Women at Margin: Reflections on Manju Kapur's Difficult Daughters

Abstract

The feminist activists in third world realize that the main stream western feminism can’t address the issues of the women in third world as the cultural differences matter. Western feminism is widely criticized for being Eurocentric, as the result, other branches of feminism arise such as Black feminism and Third World Feminism. Third World Feminism deals with the ordeals created by social, cultural, traditional aspects of these countries in the day to day lives of women. Kapur’s female characters also have to fight with these ordeals as they live in one of the most conservative society of India. Virmati, Kapur’s heroine of “Difficult Daughters” struggle through her entire life for the achievement of minimal freedom.

With the development of education, there comes awareness in an individual regardless of gender. Women in third world come to realize how they have been suppressed since centuries in their societies, specially after Second World War. As they become conscious, they protest against their suppression and suppressor. But social taboos in third world are so extreme that it’s so difficult to break them. Eventually women can’t get freedom until these taboos are broken. The main protagonist of Manu Kapur’s Difficult Daughters rebels throughout her life to establish her identity as an independent woman of new era but eventually she fails. It is entirely her fault to prove herself as failure but social taboos of patriarchal society also can be considered as secondary causes. Not only the major characters, even the minor characters share the same fate of Virmati, the main character.