The Postcolonial Woman’s Cry for Gender Equality: A Study of Nayantara Sahgal’s A Time To Be Happy and This Time Of Morning

Abstract

              The Indian society being traditionally patriarchal, it was only understandable that women had a vulnerable status  in family as well as in society at large. What however is more disturbing is the fact that gender inequality even remains intact in the post independence India despite the Indian constitution, adopted by the nation in 1950, promising full political, economic and social equality to its citizens including women. Sahgal, as a novelist, is acutely aware of the irony of this brazen neglect of women by the nation. It is true that anti-colonial nation provides an effective rallying idea for the natives to put up a united struggle against the colonizers but at the same time it proves to be a means to legitimize the hegemony of the native elite over its common people. As a result, even though the political power after independence is transferred from the colonisers to the native leadership the power relations within the nation remain undisturbed. Such internal  colonisation remains unaddressed mainly because the traditional power imbalances in a society are guarded by the traditional forces of religion and culture. In india the cast-based social organization patriarchy feudal values and traditional culture have for example been detrimental to the interests of the dalits and women. As a postcolonial novelist, sahgal takes upon herself to contribute towards the postcolonial  project of stamping out the old and worn-out values of the Indian society. So that all its different sections enjoy equal rights not just in the public institutions of the nation but also in the social sphere. In particular, she highlights in her novels how patriarchal values are deeply entrenched in indian psyche and how the new-age women either challenge them or just cock a snook at them.