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ISSN 2278-9529
Galaxy: International Multidisciplinary Research Journal
www.galaxyimrj.com

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Identity Crisis in Shashi Deshpande’s That Long Silence

Manoj D. Gujar
Assistant Professor and Head,
Department of English,
Prof. Sambhajirao Kadam College,
Deur (Dist. Satara), Maharashtra - 415524

Abstract:

India has seen various changes post 1980s and also 1980s proved the complex
phase of the cultural history of India. This critical phase in the quick transitions redefined
the identity of individual in general and of a woman in particular. Such Indian English
novelists Khushwant Singh, Salman Rushdie, Anita Desai, Vikram Seth and Shashi
Deshpande reveal the perennial quest for identity. Shashi Deshpande, an award winning
novelist, has focused a social world of complex relationships, both maternal and paternal.
Her feminine characters are brought up in a traditional environment and they struggle to
liberate themselves, struggle to seek self-identity and of course, struggle to acquire their
independence. She gives minute details of development of a girl-child in her novels,
where each girl faces a different problem within the family. Each of her novel deals with
the issue of violence against women, whether physical, mental or emotional, which is a
concern that crosses all borders and all classes of women. Deshpande seeks to expose the
tradition by which a woman is trained to play her subservient role in the family. Almost
all her protagonists such as Indu from Roots and Shadows (1983), Sarita from The Dark
Holds No Terror (1980), Urmi from The Binding Vine (1992) and Jaya of That Long
Silence (1988) struggle to find and preserve their respective identity. The present paper is
an attempt to redefine the problem of identity crisis with the help of Jaya, the protagonist
in That Long Silence, having got in the current of the traditional role of a woman, wife
and a mother and has suppressed her existential self where she has a happy home with
well-earning husband, two children, and enough material comforts. Fed up with the
monotony and the fixed pattern of her life she rediscovers her ‘true self’ and finds herself
as an unfulfilled wife, a disappointed mother and a failed writer.

Keywords: identity, self, discrimination, man-woman relationship, rediscover.

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India has seen various changes post 1980s, especially after the Presidential Rule.
1980s undisputedly proved the complex phase of the cultural history of India. This critical
phase in transitions redefined the identity of an individual in general and of a woman in
particular. The modernization, post-modernization, advent of television, expansion of
news and entertainment channels, fast growing electronic media, especially internet and
cellular phones, accelerated this identity crisis during this period.

This crisis of identity can be easily seen in the earlier and the later novels also.
The earlier novels of the great Indian trio R. K. Narayan, Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao
laid foundation of the Indian English fiction where Mulk Raj Anand explored this identity
crisis with Bakha in Untouchable and Bhiku in The Road. In Untouchable Bakha’s
reaction to the situation when the modesty of his sister is attempted by a Brahmin aptly
illustrates the agony of identity crisis. Swami and Friends (1935) and The Dark Room
also presents the crisis of identity of Swami and Savitri respectively. Raju in R.K.
Narayan’s The Guide, Mali in The Vendor of Sweets, are some other examples suffering
with the crisis of self-identity. In contemporary Indian English literature, Anita Desai’s
Maya in Cry the Peacock (1964), Dev of Bye Bye Black Bird, Deven in Custody (1984)
and Tara of Clear Light of the Day (1980) reveal the perennial quest for identity. Salman
Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children (1980), Shame (1983), The Satanic Verses (1988) also
deal with the crisis of self and the crisis of religious identity as well.

Many Indian women novelists have explored the Identity Crisis in Indian English
Literature in order to establish an identity that is not imposed by a patriarchal society. The
theme of growing up from childhood to womanhood and gaining identity or at least an
effort in this regard has been consistently seen these years. Santha Rama Rau’s
Remember the House (1956), Ruth Prawar Jhabvala’s To Whom She Will (1955) and Heat
and Dust (1975) and Kamala Markandaya’s Two Virgins (1973) are good examples. The
image of a ‘New Woman’ and her struggle for identity support to enable women to
survive. Nayantara Sahgal’s Rich Like Us (1986), Rama Mehta’s Inside the Haveli (1977)
look more towards issues of traditional Indian culture. The other best example of female
quest for roots is Githa Hariharan’s The Thousand Faces of Night (1992).

Shashi Deshpande is an award winning Indian Novelist, especially acknowledged

as the recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award for her That Long Silence. Her novels, as a
matter of fact, focus a social world of complex relationships, both maternal and paternal.
Shashi Deshpande is basically known as a feminist writer who writes about women

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belonging to the Indian middle class. Her feminine characters are brought up in a
traditional environment and struggle to liberate themselves, to seek self-identity and of
course, struggle to acquire their independence. As Sushila Singh points out:

Human experience for centuries has been synonymous with the masculine
experience with the result that the collective image of humanity has been one
sided and incomplete. Woman has not been defined as a subject in her own
right but merely has an entity that concerns man either in his real life or his
fantasy life. (07)
Deshpande gives minute details of development of a girl-child in her novels. She
has displayed a series of girl-children, where each girl faces a different problem within
the family. She also brings forth the issue of violence against women, whether physical,
mental or emotional, which is a concern that crosses all borders and all classes of women.
Feminism and its crusade against a male-dominated society are of special importance in
the Indian context and finds a special place in Deshpande’s novels.

Deshpande, in her novels, seeks to expose the tradition by which a woman is

trained to play her subservient role in the family. Her novels reveal the man-made
patriarchal tradition and uneasiness of the modern Indian woman in being a part of them.
Her female protagonists rebel against the traditional way of life and patriarchal values.
She has presented the modern Indian woman’s struggle to find and consolidate her place
and identity in a society that stands conflicted on the cusp of tradition and modernity. She
portrays how this social conflict has caused women of today to feel torn between
contrasting demands and requirements of tradition on the one hand, and the aspirations,
freedom and equality of the modern world on the other.

Almost all her protagonists such as Indu from Roots and Shadows (1983), Sarita
from The Dark Holds No Terror (1980), Urmi from The Binding Vine (1992) and Jaya of
That Long Silence (1988) struggle to find and preserve their respective identity as a wife
as well as a mother. These novels present the story of a man-woman relationship from
the woman's point of view; of wife and husband, from the wife's point of view; and
daughter and mother relationship from both point of view, i.e. a daughter and a mother.

Despite her profound feminist sensibilities, Deshpande doesn’t limit her writing to
this area only. She extends her deep psychological insight and understanding to explore
various human relationships. However, undoubtedly her major interest among all the
human relations is the relationship of husband and wife. As it does not exist in isolation

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but is steeped in the values and ideology of the prevalent society, Deshpande illustrates
how the patriarchal oppression and gender differentiation of the family and the male-
centered Indian society affects the man-woman relationship.

Deshpande’s That Long Silence possesses a deep insight into the female psyche,
focusing on the marital relation. It highlights the tradition by which a woman is trained to
play her subservient role in the family. It is mainly interpreted as the feministic novel as
was first published by the British feminist publication Virago. The novel itself gives
ample prospect to this view that it is a feminist novel. Deshpande denies and writes:

Feminism is not a matter of theory. It is difficult to apply Kate Millett or

Simone de Beauvoir or whoever to the reality of our daily lives in India. And
then there are such terrible misconceptions about feminism by people here.
They often think it is about burning bras and walking out on your husband,
children or about not being married, not having children etc. I always try to
make the point now about what feminism is not, and to say that we have to
discover what it is in our own lives, our experiences. And I actually feel a lot
of women in India are feminists without realising it. (in Reddy: 31)
This autobiographical account of Jaya, a gifted writer, whose talent lies smothered
under the disapproval of her husband, Mohan seeks to erase the long silence by giving an
honest and frank account of conditions which lead to her failure as a writer and the
constraints of society which result in the suppression of her as an individual.

In That Long Silence, the story is narrated not in a straightforward manner but
with a flashback method of narration. Women's oppression, existence in an orthodox,
male-dominated society, realistic delineation of women as wife, mother and daughter, and
search for identity are some of the major themes of That Long Silence. The image of
loving wife and mother is perhaps the most revered, and the most worshipped in Indian
society. As Sangeeta Dutta points out:

Indian culture is deeply informed with the myth that motherhood is

woman’s inevitable destiny and happiness can come only through it. With
Sita and Savitri as predominant models of reference, Indian women are
expected to be pure and faithful as wives and self-effacing, loving, and
giving as mothers. (in Kapoor: 22)
That Long Silence is rooted in the regional cultures, those of the states of
Maharashtra and Karnataka. The characters have names and nicknames that immediately
place them for Indian readers as locals such as Jaya, Chandu, Kamat. Deshpande also
uses Marathi or Kannada words to describe various characters and their relationships to

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each other, such as Chandu mama (rather than Uncle Chandu), and Ajji (rather than
Grandmother). The culturally specific words and sentences sit easily and naturally in her
body of work. It reflects a contemporary, middle-class, Indian English. (Palekar: 47)

Jaya has to make the overtures to her husband’s ‘steadfast’ position that is she has
to create equality out of inequality. Also, what Deshpande does not do is look at how the
concept of dharma itself is interpreted very differently for men and women, that is, how
‘stri-dharma’ or rightful duty for womankind is full of gendered violence and patriarchal
morality, revolving, as it does, around the concept of ‘pativratya’ – absolute subservience
and devotion to a husband. (Naik: 65)

The theme of identity crisis is at the centre of the novel. Jaya, the housewife, who
is searching her own identity, is set ideally against the Indian backdrop. That Long
Silence raises that eternal question whether a woman lives for her husband or children or
for someone else. The protagonist raises her voice against the straight-jacketed role
models of daughter, sister, wife and mother, and refuses to be the objects of cultural or
social oppressions of age-old patriarchal society.

According to Das the novel shows progression as the protagonist undergoes a kind
of transformation through self-recognition. She makes an introspective study in the end
and, like Lear, asks a question:

“What have I achieved by this writing?” she gets an easy answer to her
question: “Well, I’ve achieved this. I’m not afraid of any more. The panic has
gone. I’m Mohan’s wife, I had thought, and cut off the bits of me that had
refused to be Mohan’s wife. Now I know that kind of fragmentation is not
possible” (Das: 191)
Deshpande avoids the simple technique of straightforward narration, and instead
employs the flashback method to capture the interest of the reader. The first chapter deals
with the present, the later chapters moves backward in time, culminating in the final
chapter which again ends in the present. The entire novel is written in the first person, the
narrator being a young woman writer who returns to her childhood home and finds herself
caught in the whirlpool of family intrigues. Seen through the eyes of a young woman with
liberated and progressive ideas, ordinary everyday incidents acquire a new meaning and
highlight the gross inequalities in society. (Reddy: 133)

Jaya’s quest of identity begins when Jaya realizes that Mohan has lost interest in
her. She also realizes that she is a non-entity in his eyes. Even in her family tree, she is

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shocked to see the name of women missing as it is a ‘patriarchal family tree’. The climax
is reached when Mohan wants to use Jaya as a tool to tackle the business crises. Her
traumatic state in which her innermost thoughts, her fears, her doubts and all that she
suppressed for the last seventeen years came out brings a real identity crisis in this novel.
This close study of the novel reveals that Shashi Deshpande presents a woman not as a
second sex but as a independent entity. She gives a peep into the state and condition of
the present-day woman who is intelligent and articulate, aware of her capabilities, but
thwarted under the weight of male chauvinism. It is a woman’s search for her identity –
an exploration into the female psyche. The protagonist undergoes an arduous journey to
discover herself which leads her through a maze of self-doubts and fears.

The other women characters presented in That Long Silence are equally the
victims of gross gender inequality. Mohan's mother and his sister, Vimala, too are such
victims. Mohan’s father was a drunkard and used to beat her up and she made a living by
cooking for wedding feasts. Mohan's mother dies tragically and so also Vimala, who dies
due to the ovarian tumour. Vimala doesn’t even tell this fact of over bleeding to her
mother, as she knows it would be of no use. Kusum, Jaya's mad cousin is a deserted wife.
In spite of every body's opposition, Jaya takes care of Kusum, makes her normal but just
before one day to go to her husband, Kusum commits suicide. Jaya's help-maid Jeeja also
is a victim because of her drunkard husband who used to beat her, as she could not bear a
child to him. So Jeeja willingly accepts her husband to remarry and brings up their boy
after their death in an accident. Even the son is no different from his father as he too is a
drunkard and begins to beat his wife. Surprisingly, Jeeja supports the son. Jaya's
Vanitamami is childless and does all poojas and tries every possible ritual, but all in vein.
Thus Shashi Deshpande presents an Indian society raising her voice against the strait
jacketed role models of wife and mother and rebels against the suppression of the age-old
patriarchal set up. (Rao:3)

Jaya, the protagonist in That Long Silence, having got in the current of the
traditional role of a woman – wife and mother – has suppressed her existential self.
Though she has a happy home with well-earning husband and two children Rati and
Rahul and material comforts, she feels fed up with the monotony and the fixed pattern of
her life: Worse than anything else had been the boredom of the unchanging pattern, and
unending monotony. In her attempt to rediscover her ‘true self’, she finds herself as an
unfulfilled wife, a disappointed mother and a failed writer. (Latha:1)

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The novel is also set against the theme of identity crisis that Jaya is searching her
own identity and is set ideally against the Indian backdrop. The novel raises that eternal
question whether a woman lives for her husband or children or for someone else. The
protagonist raises her voice against the straight-jacketed role models of daughter, sister,
wife and mother, and refuses to be the objects of cultural or social oppression of the age-
old patriarchal society.

To conclude, Shashi Deshpande, an eminent novelist, has emerged as a writer

possessing deep insight into the female psyche. Focusing on the marital relation, she
seeks to expose the tradition by which a woman is trained to play her subservient role in
the family. Her novels reveal the man-made patriarchal traditions and uneasiness of the
modern Indian woman in being a part of them. Shashi Deshpande uses this point of view
of the present social reality as is experienced by women. To present the world of mothers,
daughters and wives is also to present indirectly the fathers, sons and husbands, the
relation between men and woman, and between women themselves. Her young heroines
rebel against the traditional way of life and patriarchal values. The words which we
always associate with what we consider to be the concept of an ideal woman are self-
denial, sacrifice, patience, devotion and silent suffering. Shashi Deshpande’s fiction is an
example of the ways in which a girl child’s particular position, social reality and identity
and psychological growth determine her personality.

Works Cited:
Deshpande, Shashi. 1989. That Long Silence. New Delhi. Penguin Books.
Kapoor, Maninder and Seema Singh. 2012. ‘[After] That Long Silence: A Feminist
Narratological Study of Shashi Deshpande’ in Journal of Postcolonial Cultures and
Societies URL: http://www.jpcs.in.
Latha, Somasundari. S. 2012. ‘Jaya’s Quest for Self in Shashi Deshpande’s That Long
Silence’ in International Multidisciplinary Research Journal, www.galaxyimrj.com
Naik, Chanchala, K. eds. 2005. Writing Difference: The Novels of Shashi Deshpande.
New Delhi. Pencraft International
Pathak, R.S. 1998. The Fiction of Shashi Deshpande. New Delhi. Creative Books.
Rao, Padmarani. 2012. ‘Women in the Literary Corpus of Shashi Deshpande’ in
International Multidisciplinary Research Journal, www.Galaxyimrj.com.
Reddy, Sunita,Y.S. 2001. A Feminist Perspective on the Novels of Shashi Deshpande.
New Delhi. Prestige Books.
Singh,Sushila.1997 “Preface,” Feminism and Recent Fiction in English, New Delhi,
Prestige.

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