The 70s Bengal and Bengali Women: A Study of Gauri's Predicament in Lahiri's The Lowland

<p>Jhumpa Lahiri has been a prominent name among the list of Indian diasporic authors.<br>However, she moved to Rome and decided to write in the Italian language actively;<br>her Bengali Indian origin has left an indelible mark on her upbringing, evident in her<br>writings for the earlier part of her career as an author. Her delineation of Bengali<br>characters, especially in diasporic situations, has claimed global popularity and<br>accolades for the psychological rendition of the evolution of the Bengali diaspora.<br>Lahiri penned the characters of her English fiction from her vivid memories of her<br>visits to her homeland and the Bengali diaspora of her then society. The present paper<br>intends to analyze the making and unmaking of the Bengali female character Gauri<br>from her last English novel, The Lowland (2013), which is set in a crucial part in the<br>backdrop of the Naxalite movement of Bengal. Lahiri’s English works have been<br>known for her diasporic experiences; however, the present study focuses on the<br>predicament of a woman in a traditional Bengali society that is witnessing the most<br>significant upheaval in the form of the Naxalite movement of the late 60s and early<br>70s of the twentieth century. It is interesting to understand the evolution and the<br>struggle of Gauri, who appeared at the most tumultuous time of independent Bengal.<br>Her position as an educated Bengali bride/widow in a traditional family is the central<br>idea of this paper, which is dealt with at length to argue Gauri's choices and<br>predicament.</p>