The literary canon has been conventionally a male dominated space since time immemorial. Reading and writing was a luxury for women. However, it is a fact known that writings out of women planted a fresh perspective to the world around us than it was originally preserved and continued by men. These writings envisioned a space for women, and their perspective towards the world, which was obviously influenced by their own experiences of womanhood, domesticity, suppression, emancipation, etc. was introduced in the mainstream discourse. Over the years, women authors have come through and across, and fiercely penned down some of the best pieces of literature, prose, poems and theories. India has borne some of the most critically acclaimed women writers, who’ve delivered exceptional literary pieces. This Women’s Day, we celebrate these writers, one at a time.
Jhumpa Lahiri
Jhumpa Lahiri is a Pulitzer prize-winning author. Her works are resplendent and reminiscent of the diasporic lives of Indian migrant families. Jhumpa Lahiri’s writing style captures the non-translatable universal emotions of longing and loneliness in a space away from the homeland. Her debut novel, ‘The Namesake’ was a brilliantly poignant story of identity, home, migration and loss. Jhumpa Lahiri brings the unnoticed on the pages and through a string of rhythmic writing makes the reader immerse into the realm of cultural conflicts, women’s lives, and a search for one’s own self.
Meena Kandasamy
Ilavenil Meena Kandasamy is a poet, writer and an activist. She has written a plethora of fierce works centered around women and Dalit experiences. Meena Kandasamy’s debut novel, ‘The Gypsy Goddess’ is a powerful fiction based on the massacre that took place in the village of Kilvenmani on Christmas day, 1968. The story is weaved around the plight of Dalit agricultural workers in South India, and explores caste, poverty and violence. Some of her other works include, When I Hit You: Or, A Portrait of the Writer as a Young Wife, The Orders Were to Rape You, Ms. Militancy, etc. Meena Kandasamy extends sharp critique and a nuanced understanding of the depravities around us, and delivers that in an exquisite language.
Mamang Dai
Mamang Dai is a poet and a novelist from Arunachal Pradesh and a former member of the Indian Administrative Service. She left the service to pursue full time career in journalism and writing. Mamang Dai’s short story collection, ‘Legends of Pensam’ narrates the customs, traditions and superstitions of the Adi Tribe of Arunachal Pradesh. Meanwhile her poems are another realm of simplicity bound with an undertones of symbolisms and the human realities. While her poems speak lyrical reflections of the snow-capped and forest brimmed terrain of her home state, it also reminds the readers that the paradise landscape is stained by violence, guns, and the anxiety and fear that comes with it.
Madhuri Vijay
Bengaluru born Madhuri Vijay published her debut novel, ‘The Far Field’ in 2019. Her debut work instantly became critically acclaimed, giving her the JCB Prize for Literature that same year, which, by the way, is India’s most prestigious literary award. The book was also shortlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2019 and for the Tata Literature Live! First Book Award (Fiction) 2019. Madhuri Vijay incorporates the story of Shalini, who has just lost her mother. The grief of the inconsolable loss motivates her to travel to a remote village in Kashmir in search of answers and memories. Coming from a privileged city and thrust in a volatile and politically charged place, Shalini has to make a series of grave decisions.
Anita Desai
Anita Desai is a culmination of all hues of literary works and accomplishments. She is a novelist, short story writer and children’s writer, for which she has won many accolades. The Guardian Children’s Fiction prize is one of them. Anita Desai is a magical writer. She plays around with piquant visual imagery and dwells beautifully in bringing forth the inner mood, desires and dynamics of the character and the character’s surroundings. Anita Desai’s work has also sharply portrayed women’s desires, feelings, actions and their struggle from freedom within and beyond.
Mahasweta Devi
Mahasweta Devi has been the voice of the marginalized communities of the country, more specifically, the indigenous population of India. She has yielded sharp criticism on the injustices meted out to the oppressed communities. Through her works like Rudali, Draupadi and Hajar Churashir Maa, Mahasweta Devi has vocalized the imbalance of opportunities and the consequent violence that women and tribal people have had to face. Devi has contributed immensely to the Bengali literature. Mahasweta Devi uses simple language to make the reader conscious about the complex realities of culture and social practices, social hierarchies, identity formations, sexual and domestic roles, and power dynamics.
Githa Harihan
Githa Harihan’s most critically acclaimed novel, ‘The Thousand Faces of the Night’, published in 1992, won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book in 1993. She wrote this piece during her maternity leave. The novel weaves the stories of the women of three generations torn and tied between tradition and modernism. Githa has also penned down short stories and essays, many of which voice the struggles, lives and mood of the marginalised females of India.
