Abstract:
Literature of any nation or age represents the people of its society and their culture, their familial, religious, social and relational life, the factors that influence the treatment of their fellow human beings and members of their family, the structure of the society and family which is the microcosm of any society, the lives of man and woman which are pillars of any family, their treatment of each other, the dominance of man over woman, the inferior image of woman as formed by male members of the family in particualr and society in general and the subsequent ill treatment that she is subjected to, the woman’s usual and silent suffering of her oppressive treatment by the men holding power – social, economical as well as political – and, of course, the woman’s recognition of her right to live life as a human being and her painful fight to demand her rights for a respectable and dignified living against an organized group of all powerful men bent upon crushing the voice of any woman crossing the thickly drawn lines of her shadowy existence. Set in the post-independent Indian village of Basuli, Romen Basu’s novel Outcast depicts a number of women characters particularly from the lower caste of the society suffering their lot in a world governed by chauvinist males and at the same time raising their voice against the age-old orthodox system designed to keep women weak, suppressed and a puppet in the hands of the autocratic males. The present research paper aims to bring out Basu’s feminist concerns as reflected in the portrayal of an array of female characters, many of whom carry on a life silent suffering either because of their choice or because of the oppressive powers of the society and also few of them who choose to give a lone but powerful fight against the forces of patriarchal powers so as to carve out a life of freedom, respect and dignity.
Key Words: Patriarchal society, power structures, oppression, empowerment of women
Introduction:
Romen Basu is one of the most significant novelists belonging to the gamut of post-independent Indian English novelists. Observation of the painful life of the weak and oppressed sections of the society motivates Basu to champion their cause in his novels. Basu’s novels are based on his vast scope of experiences, presenting before the reader ‘human documents’ which are full of real life people. His documentary approach fused with a series of realistic episodes involving the oppressed and the marginalised womenfolk in the novel under discussion articulates the element of suffering, agony and injustice inflicted upon them. At the same time his cause for the underprivileged women of the society clearly conveys a distinct message of kindness, fairness and justice for the womenfolk on whom the dominant male have imposed inferiority, subservience and negligence.
Feminism:
The central tenet of feminism is that gender based prejudice and the subordinate status of woman in comparison to man is an all pervading characteristic of different cultures across the globe. Thus, feminism strongly emphasizes on the elevation of the status of woman with a view to bring about gender equality in social, political, sexual, economic as well as intellectual spheres. To highlight the desperate condition of Indian women is one of the major concerns of Basu’s novel Outcast. So before delving deep into this issue, let us throw light on the concept of feminism in the Indian context:
Feminism is accepted as a set of social theories that criticize the past set of values. It is an awareness of the existing unequal power structures between men and women. It advocates issues like women suffrage, salary equivalency, and control over one’s own sexuality and reproduction. In short, it is a voice that is raised against any kind of female rights’ violation. It is the primary means of human liberation from all social problems. (Sujatha and Gokilvani 8)
The above view on feminism implies that a woman is not inherently weak or inferior but she is looked down and treated in a subservient manner because of the society’s politicized view of her bringing in endless vows, suffering and victimization of woman in different areas of life. Basu expresses a similar opinion during his interview given to G.R.Malliga, a researcher; while answering the question, whether Putki (central female character of Outcast) is a prototype of all feminists, Basu strongly asserts, “Exact, in every single novel of mine you see the women are stronger than men. Women are very important ‘cause’ in my life. Ninety per cent of the time they educate us. But we do not accept them to be superior.” (Basu)
In the light of Basu’s statement, it can be said that women characters are of utmost importance in the novel Outcast. Through their depiction, Basu effectively expresses their agonies and suffering inside their family as well as in the society. By setting the novel in the social milieu of highly orthodox and caste burdened village of Basuli, the novelist presents a number of women characters of different age, status and background facing one commonality – that is suffering which is inflicted on them by their closed ones and the society because they are women.
Putki – a strong woman’s quest for identity ends in her loss of self
Putki is the leading female character in the novel. She is Haripada’s daughter, and Sambal’s childhood friend and his beloved. Being Sambal’s companion, she keenly takes interest in all the affairs of the village Basuli in which Sambal, a rebel who champions the cause of the lower caste characters, involves; but her voice has a weightage only as a shadow of Sambal whose existence in turn in the village is not more than a chandal’s (caste which is considered to be lowest in Basuli) son in the age-old upper class power structure. In spite of being called ‘a whore’ because of her relationship with Sambal and her father’s merciless whipping due to Sambal’s inferior status within the lower castes, Putki is brave enough to continue her affiliation with Sambal and bravely stands with Sambal in all his misfortunes. During her interactions with Sambal, we see her as a more intelligent, practical and worldly wise person who always tries to channelize the do or die attitude of revengeful Sambal in a constructive direction by getting himself elected to the Gram Panchayat, this way, according to Putki, he “can win without violence”. ( Basu 118)
By choosing not to limit her to domestic chores inside the four walls of her house, she breaks the barriers of the traditional role of a young girl and bravely sets her foot in the outside world when Sambal is imprisoned after his fight in a brawl at the Shiva temple. During her efforts to free Sambal, she undergoes a great mental anguish but she does everything she can do to acquit him. She takes permission from the magistrate and visits Sambal in a jail which is full with worst kinds of men and from there to take the help of Mastermoshai (the village teacher), she goes to Calcutta alone on a mission of courage in spite of the repetitive warnings by many of Calcutta being too dangerous for an unknown woman. Through Mastermoshai’s help Putki gets Sambal acquitted from prison. Through this achievement on the part of Putki, Basu elevates the status of a woman from a homely weak being to the one who can handle any tough task using her perseverance, intellect and untiring efforts.
Putki’s continuous persuasion to quit his revengeful activities against the oppressive upper castes of the villagers results in her break-up with Sambal. This incidence has serious repercussions as seen in the whispering campaign of the villagers spreading dirty rumours about her character; her mother’s endless reproaches, and the callous attitude of her co-workers together with Sambal’s bitterness towards her all these factors lead Putki to end her cursed life by drowning herself. While answering a question about Putki’s unconvincing death to G.R.Malliga during an interview, Basu replies, “I wanted to show the unjust behaviours of the male. Woman suffers as always and here again Sambal would not absolutely give in to any single reason for her to live. That is why I made her the cause of sacrifice as they really are.” (Basu) Simone de Beauvoir’s argument about ‘woman’ in her seminal feminist book The Second Sex can be applied to the tragedy of Putki: “She is defined and differentiated with reference to man and not he with reference to her; she is the incidental, the inessential as opposed to the essential. He is the Subject, he is the Absolute — she is the Other.” (Beauvoir xxii)
Putki’s tragic death signifies how the machinery of the society destroys a woman who dares to defy the age old norms of the bygone ages. The weapons society uses to stifle the voice of a woman are sharper than swords; in the beginning it envies Putki’s intimacy with Sambal and does everything to destroy it; once their relationship is destroyed, the society attaches a stigma to their relationship, it isolates the rebellious woman, it spits venom at her because she dared to be different, it throws mud at her character and charges her with serious allegations with the only motive to perish her entire being. The death of Putki’s father along with her break-up with her lover brings endless vows in the life of Putki and her mother. The author painfully observes:
A widow was a liability to the community. With her daughter an outcast, no one cared to help her, even with a piece of firewood. Whenever he mother was out on the road, people spat in her direction. She heard most ugly recriminations against her daughter. Some people believed that Putki was responsible for Sambal’s uncontrollable behaviour. She was the one who egged him on to fight against the caste system. How else could she be satisfied, marrying a man lower than her own caste? Some were saying Sambal refused to marry her because he found out Putki had liaisons with other men when he was in prison. (Basu 241)
The atrocities of the society reach its worst heights in the foreboding fears of Putki’s mother who begins to neglect her deteriorating health. Her bitter treatment by the society leads Putki’s mother to think of the worst possible existence that Putki will be subjected to. Rather than seeing Putki dead, it seems, the society wants to see her living the life of a terminally psychic woman, reminding her every moment the bitter fruits of her rebellious behaviour through which she challenged the working of the entire society:
Her mother warned her that she had better pull herself together, or else people would throw stones at her as a bad omen. To set eyes on an unlucky, unmarriageable woman, could be bad luck for the others. Her mother was certain that any bad news in another family would be blamed on her daughter. (Basu 242)
Saraju Bala Dasi – a widow’s quest for individuality in a patriarchal society
Saraju Bala represents the powerful force of feminine energy and courage that the oppressed woman of the post-independence Indian society requires to live a respectable life. She becomes a widow at the age of twenty-two. How a young and beautiful woman bravely gives a befitting fight to the oppressive males of the society and prevents her life from degenerating into a hell when her husband dies has been powerfully depicted by Basu in the novel. The novelist’s concern for the woman’s question is clearly evident in the treatment of the character of Saraju. An object of the wrath of destiny, she finds herself thrown from one place to the other to carry on her miserable existence. Her husband’s untimely death compels her to take shelter in her father’s house but soon she becomes an object of detestation for her step-mother due to her doting father’s attention to her. Trying to avoid frequent clashes with envious step mother in the house, she stays out of the house most of the time only to attract the attention of the lustful predators. An object of hatred at home and an object of lust outside home, she once again finds herself thrown to the world of Basuli where she was married. There too she does not find her existence a peaceful and happy one. The villagers’ unwanted attention to the young window, their intervention in her personal matters and their uncalled for rebukes make her existence quite a challenging one. The author observes:
She had to explain to the villagers why she had added dasi to her name. As a social worker in her father’s village, people had to know to which caste she belonged. Dasi added to the name mysteriously gave her higher status and acceptance in Basuli. But to her own people this sounded as if she was trying to hide something, a fraud. (Basu 120)
Through the character of Saraju, Basu beautifully describes how the orthodox norms of the society aggravate the pain and suffering in the life of a lonely woman of a small village. Perhaps out of all the women characters in the novel, Basu’s feminist concerns reaches its acme in the depiction of Saraju - a ‘new’ widow who bravely rejects choicelessness of the life of cul-de-sac, clad in a white sari, representing an embodiment of a living dead and compelled to keep herself mired in the ashes of her deceased husband’s body, and takes responsibility to reconstruct her ‘self’ by breaking away from the age-old tradition of keeping herself away from all the colours and celebrations of life. Her deliberate preference for a sari which is not plain, rubber sandals and glass bangles making a tinkling sound – all these accessories are enough to show that Saraju is not a window of the olden days doomed to drag on her cubbyhole existence, that she does not subscribe to the idea that a window has to shun all pleasures from her life and that her only relationship is with her dead husband and the only purpose of her life, if any, is to wither her remaining years in a wait for death. Saraju thus deliberately reforms her own life by disobeying to present herself as a symbol of renunciation and thus leads other widows of the society to live life like a normal woman of the day. Her creator thus redeems a widow from her stigmatic life and empowers her to live the life of a free woman. The author remarks:
When Saraju returned to Basuli, she did not wear a plain white sari like other widows. She wore bright rubber sandals instead of leather ones, and her arms were covered with glass bangles. She had decided to break with tradition, convinced by a man she liked that times had changed and that there was no reason for her to advertise she was a widow by the way she dressed. (Basu 121)
Basu’s feminism here comes to the fore as he criticizes the code of conduct formed by the village elders for a window. Saraju’s attempts to undermine patriarchal forces are not digested well by the orthodox villagers. Since she has dared to defy the tradition, she is thought of making “herself pretty for someone else’s husband”. (Basu 121) Saraju “sitting in one corner of the schoolroom like a leper” (Basu 121) tells a lot about the villagers’ way of treating those who break from tradition. To teach her a lesson for her rebellious behaviour, the first punishment to Saraju comes in the form of her social isolation. The author’s heart grieves to observe: “Saraju’s open glances and uncovered head drew loud murmurs of disapproval.” (Basu 121) Second atrocity is attacking her privacy with the eyes of predators. Loud murmurs of disapproval reveal the high level of orthodoxy in the village which cannot tolerate the woman’s simple glances without covering her head just because of unbearable heat. The real blow comes to Saraju when she is charged with prostitution simply because she met two men who offered her work in the field and brought gifts, food and drink and allegedly asked sexual favours from her which she clearly denies. Thus, oppression of women begins with economic subservience and spreads its dirty wings on their psychological being. Anita Myles’ view substantiates our point as she observes: “The oppression of women is not only a material reality, originating in economic conditions, but also a psychological phenomenon- how men and women perceive one another.” (Myles 2-3)
In the words of the president of the Gram Panchayat, Saraju is “a woman whom God has chosen to punish by making her a widow.” (Basu 122) Such a humiliating comment serves as a mysterious tool to exploit and oppress a brave and different woman against whose strong will-power the forces of patriarchal powers look so impotent. This is a typical expression which runs throughout the novel in which God is projected as a need fulfilling entity for the common masses, playing different roles of granting either a wish or a punishment which are actually decided by headmen of different castes with a view to give the human deeds the stamp of some higher authority which no one can defy. Kitchlu’s pertinent comment on the cursed existence of a window in an Indian society brings home the point:
Ironically, in the Indian social set up a widow is neither considered a married woman nor a spinster. Her image is that of a helpless and unfortunate woman with or without children, who is expected to suffer because of the sins committed in her past birth. Due to such a misconception, a widow does not enjoy any status in the community. (Kitchlu 22)
The world of Basuli, a microcosm of Indian village post-independence, is actually a world which lives on the instinct of fear and not the laws made by God, as they prefer to call it to cover their fear. Saraju has done nothing wrong and she has actually not done anything which goes against the norms of the society. But she becomes a criminal the day ‘her man’ dies. Elders of Basuli know that the imposed structure of their society is highly flimsy, it is no more than a castle of play cards, they know that their men are drunkards and licentious; mere opportunity to come closer to a lonely and beautiful woman like Saraju might make them slip, make them forget that they have wives and children to take care of and may lead to build physical relations with her. This is a society which looks at a woman as ‘a body’, as a symbol of sex, so it does not dare to see a woman outside the framework of a family; the moment she is born, she is programmed to become a submissive wife but when her husband dies, it invites a whole world of misfortunes for her, particularly if she becomes a widow at a young age. Such a situation shatters the entire arrangement of the society. The experienced people of Basuli who has seen so much of life look at the very existence of a widow like Saraju as a potential danger to the very structure of their families of which their society is made of. Basu here clearly hits a heavy blow to the fragile nature of our society and has clearly projected it as it is in its nude reality and thus significantly wields the cause of the widows of the society and their due rights to lead life as a normal human being. The point that Basu wants to make here is that widows like Saraju are not loose and immoral, rather the males of the society are so but since the males wield the power, widows are subjugated to live the life of a dead lest their free mingling in the society should lead to endless sexual encounters shattering the very structure of their society.
We cannot forget here that the investigation members of the Gram Panchayat in the case of Saraju are same who were holding chair just beside the officer from the Ministry of Rural Affairs in a meeting aimed towards bringing social equality in the village. During that meeting a ninety year old widower Bhupatibabu boasts about his sexual powers to satisfy a sixteen year old girl leaving the entire hall in a spate of laughter and no one minds such a lewd comment which is certainly uncalled for in such a meeting. Thus Basu’s novel depicts a world ruled by males driven by testosterone where women are subjected to pay a heavy price for the crimes which they have never done. The first Panchayat member’s investigation is purely male oriented: “… why if her husband had a weak heart she had made him work so hard and, on top of it, indulged in sexual acts harmful to his health? Saraju made it plain that nothing her husband had done was at her persuasion. She only followed his wishes.” (Basu 122) The second member virtually flogs her by asking “Why did you come back from Basuli? Wasn’t it because of a sex scandal you were involved in?” (Basu 122) The so-called investigation of the third member also goes in the same direction which offends the modesty of a woman in public. He “asked if she’d had sexual relations with any man since she was widowed.” (Basu 123)
The type of questions asked to Saraju and its orientation towards sex by the members of the Gram Panchayat reveals the pervert mentality of the entire village which makes them look at a widow as a commodity or a biological entity. This is because the members of the Panchayat are no more than the elected representatives of the village; their status of a President or a member of a Panchayat does not necessarily guarantee their being wise or being above the status of an average human being. The entire investigation of Saraju’s meeting with two men of the village turns out to be a hoax and is aimed at her harsh treatment. Her questioning is targeted to humiliate her in the presence of the mass; otherwise her punishment is pre-decided in the clandestine meeting of the so-called makers of the ‘law’. Though Saraju is innocent, in the presence of entire village she is “ordered to continue herself to her own palli without any visitor for three months. She was not permitted to talk to any man for six months.” (Basu 123) In fact, Saraju is supremely brave at heart and to defend against her all the villagers have to collectively harness strength ultimately to perish her. The world of Basuli gives full freedom and licentiousness to men but imposes severe restrictions on women lest they “break up homes and steal husbands away with the lure of the body.” (Basu 123) The author’s final comments on the entire proceedings of Saraju’s case reveals gender discrimination and sums up the hollowness of male-dominated morality: “There would have been none of this fuss if men had taken her out whenever they wished and done “such a thing”. But it was too audacious of her to entertain men in her own home. No, they could not allow “brothels” in Basuli.” (Basu 123)
Through the handling or rather mishandling of Saraju’s case, the author represents legal discrimination against women and expresses the strong need for a viable feminist politics by including women representatives in the Gram Panchayat to construct a healthy and balanced society in which women have equal voice, power and unbiased justice. A woman representative like Jathaima or Putki would certainly have evaluated Saraju’s case from a human point of view, they would have asked different quality of questions and the two men making sexual advances at Saraju would certainly have got toughest possible punishment, had they been the members of the Gram Panchayat. The novel, in this way, strongly advocates the need to restructure the role of women in the society from that of cooking, maintaining a family, producing children and growing them inside the four walls of the house.
Putki’s strong reaction following Saraju’s harsh treament expresses Basu’s strong feminist concerns: “Women had to be strong and fight alongside men, that was the only way their situation would improve. Men would never willingly help them to achieve anything.” (Basu 124) Later on, when Saraju joins the team of Communists in the cause of the society, she sees “a sense of purpose in her life.” (Basu 127) Sambal who is a champion of social cause for the lower castes clarifies his goal to Saraju: “Some women are jealous of your independence, but many wives would like to have your freedom. You can help other women to understand that they must not subject themselves to tyranny.” (Basu 124)
Though her father helps her financially, the premature death of her husband compels Saraju to find a steady source of income for her. She works as an assistant to a midwife. Anita Myles’ comment on the indomitable spirit of women is quite befitting in this reference: “Women have the aptitude for survival. In fact, suffering and pain are sometimes necessary to develop one’s self and one’s individuality in particular.” (Myles 17) Later on Saraju is seen singing as Sambal plays flute for relaxation. The author does not fail to comment: “She sang so well, with the right training she could have gone on the stage.” (Basu 125) Thus, Saraju, like other lower caste women characters, is bestowed with the talent of an artist. But due to lack of adequate opportunity she is not able to grow as a full-fledge artist and establish for her a respectable position in the society. Her talent of singing remains just a pastime as the major portion of her life is occupied by activities which she has to carry on as a result of her social surroundings and in turn these activities shape her destiny.
Ganga – a beautiful woman’s cursed existence in the orthodox social structure
Through the ill-fated life of Ganga, one of Putki’s best friends, Basu advocates the cause of lower caste women and the atrocities inflicted upon them for no fault of their own. Being young and beautifully proportioned is her biggest crime which draws the attention of so many lustful eyes in the village of Basuli village; the unwanted attention of youngsters make her husband over-possessive and flares up his rage. The author observes: “thrashing his wife out of jealousy was a common occurrence.” (Basu 146) Further, not able to take allopathic treatment due to her husband’s refusal, Ganga’s degenerating health compels her to visit a Muslim who is popularly believed to possess extraordinary powers to cure the illness. Unable to refuse food offered by the Muslim followed by taking medicine makes her lose her Hindu rights, a typical lower class mentality. Disobedience of age old norms of Hindu religion is considered as the biggest sin of the day. Ganga does the same, though under the compulsion to seek help for her physical ailment. Fed up with the unwanted glances of young men of the village at his wife and her husband’s inability to handle them coupled with his growing suspicion of his beautiful wife’s affairs with some unknown youngsters of the village, he is bent on destroying her. Her acceptance of the food offered by the Muslim instigates his religious fundamentalism and gives him double edged sword to do away with his wife along with the child, by burning them alive, so as to purify the impure ones – God knows who might have fathered the child – and to proclaim his Hindu caste superiority over the Muslim. Here again the woman is victimised to establish one’s superiority in a caste ladder. The three year old child dies during the incidence but Ganga survives her torching only to drag her traumatic existence with the terribly burnt face giving her the look of a witch. Like Saraju, Ganga becomes a victim of the orthodox society’s outlook of looking at a woman as ‘a body’. Commenting on her tolerance, P.Somanath remarks: “Ganga bears no ill-will towards her husband. Male chauvinism coupled with ignorance is a curse upon faithful women like Ganga.” (Somanath 157)
Ganga survives her torching alive, much to her dismay. The entire investigation of the case and Ganga’s subsequent punishment reminds us the parallel case of Saraju by a society ruled ‘by the men, for the men and of the man’. A strong case of an attempt of murder, they justify the atrocity on the woman by raising a suspicion on her clandestine and prolonged meeting with a Muslim. Much like the handling of other cases of atrocity on the women of the depressed sections of the society, in the case of Ganga too judgement is pronounced in favour of the criminal on the grounds of religion to create the impression that the rules are formed by the higher authority sitting in a temple, which in actuality, are formed by men whose blood seethes with cruel prejudices against women as well as Muslims. The entire Dom community to which Ganga belongs is so bent on crushing the woman that they are ready to call it a case of accidental fire in case of any police inquiry. The callousness of the other lower caste people offering their unconditional support to the cruel husband projects the entire society as a villain ready to choke the voice of an innocent woman. According to a research scholar, “Oppression engendered due to caste hierarchy becomes worse in the case of women. Women become doubly oppressed.” (Shinde) It is a society where women suffer, but the life of women belonging to lower castes is literally a life living in hell; at each stage of life they have to suffer the torture for their ‘sin’ of being a woman. Out of all women characters of the novel, Ganga, perhaps undergoes worst kind of male chauvinist cruelty. But in spite of suffering all these miseries, she comes out as an embodiment of tolerance.
Tagar’s Murder- a case of honour killing in a caste-ridden society
The episode of Tagar’s heinous murder by his own brother Mahadev for her feminine attachment with Doulat, the schoolteacher describes the worst kind of treatment inflicted on women of the time. Tagar comes in contact with Doulat, who is her teacher; slowly and slowly both develops liking for each other and meet frequently. In a world rift with caste differences, Mahadev cannot tolerate friendship of his sister with a non-Mahasya caste member and forces to give up her studies, at the same time wanting Doulat’s expulsion from the school. Sensing her decision to leave the village with Doulat, Mahadev keeps her locked up at home and finally unable to control his rage he shoots Tagar to death with the support of his neighbours.
Through the case of Tagar, Basu again presents the sorry state of women of the day. People of Basuli are highly sensitive in the matter of caste, religion and love affair of a woman with a man of another caste. When some deviation takes place in these matters, the entire caste members support the concerned family where the incidence of disbedience has happened and gathering strength from the group, the woman is murdered taking the advantage of living in a para (area), where all neighbours belong to the same caste and shows unconditional support in the cause of the caste. The neighbours are so untied in the cause where their honour is involved that they offer to use their private space to destroy the evidence and they do not show any fear of the police or the law, since they themselves play the role of a man of law under the leadership of the caste Morol (‘the caste headman’).
Looking at the traumatic existence of different women characters in the novel, we can infer that women in the novel are not allowed to live their life as a human being; whether she are married or unmarried, prefers to marry as per the norms of the society or to love and marry a person of her choice, whether her husband is living or she is a widow, she is doomed to suffer unless she is ready to take the charge of her own life; she is either compelled to end her life or she is burnt alive, is looked down as an object of lust or is pronounced a whore, or is sentenced to live the life of seclusion. Whatsoever, all women characters in the novel though undergoing immense suffering and atrocities, they clearly emerge as stoics reflecting high degree of tolerance and at the same time put a brave fight against different forms of patriarchal aggression.
Summing up:
The Indian feminist approach has been to ‘observe, describe, take an objective realistic view’ of women’s conditions in their social set up. They question the double marginalization of illiterate, tribal and rural women as much as advocating their mainstreaming. (Shenmugasundaram)
The above quotation appropriately sums up Basu’s feminist concerns in the novel. Throughout the novel, the intense pain at the miserable lot of the women and a tremendous urge to redeem the oppressed and the suppressed womenfolk of the conservative Indian society from patriarchal domination is strongly felt. The author has artistically interwoven different episodes in the main plot of the novel with a view to advocate women’s rights to grow personally, intellectually, economically as well as spiritually with a view to secure their equality, fulfilment and emancipation. While speaking on his portrayal of women characters during an interview with P.Somanath, Basu very clearly says, “I make the women characters stronger in contrast. They are the underprivileged. They are my cause. I do not believe in the superiority of men on women. My women characters try to highlight that they ought not to be neglected.” (Basu) The novelist here very expressively suggests the changes which are needed to be implemented in the feudal structure of the society dominated by males and suggests to transform its entire modus operandi to eliminate cruelty, violence, oppression and exploitation of women and to bring in the element of humanity, love, care, mercy and sweetness in their treatment by eradicating the age old patriarchal dominance.
Works Cited
- Basu, Romen. "Interview with Romen Basu." Interview by G. R. Malliga. Shodhganga. July 1994. Web. 26 Dec. 1920.
- Basu, Romen. Outcast. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers (P) Ltd., 1986. Print.
- Basu, Romen. "Romen Basu's Replies to Questionnaire." Interview by P. Somanath. Romen Basu His Vision and His Art. 19.5.1992: 226-32. Print.
- Beauvoir, Simone de. The Second Sex. New York: Vintage Books, 1974. Print.
- Kitchlu, T.N. Widows in India. New Delhi: Anish Publishing House, 1993. Print.
- Myles, Anita. Feminism and the Post-Modern Indian Women Novelists in English. New Delhi: Sarup and Sons, 2006. Print.
- Shenmugasundaram, Yashodha. Postcolonial Feminism. IGNOU, 28 3 2017. Web. 14 1 2021.
- Shinde, A.Y. Romen Basu's Fiction A Critical Study. Kolhapur, 2003. Web. 24 2 2021.
- Somanath, P. Romen Basu: His Vision and His Art. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd., 1995. Print.
- Sujatha, K.R. and Gokilvani S. Feminine Aesthetics of Indian Women Writers. New Delhi: Regal Publications, 2011. Print.