verocious, Goddess Durga and another is of Goddess Lakshmi, the symbol of a docile woman who is shown as sitting near the feet of Lord Vishnu, serving ‘Him’ wholeheartedly. The history of Indian society proves that the second image is more near to reality. Our society allows no individuality to a woman. She has no ‘self’ or an entity of her own. A woman is either a daughter, a sister, a wife, a daughter-in-law, a mother or is nothing which means that a woman is not a woman per se. All of these identities of a woman are accorded to her by this patriarchal society with reference to man. She is no better than an ‘Object’ or the ‘Other’ which a man deems essential for the realization of his own position as a ‘Subject’. The Indian society embedded in patriarchal beliefs assumes that woman has been created to satisfy the ego and lust of man.