Education and Dilemma in Manju Kapur's Difficult Daughters

Abstract

Manju Kapur, an Indian woman novelist discusses women’s education and its impact on the lives of women, mainly Indian daughters who face dilemma in making a choice between tradition and modernity in her debut novel Difficult Daughters (1998). The novel analyses the struggle of Indian daughters to liberate themselves from the shackles of patriarchy. Their worldly knowledge gained from formal education poses a different perspective against the traditional values they have been taught to engross with since childhood. Kapur throws light on prejudices on values of education, particularly that of women’s education in a traditional society where education for women is promoted to consolidate patriarchal values. She makes her women characters play a significant role in nation building widening their potentials beyond the four walls of their houses. But this attempt to broaden their horizon of capabilities and responsibilities beyond their domestic domain invites strong criticism, ramification and repercussion from their families which embody patriarchal systems causing dilemma and affecting their life psychologically. The proposed study is an analysis of dichotomy of tradition vs modernity faced by educated Indian daughters in their society. It highlights the issues of women depicted in the novel selected for study through content analysis approach.