Tradition and Modernity. Changing the Images of Women in Selected Fiction by Manju Kapur and Anita Nair

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CHAPTER III WOMEN IN THE CLUTCHES OF TRADITIONAL NORMS
The age-old patriarchal ethos operating through social environment, familial traditions, myths and lore invariably become an integral part of the collective psyche of a society and an index of its evolution. These social patterns are not immutable entities, but are susceptible to historic transformation that opens up new areas of struggle and negotiation of relationship between gender and classes. It is basically through the ambivalence and paradoxes of these relationships and failure to resolve element of hostility that the protest finds an expression. It is, however, distressing that women remain the most vulnerable section, who quite often is seen to accept the socially imposed constructs blindly and wriggle under the weight of redundant and regressive tendencies.
Across the centuries, women in India have silently maintained the permanence and stability of society's cultural institutions and the continuities and consistencies of its ethos. In this context, women have been treated as value-holders of society, living a life of roles and doing their duty as daughters, wives and mothers. But, the fullness of their persons has never been allowed to break through these bounded roles. Many women have kept it alive by dignifying their roles rather than transcending them. They have sacrificed their personal social aspirations and, for fulfillment, surrendered their beings to religion. They have lived by the role-appropriate feelings and by the wisdom of the cultural lore.
Despite the diversity of caste, class, creed, and religion, woman's subordinate status has been vouchsafed unanimously in the Indian society. This belief has been shaped over centuries by the ancient Indian normative texts and holds sway even today. Though vibrant changes in the socio-cultural domain are distinctly visible in the post-Independence India, yet a large segment of it still retains the asymmetrical traditions in new

Dr. A. Sasikala works as an Assistant Professor of English at S.B.R.T.M Law College, Kadapa. She obtained her Doctoral Degree from Yogi Vemana University, Kadapa, Andhra Pradesh, India. She has served as Academic Counselor for Dr. BR Ambedkar Open University, Hyderabad, Telangana State. She presented many research papers in National as well as International Seminars on English Literature, English Language Teaching and Communicative English. Her areas of interest include Indian English Literature, Common Wealth Literature, Comparative Literature, and Literary Criticism. She has widely published in referred and reputed Journals such as The Common Wealth Review, Research Journal of English Language and Literature, and Contemporary Research in India etc.