to someone she increasingly felt was her social inferior.” (Manju Kapur: 68) Women under the patriarchal pressure and control are subjected to too much more social injustice. They are more discriminated and are biased in lieu of their sex.
In Third World India, women are the victims of religious patriarchy. Indian women are colonized by the power of religion. Virginia Saldanha comments: “Men have been dominant as recipients, interpreters and transmitters of divine messages, while women have largely remained passive receivers of teachings and ardent practitioners’ religious rituals. Attitudes developed around patriarchal interpretations of religious belief have defined and shaped the social and cultural contexts of Indian women resulting in their disempowerment and second class status.” ( Saldanha, 2016) In Western societies, patriarchy does not subjugate women in league with religion. Western family is patriarchal in nature but patriarchy is not absolute there. But women in India are manipulated by religion and patriarchy uses it as a tool. Indian woman’s history of suffering and rebellion against patriarchal dominance remains almost the same. There are old models and newer ones but the paramount question of adjustment or rebellion in search of identity still remains.
Male domination in India leads to woman’s subjugation, discrimination, and exploitation presents sexism in its worst form. Karthika says: “Ancient or modern, the society is always male-oriented and views women as objects for pleasure.” ( Karthika, 2015) More than half of the population of the world is made of woman but she is not treated on par with man despite innumerable evolutions and revolutions. She has the same mental and moral power, yet she is expected to serve, sacrifice, and submit each ill against her peacefully. Her individual self has very little recognition in the patriarchal society and so self-effacement is her normal way of life. In Indian society, the institution of marriage holds a place of prominence and the women usually abide by it. Since ancient time in India marriage has been regarded not only as a necessity, but also as a social and religious duty. This religious patriarchy is subjugating women in India.
Women in India are universally subjugated through ancient scriptures and Puranic texts. As Karthika V.K. says: “The story of subjugation of women had its roots in the myths and legends which are popular in India.” ( Karthika, 2015) The stereotypical myth depicts archetypes of Indian womanhood, such as Sati, Sita, Savitri, Gandhari, Behula showing women in suffering, self-sacrificing roles, and reinforcing conventional myths in a patriotic manner. Society creates such prejudices and stereotypical images for women and those who conform to them are considered as pious and pativrata. Women in Indian society are expected to be passive or submissive. Third World Grandmothers are successfully accomplishing the task of in calculating the woman like qualities in the girls through their stories. These myths are used to train them as faithful wives in order to celebrate the purity and chastity of mythological models. Mythologies, Upanishads, Puranas in India validate the subjugation of women in patriarchal culture.
The dominance of fanatic attitudes, the complexity of caste, class and religious identities in India subjugate women to stereotypical roles. In Third World India, marriage occurs in the same castes or cultures such as Muslim-Muslin, Hindu-Hindu, Shikh-Shikh, and tribe-tribe. Otherwise, it is not acceptable if it happens between different classes or castes. In this story, the marriage between Hindu Pipeelika Trivedi and Muslim Aijaz Khan is not acceptable to the eye of society as they belong to different religions. European ideology motivates them to possess secular ideas. But in Third World society, non-inter-religious, non-inter-cultural marriages are not acceptable. That is why; Hindu-Muslim marriages are hated in Indian terrain. To the eye of society, such marriages are not complete, pure or honourable. Such secularist wives like