Silent Inequalities in the Lives of Women in Deepa Narayan’s Chup

Abstract

Decades after feminist progress, it is crucial to address the silence of women within the families in Indian society. The struggle for equality has its progress, but still there are deep rooted cultural and structural barriers that prevent Indian women from expressing their voices. Women are educated, can earn and make their own living, have property rights, reproductive rights, maintenance after divorce. Still the question is, does all this make women independent and safe? Hence this shows there are persistent gaps that indicate that the outer independence cannot be counted and that women are free and safe at home and in the public. This again raises questions on the cultural ideologies that fastens inequality in Indian society. The objective of this paper is to point to the Culture pervasiveness within the families that conditions women to internalize silence even in the 2st century. In the Book Chup: Breaking the Silence about India’s Women, Deepa Narayan analyzes and explores the cultural and societal norms that fasten inequality.