Female as an Embodiment in the Social Reform: Novels of Bhabani Bhattacharya

Abstract

The world, which faces prolonged quarrels, the social breakdown is drawn out through many years. Violence becomes part of the fabric of society; it trickles down from state, to community, to family as society struggles to cope with horrors from the conflict. In conflict, everyone in society suffers but it is women who mostly bear the brunt. Unfortunately, issues such as violence against women are less prioritized leaving millions of women alone and in danger. Gender as social and psychological realms have forced women to accept role restrictions in both the realm of life i.e. public as well as private. But the novels of Bhabani Bhattacharya are a gripe against these entrenched social evils. He believes that women have thoughts more in terms of nationalism than men and they have a great sense of service to their country. One of the outstanding characteristics of the novels of Bhabani Bhattacharya is the prominence given to women characters. Women are usually presented by him as highly significant-if not central characters. They are not treated as inferior to man. He considered them as a beacon as the life force itself. She is a symbol of ideal motherhood as sister, wife, daughter-in-law and mother-in-law. The success of his female characters results from the process of his imaginative creation that lends them a life of their own beyond the particular context in which they appear. All his novels project before readers the social scenario of the contemporary India.