Woman at the Crux of Crusade: A Study of Shashi Deshpande's Female Protagonists

Abstract

However, woman empowerment across the globe has improved the condition and status of women vis-a-vis the attitude of males towards them on global as well as Indian front, unfortunately this change has remained limited to upper and upper middle classes only. It is unfortunate that this exists even amidst the guarantee of Indian constitution to women of different rights under different articles. Even today the women of middle and lower­middle classes of India are living in the destitute and marginalized conditions. Brutalities and exploitations of women are quite recurrent and frequent. The terrifying news of different injustices and brutalities reach us through mass-media (print and visual) almost everyday. They assume different forms viz. female infanticide, child marriage, deprivation of education, malnutrition, sexual harassment, physical exploitation, dowry, rape and so on. Even when the fortune is in favour and the woman makes advancement, the social and patriarchal factors are always present to obstruct the way. The society expects the woman to maintain mental and social equilibrium even when she is faced by two completely opposite factors: family Vs profession, domestic duties Vs career. Such embarrassing situations bring woman to a crux and every activity of her acquires the form of a crusade. In present paper, an attempt has been made to trace the crux of crusade faced by the female protagonists of Shashi Deshpande's three popular novels and how do they act to effect new beginnings.