Feminism in the novel of Manju Kapur\'s Custody PDF

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Manju Kapur, a well-known name in contemporary Anglo-Indian literature, is frequently regarded as India's Jane Austen. Her books are about anything to do with the modern family and patriarchal culture. Her stories portray a modern lady who is yearning to break free from the confines of her home and ...

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Feminism in the novel of Manju Kapur's Custody Manju Kapur, a well-known name in contemporary Anglo-Indian literature, is frequently regarded as India's Jane Austen. Her books are about anything to do with the modern family and patriarchal culture. Her stories portray a modern lady who is yearning to break free from the confines of her home and create her own universe. Her stories introduce us to a new woman who is looking for a place to call her own. By the late 1970s and early 1980s, a slew of female authors had emerged to address subjects such as family problems, domestic violence, the law, the home, health care, education, job, and working conditions. Manju Kapur is an author who puts her protagonists one step ahead of the game when it comes to today's hot topics, such as lesbianism, infidelity, infertility, divorce, adoption, and so on. The purpose of this study is to highlight Manju Kapur's feminist viewpoints in her novel Custody. Manju Kapur, dubbed "the Jane Austen of modern Anglo-Indian literature," is a well-known novelist. She stands out among her generation's writers with five critically acclaimed novels: Difficult Daughters, A Married Woman, Home, The Immigrant, and Custody. Difficult Daughters earned her the coveted Commonwealth Award for first fiction from the Asian region in 1999. The

Immigrant was shortlisted for the DSC Prize, while A Married Woman was shortlisted for the Hutch Crossword Prize for fiction. She realises that today's ladies are significantly more intelligent and sophisticated than their foremothers, as a modern writer with modern perspectives and notions. Her novels are portraits of Indian middle-class life. They depict all that happens in a middle-class family over time, including sexual abuse, arranged marriage politics, infidelity, infertility, adoption, divorce, sexual dysfunction, family disputes, and many other concerns. Her protagonists are modern women who refuse to bow to patriarchal society's age-old conventions and practises.

Manju Kapur was an English Literature professor at Delhi University. As a result, The characters are likewise well-educated, and their knowledge has taught them to think for themselves. It enables individuals to take a courageous stand against a society that is willing to bind them by patriarchal laws and restrictions. They recognise the importance of education because it is the only path to self-sufficiency. With their language, style, and narrative strategies, all of her works say a lot. Her canvases are always larger than life, portraying the finer points of what she observes in life through the lens of family.

Manju Kapur's novels are all set against the backdrop of a significant historical event. Globalisation and economic liberalisation inspired Manju Kapur's fifth novel, Custody. It was a period of economic and financial growth in India, thanks to the initial influx of foreign investment. Investment bankers, bureaucrats, big and small business owners, and government officials all cheered the flood. Her protagonists are strong images of transformation, and they are like winds of change. She has referenced,

"I definitely write about subjects I'm familiar with; otherwise, I wouldn't be able to write about them. My writings, on the other hand, are imaginative reconstructions. I'm hesitant to write about situations that are all too familiar. My debut work was the only exception, in which I utilised some elements from my mother's life with her permission."

Custody displays her defiance of long-held conventions without favouring anyone. In the guise of her two female protagonists, Shagun and Ishita, she has brought out two facets of feminist ideas in her novel: infidelity and infertility. It's also a storey about child custody and the legal system in India. Kapur

depicts the disturbing secrets, unstable relationships, and hunger for riches, independence, and tranquilly of prosperous, metropolitan middle-class Indians.

Plot of the novel: The plot of Custody is set in the context of a Delhi upper middle class family who, despite their wealth, lacks morals and principles. As the plot concentrates around Raman and Shagun, who are a couple, Kapur tackles the hollowness of modern existence. Raman's boss, Ashok Khanna, is charismatic, as is Ishita, a childless divorcee. In this work, Kapur exploits the institution of marriage to tell the storey of four adults and two children. A series of disagreements, arguments, and heated talks ensue, highlighting the negative aspects of divorce. Custody begins with a love scene between a couple, but the irony is that it is not a love affair between husband and wife as it appears, but rather a lovemaking scene between a wife and her husband's boss. Raman's gorgeous green-eyed wife, Shagun, had fallen in love with Ashok Khanna, her husband's boss. Shagun finds herself battling to define herself as a wife, mother, and lover all at the same time in a short period of time. Finally, she asks Raman for a divorce, which causes him great distress. He retaliates aggressively, his macho

ego crushed and humiliated, as if he were a disgraced hero. He refuses to reach an amicable solution, and the situation spirals out of control.

Into a deadly courtroom brawl The book begins with the issues that married couples face when there is no longer any love between them. Kapur demonstrates the force of extramarital affairs, which can destroy even the most stable marriage, without taking sides. When it comes to love, morals and ethics don't work or have no place. Ashok Khanna is a true marketer with a track record of success. When he realises he loves Shagun, he becomes relentless in his pursuit of Shagun at all costs. He is experiencing a level of love he has never felt before with anyone else. He then goes on to seize Shagun's mind, body, and soul, and rejoices like a proud conqueror, even if it means destroying one's seemingly happy married existence. Shagun rebels for freedom, which she has been denied for a long time. She pushed for the independence she had long desired, but at the expense of her children and a good marriage. She takes the risk.

come out of the safe haven of the calm family environment Kapur weaves the storylines and subplots in a very artistic way, shedding light on the fate of the children in such marriages. According to Kapur, "And here I was thinking that, despite the fact that none of the characters are really endearing, you sympathise with them all! We bring out the worst in ourselves when we are in a state of misery, anxiety, or tension. There's a lot at stake, which leads to all kinds of irrational behaviour."

Core female issues: Manju Kapur depicts the difficulties and issues that arise as a result of divorce. Divorce causes the family structure to collapse and fall apart. The book depicts the price Shagun must pay for her independence. It's a dissolution of modern marriage, which is weighed down by individualism. The interesting thing is that when it comes to the drawbacks of individuality and freedom of choice, people tend to turn a blind eye and hunt for justifications and excuses. According to Kate Millet,

"Through the cult of virginity, double standards, the prescription against abortion, and in many areas because contraception is physically and psychically

unavailable to her, women are still denied sexual freedom and biological control over their bodies." Shagun's defiant attitude was exacerbated by the patriarchy's persecution and suppression throughout her childhood. She no longer wants to be a passive suffering who accepts her lot and makes compromises; instead, she rebels to get what she wants right now. After tearing down age-old customs and attempting to be liberal, progressive, or radical, Kapur, as a post-colonial writer, gave her subjects the same post-colonial touch that they deserved. It's a unique situation. The work has a strong sense of realism to it. Kapur avoids being prejudiced or dismissive of any of the characters. The storey has a realistic feel thanks to Manju Kapur's ability to depict all the minute nuances with finesse. She has presented both since she is a skilled observer of women's psyche. Equally important are Shagun and Ishita. The children's pure minds are affected by the nasty and rude marital argument, which eventually destroys their life. The two gorgeous children, Arjun, a young teenager who looks exactly like Shagun, and Roohi, a three-year-old who looks exactly like Raman

"Torn between two mothers, two houses, and two countries," as they put it. With just one brushing, the grime and anger hiding beneath the fine carpet of upper-middle-class drawing rooms is revealed. Shagun's infidelity is not scandalised, and the concept of familial guilt and social decorum is kept in the background. The parents' selfish and oblivious aspects are shown.

A psychoanalysis of her characters: Manju Kapur depicts how heartless parents fail to recognise, accept, and respect their children's viewpoints in a realistic manner. Raman, a true and loyal spouse, is taken aback by Shagun's selfishness. He is a hardworking man who is attempting to profit from the financial market's economic boom, but his efforts have cost him his wife. Both Raman and Shagun's children are separated from one another. According to Manju Kapur, "Where I see the impact of what is going on in Indian society is in the family. Women were the ones who negotiated this relationship in my earlier works. Everyone is here: the children, the father, and the wives. You pay the emotional price if you live free." Everyone in Custody has to pay a price for whatever they seek. The fact that husband and wife have become strangers to one another is pitiful, and it highlights the hollowness that modern families feel in our commercial world.

Manju Kapur was born in the city of Amritsar during the post-independence era, when the nation was rising up after two centuries of colonial domination. India was growing up alongside her, with its people—men, women, children, and entire families.

as well as morals Parallel to Shagun's tragedy, Ishita's storey of being stripped of her rights is told in Custody. Kapur highlights the shallowness of marital life through Ishita's life, where a woman is stigmatised because of her infertility and inability to carry on the family name. She is subjected to excruciating mental torment with no one on her side. Her husband, who had professed his undying love for her, backed up his parents. Ishita's mother-in-law is typical of an Indian patriarchal society, where a daughter is treated as a daughter and a daughter-in-law is treated as a daughter-in-law. She was unable to identify with Ishita's situation because she was a woman. When Ishita's mother-in-law has a thorough talk with the doctor to get to the bottom of the matter and determine the medical cause of failure, she is relieved to learn that it is her daughter-in-law who is infertile, not her son. The novelist highlights the cruel attitude of the mother-in-law, who is incapable of understanding and respecting the same gender type. In one case,

feminism in its various forms The patriarchal system and men's dominance over women are shown to be the primary cause of all ills. The system also reveals the power dynamic in which one woman dominates another. Many feminists and writers have expressed their feelings on women and their many difficulties. This woman's inquiry has sparked debate and speculation all around the world. The rise of capitalism, according to Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, was the source of women's oppression.

The society is divided into classes. Marx stated explicitly in The Communist Manifesto of 1848, "The bourgeois regards his wife as a mere work tool. When he hears that the means of production are to be exploited in common (under communism), he can't help but conclude that the fate of being common to everyone will also fall to women."

In her book Sexual Politics, Kate Millet stated, "One of the most important implications of patriarchy is that it pits one woman against another, generating a fierce rivalry between whore and matron in the past and now between career woman and housewife in the present. The envied yearns for the other's "security" and prestige, while the envied yearns for her own.

outside the bounds of respectability in exchange for what she perceives to be the other's independence, adventure, and contact with the vast universe The man participates in both worlds, emboldened by his superior social and economic resources to pit alienated women against each other as rivals, thanks to the multiple advantages of the double standard. It's also possible to recognise the status of a subsidiary.

Women are classified not just by virtuous class, but also by attractiveness and age. Kapur succeeds in revealing the truth that a daughter-in-law is ostracised from the household and family for one reason only. Ishita is responsible for the financial burden of her infertility. Every narrative and subplot in the work revolves around the issue of loneliness in marriage. Loneliness is a problem that most women have to suffer throughout life. Simone de Beauvoir comes to the following conclusion:

"One does not become a woman; rather, one becomes a woman.""

Today's woman has been reduced to a timid and humble creature. The home is the most important place in a person's life.

Theoretical analysis The subjugation of women. Classicism, according to Marxist feminism, is the major source of women's oppression. Men, particularly men in the capitalist class, profit financially by dismissing women's work as nonproductive and unpaid. It separates men against women, prioritises working class men compared to the capitalist system in order to guarantee their support; and legitimises the capitalist class's reluctance to pay for the unpaid home labour assigned to women (childrearing, cleaning, etc.). Some socialist feminists believe that women's oppression is founded on more than just the economic system, and that patriarchy and capitalism are merged into one system. For her relatives, Kapur's Ishita is only a body, not a mind or a soul. The female body is nothing more than a body. In her book The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir argues that society only allows women to be "being-in-itself" objects, whilst males can only be "beingfor-themselves." "She says," she says.

"Woman has always been a man's dependent, if not slave; the two sexes have never shared the world on an equal footing. Even now, women are severely disadvantaged, though this is beginning to improve."

Kapur's Custody is a storey about female miseries, pains, and happiness, as well as their quest to accomplish their wishes and ambitions. The narrative takes us through a series of events and incidents involving the four adults' separation, divorce, and remarriages, as well as a series of ugliness involving the legal system or the custody battle, with the children's emotions at risk. Manju Kapur does an excellent job portraying the agony and loneliness of Shagun's two children. The plot might be described as a legal drama set in contemporary India. Kapur's women are brave enough to confront the Indian judiciary's brutal and gradual twists, as well as the way it operates.

Women in Manju Kapur's world are no longer bound by the four walls of the home or by traditional norms. They are willing to challenge patriarchal society's traditional perceptions and dogmas, as well as the binds of incompatible marriage. In their search for self-identity, the brave

Kapur's female characters are shown as real, flesh-and-blood women with their own emotions and sentiments. They also want to be a part of the current intellectual movements in order to find their place in the world. Shagun attempted to be truthful in her love and life, which meant revolting. She rebelled against her marital life and relished her newfound independence. Guilty feelings

She is troubled, yet she continues to enjoy her new love life. Ishita, who has been labelled as infertile, wishes to start a new life in Raman's damaged family. With nothing but emptiness in her life, she rekindles it by marrying Raman and pursuing happiness. She embraces Raman's daughter Roohi as her own child without hesitation and lavishes love on her. Kapur is unafraid to say that women like Ishita exist in today's world, who believe in showering love on their families and are content to be the guardians of other people's children. Shagun, on the other hand, is shown as a strong lady who dared to search for her long-lost identity. Kapur strives to save both of her protagonists from their precarious positions. They do not attain emancipation through larger occupations or feministic revolts, but rather through a pattern of deviational behaviour that depicts a psychological and spiritual process....