“Resilient Women”: A Feministic Reading of Vijay Tendulkar’s Kamala and Mahesh Dattani’s Tara

Abstract

Feminism is a socio-political movement that was foundedon the principle ofthe emancipation of women. It seeks to establish women’s self-identity within a patriarchal culture. Feminism has had a profound impact on various domains and academic disciplines. Literature is one of the most powerful mediums of manifestation of feminism. The cry for the liberation of women that emerged during the twentieth century also influenced contemporary Indian dramatists. Contemporary Indian drama is enriched with the contributions of several eminent writers like Badal Sircar, Vijay Tendulkar, Mohan Rakesh, Girish Karnad, Asif Currimbhoy, Mahesh Dattani, and so on. These writers moulded the established conventions of traditional Indian drama with a blending of several other traditions.They realistically presented the social veracities in Indian society and pinpointed the harsh realities of life of the marginalized and subalterns. Women who live in the clutches of patriarchal male-dominated culturecan be regarded as marginalized groups. This paper attempts a feministic reading of Vijay Tendulkar’s Kamala(1981) and Mahesh Dattani’s Tara(1990). Both the playwrights might be regarded as unacknowledged feminists who used their plays to voice against the inequality and oppression of women in society.