Tradition versus Modernity in Manju Kapur’s Novels

Abstract

This research paper attempts to explore the novels of Manju Kapur published so far, namely Difficult Daughters(1998), which fetched her Commonwealth Prize in Eurasia Section, A Married Woman(2003),Home(2006),The Immigrant(2009),and Custody(2011) with the view to study tradition versus modernity in Manju Kapur’s novels. This research paper is an attempt to study how Manju Kapur depicts the conflict between tradition and modernity in her novels through her characters and how her novels reveal the life of Indian middle class women who struggle for their basic rights for education, quest for identity and survival. Thus, present research work seeks to study the concerns of Indian middle class women trapped between tradition and modernity. All the protagonists of Manju Kapur’s novels namely, Virmati in Difficult Daughters, Astha in A Married Woman, Nisha in Home,Nina in the Immigrant, and Shagun in the Custody revolt against tradition and try to fulfill their desire of independence following modernity.