Victors of Struggle: A Study of Deshpande’s Heroines in the Dark Hold no Terrors, Roots and Shadows and that Long Silence

Abstract

The modern Indian woman is no longer willing to be content with the stereotyped mould that she has been cast into. Presently, Indian woman clamors for recognition of herself as not just as “woman” but as a person, an individual acutely conscious of her standing both in the family and in the society. She is aware of the role she has to play both in the family and in the society for the first time. She is also aware of the choices that are widely open to her and also the various demands to participate in them. Indian woman is undoubtedly caught at the cross roads, striving to strike a balance between the tradition that is deeply ingrained in her and the influences from the west that impel her break away from the binding chains of tradition. With the change in the socio-cultural climate of India, she can no longer idealize the Sita or Gandhari kind of woman. Deshpande weaves the path of Jaya, Saru and Indu from Trauma to Triumph in her novels Roots And Shadows, The Dark
Holds No Terrors and That Long Silence.