LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 14:10 October 2014
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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The Plight of Women before Marriage in Nayantara Sahgal’s
This Time of Morning

M. Selvanayaki, M.A., M.Ed., M.Phil., MLISC, Ph.D. Research Scholar

Abstract

Sahgal is the most thoroughgoing feminist among the women writers of Indian English fiction. She has also been more deeply interested in Indian political developments than the others. Her novels naturally have Indian politics as their central theme. These two themes, the evolution of India’s political destiny and the liberation of Indian women from the rigid orthodoxies of traditional Indian society, dominate her novel This Time of Morning. This paper will attempt to explore the various methods by which Sahgal portrays her women characters in the above novel, showing how the patriarchal system has eroded for ages, the very fabric of women’s life and status in Indian society.

Key words: Nayantara Sahgal, This time of morning, India’s independence, liberation of Indian women

Introduction

While it is generally accepted that Sahgal’s family connections greatly fitted her for the role of a political novelist, her feminism has not evoked much comment. This is somewhat surprising as the two are so closely related that it is difficult to think of one of these themes without the other. Indeed, there are significant variations in the proportion of politics and feminism in her novels. Her first novel, A Time to be Happy was written in a spirit of exhilaration and unbounded confidence in the political future of India and the total emancipation of Indian women. However, in This Time of Morning, there is a gradually increasing sense of disenchantment and a pervasive anxiety about the political trends emerging in recent years. In direct proportion to this disenchantment, feminism, particularly the relationship between men and women assumes increasing importance.

Also a Feminist Novelist

Nayantara Sahgal’s characters are not drawn with any great subtlety and most of them are ‘flat’, conforming to certain distinctive types. Some of them serve, as her mouthpieces. While a few are political characters, good as well as bad, others are proponents and propagandists of her feminist views.

No other woman writer consistently presents such extreme feminist views in her novels as Nayantara Sahgal does. It is mainly for this reason that she deserves special treatment, although as a novelist she does not rank with Kamala Markandaya or Anita Desai. Besides, Sahgal’s novels span practically the years from the early thirties to the late sixties.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

M. Selvanayaki, M.A., M.Ed., M.Phil.
No 95 AMC Road
Opposite SP Camp Office
Round Road
Dindigul 624005
Tamilnadu
India
selvimanimaran@gmail.com
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