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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Agony of Women after Divorce in the Fiction of
Nayantara Sahgal

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

Abstract

In Indian society divorce in general is considered a social stigma and a big scandal for a woman who is treated as if she is accursed with some dreadful disease. That is why, most of the oppressed women hesitate to break their unhappy marriage and silently accept physical and mental torture. However, the trends have changed in recent times. Instead of clinging to a sterile and oppressive relationship, more and more women are asserting themselves and are seeking freedom by way of divorce without minding the wrath of society or their family. For many centuries marriage was considered to be the destiny for a woman whether she was happily married, or was miserable because of constant oppression by the man in a patriarchal society. Later divorce, separation or annulment of marriage under law enabled women to get freedom from endless suffering in unhappy marriages. The process of giving legal recognition to the breaking up of a relationship already shattered by irreconcilable disparity in the character of two persons, or by broken trust, and bitter tensions is called divorce. An acceptance and adjustment of the wishes, attitudes and sentiments of both partners ensures harmony in marital relations. But when the needs, wishes or individuality of one partner is ignored, the marriage ends in discord. As Marilyn French rightly observes: “Divorce, like marriage, is morally neutral, it is good in so far as it ends a long term intimacy, it is to be lamented”. (Beyond Power: On Women, Men and Morals 504) But certainly divorce gives freedom to women to get rid of a constant condition of suffering due to male-aggression, gender oppression, or just terrible disharmony.

Keywords: Social stigma, Patriarchal Society, Male Aggression, Gender Oppression

Introduction

In India, traditionally, the matrimonial ties are considered irrevocable. The “Hindu Dharma” expects from a wife, complete obedience and devotion to her husband. She is expected to merge her ego completely with her husband’s and follow strictly the ideal of Pativrata.

The Indian woman is well on her way to move from the feminist phase to the phase of displacement and self-discovery. Self-assertion seems to have become the keynote of the expressions of the evolving woman. To escape the deadlock perpetuated by the unilateral dictates of a perniciously effective patriarchal form of society, the new woman comes out in more prominent contours in recent works. War is the last resort - and the new woman of India has recourse to divorce as the only means of salvaging her lost self.

This centrifugal revolt takes definite shape in Nayantara Sahgal’s novels. Divorce has been depicted as an alternative way of life to escape the drudgery perpetrated through discriminatory laws promulgated by lawmakers like Manu and enthusiastically supported and implemented by succeeding generations of men deeply steeped in their complacence to make women toe the line. Two of her novels, This Time of Morning (1966), and The Day in Shadow (1971) need special mention in this regard. Sahgal is an iconoclast - in her own right as she succeeds in demolishing the hitherto held myths and images of the Indian women - the Pati-Parameshwar image: the husband is God.

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 to SP Camp Office
Round Road
Dindigul - 624005
Tamilnadu
India
selvimanimaran@gmail.com
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