Exploring New Womanhood: An Analysis of Anita Desai's Voices in the City

The Indian social structure and culture considered family as the only basic unit of the society and hence it was given more importance than an individual. Women were considered marriageable commodities since times immemorial and were groomed for this role alone. When marriage became the most important and inevitable sacrament of woman’s life, she was taught and conditioned to upkeep tradition and follow the rigid unwritten norms of the society with piety. She was made to believe that she was born to be the ‘other’ and any violation from this assigned duty was a sin. Thereby she accepted her role with great servitude and readily agreed to serve her husband and his family. However, in recent years Indian society has undergone a change with many young women revolting against their subservient position. They are trying to write a new chapter of freedom by defying the institution of marriage and deciding to remain single. The present paper explores and analyses one such attempt in the novel, Voices in the City written by acclaimed writer, Anita Desai. It goes to study in detail the role of Amla in the novel and to follow the trajectory of her life where she achieves emancipation by remaining single and thus emerges as the ‘New Woman’.