Indian Women Writing in English

This book has been divided into nine chapters. The opening chapter Women Novelists: an introduction vividly describes how the time of 1980s was a significant one as far as the work of Indian women novelists is concerned. Anita Desai Shashi Deshpande Arundhati Roy Nayantara Sahgal Kamala Markandaya Jai Nimbkar are luminary figure in literary field. Some common themes run through most of the novels the discrimination against the daughter the silence of women and the lack of communication between the sexes. Kamala Das was far ahead of her times, when Indian society was conservative and orthodox especially for women. When Kamala Das started writing very few women were in the English literary field. She has perfect mastery over English and Malayalam language. Dass provocative poems are known for their unflinchingly honest explorations of the self and female sexuality urban life womens roles in traditional Indian society issues of postcolonial identity and the political and personal struggles of marginalised people. Anita Desai has been writing since mid 1960s and most of her novels and short stories speak about the struggle suffocation and sacrifice of middle class women. Bhjarati Mukherjees popularity reached its zenith with publication of her first volume of short stories Darkness in 1985. All these women writers wrote mainly to voice their concern for and sympathise with the suffering of Indian women rather than to censure the society.