Resilience, Strength and Power: A Postcolonial Feminist Reading of ‘Lihaaf’

An attempt has been made through this paper to make an analysis of the multiple sites of oppression meted out to women of post-colonial India taking into context the theoretical framework of postcolonial feminism laying special emphasis on the insights of Chandra Talpade Mohanty. To contextualize the oppressions and the tribulations related to women in a third world country like India, the rapture from the umbrella term of popular universal sisterhood or global feminism needs to get established due to the problematics of disparities associated to it. Moreover, the reductionist approach regarding categorization of women belonging to the third world countries into a homogenous whole is also criticized. Chughtai’s allowing her heroines to step beyond the traditional, orthodox and conservative norms attached to women and providing them power, strength and resilience have been brought to the fore throughout the paper.