Tradition Transformation and Postcolonial Feminism in India

Abstract

Between ‘tradition and transformation’ there is a liminal space of transition with its different aspects of dependencies and interdependencies of power relations, and features that encompass the process of negotiation and opposition of cultures. In the context of Indian postcolonial condition, transition was an arduous one. Tradition was inflected by colonialism and the transformation that took place thereby bore a complex picture of cultural superiority of the colonizer and inferiority of the colonized, especially that of the colonized woman. Considering the vast trajectory of literature in India including the tradition of women’s literature from different socio-cultural groups, this paper argues that it would be wrong to universalize homogeneity. It examines and identifies certain issues relating to the possibilities of women’s literature in India, which otherwise would have remained unresolved at a macro level and addresses that rooted in Indian tradition, feminism in India has shown the route to an inclusive cultural transformation without generating exclusivity or a tendency towards separatism.