Socio-Cultural and Religious Taboos Trapped the South Asian Women: Analysing Female Struggle Against Male Chauvinist Society in Gita Mehta’s Raj

Abstract

This research explores Gita Mehta’s prestigious place in Indian Writing in English. Being a female novelist, her writings raise the issue of women's identity. Her novel Raj mainly focuses on the culture, tradition, and political condition of India. According to her, women are trapped in the circle of religion, culture, tradition, and all social taboos. In this novel the heroine of Mehta, Jaya Singh breaks the shell of all such taboos and emerges herself as a new individual in society. This research paper will show how the novel Raj is viewed as a wide scope for feminist analysis. This research aims to explore and analyze how the protagonist, Jaya Singh along with other subordinate female characters struggles hard and creates their own space in the so-called male-dominated society. With the help of Judith Lorber’s theoretical perspective of the social construction of gender, Judith Halberstam’s female masculinity, and Judith Butler's notion of ‘gender performativity’ the research papers analyzes how gender roles and ideologies are socially constructed, not something considered natural. The finding highlights that gender is not something related to the presence or lack of certain genes. It is the product of society and culture made to suit the ulterior motive of patriarchy. The main conclusion to be drawn from this work is gender is not an inborn entity which is quite a political issue hence; the female characters deployed in the novel are claiming their 'space' in society.