For verification of this paper, please visit on http://www.socialresearchfoundation.com/anthology.php#8

Shashi Deshpande has emerged as a writer possessing deep insight into the female psyche.Focuses on the marital relation she is a born storyteller who proved her sustained creativity with the novel form.She is one of the widely read post- independence Indian English writers who write consciously of the issues that concern the educated middle class woman in Indian society .She attempts to closely analyze man- woman relationship within the perimeters of family and the contemporary social set -up.She primarly focuses on the captivating problems and the suffocating environs of her heroines,who struggles hard in this malicious and callous male- dominated world to discover their true identity.Shashi Deshpande’s first book was The Legacy,a collection of short stories, and since then she has published dozen of stories.She does not write about the grinding poverty of the Indian masses,she describes another kind of deprivation emotional.The woman deprived of love,understanding and companionship is the center of her work.She shows how traditional Indian society is biased against woman.The fundamental theme of her novels is “human connection” the lady standing up for herself as a lady,spouse or mother as well as a person. Shashi Deshpande’s women characters keeping in mind the various types and phases of the women characters expressed in her novels are studied here and it tries to link these novels with the various phases of feminism. Feminism ,is,indeed ,as serious attempt to analyze,comprehend and clarify how and why feminity is or the feminine sensibility is different from masculinity or the masculine experience.Feminism brings into perspective the points of difference that characterize the feminine identity or feminine psyche or feminity of woman.Woman occupies a central place in Deshpande's novels.She has succeeded in presenting a realistic picture of this woman who is presented in her novels in the family set up as well as outside the family.But the modern woman has raised her voice against the atrocity and injustice done to her by the system.It was mainly after the women’s Liberation Movement of the late 1960s that the contemporary feminist ideology evolved and the female voice was heard with special concern.Deshpande has made bold attempts at giving a voice to the disappointments and frustrations of women despite her vehement denial of being a feminist.Deshpande has exposed the gross gender discrimination .In the novel,she depicts the agony and suffocation experienced by the protagonist Indu in a male- dominated and tradition bound society.She refuses to play the straitjacked role of a wife imposed upon by society.Her quest for identity is telling expressed to the novels .Deshpande has projected this aspect of Indian women with more sensitivity and instinctive understanding as she belongs to this category ,in the sense that,unlike other women writers,she is born and brought upon this soil,gained her education in India itself and wrote about India .She has a unique place among the novelists writing in English.In the novel,Deshpande has presented not a woman who revolts openly in the beginning and later on reconcites to the situation,but a,kind of woman who wants to revolt,but ultimately does not she is unable to unfold the truth.She writes about the situation of women and their failures in the fast changing socio- economic miles of India.She writes about the conflict between tradition and modernity in relation to women in middle class society starting a Shashi Deshpande novel is like a sitting in a railway compartment and resigning oneself to an endless journey into the night of middle-class India.She tries to link her novels with the various phases of feminism.Feminism is,indeed,a serious attempt to analyze,comprehend and clarify how and why feminity is or the feminine sensibilty is different from masculinity or the masculine experience.Feminism brings into perspective the points of difference that characterize the feminine identity or feminine psyche or feminity of woman. The women in her novels are subjected to continuous physical and sexual assaults in the society .She also dares to expose,question and challenge the age old tradition and prejudices in the male dominated society.But the writer feels that a woman has her own existence and place in the society and therefore she should not be reduced to the level of a breeding machines.Women have to accept ,accomodate and convert themselves to go well with the interest of their male counterpart and in this process suppress their self – identity.Deshpande’s characters in her novels many men and women living together,journeying across life in their difference age group classes and gendered roles.In That Long Silence,she retrieves facts from the depth of the past to reconstruct the missing links in the chain of women’s suffering ,self- discovery by all means is a mature act,act and also a cathartic one.Deshpande’s “women are the products of a painful period of transition in society where they have a greater share of responsibilities than their predecessor.Her novels are concerned with a woman’s search for her identity- an exploration into the female psyche.Her protagonist undergo an arduous journey to discover themselves and this leads them through a maze of self doubts and fears”. Shashi Deshpande in all her works clearly presents the inequalities and injustice heaped on woman because of her subordinate status.In “.She has never made to suffer any condescension in company and this sets him a part from all the other men she has known her life.Deshpande’s novel is that between a mother and a daughter love and devotion to the mother is an integral part of the Indian psyche. The novels of Shashi Deshpande,therefore,clearly reveal author’s perception of the endemic imbalance between the sexes.The numerous minor characters in her novels suffer in silence accept their fate with resignation,but do not take any step which might jeopardize their marriage.Each of her novels ends,however,on a note of determination by its protagonists who resolves to the reins of her life into her hands.Deshpande protagonist are,doubt,victims of this unequal power structure in manage .But in all novels she shows how one can rise above such injustice and lea meaningful existence .In the end ,her protagonist always shows strive to make their marriage work.And as J.Bhavani observe -This is not a negative but a realistic end to the novels .Deshpande upholds marriage as the backbone of society ,what is stifling is the persona of the wife and not the institution of marriages.Most of the women characters too suffer from some weakness or the other so much so it becomes difficult to label her work .The term feminism itself demand broader definition .Deshpande as a novelist fulfils these two requirements so as to be termed a feminist .We may not be sure of her strong desire remove the disadvantages of women in society.Deshpande gives an excellent portrayal of a woman who falls aprey to in husband’s frustration,when he realises that she has overtaken him professionally.The novels of Shashi Deshpande,therefore,clearly reveal author’s perception of the endemic imbalance between the sexes .Her protagonist are,doubt,victims of this unequal power structure in manage.In all novels she shows how one cab rise above such injustice and lea meaningful existence. Deshpande’s views coincide with modern feminist thought which has changed much since the radical feminism of 60 s.In her book ,The Feminine Mystique,which took America society by storm,Betty Freidan challenged the universal belief that a woman should find contentment in motherhood and domesticity.Deshpande never intends to subscribe to the views of any feminist.Shashi Deshpande’s novels highlights the image of the middle- class women sandwiched between tradition and modernity.Deshpande is one of the famous contemporary Indian novelists in English In The Dark Holds No Terrors Saru who represents a reaction of society In the novel “ That Long Silence” through the character of Jaya ,who adjusts and accommodates unlike the modern women who themselves “ forced into the background by the claims of culture”.Her novels reveal the made – made patriarchal traditions and uneasiness the modern Indian woman in being a part of them Deshpande uses this points of view of present social reality as it is experienced by woman.Shashi Deshpande ,being the author of the 70s and 80s understand the women well,and has tried to project a realistic picture of the middle- class educated woman who is financially independent.The reason of Shashi Deshpande's choosing the middle- class woman might be : (a) her own background as she hails from a middle- class family,(b) She is pre- occupied with the social forces at work in society:the clash between the old and the new,between idealism and pragmatism:and (c) the middle - class woman represents a larger part of the contemporary Indian Society.Woman in Shashi Deshpande's novels is initially an unconventional one,but death is not the way out for her.She willy- nilly submits herself to the tradition ,perhaps realizing the wisdom of the traditional ways at this stirring moment of the transitional phase of society.She presented a realistic picture of this woman who is presented in her novels in the family set up as well as outside the family.She is a widely read person ,well acquainted with other literary minds,but does not wish to be- long to any other group of writers,not even to the Indian writers in English writers.Deshpande has very exquisitely pinpointed the inner struggle and sufferings of the new class of Indian women through the character of her novels who has raised many basic question regarding modern women who are rooted and shaped by the Indian customs but influenced by the scientific knowledge of the west.

Deshpande concerns and sympathy are essentially for tge woman.She has given an honest portrayal of her fears ,suffering ,dissappointments and frustration .Her protagonist,quest for identity get largely accentuated due to their frustrating experience born of the prohibitive nature of the Indian Patriarchal society.Her male characters only serve to enable the protagonist to define their identity more fully.Deshpande states that she does not believe in a simple opposition of badmen ,I don't believe the world is like that at all ( prasad 75) .Her protagonist are the victim of the Indian Patriarchy and after initial submission resist the oppressive situation ,there by reflecting the author's view that a woman must assert herself within marriage to preserve the identity

1. Sarabjit.Sandhu,The Novels of Shashi Deshpande ( New Delhi: Prestige Books,2001),PP.13-15. 2. S.Prasanna Sree,Women in the Novels of Shashi Deshpande: A study( New Delhi: Sarup & Sons,2003),P.49. 3. Shashi Deshpande,Why I am a Feminist.Writing from the Margin .New Delhi:Penguin,1988,P.85. 4. Shashi Deshpande,The Dark Holds No Terrors: New Delhi:,Penguin,1980. 5. Shashi Deshpande,That Long Silence.New Delhi :Penguin,1989. 6. Swain.S.P.Shashi Deshpande,The Dark Holds No Terrors,Sara’s Feminine Sensibility Indian Women Novelist.New Delhi : Prestige Books 1991.