Feminism in Indian English and Tamil literature

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The term 'feminism' has its origin from the Latin word lemina' meaning 'woman'. It refers to the advocacy of women's rights, status and power at par with men on the grounds of 'equality of sexes'. In other words, it relates to the belief that women should have the same social, economic and political rights as men. The term became popular from the early twentieth century struggles for securing women's suffrage or voting rights in the western countries, and the later well-organized socio-political movement for women's emancipation from patriarchal oppression.
The feminist ideologies began to influence the English literature in India. In the 20th century, women’s writing was considered as a powerful medium of modernism and feminist statements. The majority of the novels depicts the psychological suffering of the frustrated housewife and oppressed lives of women of the lower classes. Feminism has been used by the women novelists. Their novels reflect that the present age women have realized that she is not helpless and is not dependent. They feel that woman is equal to man. Nowadays, woman has become a money earner and she is not confined only to household works. Indian women writers explore the feminine subjectivity and apply the theme that ranges from childhood to womanhood. Through their novels, they told what actually feminism is. These women writers told that feminism means putting an end to all the sufferings of a woman in silence.

Indian women writers have given a new dimension to the Indian literature. Indian English Literature has developed over a period of time and writing in English did not start in a day. It took many years to bring the present status. We can find Indian literature as novels and also in the forms of poe...

... middle of paper ...

... and Muslim communities in India were being governed rigidly by their traditions. Due to the miseries, the women novelists of feminist perspective committed themselves to women’s cause with a view to ameliorating their position. With the increasing awareness of feminism as a new revolutionary idea, the trend of feminist writing persisted in Indian literature.

Works Cited:
Seshadri, Vijayalakshmi. The New women in India- English Women Writers Since the 1970. Delhi: B.R. Publishing Corporation. 1995.
Lakshmi C.S. The Face behind the mask : Women in Tamil literature, Stosius Inc/Advent Books Division ,1984.
Shirwadkar, Meena. ‘Image of Woman in Indo-Anglican Novel’, Sterling Publishers Pvt., Ltd., 1979.
Dhawan, R.K. ed ‘Indian Literature Today’. New Delhi: Prestige Books, 1994.
Iyengar, K. R. S. ‘Indian Writing in English’ , New Delhi : Sterling Publication, 1985.

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