Patriarchy, Parenthood, and the Politics of Absence: Single Motherhood in K.R. Meera’s Qabar

The paper examines how K.R. Meera’s novella Qabar (2022) critiques patriarchal family structures by emphasising how women often bear disproportionate burdens of motherhood, particularly in the absence of a father figure. The novella, originally written in Malayalam in 2021 and translated into English by Nisha Sushan in 2022, explores how women are expected to perform emotional, material and social responsibilities associated with childcare, while men can easily disengage from the process after the marital separation. Protagonist Bhavana’s struggle to raise her neurodivergent son intersects and merges with her professional challenges, reflecting societal expectations that equate womanhood with maternal sacrifice. Her husband Pramod’s absence in parenting highlights the systematic privileges granted to fathers by the patriarchal structure. The narrative eventually reveals single motherhood as a paradox of autonomy and subjugation. By situating Meera’s novella within the discourse of gendered labour and parenting, this paper critiques family structure by showing how the absence of a father intensifies the single mother’s struggles and also offers a space to assert her agency.