Transition of Women from Tradition to Modernity

Indian English literature has developed over a period of time and writing in English did not start in a day. It took many years and several distinguished personalities to bring the present status and distinction to Indian English literature. With the passage of time, English literature has witnessed several changes in the writing patterns. Woman has always been the focus of many literary works in the Indian English Literature. In the age of growing intellectual crisis and more so in a developing nation like India there has been a conflict between tradition and modernity specially in the portrayal of women. Indian English novelists have along placed their women characters within a tradition. A tradition bound woman is conditioned by conventions and she accepts the responsibility of being the custodian of family. Contrary to the images of Indian women as silent victims dictated by patriarchal and global norms of oppression and suppression, the images of women in the contemporary fiction have undergone a categorical transformation from portrayals of self-sacrificing women towards self-asserting and self defining within the broader framework of social spheres and multiple identities.