'Explain Feminism in the context of Western and Indian Literature’

 

Paper-2: Assignment

Research Scholar Name: Gohil Namrata Rasikbhai

Assignment topic: ’Explain Feminism in the context of Western and Indian Literature’

Guide: Dr. M. B. Gaijan Sir

Ph.D. Registration No.: 1929 (16th May 2019)

Assignment Submitted to: The Dept. of English-MKBU

M.K. Bhavnagar University, Bhavnagar-Gujarat (India).

Mail ID: gohilnamrata1992@gmail.com

     Introduction:

     The word ‘Feminism’ does not a new for us in the 21^st century. Because it spreads worldwide through education field. It becomes a term which has discussed internationally through classrooms, workshops, seminars, symposiums. It discusses as a practical subject but nobody sees the subject emotionally. It seems like Gujrati Language proverb that means; “Chewing teeth are different and showing teeth are different”. It should not discuss like that. The only reason is the patriarchy power in the world. The most of the situation of the female suppression deals with the patriarchy power. Every Person of the education field who has dealt with the subject should feel ‘FEMINISM’ in their personal life so it gives justification to the subject, otherwise not. The most of the houses have FEMALE souls in the form of daughter, mother, wife, sister, and grandmother. But the most of the houses are ruled by the patriarchy power in the form of son, father, husband, and father-in- law. Every time female is controlled by patriarchy power. She asks them for deciding about her life how to live with them. In the present, the situation of female is better than their early days. Because the patriarchy power allows her for taking education but the most of the houses don’t allow to apply it in her personal life. The source of feminism is western countries. There also female suffers of patriarchy power and also fights to take justice. If we compare western feminism with Indian feminism then Western feminism is better in the world. Because of the patriarchy power, the woman experiences subaltern every time across her cultural limitations. The both Feminisms, Western and Indian are existed with different due to the terms of tradition, culture, class, race and gender. It seems like male fear which does not allow to female to be like them. Because the patriarchy power knows the ability of woman who can manage many things in their house like a one-man army. Nowadays, the most of the working women can manage their house and also can manage their job. In western countries, woman regarded as a mad or witch who chooses individuality and they marginalised as a whore. In Indian texts like ‘Manusmriti’ and Griha Sutras and practices like sati, child marriage and purdah system such systems remained continued to woman in India to oppress woman. Patriarchy power is universal thing and it will never end but the women should try to justify their life at any cost to spread feminism in the world. Here, Patriarchy vs Feminism is not important but similarity is important because every human beings have to live their life in their own way. The truth is that feminism in the Western context is very different than female Issues in Indian Context. Women in the India feels injustices of their personal life because the patriarchy power deals with society, tradition and culture.

ü  As Jayita Sengupta says:

“Carving out a historicity of Feminism in the East is far more complex than that of the West. The veil of ‘Orientalism’ cast by the colonial regime over the countries under their dominion has created diffused images of the East. The numerous cultures under the oriental umbrella have been classified into a monolithic whole of exoticism, myths, lies and riches which serve to be the pleasure haunts for the West. The socio-cultural specifications of the nations under imperialism were ignored and condescended.”

This quotation is very important to understand the situation of Eastern and Western Feminism.

In this Assignment I try to justify Feminism in the context of Indian and Western Literature. Because women choose literature as a medium to share their experiences in the family, society, and culture.

 

     Feminism as a term:

 

     The word Feminism was coined by Charles Fourier. The term feminism coming from French has its origin from the Latin word ‘femina’ meaning ‘Woman’, and thereby it refers to the advocacy of woman’s right seeking to remove restrictions that discriminate against women. In other words, it relates to the belief that women should have the same social, economic, and political rights as men. Term became popular as early as 20^th century showing struggles for securing women’s suffrage or voting rights in the western countries and the well organised socio-political movement for women’s emancipation from the patriarchal oppression. Feminism has often focused upon what is absent rather than what is present, reflecting concern with marginalisation of women in patriarchal culture, a culture organised in the favour of men. The plural form “feminisms” is political because it disrupts the notion that ‘Feminism’ is a single category, with clear limits, fixed in a single semantic space. The plural form rewrites the category as something potentially transgressive or subversive. If there is more than one feminism, feminisms might be anywhere, might do anything This is of course the point. Feminisms are multiple. Over years of development, several offshoots of feminism have emerged such as radical feminism, Marxist feminism, Black feminism, postcolonial and third world feminism, post- modern feminism and the like. Elaine Showalter a western women writer divided western literary phases and gives something special meaning to the works of women in three phases:

 

 

     Feminism as a movement in Western:

     It is generally attributed to Western influence. It is a range of political movements, ideologies and social movements that share a common goal: to define, establish and achieve political, economic, personal and social rights for women. For example: education and employment. The 'Women's Movement' of the 1960s was not the start of feminism, it was rather a renewal of an old tradition of thought and action already represented in books which addressed the issues of the problem of inequality of women in society. Among them some important books are:  A Vindication of the Rights of Women, (1792) by Mary Wollstonecraft, A Room of One's Own, (1929) by Virginia Woolf, The second sex (1949) by Simon de Beauvoir, Sexual Politics (1969) by kate Millet, The Laugh of the Medusa (1975) by Helen Cixous. These all works make good impression in Western English Literature. Among them I introduce one of them in short. The second sex by Simone de Beauvoir discusses a wide-ranging critique of the cultural identification of women as merely a negative object or 'Other' to man as the dominating 'Subject' who is projected as representing humanity in general. The book deals with the 'great collective myths' of women as represented in several male writers. Here, we can see Feminism as a discourse.
It involves various movements, theories and philosophies which are concerned with the issue of gender difference, the advocacy of equality for women, their rights and interests. Generally, the movement is divided into three waves.

 

 

     Women Literature in Western:

     The western literature is successfully showed the role of woman successfully. The quest for individual identity of women is the most important thing like Ibsen has presented in Doll’s House. Here, Nora as a feminist slams the door of her house to walk towards her independence, shutting the door of any emotional connect with her children too. She closes the door to her motherly emotions and opens the door for her individual freedom and identity. In the growing murmurs against a homogenous painting of all women’s issues through a Eurocentric lens, the Western feminist movements are accused of having a monolithic and white upper-class perspective which does not take into account the real problems of diverse women across the world. Ethel Crowly, in the article ‘Third World Women and the Inadequacies of Western Feminism’ states that the dimensions of Western feminism are not adequate when applied to non-Western societies. The study of culture requires a more meaningful feminist paradigm and that differences ought to be acknowledged in order to understand resistance. The study of culture is important to show that women who are passive often resist patriarchy in new yet practical ways as it exists in their specific local environment.

     Women Literature in India:

     Indian movement started very early to give the rights to women and it is flowered by men. These were Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Swami Dayanand Saraswati, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, and Jotiba Phule, they all were the major who fought for female to give her rights. They all were reformists initiatives such as ban on the practice of sati, permitting widow remarriages prohibition of child-marriages, promoting education for girls, Promoting education of scheduled caste girls and so on. Colonialism in India played vital role for women which included reformist movements, promotion of women’s institutions and the fervour of Nationalist movement the women were poised for a new life. Feminist trends had begun to be seen on the horizons where women equipped with education begun to look forward to an independent life. It has created also double standards of society. Bankim Chandra’s ‘Rajmohan’s wife’, the first Indian novel in English marks an important stage of creating a woman who is Courageous, has an independent mind and values her feelings.

     To encourage the women writing a remarkable step has been taken by two Indian female Writer and Journalist. Susie Tharu and K. Lalitha are two Indian writers who played the important role in discovering and collecting the writings by Indian Women. They accumulated women writings from thirteen languages which were being folded in 2 volumes, entitled as Women Writing in India: 600 B.C. to the Present. Volume I of the series (600 B.C. to the Early Twentieth Century), is an astonishing collection of 140 selections of poetry and prose by sixty-eight individual authors and was published in the English for the first time. They focused on the lives of Indian women, about their understanding to feminist literature and to bring out an India of present scenario. Their special attentions were on the writings of women who have been criticized and were indifferently talked about. In India people has the preconceived notion for feminism as a western rooted concept. Though it is completely correct, but the idea of feminist theories and arguments on women’s role has been originated in Asian land from the 6th century 15 BC itself. There we can find evidence for Buddha who has discussed and debated on the topic whether a woman is eligible to participate in the order and become a nun. Writing on women education is also there from 18th century, which has been written by a Chinese scholar Chen Hung Mau.

 

     The next generation of writing saw Significant contributions from R.K. Narayan, Mulk Raj Anand, Raja Rao and Bhabani Bhattacharya creating important and sensitive women characters. Post – Independence saw significant rise in feminist writers such as; 

 

 

     Kamala Das is a significant name in the space of Indian feminist writings. Her Writings included a range of genres such as poetry, novel, short stories and memoirs. Her Writings were powerfully infused with an open and frank treatment of female sexuality, free from any sense of guilt. She wrote in Malayalam and English and wrote chiefly of love, betrayal and the subsequent anguish. Her entire literary journey seemed a quest for love and dignity as a woman.

     Indian literature of the 20^th century is a memorable record of the triumph and tragedy of Indian people involved in the most significant engagement in their history, the struggle for independence and the challenges that followed the achievement of that goal.  Feminism throws a challenge on the age-long tradition of gender differentiation. It attempts to explore and find a new social order, to find pertinent resolves to the real-life problems in the light of traditionally-gendered role-playing. Woman has always been projected as a secondary and inferior human being. Feminism is perhaps the most powerful movement that swept the literary world in the recent decades. It has been articulated differently in different parts of the world by various writers depending upon their class, background and level of consciousness. As a critical tool, feminism aims at providing an altogether new awareness of women’s role in the modern complex world. Famous feminists in India such as Anita Desai and Shashi Deshpande, wrote significant novels in this field. Here we explain briefly MS Deshpande’s novel and her perspective. One of the important novels by Shashi Deshpande is The Dark Holds No Terrors In. This novel has been translated into the German and Russian languages. She very well portrays modern, educated, and career oriented middle-class women, who are sensitive to the changing time and situations. They are equally aware of the social and cultural inequalities to which they are subjected to, and hence they want to rebel against them in their search for freedom and identity, but ultimately, they find themselves against the well-entrenched social inertia. Sarita in his novel very boldly confronts reality and realizes that the dark no longer holds any terror to her. Sarita, usually known and recognized Saru is an ordinary, simple, modest and sensitive middle-class woman aware of her own limitation, but lacks self-confidence. She wished and hoped and always longed to break away from the rigid traditional norms. She yearns for a new environment where, the mother cannot trust her will on her daughter. The unhealthy experience at her parental home leads her to discover the hidden reserved strength in human being, which at times leaps up to help the individual by shaping life into a pleasurable and possible one.

 

     Conclusion:

     The word ‘Feminism’ from the western and Indian perspective then Indian feminist theories are unsettled topics where the western countries have concrete base about their approaches towards this theory. Unlike the western feminist there is no definite and cut edge definition for “what Indian feminism actually stands for?” The equation of gender roles in an Indian society is completely biased towards the males. The open house discussion even for the female right laws’ equality is not there. In the academic field there was no sphere that was designed for women until 1990s. Before that any idea proposed by the social reformer were just near to the inconsistency and haziness and were almost an illusion too.