Abstract

The postcolonial Indian Writing in English has witnessed the emergence of women writers with feminist leanings and gender sensitive conceptualization. The socio-political developments in the country have been viewed from feminist consciousness in their writings. Nayantara Sahgal is one of the celebrated feminist political novelists in Indian Writing in English today. Her rich political lineage and her western education have moulded her into a feminist author with a thorough modern outlook. Political novel writing is her forte. Liberty and freedom are the recurrent motifs in her novels. Through her novels, Sahgal attacks the age old discrimination, victimization, exploitation and the gender based injustice against women in the male chauvinistic society. She takes up the political developments in the post-independence era in India juxtaposing them with the social themes. The upper class socio-political milieu, with all types of politicians, bureaucrats, business people, and men and women of upper class society, is the major background in her novels. Sahgal’s prime concern is humanity. She demands equality for her female characters on par with men. Sahgal questions the viability of those practices and customs which subjugate and exploit women in the name of culture and tradition. For the present analysis Sahgal’s political novel The Day in Shadow is taken up. Simrit, a middle-aged, divorced, a mother of many children and a writer of considerable reputation, is the lead character in the novel. Simrit’s divorce settlement with her ex-husband Som and its far reaching financial constraints form the core of the action in the novel. In her conflict and struggle to come out of the cunning ruse and trap set by Som, Simrit is assisted by Raj, an M.P. and Ram Krishan, a follower of Gandhian philosophy. The political side of the novel is represented by Sumer Singh, a self-centred, power-mongering crafty politician. Though, no definitive conclusion is advanced at the end, the novel offers a ray of hope that the darkness that has set in the political sphere in general and in the life of Simrit in particular is going to be cleared up in the days to come.