In India family is perhaps the most important social institution. Women are considered the integral and central part of this structure. They are perceived as grihalakshmi-the bountiful goddess. However, this image is more rigid than flexible and has appropriated the gender roles within thedomestic sphere. A number of assumptions and values have been created to keep such roles stagnant. A critical analysis of textual account of women and her condition in colonial and postcolonial times (Chatterjee, 261-62) reveals that new thoughts and the ideas of modernity have not changed the paradigm to perceive the gender roles; rather they have provided new intellectual tools to freeze the stereotypical identity and roles of both, male and female, within the bounds of household and outside it. Nevertheless, the changing scenario has provided women with a chance to speak for themselves. Higher education and contact with the world outside the domestic sphere have filled them with a new acquired identity, confidence and ambition. Though globalization and need of the present time have exposed them to the market, their household responsibilities are not withdrawn in a patriarchal society like India. Sometimes, they are made to abandon their aspirations and choices for the sake of family because the menfolk are still not ready to accept the changes in the structure of familial roles. Women have created a new personal identity but they are unable to actualize it in the traditional format of social and familial obligations. It results in identity crisis among women that adversely affects the whole family. The present paper attempts to problematize this issue in contemporary Indian society through the study of two novels, namely Gently Falls the Bakula by Sudha Murty and The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy.
Assistant Professor, P.G. Department of English, Purnea University, Purnea
