Dimensions of Oppression and Literary Representation in selected works of Tehmina Durrani, Taslima Nasrin and Shashi Deshpande

Abstract

The works of Tehmina Durrani, Taslima Nasrin and Shashi Deshpande project issues related to women and their welfare in the South Asian cultural context.  All the three novelists share a cultural legacy keeping in view the colonial rule which had resulted in the Nationalist Movement culminating in the Independence of India.   Women under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, an ardent champion of equality of sexes, had played a crucial role in the freedom struggle.  Mahatma Gandhi believed that educated and empowered women could play a progressive role in the development of the country.  Gandhi’s vision had secured equal rights and opportunities for women in Independent India.  Still constitutional provisions are not enough to guarantee real freedom and equality for women of a country.  Even today women face harassment, exploitation and subjugation in a society where male dominance is a norm and where women have internalized these values.  The works of Tehmina Durrani, Taslima Nasrin and Shashi Deshpande focus on all the women centered issues which spring from patriarchy.  Similarity of tone and tenor is there among the three above mentioned robust supporters of women’s rights in South Asia given their shared legacy of pre-partion India.  The different cultural context that the three women novelists experience reflects divergences of issues, concerns and resistance particular to their locale.