Exploring Women’s Resistance to Adversities amidst Insurgency in Assam in Arupa Patangia Kalita’s short story "The Girl with Long Hair" and Mitra Phukan’s novel "The Collector’s Wife"

This research paper examines the adversities faced by women amidst the tumultuous period of insurgency in Assam and their resistance to it. While insurgency affected all people living in the state of Assam, irrespective of age, class, caste and gender, its devastating clutches gripped women worse than others. Women were the ones who had to bear the brunt of the oppressive structures of a patriarchal society while navigating their way through the overarching political turmoil in the state. However, as the chronicles of the time bear witness, women have showed determined resilience during such trying times and have resisted any kind of suppression, discrimination and oppression by bravely standing up for themselves. Women, over time and space, have been fighting for and trying to break free from the shackles of patriarchy. Assamese women, too, have been a part of this struggle, especially during the challenging period of insurgency, yet, they did not lose hope. Rather time and again, women have asserted their autonomy and agency by showing unflinching resilience and immense resistance to such oppressive forms of discrimination against them. This paper explores the experiences of women amidst the backdrop of insurgency in Assam through Arupa Patangia Kalita’s short story "The Girl with Long Hair" and Mitra Phukan’s novel "The Collector’s Wife". The paper also analyses how Kalita and Phukan present stories of women’s resilience amidst adversities faced by them through their works, and provide a critique of the oppression of women by the patriarchal setup of the society as well as insurgency.